• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

February Half Term - why isn't the park prepared?

Doesn't Sonic cover the same bases as TH13TEEN? So if 13 wasn't ready AND it would cost more to open the DF food outlets, wouldn't it make sense to keep DF shut and in turn, TH13TEEN shut? Just some food for thought.....
 
I'd have liked Th13teen to be open, although I assume there was a valid reason for it being closed. Maybe they thought the crowds wouldn't be as big as they were, and therefore thought the ride would be too expensive to run?
 
The main criticism for half term this year for me is as follows:

1. Lack of ride to replace Oblivion in the line up.

2. Lack of entertainments on Towers St/Mutiny Bay etc. I know there were Moshi Monsters but these were generally hidden away. Street Ents breathes life into the park.

3. Lack of food available.

:)

Also - so everyone is clear, Th13teen is in a state of use and could be open (but obviously staff have not been trained, hence it is not open).
 
AstroDan said:
Also - so everyone is clear, Th13teen is in a state of use and could be open (but obviously staff have not been trained, hence it is not open).

Well, that changes everything! They should have had trained staff for it!
 
Don't see an issue with ride lineup to be fair.

It's heavily marketed this year, extremely marketed, as a family event. Families have adults, and older kids, who will want to ride the one or two larger rides. They don't need to open anything else.

Not replacing oblivion isn't a biggy in my eyes, it was replaced with Ice Age which is perfectly suitable, and having oblivion to the list just adds to the thrillseeker argument (to which, there is none being an exclusively family event). If they had marketed less as a family, or tried to appeal to thrillseekers in any way, shape or form, then I'd understand. But they haven't.

3 and a half weeks til full ride lineup, stop stressing out over pointless things.
 
Sam said:
If it was for families only, then they shouldn't have bothered having any thrill rides open. If it was for thrill seekers and families, they should have had enough thrill rides open (I know Th13teen isn't white-knuckle, but it's a decent enough replacement for Oblivion). Instead they made it clear that in part it was a thrill-seekers event (Nemesis and Air open) but then made it mediocre by having so few big rides open.

In the eyes of Alton Towers they most likely see it in the way that this is mainly a family event, however they still want to attract a small amount of thrill seekers so decide to open a small selection of thrill rides to cover this.

Although I do agree entirely that Th13teen should have been opened to compensate for the lack of Oblivion. It would have balanced things out nicely.




Wouldn't it have made more sense to have the Moshi Monsters during the Easter holidays instead? Where high numbers are expected and there are lots of staff on park. I understand they may have done it for half term to make the event more popular. Although clearly it's more popular than expected.

This is an ideal time for them to start looking at expanding this event in future years.
 
If the event truly has been as popular as we think, I'd like to hope that the park might see FHT as the new 'season opening' by opening the park fully for FHT and making it the new start for the season? It's probably not logistical and is highly unlikely considering the climate is very changeable but it might be something the park should consider in future years.
 
Doesn't make sense to me to have DF open for one ride. Although with the numbers, the added food outlets there would have really made things flow easier. I will be the first to remark about things they have gotten wrong, but who honestly could have been prepared for that? They will learn lessons from it, and if they give this careful consideration next year, they will ensure all the indoor attractions and more eateries are open in the case of bad weather, and I am sure more thrill will be open as SW7 did create an unusual issue this time round.

I can give them a fair bit of stick, but am all too aware that regardless of planning, an unexpectedly busy day or event can throw everything into chaos.

You all know I don't pull punches, this time even I have to give the Towers the benefit of the doubt and some understanding here. I really believe this was just one of those things, I mean, how early to you get staff in to a closed park to get trained up, only to be off again for four weeks? I am not even sure how they managed to balance it financially this time around.

I think they did OK, not brilliant, and I think even if they had more like the visitors expected they would have pushed it a bit, and maybe deserved a bit more criticism, but in this case I just don't believe anyone truly expected those crowds.

Hopefully this will lead to better coordinated and organised events in future half terms.
 
I think something that has to be considered is how FHT is such a changeable event in terms of weather. You only have to look back to last year when the rides barely ran because the temperature was too low, there were high winds and the park had to dish out apology letters and complimentary tickets for it all... In fact, was it last Feb the park actually closed because of the appalling weather leading to safety issues? Or was that a different time?

All the same, extremely varying weather conditions add to this being a hard event to plan for.
 
Scott said:
I think something that has to be considered is how FHT is such a changeable event in terms of weather. You only have to look back to last year when the rides barely ran because the temperature was too low, there were high winds and the park had to dish out apology letters and complimentary tickets for it all... In fact, was it last Feb the park actually closed because of the appalling weather leading to safety issues? Or was that a different time?

All the same, extremely varying weather conditions add to this being a hard event to plan for.

The weather is certainly something Towers have to consider for FHT. The temperature is not going to rise above 3 degrees for the remainder of the event so this could well cause some operational issues. I can't recall the exact minimum operation temperatures for the coasters but RMT for example could have a few problems if it is cold.

