Chris Brown
Mr CoasterForce 2016
Pretty awful, i imagine most staff are on zero hour contracts as well?
WTF Merlin?
- Thread starter nadroJ
- Start date
Pretty awful, i imagine most staff are on zero hour contracts as well?
davidm
Strata Poster
^ yeah their website now says;
Theme Park opens to all other guests from 10am with over half our rides available, with all other rides and attractions to be open by 11am at the latest every day. Park open and close hours will always be flexible to ensure we can give our guests great experiences – if the park is busy we’ll always do our best to stay open!"
https://www.altontowers.com/useful-info/opening-times/
Theme Park opens to all other guests from 10am with over half our rides available, with all other rides and attractions to be open by 11am at the latest every day. Park open and close hours will always be flexible to ensure we can give our guests great experiences – if the park is busy we’ll always do our best to stay open!"
https://www.altontowers.com/useful-info/opening-times/
TheCoasterCruiser
Giga Poster
Forgive me if I've missed it, but where can I see the closing times?
CrashCoaster
CF Legend
Well it just shows that enough backlash can make a park change their mind.
Crazycoaster
Giga Poster
Does this same EXACT thing not happen every single year?
GuyWithAStick
Captain Basic
Yeah, this is most definitely planned.
Do something to outrage the public. Get them to talk about the park. Go back to their original plan of operations. Public is now "happy" and will visit the park(not that they weren't going to in the first place). Like they say, all publicity is good publicity.
Do something to outrage the public. Get them to talk about the park. Go back to their original plan of operations. Public is now "happy" and will visit the park(not that they weren't going to in the first place). Like they say, all publicity is good publicity.
And still each time offer less than the year before while they're doing it.
It's cunning. Next year they'll say that they're only open for an hour a week and then backtrack to four hours a week and everyone will feel as though they've listened and are giving good value again!
It's cunning. Next year they'll say that they're only open for an hour a week and then backtrack to four hours a week and everyone will feel as though they've listened and are giving good value again!
Smithy
Strata Poster
Yeah it's a bit basic and I'm sure loads of us called them out on it last year.
Tell them you're taking 2 hours off them. People argue. Give them an hour back. Suddenly they're not as angry as they'd be as if you told them they would be losing an hour in the first place. Small win.
Tell them you're taking 2 hours off them. People argue. Give them an hour back. Suddenly they're not as angry as they'd be as if you told them they would be losing an hour in the first place. Small win.
zazobo
Hyper Poster
Personally I think it makes them look a bunch of useless twats... no actual confidence in anything they’re doing at all.
HeartlineCoaster
Theme Park Superhero
Game on.
streetmagix
Mega Poster
A day later and they've done another backtrack, the infomation yesterday about some 11am openings is CORRECT:
Sandman
Giga Poster
I'm surprised they aren't offering 7am openings after the beating they've taken online over the last few days. I understand the tactic of offering less then slightly more to appear "generous" but has it really worked here? It feels like it's left a bad taste in people's mouths, even now they are still being heavily bombarded online for it.
vaugc002
Hyper Poster
I know the phrase 'Any press is good press' is often used here but this is a true PR nightmare. Their press team have probably had to send out multiple releases over this, or at least responses. I just can't see how such a to-ing and fro-ing can happen in such a large business. Yuk. Definitely not a good move given how critical people have been of AT in recent years.
SaiyanHajime
CF Legend
Sigh.
Something important to note is how expensive rapids are to run, especially those turntable ones. I bet they literally worked out the cost of running attractions per rider and the rapids is a big scary number glowing in red and they just thought... This isn't worth it. Not outside of the main season. But the rapids are a staple and they're built into the park in such a way that when closed and empty they look awful. A closed ride is a broken ride to the average guest.
Having less days open in the year is a change I struggle to find fault in. For annual pass holders, it's dwindling the value of the ever more expensive pass and I guess there might be an argument there for jobs, but being closed outside of peak days is a standard practise in this industry. It is impossible to predict attendance, so opening on days where you cannot guarantee a profit is daft.
Opening hours is a tricky one. In my opinion, our parks in the UK have always closed too early. In my opinion, any weekend and any holiday period, it should be 10-10 for the bigger, busier parks like Alton and Thorpe on Fridays and Saturdays. The problem is that the British public don't "make the most" of their days out. They don't stay until close and they don't spend enough money in those extra hours to compensate for the added operational cost. Why? Who knows. Maybe it'll take more parks making that jump and experimenting with it to change the way the public behave.* Thorpe have some longer summer hours this year, lets see what happens.
Staggered opening hours are apparently some terrifying and controversial point, but if they're done properly you shouldn't even notice. All parks have staggered opening and closing in some way for some reason. They're not evil, they're sensible. The problem is that they should be a logical operational decision and not a cost-cutting panic decision. They should be based on experience and knowledge of how guests behave and not just the hourly throughputs. I think the decision to not open anything towards the back of a park until the gates have been open an hour is relatively sound logic, but it matters whats at the back of the park, it matters how guests flow in that specific park. There is some sense to Alton's choices, as the vast majority of guests go right at the end of Towers St and Forbidden Valley has traditionally been quiet in the mornings. But.... Wickerman. Wickerman is left at the end of Towers St. People are going to be going left this year more than usual. And 12? MIDDAY? 2 hours after opening? I cant help but think that someone, having proposed such a thing, followed up with "so Smiler, Oblivion, Rita and Thirteen will be ludicrously busy by 12 and that will increase fastrack sales!" as the finishing, convincing blow.
