Travellers on park

General discussion regarding the UK's No.1 Theme Park. Talk about anything and everything Alton Towers here.
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NeilHD
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If it's not possible to deal with it in a PC way, then the solution is simple: deal with it in a non-PC way.

The Towers are private property and the owners have the right to eject whomever they like, for whatever reason they like. The enjoyment (and safety) of the majority should come above that of the violent, abusive, anti-social minority. Just step-up the security. Get the police in to assist if necessary. If someone is acting in an anti-social manner then eject them. If a group of them are doing the same, eject the entire group. If they start to by physically abusive, arrest them. It's why we have a police force. If some are just guilty by association then, frankly, too bad.

I so nearly went this weekend, but decided it'd be less busy the weekend before so went then instead (was just a family visit, wasn't bothered about the Scarefest). I'm very glad I missed it, but feel bad for all of you who had your days out spoiled.
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BigAl
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If we didn't have Merlin passes then we'd have wanted refunds. We left early before things got worse at the Towers.

Has anything been damaged? What was the park like once they'd all left?

How can Alton/Merlin take action? I say introduce a dress code so that you can only come in if you're dressed in a civilised manner. It wouldn't get rid of all of them but it would clean up the park and remove majority of them. It might sound daft but you'd get kicked out if you went in dressed as a member of the KKK or a Nazi so why can't they kick people out dressed like strippers? If the women aren't allowed in then I doubt their male gypsy companions would want to go in without them.

Step up police and security because they were just completely outnumbered. It was nice to see that they'd taken some action against those who abused the park and the other guests.
DiogoJ42

If some parks can get away with refusing entry to childless adults "because they might be kiddy-fiddlers", then you should be able to get away with refusing entry to Travelers "because they might be arseholes".
Bear

When they make an effort to integrate properly into a society, pay taxes, and work a real job, THAT is when they should be welcome anywhere. Otherwise, bugger off.
oldgitBEN

I suggest Alton take the Disney approach to clothing:

[quote=""disney""]The parks are a casual, family-oriented environment. We suggest you dress comfortably, wear good walking shoes and check the local weather report before you leave for the parks.
Ensuring that the parks are family friendly is an important part of the Disney experience. In that spirit, we ask you to use your discretion and common sense. Attire that is not appropriate for the theme parks (and which may result in refusal of admittance) includes but is not limited to:
Adult costumes or clothing that can be viewed as representative of an actual Disney character
Masks (unless you are dressing up for a particular event)
Clothing with objectionable material, including obscene language or graphics
Excessively torn clothing
Clothing which, by nature, exposes excessive portions of the skin that may be viewed as inappropriate for a family environment
Objectionable tattoos[/quote]

Reckon if Alton told the girls they looked like hookers and couldnt enter then the blokes wouldnt either. There may be rows/troubles at the entrance kiosks but then security and police would only have to be in one place.
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Nerdsticks
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I think the only way to describe them are as wasps, they swarm at a certain area (Towers Complex), they are pests and are not wanted. They even managed to leak into the splash landings hotel at the end of the day! We also got stopped in the middle of ToTT because the group infront of us hit an actor. I even saw a zombie from the scare zone go out of character to tell off these guys entering the exit of the zone. There was a rita ride attendant that actually asked the normal queuers if they didnt mind letting on the single riders as they were a very intimidating group the ones in the single rider queue, the guy claimed that they were tipped off that the travelers were supposed to come next week, but had no warning at all about yesterday. Nothing much Alton Towers can do about it, you can't stop a massive group like that, all they can do is hope to get tipped off so they have time to put up extra secuity.
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Scarefest lunatic!
DiogoJ42

They always come on the second day of Scarefest, so there's no excuse for not being ready.
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hex4ever
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I’ve had problem like this but not with travellers as I haven’t ever been to a scare fest, but I have witnessed and experienced problems at Alton with so called ‘rude boyz’. These guys are the equivalent of the travellers but are an all round problem, I mean for gods sake one of them even got his head stuck in a pipe in cloud cooko land! They are loud, violent and smoke in the queue lines, now I don’t have a problem with smokers, but I have chosen not to so I don’t think its fair that I have to breath in their second hand smoke, its not like threes an area specifically designed for smokers.
There was one situation that really wound me up, I was on oblivion and I couldn’t believe my luck, I was a single rider and on the front fall left hand side, also right next to me was a small child, I would say 12- 13 years old and his father told me it was his first time. Now I remember my first ride and have fond memories of it, but unfortunately this child’s memory wont be as fun as we had to stop half way up the lift hill because a ‘rude boy’ had taken out his phone and was texting, also through the entire ride they were just loud, I understand how people get scared on rollercoaster’s and how people psyche them self’s up but emissive use of the F and C word in front of a young child is just unacceptable, they were shouting at the top and babbling on the break run, and one experienced harness popping on the top turn around so shouted his restraint was broken and the rides going to crash, again I just shook my head as I knew but I really felt for the kid.

Now I have babbled about an almost unrelated story there but my point remains the same, it isn’t just travellers that are a nuisance but these rude boyz, chavs and just generally nasty intimidating people, or as I like to call them 70% of the British public, these people come in large numbers so they contribute greatly towards a days prophet margins, its just sepperating the **** from the shite.
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Th13teen wasn't over hyped, just over anticipated
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Tom G
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The idea should not be to keep these people out of the park, it should be to be able to deal with them quickly and effectively once they step out of line. People come in all shapes, sizes and clothing styles but not everyone acts like animals.
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BigAl
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Gypsies? Chavs? Rude Boyz? Ban them all if they can't behave!

