• 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.

Fireworks 2016

I was barely on park for 20 mins on Saturday morning when I was told by two different staff members, one said they were expecting around 26,000 and the other one said it was going to be around 29,000 :eek:

What the final gate figure was before they turned people away I can't say

Alton were wishing for higher gate numbers since the Smiler incident, just be careful for what you wish for ;)
 
Burbs said:
I believe it is around 25,000. They have lost car parks over the years due to developments such as the Enchanted Village, and the car park next to it being exclusively for EV. :)
Click to expand...

It would be interesting to find out for sure. I've seen the park hit capacity before, many moons ago for the old firework shows and I don't recall it being as rammed as what Saturday was. Not talking about rides absorbing queues but actually the lawns and Towers Street areas. Could barely get moved.

Also, there is an an old video somewhere which states Towers has 10,000 hard surface parking spaces. If you consider the average car load is probably around 2.3 people then that would make for 23,000 before they start with using the overflow fields.
 
PeteB said:
It would be interesting to find out for sure. I've seen the park hit capacity before, many moons ago for the old firework shows and I don't recall it being as rammed as what Saturday was. Not talking about rides absorbing queues but actually the lawns and Towers Street areas. Could barely get moved.

Also, there is an an old video somewhere which states Towers has 10,000 hard surface parking spaces. If you consider the average car load is probably around 2.3 people then that would make for 23,000 before they start with using the overflow fields.
Click to expand...

Can I throw coaches, taxis and service buses into the mix.
 
Looks like the 2 days fireworks event and lack of F&B outlets has really backfired on AT if the recent tripadvisor reviews are to go by, with the majority of reviews giving just 1 star, the main complaints being the sheer volume of people, queues for rides, lack of food and drink outlets particularly no hot drink refills, and the car parking situation when trying to exit. Quite a few also said they were disappointed with the fireworks display quoting the video and story was weak.
 
GaryH said:
Looks like the 2 days fireworks event and lack of F&B outlets has really backfired on AT if the recent tripadvisor reviews are to go by, with the majority of reviews giving just 1 star, the main complaints being the sheer volume of people, queues for rides, lack of food and drink outlets particularly no hot drink refills, and the car parking situation when trying to exit. Quite a few also said they were disappointed with the fireworks display quoting the video and story was weak.
Click to expand...

They must have gone to a different event to me.

People are very quick to voice their complaints. This years event was the best for us, we have no complaints about this years event, we had a fantastic couple of days. Jess and I have been visiting the fireworks every year since they have brought them back.

We manage to purchase food and drinks on both days without any problems. There were the additional hog roast and burger catering vans which are brought in every year. The only two things that were missing for us from previous events were the courtyard BBQ and Hex.

A year ago when the event was first planned, no one could have imagine that the gate numbers would have exceeded the max capacity allowed. However the staff and contracted security did a brilliant job in handling the situation. They had a very difficult job on the turnstiles having to turn away disappointed guest.

As for the sheer volume of people and queues, I think this is always expected for this event, it is always going to be their biggest days of the season in terms of gate numbers and is to be expected.

As for the fireworks display, that is always going to be down to personal taste and Jess and I thought that this years display was their best to date (apart from last years Hex/ITHOMK mash up finally)

I think even if Alton got it 100% right this year, there will still be people taking to social media and complaining and I bet half of them did not even go to the event

“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”

Roy:)
 
Last edited:
RoyJess said:
There were the additional hog roast and burger catering vans which are brought in every year.
Click to expand...

This was something I commented on in Alton Towers survey on the fireworks(http://survey.altontowers.com/s/2016-Fireworks/), a pork baguette from a van was £7.50, an entire meal at burger kitchen is £6.50. We got a baguette from eastern express for £4.50. If the prices are too high at the vans then many people will still go towards the cheaper options anyway.

But yes you can't please everyone all the time. Some people have unrealistic expectations, others just get unlucky.
 
