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2022: General Discussion

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It does look good, although this feels more like a Summer event, rather than something for Easter.
 
Just a note about anyone else who went Saturday 2nd April - Alton have confirmed tickets can be used for another day. Tesco vouchers included. And interestingly you do not need to pre book another day you just turn up with the old ticket.
 
I’m really not sure what to make of the X Sector stage. The DJ is great and fits in well for Oblivion, but the dance music for The Smiler just sounds tacky, and quite frankly very similar to keyboard demo music. Also, surely a proper dance routine would be better than a group of entertainers just waving their arms around as if they’ve had 6 double vodka red bulls in Revs?

X Sector aside though, all the other stages are great!
 
s_g_k said:
Also, surely a proper dance routine would be better than a group of entertainers just waving their arms around as if they’ve had 6 double vodka red bulls in Revs?

X Sector aside though, all the other stages are great!
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I agree with this, they need some sort of dance routine, it looks a bit like the entertainers aren’t quite sure what to do with themselves based on the few videos I’ve seen so far and it looks a little odd. Maybe it’s the lack of crowds/people joining in.
 
I was going to make all my usual arguments about pricing but @jon81uk has made them all for me.

The price for a family might increase by £20, alongside fuel to get there by the same amount. It is frustrating but I don't think Alton should stand still with their prices when everything else is going up, that doesn't make any sense.

Not least because, as others have said the hourly cost of a visit to Alton can be relatively inoffensive when you compare it to other stuff.

I do stick a lot of hospitality type things in the "it'll probably be expensive" pile, an extra fiver isn't going to stop me going. It's more the small increases everywhere that I notice.

Fuel is bananas, I am driving less and less. Just today I noticed Lidl have slapped an extra 20p on a 500ml Pepsi Max and a 4 pint bottle of milk was up 15p vs. last week. Bonkers.
 
I'm thinking of converting my car to run on bananas as well Rick, got to be cheaper.
Is the whole country off for Easter now then?
The Beach has started daily opening, so I'm guessing everyone is off school now.
 
Rick said:
I was going to make all my usual arguments about pricing but @jon81uk has made them all for me.

The price for a family might increase by £20, alongside fuel to get there by the same amount. It is frustrating but I don't think Alton should stand still with their prices when everything else is going up, that doesn't make any sense.

Not least because, as others have said the hourly cost of a visit to Alton can be relatively inoffensive when you compare it to other stuff.

I do stick a lot of hospitality type things in the "it'll probably be expensive" pile, an extra fiver isn't going to stop me going. It's more the small increases everywhere that I notice.

Fuel is bananas, I am driving less and less. Just today I noticed Lidl have slapped an extra 20p on a 500ml Pepsi Max and a 4 pint bottle of milk was up 15p vs. last week. Bonkers.
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I don’t think anyone had a major issue with price increases in principle, it’s just that the extreme “on the gate” price is caused by Merlins reliance on BOGOF vouchers.

I personally would move to online tickets only (maybe a controversial opinion) to allow better planning for guest numbers and set the price at the level people actually pay currently. If they want to have some commercial tie-ins then a few £5 - £10 off promotions.
 
Dave said:
I don’t think anyone had a major issue with price increases in principle, it’s just that the extreme “on the gate” price is caused by Merlins reliance on BOGOF vouchers.

I personally would move to online tickets only (maybe a controversial opinion) to allow better planning for guest numbers and set the price at the level people actually pay currently. If they want to have some commercial tie-ins then a few £5 - £10 off promotions.
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I think it will do over time, it's just a cultural shift that will take a while to melt through. For so many years, for so many people, the MO has been to find a 241 voucher, because that's what you do. You could run the risk of reducing the value perception and really harming your revenue. In a number of cases, £32 discount off a headline price of £64 feels like a win vs. £5 off £37 despite landing in the exact same place. Worse still, the park would be suggesting that their product is worth £37 vs. the £64 you said it was worth last year.

It's such a crucial thing not to screw up, losing people at the gate means any secondary spend whether it be food, merch or parking never hits the tills and their business model is built on that.
 
Rick said:
I think it will do over time, it's just a cultural shift that will take a while to melt through. For so many years, for so many people, the MO has been to find a 241 voucher, because that's what you do. You could run the risk of reducing the value perception and really harming your revenue. In a number of cases, £32 discount off a headline price of £64 feels like a win vs. £5 off £37 despite landing in the exact same place. Worse still, the park would be suggesting that their product is worth £37 vs. the £64 you said it was worth last year.

It's such a crucial thing not to screw up, losing people at the gate means any secondary spend whether it be food, merch or parking never hits the tills and their business model is built on that.
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I bet we'd be surprised at the number of people who do still pay gate price. I have heard that on "family friendly" Sundays many people pay full gate price
 
Steve74 said:
I bet we'd be surprised at the number of people who do still pay gate price. I have heard that on "family friendly" Sundays many people pay full gate price
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There are certainly a good chunk of people that do and the delta between gate price and the discounted rate is such that it accounts for a more than a few quid in revenue.

I think the % probably varies by property, which is also important because of the way Merlin operates multiple parks in somewhat overlapping markets.

Alton - £65
CWOA - £57
Thorpe - £59
LLW - £62

You do need a fairly similar approach across the board or you create confusion and lose the ability to cross-promote with the 241s.
 
Booking Efteling a few weeks ago and then looking into PA or Gardaland later in the year, the strategy does seem to vary wildly with Merlin parks as opposed to the afformention. Both Eft and PA charge reasonably high gate prices but the accommodation is a no brainer as it's cheap as chips on top of gate price. Looking at booking Merlin parks, and the overall price comes out similar but the balance is the other way round in that it's cheap to get in but to stay overnight is costly.

It's as if other operators use their on site accommodation to entice you to come to the park, stay longer and spend more, whereas Merlin almost seem to see the parks as a side show to fill up their accommodation. Not passing judgment as such, just an interesting observation.
 
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