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2021: General Discussion

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Kraken27 said:
James Paulding instigated just that years ago - wasn't it called "Customer Council"? It was a bit of a farce as unless you were a member of a certain forum (not this one) you stood no chance of being selected. It consisted entirely of enthusiasts who were "warm" towards Alton Towers so negative feedback would be minimal.
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Hello, inaugural Customer Council member here (2007). The first was made up of people from a variety of places. Two of us were from TTF (myself included in those), two weren't from any forum and two were from ATA.

And, one of my biggest memories was the heated arguments/debates that took place with Russell Barnes and others around the table over such issues as:

  • Theming being poor on new developments in the park vs. previous investment (Mutiny Bay was then added for 2008, which was by far the best themed thing ATR had done since Hex)
  • The loss of "In the hall of the mountain king". This caused quite heavy debate at one session when Russell Barnes denied that the music was integral to the brand. In the end, we won the argument - and the music returned in 2008.
It was anything but nodding dogs - getting my teeth stuck into Alton Towers' issues is an absolute privilege and I would love to sit round the table with them again.
 
AstroDan said:
Hello, inaugural Customer Council member here (2007). The first was made up of people from a variety of places. Two of us were from TTF (myself included in those), two weren't from any forum and two were from ATA.

And, one of my biggest memories was the heated arguments/debates that took place with Russell Barnes and others around the table over such issues as:

  • Theming being poor on new developments in the park vs. previous investment (Mutiny Bay was then added for 2008, which was by far the best themed thing ATR had done since Hex)
  • The loss of "In the hall of the mountain king". This caused quite heavy debate at one session when Russell Barnes denied that the music was integral to the brand. In the end, we won the argument - and the music returned in 2008.
It was anything but nodding dogs - getting my teeth stuck into Alton Towers' issues is an absolute privilege and I would love to sit round the table with them again.
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Would you like to see such a scheme return, and would you be part of it again if such an opportunity came up?

Also, what issues would you air with Ian Crabbe if such a scheme was run in 2021?
EDIT: Sorry for double posting!
 
Matt N said:
Would you like to see such a scheme return, and would you be part of it again if such an opportunity came up?

Also, what issues would you air with Ian Crabbe if such a scheme was run in 2021?
EDIT: Sorry for double posting!
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Well Ian Crabbe isn't General Manager anymore, that jobs gone to Francis Jackson.
Jordan said:
According to this interview, everyone’s favourite Aussie theme park executive Francis Jackson is moving into the role of General Manager.
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I would tell him to just get rid of 4pm closures.
 
AstroDan said:
Russell Barnes denied that the music was integral to the brand. In the end, we won the argument - and the music returned in 2008.
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I reckon that was Nick Varney's influence, he was the one who implemented in the first place and it didnt take long for it to return when Merlin took over.

Things were quite different then too, an enthusiast council today influencing decisions sounds like an absolute disaster!
 
I don't think some kind of customer council would be a good idea. I mean, imagine if Manchester United had a customer council. We'd have never got the excellent European Super League. It's hard to imagine what a bunch of highly passionate people could possibly contribute to somewhere like Alton Towers. Enthusiasts don't understand about the important things, like KPIs, Merlin's brand values, crunching budgets, ROIs, chains of command, corporate re-shuffles, share price... enthusiasts would only be interested in stupid things, like building a decent theme park.
 
OilyWater said:
If UK enthusiasts built a theme park (generalising), it would be terrible, just in a different way. See present day Chessington.
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Out of interest, what are you referring to at Chessington that’s been built by UK enthusiasts?
 
tayspru said:
It doesn’t take a “customer council” to identify there’s really not a lot to do unless you like Coasters or are a toddler
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I personally think that there are plenty of attractions to cater for the age group in between young child and the 1.4m threshold or for people who don’t like the big coasters:

Spinball, RMT, Marauders, Heave Ho, Battle Galleons, Roller Disco, CRR, Blade, Hex, Duel, Gansta Granny, Mixtape, the Twister in TWoDW and Enterprise.

14 rides in a day sounds like a good day out to me !(once TWoDW and the indoor attractions open of course!)
 
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Matt N said:
Would you like to see such a scheme return, and would you be part of it again if such an opportunity came up?

Also, what issues would you air with Ian Crabbe if such a scheme was run in 2021?
EDIT: Sorry for double posting!
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1. Yes.

2. The list of issues I would love to discuss with the top table at ATR is too vast to post here. That said, I would imagine the park already know of 90% of them.
 
The benefit of having a customer focus group is when you work in a business and see the area every day you can become blind to the issues (mould on signs etc). It’s not that you don’t care you just stop seeing it.

Having an external eye points these things out, it’s why companies use secret shoppers to look at these things.
 
Merlin also need to make the visitor feedback I-Pads at all their RTPs more user-friendly. Currently they ask you so many questions and they take so long that most people will give up half-way through.
 
Thameslink Rail said:
Merlin also need to make the visitor feedback I-Pads at all their RTPs more user-friendly. Currently they ask you so many questions and they take so long that most people will give up half-way through.
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The quick-fire surveys that pop up when riding the Retrosquad rides are the way forward. Those take 10-15 seconds.
 
On park today and RAP/Fastrack causing severe and widespread issues; I have never seen it so bad.

The Smiler RAP/Fastrack queue was being stuffed like caged hens and would be troubling even pre-covid. Smiler main queue is just something else. In fairness they have a member of staff telling guests before entering the pit to stand on chevrons as thats how they estimate the queue times, but noone adhering. Announcements stating the Fastrack/RAP queue is 1 hour.

Edit: sorry this probably should have gone in queue times topic.


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jmc said:
On park today and RAP/Fastrack causing severe and widespread issues; I have never seen it so bad.

The Smiler RAP/Fastrack queue was being stuffed like caged hens and would be troubling even pre-covid. Smiler main queue is just something else. In fairness they have a member of staff telling guests before entering the pit to stand on chevrons as thats how they estimate the queue times, but noone adhering. Frequent announcements stating ‘excessive wait times’.

Edit: sorry this probably should have gone in queue times topic.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
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May I ask what Thirteen is like as it didn't have FT last year?
 
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