By the standards of a local display organised by the Lion Club or whatever, it was of course, amazing. But by Alton's standards it was a poor show. The quantity of pyro was obviously reduced from previous years. I also noticed that they were using smaller fireworks, closer to the crowd, rather than bigger ones on the far side of the lake.
And the lasers were pathetic.
 
In terms of park capacity, I have no idea what it actually is but think around 27,000 people were in the park on Saturday. The park itself is massive so they probably can let quite a lot more than this in however there are only so many people you can fit on the lawns and Towers Street for the fireworks themselves.
RoyJess said:
They must have gone to a different event to me.

People are very quick to voice their complaints. This years event was the best for us, we have no complaints about this years event, we had a fantastic couple of days. Jess and I have been visiting the fireworks every year since they have brought them back.

We manage to purchase food and drinks on both days without any problems. There were the additional hog roast and burger catering vans which are brought in every year. The only two things that were missing for us from previous events were the courtyard BBQ and Hex.

A year ago when the event was first planned, no one could have imagine that the gate numbers would have exceeded the max capacity allowed. However the staff and contracted security did a brilliant job in handling the situation. They had a very difficult job on the turnstiles having to turn away disappointed guest.

As for the sheer volume of people and queues, I think this is always expected for this event, it is always going to be their biggest days of the season in terms of gate numbers and is to be expected.

As for the fireworks display, that is always going to be down to personal taste and Jess and I thought that this years display was their best to date (apart from last years Hex/ITHOMK mash up finally)

I think even if Alton got it 100% right this year, there will still be people taking to social media and complaining and I bet half of them did not even go to the event

“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”

Roy:)
Click to expand...

People were quick to complain because complaints were totally valid and Alton Towers only have themselves to blame for them. I don't mind long queues for rides as that is totally expected on a busy day at any theme park. However F&B was nothing short of a farce, I have never seen queues as long as they were on Saturday.

There were far more than just those two things missing for the vast majority of guests. In terms of rides there was no Flume, Ripsaw, Hex, Driving School, Charlie and Sub-Terra. In terms of food there was no Courtyard BBQ, Mexican Cantina, Ben & Jerry's, Ripsaw Cafe and Dark Forest food outlets (bar hot dogs). That all mounts up to a significant amount. The cuts made in 2016 have made Alton Towers totally underprepared for any form of slightly busy day, never mind a day when the park hits capacity. They should have known this and hired in more temporary food trucks.

Of course opinions on the fireworks are far more subjective, some are always going to like them more than others and that is fine. As I've said before they weren't the best and they weren't the worst. Firmly in the middle for me when it comes to Towers displays since 2010.

:)
 
jon81uk said:
.....a pork baguette from a van was £7.50
Click to expand...

Flipping heck! This makes me wonder therefore, how much Alton are charging the vans to take up residence for the fireworks events!

The removal of the hot drinks refills seems to have been another underhanded money making scheme with staff apparently telling customers that it "would take too long to refill their flasks", yet still providing hot drinks to those paying customers.... eh? How does that work then? Surely pouring a hot drink into a pre-paid flask and handing it back to the customer without having to mess about with money is the quicker option to reduce queues!
 
GaryH said:
The removal of the hot drinks refills seems to have been another underhanded money making scheme with staff apparently telling customers that it "would take too long to refill their flasks", yet still providing hot drinks to those paying customers.... eh? How does that work then? Surely pouring a hot drink into a pre-paid flask and handing it back to the customer without having to mess about with money is the quicker option to reduce queues!
Click to expand...