If they are offended because they're turned away because they're loud, grotty, offensive and dressed like they're looking for either a fight or another customer then they need to take a long hard look at the way they are behaving and the way they are portraying themselves to other people. Alton Towers is an expensive and rare treat for many people and having it spoiled by these scumbags is just an awful shame that needs to be addressed immediately. A few bobbies every now and then won't fix anything.

If people want to behave properly and dress appropriately, then I'll give a damn about their feelings! I don't agree with letting a small minority (although it didn't feel like that yesterday) spoil, what should have been, a fantastic day out for everyone else. Alton Towers and Merlin have the right and fully capable of stopping these things from happening, it's just a case of choosing to keep these people out and loose some business or allow other guests to have a better experience and want to return again and leaving the park with a better image?
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daveslodge
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When discussing the issue with the on duty Guest Services Supervisor (Dom - top bloke!) he informed me that they were well aware that the travellers would be attending on the 16th. He explained that they hear about it on the grapevine from local sites and as Diogo mentioned there are certain dates which they attend every year (unfortunately we were blissfully unaware that the 16th was one of these dates).

He was very forthcoming with his opinions on the situation and was extremely receptive to my views (I appreciate he may have just been paying me lip service to keep me calm, but he seemed very genuine). We spent a good 15mins or so discussing the ins and outs of the situation and apparently my suggestion of an online notice stating the park would be expecting 'larger than normal crowds to be in attendance' is an idea that had been bounded around internally to try to mitigate against the general public spending their hard-earned on what has been in many cases a wasted day out.

In my opinion Merlin and Alton have a decision to make...

Is the money paid by the travellers on a small number of days throughout the year worth more to them than the good will of the general public lost by people having extremely poor experiences?
DiogoJ42

[quote=""daveslodge""]Is the money paid by the travellers on a small number of days throughout the year worth more to them than the good will of the general public lost by people having extremely poor experiences?[/quote]

Short answer: Yes.
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Stelios7
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We may all sounds like snobs, but it's disgusting. I am disgusted, we are disgusted.

That's what you get when you go one down from Jeremy Kyle. :P
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themealgang
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Let me just start off this post by saying I have nothing against travellers, but I can see where people are coming from.

I shared an unpleasant experience involving some travellers (I think) in the queue for Thirteen last year. They were kicking, fighting and swearing at each other. It was causing a lot of discomfort to me and others around as I felt like I was being threatened. It got to the point that one of the young boys was "play" fighting viciously, and backed right into me with some force and I nearly took a tumble.

Of course, most of the public could be like this, but sometimes some groups of people behaviour can be unacceptable in the likes of a theme park; I have witnessed it first hand. I would appreciate some people to share some respect to those around so we can all be happy whilst in the wonderful place that is Alton Towers.
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daveslodge
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Short answer: Yes.
Haha...I was attempting to rhetorically imply that with the question!

Seems a shame really!
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BigAl
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Merlin: "Good will? Oh... yeah... that's nice too, but good will doesn't buy you fast cars and big houses and fill your wallet up."

:/
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daveslodge
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Merlin: "Good will? Oh... yeah... that's nice too, but good will doesn't buy you fast cars and big houses and fill your wallet up."
But it can! Good will is invaluable as a commercial commodity...If I was able to bottle it and sell it I'd earn more than Varney!

The issue highlighted by the last few posts is that Merlin have adopted the 'fast buck' mentality in this instance!

Maybe next year there'll be an option to join the Merlin Ponzi scheme with every annual pass!
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Magrathea
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Where has all this rubbish about the park being unprepared come from?

Security were EVERYWHERE, and all staff were briefed, and some had personal alarms, and there were even police on site. Short of utter discrimination, what else could they have done?! :?

Oh wait, I'm sorry, it's Merlin... They were CLEARLY just trying to make money.
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Dormiens-Dave

I think people are being a little unfair to Towers in this.

They really are stuck between a rock and a hard place, if they are too proactive with their actions against travellers they will be accused of racism and intimidation. Also a message telling people it will be busy will not stop people coming as i reckon very few will notice it.

They had a very robust security on park and i personally only witnessed 2 incidents (one of which would have only resulted in the injury of a traveller due to their own foolish actions) and we saw a lot of security acting very quickly to reports around the park

The only big issue was when the gangs congregated in the Towers Barbican and to be honest the only solution at this point would have been a riot team, police where also present on resort as they where last year. Towers security really do a good job of subtle but effective operations and i really don't know what else they can do.
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Ritadz
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This is the reason why I didn't come to Scarefest, I could go on about how I hate pikeys, but that's not on topic. Alton need to refuse entry to idiots like these, and as I said in the shoutbox the pikey who actually urinated on Air should never be allowed to go in a public place ever again, make him rot in his caravan for all I car, my dog doesn't piss on rides, yet someone who is classed as a person, who has "human rights" does?

It's just like Dale Farm, these gypsys cause misery to a British community, yet can't be evicted because of their Human rights? God I hate this country, and the EU is even worse...

Seriously, if the park know when this plague desends, why can't they send them away at the gate? Now I realise some parts of my post may seem offensive to the traveller community, but there is a BIG differance between innocent travellers, and I'm not saying they should be refused entry, no way. It's the pikey scum that hit actors and intimidate people that I'm on about.
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