Travellers on park

Mon Oct 17, 2011 9:26 am

My experiences yesterday were mixed. I was invited to skip the queue on several occasions (which I politely declined, explaining I was part of a group of 30 people). On the other hand the atmosphere was at times intimidating. During my 2nd run through of TotT the people in front of us were told to leave 1/2 way through. After a somewhat heated discussion I believe they were eventually removed, but the actors allowed the rest of us to continue.

Credit has to be given to the park in dealing with what was undoubtedly a very volatile environment. Intervention is always going to be difficult without the situation escalating, though we did witness a couple of arrests and security dealing with other minor incidents. On the whole I'd say Alton Towers managed the evening fairly well with the resources available to them, for which the staff have to be commended.

Rowe · Mon Oct 17, 2011 9:32 am

To be honest, I was petrified for the majority of the day yesterday when the travellers began showing up in numbers all over the park and although I wasn't there when it all kicked off (Around 7pm?), it sounded absolutely terrifying for anybody and everybody stuck in the particular areas.

Travellers must have taken a shine to Alton Towers because it is central to England (nonetheless troublesome to get to) and it's where almost everyone can get to. Not to mention the many nooks and crannies including the gardens themselves that no doubt many of them have snuck into. They don't seem to have much respect for us even though we do our best to tolerate them and treat them as equals, even the staff are treated unfairly from reports!

I don't think there is anything much to do about this and if the rules are tightened further then they are going to kick up a massive fuss with some tabloid newspaper turning the story on its head, making Alton Towers look awful to the target market or rather everyone who can only visit on those particular dates.

Several travellers have more than likely been arrested/reported for causing undesirable mayhem and disrepectful acts over the course of yesterday, and any other day they've been, but I doubt it'll stop them from visiting in numbers.

Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:04 am

Well, this was my first gypsy day (for those who don't know, Easter Sunday and first Sunday of Scarefest should be avoided if this kind of thing scares you), and on the whole I found it fine. This was probably partially to do with being in such a large group ourselves, meaning that they were nowhere near as intimidating, and no major incidents were witnessed by me personally, though horror stories were heard.

The park, however, dealt with it amazingly well, and the one most intimidating part of the day for me (making my way, alone, through the Barbican, which they'd created a human blockade across) and then making my way back up Towers Street past people climbing all over the Scarefest displays, kicking pumpkins along, etc.

However, I thought by that time of the night there was the real sense that we'd all pulled through something together, and I was personally thanking staff members (and will be writing glowing reports for certain ones) as I left; the staff performed really well to deal with everything, and ultimately I think things were kept as under control as possible.

As has been said before, though, there is nothing Alton can do to stop this kind of attendance: you can't ban someone entry based on their race, and nor is there anything against walking around the park in a tracksuit while your friend dropkicks a pumpkin, and as for the more...unique female fashions, I think you would really have to be quite prudish to be offended by the fact that some women decided to show their stomachs and legs; it's hardly a gypsy-unique style, and not one which is going to scar anyone's child for life.

A massive well done to all the Towers staff and guests for coping so well

.

Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:06 am

Pikey days happen at all the parks, not just Towers...

Unfortunately, the park can't do much because the racism card would be pulled against them... Sorry state of life when you can't sort out people who are effectively ruining lots of people's days because it is actually (as fatone said) safer to just try and get on with it...

Heavy-handedness would result in a LOT more incidents... And because of how security and police get done if they are deemed heavy-handed, it's just not worth the problems associated...

Though I'd personally like to know about inapproriate clothing, surely no different to what some people wear in the summer no? Even if it IS October, you still get a few insane people wearing unsuitable clothing, but I would never term it as inapproriate personally...

Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:34 am

I think the term 'inappropriate' has been used because a lot of what I saw was certainly not what some people would wear during summer. For example, one girl was walking around in what I can only describe as a black 'belt' to cover up her lower half, and another belt to cover up her top half. Not literally belts, but you get the picture. VERY short on both parts, and I have to say I've never even seen anyone dressed like this on a night out! Also teamed with very high strappy heels.

If that's how people want to dress that's fine, but for a family park, I'd say some of them need to tone it down a little.

Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:53 am

This is always going to be a tricky situation for AT to deal with in a PC way, and I must say that we encountered many travellers (generally older ones) who were more respectable and well mannered than other members of the GP as a whole. However, and without casting aspertions, I have never EVER seen scenes at Alton that I experienced yesterday. I have been an AP holder for many years, and travelled there even before this regularly. This was my first time there with such a vast gathering of travellers. I do not believe it a coincidence that every instance I saw, had their involvement.

A selection of the problems ranged from spitting everywhere, general disregard for queueing, public decency, sexual harassment, massive groups hoarded in front of the Towers to make it near impossible for anyone to pass, excessive drinking (Woodcutters chairs and tables strewn around Fountain Sq.) vandalism, general intimidation et cetera. I've also never seen the amount of Police present as there were last night.