This is one I actually think AT were right on, their coffee machines are not quick. The staff still need to see a receipt or something to prove the mug is valid and not from yesterday so not much quicker than taking money. Everyone queuing up to get a refill slows down the queue for those who are only buying one coffee all day as the machines are slow.
Now if they had enough outlets open and three staff on every tuck shop counter to be able to cope with the number of people wanting refills it could probably have worked. But I don't think the number of mugs sold would make them back the cost of the extra staff needed to run the coffee refills well without queues. Or if they replaced the rubbish Nescafe machines with simple filter coffee that just needs pouring out of a jug.
 
jon81uk said:
This was something I commented on in Alton Towers survey on the fireworks(http://survey.altontowers.com/s/2016-Fireworks/), a pork baguette from a van was £7.50, an entire meal at burger kitchen is £6.50. We got a baguette from eastern express for £4.50. If the prices are too high at the vans then many people will still go towards the cheaper options anyway.

But yes you can't please everyone all the time. Some people have unrealistic expectations, others just get unlucky.
Click to expand...

Over the years I've never purchased any food form the vans. We spend no more than 10 minutes on each day queue for food or hot drinks. We didn't realise until the last day that the Alton Towers ice cream van that was parked up next to the disable viewing was serving hot drinks and snacks. I think everyone else like us was thinking that they were just serving ice cream, hence the short queues, something to bear in mind for next year ;)

Rob said:
There were far more than just those two things missing for the vast majority of guests. In terms of rides there was no Flume, Ripsaw, Hex, Driving School, Charlie and Sub-Terra. In terms of food there was no Courtyard BBQ, Mexican Cantina, Ben & Jerry's, Ripsaw Cafe and Dark Forest food outlets (bar hot dogs). That all mounts up to a significant amount. The cuts made in 2016 have made Alton Towers totally underprepared for any form of slightly busy day, never mind a day when the park hits capacity. They should have known this and hired in more temporary food trucks.

:)
Click to expand...

Yes I hold up my hands and I have to say I forgot to add in the Flume, Charlie, Sub-terra and the rapid ride after dark, but as for all the others, they are what I wouldn't have rode anyway but I can also understand the lack of choice for all those family with children that are too small for the big rides or too old for the CBeebies.

However these ride and F&B cuts are as old as this season and just didn't suddenly happen last minute for the fireworks.
 
Last edited:
DiogoJ42 said:
By the standards of a local display organised by the Lion Club or whatever, it was of course, amazing. But by Alton's standards it was a poor show. The quantity of pyro was obviously reduced from previous years. I also noticed that they were using smaller fireworks, closer to the crowd, rather than bigger ones on the far side of the lake.
And the lasers were pathetic.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I think Towers' shows will always be popular due to people not really realising what else is out there and just comparing it to the local council display, but there are some amazing events around the country if you know where to look.

I'm usually pretty blessed working in fireworks I get to see so many, but this year I actually went around a lot of other firework events purely as a spectator. All of them were better than Towers. Leeds Castle was particularly impressive with a 30 minute long show and projection mapping on the castle.

Pretty crazy to think Towers were once breaking world records with their firework shows, and now they're not even close to being the best in the country. :(
 
PeteB said:
Agreed. I think Towers' shows will always be popular due to people not really realising what else is out there and just comparing it to the local council display, but there are some amazing events around the country if you know where to look.

I'm usually pretty blessed working in fireworks I get to see so many, but this year I actually went around a lot of other firework events purely as a spectator. All of them were better than Towers. Leeds Castle was particularly impressive with a 30 minute long show and projection mapping on the castle.

Pretty crazy to think Towers were once breaking world records with their firework shows, and now they're not even close to being the best in the country. :(
Click to expand...

I agree that the level of Pyro this year was poor and repetitive. The synchronicity was also poor and not well thought out but I have to disagree with your earlier statement - I'd be gutted if they didn't end with ITHOTMK as it's just Alton Towers all over, not to mention a superb piece for fireworks in general. It was disappointing they didn't volley a ton up at the final bit but I'm glad they made an effort with the piece to 'space it up' rather than just stick the original on the end.
 
As my first fireworks shoe I've seen there, I do have to say I kept thinking 'is there going to be anymore or is this it?'.

To me it felt like they were building up to a massive climax and it never really came.

Don't get me wrong it was still kind of impressive but it didn't leave a lasting impression...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top