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2024: General Discussion

Ethan said:
Why would they stop doing the buy out days after all these years? These days are perfect for staff to get back into it and prepare for the main season
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I was just reacting based off your assumption that something will continue to happen "because it normally happens" ;) things do change occasionally.

But if we're genuinely questioning it, maybe the bad press about ride availability and complaints outweighs the preparation for staff? They haven't always had buy out days, what did they do for training before?

The last few years especially the ride availability has been farcical, with many rides not at all ready. The loss of off-season preparation days in favour of buy-outs puts more pressure on Tech Services to get everything ready for opening on a tighter schedule, which has in the past caused some rides to be late opening for main season.

If the profit margin isn't much on a company hiring the park out then perhaps it's not worth it? This is purely speculation of course, I could be completely wrong. But if losing the buy-out days means all rides will be ready to go come opening day I know which I'd prefer.
 
Craig said:
While guest numbers rising year on year is a nice to have, it's not the be all and end all that it once was.

With the issues such as ride availability and recruitment issues, the better option is increasing guest spend but maintaining or seeing slight increases in guest numbers. We've seen that already with events and hotels returning to being more sensibly priced. It encourages guests, particularly families to spend more and stay longer.

I agree they're walking a tightrope on this thanks to no new additions, but I don't think it's comparable to Thorpe's mess. That was a park not knowing it's identity that tried to quickly switch solely to the thrill market. Those are guests who turn up, pay their entry and spend minimal amounts on park. They went for a "pile em in sell it cheap" approach which resulted in longer queues and low guest satisfaction - hence why people didn't bother to return.

Alton is still a park that hits the headlines for new additions, a couple of quietish years providing they fix the basics and maintain guest numbers is unlikely to hurt them in the long run.
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I totally agree with this. A few years of general tidying, refurb and maintenance won't hurt. If anything it may actually benefit them more and bring more crowds when a new ride arrives.
 
I doubt I'll get towers in 2024 as I don't live in the UK but I am concerned now that every year going by the condition if the park seems to be getting worse as are operations from what I hear, now I take it with a grain of salt as its the internet but still.
The biggest thing for me recently from past 2 seasons is the absolute state the hotels are in. I was last in one about 6 years ago and it wasnt great then and somehow appear worse now.
They clearly have the money to have a higher standard and I'm old enough to have stayed when the standards were quite high.
If staffing is an issue they need to offer higher pay to draw in more staff but we know no corporation would ever do that.
 
Ethan said:
One of towers best events back in the day but now it’s an absolute joke
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No it wasn’t, it was under attended and often hit with terrible weather.

I think it worked well one season when the weather was quite good but otherwise it was nothing special other than it gave geeks a thrill fix in February.

Just because something eased the withdrawal symptoms of enthusiasts doesn’t make it good business sense. There are far better ways to invest money in events than Feb half term. Sure it would be nice to see some more of the kids rides open but otherwise invest elsewhere.
 
Jb85 said:
I'm not a fan of events fullstop.

The type of entertainment they offer should be standard across the park.
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They are kind of linked, I’m not pretending the entertainment was mind blowing last season but they still ran the stage and a few more walk around characters last season because it was easier to employ full time than keep reappointing for each event.

If events do well then you are more likely to get the year round ents as it becomes more viable to employ teams full time. So they are not mutually exclusive. It’s why every theme park with good year round ents also have events.
 
Ethan said:
Why would they stop doing the buy out days after all these years? These days are perfect for staff to get back into it and prepare for the main season
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Confirmation of no Blue Light buy out days this year. I suspect this means the other days (usually John Lewis and Kidspass I believe) will also be scrapped.

Let’s hope it gives tech services extra time to get the park properly ready for 16th March.


From: https://x.com/bluelightcard/status/1747189625674776630?s=46&t=zG_i8R9vX93ZZU0RljfzWA
 
AT86 said:
Confirmation of no Blue Light buy out days this year. I suspect this means the other days (usually John Lewis and Kidspass I believe) will also be scrapped.

Let’s hope it gives tech services extra time to get the park properly ready for 16th March.


From: https://x.com/bluelightcard/status/1747189625674776630?s=46&t=zG_i8R9vX93ZZU0RljfzWA
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Also 16th March is reasonably early for opening, although it is often that weekend its probably the earliest possible date (its been 22nd, 20th 19th, 25th, 17th, 23rd, 20th, 19th March in the last ten years). So having the buy out days before then it really would risk bad weather for them due to the date being just that bit earlier.

I think as Easter is early this year they will really want to be ready as Easter is just two weeks after opening day. If it wasn't Easter in March this year I expect they would have opened on the 23rd March.
 
I think that’s the correct decision, as rude availability on those days is usually pretty poor and people just complain. One of them was cancelled last year due to heavy snow as well, so the best decision all round I think.
 
Rob said:
Good news in my view, hopefully it means that the park is ready for opening this year. They cannot afford the same shambolic start to the season that they suffered from last year.
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Well, hopefully the new management of AT have learned from their first season.
Hell, I just hope Hex and Skyride are operating this year!
 
