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Fireworks 2017
- Thread starter bluesonichd
- Start date
bluesonichd
TS Member
Try https://www.merlinannualpass.co.uk/holiday-club.aspx I have looked and it's bookable. Not that I'm booking yet at those pricesDespite the dates now announced, the website still won't allow me to book the firework weekend unless I purchase park tickets, I got a bad feeling about this
James
TS Founding Member
I was interested in fireworks, but with a 3 day event as I would have taken advantage of a quieter Friday followed by a busy Saturday.
Shame it's 2 day again, the fact they were pushing people away from the gates last year shows that the event is highly popular and 3 days would be warranted.
Shame it's 2 day again, the fact they were pushing people away from the gates last year shows that the event is highly popular and 3 days would be warranted.
The thing is, they *might* be able to cope well with two days if they opened all the F&B outlets and had more staff. From the complaints last year, the biggest grievance seemed to be the astronomical queues for food.
Having said that, there'd still be the unfortunate issue of turning people away.
Having said that, there'd still be the unfortunate issue of turning people away.
Rob
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
I'm pretty sure that they will make MAP holders pre-book tickets this year, at least for the Saturday.
Most parks fall down when it comes to F&B when the park is busy, we queued for over 45 minutes for food one day at EP over the winter season. The problem with Towers is the severe lack of options and variety.
Most parks fall down when it comes to F&B when the park is busy, we queued for over 45 minutes for food one day at EP over the winter season. The problem with Towers is the severe lack of options and variety.
Rojo
TS Member
I'd hope that they have more temporary F&B outlets spread across the park to stop everyone piling in from Mutiny bay to Towerstreet when the rides close.
Also more rides will help. Reopening Sub-Terra and Hex would be great to bring queues times down in FV and DF. Predicting that they will pull in bigger crowds for Scarefest and Fireworks they could probably afford to bring in temp staff in August/September to staff the rides through to the end of season.
Matt Creek
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
No surprises at all.
Three days would've been considerably better, especially given the popularity and busyness at the end of last season which descended to chaos (especially on the first night). No doubt pass holders will probably end up paying £5-£10 to get in, for guaranteeing entry at least.
This epitomises Merlin, as they always go for the cheapest and easiest options when it comes to problems, in the name of Merlin Money Making.
Three days would've been considerably better, especially given the popularity and busyness at the end of last season which descended to chaos (especially on the first night). No doubt pass holders will probably end up paying £5-£10 to get in, for guaranteeing entry at least.
This epitomises Merlin, as they always go for the cheapest and easiest options when it comes to problems, in the name of Merlin Money Making.
jon81uk
TS Member
Therew was plenty of burger vans on the edge of the lawn, at least 2-3 by Mutiny Bay and another 2 by CBeebies.
My issue was the stupidly unrealistic pricing at the vans. £6 for a burger, when a whole meal at Burger Kitchen was about £7. Therefore I wasn't prepared to pay that much for a burger van burger and went to Eastern Express instead.
Rojo
TS Member
The amount of vans isn't an issue Jon, I was thinking they need to be placed further away from the lawn. As per Jared's response, the queues spill onto the path before, during and after the event. They really need to place and position the temporary food outlets in areas where queues aren't likely to spill into the exit paths or introduce some form of queue management to move them away from the stream of people.
Given that most people complain about the cold and just want a hot drink after the event, I wonder if selling flasks of tea or coffee on the day for refills similar to the soft drinks might help encourage people to stay on the lawns at the end. (I have a nagging feeling they do something or have tried something similar in the past, please feel free to correct me).
At Tough Mudder I ended up paying an eye-watering £11 for a burger, so somehow for me £6 now seems a bargain
. As you say Eastern Express is always a better choice! Warmer more substantial meals for more acceptable prices
jon81uk
TS Member
Apparently they stopped doing refillable hot drinks as the Nescafe machines can't make them quick enough to keep up with demand. If you are going to do refills it needs to be simple drip filter coffee (as Wetherspoons do).
I don't really think there is a better place to put the food vans really, putting them on the lawn risks issues with moving them off again if it gets too muddy. Also it reduces the amount of firework viewing area as currently you can stand on the grass behind the vans.
and yes £6 for a burger might be better value than other outdoor events, but if there is something else at the same event charging less it means people will go towards the cheaper option.
This was definitely one of the worst things about the night. We were absolutely frozen to the bone after the firework and just wanted to get warm. But all cafes and restaurants had filled to capacity before we'd even gotten off the lawn, and they were turning people away. Like I said on another post, we ended up sitting in the gift shop on the floor just because it was vaguely warm in there. Then moved to Sea Life to sit on the benches in there until we decided we'd absolutely had enough and would rather queue in traffic than stay there any longer.
I know I come across as close minded and whatever, but it's just the organisation of this event that really got me angry. I absolutely love Alton Towers and, I said previously, it's my partner and I's favourite place to spend time together and we have so many amazing memories there. I was just really, really displeased with this event as a whole. Maybe I'm talking about this to the wrong people.
lol what does that mean? I changed it.
What a silly thing to say. Standing outside in November for up to 7 hours? You'd be frozen to the bone too. Don't be so pedantic.
Ps. Why does nobody use the Quote feature on this forum? I frequent other forums who use the same software and quoting is seen as basic forum etiquette so everyone knows what you're referring to.
EDIT:
I'm still getting replies regarding what I've said about Fireworks Spectacular 2016 around the forum. Let it be made crystal clear that this is my final word on the subject because I need to clear some stuff up, I really don't want to get a name for myself and I worry I have not put across my thoughts in the best way. I do not want to come across as having needlessly exaggerated, or purely set out to defame the park. I will not be replying to any other comments regarding the 2016 Fireworks Spectacular after this:
I love Alton Towers. As I've said multiple times - and that's another thing I cannot stress enough. My real one and only issue with the Fireworks event was the amount of people admitted entry to the park. If numbers had been reduced significantly the event would have run much more smoothly, and the other issues we experienced would not have happened. This is something that lots of other people mentioned (including on social media, not just on these forums) and I believe Alton Towers will have considered for this year's Fireworks Spectacular events. I have every faith in Alton Towers to improve things. Having worked in visitor attractions, I understand how hard it is for a for-profit attraction to turn away paying customers when making money is the goal, regardless of how that affects the general experience of other customers.
The show itself was very enjoyable and very well put together, I would recommend the show to anybody. I think we were just very taken aback by the amount of people there and how that affected our experience of the park that day. We'd only ever gone during the summer, outside of school holidays, for a great many consecutive years. This was the first 'special event' we had attended at the park.
I have hundreds more very, very positive and happy experiences of the Towers that I could go on for hours about. My experience of the Fireworks Spectacular has not, and will not, be detrimental to my opinions of the park or my future visiting prospects. It's easily my favourite theme park, and I feel very lucky to be relatively local.
I've now done this subject to death. Thank you for reading, and listening. Enjoy Alton Towers, enjoy these forums. Rejoice and be happy and kind to one another. See y'all around.
Last edited by a moderator:
DiogoJ42
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- The Metropolitan Line
I was there both days of fireworks last year. In a light coat. I found it to be fine compared to previous years.
Try EP in winter if you want to know what a cold theme park is.
