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Food & Beverage 2014

jon81uk said:
Yes but the buffet at Pizza Hut is only £10 per person including the drink (that London pricing, I think other cities are cheaper). A large pizza is around £17, plus 2 drinks makes£22 so about the same price as well. I do agree that the buffet is one of the best values at Alton Towers. and Burger Kitchen one of the worst!

and yes when they opened the franchise outlets in 1998 it did bring some competitive pricing, but KFC was still a lot more expensive than KFC on the high street.
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But isn't the Pizza Hut buffet just a lunch time thing?
 
The thing is, I don't think the prices at AT should be reflective of the high street...

When you go to Pizza Hut, you'd expect to sit in there for 1-2 hours, have a starter perhaps, a few drinks, a dessert. Going out for a meal like that is an event in its own right.

When you go to the buffet at Alton Towers, you're not going there for a fully blown, all out meal where you'll spend 2 hours. You will be in there for probably around 45 minutes, because at the end of the day you've paid your entry fee to go on rides...

So actually, £11 for it isn't cheap nor is it expensive. My concern is that the price has risen systematically and dramtically year on year since it opened. The latest rise is 10% - this is WELL above inflation people.
 
GaryH, I think for the reasons AstroDan points out Pizza Hut restaurants aren't bad value, two people can split a large pizza (£17) which comes with free salad bar. Or if you do only have an hour to eat you can do the buffet for £7.50 plus drinks. Buffet is only 12-3 (or 5 during school hols) but thats pretty much the same time you'd be eating at Alton Towers!

I agree the prices are rising too quickly and that compared to the high street they look expensive now. Particularly as Dan said you just want a quick meal in a theme park. Flambo's buffet at £20 (unless thats gone up too) is expensive but feels more worthwhile as you can take 2 hours to have a nice relaxed meal with friends. You won't do that at lunchtime when there are rides to be ridden!
 
Someone will have done the maths that enough people will still pay it to make it profitable. A theme park relies on people that don't have time to prepare food to bring. Also note how difficult it is to return to your car to eat at Alton Towers as well - although £16 for by-the-gate parking would seem to be a small price to pay compared to paying for a family meal in a park restaurant.

Maybe Merlin's dream is to make its theme parks the playgrounds for the middle classes? I think the smaller independent parks stand to gain from this, I certainly hope so anyway.
 
I just think that people would feel much better about F&B outlet pricing if the outlets were more heavily themed and less generic.

People come to theme parks for fun and adventure and lunch should be a part of that!
 
Scott said:
I just think that people would feel much better about F&B outlet pricing if the outlets were more heavily themed and less generic.

People come to theme parks for fun and adventure and lunch should be a part of that!
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Agreed, because Drayton Manor has better theming.
 
People appear to be (and as am I) more willing to part with cash on the cuisine at the hotels than they are on the park. I could quite happily snack on park and then sit down for a proper meal later on in the hotel restaurants as they and the service within them, make a laughing stock of the gradually declining standards on the park. The theming and atmosphere certainly contribute to uplifting the misery any guests have obtained from eating in the Burger Kitchen during the day for example.
 
AstroDan said:
Apparently guest spend per head is down at the moment, therefore prices have been put up.
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Wow, and to think, none of us predicted for the last two years it would eventually reach a point in an average park (globally) with a premium price that people would start to feel ripped off and stop spending because it's upsell EVERYWHERE.

Gosh. Who'd have thunk'd it eh?

HEADS. UP. BOTTOMS.
 
Food and Beverage is one of Towers biggest failings. Pizza and Pasta was good when it first opened, but there was never enough capacity (less so on hot days) and I would not be surprised if this is one of the reasons it has seen the cost to eat their rise the quickest of all the food outlets.

KFC then got replace with a similar quality food, and a little bit of Oblivion themeing, but not offering a vegetarian option is poor.

Burger Kitchen then replaced Burger King, and was a massive drop in quality, at a similar price as what was charged. No effort was made to make it feel like you were eating in a Theme Park, and it still remains as plain as the burgers they serve.

Tower Street is closed, and refurbished, and again, this is poor, with the Bathrooms looking like they have survived the last 20 years in one form or another. The photo on the wall are a nice touch, but get stuck at a table in the middle and it does not really count for much.

With CBeebies opening this year, it was the perfect time to introduce a premium dining experience with characters coming around. I am sure families would of been more than happy to pay £20 each for something similar to the Disney Character experiences.

As for hotel dining, Flambos has been disappointing to me for a long time, at the £20 price range you expect something premium, and it just fails to deliver for me.

