@Robert.W Probably right, I checked the
shareholder structure, and it seems like there are not the big locust investors, who just strip and loot businesses (except if multiple smaller investors cooperate in this). Almost 30% is Kirkbi A/S (Lego), the rest is rather broadly distributed. Business numbers only show that theme parks and UK market are rather weak, which might explain desperate attempts to avoid losses or shrinking numbers.
Or they have seen that this works in other parks, in Europe particularly Port Aventura, and attempt to imitate this bad role model. But PA doesn't reduce operations to as low as 5 hours on busy days. They probably hope a lot of people will look at the best thrill rides only, and suffer everything for them, both in experience and financially.
I like to compare it to video games and post-purchase payments/"microtransactions": Since the beginning of consoles and home computers in the 1980s, video games had been mostly "pay once and for all". In-game payments worked well for "free" browser and mobile games, but then a few AAA games had successful modes with microtransactions. It crept into premium titles for a while, until Star Wars Battlefront 2 was about to become a fully paid premium game, designed mostly to force more payments in the game. Games with microtransactions, beyond "cosmetics", are garbage, not designed for fun, but boring and tedious, in order to offer relief through in-game payments. Last year's battle of Battlefront 2 pushed this whole garbage back, because gamers fought back and voted with their wallets. This backlash has not yet come for theme parks.
