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2022: General Discussion

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lady on Wickerman said they are late doing all their checks today. Guy on RMT says it’s frost/ice on tracks. Who knows. But with food n drink outlets also closed I think it may be something else
 
Covid at the highest rates ever may be playing a part.
Less suffering badly, but many testing positive messes up the workplace!
Appointments cancelled all over due to it, local hospital has staffing issues because of it, and a shortage of local drivers apparently.
 
rob666 said:
Covid at the highest rates ever may be playing a part.
Less suffering badly, but many testing positive messes up the workplace!
Appointments cancelled all over due to it, local hospital has staffing issues because of it, and a shortage of local drivers apparently.
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That's a good point, Rob. 👍
 
Lack of staff seems plausible. As much as you don't have to self isolate anymore most people are. But people aren't going to want to go work with COVID and they want to make sure they've got rid of it before returning to work.

Alton Towers were having both staffing and recruiting problems last year and I imagine that will still be the case now. I can't really see and obvious and quick solution. The only thing I can think of is offering at least a bit better wages to make it worth the travel. Paying minimum wage when it's in such an awkward spot is very tricky to sell to people, increasing the wages even a bit should help and would probably make Merlin more money in the long run.
 
They should at least be paying staff the living wage. No wonder they are struggling to recruit, it’s in a remote location so you’ve got to offer a bit more of an incentive for people to want to work there. I’m here today and this morning was a bit weird with half the park closed but most rides are open now. CRR was testing at one point but now it’s been drained so it doesn’t look like that will be open at all today.
 
Just got back to our B&B. Weird day really. The morning was diabolical. It was cold yes but blue skies sunny. I’ve been to towers on many a colder more frosty opening day and had the rides open.

Monorail closed most of the morning so had to walk. Went to Wickerman at 9am. Told at 9:30 it won’t open until at least 11. As we had the little one with us we were restricted to 1.2m rides which was a big problem in the morning.

Went to RMT and waited until just before 10 before being told it won’t open. Went to Duel which was also told it was closed. At 10am only Nemmie and Rita were open. No use to us.

Managed a go on heave Ho and mauraders mayhem but that was it until RMT opened at 11:15.

Decided to head over to towers street and get a coffee as all the coffee stands were closed. Big queue inside so decided to get sky ride over to forbidden valley and go to RCR as it was approaching midday. Sky ride was running but not open?!

Has enough by now so went to guest services. Politely explained our disappointment. Girl would do anything, wouldn’t issue fast track as the rides we wanted to ton namely Wickerman and thirteen were still not open. Eventually the manager next to her agreed to give us fast track so thankfully that saved the day.

Had food in RCR which was pretty poor. Quality has gone down hill as have portions. Had to send the curry back for my partner as the mild masala turned out to be more like a madras. Burger was full of some weird white mayo and cheese sauce. Service was good though but I won’t rush back there again.

Managed to get in thirteen, Wickerman, and a few other filler rides in the afternoon but thankfully the fast tracks saved us for queuing longer again as we did all morning. Congo rapids didn’t open at despite them running. Duel was a sad state.

Popped in to the arcades where many of the machines were broken. Card machine broken. Left the park about 4pm to go to golf for the little one. Monorail closed.

Thankfully as we walked away to do the long walk the chap shouted over it was reopening which was a godsend with a tired 9 year old from all the walking all day between rides trying to find ones which were open.

Golf - well, we must have done the 9 holes which were not refurbished because it still looked the tired old golf as before (nemesis, hex, galactica holes).

To be honest with you, I felt the park was tired, felt a bit run down. Lots of things closed, outlets and shops closed, monorail, skyride and transport systems closed, and the food in RCR really was not great. If I had paid full price of £65 for that experience this morning I would have asked for a refund.

Not sure if it was the cold but given I’ve been there on colder days with everything open I can think they are either short on staff or engineers. Even the guy on sky ride said to us he had never known such a bad morning as today.

Anyway the little one has a a good time in the afternoon and I guess that’s what matters, even if the parents feel somewhat short changed by the experience they had (especially the £7.50 tub of pick n mix)
 
GaryH said:
Just got back to our B&B. Weird day really. The morning was diabolical. It was cold yes but blue skies sunny. I’ve been to towers on many a colder more frosty opening day and had the rides open.

