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Adventure Island: General Discussion
Themeparksandy1981
TS Member
Was that the same ride that ended up at Butlins Minehead?
Skyscraper
TS Member
Bump!
I'm going for the first tiime on Thursday, does anyone know if you can purchase individual ticketson-park for the rides instead of getting a wristband, and if so how much?
May only be able to do a couple of rides, so I'm prioritising Rage.
I'm going for the first tiime on Thursday, does anyone know if you can purchase individual ticketson-park for the rides instead of getting a wristband, and if so how much?
May only be able to do a couple of rides, so I'm prioritising Rage.
John_P
TS Member
https://adventureisland.co.uk/prices/
From the website it looks to be wristband only (£20 when booked in advance).
I'd definitely recommend doing Spooksville and Adventureville. Both filled with character.
If you like 'unusual' and overly intense flat rides make sure to do Time Machine and Dragons Claw. It's like they found farming equipment and converted them into rides.
Axis is really good as well.
I've visited twice and found the queues to move pretty quickly, and the ride ops are the best in the country for their enthusiasm.
From the website it looks to be wristband only (£20 when booked in advance).
I'd definitely recommend doing Spooksville and Adventureville. Both filled with character.
If you like 'unusual' and overly intense flat rides make sure to do Time Machine and Dragons Claw. It's like they found farming equipment and converted them into rides.
Axis is really good as well.
I've visited twice and found the queues to move pretty quickly, and the ride ops are the best in the country for their enthusiasm.
pluk
TS Member
The opening line on that page is 'you can pay for individual rides with our pay-n-play scheme'. You always have been able to, but I've not tried to this year so am not certain. Individual rides I think are about £3.50, so you only need to do a few before the wristband is a better option.
Burbs
TS Team
You can indeed. I believe tokens are £2.50 each (they were in June anyway), and every ride only costs 1 token.
pluk
TS Member
I'm not saying you didn't have a crap time of it, but I think you were unlucky and what you found is not a typical representation of the place. Trip Advisor ratings make this the 25th best amusement park in the world. They aren't achieving that on ride hardware!
D4n
TS Member
Having visited Adventure Island twice (both times in the last couple of years) I must echo that I found the staff to be extremely friendly and dispatches very quick by UK standards.
I suspect you were just unlucky.
I think most rides are 2 tokens by the way, and are much more expensive than you would think.
an annual pass to this place is just £50 and gives you 20% off food drinks shops and arcade. And decent discounts on dogems/go karts
if your in the area wristbands are half price after 6pm (sometimes earlier it depends on park close) normally the park has quite late closes over the summer
an annual pass to this place is just £50 and gives you 20% off food drinks shops and arcade. And decent discounts on dogems/go karts
if your in the area wristbands are half price after 6pm (sometimes earlier it depends on park close) normally the park has quite late closes over the summer
Burbs
TS Team
It was certainly only 1 token per ride when I visited in June.
Skyscraper
TS Member
Thanks guys, I went today and ride tickets were indeed £2.50 each and one per ride. Rode Rage twice and it was awesome, bit rough as expected but that was tolerable. Operations on it were fantastic, 2 out of 3 cars in operation and I waited less than 5 minutes both times.
IDB
TS Member
It's all part of the customer journey. The Aldi checkout staff by me always ask "got any plans for the weekend" I wouldn't usually mind, but I do my shopping on a Monday evening.
Rick
TS Member
It should be, but often it's not. On my last Pleasure Beach trip we saw the whole gamut, from crowd participation with the train driver and a long chat with the guy loading @shakey and I on Steeple right to the other end of the spectrum where staff barely acknowledged you, if at all. The former would be standard at some parks, the latter the standard at others.
I am sure @Funcone could discuss this at length.
Thanks Rick. There generally is a trade off between efficiency and interaction, and not everyone will agree with what the sweet spot is, although Trip Advisor suggests Adventure Island are generally getting it right. I haven’t been to Adventure Island for a few years, but last time I want there was a row of staff in front of the ticket kiosks. As people bought their wristbands all children were measured and given a wristband with their height on it. Merlin has a wristband system, but you have to go to Guest Services, and most guests don’t use it. Because the staff at Adventure Island weren’t normally having to measure kids at the rides, it did speed things up. When a kid’s too short, it generally leads to hold ups.
There are lots of practical ways to reduce queuing, but some parks do rely heavily on putting the staff under pressure to work quicker, because that’s the cheapest option. It’s not necessarily a very effective one, though.
Like most things, it is possible to go too far in either direction. There is a problem that it’s easier to measure throughputs than friendliness, although there’s also the issue that a lot of throughputs are self reported and aren’t necessarily very accurate. Although in ALDI’s case the till might well measure the number of items that are being scanned. There can also be a tradeoff between the number of dispatches and the number of seats filled.
