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Paultons Park: General Discussion

Dave said:
If Paultons do it even though they are not I would say that’s actually a bit naff for their guests.
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As opposed to Alton where they just have ride downtime randomly throughout the year...

I'd much rather have planned downtime knowing the rest of the park was available as opposed to the Russian roulette style, downtime lottery we get with the Merlin parks.
 
No-one is holding up Merlin parks (in 2024) as an example of how ride maintenance should be done. At any park with an extended winter closure it should be possible to visit on a random day and not have any rides completely unavailable. Until a few years ago having a ride closed at Towers for a day or more, planned or otherwise, was a rare occurrence
 
MaxPower said:
As opposed to Alton where they just have ride downtime randomly throughout the year...

I'd much rather have planned downtime knowing the rest of the park was available as opposed to the Russian roulette style, downtime lottery we get with the Merlin parks.
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People do get their knickers in a twist if you question Paultons don’t they….

But as John said I wasn’t bringing Towers into it, so you can relax.
 
My response stemmed more out of frustration with towers operations than any kind of moistness for Paultons to be honest but I get your point.

I'm not wearing any knickers anyway, the boys are free range these days....;)
 
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Tussauds/Merlin became a victim of their own success, they got too cocky by the mid to late 2000s (and paying for it ever since), and their four big parks (Legoland, Chessington, Thorpe, and Altons) by the turn of the 2020s (fairly or unfairly) gained the reputation of starting to feel like collapsing hulks next to the more consistent family company run Paultons Park (where their Lost Kingdom and Tornado Springs areas are giving Merlin's parks a good run for their money and left the pre-buy out Drayton Manor in the dust).
 
TedShatner10 said:
Tussauds/Merlin became a victim of their own success, they got too cocky by the mid to late 2000s (and paying for it ever since), and their four big parks (Legoland, Chessington, Thorpe, and Altons) by the turn of the 2020s (fairly or unfairly) gained the reputation of starting to feel like collapsing hulks next to the more consistent family company run Paultons Park (where their Lost Kingdom and Tornado Springs areas are giving Merlin's parks a good run for their money and left the pre-buy out Drayton Manor in the dust).
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Tussaud's never had operational control, or ownership, over Legoland. The Lego Group, as part of their diversification in the 2000s, sold the operational rights to Legoland to the investment management firm Blackstone. Blackstone later awarded the operational contract to Merlin Entertainments, shortly before purchasing Tussaud's for them.
 
No, the original Tussauds never owned Legoland, but in a convoluted way Merlin very much feels like a interconnected successor to the defunct Tussauds Group, with much of the same personnel (fronted by Alton Towers veteran Nick Varney) and likely even the same office address, with the original Lego firm still partly owning Merlin's assets through the Kirkbi A/S holding company alongside BlackStone.

By far the bigger business empire next to Paultons Park, but Tussauds and then Merlin slowly fell victim to the theme park equivalent of "ens***erfication" that the local theme park managers are now trying to climb out of (with mixed results, with Alton Towers still stuck in awkward transition).

Paultons Park seemed to have remained under more "slow but steady" family management, was still nascent during the 90s and 00s, but has kept on rapidly expanded with better QA discipline since the turn of the 2010s (Merlin grew too big, too fast worldwide, indirectly impacting its Tussauds parks).
 
Most of us here have worked for or know someone who worked for Meelin, it's no secret how they run, and that's as cheaply as possible.

I'm not for a moment going to suggest the essential and safety maintainance isn't done, but when it is will the workshop floor be swept, will the excess grease we wiped up, will things be routinely cleaned? Usually not, not because the workers don't care but because they will have more of the essential tasks to get to.

Paultons clearly give their engineers and staff time to properly care for the rides. Yes, there's some new stock, but the old old stuff is immaculate too. It should be no surprise that all these things feed into reliability as well as presentation.
 
I do think that tidy workshops in engineering companies never look right.

However I guess Paultons engineers gave far more time on their hands so they can do odd jobs like that.
 
pluk said:
Most of us here have worked for or know someone who worked for Meelin, it's no secret how they run, and that's as cheaply as possible.

I'm not for a moment going to suggest the essential and safety maintainance isn't done, but when it is will the workshop floor be swept, will the excess grease we wiped up, will things be routinely cleaned? Usually not, not because the workers don't care but because they will have more of the essential tasks to get to.

Paultons clearly give their engineers and staff time to properly care for the rides. Yes, there's some new stock, but the old old stuff is immaculate too. It should be no surprise that all these things feed into reliability as well as presentation.
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Actually on maintenance they don’t work cheaply, they do pay badly put the maintenance schedules are as recommended and the parts sourced from high quality providers. I’m not saying that’s because they are an amazing company I suspect it’s to satisfy insurers but that’s a guess.

