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2021: General Discussion

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Thameslink Rail said:
At Thorpe Park they say remain seated constantly over the tannoy, the say it when you enter the raft and there are dozens of signs on the rafts and along the course saying remain seated but plenty of people still don't listen and I've lost count of how many times I've heard "you there in the tunnel, sit down!"
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Yet still, even with their yobbo core customer, have their waterfalls switched on and zero people have fallen in.

I've heard that a lot at Thorpe too. Every time you walk towards the entrance of Rumba you're almost guaranteed to see someone stood up as the boat crashes round the corner.
 
Gate price is up to £58 now making Kellogg's and Carex vouchers £29 per adult. Online is £34, £39 or £46 depending on the date. Given you have to book at the moment, is the “gate price” a bit misleading? That price is only really there to set the discount vouchers up anyway.
Would feel a lot more honest if the vouchers were just £10 off the online price.
 
I guess pre-booking for pass holders is here to stay?

When I went in the second half of Sep, gate staff didn't check anything at all.
 
Auribus said:
I guess pre-booking for pass holders is here to stay?

When I went in the second half of Sep, gate staff didn't check anything at all.
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Same, I went to an unmanned turnstile during Oktoberfest and scanned my MAP and it let me straight in. I had the pre-bookings logged in the AT app just in case. I imagine it checks the MAP being scanned and finds no pre-book, it won't let you in?
 
That would be embarrassing! :oops:

I can't remember which poster it was but s/he said they just like turning up when the weather is good a few days in advance. ie It does remove that spontaneity I guess.

Fortunately, doesn't affect us passholders because it doesn't cost us anything to book.
 
I suspect that capacities have been raised to a level that it is now unlikely that the park will actually hit capacity on the vast majority of days (peak Halloween and Fireworks aside).

They are keeping prebooks in place across all attractions since some have much lower capacity than others (for example Thorpe) and to help them manage staffing numbers etc, but at Alton Towers unless they know from the prebook figures each morning that they are close to hitting capacity, there isn’t much reason to slow down entry by checking for prebooks.

If a few pass holders that haven’t booked slip through, then it doesn’t really matter as they aren’t going to hit capacity anyway.
 
Has it always been the case that the online price has changed depending on the date? I know it changes according to how early you book but not seen it change according to the date!
 
GaryH said:
Has it always been the case that the online price has changed depending on the date? I know it changes according to how early you book but not seen it change according to the date!
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They changed it earlier this year. Previously the price was fixed depending on how far in advance you booked.

It now seems to work on demand, so weekdays out of school holidays start at £34 and weekends and school holidays at £39. Then depending on how many tickets have sold the price goes up. So often Saturdays sit at around £46 if you don’t book early enough, but Sundays stay at £39 as they are generally quieter.
 
There are winners and loses with both approaches.

Under the previous system if you booked an off peak day last minute you would need to pay basically gate price. Whereas now you can book last minute for £34 on quieter days.

It does mean if you aren’t booking early for busy days that you could end up paying more.
 
AT86 said:
I suspect that capacities have been raised to a level that it is now unlikely that the park will actually hit capacity on the vast majority of days (peak Halloween and Fireworks aside).

They are keeping prebooks in place across all attractions since some have much lower capacity than others (for example Thorpe) and to help them manage staffing numbers etc, but at Alton Towers unless they know from the prebook figures each morning that they are close to hitting capacity, there isn’t much reason to slow down entry by checking for prebooks.

If a few pass holders that haven’t booked slip through, then it doesn’t really matter as they aren’t going to hit capacity anyway.
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Just out of interest, how did they manage capacity pre-covid when anyone could just turn up at the gate?
 
Auribus said:
Just out of interest, how did they manage capacity pre-covid when anyone could just turn up at the gate?
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The capacity of the park is so high that pre-covid I don’t think there have been any days in the last 20 or so years (except for Fireworks in 2016 which was a bit of a disaster, hence the introduction of prebooks from 2017 onwards) where they hit capacity and had to stop letting people in.
 
AT86 said:
There are winners and loses with both approaches.

Under the previous system if you booked an off peak day last minute you would need to pay basically gate price. Whereas now you can book last minute for £34 on quieter days.

It does mean if you aren’t booking early for busy days that you could end up paying more.
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but that’s the point. I have been looking to book early for the 23rd October, I looked a few weeks ago and it was £46. The weekend before is £34. It’s got nothing to do with how early you book now but the fact it’s half term so they are charging more
 
AT86 said:
They changed it earlier this year. Previously the price was fixed depending on how far in advance you booked.

It now seems to work on demand, so weekdays out of school holidays start at £34 and weekends and school holidays at £39. Then depending on how many tickets have sold the price goes up. So often Saturdays sit at around £46 if you don’t book early enough, but Sundays stay at £39 as they are generally quieter.
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Blackpool have also started daily variant pricing this year too, some weekdays have been more expensive than others.
 
I doubt those who this adversely effects will agree, but this has to be a good thing. Peak vs off peak pricing helps spread the crowds, making off peak days financially viable for the park with increased paying visitor numbers, and peak days better for the guests with lower crowds as some guests chose a cheaper off peak day.

This is nothing new. Peak and off peak pricing was standard previously. It's now just able to be a bit more dynamic with modern technology and prebooking.
 
pluk said:
I doubt those who this adversely effects will agree, but this has to be a good thing. Peak vs off peak pricing helps spread the crowds, making off peak days financially viable for the park with increased paying visitor numbers, and peak days better for the guests with lower crowds as some guests chose a cheaper off peak day.

This is nothing new. Peak and off peak pricing was standard previously. It's now just able to be a bit more dynamic with modern technology and prebooking.
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It’s just like summer holidays, hit those with kids the hardest because they are limited to the time they can take off. It stinks.
 
I've not got a problem with dynamic pricing, just seems a shame they're not able to do the same with discounted tickets.
 
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