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Ride Availability/Operations 2022-24

venny said:
Another example of the results of poor/inadequate operations, which one can only guess is a result of inadequate resourcing of tech services.
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If Towers can't get the resources [staff] for Tech Services, they should ask themselves why? It will doubtless come down to pay / terms & conditions / working hours.

Maybe they should look at the package that JCB offer. I know of at least two ex-Tech Services staff who now work at JCB.
 
My previous job I worked with people ideal for Towers as techies. None of them would consider it if offered. Right type of qualifications, working with similar machinery using similar logic. Conditions and pay would mean they wouldn't be interested.
 
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I was expecting it to be really busy after seeing lots of comments on social media how mad yesterday was and don’t get me wrong it was busy, but not as bad as yesterday I don’t think.

What let the park down was the amount of breakdowns throughout the day, and a number of rides not being open come 10am - you can forgive maybe one or two not being ready in time but there was a good number of rides not open when they were supposed to be including Spinball, Rita, Alton Manor, RMT and 13 off the top of my head, there were probably a couple more that I’ve missed. Wickerman went down shortly after opening for a bit, 13 didn’t open until around 1pm, I don’t think Flávio’s opened at all today. Spinball was down for significant amounts of time too just to name a few. Incidentally after a delayed opening I don’t think Alty Mans had much down time at all today which is a small positive given it’s reliability lately. The park is clearly struggling with this aspect of running the place at the moment.

I managed 6 rides and the kids got 8, which wasn’t too bad given the queues. Our ride count includes the three 1.2 coasters, which given their down time throughout the day wasn’t bad going I didn’t think. The constant breakdowns is a bit of an issue especially on busier days. It’s a stark contrast after my recent visit to Florida, where breakdowns (not including closures due to inclement weather) in most of the parks I visited was very minimal by comparison, there were still breakdowns but nothing like I’ve seen at the merlin parks. Which begs the question of what exactly is going wrong with merlin operations? It is just down to not having enough tech staff?
 
Probably made sure that operations were as good as possible whilst the main kids holidays were on, but then the attitude to people visiting in what should be quieter times will be to just deal with it and it's better than nothing. It's always been a second class experience for people on 'quieter' days.
 
Always Mr Zola?
I remember those distant days with everything running, everything walk on, all day, with a quiet hour going round and round on the rapids non stop, anytime after the middle of September.
Absolute heaven, but I imagine running at a massive loss.
 
I tend to visit on off peak days only really (including one coming up this month) and I can’t say I’ve really had a second class experience on them. Everything usually seems to be running well etc
 
Try going on a Monday of Scarefest on one of the quieter weeks, for example, and then go on a Saturday nearest to Halloween. I bet you will notice a difference. But yes, I've also quite obviously seen less staff, less stalls open, maybe not so many ride cars in operation etc on what are supposed to be quieter weekdays compared with weekends. It does happen.
 
Could be a question of recruitment? I'm not sure what the recruitment situation is, but if they're struggling to fill positions then they might be forced to rota staff on the busy days at the expense of the quiet ones.
 
Alsty said:
Could be a question of recruitment? I'm not sure what the recruitment situation is, but if they're struggling to fill positions then they might be forced to rota staff on the busy days at the expense of the quiet ones.
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There's always mass resignations this time of year as all of the student staff head back into education and some burnt out staff find other jobs, the limp until Christmas usually begins when Oktoberfest begins.
 
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Ops today were on point, but I did notice Bianca observing from the Wickerman, and later RMT, control booths. Only ride that appeared to be affected by patches of downtime was Rita. Ride ops were rather aggressive with their restraint checks on the Smiler and especially Galactica, but trains were going through rather fast (only one station on the latter). Overall I've been very impressed with today, given the reactions here and socials for the start of the week.

Only criticism would be park closing at 4pm, but I expect when they rota'd staff months ago they didn't predict the lovely weather we'd have. Lots of people hanging around without much to do at the end, but clearly not ready to leave yet either. Insert generic FAB comments here etc.
 
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