No, Thorpe do not have DSA but it is not aimed to be as family friendly as AT.
Yes you are right, and as I said in my post, there are not enough DSA in the park and they are not clearly labelled on the map so I will agree fully with that I hope that AT add more of these to the benefit of everyone, as this would stop the amount of people smoking in queues (in theory...)
Last edited by Jack on Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
jackandylan123 wrote:
^ mate calm down please, it is opinion.
No, Thorpe do not have DSA but it is not aimed to be as family friendly as AT.
Yes you are right, and as I said in my post, there are not enough DSA in the park and they are not clearly labelled on the map so I will agree fully with that I hope that AT add more of these to the benefit of everyone, as this would stop the amount of people smoking in queues (in theory...)
I am calm.
Family friendly should not come into it - Thorpe is family friendly yet you can walk around smoking, yet your can't at AT - what about Chessington? Does that have DSA?
Surely if any of the parks were to have DSA it would be Chessington right?
What it comes down to is how much money they have invested in the scheme. When it launched a few years ago, staff were asked to 'guide' people to smoking areas and 'recommend' they do not smoke between them. The park were very aware that the majority of the areas were make-shift with minimal effort involved, so could only police it accordingly.
As people have mentioned, more smoking areas need to be created and it needs to be policed properly - and at present I do not think the park has the resources to do so.
Regardless of the above, it is still a park rule and anyone saying that you will ignore it is a poor attitude, especially from fans.
Baffles wrote:
Regardless of the above, it is still a park rule and anyone saying that you will ignore it is a poor attitude, especially from fans.
No its not poor attitude at all.
It is POOR from AT to single out people doing something perfectly legal and discriminating against my freedom of choice and my freedom to follow UK Law within the UK. They give us few and far between designated areas which make me personally feel stupid standing in them.
"Oh look over there at the dirty smokers".
You have just said it yourself, AT were advising employees to "guide" and "recommend" - nothing about throwing out or ejection.
If AT thought they were beyond the UK Law and stated that the park was non-smoking throughout then no smoker in the land would visit. There are still 6 million of us!
Do I smoke when I go to Alton Towers? Yes
Do I use the designated smoking areas? Sometimes
Do I smoke in the queue lines? Never
When I am on park, if I feel like a cigarette, and I am close to a designated smoking area, I will use it.
If I am not near one, I will always choose a place that doesn't have to many people in the surrounding area. And always close to a bin, where I can dispose of the used cigarette appropriately.
If there were more smoking areas, I would use them.
And to be honest, I don't know where they all are.
When I was in the States earlier on in the year, all the parks had properly signed,designated smoking areas.
All where clean, with plenty of ashtrays and bins, they also had seating, and were quite sociable areas.
And I don't recall, seeing anyone smoking while walking round the parks.
How much would it cost Alton Towers, to invest in a few more signs, a few benches and couple more areas for us smokers to use?
Would it solve the problem? Probably not
Last edited by Martin on Tue Nov 12, 2013 1:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Martin wrote:
Do I smoke when I go to Alton Towers? Yes
Do I use the designated smoking areas? Sometimes
Do I smoke in the queue lines? Never
When I am on park, if I feel like a cigarette, and I am close to a designated smoking area, I will use it.
If I am not near one, I will always choose a place that doesn't have to many people in the surrounding area. And always close to a bin, where I can dispose of the used cigarette appropriately.
If there were more smoking areas, I would use them.
And to be honest, I don't know where they all are.
When I was in the States earlier on in the year, all the parks had properly signed,designated smoking areas.
All where clean, with plenty of ashtrays and bins, they also had seating, and were quite sociable areas.
And I don't recall, seeing anyone smoking while walking round the parks.
How much would it cost Alton Towers, to invest in a few more signs, a few benches and couple more areas for us smokers to use?
Spot on!
If the areas were better managed, better signposted, more of them and they were actually a pleasant place to sit and enjoy a smoke I would.
At present, I feel that the areas are a "shame" area - no facilities and a laminated poster do not equate to a smoking area.
Until that happens, I will continue to smoke in a considerate way where I like (bar queue lines).
As I have said before, I am a smoker. I visited with TT on ScareMazing, and I noticed that without a park map you are a bit screwed in finding the designated smoking areas, even when you are near one, it isn't sign posted. If AT were actually trying to get people to actually use the smoking areas, they would sign post them more. The only issue I have is that even when you are using the designated smoking areas, non smokers still give dirty looks and in honesty I normally give a filthy look back. As for this smoking while walking, the way i see it is, AT have provided, although not clearly or great signage, smoking areas, which they would like us to use. We therefore have a choice, we can either use them or not. I can't see AT staff actually doing anything about smoking while walking because a lot of smokers would just tell AT staff where to stick it and carry on. Also the majority of smokers do NOT smoke in queue lines.
Last edited by Dom on Tue Nov 12, 2013 2:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
By reading this thread, I think it is safe to say that a majority of us on here, including the smokers agree that smoking in queue lines is not acceptable. I have seen over the season that when spotted that the staff do request the smokers to stub out the cigs. But yet for every smoker that is told to stub out, there is many more that seem to go un-noticed.
It seems that the argument is, should smokers be allowed to smoke around the park? As far as I'm concerned, its Alton's property and they should make the rules and police it. Smoking does affect the non smokers especially those with health problems.
