Ride Availability/Operations 2022-24

[DistortAMG]

I know many people have been singing the praises of Bianca. I do feel it is important to remember that the responsibility for the poor operations ultimately rests at her door.

There have absolutely been exceptional issues with certain rides, however, the ongoing issues with many attractions and poor capacity really needs someone to take responsibility. Alton Towers is currently poor value for money. I am desperate to visit, but with the current state of the attractions - I can't justify it. Fingers crossed they can improve quickly.

I would argue that Merlin probably set wages, the biggest expense of any company is almost always not done on a local level, but at head office. As they can very quickly bankrupt a compnay if not controlled tightly and from a central location, even more so over a largr group like Merlin. Seeing as the issues are a direct result of not enough tech staff, can we entirely put the blame on her?

If tech staff do not want to work at the park due to low wages, which is causing ride reliability and capacity problems, surely it is better to put the blame at the source, where wages are set and where this problem can ultimately be fixed from.

I am not blindly defending her, but the capacity and reliability issues are a result of not enough tech staff. Even if wages were set on a park level, the time it takes to train and upskill tech staff takes so much time, we wouldn't fully be seeing the improved reliablity and capacity benefits from anything done in her short tenure yet anyway. You cannot just click your fingers and have an army of competent staff who can sign rides off for the public to ride overnight. Doesn't work like that.

I fully think the capacity and reliablity problems lie mainly at the door of Merlin, as appose to Alton Towers direct. Again, even they righted the ship a year or so ago, we would not fully be seeing the benefits yet.

People expect rightly so to have a safe day out at a themepark, this doesn't happen because you let new tech staff loose on rides after being trained for 6 months.

 

[ScottishChris]

I would argue that Merlin probably set wages, the biggest expense of any company is almost always not done on a local level, but at head office. Seeing as the issues are a direct result of not enough tech staff, can we entirely put the blame on her?

If tech staff do not want to work at the park due to low wages, which is causing ride reliability, capacity problems, surely it is better to put the blame at the source, where wages are set and where this problem can ultimately be fixed from.

If Bianca is a true divisional director I would assume she has argued for a staffing budget (which I am sure she has put together a strategy to justify) but it would be the norm for her to decide how to spend it. If she doesn't and there is an issue getting staff in for said wage, it is her job to make the argument to change that, or look at alternatives.

She is ultimately in charge of everything that happens at that park. That goes with the job and her title. If something isn't working right at Towers I'm sure the Merlin board will hold her to account.

I don't see how you can argue that the director in charge of the park shouldn't be held responsible ride reliability, capacity or staffing? She will likely be reporting into the BOD.

 

[DistortAMG]

If Bianca is a true divisional director I would assume she has argued for a staffing budget (which I am sure she has put together a strategy to justify) but it would be the norm for her to decide how to spend it. If she doesn't and there is an issue getting staff in for said wage, it is her job to make the argument to change that, or look at alternatives.

She is ultimately in charge of everything that happens at that park. That goes with the job and her title. If something isn't working right at Towers I'm sure the Merlin board will hold her to account.

I don't see how you can argue that the director in charge of the park shouldn't be held responsible ride reliability, capacity or staffing? She will likely be reporting into the BOD.

Of course ultimately it her is problem, but you cannot exactly blame her for something that was clearly widespread before her tenure.

That indicates there are other factors at play isolated from the director, else why would they exist before she arrived at the park.

You've got to atleast give her the chance to actually change things, considering these reliablity issues existed before she joined that would be fair, would you not agree? There hasn't been enough time (no where near) to see the benefits of anything she could have done just yet. These are not coffee shop staff, they require by law, years of training to be signed off. These rides will be ridden by the public and can kill when maintained incorrectly, so would you expect any less?

Objectively, it is a bit early to putting the blame on her door yet. There is nothing that can have been done by her in a year, to fully see the benefits of regarding the tech staff, capacity and reliablity issues. She may have set the ship on the right course, but due to the nature of the roles in question, you wouldn't see any changes just yet on a park / reliablity/ capacity front. That doesn't mean the issues she inherited are not being fixed in the background though.

 

[ScottishChris]

You've got to atleast give her the chance to actually change things, considering these reliablity issues existed before she joined that would be fair, would you not agree?

Firstly, if someone takes their family to Towers, spending £200-300 for the privilege and have a really poor experience. Would you suggest that that they need to give Bianca time to change things? Being really blunt, Towers are charging for a premium product right now, but delivering something very sub standard. Bianca is in charge of the place right now and is responsible for it.

Objectively, it is a bit early to putting the blame on her door yet. There is nothing that can have been done by her in a year, to fully see the benefits of regarding the tech staff, capacity and reliablity issues.

Again, being blunt... she has accepter a job with the ultimate responsibility for the site. Yes, the blame for the issues are firmly at the door. I have worked in manufacturing for years. If machinery goes down - you cant produce and loose money. If your staff can't get equipment up-and-running you bring in external organisations/ manufacturers in to get the issues fixed. The issue I have is that Towers (ultimately, Bianca) seem happy to suffer with down time because they already have the punters money and there is little they can do.

