2025: General Discussion

[jon81uk]

Scrapping MMM just seems daft long term, and I hope some of the talented people they’ve let go set up their own thing and charge them an arm and a leg.

From whats been said they are already paying an arm and a leg through their internal charges to Studios North.

In terms of other redundancies it does make sense to centralise finance and similar for all the RTPs rather than AT, Chessington and Thorpe all having their own teams.

Only negative one would be entertainment if they cut back on that significantly at AT.

 

[Bowser]

If they only focussed on delivering better attractions instead of tidying up their mess all the time, they’d be making more money. Again, don’t see Efteling, Europa or Phantasialand make equivalent decisions.

I don't think they're comparable as i believe they're all single park companies?

 

[Stuie]

If they replace Blade it won't be this year, they can't be having a big construction site in the way of their two newest rides (as well as the f&b vendors)

An additional X-Sector flat ride wouldn't be difficult to install during the season if it was something like a Huss Breakdance / Booster on the Enterprise site.

If they really wanted to do something to replace The Blade, they could easily do so before the beginning of the season. This was built up at Dreamland in a week!
Theming not ideal but there are options for very quick construction of a pirate ship.

Even if it was in X-Sector. No worse than retrosquad!

 

[AltonLover123]

From whats been said they are already paying an arm and a leg through their internal charges to Studios North.

In terms of other redundancies it does make sense to centralise finance and similar for all the RTPs rather than AT, Chessington and Thorpe all having their own teams.

Only negative one would be entertainment if they cut back on that significantly at AT.

Agreed.

I assume it’ll be the management and finance sides of entertainments rather than seeing a cut across the performers.

 

[Ash]

I don't think they're comparable as i believe they're all single park companies?

Makes it worse doesn’t it?

Economies of scale and all that…

From whats been said they are already paying an arm and a leg through their internal charges to Studios North.

In terms of other redundancies it does make sense to centralise finance and similar for all the RTPs rather than AT, Chessington and Thorpe all having their own teams.

Only negative one would be entertainment if they cut back on that significantly at AT.

I assume they will be doing the for tax reasons.

A lot of companies do.

Particularly if MMM is a standalone entity.

If finance/HR etc aren’t centralised already I’d be surprised, but then we don’t have the same regulations certainly as the US making this harder to do.

Trains will never run to Alton. The old track bed is used by locals and tourists alike as it’s now a path, it’s also the main way for walkers to get the to Ramblers retreat by foot. Can’t see them being too happy with that being cut off.

And on moneystone finally being approved the village of Oakamoor where it’ll sit behind are split, 50% are happy about it the rest aren’t and they’ve been fighting it for years.

Personally I see it as a good thing. The only possible drawback being tourists driving up Carr bank to take them to the site, it’s a single track road and extremely steep, it goes through the heart of the village.

They’ve said they’ll tell people to go through Kingsley etc but people follow satnavs, I expect that to cause some disruption.

I can see why some people would be against it, oakamoor only had a population of just under 600 people. But the pub needs the trade it’s the last one standing and I’m a huge pub drinker so that’s my main reason for being for it

Plus the lodges themselves look nice, as long as it’s priced appropriately and it doesn’t become a cheap tatty getaway with riff raff I have no issues.

Regrettably I think you’re probably right.

CVR own down to Moneystone/oakamoor sand sidings so could put track down tomorrow as they have planning. But it’s difficult to maintain (as it’s low) and needs to be cost effective as they ripped it up previous.

Oakamoor tunnel has bats nesting in it and is probably need work.

The trackbed after is owned by the CC so they could do something, but as you’ll know access to the cricket club is via the railway line so that would need to be resolved.

And the national trust own the station building but not the platforms I believe.

Lots of negatives, but is it possible, yes. If if the moorlands wants tourism and people keeping the pubs open better than than cars.

What’s happened to the pubs in Alton is nothing short of criminal. This would help.

 

[jon81uk]

Makes it worse doesn’t it?

Economies of scale and all that…

Thats the whole point of these redundancies, to try and take advantage of the economies of scale.

 

[flyingguitar]

Trains will never run to Alton. The old track bed is used by locals and tourists alike as it’s now a path, it’s also the main way for walkers to get the to Ramblers retreat by foot. Can’t see them being too happy with that being cut off.

it is possible, they can just copy what they have done at leek (which also used to be a walking path) since it was double track and they only need single track, just make it single track and add a fence and path next to the railway.

I don't believe it won't happen for a while as there is still quite a bit of building work they are working on

 

[Blackrock]

it is possible, they can just copy what they have done at leek (which also used to be a walking path) since it was double track and they only need single track, just make it single track and add a fence and path next to the railway.

I don't believe it won't happen for a while as there is still quite a bit of building work they are working on

That would involve encroaching on other people’s land as there are private parcels of land along the route or taking down a fair few trees.

Something I imagine those around here wouldn’t like.

It’s nice to dream and it never should have shut but realistically I can’t ever see it happening.

 

[SuperMuscleMan]

South East. Our train services are even crappier than northern land down this way. We still had 2 car Pacers rattling around a few years ago.

We still do on the the marsh line between Ashford international and Brighton!

 

[Skyscraper]

From TS Facebook, Spinball Whizzer has been added to the February half term lineup.


