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Wicker Man - General Discussion - Part Two

They need to explain that the rides cannot operate because in the event of a breakdown it could mean punters being trapped on a ride for up to an hour in freezing cold and wind and they'd rather sit on the side of caution than risk it happening to then have to face the inevitable headlines of customers suffering from hypothermia while stuck on their headline ride.

People are not stupid, they'll understand something a bit more detailed than "weather" and "unlikely".
 
Croftybaby said:
I've not got a lot of sympathy with people who are now moaning after it was announced yesterday at 3pm that the park was planning a reduced lineup of attractions. It seems people were clutching at straws hanging on every word for hope.
Posting the latest weather from where you are currently standing and stating it's OK to run the rides won't really make any difference.

Reading this topic has reminded me of when I was a kid asking my parents for something and they said no and i just kept asking in different ways in the hope of a different answer. The decision was made yesterday, if you have turned up to ride today then that decision should be respected.
:) :)
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I feel the same. People just need to accept that the ride isn’t going to open, for a reason that’s entirely out of Alton Towers’ hands.

If people arrived after Towers said it wasn’t going to open get annoyed that it’s not open, then they really need to learn some patience. These things happen, as disappointing as it is.
 
Croftybaby said:
It seems people were clutching at straws hanging on every word for hope.
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That’s exactly what some have done.
As said the weekend was a no win situation for everyone, the park can’t ignore severe weather warnings and has to plan for it accordingly.

The one thing people are entitled to moan about is the fact Towers didn’t make announcements to customers sooner. The statement yesterday could of been posted Thursday as a warning which would allow customers to cancel trips and make amends to non resort bookings.

@IanSR I bet Francis Jackson has already got a video ready to upload :D
 
They've changed their tune again. Just had definite confirmation that no coasters are opening today regardless of any change in the weather. One of the AT guys standing at Wicker Man said that the majority of ride operators have been told not to come in because of the expected bad weather. A lot of the park is also shut off. No reason at all they couldn't have told people last night that the rides were definitely closed.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
 
ringo said:
The one thing people are entitled to moan about is the fact Towers didn’t make announcements to customers sooner. The statement yesterday could of been posted Thursday as a warning which would allow customers to cancel trips and make amends to non resort bookings.
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Agree 100% with the above - this was very badly handled by Alton Towers. The weather warning has been out for most of the week with the forecasters correctly predicting Friday night / Saturday & just about every Amber warning map I've seen has had Alton Towers area shown as at risk. Towers know what their ride operating restrictions are weather-wise & you don't have to be a rocket scientist to work out operations were quite likely to be disrupted.

Alton Towers should have had a pre-emptive warning about the possibility of a reduced ride lineup on their website on Thursday lunchtime at the latest. This would have enabled people with flexible non-resort hotel bookings to make an informed decision as to whether to risk visiting today, whilst still being able to get a refund on hotel costs (you can normally cancel up to Noon / 2pm on day of arrival if on a flexible rate).

This is a shame, as Alton Towers / Merlin PR machine have pulled off some text-book work in the past (the handling of The Smiler crash being a good example). The handling of this bad weather forecast (which turned out to be fairly accurate) has been pretty laughable.
 
You'll all be pleased to know that even though the ride isn't open, the shop is!
 
RoyJess said:
I don't understand why every time we get a few flakes of snow, the who country comes to a standstill? (just looking outside my window, hardly a few flakes of snow dusted the grass, but I can mainly see the grass and patio, it's nice and sunny here :rolleyes:)
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Because we're a bunch of pansies. My buddy in New York always takes the mickey whenever the Country grounds to a halt, and sends me photos of their 6 foot high snow drifts with the caption "this is snow".
 
Crawleyboy01 said:
They could at least turn the effects on to show the people who made the effort to get there what it looks like in person......might even keep a few of them warm
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hope they let everyone who turned up use the VIP marquee for the free drinks and bacon rolls
 
We better be getting soft opening on Monday and Tuesday if the weather improves. I will be pretty annoyed if they can open it and refuse to just so it's a busy opening day next Saturday. Some of the tweets appear to suggest we will.
 
Benjsh said:
We better be getting soft opening on Monday and Tuesday if the weather improves. I will be pretty annoyed if they can open it and refuse to just so it's a busy opening day next Saturday. Some of the tweets appear to suggest we will.
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I’d imagine they’ll try the soft opening approach. The ride works just fine, they just don’t want to disappoint anyone should the poor weather stick around.
 
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