Park Hours: Updates and Discussion

[Steve74]

There was a lot of negative press on the usual places about weather and long queues. Like the typical punter expected it to be a dead day with walk on night rides

Jeez, complaining about the weather in March?!! What were people expecting?!! Must remember to put an official complaint into Towers if it's bad weather for the fireworks...

 

[Alphe86]

Tell me about it

 

[Matt.GC]

Historically they have had the buyout days, this gave them a weekend of operation then a week closed to iron out any issues. This seaaon they didn’t have that and they went from closed to full operation. I wonder if this isn’t actually designed to give them a slow ramp up into full operation to avoid major issues.

You could possibly be right there with the lack of buyout days. I would imagine most of the people visiting on these first few days will be Thoosies and pass holders anyway.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

Jeez, complaining about the weather in March?!! What were people expecting?!! Must remember to put an official complaint into Towers if it's bad weather for the fireworks...

I visited on the same fateful Alton After Dark day as @Bowser. The weather was bad enough that every single coaster had significant down time, causing Alton Towers to activate Visit Again For Free for the first time (a revised version of the rainy day guarantee).

We arrived at 0930 and had three rides in total, leaving at 1700 and not staying later on account of the weather, queues and need for a pint. Spending all day in queues for them to get evacuated, then repeating the process wasn't fun.

I also feel as though complaints about the weather are completely valid, considering the lack of enclosed spaces for shelter at the park. Clearly someone at Towers management also feels the same way, as exposed ride platforms are now getting shelter for staff members.

Also, we're British. Since when do we need a valid reason to complain about the weather, regardless of the month or season? Be more patriotic damnit!

 

[gclough79]

Im in the park this morning, its absolutely dead, every ride has been a walk on so far even the queue for Smiler is about 5 minutes.

 

[s_g_k]

Im in the park this morning, its absolutely dead, every ride has been a walk on so far even the queue for Smiler is about 5 minutes.

Yeah it appeared similar yesterday too. Is the full Oktoberfest lineup still going ahead on these dead days? I fear they may look at attendance figures and think it isn’t worth the additional expense on these days .

I’m sure Oktoberfest last year saw much bigger attendances, even on weekdays. The queues on Sunday even didn’t seem to go much beyond 30 minutes.