TheMan said:I'd postponed my trip till Monday, not even convinced that is feasible right now either.
Gosh, I give them stick at times (well actually, more Merlin to be fair), but they are really up against it right now.
This has to be the most tumultuous 12 months I can remember for Alton Towers, with Merlin squeezing them last year, The Smiler, and the weather again.
Merlin should have supported the park better imo, in terms of throwing every man hour they can find at The Smiler to get it as close to opening as possible. I still cannot understand why they seemingly haven't.
The whole lot, still doesn't ring true to me - now another 3 days, maybe more, lost due to weather.
I just hope Merlin are being supportive here, and juggling any targets around now sensibly, so that Towers are not working against the tide the whole season again. However, we found last year how idiotic they can be - and they are at times, really really dense.
mark9 said:TheMan said:I'd postponed my trip till Monday, not even convinced that is feasible right now either.
Gosh, I give them stick at times (well actually, more Merlin to be fair), but they are really up against it right now.
This has to be the most tumultuous 12 months I can remember for Alton Towers, with Merlin squeezing them last year, The Smiler, and the weather again.
Merlin should have supported the park better imo, in terms of throwing every man hour they can find at The Smiler to get it as close to opening as possible. I still cannot understand why they seemingly haven't.
The whole lot, still doesn't ring true to me - now another 3 days, maybe more, lost due to weather.
I just hope Merlin are being supportive here, and juggling any targets around now sensibly, so that Towers are not working against the tide the whole season again. However, we found last year how idiotic they can be - and they are at times, really really dense.
I'm amazed that you managed to turn this into a post against Merlin management.
mark9 said:TheMan said:I'd postponed my trip till Monday, not even convinced that is feasible right now either.
Gosh, I give them stick at times (well actually, more Merlin to be fair), but they are really up against it right now.
This has to be the most tumultuous 12 months I can remember for Alton Towers, with Merlin squeezing them last year, The Smiler, and the weather again.
Merlin should have supported the park better imo, in terms of throwing every man hour they can find at The Smiler to get it as close to opening as possible. I still cannot understand why they seemingly haven't.
The whole lot, still doesn't ring true to me - now another 3 days, maybe more, lost due to weather.
I just hope Merlin are being supportive here, and juggling any targets around now sensibly, so that Towers are not working against the tide the whole season again. However, we found last year how idiotic they can be - and they are at times, really really dense.
I'm amazed that you managed to turn this into a post against Merlin management.
TheMan said:If you are going to quote one of my posts pretty much out of context, never expect it to go vigorously unchallenged.
Rob said:TheMan said:If you are going to quote one of my posts pretty much out of context, never expect it to go vigorously unchallenged.
Out of interest, how did he quote the post out of context? He quoted your full post in the topic it was posted in?
Anyway, I'm not going to go on as it's way way off topic. To get on topic, I shall be at Towers tomorrow. Rather looking forward to seeing what I hope to be a relatively snow covered park, it does always look so pretty in the snow. It will no doubt be a challenging day for them tomorrow though.
thefatone said:I imagine the park will take full use of this to extend their marketing next year to persuade more people to visit, seeing as it'll only be open half the season or so.
TheMan said:mark9 said:TheMan said:I'd postponed my trip till Monday, not even convinced that is feasible right now either.
Gosh, I give them stick at times (well actually, more Merlin to be fair), but they are really up against it right now.
This has to be the most tumultuous 12 months I can remember for Alton Towers, with Merlin squeezing them last year, The Smiler, and the weather again.
Merlin should have supported the park better imo, in terms of throwing every man hour they can find at The Smiler to get it as close to opening as possible. I still cannot understand why they seemingly haven't.
The whole lot, still doesn't ring true to me - now another 3 days, maybe more, lost due to weather.
I just hope Merlin are being supportive here, and juggling any targets around now sensibly, so that Towers are not working against the tide the whole season again. However, we found last year how idiotic they can be - and they are at times, really really dense.
I'm amazed that you managed to turn this into a post against Merlin management.
Sorry you must have slept through 2012
Here's a wake up call for you, it's 2013, they are planning a stock flotation, they are in charge of delivering the budgets, and can't seem to look further than the end of their noses at times.
Much of this has nothing to do with Towers management, and has to come from somewhere, ergo, their bosses, who are??
Oh yeah, Merlin.
Goodness me. Would you rather I bought a Merlin prayer mat or something? I can sell you one if you like?
Did you forget they are owned by venture capitalists also? I've been visiting these parks for over 2 decades and seen pretty much all the owners, good and bad, Merlin are not the worst by any means - that pretty much goes to DIC - but they make some terrible decisions.
Burger Kitchen I found to be way overpriced, with awful portions, and not particularly nice food - what would you rather I did, blamed Towers? Not express an opinion? Pretend it was Heston standard? Be grateful for what I was given?
Get real. Merlin are absolute numpties sometimes.
And yeah £350m profit - great. Just what shareholders etc want...
If you are going to quote one of my posts pretty much out of context, never expect it to go vigorously unchallenged.
No. I'm just saying due to it not being open the full season, with a couple of months and school holidays lost, would give potential for them to advertise it more next year almost as new.LiamC said:thefatone said:I imagine the park will take full use of this to extend their marketing next year to persuade more people to visit, seeing as it'll only be open half the season or so.
