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Paultons Park: Super Fans Day - 18/05/24

Yes, Cheese and I are certainly very grateful for the opportunity and we sincerely hope Paultons holds another event next year. It was also nice to meet some of you off here in attendance too, hopefully we'll see you again at meets in the near future.
 
It was my first ever visit and it was so good that my group and I immediately started planning to revisit as soon as possible. There's just so much to do! Normally I find theme park trips very overstimulating (as much as I love them), but paultons had a very calm atmosphere. I thought the new log flume was really cool, especially the dinosaur animatronics. Everything felt so magical! (except maybe critter creek, but they admitted they knew that was a bit of a miss. I wish that had more of a whimsical theme then weird).

Even peppa pig world was fun to visit as an adult, which I didn't expect. The areas so nicely presented and I think the rides are a nice relaxing break from rollercoasters. After visiting merlin parks a lot, I was impressed just by the quality of the paintowrk and upkeep of the rides. Everythign looked basically brand new! It's nice to see a theme park so committed to guest experience, you could really tell! And they seemed to really care about their staff too which is amazing, when I spoke to some of them they said about how much they love working there.

I would love if they did it again next year, it was so incredible! And the day after my birthday so i'm a little biased haha. I was blown away by how good everything was. I love family rides and theming so it was an absolutely perfect day out! Can't wait to visit again soon either way. Thank you paultons, I had the best birthday ever!
 
Thank you so much to everyone who joined us yesterday... we were absolutely blown away by how far people travelled to be with us.

We do genuinely love theme parks and to share our passion with so many like minded people was overwhelming. I personally spoke to loads of visitors and loved hearing your views and ideas for the Park as well as just talking all things coasters!

If we don't see you before... we'll see you all in 2025 for Ghostly Manor.
 
Paultons Park said:
Thank you so much to everyone who joined us yesterday... we were absolutely blown away by how far people travelled to be with us.

We do genuinely love theme parks and to share our passion with so many like minded people was overwhelming. I personally spoke to loads of visitors and loved hearing your views and ideas for the Park as well as just talking all things coasters!

If we don't see you before... we'll see you all in 2025 for Ghostly Manor.
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It was totally worth a four hour drive, I can assure you!
If you do one for Ghostly Manor's opening next year I'll definitely apply to come again 😊
 
Paultons Park said:
Thank you so much to everyone who joined us yesterday... we were absolutely blown away by how far people travelled to be with us.

We do genuinely love theme parks and to share our passion with so many like minded people was overwhelming. I personally spoke to loads of visitors and loved hearing your views and ideas for the Park as well as just talking all things coasters!

If we don't see you before... we'll see you all in 2025 for Ghostly Manor.
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To paraphrase an old saying, around your parts, it was a hoot hoot! 🦉🪿
 
Shaggy_Dog_ said:
I was watching Lift Hills & Thrills vlog and I spotted you on that. It’s a bit weird when you watch a vlog and spot a face and think “Ah, I know that person” then realise it’s just from a thumbnail pic by someone’s posts.
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Good spot! I'd already watched his vlog so don't know how I missed myself lol. Not keen on how I look in it tbh 😂😬

Edit: I'm in Theme Park Insanity's vlog as well, and even on the thumbnail! :eek:😬
 
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Amazing day! Very long but totally worth it!
Wish all parks could take a leaf out of Paulton's book not just with park upkeep but also extending their arms out to the very people who enjoy them and give feedback!
Looking forward to the next one!
 
bethpepper said:
Wish all parks could take a leaf out of Paulton's book not just with park upkeep but also extending their arms out to the very people who enjoy them and give feedback!
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Alton Towers did run a few fan events back in the 2000s, there was a charge but the included food etc felt worth it. Now you either pay a significant amount for the parks VIP offering, or go to a Towers Times / Attraction Source event. So there are a few similar fan events still for the Merlin parks, its just no longer organised by the park.
 
jon81uk said:
Alton Towers did run a few fan events back in the 2000s, there was a charge but the included food etc felt worth it. Now you either pay a significant amount for the parks VIP offering, or go to a Towers Times / Attraction Source event. So there are a few similar fan events still for the Merlin parks, its just no longer organised by the park.
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I think we're going to see more events being organised and run by Merlin themselves, and fewer Attraction Source exclusives. The Merlin parks need to charge for these events, realistically, because they'll be over subscribed. There are far more people who would be interested in a behind the scenes / fan event at Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Chessington World of Adventures and Legoland, than Paultons.

