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Fright Nights 2018 - General Discussion


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As already said - if the forecast is going to be cold and the park is going to be busy, shouldn't someone, somewhere, decide they probably shouldn't be selling £80 fast-tracks or whatever they cost, for fear of guests being a bit displeased when they find that the bit of paper they've just purchased is now worthless because no coasters are open? Is that not asking too much? Is that not what "management" are supposed to do? Yes, guests might not like the fact you can't buy fast-tracks, but why not tell them are unavailable due to a technical reason or something, or heck, just be honest. 

 

Allegations on Twitter (unverified of course), that you could still buy Fast-tracks even though the rides were shut.

 

PS. I know it's also a moot point, but the parking is also a massive kick in the teeth for guests, you've had the day from hell, now you've got to pay £15 to escape at the barrier, £10 if you want to queue and £8 if you can battle with 4G/Wifi which is over-stretched due to lots of users being in one space. (I speak from experience there, it was like playing the lottery trying to secure my £8 parking ticket on the 13th :D)
PPS. I still like Stealth & Swarm, and DBGTROTD is good when it all works.

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The major issue I see is the lack of foresight from the park.

 

It was known that the weather would be cold. Thorpe know that they have these restrictions about rides not being able to open in cold temperatures. Yet they probably had somewhere between 16-18k people come through, knowing that sooner or later a good proportion of major rides would close. And their response on social media boils down to 'Fright Nights is popular, the weather is cold, not our fault, soz m8'.

 

The park have taken zero responsibility for this. And yes, weather is out of their control, but they can control communication. A forewarning on Thursday/Friday about the weather, giving guests tips on how to make the most of their day, etc, advising people the park will be busy and consider alternative days if possible (the latter of which they did at 2pm yesterday..). The attitude of the park stinks in this situation. Then telling guests 'you couldn't possibly do all Fright Nights attractions in one day, you'll have to come back to experience them all' is a disgrace.

 

And when they only have 3 indoor mazes (5 indoor attractions if you count Screamplexx 2D and upcharge-Containment), it screws the park up even more. People are told to wait till night time to do those ones as they're scarier, do some coasters in the evening as their quieter, etc. But when it's cold, and the coasters aren't open, indoor attractions are no doubt more preferable over outside ones.

 

The park were able open the 3 indoor mazes at 12pm yesterday, which shows they at least had some thought go into yesterday - "oh, Saturday will be busy, let's open 3 mazes early to increase the park's overall throughput per hour and give people more chance to go through the mazes". But in some ways, it's worse, because it makes it seem like they thought that would be enough to compensate for everything else that could go wrong.

 

The kick in the teeth for people will also be how the park said "we are not at capacity". Given the numerous complaints, it's clear the park did not handle the numbers yesterday. Imagine having a terrible day at park, and being told 'sorry, but the park can be even busier than this, so it could be worse'.

 

 

On top of a lackluster maze selection, the park have - arguably, once again - screwed up Fright Nights again from a customer service / satisfaction perspective. 

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That’s the problem, the park won’t admit to being the problem - everything else is the problem, heck even guests visiting are a problem.

 

If there was any leadership at the park they should be forcing out an apology across social media. Admit things haven’t been right and start rebuilding confidence and trust in the park otherwise they’ll alienate even more guests.

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Forecast is 5 degrees centigrade from 7pm tonight, then down to 4 degrees centigrade - is that touch and go for ride shutdowns? I suppose when you factor in the wind chill from being on an island and the surrounding lake?

 

EDIT: I see that the limit is 5 degrees, so I'm sure Thorpe have a contingency plan in for tonight and will not be selling Fast-tracks for fear of a repeat performance of yesterday.

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25 minutes ago, Ringo said:

That’s the problem, the park won’t admit to being the problem - everything else is the problem, heck even guests visiting are a problem.

 

 

Hit the nail on the head. Everyone else is blamed but themselves. They never learn if I recall there were major issues last year too.

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48 minutes ago, MattyMoo said:

Forecast is 5 degrees centigrade from 7pm tonight, then down to 4 degrees centigrade - is that touch and go for ride shutdowns? I suppose when you factor in the wind chill from being on an island and the surrounding lake?

 

EDIT: I see that the limit is 5 degrees, so I'm sure Thorpe have a contingency plan in for tonight and will not be selling Fast-tracks for fear of a repeat performance of yesterday.

I'd imagine guest services are hoping for a contingency plan, can't imagine it being a pretty sight if not! 

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If they have a contingency plan in place I'll be amazed. It's like the park is being run by a 10 year old child.

The Twitter/social media team is so amateur it's embarrassing. They like tweets that they should definitely not be shared. They respond to a lot of complaints in a terrible attitude and they don't seem to have a clue with what's going on. 

