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Park Hours: Updates and Discussion

As someone mentioned on the MAP page - could be this be a result of the staff shortages they currently have and to a degree, the lower visitor numbers there has been this year so far? (and according to her profile, Gemma Richardson works at Towers)

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I mean if the queues aren't too bad it's not a problem and if it turns out to be busier they'll probably extend the hours
 
Do the park even break even with 5k guests or less on park? Unless they get higher visitor numbers during mardi gras weekdays than they have so far, I imagine the hours will stay the same. Weekends are also understandable given that most queues have been between 30-70 mins on 6pm closes. I think with those sort waits they can justify 5pm close.

I would imagine an exact number would be very difficult if not impossible to calculate. Half of those 5k guests could be pass holders on one day, less than a quarter the next. Making certain 'break even' gate figures unreliable at best.
 
I’m no way justifying it but I think it’s fair to say visitor numbers seem to be down at the moment (probably due to cost of living), and prices are increasing.

Staffing may be an issue to an extent but I would bet it’s more likely budget.
 
As well as cost of living, could the reopening of foreign travel be another factor in the reduced visitor numbers, and thus the reduced opening hours?

From what I can gather, a lot of people are saving up the money that they have to go on a big foreign holiday to Spain or Orlando or wherever rather than spending it on UK days out. People are very keen to go abroad again, and I think for many, that desire means that they’d rather save up for a big holiday than spend their money on a “local” day out like Alton Towers.

And if visitor numbers are down, then the park doesn’t really have the justification to extend hours to the same extent as they did last year. If visitor numbers are down in general, then the amount of people likely to stay until 8pm is likely down drastically (as only a certain percentage of visitors would likely stay the whole day anyway). And if the park is deserted after a certain time, then opening later is a bit pointless from a business perspective.

As an example; I went to Thorpe Park in summer 2019, when they were running 8pm closes. After about 4pm or 5pm, the park was absolutely deserted. Like a literal ghost town. I had a brilliant evening, with many rides had, but I can definitely see why those 8pm closes were scrapped not long after my visit; we left at a bit after 6pm, and even then when there was 1.5-2 hours of the day left, there was hardly anyone left on park.

This was a season where Thorpe had comparatively low attendance, so if Towers is getting low attendance this year, then I can definitely see why they aren’t opening to 8pm if that experience was anything to go by.
 
As well as cost of living, could the reopening of foreign travel be another factor in the reduced visitor numbers, and thus the reduced opening hours?

From what I can gather, a lot of people are saving up the money that they have to go on a big foreign holiday to Spain or Orlando or wherever rather than spending it on UK days out. People are very keen to go abroad again, and I think for many, that desire means that they’d rather save up for a big holiday than spend their money on a “local” day out like Alton Towers.

And if visitor numbers are down, then the park doesn’t really have the justification to extend hours to the same extent as they did last year. If visitor numbers are down in general, then the amount of people likely to stay until 8pm is likely down drastically (as only a certain percentage of visitors would likely stay the whole day anyway). And if the park is deserted after a certain time, then opening later is a bit pointless from a business perspective.

As an example; I went to Thorpe Park in summer 2019, when they were running 8pm closes. After about 4pm or 5pm, the park was absolutely deserted. Like a literal ghost town. I had a brilliant evening, with many rides had, but I can definitely see why those 8pm closes were scrapped not long after my visit; we left at a bit after 6pm, and even then when there was 1.5-2 hours of the day left, there was hardly anyone left on park.

This was a season where Thorpe had comparatively low attendance, so if Towers is getting low attendance this year, then I can definitely see why they aren’t opening to 8pm if that experience was anything to go by.

Possibly, but I think that theory falls apart when you consider that apart from the last few years, families have ALWAYS had holidays abroad. It was only the last couple of years they did not. Yet visitor numbers have been higher. So that suggests people took holidays along side days out and short breaks in the UK.

On the back of that, you could then argue that perhaps people are now having to choose between an abroad holiday or a short break / days out in the UK, which again falls back due to the cost of living crisis because they cannot do both. When forced with such an option due to the cost of living, I would guess that most people would probably choose a holiday over short breaks and days out here.