How this is dealt with without stereotyping, being 'racist' or causing a mass riot is troublesome. The issue being that once security start to remove the offenders, other members of the community turn on the Security and a fight ensues. If those breaking the park entry conditions were ejected yesterday, based on the sample I witnessed, at least 50% would have been ejected from the park.

Unfortunately, the majority of people we spoke to yesterday had had their day effected by some or all of these actions.

Mon Oct 17, 2011 12:53 pm

and as for the more...unique female fashions, I think you would really have to be quite prudish to be offended by the fact that some women decided to show their stomachs and legs; it's hardly a gypsy-unique style, and not one which is going to scar anyone's child for life.

I'm sorry Magrethea, but I take exception to this comment.

I am far from prudish and I am by no means saying that these 'women's fashions' were the major contributing factor to the negative atmosphere on park, however the way these people were dressed was entirely unacceptable!

It wasn't simply legs and midriffs on show, there were vast numbers wearing little more than bikinis and on the whole the majority looked like, at best, curb-side prostitutes.

I too agree that it will not scar my children for life, but maybe you could lend some suggestion on how to deal with the questions that were posed by my children upon seeing these 'people'. As I mentioned before, for a park that has categorically positioned itself as a 'Family Theme Park' and (albeit with tongue in cheek) spoken out in the press about speedos in the water park and sex in the hotel being dealt with I am amazed that these girls were allowed to walk the park.

Race, colour and creed do not come in to it...common decency should apply and they should not be allowed in 'dressed' in this way.

Again this was not the only factor yesterday, but the Supervisor who refunded our tickets openly acknowledged that it was unacceptable.

Mon Oct 17, 2011 1:04 pm

Personally, I don't visit Towers often and wasn't expecting to be involved in any incidents. Now, I had no idea that on the first Sunday in Scarefest there'd be travelers but what I experienced yesterday put a damper on my day out.

I was with two friends, walking past Battle Galleons when a large group of travelers were walking behind us. I was wearing a blue personalized hoodie with 'ADZYY' on the back.
Anyway, all we were doing was minding our own business when these people started shouting ''Adzyy!!'' at the top of their voice. I know it doesn't seem bad, but I actually felt so darn intimidated it was unreal, then they all ran past shouting abuse which cannot be repeated here. I'm just stood there wondering why these people weren't ejected from the park earlier.

Also, at around 12 (this was before the above incident), we'd walked past Spinball (which was closed at the time) and saw them swearing at a young girl and her mother (presumably) as they walked past.

It's disgraceful, and the sad reality is it's going to keep happening.

Adam.

Mon Oct 17, 2011 1:10 pm

I have always been a forum stalker here, but yesterdays events have drove me to tell my tale and create an account, hello everyone, my names Steph... anyway, lets get on with it:

Yesterday me and my partner attended the park with my little brother (aged 16) and my two god-daughters (aged 12 and 15).
We were looking forward to a lovely day out and as soon as we got off the monorail, I noticed a lot of travellers around... I thought nothing of it until we actually got inside the park and were confronted with a group of about 60 all congregating on and around the slopes on Tower Street.
As with all other people who have posted up already, I have never really had a problem when it comes to travellers but the actions of some of the people we came across yesterday was utterly vile!
We witnessed groups of young men and women smashing up pumpkins, spitting, queue jumping and swearing.
I'm no prude by any stretch of the imagination, but some of the things I saw yesterday made me blush!!

At one point, I tried to take a photo of the kids in the giant pumpkin and a group of lads walked in front of me so I said "Oi! Do you mind?" and I was confronted by about 6 males, one of them said to me "So what?!" and another squared up to me and said "What's your problem f*****?!" I am not an intimidating woman, I'm 5 foot 4 tall with pink hair, my response to him wasn't too pleasant either, but they backed off and walked away!
I was so sick of queue jumpers and their ridiculous excuses at needing to get past (I was told in the Nemesis queue that two girls needed to get past to get their "diabetic pills"

), one of my god-daughters refused a group of travellers trying to get past us in the Sonic Spinball queue, they got a bit mouthy but I told them "Look, even if that was the Queen up there mate, I still wouldn't let you past, so shut your mouth!"

In all fairness, our day wasn't exactly ruined and the staff we spoke to were all friendly and happy to chat to us, we got on plenty of rides after all the queue jumpers and a bit off topic but the Carnival of Screams and Zombie Scare Zone were fab! (Couldn't get into ToTT for the same reasons as everyone else!)
We did get our tickets revalidated so we will be going back on a day where there will be less confrontation, hopefully

Mon Oct 17, 2011 1:18 pm

I sent in an email to the Towers and got a very quick response about the travellers and the poor scarefest offerings.

