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Ride Availability/Operations 2022-24

It’s good that the rapids are testing, don’t think they have done yet so hopefully they’ll reopen soon
 
I hope the former senior team are looking on at Alton Towers and realising just what a mess they've left.

The entire thing needs root and branch change.

As Labour said in 1997: Things can only get better.
 
I had tickets for yesterday but decided mid week I couldn’t actually be bothered to go up which is really unlike me. I used to LOVE going to Alton. Alas I cancelled my premier inn booking and maybe I’ll move my tickets to another day.

Sounds like I made the right decision based on the shambles I am reading about yesterday.
 
What makes matters worse is that the new team have extended hours, great lighting and an amazing new product.

But everything else is so ingrained the usual stuff lets them down.

Ride availability at ATR has, for one reason or another, become a joke post-Covid.

It never used to be a big issue!
 
Had my first visit of the season today (might post a review soon), and there’s obviously the well documented current issues around ride reliability and not running all the trains, but I thought more or less all the staff were excellent and did a brilliant job at getting trains dispatched as quickly as possible, and all with a smile. Rita and Spinball both opened early, the approx wait times were more or less spot on, the comms were very good and clear in queues, can’t fault the staff one bit.

Just please fix the reliability issues, and get all the trains back on!
 
Positives.

Nemesis ops team was great advertised 55 took 30. RMT advertised 45 took 25.
The curse queue advertised 15 and was walkon
Never went on it but oblivion always had a low queue time whenever the app was checked.

Negatives.
Wickerman on 2 trains only and took over the estimated time
Thirteen opened late in the day and never saw a queue time under 90 mins.
Rita on 1 train took an age.
Rapids still not running even though it was a warm sunny day.

There were def some positives but i think to much focus was put on nemesis with other areas suffering, hopefully by our next visit the whole park is on top form as i do beleive it could be a great year for towers
 
For anyone who's interested, I managed to time various ride throughputs on my visits to Alton Towers yesterday and today. The throughput readings I managed to attain are as follows:
  • Galactica (Theoretical: 1,500pph on 3 trains/2 stations): 871pph (3 trains/2 stations, 24th March 2024, average of 10)
  • Nemesis Reborn (Theoretical: 1,400pph on 2 trains): 1,301pph (2 trains, 23rd March 2024, average of 8)
  • Oblivion (Theoretical: 1,900pph on 7 shuttles/2 stations): 1,146pph (5 shuttles/2 stations, 24th March 2024, average of 7)
  • Rita (Theoretical: 1,150pph on 2 trains): 394pph (1 train, 23rd March 2024, average of 5), 357pph (1 train, 24th March 2024, average of 8)
  • Runaway Mine Train (Theoretical: 1,061pph on 1 train): 473pph (1 train, 23rd March 2024, average of 4) Note: The back car was missing, so the 473pph figure, which assumed a full train of 46, would have been more like 432pph in reality due to the train actually only carrying 42 riders as opposed to the usual 46. The average dispatch interval was 5m 49s, for reference.
  • Wicker Man (Theoretical: 952pph on 3 trains): 829pph (2 trains, 23rd March 2024, average of 8), 770pph (2 trains, 24th March 2024, average of 8)
I also have a few other side observations and insights to offer:
  • Operations on Nemesis Reborn were noticeably slower today than they were yesterday. Yesterday's operations, listed above, saw dispatch intervals of 90s or less and little to no stacking, with a train often being dispatched as the one in front of it was still completing the course. Today, however, dispatch intervals of no faster than 2 minutes were being attained and stacking was routine. I'm not sure what the difference was, but today's operations were notably slower. I was unable to get a proper timing, but a brief attempt I made at timing saw a dispatch interval of over 2 minutes being attained, and I'd say that this was quite par for the course for the time I was in the queue. Pretty much every train I saw stacked outside the station for a notable period. For some perspective, I waited 60 minutes from the gun for my ride yesterday, while I queued 50 minutes from a little before the Phalanx shipping container lab for my ride today.
  • The Smiler looked as though it might have been running 4 trains today, but I wasn't sure. I say this because the ride was often attaining perfect duelling, which I wouldn't imagine is possible on only 3 trains!
  • I noticed that the intervals on Galactica appeared to be pretty inconsistent when I was doing the timing above. The intervals appeared to range between 80s and over 3 minutes!
 