There went my cheapo annual Towers visit :cry:

Seriously though, I echo the posts before me - last year was as though they'd found out about opening 5 minutes before with things clearly not ready around the paths and general operations
 
EarthlyKnight27 said:
Well, hopefully the new management of AT have learned from their first season.
Hell, I just hope Hex and Skyride are operating this year!
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Bianca ran a theme park before Towers. Big organisations like Towers don’t change quickly. Everything that happened last season was mostly baked in from 2022’s leadership team. So less that they learned anything (other than observing the institutional habits), more IF there is any improvement in 2024 (and it’s a big IF) it’s due to the new management.

That’s not to say 2024 will be perfect, I think people underestimate how hard it is to change a big beast like Towers. But we need to see positive change in 2024 if we are to have any hope.
 
Dave said:
Bianca ran a theme park before Towers. Big organisations like Towers don’t change quickly. Everything that happened last season was mostly baked in from 2022’s leadership team. So less that they learned anything (other than observing the institutional habits), more IF there is any improvement in 2024 (and it’s a big IF) it’s due to the new management.

That’s not to say 2024 will be perfect, I think people underestimate how hard it is to change a big beast like Towers. But we need to see positive change in 2024 if we are to have any hope.
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Problem is, with budgets, creative, food outsourcing, large marketing, events, IP partners all being decided from Poole or County Hall, that doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room locally.

Considering how little things have changed despite ownership, chief exec or management it shows the Merlin operating model with not a lot flexibility.

Staff at the local parks open the shutters and run the place, yes they can tinker around the edges but that’s it. It’s basically operated like a a local M&S.

Arguably one is the best things it has going for it is MMM on site and some decent people in the background (Marketing managers ? Lawrence and Ryan, and John B in MMM who “get” the unique nature of the place) but it means clawing back and using control and using it well.

Strategy, capex and long term planning is elsewhere, and without Varney about essentially “stumbling” upon how bad a state the park was in (see comments on Duel), makes you wonder if anything would change. And that locally there’s little way to control improved running on the theme park. It’s been that way for pretty much 15-20 years now and is ever thus.

Badly ran, by design
 
Ash said:
Problem is, with budgets, creative, food outsourcing, large marketing, events, IP partners all being decided from Poole or County Hall, that doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room locally.

Considering how little things have changed despite ownership, chief exec or management it shows the Merlin operating model with not a lot flexibility.

Staff at the local parks open the shutters and run the place, yes they can tinker around the edges but that’s it. It’s basically operated like a a local M&S.

Arguably one is the best things it has going for it is MMM on site and some decent people in the background (Marketing managers ? Lawrence and Ryan, and John B in MMM who “get” the unique nature of the place) but it means clawing back and using control and using it well.

Strategy, capex and long term planning is elsewhere, and without Varney about essentially “stumbling” upon how bad a state the park was in (see comments on Duel), makes you wonder if anything would change. And that locally there’s little way to control improved running on the theme park. It’s been that way for pretty much 15-20 years now and is ever thus.

Badly ran, by design
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The CEO also changed last year, so the principle still stands. Budgets and outsourcing decisions in 2023 where made by Varney.

As I say im not saying anything will change, just saying if it is going to change it’s not like turning a light switch, more like turning a big ship.
 
Ash said:
Problem is, with budgets, creative, food outsourcing, large marketing, events, IP partners all being decided from Poole or County Hall, that doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room locally.

Considering how little things have changed despite ownership, chief exec or management it shows the Merlin operating model with not a lot flexibility.

Staff at the local parks open the shutters and run the place, yes they can tinker around the edges but that’s it. It’s basically operated like a a local M&S.

Arguably one is the best things it has going for it is MMM on site and some decent people in the background (Marketing managers ? Lawrence and Ryan, and John B in MMM who “get” the unique nature of the place) but it means clawing back and using control and using it well.

Strategy, capex and long term planning is elsewhere, and without Varney about essentially “stumbling” upon how bad a state the park was in (see comments on Duel), makes you wonder if anything would change. And that locally there’s little way to control improved running on the theme park. It’s been that way for pretty much 15-20 years now and is ever thus.

Badly ran, by design
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Please, remind me. Where are the decisions for Disney and Universal Parks made? I could be wrong but I'm leaning toward the state of California, and I'm pretty certain that their biggest/flagship parks are some 2 and a bit thousand miles away in Florida.

The operating model works. Merlin loaded themselves up with debt to find the initial acquisition of Tussaud's, then sold and leased back the sites to pay down some of that debt. Merlin were then primarily interested in getting their midway attractions up to scratch, expanding their footprint and consolidating some sites. Going public made a lot of money for initial stakeholders, but restricted what the company could do and spend, but going private also cost a pretty penny.

We're in a transition period between management teams, heck even Horizon would have started in the Varney era.

This isn't like your local garage, which can swap and change owners and operators and start a fresh pretty much immediately. We're talking about a multi billion pound company with a lot of moving parts. We're about to go into a season where we will start to see some of the small individual decisions being made, then we can judge.
 
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