• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Ride Availability/Operations 2022-24

Sazzle said:
It’s funny, I started typing thoughts on guest confidence in the product in another thread, then stopped!

I’m really sorry to hear you’re feeling uncertain about whether or not go to on your trip because of the reported downtime and general poor park experience. In a sense it is great to be able to make an informed decision, given the information shared here, but it shouldn’t happen in the first place.

I have never held back on booking a trip anywhere because of potential poor availability, and yet it’s hard to ignore the warnings here for Towers.

My theory, for what it’s worth…
Reduced guest confidence
=
Reduced visits
=
Reduced revenue
=
Reduced investment
=
Reduced guest confidence
=
Reduced visits
….. repeat ad infinitum until the business owners abandon the sinking ship OR stop stripping back budgets and recognise that you have to speculate to accumulate.

I am, of course, neither a business mogul nor a theme park operations lead. But I think that makes sense??
Click to expand...

I'm really only visiting to see Curse, and my friends only ever been to towers years ago - so it would be nice for him! But there are SO many concerns/ turn offs the more i look into a trip.

A, waterpark, spa etc close at 4 or 5...... unlike Europa etc where Rulantica etc is open till 10. I would have loved to have gone swimming in the evening before our park day the next day. What is there to do for adults in the evening at the resort?

B, the waterpark doesn't look like its that exciting - considering how many years it's been open - doesn't have many slides etc, and is quite expensive!

C, food issue - doesn't look like much choice on park for allergies, and certainly nothing 'exciting'.

D, rides not open for the season yet such as sky ride and Hex - which are actually important to an experience as a whole.

C, worry about attraction downtime - and if visiting on quiet days, the park not bothering to get the running etc! Also worried if my main aim is Curse and then its down......

So no I don't have much faith in having a good time - and my mind is drawn more and more to Europa where I know even their worst days will be +10 the quality of a Merlin park.

I wish it wasn't the case!
 
I’m also visiting a week on Friday - mainly for The Curse. If it wasn’t visiting for that I think I’d second guess wanting to go with the state the park is in currently - but luckily hearing all the positive things about The Curse is just enough to keep my visit on.
 
emmerse2891 said:
I'm meant to visiting around the 26th including 2 nights in hotel but I'm thinking of cancelling and waiting a few months as ride availability sounds like its so poor. I also hear the sky ride hasn't opened this season, anyone know when it will? I know the person I'm going with would appreciate that ride (he likes experience rides over thrill rides). What other attractions haven't opened yet this season? Is the Dungeons open yet? I'm also worried because we're going off-season mid-week that things just won'r open as it'll be seen as a quiet/ low season day! Another consideration is my friend is Celiac and needs to eat gluten free - and if some of the food places aren't open we might have a issue on our hands!
Click to expand...
Hi @emmerse2891 - unfortunately I'd say that if you're planning to take a friend who hasn't visited the park in years this isn't a good time to re-introduce him to the park. I think we can be fairly certain that Skyride won't be fixed by the date of your planned visit and Hex is also a doubt - for someone who likes experience rides that one would be a shame to miss. I have an annual pass and I'm not planning to go back to the park until they've at least got everything open that should be open this season.

I'm a coeliac myself and unfortunately I've not been too impressed with the arrangements on park for getting food. Most of the takeaway options are off-limits - burgers, fried chicken, hot dogs - and the frustrating thing now is that you have to queue up to ask the staff about allergies before you even know if there's anything suitable because there's no allergy advice on the printed menus. You'll be given a complicated checklist (likely covered in spills!) with the main 14 allergen groups on to decipher and a caveat that "the park cannot guarantee that anything is allergen-free due to cross-contamination risk". Basically they don't care. I've managed a little better in the sit-down restaurants (Woodcutters and Rollercoaster Restaurant) but at best there might be one suitable option and again it will be 'non-gluten containing' rather than 'gluten-free' to legally protect the park. I don't recommend the gluten-free burger bun at RR btw, if they still do it, that was the driest burger I've ever eaten in my life.

You might do better to re-book for the summer if you can, perhaps during the Mardi Gras festival - when hopefully ride availability is improved and there will at least be the non-Aramark food vans around the lawns to provide additional choice (though they aren't cheap). But I don't think any of us are expecting a grand transformation any time soon unfortunately.
 
Danscott22 said:
It went down on April 1st I believe, which I also believe is it’s birthday. Also fits in with the fact this seasons ride availability is one massive joke
Click to expand...
I believe it was shut a day or two before it’s birthday, as when I did a social post about it’s birthday everyone commented about it being shut.

Ride availability is a joke this season. Gone are the days when you would get on park and all rides would open for 10am (or even earlier when we had ERT), on all my visits this season Monorail has not been open and neither had Galactica.
 
I have never known ride availability at Alton Towers be as bad as it was on Saturday. To be frank, it was embarrassing and park management should be ashamed. The fact that we did not see a single senior manager walking around the park on Saturday suggested they did indeed know how bad it was, and were indeed embarrassed and hiding away (you usually do see at least one person wandering around with a litter pick in hand).

No Skyride, Spinball and Hex. Rita closed most of the day due to an issue at 10.30am. Monorail opened late. Downtime for Thirteen, Wicker Man and Galactica. There may well have been more that we missed. The park was not at all busy but due to a combination of availability issues and capacity issues on the likes of Galactica, queues were long.

It was like going back to the days of where we all used to laugh at Thorpe Park and the endless issues they had. I really feel for anyone that had to travel and significant distance to the park on Saturday, they were given a shoddy product to experience. We had a good day as we were just there for the social element to be honest, but most people actually want to get on rides at a theme park.
 
rickstar171 said:
Went last year, on the 1st Monday after Easter holidays was finished and it was really quiet
Click to expand...
I hope its quiet today I can't be bothered to queue. Visited the Friday before Easter and it was busier than I expected. Smiler was closed that day so hopefully that being open will help spread out crowds more.
 
Suppose it's not just the crowds it's the operations. If Galactica and oblivion are on 1 station they'll no doubt be the biggest queues again
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Just as a reminder for your time on park today, there’s no need to post moment by moment updates from the park.

Please summarise your experience at the end of the day in a single post and allow discussion to flow from there.

Someone reading in two weeks time won’t care where you were at 10:48am!
 
djtruefitt said:
on all my visits this season Monorail has not been open and neither had Galactica.
Click to expand...
Add this to another of my concerns visiting and staying at the hotel.... if the monorails down first thing....what a burden and then back at end of day if its still down. Yep I'm cancelling.
 
emmerse2891 said:
Add this to another of my concerns visiting and staying at the hotel.... if the monorails down first thing....what a burden and then back at end of day if its still down. Yep I'm cancelling.
Click to expand...
If you are staying in the hotels you can enter and exit using the gate next to Galactica, so its not as much of an issue.
 
Yes you can, although the queue to get in via the Galactica gate on Saturday was rather long, probably because the Monorail was closed.
 
It’s been interesting seeing how the month has played out so far. I was at the JL takeover day and it was the best one for years so I really had high hopes for the year. Other than galatica having downtime and 13 not being open I don’t think any other rides had any significant problems, even hex was open that day
 
Operations have been spot on for the most part today. Smiler and wicker man teams dispatching quick as usual, Rita has impressed me recently the dispatches are faster than I can remember for a while. Galactica was on 2 trains 2 stations and its definitely quicker than 1 station. Haven't been on Oblivion as its on 1 station so can't be bothered. Now let's talk about Th13teen. Oh my the operations were incredible. Said 40 mins and I waited less than 20. Queue constantly moving and I have to say best operations on park and far quicker on 3 than it is on 2
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top