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Contacting Merlin re: 'Problems At Alton'

It's not really "infuriating" and I don't recall this happening very often either, actually. So what if someone's passionate about something enough to want to try and make a difference? Let them. It doesn't matter if they don't change anything so long as they feel satisfied that they haven't just put up and shut up. You can't complain about something but then not even attempt to do anything about it. It's as much as most people can do and if it makes them feel happy, why resent them for that?

The argument that people only complain once they've been to the park is incorrect too. People have been voicing their concerns throughout the year, not just recently. People that have become bored with the park have said so in their comments, just as those who aren't say they're fine with the park. Having a go at people for voicing negative opinions isn't the right thing to do as people have every right to share their concerns, just as others are allowed to voice more positive opinions. Being blind to problems fools nobody but those who ignore them.

Besides adding new rides, they've done very little to actually make the park look much different than before they took over. Nemesis is still rotting, Storybook Land looks just as bad as it did during DIC's reign, Air still needs a repaint, the Flume is still falling apart and... well I could go on and on but I think everyone already knows the countless problems. Entertainments has increased slightly but is still far, far off what it used to be, or even should be for a park as large as Alton Towers. Nothing that has been added so far has been as successful as it should have been and it's reflected in gate figures, feedback, etc...

Finally, 2014 is actually turning out to be rather poor year already and we haven't even got to the end of this season yet! We already know that the planned lodges have been scrapped and we're loosing one of the most beautiful, iconic and immersive areas that the park has ever had (the quality of the retheme will be about the same as when they turned Ug Land into Dark Forest).
 
BigAl said:
Finally, 2014 is actually turning out to be rather poor year already and we haven't even got to the end of this season yet! We already know that the planned lodges have been scrapped and we're loosing one of the most beautiful, iconic and immersive areas that the park has ever had (the quality of the retheme will be about the same as when they turned Ug Land into Dark Forest).
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The lodges are a shame but that wasn't Towers fault, they where told they where not going to get planning permission, they might come back with an alternative.

As for next years re-theme you can't bemoan the quality before it is actually built. I'm keeping an open mind about that.
 
It's still one less thing to look forward to, come next year. And as for rethemes, none of the other rethemes have been remotely interesting or of a high quality, so I've kind of given up on believing future rethemes will be any different.
 
I visited when Rita has just opened and the park was in a horrific state. Filthy, overcrowded, and the very few staff I encountered did not speak English. Was that before Merlin?

Does anyone remember the 'Pizza Hut' in X-Sector? That was absolutely horrible.

I do think things have improved a lot. But the park seems to have some grand ideas that there (apparently) isn't the money to follow through on, and instead we get questionable bodge-jobs like the repaints, the opening hours being cut back, and the shambles that is/continues to be The Smiler.

You need to get the basics right before you start spouting nonsense like 'Second to Disney'.
But I really thought things were getting better, I personally thought Mutiny Bay was the start of something special (by UK standards). My days at Alton have been considerably more enjoyable in the last few years (clean park, happier staff, very little ride downtime - maybe I've been lucky).

It's only THIS year that things seem to have taken a BIG turn for the worse (for me personally). But I did still have a good trip last weekend, even if I've now been signed off with concussion*

*probably unrelated.
 
The staff truly are one area of the park that are deserving of praise - they are generally all absolutely fantastic and really help to make people's days much better... That is at least one aspect of customer service that Merlin does understand.
 
It was actually advertised as Englands answer to Disney so its not rubbish. They had a diecast matchbox bus with it on the side fact.
And Big Al is right I dread to think of what they are going to do with the farm its one of the rare areas that was built to last and there gonna spoil it. And if the park is sold in the future its gonna take a lot of putting all these cheap re themes back to quality areas. And i'm sorry if people think entertainment is getting better by putting a few people in overalls as park keepers they are very easy pleased.
 
cybermen39 said:
It was actually advertised as Englands answer to Disney so its not rubbish. They had a diecast matchbox bus with it on the side fact.
And Big Al is right I dread to think of what they are going to do with the farm its one of the rare areas that was built to last and there gonna spoil it. And if the park is sold in the future its gonna take a lot of putting all these cheap re themes back to quality areas. And i'm sorry if people think entertainment is getting better by putting a few people in overalls as park keepers they are very easy pleased.
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It is rubbish though... Nobody is disputing the fact that the park have said it. Back in the historical days when they advertised themselves as such, they could probably get away with it. What people are referring to is that Merlin constantly say that they are '2nd to Disney' in terms of visitor numbers across the globe. This is what people are saying is rubbish - because you can't claim to be in that league unless you are going to offer a similar experience.

