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2023: General Discussion

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If the CapEx was focused on here and now I'd be more worried than the currently laid plans (Alty Mans, Nemesis, Horizon). Proper business is like snooker, your next shot will probably be obvious to outsiders as you play it but in your head you're 7 shots ahead looking to clear the table and make it a success.

As much as we may not agree with things, we cannot expect changes instantly and to bin things at will. The KPIs for the last big investments (WM and Alty Mans) will show what people want.

If she had come out and said yes we're doing X, Y and Z it would probably have been half truths at best as there is significant constraints. She has been dealt the equivalent of a 14 in Blackjack. Decent enough hand to keep you playing (the place isn't bankrupt, it has some high quality rides) but going forward caution is required whilst not being able to stand still as the hand (or park in this case) isn't good enough to guarantee a win (or the park becoming world class) without a decent strategy
 
s_g_k said:
I think we need to cut Bianca a bit of slack…doing this interview just a few months into her new role is a bold move and I think the answers that were given were to be expected given her position in the park. You could tell that thoughts were being held back for professional reasons.

Bianca is clearly a well respected senior figure who’s spent 30 years in the theme park and resort industry. For the next 3 years we’ve got annual large scale investments. When was the last time that happened?

2023- Curse and Sub Terra
2024 - Nemesis
2025 - Project Horizon

There are clearly presentation improvements to be made, starting with Galactica and The Smiler, but let’s not forget that problems with presentation are not a new issue. The Black Hole tent was left to rot (aside from hosting a couple of scare mazes) for the best part of 7 years, Corkscrew looked like it was about to fall apart in its last few years and The Flume was absolutely hanging and leaked into the queue line below the final drop.
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Honestly, I'd argue that even in the good days of Tussauds that presentation has always been a problem with the park starting from how they left HH to not change for many years until it was turned into Duel as so was Toyland Tours and ofc let's not forget about the Black Hole tent or the Flume; Merlin are just following this path though I'd say we only say its bad because its being reported on more in the day of social media in which had such things been in place back then then I'd wager a bet saying we'd be saying the same thing even then.

Getting projects through take years so even if they have made Merlin cough money for given the park an absolute huge TLC job, it would be a few years before you'd see that happen and I know its frustrating for things to take so long but that's what happens sadly. Do I think her answers could have been better, yeah, but at the very least there is a face to answer this question rather just have no one there which Merlin could have easily done. Short termism has always been a problem for the park and having a long term plan in place is vital rather than focusing on the next big hip thing like VR but I doubt this would change.

I won't say the video fill me with either confidence or dread, just not sure what to think even though I could see Bianca had to word her answers correctly and I suspect off camera she did have private words off the record to Shawn about her true feelings about the place which I wouldn't be surprised if she does share the same concerns like everyone else.
 
Cracking post there @Matt.GC which I think summarises what was said between the lines of the video quite nicely. You're never going to get management coming onto a Youtube channel and say how terrible the park is and that they're going to fix everything that's being pointed out. With probably 60k+ views on that video in the coming days, that's a lot of potential guests to put off from visiting until improvements were made.

I think the main thing that you've got to look at is there's a willingness there to engage with guests and fans directly. That's something you barely ever saw from Ian Crabbe with the exception of post The Smiler incident and interviews with the mainstream press, and something rarely seen further down the chain with Francis aside from that short period after the crash when we had ride breakdowns and the inevitable Mirror hysteria. It's good to see that visibility, and hopefully that'll continue as time goes on.

For someone who's been in the job for the business equivalent of 5 minutes, it shows there's willingness to start to put things right - it'll just take some time. As others have pointed out, many of these issues have been going on for years, decades even. The lack of upkeep isn't a 2023 thing, the Scarefest stagnation isn't just a post covid thing and Aramark certainly didn't just instantly made a perfect offering bad - it's just the mess of prices made a situation that's declined season after season a lot more visible.

It'll be interesting to see if we start to see some shoots of progress over the course of this year. It'll take time to assess and make the changes necessary behind the scenes before we see anything major that's tangible on park. 2023 will be making the best of an already bad situation, hopefully 2024 can make some headway to things being a bit more positive again.
 
I have watched the TPWW "interview" with Bianca - well about the first two thirds of it until I had to stop as it was just irritating me.

As above, there is no way Bianca was going to give any truthful answers that we really wanted to hear, i.e. admit the state of the park is dire in places, Aramark are dire etc. I like the way she tried to say how they spent a fortune on heritage projects, giving the impression it was done out of the good of their hearts - err, no, it's called a Section 106 agreement to get planning approval for new developments. Heritage investment costs a lot and attracts practically zero additional guests.