I don't understand this. Are you saying they're only going to be open for half the season this season after only three days closed due to bad weather? #confused
thefatone said:No. I'm just saying due to it not being open the full season, with a couple of months and school holidays lost, would give potential for them to advertise it more next year almost as new.LiamC said:thefatone said:I imagine the park will take full use of this to extend their marketing next year to persuade more people to visit, seeing as it'll only be open half the season or so.
I don't understand this. Are you saying they're only going to be open for half the season this season after only three days closed due to bad weather? #confused
mark9 said:TheMan said:mark9 said:TheMan said:I'd postponed my trip till Monday, not even convinced that is feasible right now either.
Gosh, I give them stick at times (well actually, more Merlin to be fair), but they are really up against it right now.
This has to be the most tumultuous 12 months I can remember for Alton Towers, with Merlin squeezing them last year, The Smiler, and the weather again.
Merlin should have supported the park better imo, in terms of throwing every man hour they can find at The Smiler to get it as close to opening as possible. I still cannot understand why they seemingly haven't.
The whole lot, still doesn't ring true to me - now another 3 days, maybe more, lost due to weather.
I just hope Merlin are being supportive here, and juggling any targets around now sensibly, so that Towers are not working against the tide the whole season again. However, we found last year how idiotic they can be - and they are at times, really really dense.
I'm amazed that you managed to turn this into a post against Merlin management.
Sorry you must have slept through 2012
Here's a wake up call for you, it's 2013, they are planning a stock flotation, they are in charge of delivering the budgets, and can't seem to look further than the end of their noses at times.
Much of this has nothing to do with Towers management, and has to come from somewhere, ergo, their bosses, who are??
Oh yeah, Merlin.
Goodness me. Would you rather I bought a Merlin prayer mat or something? I can sell you one if you like?
Did you forget they are owned by venture capitalists also? I've been visiting these parks for over 2 decades and seen pretty much all the owners, good and bad, Merlin are not the worst by any means - that pretty much goes to DIC - but they make some terrible decisions.
Burger Kitchen I found to be way overpriced, with awful portions, and not particularly nice food - what would you rather I did, blamed Towers? Not express an opinion? Pretend it was Heston standard? Be grateful for what I was given?
Get real. Merlin are absolute numpties sometimes.
And yeah £350m profit - great. Just what shareholders etc want...
If you are going to quote one of my posts pretty much out of context, never expect it to go vigorously unchallenged.
Thats all very well. Your post started by understanding that Alton Towers had to close because the snow was just to heavy for it to be safe to run the rides and open. Fair enough. Your post then decided to focus on just how unpredictable the last 12 months has been for Towers which has been unprecedented, particularly for Smiler construction.
Then suddenly whoosh, attack Merlin upper management for not supporting the park for getting Smiler built faster. Literally out of nowhere, Merlin gets a nice little attack because things would probably be so much better in John Broomes days.
Even better you jump to conclusions that I pray to Merlin, when I have never defended Merlin in any post I've made. It would seem like you are so eager to put the boot in that you start to jump to conclusions. Just because I don't attack them remorselessly in every post I make, doesn't mean I am on my knees,with my keyboard waiting to defend them at every turn. You're post then tangents onto Merlin Bosses (maybe they made it snow to annoy you?) and then Burger Kitchen (I never said anything about it and I don't understand why its relevant here).
I don't really care if you've been visiting for two decades or for two days and I'm sure you could run the park to perfection. My point really is that I can't really forget they are owned by venture capitalists but I can understand why the management at Alton closed the park for the last three days. Which is ultimately what this topic is about.
TheMan said:Er, the points I made were very valid initial posts - you chose to make it out to be some kind of anti merlin rant, when in actual fact it is "I hope they don't do what they did last year and actively support the park through this period".
That is entirely relevant, factual, and entirely appropriate to bring into a thread that will inevitably contain discussion about how this will affect the park over all.
You got me on one thing big boy, I am pro Alton Towers, not Merlin.
Funny that, as I joined an Alton Towers site - who'd have guessed it eh?
Whilst you decided to make a big deal of be daring to bring Merlin's previous record into this debate, to ensure Alton Towers doesn't suffer, I was on the Chessington one appealing for some calm and trust that Merlin will do right by the park in the long run, and that we should support the park etc to ensure that happens...
Building is not rocket science, we've been doing it rather spectacularly for 10's of thousands of years. Building generally = man hours (Machu Picchu, Great Pyramid, Gobekli Tepe - before anyone says NO IT ISN'T lol!!). Not hard to fathom out, and both times I went, it was hardly a hive of activity I'd have expected. I do not blame the park for that. They are unlikely to be in control of it. However, someone is - gosh, I wonder who that is?
Perhaps you will be happier if I replace Merlin's name with something else? Tomato maybe? Will that be less offensive to you?
As for the examples, that is what usually happens when you are backing up a point in a considered and evidential manner, rather than just saying "I dunno why people go on about Merlin blah blah".
You asked, I answered, you don't like it? Tough.
mark9 said:The thing is the Man, we are on the same side here. We want the parks to look their greatest at all times, brilliant customer service, great food, rides open on time.