As for entertainments, it is getting better and people aren't easily pleased. You're comparing it to the days of Henry Hound and the ice shows and obviously it is not anywhere near at the levels of that but what people are saying is that entertainments are far, far better than they were say 4 or 5 years ago and it's the area of the park that is shining at the moment - something you would be hard pushed to deny.
 
While yes there have been improvements, for me, the follow things stand out which have deteriorated over the years:

1) Prices. Yes I have a MAP, but for the public, £46.50 to get in and £6 to park the car. Then when you are in, food and drinnk prices are expensive, especially now as there are no external food outlets on site. Burger Kitchen isnt that great, while Pizza and Pasta has now gone up to £9.75

2) Queues. Queues this year seem to have been worse than previous due to the aggressive selling of FastTrack, and for the first time we have seen tickets being sold IN the queue lines and at the entrance to the queue lines. Fast track queues on occasion have been up to half an hour

3) Nemesis. The beast is looking worse every year

4) Storybook Land. Have you seen the state on the bookworm?!!

5) The Towers ruins. Hardly open to the public this year, looking like they are being left to rot rather than money being invested in their renovation

6) The gardens. Litter everywhere, areas looking tatty, fountains not working

7) Log Flume. How it hasnt fallen apart yet is a wonder, the bit where you wind your way around the trees leaves you with bruises

8) Haunted Hollow. Left to rot

9) Duel. Lots of effects inside not working, poor repairs on dummies inside

10) Dark Forest - scaffolding everywhere with pathetic cheap plastic ivy themeing on the poles

11) The Smiler - hardly open and no communication with guests when its closed

12) Hotels - rooms in ATH looking dated, bathrooms are tatty, evening entertainment poor with just 1 singer singing the same songs each night, band only there on selected days in the summer

13) Opening hours - reduced

14) Greed - the magic has been replaced with stalls everywhere selling overpriced tack

15) Reduction in "events", with Scarefest now looking like it will be worse again this year than previous
 
I may have been negative previously in this thread but I feel I must offer a rebuttal to some of your points:

1) Price: Food and Drink is of a good quality and reasonable price for theme parks in general - particularly when compared to some other parks across Europe and the world. Generally the Merlin brands provide great quality and choice and the external companies were not really any cheaper since they charged premium prices as opposed to high street costs.

2) Queues: It's a hard one this as sometimes they have been awful with Fastrack this year but equally it has been better at times due to higher prices and a more limited number to be sold.

4) Storybook: It's rumoured that 2014 will see an upgrade or retheme of this area of the park. Although it shouldn't be allowed to get into disrepair, there is at least an upside to this.

9) Duel: Again it is hit and miss but many have reported having fantastic rides on this both this season and last season due to the fantastic work of the ride team.

10) DF: Rita's tunnel does look awful but at least they have tried to do something with it. Again, it is supposedly temporary and was only re-installed after the closed season fix was not deemed 'safe' enough to use.

12) Hotels: the Splash repaints look better in person than on here and work began on ATH with the Moon Voyager rooms. Whilst entertainment is worse, we have seen elements of good with the Moshi stuff at half term and the new shows at Easter that used the conference centre. I would say that the hotels are one area of the resort that sees regular upkeep and investment.

14) Greed: Yes there are a lot of stalls and HB Leisure games but I'm not entirely sure that you could say that magic has been swapped for greed.

Just my opinions mind you and most of the other things I haven't replied to, as I generally agree with the, ;)
 
I'm sorry but if you think a tiny little pirate show that was introduced over the last 3 to 4 years pushed into a corner and the od person roaming about is an improvement then the least said the better. And as for hoping to get back to the days when shows were created by people who worked for the bbc and top theatres I have lost that hope for a long time. Apart from the Mutany Bay retheme every other new re vamped area is done to a very low standard and has been proved it looks awful.
Its just our point of view.
 
