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Stargazing Pods

Jonathan said:
This accommodation was completely unnecessary, especially when Splash is closed for half the year. Why not just, y'know, spend money on improving the resort's entertainment offerings - which has been badly needed for years - rather than adding on loads more rooms for no discernible reason whatsoever?
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I don't think it was a bad idea, lots of the world's best theme park resorts have budget accomodation.

It's just shocking that Merlin have the balls to charge nearly £200 for said budget accomodation.
 
RicketyCricket said:
I don't think it was a bad idea, lots of the world's best theme park resorts have budget accomodation.

It's just shocking that Merlin have the balls to charge nearly £200 for said budget accomodation.
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I agree completely. If this were more reasonably priced, then I think it wouldn’t be as bad. As it is, I won’t be staying in these sheds. I could have a similar experience in the actual shed at my house and pay nothing for it.
 
Jonathan said:
I agree completely. If this were more reasonably priced, then I think it wouldn’t be as bad. As it is, I won’t be staying in these sheds. I could have a similar experience in the actual shed at my house and pay nothing for it.
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Yep no chance I'm staying there either. Especially as there are a few proper campsites within a 15 minute drive for s quarter of the price.

It's a missed opportunity. They could have gone in with a price that reflects good value for money and feedback would probably be pretty positive.
 
The thing is, they're not only overpriced, but they're also overhyped. As if you're going to have some kind of magical star-gazing extravaganza.

They're just a bog-standard set of little basic huts with inadequate facilities.

If they didn't want a load of complaints they should have been advertised and priced accordingly. Looks like they've decided to go down the route of 'Let's get the money off them first, then who cares if they complain later'. They're obviously alright with that.
 
Jonathan said:
I agree completely. If this were more reasonably priced, then I think it wouldn’t be as bad. As it is, I won’t be staying in these sheds. I could have a similar experience in the actual shed at my house and pay nothing for it.
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Indeed. And you'd have your own toilet & shower facilities within a very short walk - with a towel included. Breakfast would be a doddle as you can cook your own bacon sandwich in under 10mins, with a coffee / tea.

Towers / Merlin deserve all the bad reviews they are clearly going to get on TripAdvisor about the Pods. Their social media team will just have to compile a few more boiler-plate responses. The "relevant teams" to whom the feedback is passed onto will need very deep in-trays, or more likely a high-capacity shredder.

I know when I worked at Towers, general complaints just got boiler-plate replies. A classic was the reply to complaints about guests getting drenched on Ripsaw. Apparently on hot days the grease warms up to the extent the gondola could do extra unplanned spins & the operator could not react fast enough & drop the fountains... which was pure rubbish. I remember when the people-driers were put in next to Ripsaw - the Ops were quietly told not to hold back on the water to see how much the driers could make!

To get anywhere with Towers customer relations / Guest Services at the Box Office, you need exact dates, times, names of staff and ideally photos where appropriate so they have no "wriggle-room". That said, I am sure Towers Customer Excellence team will claim their social media responses "are better than nothing". (They are, but only just - just read through a few pages of TripAdvisor reviews on the Park / Hotels and you will see the same replies over and over again - possibly with minor tweaks to make it appear personal, i.e. mention a ride / something the guest specifically mentioned).
 
They desperately need a Stargazing Pods TripAdvisor. Otherwise people will leave the reviews on the theme park page.

Alton Towers are over hyping these pods in their marketing. Badly.

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AstroDan said:
They desperately need a Stargazing Pods TripAdvisor. Otherwise people will leave the reviews on the theme park page.

Alton Towers are over hyping these pods in their marketing. Badly.

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I would suggest there is a very real reason why Alton Towers don't want a separate TripAdvisor review category / page for the Stargazing Pods... they know exactly what 90% of the guests will say!

I recently complained to Burger King about a shocking visit to one of their outlets. Their customer services just brushed it under the carpet saying "we don't own or operate this unit". Looked on TripAdvisor and 90% of the reviews rated the unit in question as Terrible.

Towers / Merlin cannot say "we don't operate the Stargazing Pods", so they have to carry the can for any less than complimentary reviews.
 
It's currently running at 2 stars on Google Maps. However to be fair I only think these last two reviews are genuine, one being 5-stars and one being 1-star.
stargazing-reviews.jpg

The others are before the Pods opened and include a 1-star from someone called "Nick Varney"... :sweatsmile:
 
Alsty said:
It's currently running at 2 stars on Google Maps. However to be fair I only think these last two reviews are genuine, one being 5-stars and one being 1-star.
stargazing-reviews.jpg

The others are before the Pods opened and include a 1-star from someone called "Nick Varney"... :sweatsmile:
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So come on... I've just almost spilled my beer laughing. Who posted the Nick Varney review of the Pods?! (Not me).
 
Stevie said:
I mean I also like to share a toilet with 300 hundred or so other people. So maybe I ask too much, I don't know.
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Merlin will merely see it as "extending the on-theme park toilet ratio" to their "quality budget accommodation".

If that TripAdvisor report about a 40min queue for a breakfast bap & hot drink was correct, I'd love to see how they justify that.

Going back a few years [like 15yrs] Towers did invest in a good few "mobile catering units" (or as I call them "Maggot Wagons"). They were shipping container type shape and clad in log effect cladding - much like the Dungeons. For a couple of years these featured heavily at the fireworks events & the number of external mobile caterers was heavily reduced. No idea why they got ride of them - can only assume Env Health had something to do with it / Towers decided they were too expensive to maintain for the short time they were used each season, so they just shifted the can back onto allowing external providers in & charging them huge rents to be there.
 
Kraken27 said:
So come on... I've just almost spilled my beer laughing. Who posted the Nick Varney review of the Pods?! (Not me).
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Fake reviews really aren't useful for anyone. It means Merlin can dismiss poor reviews as those pesky enthusiasts cuasing more trouble, means the public are further mis-informed and reduces the credibility of genuine reviews (poor or good).

I agree with those saying that these pods are being massively overhyped. The advert for example is rather good, however it gives a totally unrealistic idea of what guests should expect. They are setting themselves up for complaints.
 
As soon as they get several reviews from guests who've *actually* experienced the pods and what they offer, the star rating will balance out.

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