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Ride Availability/Operations 2022-24
- Thread starter Ethan
- Start date
Tom
TS Member
That is the risk. You can open the flood gates and sell as many tickets and fast tracks as you like to try and recover the season's numbers, but financial controllers or whoever else is making these decisions are rarely interested in the long term prospects. They have short-sighted targets, often month-by-month. Then those people are gone for good.
Blackhole_Sun
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Black Hole
I assume that it must be.
It’s capped anyway now. Last year I believe the RAP was uncapped wasn’t it? So it would actually be less.
Surely for that queue it must be out of the queue zone and back around on the path to Alton Manor?
I’ve been in a 40min queue before and was approaching the end of the queue area, I can’t imagine standing in it for 70mins let alone the 3hours for the other rides
RIPCorky
TS Member
You question why people join the queue when it's that long but they've pretty much no where else to go. They're selling too many tickets for the amount of rides they have open.
Bowser
TS Member
Correct. Of course it's not impossible that the Fast Track capacity was increased as a result of that but probably more likely the atrocious availability is the main cause of the extended queue times.
For a bit of balance, all the Merlin parks are VERY busy today... but nearly all the rides are operating elsewhere.
Paultons is also exceptionally busy with one ride even reaching 35 minutes!
Matt N
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Shambhala (PortAventura Park)
It does seem to be only Alton that’s suffering to this degree this week.
Thorpe Park have often had a lot of flack for ride availability, but looking at the Thorpe Park app, everything major is open and everything in the park full stop is open bar Zodiac. Yes, the queues are long, but most stuff is at least open for people to wait in said queues if they wish.
Alton currently has 3 major coasters closed.
I’m not saying that other parks are without issues, but Alton seems to be having greater issues in terms of ride availability than any other Merlin park at the moment. Thorpe, Chessington and Legoland don’t seem to be having quite the degree of high profile availability issues that Alton Towers are currently.
Ah I didn't know that. I would still assume it's a higher number than last year? Not trying to give Alton Towers any excuses here as it is atrocious what is going on at the moment but thought the RAP/FT would attribute to the longer queue times.
Is it a case that operations are just not as fast/efficient in getting trains out as quickly as before? Or just the cut-backs to save £££ are making it so obvious to everyone now.
From: https://youtu.be/62U8YP2rT54?si=yZXULcOjT85Rou5z
I know Shaun is just a Youtuber and not a celebrity as such but this video has the potential to well and truly put towers in the mud. I’ve never seen him speak so badly about the park like this and I’m so glad we have someone using their platform to just be as honest as possible and say it how it is. Towers will definitely see this video and I think it’s going to hit a lot of the higher ups hard with how poor a job they’re doing
Dave
TS Founding Member
Issue 1 is generally older rides.
Issue 2 is historically Merlins tech services pay in Staffordshire was sort of competitive, particularly when driving was cheaper. Down south it was less competitive.
Now the pay has not kept up with other providers in the area and when you add travel costs compared to say getting to Stoke or Uttoxeter people just don’t want to do it.
Only solution is to continue to boost pay until you attract but that will eat into profit margins which obviously the accountants don’t like.
There is also issue 3 which is Brexit as part deliveries are massively slower now and Merlin will only buy direct from manufacturer but they could mitigate that with better stock of spare parts.
GooseOnTheLoose
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Ug Bugs
I really don't think that this is quite the Kylie Jenner v Snapchat moment that you think it is.
Sanbrooke will continue to visit and renew his pass, because he needs the content. His audience will still continue to visit, regardless, because they're invested in theme parks and are price blind to poor experiences.
Legacy media outlets aren't covering it because it's not news. Now is a pretty good time to start taking the trash out, with attentions being focussed on the budget, the US election and potential all put warfare in the Middle East.
One week, and a half, to go and the season will be over. A few months of quiet and it will be like a spell has been cast over everyone. All ready to try again for a new season, with a hope that things will be better, but willing to give it just one more try... Honest. It'll be better this time. You won't get hurt.
Management are already aware of the shocking state of affairs. They have to deal with it day in day out, limping to the finish line. You can be assured that they will be a mixture of nervous, concerned, confused, embarrassed, exhausted, stressed and full of all other tensions. They will be all of this without a vlogger whom, by some accounts, they don't particularly care for criticising them over the internet.
Blackhole_Sun
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Black Hole
Nemesis is off down lakeside now
180!!!!!
