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Opening Hours: A comparison around the UK and Europe

Matt Creek said:
For many years, Towers was the flagship park of the UK (and one of the leading European parks), even perhaps still around 2010 time.

Now it's a regional park with pathetic opening hours, where any day over 7 hours is now somewhat a bonus, amongst a continuation of mothballed attractions, shops, eateries and even hotel rooms now.

Towers struggles to live up to the quality of park's Like Plopsaland and Tripsdrill as an experience, let alone the leading European park's which resemble Europa, Efteling and even Liseberg (to a lesser extent).

The Pleasure Beach will slaughter them in 2018 if recent trends are anything to go by.
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The thing you always fail to mention when you post this over and over again is that Towers has a reputation in the UK theme park industry and amongst the general public that no other UK theme park has, regardless of the situation it's currently in. It is still easily the most famous theme park in the UK, so it'll never be seen as a mere "regional park". A park with the best coasters in the UK on the same level as Plopsaland? Seriously???

Yes, it's living off the reputation of past glories achieved long ago in the Tussauds days, and yes the ride closures paint a very bad picture. But don't forget cuts were taking place long before The Smiler crash, yet up until 2015, the park's visitor numbers were still hugely healthy. Alton Towers is the theme park people in the UK know the most about - its fame preceeds it. Something that famous (or even infamous) cannot be considered regional level.

I get things are bad right now, but it is what it is. A few rides closed in Cloud Cuckoo Land will definitely rankle with some of the GP, but it's not the deal breaker many are making it out to be. The truth of the matter is, the visitor numbers are slowly increasing since the crash, and did so in spite of the closures. And they should continue to do so, especially next year. Blackpool's new ride certainly looks better than SW8, but that doesn't alter the fact Towers have the fame factor that'll still ensure SW8 is a success.

I am not happy with the depleted ride line up, poor opening hours, lack of care from Merlin and so on. But your constant assertations that parks like Paultons and BPB (which, let's not forget, recorded a loss last year) are now bigger deals in the UK theme park industry than Alton Towers is faintly ridiculous. It may be a damning indictment of the state of the UK theme park industry, but Alton Towers is still the no.1 theme park in the UK. Towers' actual ride hardware, which is the fundamental factor in measuring a park's quality, is still the most impressive in the country.
 
Towers is a world renown park being run like a regional park (or for max profits with min expense), that simple...

It'll take several years of growth for Paultons and several years of consistent good times at BPB to be bigger, especially given BPB still needs some work throughout the park, adding a Mack coaster won't suddenly take away all the negatives...
 
Yes but they sell to people, and as we know people are stupid. See Merlin HQ for examples...
 
The frustration though, of course, is that Alton Towers still has rollercoasters to quash the majority of parks in Europe.

And even with the middle-of-the-road GCI that appears to be on the table for 2018, that will take the park's tally of major coasters to seven. Not to be sniffed at. But it's everything else - the periphery - that other parks just seem to be able to nail.

Whether it's events. Food and drink. Live entertainment. Shopping. Arts/Crafts offerings...

It is baffling too, because with more of the periphery, Alton Towers would attract different generations of visitors that used to come in the 1980s and early 1990s but abandoned them by 2000.
 
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To clarify, I said ride hardware (and I wasn't just talking about coasters here) was a fundamental factor in making a successful theme park, certainly not the only factor. But I do believe it is probably the *most* important factor. A park that is open 12 plus hours, not expensive, beautifully well kept, nice looking, friendly staff, with a wide variety of shows and ents would mean next to nothing if the rides are crap.

And on an unrelated note, Towers may be being run like a regional park, but that's not the same as actually being a regional park, which is the point I was most objecting too.
 
andeyhart said:
To clarify, I said ride hardware (and I wasn't just talking about coasters here) was a fundamental factor in making a successful theme park, certainly not the only factor. But I do believe it is probably the *most* important factor. A park that is open 12 plus hours, not expensive, beautifully well kept, nice looking, friendly staff, with a wide variety of shows and ents would mean next to nothing if the rides are crap.

And on an unrelated note, Towers may be being run like a regional park, but that's not the same as actually being a regional park, which is the point I was most objecting too.
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Europa Park, Efteling & Disney all say hello...
 