Then, you also have a much higher percentage of people than normal, who sadly, cannot afford to do either.
 
Judging by the current crowd levels I think 5pm is justified. Not as busy as I was expecting for the first day of an event
 
I think it makes sense as to why they are not opening until 8pm, but 5pm does seem a shade early, especially when it was 6pm just two weeks ago when there wasn't an event on.

At some point, the whole thing becomes a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy - if your response to the park being quiet later on in the day is to slash opening hours too heavily, then the short opening hours will drive people away. This is especially true of the 4pm closures - 6 hours is simply not the opening hours you would expect from a major theme park and at a time when people are conscious of budget it does not represent good value for money.
 
It was 6pm last weekend never mind two weeks ago! Nothing justifies losing 3 hours from last year, I'm sorry but it doesn't. An hour, yes. But not 3. We all understand it wasn't going to be 7pm/8pm again, but the amount lost is drastic. I swear some of you would say "oh well crowds are dead so 10-2 would be justified".
 
It was 6pm last weekend never mind two weeks ago! Nothing justifies losing 3 hours from last year, I'm sorry but it doesn't. An hour, yes. But not 3. We all understand it wasn't going to be 7pm/8pm again, but the amount lost is drastic. I swear some of you would say "oh well crowds are dead so 10-2 would be justified".
I mean tbf on a dead day you could easily get on 15+ rides between 10-2 so by 4pm you've had enough anyway. I've left early on a lot of the 4pm closes because I've done everything and there's nothing else to do
 
I mean tbf on a dead day you could easily get on 15+ rides between 10-2 so by 4pm you've had enough anyway. I've left early on a lot of the 4pm closes because I've done everything and there's nothing else to do

Yes, you could. If you knew the park inside out. If you rushed from ride to ride without any breakdowns or without stopping to eat or drink. If the only thing you cared about when visiting a theme park was the ride count.

The above perhaps only accounts for maybe 0.5% of the visitorship, and it's a very, very sad 0.5% at that. The point of going to a theme park should be to enjoy a fulfilling day of riding rides, leisurely strolling around and having time to relax and eat lunch, or grab a drink or three. Which you can easily do whenever you want at most of the top parks in Europe/the world. Sad that Towers has fallen so far to an unrecognisably low level in comparison to these.
 
Yes, you could. If you knew the park inside out. If you rushed from ride to ride without any breakdowns or without stopping to eat or drink. If the only thing you cared about when visiting a theme park was the ride count.

The above perhaps only accounts for maybe 0.5% of the visitorship, and it's a very, very sad 0.5% at that. The point of going to a theme park should be to enjoy a fulfilling day of riding rides, leisurely strolling around and having time to relax and eat lunch, or grab a drink or three. Which you can easily do whenever you want at most of the top parks in Europe/the world. Sad that Towers has fallen so far to an unrecognisably low level in comparison to these.
Completely agree. On one my visits last year we were caught out by the start of the Scottish summer holidays - something I failed to read up on - so the park was really quite busy on a midweek end of June day on a 5pm close. We ended up rushing from ride to ride to get what we wanted done, even then we didn’t get on 3 major coasters due to a combination of closures and large queues. We originally planned to have lunch and a couple of pints at woodcutters and then end the day with a snack and a pint or 2. Sadly all we had time for was a hotdog from a stand in mutiny bay. Not only was the overall theme park experience a bit of a disappointment, the park missed out on probably £50 of additional food and beverage spend that we were willing to spend.

Perhaps the park is caring less and less for day visitors and is gearing up more for the hotel guests who pay the extra £10 to visit the park for a second day. That’s really the only way to get the full experience these days as irritating as that is.
 
Yes, you could. If you knew the park inside out. If you rushed from ride to ride without any breakdowns or without stopping to eat or drink. If the only thing you cared about when visiting a theme park was the ride count.