180!!!!!
owenstreet7
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Taron
This is exactly on point
In the UK, people will still visit Alton Towers and Merlin regardless of the quality of the experience. This is because the park has positioned itself as the premier theme park in the 90s and the issues with queues and ride availability hasn't put the masses off - some may not be aware.
There's people who might not know any different including enthusiasts and vloggers as they may not have experienced some of the more efficient parks in Europe. This is because Merlin appears to have normalised excessive queues and fast track in theme parks in this country.
Even the enthusiasts and vloggers will still visit Towers for content including TPW who's worked at the park and knew what goes on behind the scenes from the time he had working there. A lot of those will visit in spite of the issues and visit the good, the bad and the ugly of theme parks.
The more people know about Europa Park, Phantasialand, Efteling and other parks, the more might consider looking at those places instead. It does seem that some of those parks are cheaper to go to than Alton Towers from the UK when travel and accommodation costs are accounted for i.e. Phantasialand.
howlingmadmurfdoc
TS Member
It wasn’t that long ago he put out a video interviewing management and blowing smoke up their backsides about how great things will be coming that he’s not allowed to talk about on video yet. None of that seems to have materialised but the age of influencers behaving to get favourable treatment seems to have just ended.
Not that my opinion counts for much but the issues are far more than ride availability the whole park just looks run down.
Tom
TS Member
It's not a question of if vloggers will still go, of course they will. There is as much revenue in reporting disasters as there is in covering positives (probably more).
TPWW has considerable reach and influence, so a negative video will be strongly disliked by the park. Fair play for the honesty here, even if it does bring its own rewards in viewership.
TPWW has considerable reach and influence, so a negative video will be strongly disliked by the park. Fair play for the honesty here, even if it does bring its own rewards in viewership.
GooseOnTheLoose
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Ug Bugs
Everyone's opinion counts for something and welcome to TST! I look forward to reading more of your opinions and contributions in the future.
As @rob666 says, every opinion is sacred.
Unfortunately because of the sheer amount of content he puts out, it really won't have any lasting impact. There's a vlog a day, always about something different, and next week will be the focus on fireworks. He will no doubt praise the display.
If the intention is to call out shocking behaviour, and to push for change, you've got to be banging the same drum consistently and repeatedly. This is why legacy media outlets are far more influential in setting the agenda. Specsgate and Winter Fuel Payments being recent examples, the latter of which is still bubbling away.
It's almost pointless, and on the danger of becoming ineffective virtue signalling, if this is the last we hear about it for a few weeks or months.
BigShadowtinytree
TS Member
I must say I’m getting tired of Passholders on various social media groups justifying this whole fiasco by basically saying “it’s ok because we can just come again so people should stop moaning and being negative”. Just because we can come back another day doesn’t mean we have to put up with what Alton are currently serving us. Coming back again doesn’t make the product good, no matter which way you look at it, it isn’t good enough. It’s also the classic “I’m alright jack” attitude with no consideration for those who have paid a lot of money for day tickets only to be met with closure after closure and long queues. This mentality allows businesses to get away with providing a substandard service because they know they can rely on the repeat custom from ‘loyal’ customers who will continue to pay for their passes and turn up no matter what. They are part of the problem at this point.
People are making very valid points about why they didn’t enjoy their day only to get shut down by self righteous Passholders who refuse to accept any bad word said against Merlin.
Some of these passholders have never been to a non merlin park, in or outside of the uk and it really shows.
People are making very valid points about why they didn’t enjoy their day only to get shut down by self righteous Passholders who refuse to accept any bad word said against Merlin.
Some of these passholders have never been to a non merlin park, in or outside of the uk and it really shows.
mo237
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Symbolica
I can't wait to see how/if the park will defend the availability as of late. It's a 2.5hr drive for me, and requires me booking time off work, finding somewhere to stay, a full tank of petrol - but honestly, if I arrived to see these ridiculous queues and only two coasters open, I'd just go home. Insane.
I've done an old school youtube poop mocking it all if you wanted to have a gander...
From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY3Px4g-EoE
I've done an old school youtube poop mocking it all if you wanted to have a gander...
From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY3Px4g-EoE
I (and my kids) are MAP holders until the end of this season and after that quite frankly Merlin can do one. My £45 a month that they would get is being put to better use, as others keep saying we are going to explore other alternatives that better cater for people who are over 1.2m but not yet 1.4m, and don't have hour-plus queues constantly.
Coming back to the original topic looking at the queue times at the moment the park seems to be catering best for the much younger audience rather than the older/bigger ride group.
Thameslink Rail
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- The Smiler
I think you've uploaded the original by mistake