• 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.

Food & Beverage: The Aramark Era begins

I just can't believe someone actually signed this whole partnership off because it's disgusting, both in principle and the actual food. And the fact they have to peel off the signs saying it's 100% meat just shows what utter crap they're serving.
 
Probably a great time to post this belter from the AT website...

"The resort takes the quality of its food very seriously and ensures that guests have a large amount of variety and choice. Our menus are reviewed and checked to guarantee that guests receive the highest quality food at competitive prices."

.......right.

Are the burgers made to order at Alton? Or do they make them and keep them in a hot counter? Specifically talking about the fast food restaurants here.

If it is the latter, they need to by law, provide a full list of ingredients as the food is classed as pre packaged, direct sale. If the burgers are made to order, this information does not need to be supplied....weirdly.

I would be interested to see what is in those burgers. If they don't already supply the ingredients.
 
Last edited:
A basic admission that they are using non-meat bulking agents in their burgers… and increasing the price.

I know most guest won’t notice that but based on trip advisor this contract with Aramark is having a measurable impact on the parks reputation. Suppose it’s up to Merlin how much they care about that.
 
Think it's best just to avoid any food and beverages this year and tell anyone you know coming to bring a picnic.

Usually I have quite a lot of secondary spend at Merlin parks, whether that's hot food, snack, drinks, a fast track here and there, merchandise etc.

Definitely not going to stay onsite again this year after my whole party was unwell after their flambos buffet and breakfast was even worse.

But this year honestly think I'm going to try and not give Merlin or Aramark another penny this season, it's just gotten so stupid and out of control, even with a outsourced prison vendor handling their burgers they're struggling more than ever with any kind of upkeep and ride availability.
 
My prediction is that due to the damage that Aramark are doing to the perception of F&B at park - they will eventually need to go back to franchising branded vendors in order to encourage guests to spend on food again.

Your average guest has no idea Aramark are running the show as opposed to Towers, all they see (and taste) is overpriced awful food. Even if Merlin end the contract and go back to in house, it would take time and money to restore service to a decent standard.

By inserting known brands back in the parks you can achieve this much quicker, as guests know what they are going to get with a McDonalds or KFC for example.
 
Who's to say Merlin aren't okay with this level of product being served to guests at their premier theme parks, ultimately they've opened up their parks this year all mouldy and we're in the 3rd year of funfair rides ruining the atmosphere around Alton towers with terrible ride availability, especially at chessington.

Who's to say Merlin weren't expecting such poor downgrades in f&b, if they cared about guest satisfaction they wouldn't have gone to Aramark to begin with.
 
George W said:
Who's to say Merlin aren't okay with this level of product being served to guests at their premier theme parks, ultimately they've opened up their parks this year all mouldy and we're in the 3rd year of funfair rides ruining the atmosphere around Alton towers with terrible ride availability, especially at chessington.

Who's to say Merlin weren't expecting such poor downgrades in f&b, if they cared about guest satisfaction they wouldn't have gone to Aramark to begin with.
Click to expand...

But they do care about the money in the tills. It remains to be seen if spend will be down, it won’t manifest itself as quickly as two months in, especially as many people only visit once per year so these things take time to filter through.

But if revenue goes down you can bet they will care then.
 
AT86 said:
My prediction is that due to the damage that Aramark are doing to the perception of F&B at park - they will eventually need to go back to franchising branded vendors in order to encourage guests to spend on food again.

Your average guest has no idea Aramark are running the show as opposed to Towers, all they see (and taste) is overpriced awful food. Even if Merlin end the contract and go back to in house, it would take time and money to restore service to a decent standard.

By inserting known brands back in the parks you can achieve this much quicker, as guests know what they are going to get with a McDonalds or KFC for example.
Click to expand...

Also I think it forced the park to improve their own offering to compete with the brands, in my opinion its part of the reason why we got plated meals at Woodcutters and a focus on alternatives, the park needed to offer something that McDonalds/Burger King and KFC couldn't offer.

Can still see it at Thorpe in a way as they have Mexican and kebab options still because the park needs to offer something KFC and Burger King aren't already doing. Whereas at Alton they've cut right back to the standard burger, chicken, hotdog options really.
 
AT86 said:
But they do care about the money in the tills. It remains to be seen if spend will be down, it won’t manifest itself as quickly as two months in, especially as many people only visit once per year so these things take time to filter through.

But if revenue goes down you can bet they will care then.
Click to expand...

The exact same thing can be said about offering a substandard product as a whole, but they also seem fine with that. It does actually feel like a conscious decision has been made to be a budget low quality company across the board.
 
pluk said:
The exact same thing can be said about offering a substandard product as a whole, but they also seem fine with that. It does actually feel like a conscious decision has been made to be a budget low quality company across the board.
Click to expand...

My point was more linked to a suspected drop in revenue from F&B over time as more and more people have poor experiences. If this doesn’t happen then I totally agree, I doubt anyone in Merlin would sit up and suddenly decide they wanted to improve the quality because they are embarrassed by it. Only a sustained drop in revenue and clear feedback that the reason is because of poor quality is going to make them do anything.

I think the point about Thorpe is an interesting one, they certainly do have more food choice than the other parks, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this is also the park left with franchised brands - Merlin/Aramark need to compete with Burger King/KFC whilst they don’t have this anywhere else.
 
AT86 said:
My point was more linked to a suspected drop in revenue from F&B over time as more and more people have poor experiences.
Click to expand...

I know, I'm saying the whole park offers a poor experience, and arguably has done for years, and that revinue seemingly hasn't dropped. It's an easy way to justify simply not caring about your product.
 
We have your season pass money, you can come anytime you like, don't expect reasonable standards at these prices.

The old style Six Flags race to the bottom with season pass discounts.
 
Food and beverage provisions have never been perfect at Alton Towers. When there was KFC/McDoanlds/Burger King there were complaints about poor service, when the restaurants switched to in-house it was ok at first then after a season or two the lack of a range of items and the quality of food was criticised, and now we're here with Aramark with poor food and extortionate prices. Unfortunately, poor food, crap service and high prices are the norm in UK parks. It doesn't help when you have Merlin with a monopoly.

Aramark/Merlin don't care as the majority of guests will still pay for the crap food, moan about it, and come back the following year and pay for it all over again.
 
AT86 said:
My prediction is that due to the damage that Aramark are doing to the perception of F&B at park - they will eventually need to go back to franchising branded vendors in order to encourage guests to spend on food again.

Your average guest has no idea Aramark are running the show as opposed to Towers, all they see (and taste) is overpriced awful food. Even if Merlin end the contract and go back to in house, it would take time and money to restore service to a decent standard.

By inserting known brands back in the parks you can achieve this much quicker, as guests know what they are going to get with a McDonalds or KFC for example.
Click to expand...
That would be best case scenario (in my opinion). Let's hope you're right.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top