For clarity, every issue that Towers suffers, is ultimately her responsibility.

I am not saying Bianca hasn't done some good things, or she will fix the park for the future. All I am saying is that I can't understand the lavish praise being bestowed upon her by Towers Thoosies, when she has not done anything to justify it (other than buy a few benches).

 

[DistortAMG]

She is a divisional director. Not a magician. Again you still seem to suggest that she should have fixed things she inherited but are physically and objectively impossible to fix in the time she has been at the park for.

As bad as it is, family's do not have a choice but to give her time to change things. There is no other option, right or wrong is a different argument. They do not have to visit, that is always an option. On a park level though, they do not really have a choice. Reliability issues will be a problem until such a time that staff can be signed off as competent under UK law. There is no changing that.

Manufacturing machinery is a very different beast to machines that take the public on extreme journeys day in day out. They can't be compared from a safety perspective.

I know what you are saying I fully understand it. But it is like blaming a Labour government for 10 years of rot from the opposition. When they are in their first year in power. I understand it but it doesn't make sense.

She is the person responsible now of course she is, but would you also blame her for having the Skyride neglected for decades to the point it now means it needs a couple of years out of service. Is that entirely her fault. Your answers seem to suggest it would be in your eyes.

 

[DiogoJ42]

Each government always blames the last lot, regardles of the colour of their rosette.
... But decades later nothing has changed.

 

[AT86]

All I am saying is that I can't understand the lavish praise being bestowed upon her by Towers Thoosies, when she has not done anything to justify it (other than buy a few benches).

- significantly improved Feb half term event with expanded ride line up, new shows & entertainment which garnered almost universal praise amongst guests (not just vloggers, actual guests leaving google/trip advisor reviews)

- improved opening hours - min 6pm every Saturday in 2024 (which is something Towers St specifically called out last year on social posts), return to 7pm closes for Fri/Sat/Sun of Oktoberfest , 6pm closes every day in July during the school trip season and the least number of 4pm closes across the season since they were introduced.

- new character meet and greets during breakfast at the hotels

- reintroduction of ‘mascot’ in the form of Alton Bear with meet and greets on Towers St in the mornings

- expanded roaming entertainment all season in Forbidden Valley, Mutiny Bay, Towers St and Gloomy Wood

- investment in new Scarefest maze locations across the park and revamp of under used Dungeons attraction

- removal of ‘tacky’ event Festival of Thrills.

- increased winter work including jet washing of multiple coasters, painting tired areas, fixing broken effects (Wickerman fire, Oblivion mist etc)

- improving the quality presentation with new font, updated signage - replacing 2D vinyls with 3D signs (Guest Services, Skyride)

- Investing in crumbling infrastructure - new pathways from car parks, Skyride upgrade (proper fixes, not just patch jobs or mothballing entire attractions), new permanent lighting across the park

- New permanent flat ride investment coming for the first time since 2001

- Return of ‘VIP’ style experiences such as coaster track walks

- expanded merchandise range with better quality items, return of paper maps

- Plussing of existing attractions (Curse, Hex) and replacing temporary effects with permanent ones (Curse queue line), returning theming elements (Rapids keep).

- oh yeah, and new benches

These are just the guest facing changes, I’m sure there is also plenty going on behind the scenes that we never see. Individually they might not be groundbreaking, but collectively they show a significant change in direction.

Is everything perfect? No. Is there work to do? Absolutely. But the suggestion the praise given to Bianca is purely because of some new benches is disingenuous.

 

[ScottishChris]

- significantly improved Feb half term event with expanded ride line up, new shows & entertainment which garnered almost universal praise amongst guests (not just vloggers, actual guests leaving google/trip advisor reviews)

- improved opening hours - min 6pm every Saturday in 2024 (which is something Towers St specifically called out last year on social posts), return to 7pm closes for Fri/Sat/Sun of Oktoberfest , 6pm closes every day in July during the school trip season and the least number of 4pm closes across the season since they were introduced.

- new character meet and greets during breakfast at the hotels

- reintroduction of ‘mascot’ in the form of Alton Bear with meet and greets on Towers St in the mornings

- expanded roaming entertainment all season in Forbidden Valley, Mutiny Bay, Towers St and Gloomy Wood

- investment in new Scarefest maze locations across the park and revamp of under used Dungeons attraction

- removal of ‘tacky’ event Festival of Thrills.

- increased winter work including jet washing of multiple coasters, painting tired areas, fixing broken effects (Wickerman fire, Oblivion mist etc)

- improving the quality presentation with new font, updated signage - replacing 2D vinyls with 3D signs (Guest Services, Skyride)

- Investing in crumbling infrastructure - new pathways from car parks, Skyride upgrade (proper fixes, not just patch jobs or mothballing entire attractions), new permanent lighting across the park

- New permanent flat ride investment coming for the first time since 2001

- Return of ‘VIP’ style experiences such as coaster track walks

- expanded merchandise range with better quality items, return of paper maps

- Plussing of existing attractions (Curse, Hex) and replacing temporary effects with permanent ones (Curse queue line), returning theming elements (Rapids keep).

