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Merlin ride availability/cost cutting?

djtruefitt

djtruefitt

TS Team
So of course we all know Merlin have had a bit of a rubbish year since the Smiler crash. However now it's actually coming to the busy part of the season it seems the budget cuts are happening across all the perks.

I was at Thorpe last weekend and the following rides were closed all weekend
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On top of this Vortex was closed Saturday and most of Sunday. Loggers leap opens at 11am and. Loggers leap and Rapids then closes in the evening.

Now I really don't mind water rides closing in the evening when it's cold, however having im a celeb closed when it's your brand new attraction is a bit of a poor show. Samurai seems to spend more time closed than it does open now and the same applies to Slammer as well.

Meanwhile we head to Alton towers and The Smiler, wobble world, sub terra and the flume is closed. CCL opens at 11am and will close at 7pm. CBeebies land will close at 7pm. Ice age is showing 6 times a day, battle galleons is open 11am till 4pm and the Rapids is open at 11am.

Then let's head to Chessington, where tomb blaster and safari skyway is closed for the rest of the season. Dragon falls opens at 12, Griffins galleon is open 12 till 3pm and various other rides are also only open for s few hours during the day.


Thorpe was busy at the weekend and having 6 or 7 rides closed doesn't help the situation. If towers ends up being busy during Scarefest they will also have s large number of rides closed at points during the day. If they have to make these cuts Why not make them in September and early October when the parks are quiet, rather than the busiest part of the year.

The worst thing is the entry price will remain the same, or in Thorpes case it has actually gone up!
 
The words "this is ridiculous" spring to mind.

When you outline it like that, it is ludicrous.
 
Angry Birds 4D was running last Friday (though I think it might have closed later in the day). I think it was only running 1 show per hour, but I wasn't really paying much attention to it as it's basically just a 15min advert.

Ride availability is shocking across the Merlin parks at the moment, LLW have a couple of attractions closed too, but as one of those is the outdoor water play area it's not such a big deal.

Towers and Thorpe both currently have 2 rides closed due to major ongoing issues, so it's not OK to deliberately shut others at the busiest time of year.
 
John said:
LLW have a couple of attractions closed too, but as one of those is the outdoor water play area it's not such a big deal.
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I think their actually doing work of some kind in the area, so I don't mind that as much because I don't think it's closed of costs.
 
Safe to say 2015 has been a poor year Merlinwide, except for the Legolands & Gardaland.

I really hope this WC16 attraction works out next year as otherwise I dread what measures Merlin will do next.
 
Their satisfaction levels (which they are supposed to monitor and identify as key) will plummet if this keeps up.
 
I feel that satisfaction levels are through the floor already with most merlin attractions.

Fact is that they will have little concern about this as they own most of the few decent theme parks with thrill rides in the UK, and unless thrillseekers are willing to travel abroad then they have no choice but to visit merlin parks and put up with the terrible service and horrendous upselling.

These days I feel more inclined to visit BPB as the upkeep and customer satisfaction seems to be a lot higher than merlin parks recently, and that's saying something!
 
Samurai is now open, it was in bits the other day, so there was clearly an issue.

And I assumed I'm a celeb uses the same building as the Asylum, because it was announced that it wouldn't open during Fright Nights ages ago.
 
Lordy said:
And I assumed I'm a celeb uses the same building as the Asylum, because it was announced that it wouldn't open during Fright Nights ages ago.
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It does. But that's irrelevant because The Asylum / Studio 13 no longer operates and no Fright Nights maze presently occupies that building. It's safe to assume that I'm a Celebrity is simply SBNO.
 
AstroDan said:
Things are likely to only get worse in 2016.
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Can I ask why? Thorpe has had a bad season this year with poor ride availability due to breakdowns. Towers had the smiler incident which pretty much wrote off this season for them. I'm aware that chessington has been having lots of breakdown issues (vampire at the start of the season, rattlesnake and dragons fury after the smiler, tomb blaster and other rides now). Not sure about other merlin parks. How can it get much worse, and I'm hoping that they will make an effort to have better availability next season.
 
Leah said:
Can I ask why? Thorpe has had a bad season this year with poor ride availability due to breakdowns. Towers had the smiler incident which pretty much wrote off this season for them. I'm aware that chessington has been having lots of breakdown issues (vampire at the start of the season, rattlesnake and dragons fury after the smiler, tomb blaster and other rides now). Not sure about other merlin parks. How can it get much worse, and I'm hoping that they will make an effort to have better availability next season.
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Well they will need to save money somehow. Staggered openings and ride availability is the go-to option for them.
 
Tom.B said:
Well they will need to save money somehow. Staggered openings and ride availability is the go-to option for them.
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Good point, but closing main rides (stealth, I'm a celebrity) isn't very good. I'm all for closing cebeebees land after it gets dark, and the flume when it's colder, but some things are worth opening. Understand more minor rides closing though.
 
I'd imagine there is an issue that they don't think is worth fixing before the end of the season yes.

:)
 
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