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Ride Availability/Operations 2022-24

Bowser said:
Or they start work an hour earlier and have everything open on time as advertised to paying guests.
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So what happens then when rides break down in the afternoon but the techies have gone home because they started early and there’s no money to pay the extra hours/they’ve worked their quota of hours?

Every change has a consequence…
 
As much as I didn't like when they closed some days mid-week, I actually would prefer that to what we've got now. Out of peak season and school holidays they could close for a couple of mid-week days, giving an opportunity for technical services to work on the rides. It also means you could afford for them to start earlier and stay the full day on the days the park is open (by reallocating the budget from other departments that no longer need to be staffed on the closed days).

This is far from ideal and I'd prefer a proper seven day opening, but having 5 out of 7 days where they actually offer something decent has to be better than 7 days of misery.
 
Sazzle said:
So what happens then when rides break down in the afternoon but the techies have gone home because they started early and there’s no money to pay the extra hours/they’ve worked their quota of hours?

Every change has a consequence…
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I don't see why people are so desperate to make excuses for the parks poor decisions. If they don't have adequate staff to run the park as advertised then they need to make that clear to customers in advance and compensate them accordingly. If they can't operate at a profit by paying the extra hours or hiring adequate staff then they are not fit for purpose to run the park. Having functional rides is the bare minimum expectation when someone purchases an entrance ticket. It's not an unreasonable standard.

I can't think of another industry where people would tie themselves in knots to come up with reasons like this. Imagine going to a concert and the artist only plays half the advertised set. Going to a restaurant and only half your order is served. Getting on a plane and they only take you half way to your destination. Your Netflix subscription only lets you watch half the advertised programming. Why is it acceptable that a theme park repeatedly and unadvertised does not provide its full offering yet charges full rate? But no, it's the weather, the location, the prototypes, the lack of staff and won't somebody think of the poor shareholders.
 
I've never known it at Alton Towers before. So rather than making the most of your last hour of the evening, they want you to hike around a large park with no certainty at the end of it that the ride you're hoping to get on will still be open?

This place really does go from bad to worse doesn't it?
 
Bowser said:
I can't think of another industry where people would tie themselves in knots to come up with reasons like this. Imagine going to a concert and the artist only plays half the advertised set. Going to a restaurant and only half your order is served. Getting on a plane and they only take you half way to your destination. Your Netflix subscription only lets you watch half the advertised programming. Why is it acceptable that a theme park repeatedly and unadvertised does not provide its full offering yet charges full rate? But no, it's the weather, the location, the prototypes, the lack of staff and won't somebody think of the poor shareholders.
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The difference between some of the examples you’ve mentioned and a theme park is that in the theme park case, there is the option to do something else if a certain ride breaks down. You don’t go to a theme park to go on one particular ride (in most cases), you go for the whole experience and a variety of rides.

In the case of the flight, for example, you take it to go to one place, and if they only take you halfway there, they blatantly aren’t providing you with the advertised service. Whereas at Alton Towers, you aren’t going there for one specific ride, you’re going for a variety of rides and the whole experience.

Rather than it being like you going to a restaurant and them only bringing half your order (as you argue), I’d argue it’s more akin to if you went to a restaurant and they weren’t serving a particular dish due to them having run out (which I have known happen plenty of times and have every sympathy with). They are serving a reduced menu, but there are still plenty of other things to pick from, and you can still have the fundamental service you paid for.

Alton Towers state in their T&Cs that they reserve the full right to withhold any and all attractions from the product as they see fit. The park does not sell themselves on one particular attraction or set of attractions, they sell themselves on an overall package.
 
Matt N said:
The difference between some of the examples you’ve mentioned and a theme park is that in the theme park case, there is the option to do something else if a certain ride breaks down. You don’t go to a theme park to go on one particular ride (in most cases), you go for the whole experience and a variety of rides.

In the case of the flight, for example, you take it to go to one place, and if they only take you halfway there, they blatantly aren’t providing you with the advertised service. Whereas at Alton Towers, you aren’t going there for one specific ride, you’re going for a variety of rides and the whole experience.

Rather than it being like you going to a restaurant and them only bringing half your order (as you argue), I’d argue it’s more akin to if you went to a restaurant and they weren’t serving a particular dish due to them having run out (which I have known happen plenty of times and have every sympathy with). They are serving a reduced menu, but there are still plenty of other things to pick from, and you can still have the fundamental service you paid for.

Alton Towers state in their T&Cs that they reserve the full right to withhold any and all attractions from the product as they see fit. The park does not sell themselves on one particular attraction or set of attractions, they sell themselves on an overall package.
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I’m not sure that your restaurant analogy is accurate either Matt. If some menu items aren’t available then you don’t pay for them. In Alton Towers case you have already paid.

The closest restaurant analogy is perhaps a buffet, where you pay full price but half of the food items aren’t available. I’m sure their T&Cs will probably say they can serve you nothing at the buffet, but that doesn’t mean it’s acceptable or that you’d return.
 
In regard to the early queue time closes, it sounds as though they will only be doing it for attractions that are very popular and have very long queues. So it’s hardly like they’re doing actively orchestrated staggered closing times; it sounds as if they’re merely closing very long queues a little early to prevent them running overly late after closing time. It’s no different to what Thorpe have done with Hyperia all year and could well be caused at least partially by opening time restrictions enforced by the local council.

It’s not ideal, but it’s not quite tantamount to staggered closing times, in my opinion. It sounds as if things will only close early if the queue gets ridiculous close to closing time, which I imagine it shouldn’t for the majority of things in the park.
 
It's all just chipping away at the experience isn't it? Scarefest is always a busy time of year with many rides having long queues at ride close but previously this wasn't a major issue as once you've dealt with FT & RAP the main queue starts to clear very quickly

Once you start closing things early it's a slippery slope to a policy of having rides shut down by the stated time, rather than just closing the queues.
 
Matt N said:
In regard to the early queue time closes, it sounds as though they will only be doing it for attractions that are very popular and have very long queues. So it’s hardly like they’re doing actively orchestrated staggered closing times; it sounds as if they’re merely closing very long queues a little early to prevent them running overly late after closing time. It’s no different to what Thorpe have done with Hyperia all year and could well be caused at least partially by opening time restrictions enforced by the local council.

It’s not ideal, but it’s not quite tantamount to staggered closing times, in my opinion. It sounds as if things will only close early if the queue gets ridiculous close to closing time, which I imagine it shouldn’t for the majority of things in the park.
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It very much is staggered closing times though, and guests will have little idea which rides are going to close early unless they are glued to the app on their phones (which the park probably want anyway, they can sell you fastrack that way).

For as long as I have been visiting Alton Towers it has been the queues that close at the park's closing time. I get that because the park are in a dire state operationally that queues are longer now than they may have been in previous years; the park looks like complete and utter hell today. But that's their problem, not the problem of their guests. With the state that the park is in they should be limiting guest numbers more so that those who do visit can have a decent day and rides can stay open until the advertising closing time.

It's all a bit of a mess, and all of their own making. So much for a change of management at Merlin and Alton Towers making a difference. It's back to the ways of old and then some.
 
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