Im just making the point that AT better not make any comments on poor trading results or a tough year if they cant cater for the customer and their needs!! How much is a hotel room tonight? £400? How many rooms they got? 100s Just think how much they could have made if they had those bookings last night too? I just wont belive their sob stories of reduced takings!! its their own doing!!
The season is longer than just three days. Up until the last week of Scarefest and Fireworks the park has still been far quieter than normal. I'd be surprised if they've had more than 2 million guests throughout the year, it is probably far less.
What do they mean by pre-booked tickets though? Is this just the people who hardly ever visit but just decided to order tickets online a few days ago to save money on the entry fee as they picked this particular fireworks show to go to?
If so, I really don't see how they should take priority over an annual pass holder who in theory pre-booked the minute they purchased their pass which entitles entry on fireworks night. By all means, start turning away everyone when they reach capacity, that includes people who bought tickets a few days ago and annual pass holders. Surely both parties should have to accept that they can not enter due to safety concerns?
I didn't even go today as I've been at work but I would be seething if I had been turned away but then see people who bought tickets online being allowed in OVER me. Pretty disgraceful customer service if what I understand is correct.
I disagree totally with this. Yes in theory an MAP guarantees you entry on any day of the season but if the park is at capacity then the park is at capacity. They know exactly how many pre-booked tickets have been sold therefore know exactly when to stop letting anyone else in. It's fair enough.
You can't start turning away those that have pre-booked a ticket for a specific date - that would be woeful customer service and make a mockery of pre-booking your ticket (which Alton Towers would rather you did as they then have a better idea of guest numbers for any given day). Annual pass holders have no more rights to entry than those that have paid money for a ticket.
I'm confident that this problem will be solved next year by making all annual passholders pre-book tickets for fireworks, at a small cost to ensure people don't book just incase they decide to go. I am also confident that people will moan about this!
I apologise if I caused any offence to anyone, but all I was trying to ask is why have things got to a situation like this? who thought trying to have such a high profile event was going to work over two nights instead of three? A company wants to make money , I manage a shop. If I turned paying customers away due to poor organisation I would be in trouble, big trouble!. So all I am asking is who made this decision? and is this going to be investigated? Why so few food outlets open too? isn't this were a lot of money is to get spent?
In hindsight not having the Friday night was a huge mistake. However when Towers made the decision it was somewhat justifiable. Guest numbers had been down massively ever since The Smiler incident and the Friday of fireworks last year was dead. It was probably only during the last two weekends of Scarefest when they suddenly realised that they were in trouble and needed the Friday night, by then of course it was far too late. If you take yourself back 12 months could you have imagined 27,000 or so people turning up at Alton Towers? I certainly couldn't!
Anyway, my thoughts. First of all on the fireworks themselves.
The show was okay, fine, nothing special but not bad. Towers have done better and Towers have done worse. For me the main problem was that they weren't overly memorable and took a very long time to really get going. On the whole the music was poor and very samey.
The story was very cheesy but I am glad that they're sticking with these for now as they do make the shows more interesting and unique. Having said that the story this year wasn't overly imaginative and very predictable - I think traveling through space and visiting various desinations would have worked better. Then you land back at Alton Towers for the ITHOTMK finale.
Speaking of the finale it was again the highlight of the show, I particuarly liked the 8-bit ITHOTMK section at the beginning. I know some would like to see a change but for me the Alton Towers fireworks just have to end in this iconic manner.
Away from fireworks the park was very busy on Saturday and it did not cope at all. I didn't mind long queues for the rides, this is to be expected on any busy day at any theme park. The major issue was F&B, or more the lack of it. Queues across the park for any sort of food, from Woodcutters to snack kiosks, were massive. Some of our group attempted to eat at the hotels but were turned away as they did not have a hotel reservation, this is despite there being plenty of empty tables in the restaurants. Food outlets that have been opening during the season were closed (Dark Forest eateries bar hot dogs).
Alton Towers is simply not in a position to cope with capacity crowds at the moment. The park has been set up in 2016 for small crowds, so as soon as you get the numbers that were there on Saturday then there is no hope.
Hopefully lessons have been learnt for 2017 and the Friday will be brought back. A lot of the locals as well as MAP holders would usually come up on the Friday yet many of these came on the Saturday instead this year. This of course was not helped by it being Saturday 5th November.
At least we know fireworks at Alton Towers are still popular though!