Also going back to the thrill seekers/families debate. This is in no way a thrill event. None of the event descriptions had any mention of thrill or thrill rides. Nemesis and Air were only mentioned in the list of open rides. Unlike previous years the promotional images for the event only showed family rides. Neither Air or Nemesis were shown in these at all. The two thrill rides were there partly as a bonus and partly because older families still enjoy thrill rides. It gave a few more people a reason to go whilst still allowing for a solely family event. That's how I see it anyway. It will be very interesting to see what they do next year.

:)
 
Scott said:
I think something that has to be considered is how FHT is such a changeable event in terms of weather. You only have to look back to last year when the rides barely ran because the temperature was too low, there were high winds and the park had to dish out apology letters and complimentary tickets for it all... In fact, was it last Feb the park actually closed because of the appalling weather leading to safety issues? Or was that a different time?

All the same, extremely varying weather conditions add to this being a hard event to plan for.

Nope that was in April last year.

Also, I think that AT should copy BPB (don't worry, only in a scheduling aspect), and open the park every weekend (with a limited line up) following FHT up until full park opening in March. This would have the added benefit of giving the ride ops a few weeks of experience before the full season started, as well as giving some rides the chance to warm up and become fully operational.

Will there be many problems with the B&M's later this week in terms of weather? I ask because I've never been in FHT before and so have no idea of the weather implications on the coasters.
 
Alastair said:
Scott said:
I think something that has to be considered is how FHT is such a changeable event in terms of weather. You only have to look back to last year when the rides barely ran because the temperature was too low, there were high winds and the park had to dish out apology letters and complimentary tickets for it all... In fact, was it last Feb the park actually closed because of the appalling weather leading to safety issues? Or was that a different time?

All the same, extremely varying weather conditions add to this being a hard event to plan for.

Nope that was in April last year.

The first day of Feb Half Term 2012, Air was the only major coaster to open (towards the end of the day) due to the ridiculous amounts of icy snow left all over the park (which was beautiful but impractical). Nemesis had a massive icicle in its way!

As a result all guests were given a letter entitling them to a free return visit and AP holders free fasttrack letters :)
 
Magrathea said:
Alastair said:
Scott said:
I think something that has to be considered is how FHT is such a changeable event in terms of weather. You only have to look back to last year when the rides barely ran because the temperature was too low, there were high winds and the park had to dish out apology letters and complimentary tickets for it all... In fact, was it last Feb the park actually closed because of the appalling weather leading to safety issues? Or was that a different time?

All the same, extremely varying weather conditions add to this being a hard event to plan for.

Nope that was in April last year.

The first day of Feb Half Term 2012, Air was the only major coaster to open (towards the end of the day) due to the ridiculous amounts of icy snow left all over the park (which was beautiful but impractical). Nemesis had a massive icicle in its way!

As a result all guests were given a letter entitling them to a free return visit and AP holders free fasttrack letters :)

Did the park completely close though? I vaguely remember the April closure being notable for being the first one for a long time, years in fact. Could be wrong though. :)
 
The park only closed twice last year, once in April and again a few weeks later. This was mainly due to the high winds.

The first day of FHT last year was badly effected by the weather, but it wasn't as dangerous as the high winds so the park remained open (even though a lot of the rides were closed)
 
Alastair said:
Did the park completely close though? I vaguely remember the April closure being notable for being the first one for a long time, years in fact. Could be wrong though. :)
Agreed - showing my age here, but I think October 27th, 2002 was the last time before - extremely high winds were bringing down trees and generally causing chaos meaning it was dangerous to attempt to get to the park, let alone be there. I think the fireworks were postponed until the following week.
And obviously, this sort of weather (and based on Chester, the weather we're probably getting today) is more to be expected for February, so it stands to reason that that's what they prepare for, rather than attempting a full opening which may prove impractical.
 
Re: Re: February Half Term - why isn't the park prepared?

thefatone said:
Don't see an issue with ride lineup to be fair.

It's heavily marketed this year, extremely marketed, as a family event. Families have adults, and older kids, who will want to ride the one or two larger rides. They don't need to open anything else.

Not replacing oblivion isn't a biggy in my eyes, it was replaced with Ice Age which is perfectly suitable, and having oblivion to the list just adds to the thrillseeker argument (to which, there is none being an exclusively family event). If they had marketed less as a family, or tried to appeal to thrillseekers in any way, shape or form, then I'd understand. But they haven't.

3 and a half weeks til full ride lineup, stop stressing out over pointless things.

I agree with most of that but regardless of the marketing, day trippers to Alton will always include a healthy number of thrill seekers, who, if returning for half term, will be disappointed since there are now only 2, not 3, attractions open for their market.

I fear for complaints/negativity on Alton Towers' facebook page etc.

I'm not going to complain, because I was fully aware that most major rides would be closed, but I still think Alton are in their own Cloud Cuckoo Land if they think everyone who comes will know exactly what's going on.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
 
I also overheard yesterday and today several people complaining about the lack of rides open but it is advertised so they haven't got much of an argument. Really felt the lack of oblivion this year as it felt we were just queuing and walking around in the freezing cold and snow!

Great event though! :p
 
Top