If the managers aren’t all on the same page, then you can have different managers telling the frontline staff to do different things, with contradictory messages. It’s very demoralising for the staff if one manager tells them to do something, and the next manager tells them not to do it. Another thing that can happen, is the company message keeps on changing. Whilst it might make sense to focus more on efficiency during holidays and more on interaction when the park’s quiet, I’ve worked for companies where the priorities keep on shifting. There’ll be a significant accident, so safety becomes the top priority. There’ll be lots of complaints about grumpy staff, so suddenly friendliness is the priority. There’ll be lots of complaints about the queues, and then the priority shifts again. Successful parks find a way of balancing the three without having to keep on changing what they want.
There’s also different types of interaction, and at some parks the managers don’t seem to know what the staff should be doing. A classic example is the managers vaguely tell all the frontline staff to tell lots of jokes, without thinking about what kind of jokes they should be telling. Whenever there’s a managers’ meeting about what good customer service looks like, ‘being funny’ normally comes up pretty quickly. But it’s one thing to say that customers like it when staff are funny, but it’s another thing to get the staff being funny.
At Adventure they seem to like the staff to dance while the rides are running, and going by Trip Advisor, most of the guests enjoy it. I suspect Merlin wouldn’t allow that. If the staff were dancing while the ride was running, they’d feel the operator couldn’t be watching it properly. But Adventure Island might argue that it helps to keep the staff awake and alert if they’re dancing. You could argue it both ways.
Adventure Island does generally get good feedback about their staff. The fact that there aren’t generally long queues helps. It means they aren’t under the same pressure with the throughputs, and although happier staff make happier guests, the reverse is also true. Being free to enter also removes some sources of complaints, for example from pregnant guests being charged full price when they can’t go on everything.
Adventure Island has a policy of promoting from within, which has its pros and cons, but staff have more of an incentive to work hard, compared to parks where a lot of the management get bought in from outside the company. I think they also have quite a stable management team, whereas Merlin like to shuffle managers around their attractions. When the management change frequently, it can bring in new ideas, but new managers can also want to make their mark and change things that don’t need changing. Adventure Island also have a bonus scheme where staff get paid more for interacting ‘well’ with the guests.
There are lots of practical ways to reduce queuing, but some parks do rely heavily on putting the staff under pressure to work quicker, because that’s the cheapest option. It’s not necessarily a very effective one, though.
Like most things, it is possible to go too far in either direction. There is a problem that it’s easier to measure throughputs than friendliness, although there’s also the issue that a lot of throughputs are self reported and aren’t necessarily very accurate. Although in ALDI’s case the till might well measure the number of items that are being scanned. There can also be a tradeoff between the number of dispatches and the number of seats filled.
If the managers aren’t all on the same page, then you can have different managers telling the frontline staff to do different things, with contradictory messages. It’s very demoralising for the staff if one manager tells them to do something, and the next manager tells them not to do it. Another thing that can happen, is the company message keeps on changing. Whilst it might make sense to focus more on efficiency during holidays and more on interaction when the park’s quiet, I’ve worked for companies where the priorities keep on shifting. There’ll be a significant accident, so safety becomes the top priority. There’ll be lots of complaints about grumpy staff, so suddenly friendliness is the priority. There’ll be lots of complaints about the queues, and then the priority shifts again. Successful parks find a way of balancing the three without having to keep on changing what they want.
There’s also different types of interaction, and at some parks the managers don’t seem to know what the staff should be doing. A classic example is the managers vaguely tell all the frontline staff to tell lots of jokes, without thinking about what kind of jokes they should be telling. Whenever there’s a managers’ meeting about what good customer service looks like, ‘being funny’ normally comes up pretty quickly. But it’s one thing to say that customers like it when staff are funny, but it’s another thing to get the staff being funny.
At Adventure they seem to like the staff to dance while the rides are running, and going by Trip Advisor, most of the guests enjoy it. I suspect Merlin wouldn’t allow that. If the staff were dancing while the ride was running, they’d feel the operator couldn’t be watching it properly. But Adventure Island might argue that it helps to keep the staff awake and alert if they’re dancing. You could argue it both ways.
Adventure Island does generally get good feedback about their staff. The fact that there aren’t generally long queues helps. It means they aren’t under the same pressure with the throughputs, and although happier staff make happier guests, the reverse is also true. Being free to enter also removes some sources of complaints, for example from pregnant guests being charged full price when they can’t go on everything.
Adventure Island has a policy of promoting from within, which has its pros and cons, but staff have more of an incentive to work hard, compared to parks where a lot of the management get bought in from outside the company. I think they also have quite a stable management team, whereas Merlin like to shuffle managers around their attractions. When the management change frequently, it can bring in new ideas, but new managers can also want to make their mark and change things that don’t need changing. Adventure Island also have a bonus scheme where staff get paid more for interacting ‘well’ with the guests.
Skyscraper
TS Member
Bump!
The Claw is recieving a £250K refurbishment and re-theme after 21 years of operation!
https://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/19621081.adventure-island-ride-undergoing-250k-revamp-21-years/
The Claw is recieving a £250K refurbishment and re-theme after 21 years of operation!
https://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/19621081.adventure-island-ride-undergoing-250k-revamp-21-years/
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