I personally think the whole "interview" was stage-managed & Bianca had been given every question in advance so she could get suitable answers provided by / vetted by Merlin HQ.

Nothing changes at Towers - going back 20-odd years when it was Ralph Armond's day to do "front line focus", i.e. work on a ride for a day, the rotas would be rejigged. The ride he was going to be working on would be staffed 100% by operators, or very "on-focus" ride hosts. The hosts who were only there as they couldn't get a job anywhere else would be off litter-picking for the day. Ralph did his day on the ride and went back to his office thinking this is how the park ran all the time...!
 
As others have echoed, I admire Bianca for doing this. However, I feel for her working with Ferrari World Abu Dhabi; she will now have to work with Merlin. I think her heart is in the right place, but she needs to tow the corporate line to have gotten and keep the job for the foreseeable future.

I believe the time Merlin was on the stock market (a disaster), now in private equity, is the cause of all this. Of course, every business needs to make money, but private equity usually takes that to the extreme. There is no getting away from that.

In fairness, we have projects lined up. I gather they are only willing to spend money if the 'thing' can be marketed. Which equals a short-term cash boost. Cleaning up the smiler is not marketable. Flat rides are hard to do TV ads unless you wrap them in an IP. They are only interested in investing if it means more visitors in the short term.

I feel for Bianca. Her answers, especially about the 'flat rides', were telling, stating the decisions were made by the previous lot. The food/beverage issue is down to Merlin rather than the park, with Aramark being forced upon them. Let's face it Aramark is not going anywhere; they do a pretty good job with the stall near Alton Manor. They need to tell them straight the presentation is embarrassing and the food needs to be at least another level up. Aramark produce must have different quality levels; Merlin has gone for 'prison' quality by the looks of it. The best thing they can do is make it work with Aramark somehow.

I hope this is not a case of Merlin spending a lot of money on someone with good ideas and a good resume to look good (as corporates do), then giving them no cash to do anything.

It's all very strange at the moment. I assume scarefest will be a borefest again with the same mazes, as she kept referring back to the fireworks after Shawn mentioned Scarefest. Considering Bianca is brand-new, I think this year is a write-off.

Alton Towers feels weird at the moment. Something doesn't feel right when visiting. When I visited years ago with Ripsaw running and Scarefest being a highlight of the year, it felt like a theme park. With these fairground rides, cheap strange events and overpriced hotels and food. You are better off booking a premier inn and bringing your own food. I enjoyed staying on-site, going to the secret garden restaurant, and eating in the park. Yes, not cheap (as you would expect), but you felt like you weren't being ripped off. I just can't be bothered anymore, I just go there for a cheap day out with my Merlin pass and bring my own food and stay offsite.
 
I think people need to take a pause when it comes to both Merlin and Towers management at the moment.

Merlin have a new CEO and Kirkby and blackstone haven’t owned the company for many seasons, and the time has included the disruption of the pandemic. Bianca has also only been in the job for 5 minutes.

As others have said all the decisions around budgets and contracts where made by other people for both Merlin and Towers. That’s not to say I expect this new crop of senior leaders will change anything, just that’s it’s way too early to tell.
 
Her willingness to engage in the first place is highly commendable. Shawn is usually quite positive about places and tries to put things far more mildly than we do on forums like this because he has a financial incentive to do so (unlike us). But recently, his comments have pretty much been like reading a mild version of comments we make on here. Just a quick glance at things like the MAP holders Facebook group, Trip Advisor and Attraction Source and views pretty aligned at the moment.

The way of handling this in the past at the park would have been to just ignore it and hope that a few Vlogs later a lot of stuff will be forgotten about. A hope that processes they're putting into place in the back ground will address some of these concerns behind closed doors and the rest will be forgotten about in the passage of time.

But nope, she wasn't having any of it and came out to face some quite candid questions, even if they were asked in a polite and less than challenging way. I guess you could conclude, as I'm sure the likes of Francis Jackson and Ian Crabb would have done, that it's not about what fans want and say. But I think she took the view that a lot of different sources are all pointing in the same direction and that a YouTuber with such a far and influential reach can be a curse, but if managed right can be a fantastic opportunity. Although she would never walk around the front lawns saying "yeah, it's a bit of dive isn't it Shawn?", just having some of those uncomfortable truths put to her in the first place is an admission in it's own that there's definitely work to be getting on with.

I did notice that she seemed very passionate when talking about throughputs and operations. I got the feeling that she has quite a low tolerance threshold when it comes to how it's been handled so far this season.

