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Alton Towers Live - Saturday 6th July 2013

They had lots of staff directing out cars, reading between the lines it was getting IN to the park that was a bigger issue than exiting.

I was parked as far back as you can get (splash) and it took 15 min to get out. Though there was a hold-up later as emergency services had to move through the resort.

To be honest though they need the bypass
 
Could I just ask, where would the bypass lead to and from (assuming one does ever get built)? I don't actually think I've ever seen or read anything about that? What I've heard has been from people on here and an article about the plan being turned down by Merlin because they think it would only get used six weeks a year.

:)
 
The relief road would lead from Denstone to the east of Alton Towers. Basically bypassing Alton village.

The bypass road has been a huge debate at Alton for years. Although Alton Towers refused to go ahead with it as they would have to fund the whole project (around £12 - £15 million back in 2009) and it would only come to great use for a couple of weeks in the summer months.

I personally think if the council offered to fund £x million at the time, Alton Towers may have considered it more closely. £15 million is quite a hefty sum of money, especially for just a road that will have no great benefit to the park, or the locals even (a lot of local businesses benefit from traffic going through the village).

Edit: I think the road is also on the list of things Alton Towers intend to review in future. However for the time being they have more important things to concentrate on.
 
From the LTDP plan though, the relief road is not seen as any kind of priority and so is not likely to be reconsidered until 2020 at the earliest...
 
I don't blame Towers for not considering a relief road any time in the immediate future. If the council aren't prepared to contribute a substantial sum of money towards it then Towers should just keep saying no. I can't think there is anywhere near enough direct benefit to Towers to justify them fully funding the road. Saying that, it probably would have helped at the weekend. If it is ever done though, it needs to be done alongside a major car parking re-structure.

:)
 
Isnt the issue not the funding so much, but that JCB wouldnt sell some of the land needed to build the bypass. If I recall, the parking charge was initially introduced to help fund the relief road (in fact I have a letter to that effect from Alton Towers a few years back).

I sent the letter to Alton because I was querying why they were still collecting the parking charge, and why it had gone up so much given that they were no longer building the relief road - i.e. where is the money going instead.

Basically the money now goes into the general pot!!
 
Lack of staff?!? Paths and roads were utterly flanked with staff from departments across the resort directing people. From my own experience, with the exception of confusion over ticket collection, the organisation of the event on behalf of Towers was very praiseworthy.

Most guests I saw seemed to be having a very good experience, and the organisation of the crowds and subsequently the cars was good.

Really really good day/evening and the location itself leant a healthy dose of its own magic (well observed by Rizzle Kicks :D)

Can't wait for the next one!
 
And the bad comments continue to flood in:

"I can only say im disgusted with this place. I paid a fortuned to get in and got on 5 rides the whole day kids very disapointed i would avoid going here."

“Needs to get its magic back”

“Absolute greed!”

“alton towers live 2013 .problems need addressing !”

“Queues queues and more queues”

“waste of time and money 7th July”

“For the love of God avoid weekends and school holidays”

“Miserable time, 1 ride in 4 hours!”

“Re-train of staff needed”

“Disappointed”

“Traffic Mayhem! 6th July 2013 'Live Concert'.”

“Traffic chaos! 8th July 2013”


General themes despite the fact it was the concert were the sale of fast track tickets, and the feeling of a two tier customer, where those who get the early and have the money can get on more rides than others. Also worthy of noting were complaints about the toilets, prices of food and drink (along with the queues) and also the early closing time of the park in the summer.

I think regardless of the concert, I dont think the park can cope, or the surrounding roads when its very busy.
 
It seems a fair few people are complaining about long queues for the rides. What were they expecting, the park to be dead for the day of a concert? People love to complain about pretty much anything they can do. Also as far as I am aware, queues were surprisingly short for a few hours at the very start of the day.

:)
 
I think more than anything that its highlighting the fact that Alton need more rides to soak up the queues, regardless if there is a concert on or not. One cant disagree that when you pay £46 to get in and only get on 4 rides during the day its a bit of a joke!
 
GaryH said:
I think more than anything that its highlighting the fact that Alton need more rides to soak up the queues, regardless if there is a concert on or not. One cant disagree that when you pay £46 to get in and only get on 4 rides during the day its a bit of a joke!
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Depends when they turned up, how they went about their day, did they see the concert...

Quite a few variables to assume that they turned up for 9am and then proceeded to ride 4 things for the day...
 
GaryH said:
One cant disagree that when you pay £46 to get in and only get on 4 rides during the day its a bit of a joke!
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that £11.50 per ride. they did have a bad day, but did they queue for the concert?
 
I don’t have a lot of sympathy for anyone complaining about queues at AT Live, it was obviously going to be extremely busy and people should have planned accordingly – either ensuring they got there early or opting to go on less popular rides to get more done - it was never going to be possible to get on everything in 3 1/2 hours on anything but the quietest of days.

Normally I’d be advocating longer opening hours, but that wasn’t really relevant on Saturday as most people wouldn’t be riding anything after 2pm anyway, so relatively few people would benefit from the park being open later. As long as the park is running everything to capacity and the staff are being efficient that’s all you can really ask for.
 
Ah, but don't forget, most non-enthusiasts don't think rationally when it comes to queues. They just think "I want to go on this ride NOW." It doesn't occur to them that the queues might be shorter on other rides, after all, if one attraction is busy, they all must be, right?
 
Queues were ridiculously short in some areas until around 12-1, so unless you decided to turn up really late i'm unsure how you could possibly have gone on very few rides. But either way, it's a concert, surely everyones ideas were "One or two rides, then concert". That's be logical.

Oh wells.
 
DiogoJ42 said:
Ah, but don't forget, most non-enthusiasts don't think rationally when it comes to queues. They just think "I want to go on this ride NOW." It doesn't occur to them that the queues might be shorter on other rides, after all, if one attraction is busy, they all must be, right?
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I guess, and it's something that enthusiasts rely on to get a far better ride count than everyone else by ensuring that (whenever possible) we are wherever the crowds aren't.

I can understand frustration at queueing to get in and out (even though it seems the park did pretty much all they could), but I still maintain that expecting to waltz onto all the rides in a couple of hours on what was always going to be one of the busiest day of the season (if not the busiest) is entirely unrealistic.
 
My ride count for the day of the concert was

Smiler x 2
Th13teen
Oblivion
Nemesis
Duel
Rapids

That includes the fact we had a long lunch break at wood-cutters and went to the arena at 3pm (as well as getting the tickets).

Think there where some issues, mainly the price of F&B in the arena and crowds around the arena before 2pm. I do wonder why people don't research their days out, when I go somewhere I look at what is involved and how to best my day. But Towers do need to review some issues on the day.
 
The park should have been open to concert guests only; that way the standard day ticket holders wouldn't have felt like they were missing out.

Food and Beverage prices aside, I enjoyed the event.

£4 for a tiny bottle of lager though... just terrible.
 
Alton have been charging people £4 for magnums and other ice lollies / ice creams in the queue for The Smiler. If someone offered you a magnum and a small bottle of lager for £8, you'd think they were pulling your leg. :p
 
AstroDan said:
£4 for a tiny bottle of lager though... just terrible.
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I know that it should not strictly have been given, but we were able to claim Annual Passholder discount (20%) on alcohol at the bar in Corner Coffee during the concert, making the prices more reasonable.
 
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