Paultons gave away 250 tickets for their Super Fans event, around 225 attended (according to the PR company rep I spoke with). Paultons can't compete with the Merlin parks with their gigantic marketing budgets, but they can engage with their community. Community events, management and building is what you do when you're a small fish, without much of a spend, and need to create an engaged conversation about you.

I overheard a vlogger saying to a PR rep that they "need to go to Merlin and get them to run an event like this". Merlin was in the back of everyone's head when they were at the event. "Merlin wouldn't do something like this", "Can you imagine being allowed to walk around Nemesis like this?", "Why don't Merlin do this?", "Wouldn't see this at a Merlin park". Merlin ARE the conversation, they don't need to wine and dine fans, or vloggers, they've got them queueing up for every scrap that's thrown to them. Additionally, for Merlin, it doesn't make sense to target and cater for that audience when they are running a PR event. The vlogging audience are already engaged, they need a wider audience. This is why you see soap stars, reality TV influencers, or local TV media, C listers etc at Merlin PR events and not vloggers.

A well known vlogger, who shall remain unnamed lest the legion of fans descend, often says that "Alton Towers wont work with vloggers". That's not true. In fact this particular vlogger did get an exclusive walkaround chat with Bianca fairly early on. Alton Towers don't need to work with vloggers.

In the early days, Apple's WWDC and Google's IO event used to be free for developers to attend. As these companies grew, and interest with it, they got to a point where they were able to and needed to charge for the event in order to control numbers and keep those who are truly engaged (and going to get something out of it) and not attending just because it seems fun / cool. This is where the Merlin parks are.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
I think we're going to see more events being organised and run by Merlin themselves, and fewer Attraction Source exclusives. The Merlin parks need to charge for these events, realistically, because they'll be over subscribed. There are far more people who would be interested in a behind the scenes / fan event at Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Chessington World of Adventures and Legoland, than Paultons.

Paultons gave away 250 tickets for their Super Fans event, around 225 attended (according to the PR company rep I spoke with). Paultons can't compete with the Merlin parks with their gigantic marketing budgets, but they can engage with their community. Community events, management and building is what you do when you're a small fish, without much of a spend, and need to create an engaged conversation about you.

I overheard a vlogger saying to a PR rep that they "need to go to Merlin and get them to run an event like this". Merlin was in the back of everyone's head when they were at the event. "Merlin wouldn't do something like this", "Can you imagine being allowed to walk around Nemesis like this?", "Why don't Merlin do this?", "Wouldn't see this at a Merlin park". Merlin ARE the conversation, they don't need to wine and dine fans, or vloggers, they've got them queueing up for every scrap that's thrown to them. Additionally, for Merlin, it doesn't make sense to target and cater for that audience when they are running a PR event. The vlogging audience are already engaged, they need a wider audience. This is why you see soap stars, reality TV influencers, or local TV media, C listers etc at Merlin PR events and not vloggers.

A well known vlogger, who shall remain unnamed lest the legion of fans descend, often says that "Alton Towers wont work with vloggers". That's not true. In fact this particular vlogger did get an exclusive walkaround chat with Bianca fairly early on. Alton Towers don't need to work with vloggers.

In the early days, Apple's WWDC and Google's IO event used to be free for developers to attend. As these companies grew, and interest with it, they got to a point where they were able to and needed to charge for the event in order to control numbers and keep those who are truly engaged (and going to get something out of it) and not attending just because it seems fun / cool. This is where the Merlin parks are.
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and the few Alton Towers organised events back in the 2000s were for enthusiasts to attend and hear about a rides history, many people there were members of groups like RCCGB, ECC or users of boards like Rideas or Alton Towers Almanac. Vlogging wasn't a thing. The charge covered a meal or hotel stay and felt fair for what it was.

In my opinion those sorts of events aren't for vloggers and filming probably should not be allowed. By all means parks can offer press events where vloggers can film, but paid events listening to the park talk about rides should be for the benefit of those in the room, like a theatre play.

The Paultons event does sound a mix of both of course, both information for enthuiasts and vloggers, but it needs to be made clear when they can use it for content that makes them money (basically then they are press).
 
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