I think they need to go towards an EP-style of opening hours; under promise and over deliver, that helps more subconsciously with guests thinking they've got more than they bargained for, rather than over promising and under delivering like they are now, which leads people to feel cheated out of what they've paid for.
Good point, but I thought that the introduction of last season’s ‘Earliest ride closing time’ was based on the ‘under promise and over deliver’ principle, in that the rides would never close before the parks stated ERCT, but that on a busy day they may extend those hours. To my knowledge they didn’t actually extend the hours last season. Please correct me if you were there and the park decided to stay open for another hour or two as the park was busy and they were feeling generous, but I would be very surprised if this was the case.
The new hours look fine, I think the majority of schools are back next week, so they make sense.
This is true, but school holiday dates for each area are made public a long time in advance so somebody at BPB should be noting these and setting the opening hours accordingly. Altering them at a few days notice is not great really.
The whole thing is very ambiguous: they have an ‘earliest closing time’ but not a ‘latest closing time’, the wording makes it appear that they may extend their opening hours but it seems that they never choose to do that, they can bring forward this ‘earliest closing time’ at the drop of a hat without giving reason it would seem, and it appears going forward that visitors may be cheated out of an hour or two at random on the parks whim.
I wish it could go back to the simplicity of before the ‘earliest close time’ of 2017 when it was just ‘Open at 10, close at 6’ for example, and everyone knew where they stood. It’s not asking a lot really. As someone pointed out earlier I think, such tactics will result in lost revenue for the park, in that short notice changes to the hours may make some guests decide not to attend at all, and also those just thinking of going for a few hours in the afternoon think twice. I know they make more money on park entry from people who pay on the day / online than season pass holders, but even we throw money at the park through food, merch, etc. Which we aren’t doing if we’re not there.