She also seemed quite proud of Alton Manor and Nemesis, which you can either read as trying to plug attractions, or setting a bar to how she wants the future standard to be. I'm not sure either way as I can't see this being at all achievable resort wide.

Disappointing with what she said about food. But I really got the feeling that there just isn't an answer locally to this so they just have to make the best of a bad job in the hope that the parent organisation will see the mistake they've made when faced with the negative feedback from across the Merlin estate.

Very interesting what she said about the Retrosquad as she went straight into the argument for flat rides in general. She started quite passionately talking about what she saw as the absolute necessity for supporting attractions and even made a direct reference to the decision to remove the RS permanent predecessors in the past. Like she was going down the rabbit hole of actively slating past decisions before diplomatically having to pull herself back. Sadly, I couldn't see an answer to the problem as she also started talking about the money they have tried up in other recent projects, but that's a very positive defence we heard of the need for a decent supporting flat ride lineup.

Also note how often the word "efficiency" was used alongside "equipment". That's management speak for finding a new way of doing more for the same amount of money or less. She didn't shy away from admitting the challenges the UK climate has on the visual upkeep of the place which I took as her acknowledging there's tonnes of work to do here, they just need to learn how to manage it better with no extra cash laying around. She clearly has some ideas by repeatedly saying both those words.

But overall, putting herself out there to be told some of this stuff on site to her face in front of thousands of people, both fans and occasional visitors does say a lot about her personality and the way she wishes to manage the place. I like the cut of her jib. She made no promises and of course her hands are well and truly tied in many respects, but she does look like she at least has some very clever ideas, has spotted clear opportunities and is not going to be a continuation of old regimes. She seems like she's not affraid to get in there and face in to challenges. I get the feeling she'll be a bit of a disrupter at wider Merlin group meetings.

This could all be BS of course, but I personally like working with and for people like that.
 
To make a real difference at an organisation like Merlin you’ve got to be a disruptor. Make the case for changing the ways of old. If it doesn’t work out then you’ll either move on yourself or be moved on. I am hopeful that Bianca can be a disruptor.

Just going along with what has gone before will achieve nothing.

Can highly recommend former President of Nintendo America Reggie Fils-Aime’s book, Disrupting the Game, if you want to learn more about how this works in practise.
 
That's a great interview. As mentioned above, we rarely saw a peep out of the former park leadership team - so this is a real breath of fresh air. I hope we see some more openness like this throughout the season.

For the people who have described Bianca's answers as too "corporate", being as open as this as a senior executive in a Merlin can be tough - it's a recipe for 'tall poppy syndrome'. It will take gradual building of trust both ways, but can be a virtuous cycle if done well.

Bianca's a great pick for divisional director - it's clear she is looking to be a good steward for the park. (And when Bianca's finished at Towers, I hope she comes back here to Aus and sorts out the Village Roadshow parks :) )
 
I hope we see more of Bianca, got to give her credit for agreeing to have a chat with Shawn. It reminds me of 10+ years ago when we would see management at Towers engaging (publically) with enthusiasts. More of this, please.

It's clear her hands are tied with a lot of things at the moment. This is a marathon, not a sprint, so it will take some time (maybe years) to notice any impact from her position.
 
Watched this yesterday. Not much more to add but this feels significant.

Upper management doing an interview like this would've been unheard of not too long ago.

Fair play to Shawn, he came across very well. Took the opportunity to ask some difficult questions. 99% of 'influencers' would have been a lot more cautious.
 
RicketyCricket said:
Watched this yesterday. Not much more to add but this feels significant.

Upper management doing an interview like this would've been unheard of not too long ago.

Fair play to Shawn, he came across very well. Took the opportunity to ask some difficult questions. 99% of 'influencers' would have been a lot more cautious.
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Asking those difficult questions is how he knows the video will be successful and get views. He will ask all the questions his audience want to know the answers to. If towers have seen some of his videos there's no point him pretending to be nice for the interview when he's had his fair share to say about the start of the season. He has to be consistent with what he's said in previous videos so at least he wasn't being fake in the interview
 
Now that Festival of Thrills is over what has happened to the theming? Has the stuff in X-Sector stayed and have the other props around the park completely gone, or have they been placed in X-Sector?
 
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Year 6s get school trips to theme parks now? Things have certainly changed since I was a Year 6 (admittedly nearly 10 years ago now)… our school trips were never that fancy when I was in primary school!

Although come to think of it, there were large groups of Year 6 children at Drayton Manor when I went last June… I remember one asked me to hold his hand on Apocalypse, and I was on The Haunting with another enthusiastic group of Year 6s and their teacher!
 
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