2012 operational cuts

General discussion regarding the UK's No.1 Theme Park. Talk about anything and everything Alton Towers here.
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thefatone
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Totally don't have a clue where to put this, but skyride is being considered for closure during offpeak days.
Last edited by thefatone on Wed May 23, 2012 12:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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lozzyhickers
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thefatone wrote: Totally don't have a clue where to put this, but skyride is being considered for closure during offpeak days.
Source?
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hex4ever
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Do you have any proof for that, because to be honest it sounds a stupid idea. as a large park they rely on the skyride to get guests on more rides, thus increasing foot fall and thus increasing popularity. Without it people wont be able to ride as much (especially those who are disabled) and as a result will decrease the amount of guests on an off peak day. it's just something I wont believe until a statement is released by the park.
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Th13teen wasn't over hyped, just over anticipated
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lozzyhickers
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Agreed, would be a huge mistake for the park.
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RyanY
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The park already closes earlier on off peak days. So closing skyride means that guests would ride even less rides.

Another Merlin cutback. :roll:
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hex4ever
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My guess is that its the whole "my mate who has a brother who works there says so" kind of situation of you ask me. Rumor has spread among the the idiots and has some how ended up having an ounce of plausibility, the same thing happened last year when the skyride closed and it was claimed by some cretin on Facebook that it was because a car fell of the cable, it spread and after a day or two the whole of Alton's Facebook account was spammed by curious members of the GP.
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Th13teen wasn't over hyped, just over anticipated
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thefatone
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Source:- Ride management. It's happened a couple of years ago in cutbacks as well.

It's up to you whether to believe me or not, but I thoroughly believe this is a towers cutback, similar to the ones experienced at the other merlin parks.
AstroDan

I can believe this. It's happened before during the dark days. Shocking but believable under the current Merlin regime.

They'll get a LOT of complaints though. And so they should. Nick Varney has a lot to answer for.

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Jordan

I can believe this too. thefatone is a reputable source...

Massive shame though, they will get a lot of complaints.
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hex4ever
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Its one thing to close a park early to save money and quite another to shut down one of the parks most important feature to guest satisfaction, especially as it is such an iconic feature. And when you say ride management what do you mean, its a pretty broad statement all in all, especially as if it is being planned ride ops on the skyride wouldn't even know yet, that would be down to the parks operations manager or another position which is responsible for all ride operations. And one last thing, have you read this somewhere or is it word of mouth? I'm still rather skeptical just because of the sheer lack of thought that would be required to adopt this as a money saving strategy when there are much better options available. But it does seem plausible to a degree I guess.
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Th13teen wasn't over hyped, just over anticipated
AstroDan

I am currently investigating.

I doubt Alton management want to do this but Merlin are expecting the parks to make ridiculous cost savings at present. So much so, that they can't actually afford to run the rides completely.

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Magrathea
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I entirely trust that this is currently a possibility being discussed; but as Dan says, it'll be more a "how can we meet these money-saving demands from higher up?" than Alton themselves wanting to :)
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hex4ever
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I wouldn't mind as much (because of the current economic climate) if we actually saw what these strategies were achieving. Like a document that is free to read to explain what would be done with eh money saved. That would kind of restore my faith in them. I'm not a Merlin basher, in fact I go out of my way to see light in their actions, but if there is even an inkling of truth in this then my gears will have officially been ground.
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Th13teen wasn't over hyped, just over anticipated
AstroDan

There are already a lot of cost cutting initiatives across the parks.

Merlin are owned by Blackstone. Here lies the cause.

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Big Dave

I was going to say. This has actually been mentioned by the park before and trialled. I thought, however, that the trial was an epic fail and that they had loads of complaints. Not sure why they are reconsidering it.
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Ritadz
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hex4ever wrote: what would be done with the money saved.
Why placed straight into the Merlin/Blackstone directors back pockets, of course.

I can't see this happening, as bad as things are nowadays even I don't think Merlin/Blackstone are bad enough to shut down an almost essential form of transport.
AstroDan

They did have complaints. And they shall again. Maybe they could let Nick Varney know that.

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Big Dave

I know they need to cost cut, hey everyone does! But surely there has got to be better ways to do it than this!!!
AstroDan

Fire people? There are no easy ways. The park simply cannot afford to run itself.

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hex4ever
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By the way, apologies to thefatone for being so skeptical. After looking into it a reliable source has informed me about a series of closures prior to the fires back when tussauds held ownership. I cant find any written down evidence but after seeing other peoples replies (who hold a superior knowledge to my self) there is some serious plausibility to it.
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Th13teen wasn't over hyped, just over anticipated
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