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2021: General Discussion

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Rick said:
@GaryH Got to pay a premium now the rooms are being cleaned by British workers
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It's the same across the entire hospitality sector. An ex-employer of mine is crying out for food & beverage / hospitality workers. Typically across about 30 sites, this employer would have around 50 vacancies (a mix of full & part time positions). There are currently over 200 roles listed on their website.

My current employer is a short-break operator in the UK & they are having huge recruitment problems too. Quite simply many of the Eastern European workers went home when Brexit happened. This removed a good chunk of the potential workforce from the market. Furlough didn't help either, as many Brits rather enjoyed staying at home and being paid 80% of their normal pay. Last week I had a supermarket food delivery from a supposedly up-market operator (they drive vans liveried with fruit & vegetables on the sides, so you can get a delivery from [driver] in the red cabbage van). Delivery was on-time, but the driver made clear his displeasure at the end of furlough.

Whilst Towers may have - possibly rightly so - got some stick in the past for out-sourcing jobs to overseas workers, at least they were willing to work & probably worked rather hard so they could fund staying in the UK.
 
Looks like there has been an update to the app, with the addition of a new tab ‘my visit’ - where you can add your park tickets/reservations to keep them in the same place.

Ad5dhMn.jpg
 
GaryH said:
Funny ha ha. No difference to the company that towers outsourced them to before Brexit.
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Use the Brexit dividend old son, you could stay for a month.

jon81uk said:
pretty sure they didn’t outsource. Staff are still directly employed by Alton Towers resort.
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I thought housekeeping was outsourced to WGC. There was a lot of hullabaloo before it happened, assume it did actually go through.
 
Rick said:
I thought housekeeping was outsourced to WGC. There was a lot of hullabaloo before it happened, assume it did actually go through.
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My understanding is that it was brought in. But was very quickly reversed due to various issues with staff morale, quality of work etc. The housekeeping staff are now once again recruited and employed by Merlin and it is run in house.
 
rob666 said:
Nice to see the ad includes the words "Worlds First"...(as in you will be cleaning in CBeebies),
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Wow, I can't believe they're still peddling that crap after all this time. This idea that someone somewhere one day would build another "Cbeebies Land Hotel" so they can lay claim to operating the first one of them, as if some international chain of these could spring up one day.
 
Terrible programme that is. I had to stop watching it after the first series. The police team in it are really smug and up themselves and it was akin to propaganda how they always seemed to catch everyone. Without going too off-topic, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't find me if I was able to get some cash and an hour or two's head start. Would most likely head to the highlands or lake district or something and wild camp and just occasionally walk back to a town or something for sustenance, a couple of books and any other essentials. Probably grow a beard too lol.
 
BarryZola said:
Terrible programme that is. I had to stop watching it after the first series. The police team in it are really smug and up themselves and it was akin to propaganda how they always seemed to catch everyone. Without going too off-topic, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't find me if I was able to get some cash and an hour or two's head start. Would most likely head to the highlands or lake district or something and wild camp and just occasionally walk back to a town or something for sustenance, a couple of books and any other essentials. Probably grow a beard too lol.
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You know, I always thought about that as well. I mean, most people are caught by simply being panzies and letting their emotions ruin it. They do rediculous things like go and see their family and friends and stuff. It's only 2 bloody weeks! Surely for the sake of the prize money you can do 2 weeks without seeing them. Or they do something like make a phone call. Idiots.

The hardest bit is getting away in the first place and getting to the extraction point. The rest is pretty easy. Find a comfortable secret location and don't move. I'd store some cash in a part of the country they wouldn't expect to look, check myself into the nearest premier inn, making sure I pop into the local newsagents first for plenty of food and booze and just chill out for a couple of weeks in front of the telly and not leave my room.

Well actually I wouldn't because they'd back read this post if I was doing it. But anyway, getting AT to post a photo of you on a coaster is just stupid. As if they'd fall for that.
 
Pretty great day on park today, think I’ve got more rides in today than ever before with about 2 hours of watching entertainment. I’ll post full thoughts on the relevant thread tomorrow/in a few days time, but some general points to note:
Longest I waited was 30 minutes,
Spinball Whizzer and Wicker Man are riding horrifically (Spinball has knackered my left shoulder and Wicker Man has knackered my everything and it has dropped down from 2nd place for AT considerably),
It’s nice to see the Wicker Man pew show again but I now agree it massively slows operations down,
Wicker Man on 2 trains and Oblivion on 1 station makes the queue excrutiatingly slow,
This is the first time since 2013 where I have felt any sort of uncomfortable vibration from The Smiler (inversion before the half way point)

full thoughts coming soon
 
Ethan said:
Interesting that everyone seems to think wicker man isnt running well atm. I rode it yesterday and It was damn smooth as far as woodies go imo
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Admittedly, my last ride was 11 days ago, so it might have changed since then, but it was running fine on my last ride too.

I think the thing with woodies, however, is that they vary so drastically, far more so than steel coasters; that could be what’s causing the vast variance in opinions.

Personally, I’ve ridden WM in 2018, 2020 and 2021, and I must have gotten lucky, because I’ve never had a rough ride. The closest I’ve ever gotten to a rough ride on Wicker Man was a front row ride in April 2021, where it randomly jolted me really hard through the final pass through and gave me a surprising headache… odd, given that the rest of the ride was fine that day and I’ve never experienced a jolt anywhere near that hard on any of my other WM rides, including those in the front row!
 
I was also on site today and have to say Wickerman was absolutely flying. Went on twice and both in row 11. Damn the pull experienced made it the best 2 rides I've had on it in years.

Also agree with the pre show it does slow things down and doesn't munch the queues like it did last season
 
It's funny how a ride feels can vary so much to different people for example I was on park same day as theme park worldwides last vlog and he thought smiler was running really well whereas for me I had my worst ride ever on it, really bashed me around and bruised my shoulder, was actually my first bad ride on it.
Whereas wickerman was running pretty smoothly for me, I always find it a little jolty but it was still really smooth for a woodie.
Which is all completely opposite to what tpww said in his vlog.
 
Lets not forget a roller coasters ride each time round can vary slightly as due to weight loading etc.

wooden coasters more so, you have 3 wheels the running wheels, the side wheels and the upstop wheels.

not all 3 are in contact with the track at the same time, given its mm not CM’s

meaning that on different rides you may have a more rough ride from the side wheels etc. The running wheels will generally be the same bar a few mm.

that being said the wheels do wear and chip. This can affect running on the day as well.
 
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