It is an improvement and that is categorical fact. What we have now is an improvement on what their was semi-recently (which was nothing at all). I'm not saying its an improvement on the late 80s or early 90s or anything ridiculous like that but I'm saying that what we have now from entertainments is a drastic improvement on what there was 3 or 4 years so. Fact.
 
At 21 that's your view but a few wannabe actors is not an improvement its an insult to the paying guest. I'm leaving it here but in time you will see that todays offerings are very poor.
 
cybermen39 said:
At 21 that's your view but a few wannabe actors is not an improvement its an insult to the paying guest. I'm leaving it here but in time you will see that todays offerings are very poor.
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ONE pirate show and a FEW actors roaming the park are a gigantic improvement over what we had before which was the grand total of absolutely ZERO :)
 
cybermen39 said:
At 21 that's your view but a few wannabe actors is not an improvement its an insult to the paying guest. I'm leaving it here but in time you will see that todays offerings are very poor.
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Im afraid you don't understand what I am saying at all... I am not saying that we have incredible entertainment offerings or that what we have is of an amazing standard. I know it's not and I know it is nowhere near what the park had in the past. What I am trying to get across is that we have more now than we did a few years ago and therefore that marks an improvement, no matter whether people think it is poor quality it is still an improvement and equally entertainments is one area of the park that is gradually growing and improving.

I'm not comparing on park entertainment to the era that you spent working there. I'm comparing it to, say' 5 years ago.
 
My thoughts on the entertainment on park.

A few of years ago there was zero. then they started a small ents team, with what look like a budget so small, all their prop came from a pound shop.

Now they have push and grown a bit, so they have Sir Englands ship, the park keepers van. and a nice little pirates show (that is in my eyes still under funded).

I would love to see the golden years of park entertainment back tomorrow, but alas this will not happen so quickly. The Ent team do a great job within the restrictions they have.

The more high profile they get on social media, the more the park bosses will see the value of good on park ents has on marketing the park via these mediums.
 
Entertainments do well with their budgets.

Said budget should be quadrupled, however!

:)

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
 
My biggest gripe at the moment is ERT, or lack of it (although with the changed line-up I don't think I'll be bothering with it anymore anyway!)

They are constantly referring to it on their FB page, although not once this season has anyone checked my pass before 10am. A member of staff even told us that management don't care about ERT anymore, which is why no-one is enforcing it.

Also, it's good that it's summer again, as The Secret Garden menu is once again relevant! (Whatever happened to the slightly more interesting menu that had snails on offer??!) I've had an excellent meal at Emperor's Grill but that was about 2 years ago and I haven't seen the place open since, oh wait, hang on a minute, yes I have, when we were told at reception earlier in the season that it wasn't open so ate at Flambos (which was, incidentally, a dreadful meal), and then when we went to Dragon Bar for a drink, lo and behold there was a very open Emperor's Grill. Grrrrrr.

Anyhoo...rant over. For now!
 
I don't think ents is bad at all, the pirate show isn't bad this year and the roaming actors are fantastic, certainly you could compare Pirate Show with the Waterloo show at Europa. All the roaming actors at Towers are engaging and the new band is great fun.

What ents isn't at the moment is early 90's glory, they don't have the budget or the venue at the moment to do anything on a large scale. But don't get at the guys who work in the department as they are always entertaining doing the best they can with the stuff they have.

Same with ride staff, they are nearly all absolutely fantastic.

Agree with a lot of GaryH list though
 
I guess when I think of entertainment I recall years gone by where there was the parade, the different shows in the big tent, such as the Ice Show amongst others which were excellent. However, times have changed, people dont want to waste the limited time they have sat in a tent watching a show, or watching henry hound. I think the pirate show and the odd character in the park now works well, loved the Hip Hop grannies last year the most :)

I think the hotels need more in the way of entertainment though in the evenings particularly in the summer at peak times. People mentioning the drag queens of past, yeah but again I think times have moved on. Maybe in Splash they should have a comedian and in ATH the band? I always find Splash a really dull boring bar area in the evenings compared to ATH.
 
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