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Ride Availability 2018

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5 major coasters down now. Towers is becoming like Thorpe.
 
Matt N said:
I'm surprised at how short the WM queue is, considering nothing else is open in terms of thrill coasters... I would have expected it to be 180 minutes like it was on its opening weekend! Operations must be improving on the ride if they are able to reduce queues to 120 minutes! Besides, it's not their fault that the coasters are having a bad day with regards to reliability. It is a bummer, I admit, but these things happen...
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Matt, I admire your optimism. I would be concerned if Wicker Man continually had a 3 hour queue; opening weekend was somewhat of a one-off with the vast majority of people there determed to get a ride. Operations and reliability of the ride, combined with a huge fastrack queue, meant that the throughput for the main queue was woeful. I still wouldn't call 120 minutes short!

Ride breakdowns do indeed happen, and it is not always Towers' fault. However it seems far worse this season, and yet again ride's are opening later than they should be because Towers do not have the resource available to get the work done.

The fact that Oblivion, The Smiler, Nemesis and Galactica are all down at 11.15am is quite simply unacceptable. Not to mention the 4 family rides that are also down. What on earth is going on, is there only one techie available to work today!?

:)
 
Alsty said:
Are the rides more unreliable this year, or were they previously quicker to get them resolved so nobody really noticed?

A lot of faults are seemingly fixed quite easily when technical services arrive, but perhaps there's not enough of them to deal with multiple failures across the park.
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Matt N said:
I'm surprised at how short the WM queue is, considering nothing else is open in terms of thrill coasters... I would have expected it to be 180 minutes like it was on its opening weekend! Operations must be improving on the ride if they are able to reduce queues to 120 minutes! Besides, it's not their fault that the coasters are having a bad day with regards to reliability. It is a bummer, I admit, but these things happen...
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By all accounts their technical team are stretched thin, otherwise they wouldn't be having problems opening rides at their advertised times. When other other breakdowns occur during the 10-11am period or they are slow getting a ride running in the morning it sounds like that they end up playing catch up and they don't have the staff to keep on top of things (and I imagine they are probably being instructed to prioritise keeping Wicker Man open as much as possible which is probably a drain on resources given its teething problems).
 
I just don't understand how the operations have got so bad?

How did Alton/Merlin think that they could make cuts during a season that launched a major new ride to attract more guest through the gate and not expect it to have an impact on the guest. I really don't know how Alton are thinking that they can get away with all this?

Guest expectations and needs are clearly not being met this year. People go to a theme park to ride the thrill rides, not to wander around trying to find out whats open or spending their day queuing.

This should be a year that Alton should be winning back its guest, and they have clearly blown it.

I've got my pass, they got my money, but I'm thinking why should I visit, not worth the effort to visit just for a few measly rides
 
Woohoo! We've now got 6 thrill rides up and running, along with all but 3 of the family rides!
 
Just imagine a route of the average guest:

Walks to Wicker Man, 110min queue, I'll come back later. Walks through Katanga Canyon to the Rapids, closed, then to the Mine Train, closed. Starts to get a bit frustrated but that haunted house thing looks cool. Walks to Duel, closed. The anger is boiling now, so they walk to Forbidden Valley where there must be something to enjoy, Nemesis closed, Galactica closed.

How do they possibly expect to maintain a decent reputation!? The place is a mess!
 
Update: Now only two of the family rides are unavailable! Excellent! Maybe we'll get down to zero by the afternoon!

Also, Galactica only has a 30 minute queue! And the Wicker Man queue is down to 80 minutes!

However, on a less positive note, Thirteen has a 75 minute queue and Rita has an 80 minute queue. Park must be unusually busy today considering it's a weekday.
 
Matt N said:
Update: Now only two of the family rides are unavailable! Excellent! Maybe we'll get down to zero by the afternoon!

Also, Galactica only has a 30 minute queue! And the Wicker Man queue is down to 80 minutes!

However, on a less positive note, Thirteen has a 75 minute queue and Rita has an 80 minute queue. Park must be unusually busy today considering it's a weekday.
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Or maybe just that Oblivion and Smiler are still closed so everyone heading to X Sector has gone to Dark Forest instead?
 
Matt N said:
Update: Now only two of the family rides are unavailable! Excellent! Maybe we'll get down to zero by the afternoon!

Also, Galactica only has a 30 minute queue! And the Wicker Man queue is down to 80 minutes!

However, on a less positive note, Thirteen has a 75 minute queue and Rita has an 80 minute queue. Park must be unusually busy today considering it's a weekday.
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Why on earth is that excellent? It is still very poor.

I'm not surprised there are queues for the coasters that are open with 3 headline coasters currently down. I wouldn't say it is unusually busy either, it is still the Easter holidays in some areas. But as I have said before, queue times this season cannot be used as an indicator how busy the park is, certainly not when so many rides are down.

:)
 
I haven't visited Towers in a few years now and was thinking about going later this season to ride Wicker Man but given how woeful operations appear to be across the park, I'm not sure I could put myself through it :mad:. It's embarrassing that this is supposedly the UK's number one Theme Park.
 
MakoMania said:
Does anyone still believe that?
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We are hardly spoilt for choice here in the UK, but there is no doubt that AT is the most renowned and recognised park in the UK. I feel sorry for people visiting from afar, and having to experience such shambolic operations.
 
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