Benzin said:
Europa Park, Efteling & Disney all say hello...
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So you're saying those parks have crap rides?

The point I was making in the sentence you bolded was that a hypothetical park that does everything perfectly except for the rides would not be a good park, hence why rides are the most important element in making a theme park good - they are a theme park's bread and butter. Most people go to theme parks to go on rides (any ride, not just coasters).

The parks you listed all have very good rides, so I'm not sure why you mentioned them.
 
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As much as it pains me to admit it, I have to agree with side of Alton now being a regional Park with some world class rides now.
The main reason for this is that if I lived abroad I would not make a special to visit the park. I may visit if I was close as part of my holiday but not the reason for my holiday. There is just not enough support to the coasters to fill a day let alone a couple of days on park.

I have even read on other forums that if it wasn't for the mack at BPB next year they don't think they would make the effort for SW8 as it just doesn't look appealing to them.

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Alton Towers is still a good theme park to visit if:

- All rie
swalesuk01 said:
As much as it pains me to admit it, I have to agree with side of Alton now being a regional Park with some world class rides now.
The main reason for this is that if I lived abroad I would not make a special to visit the park. I may visit if I was close as part of my holiday but not the reason for my holiday. There is just not enough support to the coasters to fill a day let alone a couple of days on park.

I have even read on other forums that if it wasn't for the mack at BPB next year they don't think they would make the effort for SW8 as it just doesn't look appealing to them.

Sent from my E6653 using Tapatalk
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The thing is, if you lived abroad you so WOULD make a special visit to the park.

;)
 
If it was just down to the rides themselves, then Towers would be the only UK theme park I'd visit if I lived abroad.
 
I wouldn't go as far as saying that Alton Towers is a regional park as people are still willing to travel 3plus hours to visit on a yearly basis and still has nothing on other uk parks such as flamingo land, light water valley. Yes it's not as good as it used to be in the years of UG Land and cred street but still has a good range of rollercoasters which appeals to members of the general public looking for a short break/day out in the uk with the family but only if they have no kids aged between 6 and 12 as there is nothing much for that age group.
 
belongstothesmiler said:
I wouldn't go as far as saying that Alton Towers is a regional park as people are still willing to travel 3plus hours to visit on a yearly basis and still has nothing on other uk parks such as flamingo land, light water valley. Yes it's not as good as it used to be in the years of UG Land and cred street but still has a good range of rollercoasters which appeals to members of the general public looking for a short break/day out in the uk with the family but only if they have no kids aged between 6 and 12 as there is nothing much for that age group.
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In brief, the proposed 2017 ticketing price don't offer value for money when you consider the opening hours and open rides. The visitation of last season, I would expect, would have a smaller % of repeat custom returning this season, than in previous years, irrespective of June '15. I hold this opinion because many people wouldn't have been aware of such dire opening hours and poor ride offering. Let's be honest, the majority of people who visit, visit impromptu, and will have been miffed about the aforementioned issues, and I doubt will return this season.
 
Let's be honest, the majority of people who visit, visit impromptu, and will have been miffed about the aforementioned issues, and I doubt will return this season.
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A lot of visitors show up impromptu, but it's a bit of a reach to suggest the majority of these people wouldn't return this year. Don't forget, lots of young adults turn up to Towers impromptu, and I doubt they'd have given a damn about the loss of Wobble World or Driving School. The opening hours would be a problem, but don't forget the days where the opening hours are at their worst are the off peak days, and on many off peak days the park was pretty quiet last year. A thrill-seeker based group turning up on one of these days would have probably welcomed a quiet day with short to no queues, even with 4.30 closing hours. Families, obviously, would have more of a problem.
 
The big issue with me over 4:30 closing is that it means getting through Stoke in the rush hour, then M6 northbound hell for about two hours instead of one hour.
I should add that on a few of my last visits I had done all the rides I wanted, twice on each coaster, and left by 3pm as there was nothing else open that I wanted to ride...
and the M6 was still hell.
 
All the major coasters could be done multiple times within the 6 and half hour opening times last season.
 
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