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2021: General Discussion

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Craig said:
There’s usually some notices up to advise guests the park will be observing the 2 minute silence. They stop loading rides shortly before so that no one is on them when 11am hits. On Towers Street, there’s sometimes an announcement beforehand, and the music is switched off across park for the period of the silence.
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I didn't even know Towers had a PA system lol.
What else do they use it for, out of interest?
 
Surely you’ve heard the music on Towers Street? Same system, it’s just actual announcements aren’t normally played away from large events like fireworks :)
 
Just think. This weekend, for just £20, you could do every thrill ride in the dark more than once. Try doing that on a peak autumn Saturday for £46. It almost seems too good to be true! Are there any special terms for spectator tickets, for example do they have to be purchased alongside a race entry? I’ve a had a quick look and on the face of it, it doesn’t appear so.
 
s_g_k said:
Are there any special terms for spectator tickets, for example do they have to be purchased alongside a race entry? I’ve a had a quick look and on the face of it, it doesn’t appear so.
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I think when they first went on sale they could only be bought with race entry but they opened it up later to everyone. I assume they wanted to ensure the family and friends of racers got priority but then allowed others to go if they wanted.
 
Surely this must be a loss maker for Alton Towers? Every ride is on 0 minutes, spectator tickets are just £20 and they’re having to pay to staff every attraction.
 
Thameslink Rail said:
I can only guess the race organisers (runthrough.co.uk) are subsidising the event enough for it to be worthwhile for Towers.
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That would surely be one heck of a subsidy though.

It just seems odd how all the attractions are open at this time in the middle of November when they could have just sold tickets for race participants and not bother about opening the rides for people paying just £20 each.

All things considered, it must be bliss.
 
s_g_k said:
Surely this must be a loss maker for Alton Towers? Every ride is on 0 minutes, spectator tickets are just £20 and they’re having to pay to staff every attraction.
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It's a similar thing with blue light days. The company pay the park enough for the park to turn a profit. The company charge the guests enough for the hirer to turn a profit.
No hidden costs, no fastrack causing queues which otherwise wouldn't be there.
Shows you just how much profit the park are making on a standard day.
 
pluk said:
It's a similar thing with blue light days. The company pay the park enough for the park to turn a profit. The company charge the guests enough for the hirer to turn a profit.
No hidden costs, no fastrack causing queues which otherwise wouldn't be there.
Shows you just how much profit the park are making on a standard day.
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Yet they still can’t afford to fix basic things.
 
pluk said:
It's a similar thing with blue light days. The company pay the park enough for the park to turn a profit. The company charge the guests enough for the hirer to turn a profit.
No hidden costs, no fastrack causing queues which otherwise wouldn't be there.
Shows you just how much profit the park are making on a standard day.
Click to expand...

Yup it’s just one bulk fee to purchase the park for the whole day. It’s then up to the company who purchased it to set a price for tickets (free or reduced price) for those that they want to go, be that employees or in the case of this weekend racers and spectators.

However, while it’s easy to say that the park has this one set fee which would cover operating costs and turn a profit every day of the year, it’s not the case. Buy outs are done in the off season (either before or after) when the park would usually be closed, so there’s probably not all that much being made in the grand scheme of things. The rides are already commissioned ready for use and the staff are already trained up. In the case of Kidspass/John Lewis/o2 buy outs, they’re done before the start of the season, which actually benefits the park massively by giving new staff a proper crack at real world operations, and to an extent may help encourage people to return in the main season in the summer or during fireworks/Scarefest. In the case of this year, they’re keeping a higher number of staff on that usual too, thanks to the winter openings coming up, so they may as well put them to use.

What’s not factored in though, is the increased staffing levels and therefore costs required when the park is at higher capacity, or the high costs for recruitment required each season. The park needs to generate higher profits for those quieter days when they’re operating at a loss during weekdays or when the weather is especially poor. Those profits are also needed to secure the cash needed to make improvements and new additions across the resort.

I’m not saying that there’s not a lot of profiteering going on with ridiculous Fastrack prices etc, but just saying for balance that it’s not a simple sum of the park charging x amount with a buy out and the rest is pure profit year round.
 
I appreciate this is almost a mini trip report, but it's simply not worthy of its own topic - so here it is in general.

Today was one of those absolutely absurd experiences at ATR that only come around once in a blue moon. The last time I recall the park like this was Adrenaline Week back in 2005/2006. I am no ride whore typically, but today saw the old geek come right out of the bag. We paid £25 on the gate as part of the spectator fee for the race, and ended up as follows:

Nemesis x 2
Galactica x 1
Blade x 1
Duel x 1
Runaway Mine Train x 1
Wicker Man x 7
Spinball Whizzer x 2
Oblivion x 2
Enterprise x 1
Hex x 1
Gangsta Granny: The Ride x 1
Flavio's Fabulous Fandango x 1
Rita x 1
Th13teen x 4 (successive re-rides due to weight requirements, so we did them a favour)

The park was absolutely empty beyond 5pm and even before that queues were minimal - in most cases under 10 minutes, and in many cases walk on.

To wander round the park in the dark, with rides open but no guests is a privilege and somewhat surreal experience. We even enjoyed a meal at Woodcutters with a pint, and a coffee later on at the Coffee Lounge.

I'd definitely be up for some spectating again in the future - even if it was £25. Consider the £25 like a fastrack purchase and you almost feel like you have the park to yourself.

No RAP clogging up the queue. No Fastrack making your wait longer. Darkness.

Wonderful.
 
I can never be bothered to lap Wicker man as it just takes too long. I went once when it was on 0 and tried to see how many goes I'd get in an hour, only got 3. Walking around the queue takes forever and then you have to wait to get into the pre show, watch the pre show and then finally into the station. During covid a 0 min wait was actually 0 mins as you walked straight through into the airgates. The pre show just makes re riding it tedious
 
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