• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Park Hours: Updates and Discussion

So for clarity, are we at 4pm on weekdays and 5pm on weekends? I should probably inform my mum of the opening hours before our trip on the weekend.
 
In fairness, it does look like we’ve got a 10am-6pm next Saturday, which is great! We’ve also got a 10am-5pm on Friday, which is great!

The days I’m going (Sunday 19th & Monday 20th) are a 10am-5pm for the Sunday and a 10am-4pm on the Monday.
 
10am-5pm isn't bad, but it's not "great". I know people keep arguing that it's not busy enough to warrant later closes, but I'm sure Gardaland isn't busy enough to warrant an 11pm close, yet still do it anyway. I really did think things were on the up from last year. And yes, we can keep using xyz as an excuse, but it's not good enough really. It's costing people more fuel wise to get there for shorter hours than the previous 2 seasons. Has anyone thought that longer opening hours advertised in advance may entice more people to actually visit? I know if I saw a longer day, with how fuel is rising; etc, estimated to be over £2 a litre this summer, it might be more worth my while knowing that I'll at least be getting longer than 6/7 hours. Maybe it's just me, just my thoughts though.
 
Do Merlin determine the opening hours, or do Alton Towers decide them?

Gardaland having 11pm closes would suggest that it’s a park level decision rather than a Merlin one, but I wouldn’t like to be sure.

In fairness, though, Gardaland is a bigger park with higher visitor numbers than Alton Towers, so probably warrants a bigger budget for longer hours.
 
I think it usually comes down to how each park chooses to spend the operating budget they are given by Merlin.

It is a shame that we have gone for hours that at times last year were too long, to hours that are now completely inadequate. 5pm on a lovely sunny Saturday during Mardi Gras is very poor.
 
Don't forget that each park also has operational key-performance indicators of keeping the numbers of rides each guest gets on fairly high. I don't know what the magic number is, but if the average rides-per-guest has hit say 10 with a 5pm close, then they aren't likely to open later. That said, Thorpe's 7pm close today seems fairly excessive looking at the queue times indicated.
 
Tom said:
Don't forget that each park also has operational key-performance indicators of keeping the numbers of rides each guest gets on fairly high. I don't know what the magic number is, but if the average rides-per-guest has hit say 10 with a 5pm close, then they aren't likely to open later. That said, Thorpe's 7pm close today seems fairly excessive looking at the queue times indicated.
Click to expand...
I think location could be a factor. Thorpe is in a relatively built-up area, so most staff won't have far to travel, which makes later closes easier. Towers on the other hand is in the middle of nowhere, so some staff will be coming from further away, hence why are are only minimal late closes (Scarefest and Fireworks).
 
Skyscraper said:
Towers on the other hand is in the middle of nowhere, so some staff will be coming from further away, hence why are are only minimal late closes (Scarefest and Fireworks).
Click to expand...

This isn't really relevant given the copious number of extended closes last year.
 
Danny said:
This isn't really relevant given the copious number of extended closes last year.
Click to expand...
Maybe they did have more staff last year. Maybe the high price of fuel means it’s not worth a job where you have to drive a long distance to get there. Maybe the cost of paying overtime (no idea if they did or not) last year wasn’t actually worth it.
 
jon81uk said:
Maybe they did have more staff last year. Maybe the high price of fuel means it’s not worth a job where you have to drive a long distance to get there. Maybe the cost of paying overtime (no idea if they did or not) last year wasn’t actually worth it.
Click to expand...
I believe there were more staff last year, but not by much. They were still having to bribe them with recruitment referrals and no-sickness incentives to limp by.
 
The excusing of poor operations and opening hours on a supposed recruitment issue doesn't hold any water at all when they have been able to employ an absolute army to dress up and dance about for Mardi Gras. There must be at least 30 of them on every day. They have an abundance of completely non-essential workers, you can not tell me then that they are unable to employ workers who actually are essential to the park operating.
 
pluk said:
The excusing of poor operations and opening hours on a supposed recruitment issue doesn't hold any water at all when they have been able to employ an absolute army to dress up and dance about for Mardi Gras. There must be at least 30 of them on every day. They have an abundance of completely non-essential workers, you can not tell me then that they are unable to employ workers who actually are essential to the park operating.
Click to expand...
People want to be actors and dancers.
They don't want to be ride ops.
Simple.
 
pluk said:
They do for the right money, it just proves the workforce is out there if you pay and treat them right, as is well within Merlins capability to do.
Click to expand...
But for the same money a dancer will want a job using their skills. Needs to be the right job for right money for many people.
 
Could they try thinking outside the box a little with the midweek openings during school time?

Why do they have to open at 10am and close at 4pm, which puts people visiting driving in the rush hour traffic. Why not do midday until 6pm. At least than the close is at 6pm, which even though the park is still only open 6 hours, still sounds better than 4pm.

I can see lots of issues with it, but maybe even testing some late night openings, say 4pm to 10pm, and see how they work with visitor numbers during school time.

I know its only an hour, but something just feels wrong to me about leaving a theme park at 4pm. Not sure what it is, but 5pm seems the magic number to me. As soon as school breaks up though, the closing time is 6pm, every day until the kids are back in school.
 
Last edited:
Later opening during the term time weeks might encourage those who live close enough to pop in after school. Particularly passholders, who then might end up spending by getting dinner at the park etc.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top