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Ride Availability/Operations 2022-24

James said:


Given the effort they've put into a themed sign, could this suggest that it will become more the norm for the remainder of the season?
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I'd rather have this than a poorly worded and laminated sheet of A4 sellotaped to the board under the queue times that they could so easily have done. As much as a sign like this shouldn't be necessary in an ideal world, of course there will always be times when its required, so at least they've invested in a half-decent sign that looks like it'll last more than a couple of days out in the rain.
 
It’s a bloody miserable place to visit at the moment. At the start of the season, I had family members asking to come with me and I told them not to bother due to the issues with overrunning winter maintenance. Luckily we visited over the summer when things weren’t too bad, as I would frankly be embarrassed to let them visit the park in its current state.

It’s saddening how the park has gone from a place where anyone could have a good day, to a place where you oh needed either a paid fast track or knowledge of the park to have a good day. And now not even that is enough, as it all comes down to luck of rides being open in the first place, and then staying open. I’ve had multiple visits in the last two seasons where I’ve been pinballing around from one ride to the next just to have it break down. Only last week I went home after being in the park from 10-5 and only riding Rita (at about 10.30) and hex (when it opened at 11). Wasted 6 hours waiting in line for one ride or another only to have it break down. Rinse and repeat. If I’d been a family group that had paid to get in, I would be apoplectic.

As it stands, my pass expires in June, and if there isn’t a huge improvement by then… IDK, does anyone know any stamp collecting enthusiast groups?
 
Rob said:
So not only do we have staggered opening times, we may be entering a phase of staggered closing times:



I don't recall this ever happening at Alton Towers before, no matter how busy the park has been.
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Does anyone know if any queue lines did actually close early yesterday?

Also, what is "capacity" in these terms? For me, I'd say its when the queue spills out of the entrance and I've never seen that on a Scarefest/Firework night (not to say it hasn't happened though of course). So if that is what they term as capacity, then surely closing the queue early probably wouldn't happen that much?
 
Steve74 said:
Also, what is "capacity" in these terms? For me, I'd say it’s when the queue spills out of the entrance and I've never seen that on a Scarefest/Firework night (not to say it hasn't happened though of course). So if that is what they term as capacity, then surely closing the queue early probably wouldn't happen that much?
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I’d assume it’s just some arbitrary point where it’s decided that the queue is “too long”.

I’ve mostly only known them decide that a queue is “at capacity” during COVID, when it was necessary to do so due to social distancing. I think they did it once with Galactica when that was on one train, but other than that, a I can’t think of another non-COVID occasion where they did it…
 
AT86 said:
I suspect they have a time when they want the staff to be going home and they work it back from there.

For example if they want everyone clocked off by 10pm and Nemesis has a 2hr queue at 8pm then the queue is deemed ‘at capacity’ and closed.
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I don’t know that it’s ever been confirmed but it’s rumoured they have a hard cut-off for ride operations. Whether it’s a legal thing or just being nice to the neighbours I doubt they really like having rides running much after 10.30pm.
 
DanJB said:
It’s a bloody miserable place to visit at the moment. At the start of the season, I had family members asking to come with me and I told them not to bother due to the issues with overrunning winter maintenance. Luckily we visited over the summer when things weren’t too bad, as I would frankly be embarrassed to let them visit the park in its current state.

It’s saddening how the park has gone from a place where anyone could have a good day, to a place where you oh needed either a paid fast track or knowledge of the park to have a good day. And now not even that is enough, as it all comes down to luck of rides being open in the first place, and then staying open. I’ve had multiple visits in the last two seasons where I’ve been pinballing around from one ride to the next just to have it break down. Only last week I went home after being in the park from 10-5 and only riding Rita (at about 10.30) and hex (when it opened at 11). Wasted 6 hours waiting in line for one ride or another only to have it break down. Rinse and repeat. If I’d been a family group that had paid to get in, I would be apoplectic.

As it stands, my pass expires in June, and if there isn’t a huge improvement by then… IDK, does anyone know any stamp collecting enthusiast groups?
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I normally avoid this thread, for reasons that @Danny has already mentioned. I see no point in getting too excited about the perceptions of someone else's experience whilst sat at home miles away and refreshing a screen. Seeing stated queue times on a phone screen doesn't interest me one bit. I'm not there, and a computer screen isn't a barometer to measure the enjoyment of everyone that is actually there.

But since discussion around general operations seems to be mixed in with the app enthusiasm thread this season (now that everyone's figured out how to get the queue times without being en-park, please can we have separate threads again next season mods?) I've been keeping my eye on it to try and ascertain when it's safe to visit again. I'm more interested in personal accounts of people's experiences.

