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Christmas 2021: Christmas Markets

Matt.GC said:
Expensive. Very expensive.
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Are they any more expensive than the already expensive big Christmas markets though?
I feel that needs to be the price point, I may be going to Altons Christmas Market instead of Birmingham's Christmas Market not instead of Greggs.
 
James said:
RE: Entertainment - There's some free entertainment around the market/Towers Street area and a band stand that will presumably be used once the snowy weather has cleared. So there is some form of entertainment available for those who are just visiting for the market. I think having Fountain Square for ticket holders only is fair.

The ticket options is a little confusing and the layout/checkpoints on the park could be adjusted/changed a little (giving free ticket holders access to the Towers would be great), however it is the first year Alton Towers has tried anything like this so I wouldn't criticise too much, they will no doubt work on feedback received this year and adjust the event in future years. This year is very much an experiment.
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My initial gripe with this in my post above was the way the event has been laid out and the fact that "free" ticket holders can't go further than Towers Street area but as you and others has pointed out that is reasonable given the pricing structure.

My point now is that nowhere on the Festive Day Out ticket does it mention extra/exclusive entertainment - all it says is what rides you get. I'm sure I won't be the only one who didn't buy this extra ticket because I (and my group) don't want to go on the rides. But if they'd stated there was extra entertainment and the ability to walk around a lot more, then we'd have probably paid the extra. I think they've missed a trick there.

But as you say, it is their first year and like Oktoberfest in 2020, it was an experiment and hopefully it'll be improved for next year, just like Oktoberfest was this year.
 
Steve74 said:
My point now is that nowhere on the Festive Day Out ticket does it mention extra/exclusive entertainment - all it says is what rides you get.
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Yep on the page about Christmas it does mention "Plus enjoy a host of seasonal entertainment, meet cheery characters and eat delicious food!" in the opening block of text, but then doesn't make it clear further down which entertainment is ticketed, just that CBeebies characters are part of the festive day out and there is live music at the market.
As you say the web page would be improved just by add "also don't miss our fabulous festive live shows in fountain square" to the festive day out information.
 
jon81uk said:
Yep on the page about Christmas it does mention "Plus enjoy a host of seasonal entertainment, meet cheery characters and eat delicious food!" in the opening block of text, but then doesn't make it clear further down which entertainment is ticketed, just that CBeebies characters are part of the festive day out and there is live music at the market.
As you say the web page would be improved just by add "also don't miss our fabulous festive live shows in fountain square" to the festive day out information.
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Exactly, and that one line addition could've got them extra ticket sales! They probably would've got about an extra £50 from my group alone!
 
evilcod said:
Are they any more expensive than the already expensive big Christmas markets though?
I feel that needs to be the price point, I may be going to Altons Christmas Market instead of Birmingham's Christmas Market not instead of Greggs.
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I couldn't care less if they were expensive, I was expecting it. I was answering someone else's question
 
Here's the finale of Lightopia - the water projection on the lake (in a spoiler in case you don't want to spoil it for yourself!) Filmed on Sunday apparently so not sure if this is the full effect or cut down because of the weather.
Not seen all of the video but it does look fantastic!

 
I love this advert for the Christmas event

I think it does a good job showing what's on offer (although it could do with more on shows) and the real snow just adds to the magic. I also love how well the music goes with the lightopia displays which are just beautiful!
 
For those that have bought wristbands for the rides, how busy have they been? I'm considering a visit with the kids on the 18th, 19th or 20th December, but wasn't sure what we would be up against!
 
evilcod said:
Are they any more expensive than the already expensive big Christmas markets though?
I feel that needs to be the price point, I may be going to Altons Christmas Market instead of Birmingham's Christmas Market not instead of Greggs.
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Yes.

Bratwurst in Birmingham is £5 or £6 this year depends on vendor. Regular hog roast the same.

Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk
 
Thameslink Rail said:
Would this imply that attendance is not as high as they were expecting?
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I would expect that yes, Lightopia in particular probably isn't as popular as they expected.

I suppose part of the issue is that once you've done the 45-60minute walk through Lightopia and looked round the stalls there isn't much else to do in the area. Those with younger children might want to do rides, but thats of less interest to older familes and adults. But there isn't a huge amount else in the Alton area to make it worth travelling more than an hour to get to the park.
 
jon81uk said:
I would expect that yes, Lightopia in particular probably isn't as popular as they expected.

I suppose part of the issue is that once you've done the 45-60minute walk through Lightopia and looked round the stalls there isn't much else to do in the area. Those with younger children might want to do rides, but thats of less interest to older familes and adults. But there isn't a huge amount else in the Alton area to make it worth travelling more than an hour to get to the park.
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I wouldn't say it isn't as popular as expected per se because this reduction is only for passholders, not the general public - they're still priced at £20. So this reduction only has the potential to bring in more passholders - maybe they've seen the amount of passholders pre-registered is low. I'm also wondering if they've reduced it because of pressure from people complaining that they're getting next to nothing extra in this event if you're a passholder.
 
Thameslink Rail said:
Would this imply that attendance is not as high as they were expecting?
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I suspect they may well be reacting to a backlash from how they've been treating passholders this festive season. If you offer an annual pass you really have to offer appropriate year-round benefits.

It's rather baffling that they are still not offering Festive Days Out as part of the annual pass, I'm honestly not sure how they justify charging passholders now for rides that would have been include three weeks ago and will be included again in March.
 
Squiggs said:
I suspect they may well be reacting to a backlash from how they've been treating passholders this festive season. If you offer an annual pass you really have to offer appropriate year-round benefits.

It's rather baffling that they are still not offering Festive Days Out as part of the annual pass, I'm honestly not sure how they justify charging passholders now for rides that would have been include three weeks ago and will be included again in March.
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The rides have previously only been for those going to the Santa Sleepover events though so the Christmas offering has never been included in a pass really. Due to the more limited capacity it does make sense to me not to open to all passholders.
 
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