Alton Towers General Discussion

[Stuntman707]

Merlin have done a Liseberg style chasing drone video of Nemesis. 😃

 

[StevenVig]

There was a fire at Towers
 

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/breaking-alton-towers-fire-x-20850911

[Mattgwise]

Minor -  Stray Firework catches tree alight and fire put out quickly. The whole damage courtesy of TowersStreet Social Media

[Glitch]

https://www.altontowers.com/

Looks to of had a redesign.

[MattyMoo]

4 hours ago, Glitch said:

https://www.altontowers.com/

Looks to of had a redesign.

Opening times added I see. I still think a 4pm close is an utter mickeytake but there we are....

 

I note Sub Terra has disappeared from the website now.... The Blade is on there though.

[Mattgwise]

Terrible opening hours again I see! 

[Martin Doyle]

3 minutes ago, Mattgwise said:

Terrible opening hours again I see! 

 

Agreed but we must NOT lose sight of one very important thing....

 

Its better than nothing!!

[Matt 236]

There are theme parks in small regional towns with better opening hours than Towers.

 

Worst hours of any theme park really, let alone a major one. 

[Glitch]

14 hours ago, Wicker Matt said:

There are theme parks in small regional towns with better opening hours than Towers.

 

Worst hours of any theme park really, let alone a major one. 

Its a simple case of supply vs demand.

Want the park to be open longer, then visit more on the 4pm close off peak day. 6Hours is enough time to get all the rides done when they are walk on.

Besides its always the same people who have no plan on visiting in these off peak days who love to complain about the opening hours.

 

[JoshC.]

Towers is a park that attracts people from across the nation. Plenty of people are willing to drive 2-3hrs for a day trip there.

 

What incentive do people have to visit the park on an off peak day when they're going to spend almost as much time driving as they are at the park?

 

And if people don't want to go on a peak day, then they just won't visit.

[Glitch]

Also remember these 4pm off peak close days are targeting the pre-school market visiting Cbeebies land. rather than the small enthusiast user group.  

 

[Mattgwise]

To be fair when you say it's always the same people who never plan to visit those days that complain I'd disagree, I have had about two conversations with people over the last year who put off their visit because of the poor opening hours. They were also non enthusiast groups. 

 

There are also people outside of Cbeebies land as well that would like to visit. If it was purely Cbeebies land open I'd understand. 

 

It's not a good offering, simples. 

[Coaster]

I wouldn't visit Alton Towers on a 4pm close day because hours as short as that don't appeal to me.

 

If the park was open longer, I would be more likely to visit.

[JoshC.]

1 hour ago, Glitch said:

Also remember these 4pm off peak close days are targeting the pre-school market visiting Cbeebies land.

Which is ridiculous if true. They're a family theme park which caters for everyone. The opening hours should match that.

 

Longer opening hours won't alienate the pre-school market, it'll just get more people in.

1 hour ago, Glitch said:

rather than the small enthusiast user group.  

But it's much more than a group of small enthusiasts. It's pretty much anyone else who doesn't go to school.

[Matt 236]

6 hours ago, Glitch said:

Its a simple case of supply vs demand.

Want the park to be open longer, then visit more on the 4pm close off peak day. 6Hours is enough time to get all the rides done when they are walk on.

Besides its always the same people who have no plan on visiting in these off peak days who love to complain about the opening hours.

 

I understand the demand is generally not there in these low peak days, but that is still not really excusable for a big park of this level. 
 

As Josh says, there are people who will be travelling a journey similar to the complete opening hours and that will certainly hinder a noticeable chunk of those people, even if they are willing to get, say a travelogue or something for the night. 
 

I'm not expecting “Europa Park style” closures in the week like 7/8pm, but a solid 5pm consistent close would be perfectly sufficient for such a park. 
 

Just because a park is walk on low peak days does not necessarily mean it’s easy for everyone, especially when everything is spread out in the park.

[Mattgwise]

13 minutes ago, Wicker Matt said:

Just because a park is walk on low peak days does not necessarily mean it’s easy for everyone, especially when everything is spread out in the park.