On Smiler the trains often bunch up so that as soon as one dispatches the next rolls in, then a gap after all 3 go round.

Sounds like good ops on WM, Nemesis on Oblivion, mediocre on Galactica and dreadful on Rita
 
John said:
On Smiler the trains often bunch up so that as soon as one dispatches the next rolls in, then a gap after all 3 go round.

Sounds like good ops on WM, Nemesis on Oblivion, mediocre on Galactica and dreadful on Rita
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Ah, that’s interesting! That would make sense, actually, as I noticed that the duelling was by no means consistent…

Out of interest @John, do you have any idea why Nemesis may have been operating so much slower today? The average dispatch interval must have been at least 30 seconds slower today than it was yesterday, with stacking being routine, and I have no idea why as the procedures in the station appeared to be exactly the same.

The average dispatch interval while I was in the Nemesis queue today was probably at least 2 minutes, whereas the average dispatch interval while I was in the Nemesis queue yesterday was less than 90s (as shown above).
 
Yesterday was an absolute joke from start to finish. I don’t visit that often anymore but a friend wanted to go. She won’t queue so we paid for the platinum fast track.

We arrived at around 11am due to a breakdown on the A50 and thought we may as well go into Express parking. This was our first mistake as it’s now apparently pre-book only, no option to buy on the day. This may have changed many seasons ago as I have not visited for a long time.

We headed to the monorail which had an insane queue so opted to walk to the entrance and got into the park excited. Collected our fast track from the box office. We exchanged pleasantries with the lady behind the desk who joked that British weather won’t affect our day 😂

We headed for wicker man as my friend had never ridden it. Operations were painful. Only two trains, smallish fast track queue, huge RAP queue. It took us about 40 minutes just to get through the pre show into the station. The couple in front got onto the train but were asked to step back behind the air gates. The train went round empty and they closed the ride due to the wind. Guy in the ops cabin did not help the situation at all. He was acting like the ride had actually set fire holding his head in his hands, numerous people commented on this in the station. We waited about 25 minutes before the couple in front got back on the train which left as planned. We got onto the train and were asked to step back into the air gates. By now all the lights had gone out in the station and staff were telling us they couldn’t operate the ride in a dark station due to visibility on the CCTV.

Staff were trying their best but the enthusiastic girl regretted asking us how many rides we’d been on and if we were having a great day. She asked the other guy in the station if he was okay and he mumbled “yeah, I just f****n hate working on this ride” The lights eventually came back on and they cycled the ride 4-5 times and we eventually got on. I thought they were playing how many people they could fit in the cabin as there were 8 people in the end from various departments 🙈

Rita should have just stayed closed as one train operation was painful for all queues. Advertised at 70 minutes, we waited 95 minutes in fast track.

Galactica took well over an hour in fast track also.

We got on six rides all day and opted to call it quits early.

I know these kind of days cannot be nice for staff but no one had any urgency about anything. Operations were terrible across most rides and no one was upbeat.

The chicken strip place in forbidden valley was actually really nice after I was expecting it to be awful but the Sriracha tossed strips were pretty good.

We queued at the guest services kiosk near x sector, mainly to understand what happens with the fast track given we saw the message on the app. I was actually pleasantly surprised there was no argument at all and he confirmed the platinum fast track will be revalidated on our chosen return date.

I did see the two people in front of us were both pass holders and they were both given financial compensation. First woman got nearly a £100 in £10 slips printed on the same cards the entry tickets are printed on. The second family had all of their purchases for the day refunded including anything they’d had to eat, the woman presented about ten receipts and he just refunded them all.
 
Matt N said:
Out of interest @John, do you have any idea why Nemesis may have been operating so much slower today? The average dispatch interval must have been at least 30 seconds slower today than it was yesterday, with stacking being routine, and I have no idea why as the procedures in the station appeared to be exactly the same.
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Probably the pressure of seeing a much longer queue yesterday meant the staff subconsciously worked a lot faster as a result
 
smidgey said:
Yesterday was an absolute joke from start to finish. I don’t visit that often anymore but a friend wanted to go. She won’t queue so we paid for the platinum fast track.

