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Farce-track

Natalie said:
A business and economics analyst has this opinion on Fast Passes, which I'm sure some of you will agree with on here.
http://thedisneyblog.com/2013/07/26/how-fast-passes-are-ruining-our-nation-hyperbole-or-not/
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I found it quite ironic that even a free fast pass+ system, that Disney are trying to make even better for FREE, is getting grief because it requires planning and a bit of research instead of the day being essentially more spontaneous.

That argument, whilst not being entirely without merit, pales into insignificance when placed against the blatant profiteering in other situations.

And do not give me the "business wants to make money shock" nonsense retort that is an oft response upon these boards by those whom are joyous at such obvious financial endeavours.

;D

We're becoming more conditioned to a divisional class society once more, it is everywhere, really FT is a just another minor irritant for a wider story. The way Disney run it sounds decent, some people like attractions more, or a person or two in a group wont want to ride, there are very practical reasons for FT being in existence. However in a place meant to be for joy, escapism, fun etc - it's got too far and has stolen away some of the soul of the park.

We want the place to be successful, ergo, it must make money - however as I have said many times before, how much money do they LOSE now, because guests can't wait to get out before anymore money is extracted from them - rather than "wow, we have had an incredible day, let us take home a memento".

Oh and by the way, I got the non-optional optional digital photo download yesterday for an extra 2 quid and was told it was because I used my MAP to buy 2 things, and therefore, it was included but not included etc.

WTF?

Can't recall where that topic of conversation was.
 
Fastrack must be a good money maker when you think about it. All it costs is the paper Fastrack is printed on and the handful of staff who sell it. The rest is money money money. It must cost little to nothing to run!
 
As an aside to Fastrack, on the train i was on today they were upselling First Class tickets for 'JUST £7'

It amused me anyway.
 
James said:
Fastrack must be a good money maker when you think about it. All it costs is the paper Fastrack is printed on and the handful of staff who sell it. The rest is money money money. It must cost little to nothing to run!
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I take it the cost of installing Fastrack queuelines to some rides have now been covered by FT sales.
 
The argument in that article just doesn't seem valid for the Disney park system that it references. No one feels superior with the free fastpass system because, well, everyone can use it! And everyone in the 'normal' queue knows that they will/already have used it in the day just like those walking past them.
 
Fastrack easily pays for itself - when you think each main ride has one member of staff costing just under £50 a day to run it. That's 6 staff (excluding the rides which need staff there already like mine train/sub terra). Then about 15 staff at a guess for sales & info.

So, at a very rough guess that's £1050 a day. That's only 12 platinum wristbands before you start making pure profit.
 
The profits from fastrack are absolutely staggering when you stop and think about it.

Someone posted on TPM that there is a daily cap of 100 platinum and 250 gold tickets. Sell out of those and that's over £20k already. There are three £12 packages, of which they probably sell at least 500/hr (combined), so that's another £6k per hour. Smiler is £7 with a cap of 200/hr, so that could take in £1400 per hour on its own. On top of that you've got the £21 silver package, the £6 young explorer package and all the other single ride tickets (which I don't know the prices for).

When you add all that together, I reckon that on a peak day you could be looking at a figure in excess of £75000, almost all of it profit.
 
If only that money was driven straight back into Alton Towers.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
 
DiogoJ42 said:
My god. Where is all this money going?
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Merlin's back pockets?

Makes you wonder just how much pure profit there is at Alton Towers without the money going to Merlin.
 
This is exactly my qualm with recent price increases. If the park was performing less than adequately and they needed to scrape a profit, I can understand upselling. But the fact that Alton can pay for its expenses 10 times over and investment into maintenance and such is still so low appalls me.
 
DiogoJ42 said:
My god. Where is all this money going?
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profit, to make their bank balance look good ready for floatation?

I think if they used to £6 car parking on decent on site traffic management system, with the roads being maintain to a good level it would make it a bit more easier to swallow.
 
GaryH said:
Also add on to that the £6 car park charge and the number of cars parked there every day.....
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AstroDan said:
If only that money was driven straight back into Alton Towers.
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Car park charge.... driven..... I see what you did there, ha ha ha ha ;)
 
DiogoJ42 said:
My god. Where is all this money going?
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Probably on running the rides. As morally questionable and awfully run the system is, it provides easy cash money to run the place.

If most guests are using 2-4-1's or are MAP holders, that source of revenue is lost. It's their own fault for starting that trend in the first place. If Merlin dropped the vouchers and lowered the price to the voucher price plus a little extra, I reckon they could drop fasttrack or provide a free disney-like version.

Don't forget the huge power requirements of monsters like Oblivion and Nemesis! They've lost the revenue from ticket sales, so they have to make it up somewhere, assuming they don't want to scrap the vouchers.
 
I don't believe power to be an issue. A single drive & a compressor. The motor won't be bigger than 100kw and the compressor maybe 20kw. Lights and music probably 10kw. (I don't know this as fact, just an educated guess) A drop in the ocean compared to the £75k approx they make a day from fastracks. Assuming they pay probably 10pence per kwh, that will cost them £13 an hour. Or £91 for the whole day.

Even double that because of all the smaller kicker motors & things I've forgotten, still the rate is so low compared to staffing, maintenance and upkeep. The elec is hardly worth mentioning I don't think.

Of course I could & probably will be proven wrong that oblivion uses much more power than that. Although I can't see it personally.
 
I'd love to know how much money it costs in terms of electricity to power the park on a daily basis... is this something we could ask via a FOI request?!
 
FOI? Towers isn't run by the government and nor are electricity companies, so no.

Probably cost a fair bit, but when you consider park entry, car parking and fastrack all go towards rides and maintenance (with other depts generally covering their own costs such as F&B) then I'd really hope the park makes a healthy profit.
 
I don't believe power to be an issue. A single drive & a compressor. The motor won't be bigger than 100kw and the compressor maybe 20kw. Lights and music probably 10kw. (I don't know this as fact, just an educated guess) A drop in the ocean compared to the £75k approx they make a day from fastracks. Assuming they pay probably 10pence per kwh, that will cost them £13 an hour. Or £91 for the whole day.

Even double that because of all the smaller kicker motors & things I've forgotten, still the rate is so low compared to staffing, maintenance and upkeep. The elec is hardly worth mentioning I don't think.

Of course I could & probably will be proven wrong that oblivion uses much more power than that. Although I can't see it personally.
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Easily half a million pounds a year upwards for electricity costs on a large roller coaster I would have thought would be a realistic figure.

Every large coaster at a minimum has a relatively powerful lift hill / launch, multiple compressors, many motors to power transport wheels. Large PLC computer / control systems. Then more things depending on the type of ride. Plus don't forget rides like the Rapids, those pumps are immensely power full things that consume lots of power.

As for lift hill power, I am not sure on exact ratings, but they are definitely well over 100kw. Given the weight of the trains and the angle of the slopes I would say 500- 700 kw to be more realistic.

I've worked with automated systems in factory's before, which in lots of ways are very similar to roller coasters, in terms of how they operate, and the components that they use to actually make them work. Some of these machines in the UK have been known to use many thousands of pounds per day electricity costs, and without a doubt most use less power than what most roller coasters would. Due to using similar but less powerful components, as most factory systems don't require moving around items as heavy as a coaster car.

Without a doubt one of Alton Towers biggest expenses is for electricity, possibly even larger than staffing costs. Rides are power hungry beasts! Like any large mechanical machine, be it factory or theme park!

No doubt things like fast track go towards paying for this major expense.
 
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