I've had friends who want to go, and my kids have been nagging for weeks. But I'm trying to direct everyone elsewhere or try and think of other activities because I've genuinely had 2 years worth of visits that have collectively been the worst I've ever experienced at Towers.

4 major coasters closed at the same time is indeed nowhere near the worst operating day ever, but sadly it's not even a contender for worst operating day this season. I've visited on worse days personally. And yes, these have been both peak and off peak. That wouldn't even be too bad in other seasons if there were other things to do.

But we're in a season where the golden rule of park close lining up with ride queue line close is finally being broken, a new low, because the park can't cope with it's operational issues. With very few flats, 8pm Scarefest closes, no SkyRide, a Monorail that barely functions, and inedible £20 burgers that don't seem to have much beef or chicken in them. They couldn't even keep a Spa open, and their 2 most recent achievements is re-opening a 30 year old coaster and a 24 year old Mad House.

I'm a lucky person who has means. I love theme parks and Alton Towers in particular. I have children who feel the same. I'll buy overpriced junk food, book expensive hotel rooms, and purchase merchandise. I'm their ideal customer. I'll moan but give them £1000's anyway

Yet this is the first Scarefest since 2008 (I think) that I've actually missed. When I consider the tiring drive on either side, it just isn't worth risking my time. When I consider how miserable the children have been, and how stressed it's made me feel, I genuinely have had a number of visits now when it just wasn't worth the effort and I've come home more unhappy than I was before I left.

With all the degradation that's occurred over the past few years, I've begrudgingly tolerated it and still felt a yearning to visit my special place. Hell, I'm still here with credit card in hand optimistically hoping that next season won't be as bad so that I can go again.

But somehow, I know it will open next season with most of the same issues present. I can't see any evidence that it won't?
 
We were due to go tomorrow actually for two nights. I cancelled my hotel booking and will change ticket dates. I really can’t be bothered to drive for 5 hours, spend all that money on fuel for a sub par day out anymore. A trip to Alton for me with everything is now around the £500 mark. I’ve bought PS5 instead with the money.
 
I’ve only been to Towers twice this season, for Nemesis’ reopening day and another random weekend day in the weeks after that.

On a personal level I’ve had a challenging year so that has been a contributor, but usually when I’m having a tough time, I go to places like Alton Towers as an escape. I haven’t done that this year because with how poor ride availability has been, long queue times, overselling (and to be honest the mere existence) of fast track, RAP abuse, staff not enforcing RAP properly which makes queues miserable for everyone else, overpriced, poor quality food offerings and the effort it takes to actually get to the park the first place, I just can’t be bothered quite frankly. It feels like a lot of effort for not much gain at this point.

With my kids being over 1.2 but not yet 1.4, too old for CBeebies but not tall enough for the ‘big ticket’ stuff, there’s only so many times they can reride wickerman and 13 (and one of my kids doesn’t even like 13 that much) only so many times they can get enjoyment out of the flat rides and driving school in Walliams area. There's not enough for them to do to warrant regular visits anymore, the novelty has worn off for them. They do ask to visit occasionally but I fear they will only end up disappointed with how things are currently. If wickerman goes down, that’s a huge loss from their perspective as it’s one of only two ‘big coasters’ they can go on.

If my partner and I want to enjoy some of the bigger coasters we have to split up, but x-sector and FV don’t have enough to keep the kids busy whilst they wait. Blade makes them both nauseous and there’s literally nothing in x-sector for them. So the parent not riding has to take them to a whole different area of the park which means we are split up for way longer than necessary due to how spread out everything is, and no skyride makes that even worse.

Maybe it’s my current mental state at play but I have felt like I’ll end up coming home more stressed and annoyed after a visit than I already was before so I haven’t bothered. I have a merlin pass so non of these things should be an issue as I can always ‘come back another day’ but how many times can you ‘come back another day’ before you admit that going to Alton Towers just isn’t a fun day out right now. I feel sorry for anyone who may be having their only visit of the year, paying for tickets for one day which cost more than the 4 passes costs for a month, only to experience the complete shambles that this season appears to have been.

Things are supposed to be getting better not worse. I was optimistic at the start of the season with Nemesis coming back, that didn’t last long. Two years to get Hex up and running is actually a joke.

Edit: I forgot the kids can also go on spinball and they do enjoy that, but it’s capacity is shot and it’s queue is one of the slowest moving. We avoid unless the queue is 40min or less.
 
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