Merlins issue is they have not invested in new hardware. You can maintain a machine really well but there comes a time when they just go “nope”.
 
Dave said:
Actually on maintenance they don’t work cheaply, they do pay badly put the maintenance schedules are as recommended and the parts sourced from high quality providers. I’m not saying that’s because they are an amazing company I suspect it’s to satisfy insurers but that’s a guess.

Merlins issue is they have not invested in new hardware. You can maintain a machine really well but there comes a time when they just go “nope”.
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Its called preventative maintenance replacing parts as they near the end of the life cycle before they fail…. Lots of industry’s do this as on a production line a failure is big money loss ££££.

If a ride is down at merlin it doesn't result in massive losses of income usually, nor do they operate a just in time supply chain as they dont plan for failures or hold a decent amounts of spares as it can be seen as wasted cash flow
 
Rob F said:
Its called preventative maintenance replacing parts as they near the end of the life cycle before they fail…. Lots of industry’s do this as on a production line a failure is big money loss ££££.

If a ride is down at merlin it doesn't result in massive losses of income usually, nor do they operate a just in time supply chain as they dont plan for failures or hold a decent amounts of spares as it can be seen as wasted cash flow
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So industry never replaces its 20+ year old hardware for newer models? Yeah right…..
 
pluk said:
Most of us here have worked for or know someone who worked for Meelin, it's no secret how they run, and that's as cheaply as possible.
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Merlin Entertainments being too cheap with running things ended up inflicting an expensive cost on their reputation and flagship themeparks in the past decade, and despite a dramatic commercial turn around since '22 and new rides, they're still billions in debt and amid a dramatic shake up in management (Paultons Park punching above its weight since the mid 2010s has been an ugly practice run for Merlin's parks facing real competition).
 
I think we are moving this topic away from its intended focus of Paultons but again Paultons is geographically not competing with any Merlin property, Merlin will be aware of it and I’m certain their additional spending on the Nemesis theming was maybe influenced by the increased quality parks like Paultons are putting out there, but it just isn’t a player for Merlin and I suspect planning rules around the park will never really make it one. If you want some healthy competition before universal you need to look to Drayton continuing to improve.

But to be honest I’m not sure why everyone is so desperate to see Paultons as the David to Merlin’s Goliath, can’t we just enjoy it for what it is, a high quality, lovely little regional park?
 
Dave said:
I think we are moving this topic away from its intended focus of Paultons but again Paultons is geographically not competing with any Merlin property, Merlin will be aware of it and I’m certain their additional spending on the Nemesis theming was maybe influenced by the increased quality parks like Paultons are putting out there, but it just isn’t a player for Merlin and I suspect planning rules around the park will never really make it one. If you want some healthy competition before universal you need to look to Drayton continuing to improve.

But to be honest I’m not sure why everyone is so desperate to see Paultons as the David to Merlin’s Goliath, can’t we just enjoy it for what it is, a high quality, lovely little regional park?
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I think Paultons Park complements Merlin very well with it's high quality approach to theming, maintenance and experience.

It's a more premium family park which in a few years will continue to grow and evolve especially with more thrilling rides coming with the new Viking area.

Comparing Paultons to the UK Merlin parks is like comparing Phantasialand to either Heide Park/Gardaland or the Walibis.

Alton Towers and Chessington both have similar or worse planning constraints in comparison to Paultons Park so I think they'd compete with those parks more easily than they would with Thorpe Park.

I've got the view that Paultons will compete with Merlin and Alton Towers even if that's not the intention. It's in a more accessible location than Alton Towers and is close to Bournemouth, Southampton, Portsmouth and Isle of Wight which are popular tourist destinations.

I am very excited about the park's future. 🤩
 
owenstreet7 said:
I think Paultons Park complements Merlin very well with it's high quality approach to theming, maintenance and experience.

It's a more premium family park which in a few years will continue to grow and evolve especially with more thrilling rides coming with the new Viking area.

Comparing Paultons to the UK Merlin parks is like comparing Phantasialand to either Heide Park/Gardaland or the Walibis.

Alton Towers and Chessington both have similar or worse planning constraints in comparison to Paultons Park so I think they'd compete with those parks more easily than they would with Thorpe Park.

I've got the view that Paultons will compete with Merlin and Alton Towers even if that's not the intention. It's in a more accessible location than Alton Towers and is close to Bournemouth, Southampton, Portsmouth and Isle of Wight which are popular tourist destinations.

I am very excited about the park's future. 🤩
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For everyone north of the Watford gap (we exist) it’s not accessible, the last 15 minutes of the journey to Towers is country roads but it’s bang in the middle of the country hence its profile. Unless the long term plan is to move the park to the midlands its reach will always be limited.
 
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