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Major Operational Changes for 2018

They were making cuts before the incident
completely agree with you cuts were in place pre smilier incident but after the incident the plans for cuts were obviously accelerated as the management knew they’d be more “acceptable” after the incident. Either way it’s imo fair play for anyone to mention Smiler in regards to cuts.
 
To be fair it's completely legitimate to mention Ripsaw, considering that the slogan was, "Can you cut it?" Without Ripsaw we probably wouldn't have all of these cuts.
I always thought that "can you cut it?" was a slogan that went along with the theme of the ride.

Little did I know that it was actually Merlin's mission statement sending out subliminal messages to their staff.
 
In my opinion, this was a PR exercise.

Alton Towers announced hugely exaggerated cuts to opening hours & ride availability, then reversed them so they were slightly better but still massively cut back on last year. Because they appear to have "listened to feedback" this caused people to see it as a positive.

If however, they had announced the finalised cuts to opening hours & ride availability first, people would have seen it as a negative and there would have been no positive to placate angry customers.

It's unbelievable that people are actually PRAISING them for reducing the value of the product?!

I wish that was true. However in reality what happened is a reflection on what seems to be internal 'fighting' between Alton Towers and Merlin management.

:)
 
Spinball showing as the only ride operational apart from CBeebies & Mutiny Bay (flat) rides. Some more opening at 11am. I think these operational cuts are really noticeable and are going to have a big impact on return visits undoing all of the good work of Wickerman

It's clear to see how a reduced lineup comes undone when those rides themselves have technical problems

 
Spinball showing as the only ride operational apart from CBeebies & Mutiny Bay (flat) rides. Some more opening at 11am. I think these operational cuts are really noticeable and are going to have a big impact on return visits undoing all of the good work of Wickerman

It's clear to see how a reduced lineup comes undone when those rides themselves have technical problems

That is being discussed right now in this thread:
https://towersstreet.com/talk/threads/2018-general-discussion.4565/page-38#post-216657
 
Sorry if this is in the wrong topic, but has anyone got any photos of what Thirteen's bag cages look like in the station? I've seen Smiler's yellow ones, but I haven't seen Thirteen's.

Also, it might reassure some of you to know that:
  • Bag cages apparently haven't slowed down Smiler's dispatches too much.
  • Smiler's boarded up baggage hold has now had a yellow sign put over it saying about the bag cages in the station.
 
In regards to that, I wasn't aware The Smiler had paint rollers on it's old baggage hold roof!
Neither was I! I think they're pretty cool pieces of theming myself! Did you see TPW's Vlog as well, then?
 
Neither was I! I think they're pretty cool pieces of theming myself! Did you see TPW's Vlog as well, then?
I did, I always bypassed the baggage hold to be fair as I never take a bag with me, I think the reduced lighting down there played an part in not knowing they were there, as it looks brighter in that area now.
 
I do think that the baggage hold is a better system than the bag cages, but it's reassuring to hear that operations haven't been impacted that much.
 
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