2026: General Discussion

[Bowser]

I swear the rapids opens late every year. In fairness, no one will be riding it unless we have great weather over Easter.
Surely they should have the Monorail and Skyride ready for open day, the bare minimum transport "rides".
It is appalling but not just Towers that are struggling..

You are correct on the rapids.

Monorail and Skyride are still speculation at this point but to not have them available… again… is atrocious when customers with mobility issues require them.

Europe has had a rough winter. Will Europa and Phantasialand open with numerous unscheduled closures? Doubtful and their off seasons are half the length of AT.

I’m not sure why some people are so desperate to defend AT on this matter. To not be ready for opening isn’t bad luck, it’s the result of decision making.

 

[rob666]

If you do not have enough mechanics on staff...
Really is as simple as that.
But eighty quid passes aren't enough for a full complement of staff.

I have made enough comment on the skyride in the past, but quite simply...

I was going to put the effort in to ride nemesis in the dark for the first time in a decade...route and everything planned out.
No monorail in the morning, no skyride during the day, no visit.

Glad I hadn't booked, I nearly did.
Good old champions of accessibility.

Again.

 

[Danscott22]

To not have your 2 transport rides open particularly when one of them was just closed for 2 years and you've had since mid November is disgusting. It's actually diabolical. CRR should not be opening in May after closing in mid September for "maintenance" either. And having your main family coaster shut when there's not much else for that age bracket is not good enough.

I used to love this place so much, but they genuinely do not deserve people's hard earned money. But hey, at least the Corkscrew has been repainted and we've got some resurfaced paths, right?

 

[dave___]

The root cause is lack of qualified/trained mechanical engineers really isn’t it. The salary Merlin offer is not competitive at all, people I went to uni with were being offered similar salary straight out of the gate at 21 back in 2007.

As for maintenance, waterproof coveralls and gloves exist. Rain doesn’t stop other industries.

The opening day vlogs should be scathing of all this next week.

 

[rob666]

Rain stopped the local residential gardening industry completely over winter.
Three manual worker health warnings this winter on the farmers forecast...too cold and damp for exertion over time.
Wet slippy surfaces can't be worked on safely.
I personally know two gardeners who have left the industry over winter because they can't cope with the weather.
I just dropped a couple of customers.

Try painting in the rain.
Reroofing.
Landscaping.
Construction groundworks.
Impossible wet winter trades.
Rain does stop other industries.

But no excuses for the towers transport systems.

And not in the slightest surprised.

 

[dave___]

Try painting in the rain.

Well at least they waited to paint the Corkscrew until a dry day. My kids could do a better first coat though…

 

[Hid]

Skyride has no excuse to be closef.

But Monorail and Runaway Mine Train are some of the oldest rides yet to receive a full overhaul both haven't really changed that much in terms of track.

 

[GaryH]

I will be very surprised if they don’t get monorail open for the weekend. Thousands of people walking through the car parks with kids and moving vehicles is just a recipe for disaster and chaos.

They would surely have to open the entrance by Galactica so people don’t have to walk the full distance?

Glad I’ve made no plans to go up this opening weekend. Sad times as I usually look forward to it but I have absolutely no enthusiasm at all or desire to spend the money on fuel, hotel, food, drink etc.

 

[dave___]

I will be very surprised if they don’t get monorail open for the weekend. Thousands of people walking through the car parks with kids and moving vehicles is just a recipe for disaster and chaos.

They would surely have to open the entrance by Galactica so people don’t have to walk the full distance?

Glad I’ve made no plans to go up this opening weekend. Sad times as I usually look forward to it but I have absolutely no enthusiasm at all or desire to spend the money on fuel, hotel, food, drink etc.

I've seen it halted/closed many a time and they don't open the Galactica gate outside of the "normal" stipulations. There's a walkway all the way to the entrance from the car parks so still technically low risk.

One wonders how it will impact RAP usage on the day if neither of the accessible transport options are available for use. Either way I forsee a huge amount of complaints

 

[RicketyCricket]

Skyride has no excuse to be closef.

But Monorail and Runaway Mine Train are some of the oldest rides yet to receive a full overhaul both haven't really changed that much in terms of track.

They should have taken action years ago with the monorail to prevent such situations.

If they're too skint to give it an overhaul why not invest in a couple of buses or land trains? Even if the monorail is running the capacity is not good enough now anyway.