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Fireworks 2017

bluesonichd said:
Next on the list they will make this a special event. That everyone has to pay for :rolleyes:
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Don't give them any more ideas o_O

I suppose that they could always reimburse the MAP with a £5 gift voucher to spend as they please on the resort on the day of park entry as a good will gesture :)
 
Yeah, but the only problem with that, Roy, is that M£rlin would probably end up losing out on even more money that way. :p
 
RoyJess said:
Don't give them any more ideas o_O

I suppose that they could always reimburse the MAP with a £5 gift voucher to spend as they please on the resort on the day of park entry as a good will gesture :)
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Guess I'm more naive than I realise because at first this is what I assumed they were offering. Hopefully not enough people take the bait and they have to amend the offer to this.
 
I fully understand why they introduce a pre-booking option. Last year many where turned away on the Saturday due to reaching maximum capacity.

It should really be a refundable deposit (in the form of cash or a voucher upon arrival) to guarantee your entry.

Lot of confusion on social media. According the the MAP pass holders FB group, hotel guests, carers and under 3 do not need to pre-book, but I've no official clarification on this nor do the Alton website also make this clear either way.

The Sunday never reached full capacity last year. It's not compulsory to purchase a pre-book ticket, so you could always take a chance and turn up early on the day and hope that the online tickets/pre-booked tickets don't exceed capacity before the day.
 
Carers will need to book, if they are using a 'carer pass' if any of the other resort special events are anything to go by.

For the cost of travel, accomodation, meals and the look on the kids faces, it is worth the £15 to guarantee our entry, if you think it's a rip off then don't bother booking, but then don't expect any sympathy if you don't get in, I for one am glad of this, four hours is a long time to travel without guaranteed entry.
 
Oh, the fireworks themselves were fine last year. It's just the 'plot', if you can call it that, was dreadful.
 
Well, this quite clearly shows their disdain/non-concern for their annual pass holders doesn't it? 'We want you to help us fund our year round operation, but, when it comes to a traditional yearly night out we're going to charge you a fiver extra to make sure you are allowed turn up, unless you make an effort to arrive at 5 A.M'.

Will the people booking online without a MAP a couple of weeks ahead have to pay an extra £5 on top of their fee to make sure that they can definitely enter? No, they won't, because they'll be paying a 'ticket price'. I'm glad I havn't renewed my Merlin pass so far this year.
 
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It is a shame its not a refundable booking. When you arrive the 5 pounds is transferred into the account you paid it from.
 
For balance; many on here, myself included, said last year that they needed to give MAP holders the option to pre-book tickets for the 2017 fireworks. People got turned away last year and the big problem that Towers had was not having a clue how many of the many thousands of MAP holders were actually going to turn up at the park.

There has to be a booking fee otherwise pass holders would just reserve a ticket on the off chance that they might go, and that could mean people missing out unfairly. I was hoping it might be £2 rather than £5 but I guess they have decided that £5 is the price that puts people off booking a ticket just in case.

Delta's suggestion of making it a refundable deposit is a good one and would go down much better I imagine. But no doubt it would be a logistical nightmare from Towers' point of view, they'd probably have just one person hadning out refunds!

:)
 
Oh well , another year I wont bother going then. Its not just this fee which puts me off but mainly the fact its over 2 days and judging by last years scrum , I dont really want to be in that. 3 days is more suitable for these fireworks events given the crowds they draw in.
 
Indeed, the bigger problem for me is that they have not brought back the Friday fireworks. If they feel the park is going to be too quiet during the day with people only turning up later then why not just open the park at say 3pm? It's mad and just makes the weekend more crowded than it needs to be.

:)
 
Exactly - I would much rather go up for the Friday night than a Saturday. And Sunday is even more awkward due to work the next day.
 
BarryZola said:
Will the people booking online without a MAP a couple of weeks ahead have to pay an extra £5 on top of their fee to make sure that they can definitely enter? No, they won't, because they'll be paying a 'ticket price'.
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No, quiet the opposite. If the non MAP holders book their day tickets in advance, guess what, they get a £10 to £20 discount :rolleyes:
 
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£5 for pre-booking seems fair. It weeds out those who will just book 'just in case' and not turn up on the day, which could cause others to miss out unfairly. If you have a MAP and really want to see the Fireworks you will pay £5. Plus Merlin gets some more money, they love money.

