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Cuts 2015: How the consistency of the product is being eroded.

There are many other ways to make the park more efficient other than cutting things. I can understand some staggered opening, like opening water rides a little later, but 2 hours is over the top. Maybe open the back of the park 30 minutes later, but not one hour. They are basically forcing you to go one way around the park, and that's only going to increase the queue times.

One thing i can't understand is is opening sub terra 3 hours later than when that area opens, surely they can come up with something else. I know it not hugely popular, but maybe they could have times like have a showing every 20 minutes, like with Ice Age.
 
Merlin is better than DIC Tussauds for sure but I don't compare Towers to its past self, I compare it to other theme parks. It is currently not comparing well.

And as for the comment about enthusiasts being pandered by past management. I have visited Towers since the late 80's but never as part of an enthusiast group until after Merlin took over. I still think the drive to have a quality product has diminished.

And no one thinks Merlin have been stingy at funding projects that bring in money, they just seem disinclined to work on older rides and theming, so the park seems to slowly rot.
 
This makes me really sad. SRQ on Nemesis in particular was so darn useful as people I usually visit with don't like big rides. I could normally do a couple of rides in 10-15 mins then we would be on our way. I wouldn't want to make them wait the full main queue time just for me. I guess the alternative is fastrack but after paying an unreal amount to just park and get through the gates there's little money left for such things. :(
 
I worked out the financial cost of having a Single Rider Queue today.

According to Merlin Careers ride hosts get minimum wage at £6.50 an hour. Today the park was open 10-5, lets add an extra hour on for that staff member to do other duties at the start / end of a day. So thats 8 hours working time (if we dont remove a break)

8hours x £6.50 = £52.

£52!

£52!!

That is all it costs to have a staff member stood at a single rider queue. Lets bare in mind it costs £50 entry to the park. For the price of 1 guests coming through the gates Towers cant find afford to staff a single rider queue. Idiots.
 
Single rider queues don't even need extra staff, they are managed by the person at the merge point.
 
I don't think there's ever been an issue with managers pandering to enthusiasts.

Some parks have more time for enthusiasts than others. Some have official fan clubs, such as Europa Park and Disney’s (admittedly expensive) D23 Club and Blackpool Pleasure used to run the 235 Club. Some parks have featured museums (such as Europa Park and Dollywood) which are clearly aimed at the more intense enthusiast. As an enthusiast I don’t necessarily expect these things, but it’s certainly nice when they’re there. Nonetheless, I do think theme parks should make some time for the enthusiasts. Not out of a moral obligation, but it just makes good business sense.

Having said that, I think Alton Towers has made a reasonable amount of time for the fans. In the early years of Merlin they ran the Customer Council which seemed to be very popular. More recently they did open some of the archives as part of their Christmas Market, and Nick Varney wrote a fairly lengthy letter to Towers Street in response to a petition. There have also been some events clearly designed with the enthusiasts in mind, for example around Corkscrew leaving. More recently they’re doing something for Nemesis’ 21st. John Wardley has always had a lot of time for enthusiasts and Alton Towers have made arrangement for enthusiasts to do special filming, although with the Internet the demand for that kind of thing has shot up making it harder to get their time.

You could argue that John Wardley retiring has left a vacuum, and to some people it might feel like the enthusiasts are less connected with the park than they have been in the past. This is one of the ways that John Wardley’s retirement will be a loss, and hopefully over time the void will be filled. John Wardley’s relationship with the enthusiast community grow over several decades, and it will be a while before anyone else can have the same role, but maybe in time. You could also argue that Alton Towers aren’t famous for embracing the enthusiasts in the same way that some independent parks have done, such as Oakwood when it was family run, or Holiday World and Knoebels. But then again I don’t think the corporate parks ever will have that kind of relationship.

All in all Alton Towers has made a reasonable amount of time for the fans. Yes, they could do more. But they’ve done an acceptable amount. Certainly as much as most of the corporate parks would do. Hopefully these things will continue in the future. But I don’t think that’s the main reason you get a lot of negativity on this forum. People wouldn’t moan if they didn’t care. We want Alton Towers to be the best, just as a football fan wants their team to be the best. I think most of us would agree that Alton Towers still is a great theme park, but to some of us it feels like they’re riding on past successes, and not really pushing themselves to be the best they can be.
 
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DiogoJ42 said:
Single rider queues don't even need extra staff, they are managed by the person at the merge point.
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Nemesis is different though as it is on the other side of the station.

I think single rider is only needed if queue time is over 30mins. So they should be using them on all weekends May - Aug plus all school hols as a minimum.
Same logic applies to staggered openings, they should offer full line up May-Aug and open water rides only at 11am (and maybe sub-terra) in Mar/Apr/Sep/Oct as water rides are
Less popular outside of summer. Rita/Thirteen should olbe open at park opening, no exception.
 
True, but I've never seen a seperate staff member manning the SRQ. It's normally one of the platform hosts.
 
It's hard to run a theme park as a true business. In any normal business this sort of cost cutting would be good, but in a theme park you need to maximise guest satisfaction and try to make guest one, spend more and two, return again soon.