Monorail closed most of the morning so had to walk. Went to Wickerman at 9am. Told at 9:30 it won’t open until at least 11. As we had the little one with us we were restricted to 1.2m rides which was a big problem in the morning.

Went to RMT and waited until just before 10 before being told it won’t open. Went to Duel which was also told it was closed. At 10am only Nemmie and Rita were open. No use to us.

Managed a go on heave Ho and mauraders mayhem but that was it until RMT opened at 11:15.

Decided to head over to towers street and get a coffee as all the coffee stands were closed. Big queue inside so decided to get sky ride over to forbidden valley and go to RCR as it was approaching midday. Sky ride was running but not open?!

Has enough by now so went to guest services. Politely explained our disappointment. Girl would do anything, wouldn’t issue fast track as the rides we wanted to ton namely Wickerman and thirteen were still not open. Eventually the manager next to her agreed to give us fast track so thankfully that saved the day.

Had food in RCR which was pretty poor. Quality has gone down hill as have portions. Had to send the curry back for my partner as the mild masala turned out to be more like a madras. Burger was full of some weird white mayo and cheese sauce. Service was good though but I won’t rush back there again.

Managed to get in thirteen, Wickerman, and a few other filler rides in the afternoon but thankfully the fast tracks saved us for queuing longer again as we did all morning. Congo rapids didn’t open at despite them running. Duel was a sad state.

Popped in to the arcades where many of the machines were broken. Card machine broken. Left the park about 4pm to go to golf for the little one. Monorail closed.

Thankfully as we walked away to do the long walk the chap shouted over it was reopening which was a godsend with a tired 9 year old from all the walking all day between rides trying to find ones which were open.

Golf - well, we must have done the 9 holes which were not refurbished because it still looked the tired old golf as before (nemesis, hex, galactica holes).

To be honest with you, I felt the park was tired, felt a bit run down. Lots of things closed, outlets and shops closed, monorail, skyride and transport systems closed, and the food in RCR really was not great. If I had paid full price of £65 for that experience this morning I would have asked for a refund.

Not sure if it was the cold but given I’ve been there on colder days with everything open I can think they are either short on staff or engineers. Even the guy on sky ride said to us he had never known such a bad morning as today.

Anyway the little one has a a good time in the afternoon and I guess that’s what matters, even if the parents feel somewhat short changed by the experience they had (especially the £7.50 tub of pick n mix)
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Sounds like an unlucky day and I definitely feel for you walking around the park only to find when you get to a ride, it’s closed. Happened to me last June and the frustration just builds up and up! Glad you got some Fastracks though to help you get your day back on track to an extent.
It’s a shame so many food outlets are still
closed - I really noticed this at fireworks last year and the lack of outlets, adequate seating and sheer size of the queues at the places that were actually open added up to create a miserable and quite frankly unacceptable F&B offering.

The park needs “more” of everything, because it seems like on weekends the only way to get a decent experience is to buy fastrack packages so you can have time to relax and eat a proper meal. Which for most people including me is frankly unaffordable.
 
Based on fag packet maths, let’s assume an additional 35 operators/hosts etc would have enabled the park to open all attractions on time, apart from Enterprise obviously which is in intensive care. Say they would all be paid £9.50 per hour (which is undoubtedly higher than their actual rate) and today is an 11 hour shift. That’s £3657.50 in wages, plus additional operating costs for the rides which I have no idea on.
Now let’s assume that only 500 guests have their tickets validated for a free visit (again, very conservative and will no doubt be higher). Based on the lowest advance ticket price, this gives a total lost revenue value of £18,000 - remember that’s only based on 500 guests applying to have their tickets revalidated.
£18,000 vs £3,657 is a huge difference and Merlin must know that days like today hurt their back pocket severely.

This surely highlights the need for better pay, better staff transport options and better employee benefits? Everyone’s a winner, surely?
 
Bad fag packet!
First of all, you missed all the employers expenses...nat ins and so on, makes wages costs much higher than the minimum wage.
Then there is the presumption that all the people that paid to attend today would have come back again this season on a paid ticket...many wouldn't, they would have likely purchased a season pass instead.
Total true lost revenue...a couple of grand or so probably at most.
Additional actual cost to Merlin to revalidate tickets for reuse...zero, the park will be open and running on the return dates anyway.
Again, today's problems were very likely to be covid/staff related.
 
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