- oh yeah, and new benches

These are just the guest facing changes, I’m sure there is also plenty going on behind the scenes that we never see. Individually they might not be groundbreaking, but collectively they show a significant change in direction.

Is everything perfect? No. Is there work to do? Absolutely. But the suggestion the praise given to Bianca is purely because of some new benches is disingenuous.

So... you're a fan!

 

[AT86]

So... you're a fan!

I’m a fan of discussion being based on facts and not untruths to fit a narrative.

 

[Relife]

Bianca has clearly made significant changes that have improved aspects of the park. There is still work to be done with ride availability and operations but she was never going to fix all the issues in one closed season after year of mismanagement and underinvestment.

Nothing wrong in acknowledging positive changes while still wanting continuing improvements.

I alo think there would be less discussion on downtime of the coasters if Towers actually had flat rides to keep people in the area and overall capacity should be better next season.

 

[Austin Towers]

Try explaining to an accountant that you need an increase of £x in your budget for tech services. They see the engineering side of things as a £ figure, nothing else. It's a cost, a necessary evil, they'll give you as little as they can get away with because they simply don't understand.

Our maintenance budget has been cut year on year for as long as I can remember and the directors expect the same reliability and equipment uptime for less money. That's with more and more high tech equipment coming in for us to look after every year on top of the existing old stuff which gets harder and more expensive to maintain the older it gets.

I've went into meetings asking for more money because of x,y and z and they don't even look at what x,y and z is or the impact on the company when it goes wrong, all they see is the £ figure. Deal with it on the day is the attitude.

Maybe Bianca has asked for more money and has been knocked back and it's a deal with the impact on the day situation for her and her staff. We'll never know.

And in the time I took to write the above both Rita and Oblivion have went down.

 

[Bowser]

The parks all seem really quiet today with good availability.

Are bank holidays the new Wednesday?

Will certainly put merit in the excessive MAP owner theory if the weekdays turn out to be busier.

 

[Thameslink Rail]

I think the blackout days should be rethought out, I don't see much point in bank holidays being blacked out but perhaps the last handful of days in the summer holidays which are notoriously busy should be.

 

[Mhoowee]

Galactica is running on 2 trains today with only a 20 min queue

 

[Skyscraper]

Galactica is running on 2 trains today with only a 20 min queue

Blivvy opened at 10:15 then went down at 13:20 and hasn't reopened since.

 

[Relife]

Weather is rubbish today so if you were planning to go, Saturday and Sunday were the best days. Will probably pick up again as the week goes on

 

[Bowser]

So the parks were all far busier than yesterday despite slightly better weather. Further weight to the theory of the MAP crowds dominating the parks...

Overall availability seemed pretty good across the board at least.

 

[Connor98]

Bit of mess at times today from my experience. Queued 70 mins for Nemesis for it go down and then be evacuated out the queue, would have been nice to have more transparency from the staff as it was a farce. Then we decided to go to wickerman, got on the coaster and then proceeded to be stuck on the brake run for 20 minutes until being evacuated. Over to dark forest we go… Rita goes down and Th13teen goes to 70 minute queue. We managed to have a good day, but at times it felt hard to do so. Think we just drew a short straw in reality.

 

[Bowser]

Bit of mess at times today from my experience. Queued 70 mins for Nemesis for it go down and then be evacuated out the queue, would have been nice to have more transparency from the staff as it was a farce. Then we decided to go to wickerman, got on the coaster and then proceeded to be stuck on the brake run for 20 minutes until being evacuated. Over to dark forest we go… Rita goes down and Th13teen goes to 70 minute queue. We managed to have a good day, but at times it felt hard to do so. Think we just drew a short straw in reality.

Sounds like a pretty standard replication of everyones day since the season started unfortunately. Multiple ride closures, evacuations and 60+ minute queues.

 

[Matt.GC]

The park was not busy yesterday, just brisk like it normally is this time of year. Breakdowns everywhere. What struck me is the lack of supporting attractions. The Smiler breaks down, and your choice nearby is no longer to hop on a flat, but to join a 60 min resulting Oblivion queue. Rita down? No Hex or Dark forest flat to hop on to, so it's wait, walk somewhere else (for that ride to break down too), join the crowd descending on a 70 min Thirteen queue or do what we did and go for dinner. Wasn't like this when Wickerman went down, as you could hop on Marauders or go into Sharkbait, which is what we did.

I know the focus will be on improving reliability, but the park is too heavily reliant on the capacity machines that are the main coasters to carry the weight of the crowds, with Alton Manor being the only other attraction that can also do this. 2 new attractions or 1 additional capacity eater is needed in X Sector, an additional attraction is needed in Dark Forest, and Hex is needed urgently. There isn't even a Sky Ride this season to take you to another area of the park if you've found yourself trapped with breakdowns. One of the worst visits I've ever had yesterday because of this. No wonder they have to open until 8pm on Saturdays.