We arrived at around 11am due to a breakdown on the A50 and thought we may as well go into Express parking. This was our first mistake as it’s now apparently pre-book only, no option to buy on the day. This may have changed many seasons ago as I have not visited for a long time.

We headed to the monorail which had an insane queue so opted to walk to the entrance and got into the park excited. Collected our fast track from the box office. We exchanged pleasantries with the lady behind the desk who joked that British weather won’t affect our day 😂

We headed for wicker man as my friend had never ridden it. Operations were painful. Only two trains, smallish fast track queue, huge RAP queue. It took us about 40 minutes just to get through the pre show into the station. The couple in front got onto the train but were asked to step back behind the air gates. The train went round empty and they closed the ride due to the wind. Guy in the ops cabin did not help the situation at all. He was acting like the ride had actually set fire holding his head in his hands, numerous people commented on this in the station. We waited about 25 minutes before the couple in front got back on the train which left as planned. We got onto the train and were asked to step back into the air gates. By now all the lights had gone out in the station and staff were telling us they couldn’t operate the ride in a dark station due to visibility on the CCTV.

Staff were trying their best but the enthusiastic girl regretted asking us how many rides we’d been on and if we were having a great day. She asked the other guy in the station if he was okay and he mumbled “yeah, I just f****n hate working on this ride” The lights eventually came back on and they cycled the ride 4-5 times and we eventually got on. I thought they were playing how many people they could fit in the cabin as there were 8 people in the end from various departments 🙈

Rita should have just stayed closed as one train operation was painful for all queues. Advertised at 70 minutes, we waited 95 minutes in fast track.

Galactica took well over an hour in fast track also.

We got on six rides all day and opted to call it quits early.

I know these kind of days cannot be nice for staff but no one had any urgency about anything. Operations were terrible across most rides and no one was upbeat.

The chicken strip place in forbidden valley was actually really nice after I was expecting it to be awful but the Sriracha tossed strips were pretty good.

We queued at the guest services kiosk near x sector, mainly to understand what happens with the fast track given we saw the message on the app. I was actually pleasantly surprised there was no argument at all and he confirmed the platinum fast track will be revalidated on our chosen return date.

I did see the two people in front of us were both pass holders and they were both given financial compensation. First woman got nearly a £100 in £10 slips printed on the same cards the entry tickets are printed on. The second family had all of their purchases for the day refunded including anything they’d had to eat, the woman presented about ten receipts and he just refunded them all.
Click to expand...
Great review, the first half genuinely made me chuckle. Then, the last couple of bits where Towers have been very generous with their compensation. Thanks.
 
smidgey said:
I did see the two people in front of us were both pass holders and they were both given financial compensation. First woman got nearly a £100 in £10 slips printed on the same cards the entry tickets are printed on.
Click to expand...
Hmm, and I was told (at the same GS outlet) that my group couldn't claim the VAFF offer because I'd booked their tickets through the Merlin Passholder Page, even if they tried to visit again with me, and Passholders don't get compensation because we can visit whenever we'd like.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
Hmm, and I was told (at the same GS outlet) that my group couldn't claim the VAFF offer because I'd booked their tickets through the Merlin Passholder Page, even if they tried to visit again with me, and Passholders don't get compensation because we can visit whenever we'd like.
Click to expand...
Urgh my pet hate - I'd be pushing back and escalating your complaint on that daft excuse of "you can visit when you like". It's insane that it's being used in this day and age. It's £45 in fuel for me before I even go through the gates - and you have paid for a pass to visit and experience a park that's ready for visitors when you like, not to revisit on the off chance that things might be better at a later date.

Passholders are paying customers, saying you can go back does not remove their responsibility to deal with complaints in a fair and reasonable manner. Your concerns should be dealt with in the same way as a customer who has a day ticket - you've both paid to enter and experienced the same issues at the end of the day. The fact you've paid in advance for a year is completely irrelevant to the resolution they should be presenting. Sure a return ticket isn't of much use, but there's plenty of other things they could and should be doing/offering instead of "nah, you can come back mate".

Anyway, my personal rants about lazy complaint handling aside - we're straying a little more into the customer service side of things which we have plenty of dedicated topics for. Let's try and stick to ride availability as much as we can. Thanks :)
 
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