"Hello George,

Thank you for contacting us regarding your visit to the Alton Towers Resort yesterday. We pride ourselves on an outstanding day out experience for everybody, and I am sincerely sorry that there were some elements of your visit which caused you disappointment.

Incidents such as the one you experienced are very rare at our Resort, which is, on the whole, a safe place for families to visit. However, on the few occasions where the behaviour of a minority of guests is not acceptable, our team will try and deal with the offenders appropriately.

Security cover around the Resort is generally good, but we like to keep a discrete presence at times so as not to appear intimidating to guests. It is a delicate balance and we apologise for not being as strict as you would have preferred in this instance.

I can assure you that both myself and our Head of Security have reviewed your comments and that without customers, such as yourself, taking the time to inform us of issues we are unable to improve on our service and therefore your comments very important to us.

I have passed your comments concerning the level of theming and the value for money of our mazes to our Entertainments and Marketing departments for their review, and I would like to thank you for your constructive criticism. It is only when guests like you tell us how we are doing that we are able to improve on the level of service which we offer.

I can only apologise for the problems you have raised and sincerely hope that you have not been deterred from visiting us again in the future."

I have removed a few things from the email just to make it fair on the towers

Mon Oct 17, 2011 1:47 pm

Forgive me, but the way some of you are talking is as if nothing can be done.

The park should be free of intimidation and violence every dya it is open. If it costs tens of thousands of pounds to ensure that is the case on one particular day, then so be it. The fact that these people seem to come the same days each year, then the park have no excuse for not being prepared.

Mon Oct 17, 2011 1:48 pm

(I was told in the Nemesis queue that two girls needed to get past to get their "diabetic pills" ),

We also heard 'My grandma's in hospital, we need to get through'

Shame that they can't enjoy a day out without fighting, vandalising, spitting, swearing and generally causing havoc.

On a normal Scarefest day then would we normally be able to join the ToTT queue at 7.45? Was getting turned away simply because of the travellers? Still really disappointed we didn't get a chance to do this.

Bear · Mon Oct 17, 2011 1:55 pm

I heard at one point there was a woman who got onto the Rapids station platform, and tried to running-jump into a raft that had left the station. I was barged past in a queue at least twice. I got endless weird looks upon exiting rides, and I was papping it when I walked past about 30 of them all looking high and holding pint glasses. I imagine alot of them got into the gardens doing god knows what too... Towers should really have been more on the ball.

Mon Oct 17, 2011 2:26 pm

Let's be honest, many of them are probably still there...

Jordan · Mon Oct 17, 2011 2:36 pm

[quote=""cmpunk771""]I sent in an email to the Towers and got a very quick response about the travellers and the poor scarefest offerings.[/quote]

I sent a long email, primarily on behalf of some family members who got abused by some travellers on park yesterday, but I got the exact same boilerplate reply back, which is a bit of a shame.

oldgitBEN · Mon Oct 17, 2011 3:56 pm

I should imagine they pay like everyone else using numerous vouchers etc, the gypsy community are certainly not short on cash due to their "unique" tax status and "special" employment - if you get what I mean.

Mon Oct 17, 2011 4:06 pm

I just don't understand why a lot of things still happened despite security being there. Like when I was in KFC and they all pushed infront of the queue by going around the side, it was clearly seen by members of staff yet they still served them. I know the staff in there probably wouldn't want the confrontation as it could be dangerous, and I understand this, but surely members of the security team could monitor food outlets as well. Again this probably comes down to the number of police/security hired for the day, but like others have said, if it's well known that they all come down on particular days then surely things should be stepped up a little.

Was just a very disappointing end to the day due to the intimidation they caused (albeit most seemed to cause problems all day, just seemed worse later on when a lot more arrived and started congregating).

DiogoJ42 · Mon Oct 17, 2011 4:16 pm

I wonder how many bags must have been stolen from the bag drop outside ToTT? Seems odd that they enforced that, since you could take a bag with you last year. And given how far the exit is from the entrance, I'd have thought it's just asking for trouble.

Mon Oct 17, 2011 4:36 pm

I just don't know what to say about this other than extremely unexceptable, if I saw these things happening I would go straight to Guest Services and not budge until something was done! It's awful to see these things happening to a place we love so much - disgusting - they should be thrown out no matter how much security it takes! It doesn't matter who they are it's wrong!

Mon Oct 17, 2011 4:51 pm

I went yesterday too and I've never seen so much make-up, white vans and campers, spit and litter. It was completely and utterly bizarre. Ruined the day for us. I felt sorry for the staff having to clean up and keep the gypsies in line. Do they do a deal on some days where you can get in for less if you're a gypo? There were girls walking around in nothing but bra's and shorts, the lads were shouting and don't get me started on how many people we saw queue jumping. A complete and utter disgrace!