A theme park of the size of Alton it really is unacceptable, and looking at some reviews the general public aren't to happy. I think they really do have a huge lack of ambition, for years and years they have no real increase in attendance, which is crazy for a park that has so many large cities close (within 1-2 hours). Think this is very apparent when you think Paramount in year one if built think they will achieve 15 million.

Instead of improving guest satisfaction and experience to increase attendance and therefore profits, they have gone for a cost cutting method, which in the long run will only have a negative impact on both experience and profits.
 
First impressions from today we're not great. Although we had an enjoyable day mainly due to the weather and relatively low guest count, it doesn't bode well for the busier periods.

Opening dark forest at 11 caused massive queues on oblivion which was running just one loading bay, so the advertised 30 min queue turned out to be 1hr 20 min. I asked the ride host why only one station and she said the other staff were training!!!!

Went to Rita and saw the queues so went to get fast track tickets but the sales and information in dark forest was closed. The nearest one open was by the golf challenge! This had a massive queue so had to go up to guest services on towers street to get some.

Most food outlets were closed. Single rider queues removed. No new film in ice age 4D

It felt tired, run down and desperately in need of tlc.

Went to the hotel in the evening to have good on secret garden. The food was nice, though we asked if we could add 4 more people to our group of 14. No was the reply as they were full.

From the 6pm we arrived to the 8pm we left, there were about 8 empty tables around us.......

Evening entertainment was just dire. The band and singers have been dropped on favour of a new girl and guy singing and a solelm looking girl playing the keyboard.

Honestly, it was dull, depressing, and the singers were terrible. Everyone looked bored. So much for fantastical entertainment.

I didn't bother renewing my annual pass today, I'm just not sure I want to visit again for a while. The place looked quite sparse as well, the amount of trees which have been felled is incredible. The woodland walk is bare with a new fence all the way along it.

The day was made bearable by friends and the weather, but for the first time since 1993 when I first visited..... I'm really in no hurry to head back again.
 
I know in the end I won't regret it, but at the moment I'm wondering whether buying an annual pass was a bad move. Left Towers with a rather sour taste in my mouth today due to all he cuts, and how awful the park was as a whole. I'm tempted to say it was as bad as FHT, though that may be pushing it a bit.
 
It seems that the refurbishment of the rapids station roof has resulted in the removal of all its theming.

They just don't seem to make the effort with putting attention to detail into anything. Shame.
 
It's the first weekend of the season & unlike Chessington everything was working, even if not ope at 10am. Give them a few weeks and if dark forest is still on 11am opening for Easter hols, then is the time to really complain.


I think if you are finding the tiny faults (not the big things like opening hours) then don't renew passes. Go once this year. You'll appreciate the park much more by visiting less.
 
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Tom.B said:
If yesterday was my one annual visit, I wouldn't be very happy.
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I'm sure if you went round the park startig with forbidden valley then dark forest after 11 then X Sector you could still get every major ride at least once? Queues shouldn't have been as bad as summer hols, therefore I think I would still of had a better day than if I went on a peak holiday day.
 
jon81uk said:
It's the first weekend of the season & unlike Chessington everything was working, even if not ope at 10am. Give them a few weeks and if dark forest is still on 11am opening for Easter hols, then is the time to really complain.


I think if you are finding the tiny faults (not the big things like opening hours) then don't renew passes. Go once this year. You'll appreciate the park much more by visiting less.
Click to expand...

These are not tiny faults!

- Oblivion having an hour queue on one load operation.

-Nemesis sat rotting

- all station theming lost on Rapids

- a quarter of the park closed until 11am

- 4 other rides closed until midday

- dark forest looks horrific

- sub-terra had no scare actors anymore

- food prices gone up

- 8 food outlets closed

- theming removed from RMT

- only running 3 trains on the Monorail

- The Smiler... Their 2 year old coaster... Looks a right mess

I bang on about balanced opinions as I hate people who are positive/ negative for the sake of it so... Positives

+ corner coffee refurb is fantastic

+ ents have improved their street theatre, new acrobats.

+ Octonauts looks good

+ Duel was running well.

+ they managed to have all rides technically operating on opening day (wouldn't assume this deserves praise but seen as Thorpe and Chessie struggled I will be generous).

These are basic things, it isn't like any of the above are things only Disney or Europa park do. Parks with a third of Towers guest figures and profit manage to present a better product than this. I avoided posting yesterday as i didn't want to over react but having slept on it. I have visited this park for 25 years, coming from a family with little money Alton Towers was the one highlight of the year as a kid (we couldn't afford holidays) and the park has sentimental value for me, thou i have never bought into the idea the 90's park was as perfect as some here like to imagine, but i have zero interest in visiting again.

Merlin need to sell up, otherwise i fear what was an over-reactive comment calling the park a crap fairground earlier in this thread may one day come true.

On a side note about the tree clearing and sparseness comments, the environment agency wanted all rhododendrons removed as they damage the environment apparently.
 
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