Moreso when it's those early summer months and the temperature goes above 21 degrees and they close the skyride! 

[Glitch]

8 minutes ago, Wicker Matt said:

I understand the demand is generally not there in these low peak days, but that is still not really excusable for a big park of this level. 
 

As Josh says, there are people who will be travelling a journey similar to the complete opening hours and that will certainly hinder a noticeable chunk of those people, even if they are willing to get, say a travelogue or something for the night. 
 

I'm not expecting “Europa Park style” closures in the week like 7/8pm, but a solid 5pm consistent close would be perfectly sufficient for such a park. 
 

Just because a park is walk on low peak days does not necessarily mean it’s easy for everyone, especially when everything is spread out in the park.

 

 

Why not though?

The park has posted opening hours in advance so you can plan your trip to the resort in advance on a day which suits your needs and time within the park.

I'm sure the team at Alton towers would love to keep the park open late into the evening but just like any other business they have to look at it from a profit protection perspective, if there's more staff then guests in the park, which I don't think is a problem the likes of Europa would see, then how is it going to be beneficial to keep the park open late.

 

Besides we don't know if there is an operational constraint with the local council and noise impacting the amount of hours an attraction is allowed to be open for yearly.

Unfortunately this isn't an attraction which sells out months in advance on prebook alone. Perhaps if the park scrapped MAP and charged £220 a year for a pass then maybe we would have a different story.

[Marc]

I see both sides of this tbf - I have visited on a 4pm close and I was bored by 2 - had done everything as many times as I had wanted and not really into reriding the same things all day, on the other hand I can see why people especially those with long travelling distance may not be keen on visiting on a 4pm close.. but that won’t improve till these days are busy enough to warrant it.. I guess it’s a vicious circle in that respect!

[Matt 236]

4 hours ago, Glitch said:

 

 

Why not though?

The park has posted opening hours in advance so you can plan your trip to the resort in advance on a day which suits your needs and time within the park.

I'm sure the team at Alton towers would love to keep the park open late into the evening but just like any other business they have to look at it from a profit protection perspective, if there's more staff then guests in the park, which I don't think is a problem the likes of Europa would see, then how is it going to be beneficial to keep the park open late.

 

Besides we don't know if there is an operational constraint with the local council and noise impacting the amount of hours an attraction is allowed to be open for yearly.

Unfortunately this isn't an attraction which sells out months in advance on prebook alone. Perhaps if the park scrapped MAP and charged £220 a year for a pass then maybe we would have a different story.

Yep, because 5pm is classed as a late opening now.  
 

as I said, just an hours difference for weekly operations would be such an improvement. After all, the Southern parks can just about manage to do so, so why not Towers too? If I’d said something like 7pm for example, then that would be a different matter.
 

I’m sure a multimillion company can afford to,but they just choose not to because they can somewhat getaway with it currently. Legoland China couldn’t have been cheap aye.

 

Unless there’s been another Ropers thing (heavens forbid), then I can’t see the issue here as they always used to close at 5pm, but gradually pushed. It go 4pm. Prebooking only attractions are different though because they are usually smaller stand alone attractions in/around a large town and not in rural Staffordshire.

 

As their provisional hours, I’m sure we could see some changes.

 

 

 

[Glitch]

1 minute ago, Wicker Matt said:

Yep, because 5pm is classed as a late opening now.  
 

as I said, just an hours difference for weekly operations would be such an improvement. After all, the Southern parks can just about manage to do so, so why not Towers too? If I’d said something like 7pm for example, then that would be a different matter.
 

I’m sure a multimillion company can afford to,but they just choose not to because they can somewhat getaway with it currently. Legoland China couldn’t have been cheap aye.

 

Unless there’s been another Ropers thing (heavens forbid), then I can’t see the issue here as they always used to close at 5pm, but gradually pushed. It go 4pm. Prebooking only attractions are different though because they are usually smaller stand alone attractions in/around a large town and not in rural Staffordshire.

 

As their provisional hours, I’m sure we could see some changes.

 

 

 

But you do realise its done via visitor numbers for that day of the previous year.

Didn't Thorpe do late evening summer opening last year and oh the park was dead by evening therefore they were scrapped due to a lack of demand. 

