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Major Ride Closures 2016

The biggest problem with this is that they are totally isolating their key market - families. Alton Towers remains great for thrill rides and CBeebies Land helps to keep the younger children happy. But what about your average family who want to be able to enjoy rides together? You know the market that often spends the most in theme parks! There are now some massive gaps in the park's ride line up.

:)
 
I'm predicting that there will probably be a backlash when the park opens for the season, and the General Public finds all those rides either closed or removed, and that Air's changed to Galactica.
 
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They won't give you any. They'll just roll off the drivel about all the other "fantastic attractions" you can visit using it..
 
Under their T&Cs they have no obligation to have a single ride open. They could charge you full entry price for a closed park, and legally there's nothing you can do.
 
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Very disappointing.

I can totally accept one or two rides being closed, but to close five at once during a season where two popular rides have been removed without replacement, is very saddening.

Hopefully this is to conserve funds for a bigger project for the park, but in the meantime there needs to be an acknowledgement that people are paying a considerable sum of money and they now have 7 less attractions than the previous season.

I will be emailing them my marked disappointment and I suggest everyone else does the same, the more negative feedback the likelier they are to act on it.

I'm going next weekend and I'll has an awesome time, to be honest I'd probably go on NST, Hex, Ripsaw and the flume once each over two days if they were available, so it's ok great loss, but it is a shame. More disappointing for the person I'm going with who has never been to AT before.
 
TedTheHuman said:
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Hahahaha.

To be honest I'm hoping for some kind of gesture, be it a discount from my hotel booking or something similar. I think I've got a legitimate point given that I've spent £240 on a hotel booking and 5 rides have been cancelled with a weeks notice. Granted I was aware when I made the booking that this would probably be the case but that's not the point.
 
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Sadly, I honestly don't think you'll get anything beyond a "We'll pass this feedback on". But good luck with it anyway.
 
Believe me I'll get more than that because I won't relent until I'm dealing directly with whoever they're passing the feedback on to
 
Thing is when you think about it, it is a rather unfortunate turn of events if you take away the Smiler crash from this. Sub Terra always had high staffing problems and always unpopular with many, Charlie and Driving School's IP's (not sure about the latter) were due to run out this year, Hex and other madhouses are all having similar problems of God knows what and Ripsaw and Flume were just flat out kaput.

So really if the Smiler crash hadn't had happened, 2016 was always going to be a rather rough year for the park. But if they knew about all these problems that was going to happen to them, I would've at least kept the Flume open for at least one more year to help soften the blow of ride closures this year.
 
QTXAdsy said:
Thing is when you think about it, it is a rather unfortunate turn of events if you take away the Smiler crash from this. Sub Terra always had high staffing problems and always unpopular with many, Charlie and Driving School's IP's (not sure about the latter) were due to run out this year, Hex and other madhouses are all having similar problems of God knows what and Ripsaw and Flume were just flat out kaput.

So really if the Smiler crash hadn't had happened, 2016 was always going to be a rather rough year for the park. But if they knew about all these problems that was going to happen to them, I would've at least kept the Flume open for at least one more year to help soften the blow of ride closures this year.
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The point is, if you take yourself seriously as a tourist destination; you do what is necessary to make it attractive and marketable.

If Hex NST etc are all beyond hope, then remove and replace at least one of them. It is simply not acceptable to remove 2 major rides, fail to replace them and then shut 5 other rides. Especially annoying seeing as I'll be visiting when Galactica hasn't opened as well.
 
Josh555 said:
The point is, if you take yourself seriously as a tourist destination; you do what is necessary to make it attractive and marketable.

If Hex NST etc are all beyond hope, then remove and replace at least one of them. It is simply not acceptable to remove 2 major rides, fail to replace them and then shut 5 other rides. Especially annoying seeing as I'll be visiting when Galactica hasn't opened as well.
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don't forget that Hex, NST and Charlie would be very difficult to remove and replace due to the specially-built/historical buildings that they're located in. apparently Charlie's IP has run out, so it will need to be re-themed if they don't renew it, but i'm not sure if they'll keep the simulator section or not (i quite like that section).
 
skyscraper said:
don't forget that Hex, NST and Charlie would be very difficult to remove and replace due to the specially-built/historical buildings that they're located in. apparently Charlie's IP has run out, so it will need to be re-themed if they don't renew it, but i'm not sure if they'll keep the simulator section or not (i quite like that section).
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Maybe.

But the answer is not just to leave them all closed, and if that is the only viable solution it should have a) been reflected in the price and b) made common knowledge far earlier than it has been.
 
Sad thing is I forgot to mention that it does seem like a double knife sword really. Without these ride closures we might not have been getting the whole TLC thing. If shutting down rides in exchange for basic (basic as what most big parks do, are you listening Merlin?!) maintenance is their way of thinking...

Then again I cant be shocked that this is Merlin ofc.
 
I think it is really bad that they left these ride closure confimation until a week prior to opening. Yes I'm looking forward to ride Galactica and to see what the park looks like after the TLC program, but please can we also have a CC (Customer Care) program and bring back the magic. We need Alton to be more transparency with any future plans especially if they involve ride closure and stagger ride times etc...

If these attractions are being closed as part of the TLC program, then I personally think that they should only close one ride at a time in rotation whilst it gets some TLC.


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