Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

WTF Merlin?

streetmagix said:
Alton Towers getting an absolute pasting on TripAdvisor. Normal caveats apply (people more likely to complain than praise, school holidays, weather delays etc) but it still makes for some painful reading. I feel sorry for the person diligently replying to all of the reviews.

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attra...Alton_Towers-Alton_Staffordshire_England.html
Click to expand...
Ouch! But it's all stuff we've been saying would happen for years. Merlin either don't care or really are in deep doo-doo.
That said, I have little sympathy for the couple who booked a day off work to visit during the school holidays. What did they expect?
 
Yeah honestly, I don’t think it’s just enthusiasts that are noticing that Merlin are basically dumping the park into a skip with customer service, and there are so many things that could be done that would improve the situation.

Queues at the entrance to the park are awful. 9.30 ERT? It takes those 30 minutes to get into the park because they hold off until 9.30 to open the gates. They need to use a system of letting people through into towers street at 9am, and holding people back from entering near the bottom with a rope drop. Open the food/drink and shop, and you might even make some money from it Merlin!

One train operation on Nemesis. Two train operation on Air. These are both not good enough. With the amount of fastpasses you’re selling (there doesn’t seem to be any kind of excusivity to these either? Just sell as many as you can!! ££££) what should be a 20 minute queue turns into an hour queue.

Staggered ride opening only works when you actually get those rides open on time. And if the rides that are supposed to open at 9.30, or 10, don’t open on time (looking at you Wicker Man and Smiler), you need to open other rides instead. This then happened AGAIN with both Thirteen and Rita, supposed to open at 11, didn’t open until 11.40. It’s just awful customer service. Fair enough, rides do break down, but have a ****ing contingency plan ffs.

It’s like Merlin have been taking advice from Chinese parks on how to operate their attractions, but the cynic in me thinks that they are doing this on purpose, in order to fuel fasspasses.
 
Nemesis is only on one train as the second one didn’t pass it’s closed season inspection. Apparently they need a new one.
 
I've been delaying my visit on a week by week basis in the hope it was just early season teething issues but I may have to change that to a monthly basis because so far by all accounts it's been a shambles
 
I'm at Alton Towers in a week and a bit time (18/19 April) and kinda dreading it. But I've already paid for the hotel and arranged to borrow a car so I guess I'm going. I'm hoping it'll be quiet as most schools are back by then (apart from maybe the Scottish ones?)

It does sound like Alton Towers weren't expecting this year to be as popular as it has been. Wickerman has helped that plus the length of time since the Smiler incident. I hope they turn things around before the summer rush, they have time but do they have the money or inclination?
 
Jared said:
Nemesis is only on one train as the second one didn’t pass it’s closed season inspection. Apparently they need a new one.
Click to expand...
IF that's true then it's not good enough that they're waiting until things aren't passing inspections.

Maybe that's why Nemesis hours were originally so massively reduced.
 
Dunno what's more annoying, Merlin's almost blasé management decisions or the twats that continue to visit the park week in, week out and still moan about it. Oh, or the people who used to persistently moan but have swept it under the Wicker Rug because they think one aesthetically pleasing investment makes up for continually bad service.
 
Joey said:
IF that's true then it's not good enough that they're waiting until things aren't passing inspections.

Maybe that's why Nemesis hours were originally so massively reduced.
Click to expand...

Another "apparently", but apparently it needed new parts to be manufactured by B&M, and from pictures of it in bits behind the maintenance shed, it all looks brand spanking new, so the delay was probably at B&M's end in getting the parts manufactured. But still no excuse for them not to have it done by now, but that's what you get when technical services are the first thing you cut ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
unknown.png


Whilst this is nothing new information wise it's interesting that they posted this to say the least...

Must have something up their sleeve.
More Legolands!
 
streetmagix said:
do they have the money or inclination?
Click to expand...
Money, yes. Inclination, no.

Edit: I'm sure it depends on how much notice B&M were given etc, but how long would it typically take for a new train to be manufactured and pass inspections? Is Nemesis likely to be on one train operations all season? Aside from the fact that last year it was walk on even on moderately busy days and the prospect of not being able to marathon Nemesis is upsetting, surely it won't ride as well with only 1 train?
 
Here's a pic I took of the train with water dummies:at.jpg Sorry for some reason I can't turn it around haha.

Nemesis was running one train and had a 30-50 min queue all day.
 
Bert2theSpark said:
unknown.png


Whilst this is nothing new information wise it's interesting that they posted this to say the least...

Must have something up their sleeve.
More Legolands!
Click to expand...

They’ve got some cheek! Sure, on terms of numbers they’re number two - but that won’t last long if they carry on with operations the way they’ve been lately. But even after they’ve added another 66 Sea-Lifes, Dungeons and Legolands there will still be a vast gulf in quality.
 
I see Nemesis is unavailable this morning. As far as catching Disney goes - that post gave me a laugh, but I suppose they can't really be publicly seen to be saying 'We're in the **** guys, and frankly, we're past caring'

On a side note, as someone who's always enjoyed aquariums, I'd prefer not to see any more Sealife centres - they're all the bloody same, and it irritated me slightly to go around Sydney Sealife and feel that, for the most part, I'd seen it all before. The London aquarium went progressively downhill after Merlin took it over, but I chose to overlook that because I enjoyed the free entry when I was a student.

Back to Alton and I've decided to delay my visit another week. It looks annoyingly busy and Wicker Dude's only running when it feels like it, which seems to be about as often as I feel like running.
 
That's not a new train but assume it has been testing if filled with water dummies? So hopefully be back to 2 train operation soon.

That Merlin catching Disney post is just rediculous. Good luck catching a company that is investing 2bn into their Europe resort. Maybe cut park opening hours even more and sell a few extra fast tracks you might catch them quicker ;)
 
I find it amusing that Merlin are so desperate to catch the mouse that they're just opening more and more tiny, done-in-an-afternoon attractions, without acknowledging that the mouse is number one with just 12 parks, counting studios and epcot etc separately (but not including Golden Disney Amusement Park in Guangdong, China, because something tells me it's not an official mouse property), while Merlin have over 120 attractions and they're still second.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top