Resort Entertainments Discussion

[Dave]

So on Saturday Alton Towers where playing host to a quirky but extremely entertaining (in my view) band, they played on Towers Street at the begining and end of the day as well as on Fountain Square around 1pm. Although not confirmed its assumed that this was a trial for future street entertaiment.

You can see a video (not great quality) on the TS Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/TowersStreet

 

[Stelios]

I'd favour this over Muddy Good Fun to celebrate summer anyday. I'd give out offers at Woodcutters so that more can be aware of this otherwise Alton will quickly realise that is will fail. I wouldn't expect this to last beyond September though but it's encouraging that quality entertainment continues to be added this year. Anyone know what the band was called?

 

[AstroDan]

They 'trialled' something last year too - mime artists etc. on Towers St.

There just isn't money for anything other than pirates and a couple of costumed characters.

Alton has the least street and other entertainment compared to any other park I know of its stature. Hersheypark had a Facebook page showcasing two of its shows the other day. I say Hershey because it's not just European parks who do it more.

I have given up Alton ever having anything more than it does now. The resort seem to view all entertainment outside of Halloween as solely aimed at kids.

It is a joke no matter how much I sympathise with those involved.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

 

[Dave]

Trouble is Merlin have proved that they are not really interested in providing a quality product and the individual teams have to the best they can. BUT having seen these guys play live they would be absolutely amazing for Scarefest and they need entertainment to get better.

 

[josht]

After seeing them on Saturday I think they could really work around the park they bring a reel uplifting feel to where they proform

 

[Bert2theSpark]

I was going to start my own thread as I've noticed that the forum does give occasionally frequent feedback about entertainment at the resort, but as this thread exists I'll revive this thread after 10 years of inactivity, especially after the past few seasons being Entertainments-heavy in the post-COVID recovery.

Ever since I first visited the Resort back in 2014, I've noticed a far shift in the variety of Entertainment from having the stilt walkers Park Maintenance street performers, to the pirate show in Mutiny Bay, the Ice Age 4D cinema, to the introduction of ATTP in 2017 with their segways, to the brief Forbidden Valley dance show in 2018.

Meanwhile recently we've seen the stage shows and the new events in Mardi Gras, Oktoberfest, Festival of Thrills, bring the theme park more alive. However I feel as though the recent events the general reaction by most of the park-going public seems to be unaware of the entertainment offering, or "Oh this is really good, but I wasn't expecting this". Or if people visit outside of events like Easter or the Summer Holidays, its very possible that the vast majority of guests outside CBeebies Land won't even have any interaction with any form of entertainments. It's also very very apparent guests also view the quality of their trips by the quantity of rides they get on and I feel like this is a severe misjudgement on what a theme park is.

It also makes the experience of the park very dependent of the operation of the rides, at a time that throughputs have been slowed because of increasing RAP and accessibility on the rides, a general decrease in throughput for various mechanical/technical changes as a ride ages (See Oblivion or Hex this season), operation of rides in unfavourable weather (13 or Spinball). Meanwhile Entertainment offerings are nowhere near as dependant to unforeseen technicalities that the rides can be. For example, I was at the theme park one of the days in the summer when the CCTV went down and the summer stage shows still went ahead because it didn't affect them at all and all 250-odd tables were full of families, yet outside of events or some unfortunate event, it was very uncommon to see more than ten tables at a time occupied. I partially attribute to the lack of advertising within the park about show information as outside of the display billboards and icons on the resort app, the visibility of entertainment offering is really poor which is a huge let-down when the offering, when present, is really good.

Even having spontaneous street teams (or even dance breakouts) across the park, who can perform mini-performances near crowded pathways would help to alleviate people rushing into queue lines, much like ATTP and Park Maintenance have done in the past. Or potentially introduce a new permanent stage show back in Mutiny Bay courtyard and use it as an excuse to overhaul the courtyard, and improve capacity with F&B and Entertainment, like something in-between the temporary stage shows over Oktoberfest/Scarefest and the BBQ Smokehouse that was proposed during the construction of Wicker Man. Potentially even explore the possibility of introducing a night-time show as the park have trialled water-projection and drone shows over the lake in the past couple of seasons, although I recognise there might be a caveat in most the public have a "home by teatime" mentality.

