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2023: General Discussion

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Blame coastertog for making a video saying it's a chance to do night rides with no queues lol

Edit: I do joke it's good to see them raise some good money for the Birmingham children's hospital and hope people can make it to their run in time.
 
BarryZola said:
Probably need to do something like only allowing spectator tickets to be sold to people who are running, whilst they're booking their race. That would mean less money for the running company though so...
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That’s what they originally did in the first year, but they opened it up to all not long after.

I think this was in the early days when perhaps the race wasn’t selling that many runner tickets. Now it is getting more and more popular they could switch back to that format.
 
BarryZola said:
Probably need to do something like only allowing spectator tickets to be sold to people who are running, whilst they're booking their race. That would mean less money for the running company though so...
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Agree with this point.

Run Through do plenty of events throughout the year so I don’t think money will be too much of an issue for them.

If anything, delayed race starts and organisational chaos would put runners off attending which means they could end of losing an attractive race
 
AT86 said:
That’s what they originally did in the first year, but they opened it up to all not long after.

I think this was in the early days when perhaps the race wasn’t selling that many runner tickets. Now it is getting more and more popular they could switch back to that format.
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More people in the park the better. The run itself I believe, raises money for a children’s charity in Birmingham. As much as the chancers wanted those walk on rides it looks as though it backfired on them today.

They do need to organise the run route better if it cuts off access to the site. Can’t believe they did that, perhaps it was just unfortunate that most timed their journeys to arrive at the same time.
 
I think on Saturday towers were just not prepared in the slightest for the race and the amount of people coming.

Having only one lane in to the resort is crazy when the race doesn’t even start until 10am.

Then it seems they wernt prepared with car park staff and general directing of people. I think the expected it to be a “quiet day” so they staffed it as such. Yet compared to a theme park day and a race day, I imagine most race people will just arrive in one car compared to theme park days when people come in groups in one car. So there was probably more cars than usual.

It took me an hour and half to get to the park from Stoke. When it should have taken 30 mins. I’ve never know the traffic to be an so bad from every direction. It was just stand still traffic, to the point where runners were getting out theirs cars and then running to the park entrance, I heard of some who dumped cars just to get to the park.

When I finally got on park they were just parking people anywhere as quick as they could.

Sunday however was completely different, it felt much more organised and they had two lanes of traffic in to the resort, as such there was no queues.
 
djtruefitt said:
I think on Saturday towers were just not prepared in the slightest for the race and the amount of people coming.

Having only one lane in to the resort is crazy when the race doesn’t even start until 10am.

Then it seems they wernt prepared with car park staff and general directing of people. I think the expected it to be a “quiet day” so they staffed it as such. Yet compared to a theme park day and a race day, I imagine most race people will just arrive in one car compared to theme park days when people come in groups in one car. So there was probably more cars than usual.

It took me an hour and half to get to the park from Stoke. When it should have taken 30 mins. I’ve never know the traffic to be an so bad from every direction. It was just stand still traffic, to the point where runners were getting out theirs cars and then running to the park entrance, I heard of some who dumped cars just to get to the park.

When I finally got on park they were just parking people anywhere as quick as they could.

Sunday however was completely different, it felt much more organised and they had two lanes of traffic in to the resort, as such there was no queues.
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On Sunday the only real issue was having people stuck on Towers Street waiting to cross the course. They should start the 5k a fair bit after the half marathon to account for this.

Also, half way through the 5k course, the runners for the half marathon and and the 5k merged together coming into the park by Galactica. This meant a lot of people in a narrow space and rightly annoyed a lot of people running the half who were getting stuck behind the slower runners/walkers in the 5k race.

I was only doing the 5k myself and ended up having to walk this section due to the volume of people. Not ideal.

I’m sure Run Through will take the feedback on board though and can’t really blame this one on Towers.
 
Ethan said:
What happened to towers becoming an all year round theme park
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I think, in all honesty, whilst I'd love to see AT become all year round, I doubt the locals of Alton would. Whilst it does generate money, at the same time due to all the noise generated from screaming guests, events, rollercoasters, maintenance... It would be complained about by the locals a LOT.

Plus, I believe the locals of Alton prefer AT to remain as it is because they'd rather to have some peace and quiet for Christmas (Or similar religious events) and not have to worry about contending in traffic with people going to AT for the same reason.
 
MattyH said:
The access roads in the middle of winter with black ice everywhere sounds like a recipe for disaster.
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It does, when you look at all the extra H&S related paperwork AT would have to file and keep on top of, I think in my honest opinion, they won't go all year round. Because off seasons are a good time for rides to have maintenance, TLC and other small changes to occur as no one will be needed to ride the rides.

Honestly, I doubt AT will go all year operations any time soon.
 
I find it crazy that the park were so unprepared for Saturday's race. This is what, the third year of this particular event - surely they should have figured out the best route that doesn't get in the way of anything logisticaly important? Accrued enough staff* for based on the numbers, plus a few extras to help out with the event side of things?

Alas, but this is Alton Towers 2023 - nothing really matters!

*realised after writing that a fair few of the contracts will have likely expired by then. Something to consider for next year perhaps, make sure there's a decent enough numbers still on the books for post-season shenanigans.
 
mo237 said:
I find it crazy that the park were so unprepared for Saturday's race. This is what, the third year of this particular event - surely they should have figured out the best route that doesn't get in the way of anything logisticaly important? Accrued enough staff for based on the numbers, plus a few extras to help out with the event side of things?

Alas, but this is Alton Towers 2023 - nothing really matters!
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Alton Towers doesn't run, or ticket, the event. It's done through a third party company called RunThrough. They set the route, they know how many people are coming. They are the ones who sort out the logistics and hire Alton Towers out for the event. Towers run the park as they would do on any other day. It's definitely mismanagement on both sides, but it's not entirely Towers fault in this instance.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
Alton Towers doesn't run, or ticket, the event. It's done through a third party company called RunThrough. They set the route, they know how many people are coming. They are the ones who sort out the logistics and hire Alton Towers out for the event. Towers run the park as they would do on any other day. It's definitely mismanagement on both sides, but it's not entirely Towers fault in this instance.
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Towers will know how many are coming though, as all tickets have to be claimed through the Alton Towers website.

It wouldn’t surprise me if to make a bit of extra money towers run things on lower trains/less staff than they would on a normal day.

Anyway they’ve announced next years event is happening, so it must be popular enough to keep returning.
 
djtruefitt said:
Towers will know how many are coming though, as all tickets have to be claimed through the Alton Towers website.

It wouldn’t surprise me if to make a bit of extra money towers run things on lower trains/less staff than they would on a normal day.

Anyway they’ve announced next years event is happening, so it must be popular enough to keep returning.
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Already bought my ticket. Get 30% as a runner of this years race!
 
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