A thing that eternally baffles me is why parks open at 10 in the first place, because anyone who's ever actually been to a theme park knows there's comparatively no one there in the first hour. 11 is when people start to show up. Why even waste money on that hour? Especially Fridays. Why not experiement with opening on a Friday 3-10, for example?
Clearly, Alton needs to shave money off running costs. They wouldn't do this if they didn't "need" to. But it's as if they keep forgetting from past mistakes, it's as if no one making decisions has ever actually visited the park or spoken to any staff on the ground. It's as if every year, everyone gets amnesia.
* Edit: One thing I've always thought would be sensible is a push to open dinner suitable restaurants and marketing to get people to stay for dinner. The problem is, departments don't work together then the park seems to go "nah that thing we tried didn't work". A transformation like this takes years, but the minimal investment vs the potentially gigantic payoff is obvious, surely? There are ways to get people to stay later, but you can't half arse it and wonder why it didn't work.
Chessington's Aztec restaurant thing is a great example of this. The thing is never open when I try and go, or it's fully booked, but the sign is still out in the park advertising prices.
Something important to note is how expensive rapids are to run, especially those turntable ones. I bet they literally worked out the cost of running attractions per rider and the rapids is a big scary number glowing in red and they just thought... This isn't worth it. Not outside of the main season. But the rapids are a staple and they're built into the park in such a way that when closed and empty they look awful. A closed ride is a broken ride to the average guest.
Having less days open in the year is a change I struggle to find fault in. For annual pass holders, it's dwindling the value of the ever more expensive pass and I guess there might be an argument there for jobs, but being closed outside of peak days is a standard practise in this industry. It is impossible to predict attendance, so opening on days where you cannot guarantee a profit is daft.
Opening hours is a tricky one. In my opinion, our parks in the UK have always closed too early. In my opinion, any weekend and any holiday period, it should be 10-10 for the bigger, busier parks like Alton and Thorpe on Fridays and Saturdays. The problem is that the British public don't "make the most" of their days out. They don't stay until close and they don't spend enough money in those extra hours to compensate for the added operational cost. Why? Who knows. Maybe it'll take more parks making that jump and experimenting with it to change the way the public behave.* Thorpe have some longer summer hours this year, lets see what happens.
Staggered opening hours are apparently some terrifying and controversial point, but if they're done properly you shouldn't even notice. All parks have staggered opening and closing in some way for some reason. They're not evil, they're sensible. The problem is that they should be a logical operational decision and not a cost-cutting panic decision. They should be based on experience and knowledge of how guests behave and not just the hourly throughputs. I think the decision to not open anything towards the back of a park until the gates have been open an hour is relatively sound logic, but it matters whats at the back of the park, it matters how guests flow in that specific park. There is some sense to Alton's choices, as the vast majority of guests go right at the end of Towers St and Forbidden Valley has traditionally been quiet in the mornings. But.... Wickerman. Wickerman is left at the end of Towers St. People are going to be going left this year more than usual. And 12? MIDDAY? 2 hours after opening? I cant help but think that someone, having proposed such a thing, followed up with "so Smiler, Oblivion, Rita and Thirteen will be ludicrously busy by 12 and that will increase fastrack sales!" as the finishing, convincing blow.
A thing that eternally baffles me is why parks open at 10 in the first place, because anyone who's ever actually been to a theme park knows there's comparatively no one there in the first hour. 11 is when people start to show up. Why even waste money on that hour? Especially Fridays. Why not experiement with opening on a Friday 3-10, for example?
Clearly, Alton needs to shave money off running costs. They wouldn't do this if they didn't "need" to. But it's as if they keep forgetting from past mistakes, it's as if no one making decisions has ever actually visited the park or spoken to any staff on the ground. It's as if every year, everyone gets amnesia.
* Edit: One thing I've always thought would be sensible is a push to open dinner suitable restaurants and marketing to get people to stay for dinner. The problem is, departments don't work together then the park seems to go "nah that thing we tried didn't work". A transformation like this takes years, but the minimal investment vs the potentially gigantic payoff is obvious, surely? There are ways to get people to stay later, but you can't half arse it and wonder why it didn't work.
Chessington's Aztec restaurant thing is a great example of this. The thing is never open when I try and go, or it's fully booked, but the sign is still out in the park advertising prices.
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Sandman
Giga Poster
Quite right. Also, there's something slightly bleak about visiting parks when many big, visible rides are closed. It juxtaposes against the idea of this fun, happy place (I suppose Towers is a notable exception here
). It just seems a bit drab, certainly a lame impression for any first timers.
Dar
Hyper Poster
With ERT only being for MAP and hotel guests, they've entirely removed any incentive to book online. An online ticket is £33, but you can use a 2-4-1 and get in for £27.50 each. I thought their big idea was being able to plan in advance with online sales, but now that's gone and they're back where they were a few years ago?