I'm sure if Wickeman still had an hour queue at 4pm they would reconsider however I highly doubt that is the case.

As Marc said he was bored by 2pm, from doing all the rides  +there are other things to do in the resort to do such as Mini Golf.

 

Also theres nothing wrong with building another Legoland as Asia is an emerging market for these attractions and equates for a large chunk of Merlins revenue, all of which will result in a bigger pot for reinvestment.

 

[Mattgwise]

36 minutes ago, Glitch said:

As Marc said he was bored by 2pm, from doing all the rides  +there are other things to do in the resort to do such as Mini Golf.

We are enthusiasts who have been many, many times so easily bore. People who don't often go and want to make a day of it should be able to stay until minimum 5pm. Virtually every leisure attraction shuts at 5pm minimum, including those that are far less wealthy that the company running Towers. I'm sorry, I get what your saying, but its still poor opening hours regardless of whether it has x number of visitors or not. 

 

These large companies should use the excessive profits made in busy periods to cover those days it might make less money. My friend who runs an outdoor crazy golf course still opens until 5pm in winter and sometimes runs at a loss, but its summer trade factors that my happen sometimes over less busy periods. Its a good service that should be offered to bring people back.

 

[JoshC.]

>Theme park reduces opening hours to save money

>Less people visit theme park because of reduced opening hours

>Theme park keeps reduced opening hours because less people visit them

>People continue not to visit because of reduced opening hours

 

This is the problem with looking at attendance figures for deciding opening hours.

[Mark9]

10 hours ago, Wicker Matt said:

Yep, because 5pm is classed as a late opening now.  
 

as I said, just an hours difference for weekly operations would be such an improvement. After all, the Southern parks can just about manage to do so, so why not Towers too? If I’d said something like 7pm for example, then that would be a different matter.
 

I’m sure a multimillion company can afford to,but they just choose not to because they can somewhat getaway with it currently. Legoland China couldn’t have been cheap aye.

 

Unless there’s been another Ropers thing (heavens forbid), then I can’t see the issue here as they always used to close at 5pm, but gradually pushed. It go 4pm. Prebooking only attractions are different though because they are usually smaller stand alone attractions in/around a large town and not in rural Staffordshire.

 

As their provisional hours, I’m sure we could see some changes.

 

 

 

 

Perspective though, The Southern parks have better transport links to London (ie 8 million potential customers from Central alone), they are also cheaper to run being smaller and require less staffing budget and therefore are able to budget 5pm closes. Towers has never had that kind of flex, in all my time visiting theme parks, Towers has always had these restricted visiting hours. The Smiler incident only really highlighted how much more restricted they can go.

 

9 hours ago, Mattgwise said:

We are enthusiasts who have been many, many times so easily bore. People who don't often go and want to make a day of it should be able to stay until minimum 5pm. Virtually every leisure attraction shuts at 5pm minimum, including those that are far less wealthy that the company running Towers. I'm sorry, I get what your saying, but its still poor opening hours regardless of whether it has x number of visitors or not. 

 

These large companies should use the excessive profits made in busy periods to cover those days it might make less money. My friend who runs an outdoor crazy golf course still opens until 5pm in winter and sometimes runs at a loss, but its summer trade factors that my happen sometimes over less busy periods. Its a good service that should be offered to bring people back.

 

 

That isn't reality though. Even on 5pm closes, a lot of people have already left and the park is dead, people wishing to avoid the rush hour traffi, the only exception is when its very hot. That's when the park should stay open later. In an ideal world, yeah the park would be fully staffed and all rides open, full availability, 6pm closures. But we don't live in that world. 

[Benin]

Hey at least they're still open in most off-peak weekdays, some places across the world don't even do that...

 

Perhaps if there was a balance between later opening hours in busier times, but I'm not sure that there's a real appetite culturally for 10pm summer closes for example... Thorpe's events were an attempt but the weird implementation possibly confused visitors...

[Glitch]

I don't understand Alton towers offer a discounted price to ride some world leading roller-coasters and they still get mocked. Remind me how much a Blackpool season pass I for comparison.