Given how busy the event was last year and what with people being turned away, I think it's silly not to have brought back the Friday night show. As said, just open the park in the evening if there's an issue in the past of the park being dead during the day.
 
They won't be able to return to 3 nights of fireworks until they seriously buck up their ideas. The modern shows simply don't pull in the crowds like they did years ago. Heck, even if they were allowed to run 5 or 6 shows like before they'd never be able to fill them.

It's just another example of how badly the park is failing, and to be quite honest a lot of people were put off by last year. I heard from tons of people who said they won't go again. Towers shoot themselves in the foot with every move they make.

This year will be the first time since 1996 I have not attended a firework event at Towers. Got no chance after the mess and carry on last year and it'll be the same again this time. The shows have steadily gotten poorer which is clearly down to budget. Love the theme of 2016 but the show ultimately lacked any real wow factor.

Until they start blowing people's minds again, numbers will continue to dwindle. There are better firework events all over the country, why go to Alton Towers. It's an easy formula - put on good entertainment, give your customers a good service, and they will return.
 
Pete - there were well over 25k last year on the Saturday.

The £5 charge and premium online rates this year are designed to ensure the park copes, after the problems last year.

The budget per show has not reduced.

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PeteB said:
They won't be able to return to 3 nights of fireworks until they seriously buck up their ideas. The modern shows simply don't pull in the crowds like they did years ago. Heck, even if they were allowed to run 5 or 6 shows like before they'd never be able to fill them.

It's just another example of how badly the park is failing, and to be quite honest a lot of people were put off by last year. I heard from tons of people who said they won't go again. Towers shoot themselves in the foot with every move they make.

This year will be the first time since 1996 I have not attended a firework event at Towers. Got no chance after the mess and carry on last year and it'll be the same again this time. The shows have steadily gotten poorer which is clearly down to budget. Love the theme of 2016 but the show ultimately lacked any real wow factor.

Until they start blowing people's minds again, numbers will continue to dwindle. There are better firework events all over the country, why go to Alton Towers. It's an easy formula - put on good entertainment, give your customers a good service, and they will return.
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I doubt that they will return to the 3 nights, I bet they made more profit from a 2 night event as oppose to the 3 nights despite having to turning guest away.

One of the main reasons that Jess and I go to the Alton fireworks is because of the accessibility for my wife's wheelchair, something that you don't get at local events. If you think the display at Alton is bad, you ought to see our local firework display (which has been absent here for a good few years and only returned last year), probably the worst fireworks display that we've ever seen, but yet all the locals were raving highly about them. It goes to show that the Jo public don't always know the difference between a good and a bad firework display. (I must mention that we watched our local display from outside the grounds due to lack of wheelchair accessibility, but being a small field, we were still as close the the fireworks as watching from the disable viewing platform at Alton)

I like the fact that Alton tries to do something different each year, if they were to do the same year in year out, they will still be criticised.

As someone that used to be in the entertainment business, I'm fully aware that putting on annual events is a learning curve and unlike running daily events where you can tweak things daily, an annual event you only got 1 to 2 days a year to get it right first time.

I feel that Alton has put on a great display each year, obviously some year displays I prefer over other years, but I rather them take risk and learn from each year rather then for them to play safe and the displays then stagnate.

I fully support Alton with the MAP £5 charge, but I do feel that the MAP resort guest staying over night should not have to pay the £5 charge, if we have booked a resort stay, then we are going to be there.
 
Part of the problem with Fireworks is Scarefest. Scarefest and the Fireworks compete with each other and that causes a few issues.

Less so in the enthusiast community but if you take a wider view, the events are too close together to do both. Not only from a "Again?! We've just been to Alton Towers a few weeks ago" point of view, but also from a cost point of view for the average guest.

Last year was the first time in ages I had gone to fireworks, I don't need to go all the way out to the park twice in a couple of weeks, it's too much of a good thing, for me.

This has led to a fairly healthy number of passholders attending fireworks which I think is part the reason for this change. With only two nights, you need to ensure you have as much capacity as you can.
 
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