As far as I'm concern, having DSA is a compromise as oppose to having a complete blanket ban. There are twice as many DSA as opposed to toilet blocks and these are no more difficult to find either. You don't see any one spending a penny in the queue lines or around the park?
I personally think stopping smokers will always be a losing battle for Alton. But what can be done to encourage smokers to use the DSA or to allow more freedom for the smokers to smoke but without affecting the non smokers?
I had to laugh on Sunday. The electronic information sign outside Nemesis was displaying the information about the park has a non smoking policy and that you should use the DSA. Sitting right opposite it on the rocks were a group of girls lighting up...lol..
Last edited by ROYJESS on Tue Nov 12, 2013 2:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
^ that has been mentioned a few times, skip back a couple of pages and you will find it
From what I see at Towers, the main places that NEED DSA are DF, FV and XS, yes these seem obvious, but I tried to find them in those areas (never really looked at the park map) and found none, which seems stupid as you would expect people to smoke in these areas the most. The places I found them however they were just outside the Towers and in KK which is very stupid tbh (and no, i don't smoke I was just waiting for family in these areas and got bored )
Last edited by Jack on Tue Nov 12, 2013 3:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Baffles wrote:
But you are on private property and technically breaking a park rule then?
Technically breaking a rule in which you have no say if you accept it or not, does not feature as rule of entry on the back of your ticket and a rule which breaks UK law......
......it is a stupid rule that has not been thought out properly. What we are left with is AT's half arsed attempt at trying to solve a non-issue.
Very interesting topic, and obviously something people feel quite strongly about.
My honest thoughts are that AT dont really expect people to use the DSA's, but by having them it portrays the right image. A bit like the selection of recycling bins you often see in public places - most people know that people will use the nearest bin regardless of whether it is the correct one, but it gives the right image and creates a good impression.
Although I have no way of knowing this, and without meaning to cause any offence as that is not my intention, but I would like to guess that the majority of people who hold very anti smoking views are probably younger members on here, and those who are more liberal in their views are probably a little older.
I'm saying this as someone who when at school, was anti smoking as that is what was drummed into us all the time back in the 80's (remember Superman and Nicotine?). But, as you get older, there are other more important things to worry about, so smoking becomes less of an issue.
Saying that, I dont think anyone should be discourteous to anyone else, and smoking in close proximity to someone eating, for example, is obviously wrong. However, I also think that in a public place, if you are so worried about cigarette smoke, if you see someone smoking just don't go near them if it bothers you.
Reading this post makes me imagine that AT is full of people running to find a member of staff every time they see someone wandering around with a cigarette. I'm joking, of course, but it is a funny image.
Oh, and I'm not a smoker, just someone who believes in "live and let live" as much as possible.
Cheers, Mark
Last edited by markjbevan on Tue Nov 12, 2013 4:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I think Alton Towers need to have more signs, make it easier to find the smoking areas. I dont smoke myself, but a few of my family do, and it takes ages for them to find these areas.
I hate people smoking in queue lines too, was at Drayton Manor last summer with a few friends, and there were some teenagers about 15/16 infront of us. Two of them started smoking, and my friend asked if they could stop it, because it was horrible to get all smoke coming in your face. But then after my friend asked them to stop, they just turned round and started smoking in our faces! Was quite annoyed about it, so I told one of the staff at the station. Do Drayton Manor have smoking areas? If not, I hope they get them, because its awful when you're crammed into a queue and someone's smoking infront of you!
Last edited by lf2001 on Fri Feb 07, 2014 12:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Baffles wrote:
But you are on private property and technically breaking a park rule then?
Technically breaking a rule in which you have no say if you accept it or not, does not feature as rule of entry on the back of your ticket and a rule which breaks UK law......
......it is a stupid rule that has not been thought out properly. What we are left with is AT's half arsed attempt at trying to solve a non-issue.
Attempting to bring criminal law into the equation is useless, queue jumping isn't a criminal offence either...
If you don't like the rules, don't visit Alton Towers, it's that simple.
If Alton Towers don't enforce, to their full power, their own no smoking rule, then smokers, including myself, can get away with it. They need to make it clear upon entering the park where the designated smoking areas are, provide ash trays, and not the bins they use. Just because I am a smoker, does not mean I should have to put up with smelling rubbish. They could also do some announcement in queue lines, letting people know the rule.
Last edited by Dom on Mon Feb 10, 2014 6:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
If I was a smoker, which I'm not, I wouldn't want to walk a fair distance just to have a cigarette. If there was one near me however I would smoke in there.
Last edited by kierannewcombe on Mon Feb 10, 2014 6:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I'm not a smoker and have commented on this before.
Most work places have designated smoking areas and the smokers have to go there to smoke (usually for health and safety). I don't see that they should have to make a huge fuss about only allowing smoking in designated areas, though perhaps there should be a designated area for each "area".
mikecloud1984 wrote:
Technically breaking a rule in which you have no say if you accept it or not, does not feature as rule of entry on the back of your ticket and a rule which breaks UK law......
......it is a stupid rule that has not been thought out properly. What we are left with is AT's half arsed attempt at trying to solve a non-issue.
There's no "technically" about it. I refer you to points 2 and 9 of the terms and conditions of the Theme Park Regulations http://www.altontowers.com/tandcs/ . This is the contract you enter into when purchasing entry.
I hope that AT add more of these to the benefit of everyone, as this would stop the amount of people smoking in queues (in theory...)
I was just waiting for family in these areas and got bored 