From: https://www.facebook.com/TowersStreet/posts/pfbid02WiqajdRwuVkCsexLrwU3K2UCH4P6f2T9xDXyQd6ZBdJXBsu7VUGVCBbExFtLi68Vl

 

[Matt N]

Great news! I wonder if this could be the start of a return to an expanded February Half Term event, similar to what we had pre-Smiler crash?

 

[Skyscraper]

Also, Sharkbait Reef has had it's actor-led Secrets of Smugglers overlay removed.

 

[Bert2theSpark]

There's a channel on YouTube that I watch about an entrepeneur who runs his own leisure and hospitality businesses in the South East of England. Really interesting video from him came out from him yesterday mentioning a 'really good theme park' who has revenue turnover of over £20mill/year but only makes £800k profits due to such high operating costs in the sector.

He mentions Legoland separately earlier in the video, talking about how they spend more on merchandise due to the Lego brand from the gift shops. We also know it's not somewhere like Drayton or Blackpool because we regularly see their accounts every year, and their revenue is significantly smaller than the figure stated in the video. This leads me to believe that the theme park mentioned in the video is likely Alton Towers.

Not sure how interested other people are in the business operations side of things, but I honestly find it really interesting because it just shows how much money is needed just to keep the park effectively standing still. Especially considering the park is investing millions just to refurbish and keep it's current attractions.

 

[evilcod]

Also, Sharkbait Reef has had it's actor-led Secrets of Smugglers overlay removed.

Not surprising, there wasn't a lot too it last year and it was a weak point of the event which made crowding in SBR even more unbearable than usual.

 

[AT86]

There's a channel on YouTube that I watch about an entrepeneur who runs his own leisure and hospitality businesses in the South East of England. Really interesting video from him came out from him yesterday mentioning a 'really good theme park' who has revenue turnover of over £20mill/year but only makes £800k profits due to such high operating costs in the sector.

He mentions Legoland separately earlier in the video, talking about how they spend more on merchandise due to the Lego brand from the gift shops. We also know it's not somewhere like Drayton or Blackpool because we regularly see their accounts every year, and their revenue is significantly smaller than the figure stated in the video. This leads me to believe that the theme park mentioned in the video is likely Alton Towers.

Not sure how interested other people are in the business operations side of things, but I honestly find it really interesting because it just shows how much money is needed just to keep the park effectively standing still. Especially considering the park is investing millions just to refurbish and keep it's current attractions.

In the project horizon planning application Towers stated their labour costs alone were in the region of £30 million per year, this rules them out of being the theme park in question for me.

Likely to be a smaller park like Thorpe/Chessington/Paulton’s.

Edit: looking at the latest Paulton’s accounts they are running at a turnover of c£34m with a profit of c£6m, so size wise this video is likely referencing a smaller park than Paulton’s.

 

[popey85]

Great news! I wonder if this could be the start of a return to an expanded February Half Term event, similar to what we had pre-Smiler crash?

Would be great if could book speaking with merlin annual pass this morning as we are platinum season pass holders and you can't book as apparently the whole of half term is sold out they told me to speak with alton towers as its highly unusual for it all to be sold and Alton confirmed they are sold out

 

[jon81uk]

Would be great if could book speaking with merlin annual pass this morning as we are platinum season pass holders and you can't book as apparently the whole of half term is sold out they told me to speak with alton towers as its highly unusual for it all to be sold and Alton confirmed they are sold out

It's a low capacity opening with only a few rides open and they will be prioritising those purchasing hotel stays that make them the most money. Day guest tickets are sold out too.

 

[Maelstrom]

There's a channel on YouTube that I watch about an entrepeneur who runs his own leisure and hospitality businesses in the South East of England. Really interesting video from him came out from him yesterday mentioning a 'really good theme park' who has revenue turnover of over £20mill/year but only makes £800k profits due to such high operating costs in the sector.

He mentions Legoland separately earlier in the video, talking about how they spend more on merchandise due to the Lego brand from the gift shops. We also know it's not somewhere like Drayton or Blackpool because we regularly see their accounts every year, and their revenue is significantly smaller than the figure stated in the video. This leads me to believe that the theme park mentioned in the video is likely Alton Towers.

Not sure how interested other people are in the business operations side of things, but I honestly find it really interesting because it just shows how much money is needed just to keep the park effectively standing still. Especially considering the park is investing millions just to refurbish and keep it's current attractions.

Drayton manors turnover for the last set of accounts was just under £30m. Altons is significantly higher.

 

[s_g_k]

Drayton manors turnover for the last set of accounts was just under £30m. Altons is significantly higher.

I’d be surprised if Alton Towers’ turnover excluding hotels, retail and F&B is less than £100m

 

[Squiggs]

Would be great if could book speaking with merlin annual pass this morning as we are platinum season pass holders and you can't book as apparently the whole of half term is sold out they told me to speak with alton towers as its highly unusual for it all to be sold and Alton confirmed they are sold out

Based on some of the comments on social media, it sounds suspiciously like it's not sold out, but rather they might have cancelled the day-ticket element of the event.

It sounds like an odd move if true, but it's odd for the entire event to be sold out on all day-ticket channels despite the fact the Feb Half Term has never sold out or seemingly got anywhere near to selling out.