Ian
 
Danny said:
People appear to be (and as am I) more willing to part with cash on the cuisine at the hotels than they are on the park. I could quite happily snack on park and then sit down for a proper meal later on in the hotel restaurants as they and the service within them, make a laughing stock of the gradually declining standards on the park. The theming and atmosphere certainly contribute to uplifting the misery any guests have obtained from eating in the Burger Kitchen during the day for example.
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Thing is though that there are far more day guests than hotel guests. Whilst most hotel guests will have a snack during the day before a big meal at their hotel - day guests are more than likely to want something more substantial to eat!
 
Scott said:
Thing is though that there are far more day guests than hotel guests. Whilst most hotel guests will have a snack during the day before a big meal at their hotel - day guests are more than likely to want something more substantial to eat!
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Which is why they should take a long, hard look and compare the resort dining to the theme park dining. If an ideal balance between typical fast food was able to walk hand in hand with the hotel style dining experience, I think Towers would leave every other park in the country leagues behind in terms of on park cuisine. If they can get it right in the hotels, surely they can assess the situation and apply a solution to the main draw for the public in the park itself.
 
Danny said:
Which is why they should take a long, hard look and compare the resort dining to the theme park dining. If an ideal balance between typical fast food was able to walk hand in hand with the hotel style dining experience, I think Towers would leave every other park in the country leagues behind in terms of on park cuisine. If they can get it right in the hotels, surely they can assess the situation and apply a solution to the main draw for the public in the park itself.
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Totally agree.

Up the theming in existing 'cheaper' outlets and then create one premium experience on park with a setting, theme and menu to match.
 
Eating in so many of the park outlets is a bland experience. Fish & Chips, Towers St Grill, Burger Kitchen... who is their interior designer?
 
The food on park is going down consistently as is the service. You're talking about improving standards, they cannot even MAINTAIN them. They get worse every single year without fail to the point I can't be bothered even considering the place. The nice touches they did have and you EXPECT at a premium level resort like ATH are non existent.

Standards are in serious decline and they need someone to drag those standards back up and invest in it more long term.

I am not joking, this is not me being gobby, but if standards were like that on my watch there would have been hell to pay.
 
Danny said:
Which is why they should take a long, hard look and compare the resort dining to the theme park dining. If an ideal balance between typical fast food was able to walk hand in hand with the hotel style dining experience, I think Towers would leave every other park in the country leagues behind in terms of on park cuisine. If they can get it right in the hotels, surely they can assess the situation and apply a solution to the main draw for the public in the park itself.
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The first year Ritas chicken and ribs opened they moved staff from hotels to set up and train as this was the first on park restaurant with waited service. The food was good and the service but alas since being re themed to Woodcutters the food quality has declined.
 
A lot of the quality issues boil down to wages though and this goes beyond Alton Towers. Little fast food places pay peanuts and no one can live on these wages except kids (college kids who need summer jobs for example). Now i'm not saying kids are uselss, far from it but if you or I was getting paid minimum wage, worked in a greasy kitchen, probably got spoken to like crap by management, had no interest in moving up the ladder because the job was a stop gap then you're not going to work to the best of your capability are you? Obviously this will affect the end product. Of course not everyone thinks like this but the majority do. That's usually the reason why you have a hamburger or a portion of fries missing after visiting a drive thru because their mind is not on the job.

I used to work in a restaurent part time as a chef/cook when i was at college and the same sort of thing happened there. Also the quality of food depended on how busy we were. If you rocked up at our restaurent on a monday evening you most likely get a better meal than you would on a Saturday night because we aren't rushing around the kitchen like lunatics due to us being understaffed. We often 'crashed' in the kitchen on busy evenings (Christmas time was the worst) because we had too many customers and poor management didn't give us enough staff on these busy nights and they kept letting people through the door. I can imagine working in a kitchen at Towers being an utter nightmare during peak times and again i bet the quality of food varies considerably depending on when you're visited AT.

Unfortunately if you pay peanuts you end up employing monkeys.
 
OK, some are comparing the prices of the food in the hotels to the food in the park.

As Astrodan pointed out, the hotels are a different eating experience. I dont mind paying more in the hotels to sit and eat, in a more pleasant environment, where I can sit for a few hours and enjoy my food. Flambo's, yes, its expensive, just bearable with AP discount, but the food generally is ok and there is a nice choice. I wouldnt like to see it go up in price any futher though, and for £20, it should include soft drinks for everyone, not just kids (as they did a few years back).

Secret Garden, again, nice surroundings, table service, food is pretty decent in there now, so I dont mind paying for it.

Worst thing they got rid of - for me anyway, was McDonalds. You could and still can get a decent burger, fries and a drink for under a fiver. Would love to see Burger Kitchen compare with that. Oh, and the Pot Noodle macine under the skyride in Forbidden Valley - how I loved one of those on a cold day to warm the bits other fast foods couldnt!
 
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