The above perhaps only accounts for maybe 0.5% of the visitorship, and it's a very, very sad 0.5% at that. The point of going to a theme park should be to enjoy a fulfilling day of riding rides, leisurely strolling around and having time to relax and eat lunch, or grab a drink or three. Which you can easily do whenever you want at most of the top parks in Europe/the world. Sad that Towers has fallen so far to an unrecognisably low level in comparison to these.
I agree but I'm definitely certain every guest will care about the amount of rides they experience. They will want to go on as much as possible to get moneys worth
 
Yes, you could. If you knew the park inside out. If you rushed from ride to ride without any breakdowns or without stopping to eat or drink. If the only thing you cared about when visiting a theme park was the ride count.

The above perhaps only accounts for maybe 0.5% of the visitorship, and it's a very, very sad 0.5% at that. The point of going to a theme park should be to enjoy a fulfilling day of riding rides, leisurely strolling around and having time to relax and eat lunch, or grab a drink or three. Which you can easily do whenever you want at most of the top parks in Europe/the world. Sad that Towers has fallen so far to an unrecognisably low level in comparison to these.
That is true to a degree, but a friend of mine's husband and his mate (both not been to Towers for years) went on Tuesday and got on everything multiple times by close at 4pm. Almost everything was walk on or single-figure queue times. And knowing them, they would've stopped at some point for food and drink. So it is not just the hardened enthusiasts or regular visitors who know the park like the back of their hand that can get everything done without rushing in 6 or 7 hours.
 
Possibly, but I think that theory falls apart when you consider that apart from the last few years, families have ALWAYS had holidays abroad. It was only the last couple of years they did not. Yet visitor numbers have been higher. So that suggests people took holidays along side days out and short breaks in the UK.

On the back of that, you could then argue that perhaps people are now having to choose between an abroad holiday or a short break / days out in the UK, which again falls back due to the cost of living crisis because they cannot do both. When forced with such an option due to the cost of living, I would guess that most people would probably choose a holiday over short breaks and days out here.

Then, you also have a much higher percentage of people than normal, who sadly, cannot afford to do either.
Families have always had holidays abroad have they?
Not in my living memory they haven't.
Even by the seventies, "continental" travel was more for the rich and adventurous only, middle class family holidays abroad were very much a rarity, not an expectation.
Parks are quiet, even very quiet, at the moment because disposable incomes for non necessities are rapidly diminishing.
 
Theyll change.
Still as confident?!

Do the park even break even with 5k guests or less on park? Unless they get higher visitor numbers during mardi gras weekdays than they have so far, I imagine the hours will stay the same. Weekends are also understandable given that most queues have been between 30-70 mins on 6pm closes. I think with those sort waits they can justify 5pm close.
If (m)any of them had paid for a day ticket then yes, comfortably a profit making day. If the park is full of people there for free or pennies pro rata from a stupidly cheap AP then no. If they have devalued their own product to the extent they can't make decent money from 5,000 visiting in a day they have a very broken business and price structure.

This remains self fulfilling. Lower the offering, fewer visit, lower the offering to suit. The opposite would also work.

70 minutes is not a short time to queue for anything, to use that as justification for lower hours is ridiculous.
 
70 minutes is not a short time to queue for anything, to use that as justification for lower hours is ridiculous
Not short no but still gives you time to get on a few rides. If queues were 90+ then 6pm would definitely be needed
 
Families have always had holidays abroad have they?
Not in my living memory they haven't.
Even by the seventies, "continental" travel was more for the rich and adventurous only, middle class family holidays abroad were very much a rarity, not an expectation.
Parks are quiet, even very quiet, at the moment because disposable incomes for non necessities are rapidly diminishing.
I was born in the mid 70s and I had never been on a holiday abroad until I was about 30. I hadn't even been on a plane until I was 25. And that wasn't because my family were poor, more that the cheaper foreign holidays that are around now just didn't exist in the 80s. So summer holidays to Norfolk and Wales it was!

"The young[er] people of today don't know they're born!" as the phrase goes - and that was banded around when I was young too!!

Back to the hours, there could also be more people going on holiday this summer than pre-pandemic summers because many will have had them cancelled/not booked in the last 2 years and this is the first time they've been able to book.
 
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