Whilst I'm discussing Entertainment, The Dungeons location is really poor, it's in an isolated back corner of the theme park (where people have already paid money to get in) and isn't even on the way or next to any of the thrill rides. The attraction always seems deserted and I strongly believe that is a combination of price and location as opposed to the actual product offering itself. It would be much better suited outside the theme park as part of the theme park near the monorail and golf by the hotels, and probably even have the added benefit of longer resort stays if it was bundled with something like Adventure Golf. Perhaps in the shorter term, the attraction could use something like a 2 for 1 or having a happy hour where tickets are half price or dare I even say include the attraction for free for MAP/Season Pass holders as an incentive (even if it's limited to off-peak periods) and reduce the volume of MAP users elsewhere in the park, improving the experience of the theme park for everyone.

There's so much more that can be done to improve the presence of entertainment within the resort and from my perspective, there's a bit of a chicken-and-egg mentality as if it's not well advertised then it won't get attention but without attention the entertainment offering won't expand, but I believe it would provide a huge benefit to the theme park and the wider resort.

So what thoughts does everyone else have with entertainment offerings as of recent?

 

[kydog1299]

Best thing they should/could do which would be super cost-effective too would be beacon & push notification technology which is automated.

Example: when you enter a certain area and get close to a beacon, the Bluetooth connectivity sends a push notification to your phone (if you’re opted-in) to inform you of any information you may not be aware of- such as shows, food options, etc.

Couple that with automated push technology when a customer is within the Resort, which sends automated notifications such as ‘Our show on the Front Lawns is about to begin, find it here’ would help to market those shows and additional activities without the need for billboards or adverts which rely on people walking by and paying attention. The other big benefit to push/beacon tech is of course, analytics. You can potentially use it as a lever to push customers into other areas too, e.g if The Smiler had a ridiculous queue time, you can use the app to send triggered automations to say ‘why not try X first’.

Granted- the whole point of theme parks is escapism, so perhaps pushing people to their phones as a ‘personal assistant/guide’ to your day feels like it goes against that ‘escapism’ principle, but many businesses are starting to use that technology now to aid the customer experience. I think it could be really valuable to advertise stuff like mazes, shows, food options, etc.

 

[Bert2theSpark]

Giving notifications to people might have some limited effectiveness, but as you said, it makes the day less fun if you're constantly looking at your phone to do the most stuff. They'd be better having them advertised alongside the rides on the electronic billboards across the park, or even with some physical posters on the path to the X-Sector where Freak Show used to be, it would be much more pleasant than constant posters trying to sell you something. But even then, the stage shows times often changed on a daily basis.

Also older age groups would be less interested in advertised stage shows, and the shows on the front lawns are family oriented anyway. If they wanted to increase entertainment for older age groups, I still think it would be much more effective to have spontaneous sets such as street teams or flash mobs as a means to pull in crowds.

 

[pluk]

It's a difficult thing for them to target, to me they currently are falling between 2 different things.

The ents team I'm sure do very well with the meagre resources they have, but let's face it it is all very amateur. It is quite some way below the sort of thing the redcoats would put on at Butlins, let alone the proper theatre type productions, or skilled performer driven shows, seen at parks on the continent.

That being the case I'm glad the park don't make more of it. If it's 10 to 15 mins of GCSE dressing up, farce, and prattfalls it is something that should be stumbled upon as a diversion and not something people should be planning their day around. That would only lead to disappointment.

What they need is a professional show on a professional stage with skilled performers. You know, like every other country manages to put in their themeparks. That would be the one to promote, to get people to in numbers alleviating the ride queues.

I really liked a lot of the Mardi Gras pop up stuff, and I'm fine with the current ents stuff for what it is, but if they were to use shows as a meaningful driver of capacity and guest enjoyment they'd need to get hugely more professional and invest heavily.

The biggest issue for me right now is the hotel entertainments, which is atrocious and needs a complete rethink, but that's another topic really.