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Ride Availability/Operations 2022-24

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Back on topic, today (well, yesterday now!) was poor to say the least. It was fortunate that I was down early for a few drinks last night and the trip was more for the social side over anything else. Having a pass and being a general idiot up for doing long drives meant it wasn't a huge loss that today was a mess. Had it been one of maybe 2 or 3 trips in a year though, I'd have been feeling pretty annoyed to say the least that in my 6+ hour round trip I ended up doing Wickerman and three rides on Alty Mans!

Speaking to other guests as well while waiting for a drink in the Tavern, it's clear that things are beyond a mess at present. One guy had platinum fastrack - upgraded from gold as compensation after previous issues he'd experienced. He'd got on 6 rides, and in the end at 4:15pm he'd given up and gone to get a drink to chill out. Now whatever you think of fastrack, that's not acceptable considering the main selling point of platinum.

There was a large charity that had organised a day out to the park today, with large groups being led around the park to go on rides. Although it was quite amusing to see them being marched back and forth to closed rides as we sat at Woodcutters, it should also be a wakeup call to the park. Are these large organisations going to bother booking in future if their guests can't get on anything?

The worrying thing is the park was actually relatively quiet. It didn't feel like a peak day, and the number of cars in the car park certainly didn't suggest so either. They need to get a grip on the mess they're in at the moment and fast.
 
Its interesting to note that poor availability of attractions appears to not be contained to just Alton. Most of the Merlin parks look to be struggling, Chesssington probably being the other prime example. There’s clearly something quite fundamental wrong with how they’re going about ensuring the rides stay open. If you compare ride availability in recent years with that say 15 years back, it’s remarkable how many more attractions appear to encounter regular downtime or even extended periods of closure.

It’s a hypothetical question (because I think we all know the answer), but how can it be that Europa Park has at least twice as many rides as Alton Towers and longer opening hours, yet after spending five days there we’ve not encountered a single attraction which has gone down?

When you compare parks purely on a statistical basis, it is an extraordinarily stark contrast. It’s can’t just be bad luck that’s causing so many ride closures.
 
rob666 said:
Dipper shut all season so far, Valhalla three years closed, National closed recently, Avalanche on one, Big One sticking, Revolution needing a tow.
Running rings?
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Strongly disagree, they are doing better than both Towers and Chessington. The Big one stopped due to high winds so I think that's pretty unfair to highlight that as it's not something that's in thier control. Merlin also has alot more money than any rival park so what the excuse?
 
The Big One stops all the time in high winds...you think they would have planned for such things building a coaster on the coast with constant high winds...fair comment.
Lots of coasters running on the Beach on single trains with long queues.
Hours Avalanche queue in the Easter hols...running on one.
I love the place, complete happy clapper, but to say their operations are anything other than mediocre...
Running rings round the opposition?
If only.
Ask the people kicked out of the Valhalla queue this week because the park was closing, after a couple of hours queueing to join the queue.
I spotted it, and walked for another coaster and beer, those with less experience of Blackpool's operations wasted an hour or two.
 
rob666 said:
The Big One stops all the time in high winds...you think they would have planned for such things building a coaster on the coast with constant high winds...fair comment.
Lots of coasters running on the Beach on single trains with long queues.
Hours Avalanche queue in the Easter hols...running on one.
I love the place, complete happy clapper, but to say their operations are anything other than mediocre...
Running rings round the opposition?
If only.
Ask the people kicked out of the Valhalla queue this week because the park was closing, after a couple of hours queueing to join the queue.
I spotted it, and walked for another coaster and beer, those with less experience of Blackpool's operations wasted an hour or two.
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If you gave me a ticket to PB or Towers this season Id pick PB. Fact is Merlin is second only to Disney in size and finances, they should be setting high standards. European parks don't have the breakdowns Merlin parks seem to have. Chessington in particular is suffering for lack of investment over a long period with many rides getting to the end of Thier life.

Towers is still running fairground rides in what should be the flagship UK park. Food offerings are also abysmal this year.
 
If good value for money is what you're after go to Flamingo land. Cheaper than the merlin parks but offers a fairly good lineup (except hero). Kumali is better than infusion, Sik is better than colossus so I say you're onto a win
 
Ethan said:
If good value for money is what you're after go to Flamingo land. Cheaper than the merlin parks but offers a fairly good lineup (except hero). Kumali is better than infusion, Sik is better than colossus so I say you're onto a win
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Flamingo Land is literally the most expensive park to visit in the UK???

And the ride line up is terrible as well as significantly worse operations than even Merlin could dream up.

What dreadful advice.
 
D4n said:
Flamingo Land is literally the most expensive park to visit in the UK???

And the ride line up is terrible as well as significantly worse operations than even Merlin could dream up.

What dreadful advice.
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It's gone up from last year when I went I'll admit so no it's not particularly cheap. Still I thought the operations were fine because the park is never as busy as merlin parks. I went on a weekend and didn't queue more than 40 mins which is better than what you can expect at towers. Wasn't going to advise Blackpool as I don't rate the park that much. Icon and Valhalla were good when I went in 2018 but I thought everything else was below average. Even Big one which I was really hyped for was a let down. That's why I said flamingo because I think Sik, Velocity, mumbo jumbo and Kumali are better than most things at Blackpool (except Icon obviously as that's another level to most things in the uk)
 
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Disney- Have all their rides ready and open for 9am
Second to disney- Cant even get rides ready for 10 and it'll be closer to 11 before everything is open
 
Alton Towers availability is dire this year but it's a reach to say BPB are running rings around them. Both seem to be incredibly poor.
 
Relife said:
Never been to Flamingo Land but it's on my to do list when I get over to that side of the country for a short break.
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If you can't go on an off-peak term time day then don't go at all. It's not worth it when it's rammed. Feel free to DM me for more info as we're a little off topic here.
 
Can we stop turning this topic into some sort of competition, be it what ride is best or what park is better please?

We’re discussing Alton Towers ride availability and operations, not where people should head to instead.
 
Willemgorman1 said:
Staff stood outside dark forest already saying thirteen and rita will not be open on time. Great.
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With them both being closed and Rita being down all day yesterday it suggests they are perhaps working on Rita which in turn blocks access to Th13teen.

Something to do with the launch cable perhaps?
 
They were very quick to evacuate Rita yesterday once technical services arrived, so I’d imagine that’s a long term thing if I’m honest. They simply can’t afford to be shutting Thirteen for access, so I’d imagine it’s the same story as yesterday and just not getting round to getting it open on time again.
 
Craig said:
They were very quick to evacuate Rita yesterday once technical services arrived, so I’d imagine that’s a long term thing if I’m honest. They simply can’t afford to be shutting Thirteen for access, so I’d imagine it’s the same story as yesterday and just not getting round to getting it open on time again.
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Agreed. They could get people to enter dark forest the back route where roller disco was to get to Thirteen. You can access the ride that way no need to close it. Get them to exit the same way if they need space to work on the launch and people can't walk around the top end of the area
 
The launch bunker is down by the bottom entrance of the area. 13 has returned with a 20 min queue but Rita is down (not saying closed for the day though)
 
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