 

 

received_881851835536551.jpeg

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8 minutes ago, Project LC said:

If they have a contingency plan in place I'll be amazed. It's like the park is being run by a 10 year old child.

The Twitter/social media team is so amateur it's embarrassing. They like tweets that they should definitely not be shared. They respond to a lot of complaints in a terrible attitude and they don't seem to have a clue with what's going on. 

 

 

received_881851835536551.jpeg

Is it still that vlogger / enthusiast who does social?

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12 minutes ago, Ringo said:

Is it still that vlogger / enthusiast who does social?

There seems to be a team of people on social media who do the responses. All of them guilty of crazy levels of exclamation marks.

 

There is an article from the New York times they should read about Great Western Railways Twitter team. Would really help calm down guests.

 

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2018/10/01/world/europe/britain-trains-apologies-great-western-railway.amp.html

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16 hours ago, Ringo said:

They should rest Fright Nights for 2019, come back for 2020 where they have enough time to actually provide a product that’s worthy of paying guests. 

 

It’ll take at least year to rebuild the confidence in the park full stop.

Sadly that'll never happen. They can do it, they just need an injection to boost the event. stuff they can buy and keep. Instead of boing like "we need a new maze every year" no.. improve on what you have already, and introduce parkwide lighting and sfx. take over the displays with FN branding, stick flames on the beach, light areas up with themed lighting and not white flood lights. 2017, I miss you.

16 hours ago, MattyMoo said:

The feedback tonight just screams profit first, guest satisfaction second. The shocking thing is, they weren't even at capacity tonight, as quoted by Thorpe Park themselves.

 

I appreciate that rides can't operate under certain temperatures, but one would probably consider not selling fast tracks if the forecast is for low temperatures, no?

 

And that to one side - how difficult is it to have enough milk on site to make coffee?! I really do despair. I saw a tweet saying they queued 40 minutes for doughnuts, and had to queue 30 minutes to pay for car parking ?

far from capacity compare to last year. It's just a complete shambles. no one in their depts are trained adequately to handle their role correctly or guests. Don't get me started on the social team.

15 hours ago, Marc said:

Fastrack on here is always considered as an “issue” though - in reality If the park weren’t forced to close the pretty much all their coasters for the evening the would of been fine for the most part (busy sure but that’s expected on a day like today). 

Fastrack is an issue, when they decide to sell it despite knowing the weather is forecasted to drop to 3-4oc. Thats just bad planning. It's like us checking the weather to see if we need a coat for the day... But selling FT makes money, so they will do that and just give guests who moan a refund.

 

They had no milk, so why didn't someone do a tesco run? Oh because of profit.. and there we have it, the park runs with profit in mind, not the guests experience. 

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1 hour ago, MattyMoo said:

The social media team love to use exclamation marks! Even when not appropriate! Making them sound condescending!

There is a time and place, and frankly if I received a negative tweet, I wouldnt be using ! in the reply 3-4 times. If its something positive, I'd share the energy in a reply using !.. Right?

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Can’t really say more than what has been mentioned but....well.....fright nights? Sh1te nights more like.  It’s not ALL bad but just a combination of things and bad management/fast track over selling.  I skipped a few rides tonight with RAP because the queues were horrific - the Colossus queue was halfway through the damned shop ? and the dispatching were slow (going by the times the trains went up the lift hill - I actually thought for a while it was on one train).

 

Thorpe have really lost their sense of direction and I think for a lot of people it’s going to take a lot to entice them back.  It’s just a shame when ride staff get abuse because of naff decisions higher up.  I’ve seen so many staff this year looking fed up and on one occasion saw a girl working on Saw in tears.  

 

Usually this time of year I’m gutted that the parks closed season is approaching but this year I’m relieved ?.  

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The park is only as good as it's worst experience. The vast majority of visitors vist as a one off and will not know what other days are like at the park. Any guest who experienced the shocking Saturday just gone will now go and tell friends and families of the ripoff experience. Word will spread about that bad experience much faster than a good one. Potential guests are then put off from visiting and the park then has to spend more money getting people in. 

To say they could just visit on a less busy day is completely missing the point and I feel it's the exact same attitude the parks management take. 

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14 hours ago, ChiapasC. said:

We love interacting with our followers! Especially when they're extremely annoyed by the park!! And we love them so much we give copy and paste responses! These don't always answer their problems! Sorry if you feel disappointed by this! - CC

 

This winds me up moreso than anything, is it really so difficult for people to change the response template even just a little bit to at least show they're reading it?

 

Trip Advisor responses are the worst offenders...

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