Those Summer Niiiiights

[Ben]

Excuse the 'Grease' rip off title, but this has come up in conversations several times.

Altons late PM offering is beyond poor. A 6pm summer holiday close time is really bad, the nights are long, the sun is shining, theres a large amount of guests around - so why insist upon closing the park so early?

I am LOVING this season that Thorpe Park have discovered that opening just a tiny bit of the park is making a huge difference! I am desperate it might spread to its nothern cousin Alton Towers.

The biggest issue for Alton Towers is the size of the park, lets be honest its huge. With rides across such a big area its never going to be an easy plan to open a little later.

but if Alton took the risk, to have a more staggered closing, it would bring in more revenue and also keep people on the park a little later to appease the locals and traffic relief.

--

My plan would be:

6pm - standard ride close

6pm - Duel, Air, Blade and Nemesis and RMT stay open as the rides. Refresh at Ripsaw remains open to eat in.

6:15pm - the gates under Air to the hotels open - the temporary conference centre restaurant opens - to not just hotel guests but park guests.

6:30pm - hotel Characters come onto park, to promote the places to eat and drink at the resort side.

7:30pm - RMT and Duel close to bring guest to one area of the park.

8pm - all rides close and the park closes. All guests exit straight to the car parks.

--

It leaves in a relatively small space (ie can be cornered off easily) just a small handfull of rides - including 3 family and 2 bigger rides open. Later on this becomes just 3 rides in one area.

The need for monorail is removed as all guests are practically at the car park too.

Pushing the hotels is great for extra revenue and also to promote them to a bigger market.
--

I doubt Alton would ever take such a risk, but wouldnt it be great, to be sat in the valley in the evening sun, drinking a bottle of beer outside Refresh@Ripsaw enjoying the area. Then able to grab a pizza and go home.

Im just praying the Thorpe mentality - which is apprently going down VERY WELL with guests - catches on.

 

[Andrew]

That is pretty much a perfect plan and it would be even better if an entertainment area themed like Splash Landings is made on the Air car park, connecting the hotels to the park more easily.

It would mean that guests would be more satisfied, guests would stay longer and therefore spend more money, and the hotels would be advertised more.

I'd like to see this happen some time in the future. It sounds like something perfect for the park to do and would cost very little money as well.

 

[Ben]

as I look at it staffing wise they would need:

RMT - 2
Duel - 2
Blade - 1
Nemesis - 3
Air - 3
Refresh @ Ripsaw - 2
Floating / Team leader - 1

14 staff for an extra 3 actual working hours - thats not alot at all! Baring in mind the staff earn just over minimun wage (lets say £6.70) an hour it would cost the park under £300 in staffing costs. I am convinced they would make that amount back, plus alot more!

Its a shame theres no actual places to have a sit down meal (like Woodcutters) which would really keep people if they could sit down to eat.

 

[Croftybaby]

I'd much rather do this, when I visit I always find I have missed the last monorail anyway so end up walking, would prefer to walk that way to the car parks.
Couple of issues though.
Towers Trading - Towers may be scared of missing some extra revenue from sales. Maybe they could improve the shops in the area, mind you Air is more like a mini towers trading than any of the other shops on park.
Second might be the actual ride close if the rides closed at 8pm, If you enclose a lot of people in that small space then the queues will rise, maybe an hour or more after the 8pm park close. This maybe problem.

I was under the impression that the Hotels didn't want park guests to mingle about, is this still the case or do they welcome people with open arms now?

I'd love the Downtown Disney style link between the park and hotels but I don't see how this will benefit the marketing dept. "New for 2016...shops and pretty lights" Maybe it could be funded by an external company such as a shopping centre firm who could lease out units and pay rent for the land to Merlin or whoever owns the land.

 

[thefatone]

Your staffing levels are a bit off, as everything on there apart from blade need a minimum of one more staff member to run, however that's very little added also.

I think the main issue to that, is that they're on ERT anyway so that part of the park is already open longer hours so people have longer to ride those rides. Plus, if anyones visited the valley towards ride close would realise the place is dead - it's the first area to quieten down on park.

Staggered ride close would be nice, but from the corners of the park in - so X sector, katanga and mutiny can stay open later as the guests slowly make their way towards the main entrance. Plus, towers street can stay open then.

 

[Scott]

I think it would be more ideal to keep the Valley open rather than the other areas of the park as it would funnel people towards the car park and stop the need for the monorail to be open.

Equally, they could keep Fish n Chips open as well as Refresh@Ripsaw to provide a more substantial meal option?

Doubt it will ever happen though.