Alton Towers Resort General Discussion

[Bert]

Does Steve, Millie and Maggie count? 

[Nickolai]

Bob? Wicker Man related?

[Mikw]

Someone might call their son or daughter Icon.....

There may just be a large family who ran out of names and called one Thirteen. I'm sure there's nobody called Oblivion though.

[JC13]

Plot twist: someone is called Octonaut’s rollercoaster adventure

[stevebrown]

If you re-arrange the letters of my kids names, you get 'ride nerd' and 'Air'  !!

[Dan]

As reported by TowersTimes Facebook, Alton Towers have today updated their website to state that next day ‘bounce-back’ tickets are no longer available to purchase, which follows the removal of return any day tickets at the start of the season with the introduction of the Season Pass.

Are you disappointed to see the loss of this ticket option?

[Bert]

Wow, they really seem to be pushing these new annual passes this year. They've advertised the MAP's heavily in previous years but this year they seem to be going towards the individual passes this year. They seem to post a new message on the Facebook page pushing these at least once every week. I wonder what has changed opinions from selling the more expensive MAP's to these new AP's. 

Maybe it's part of a long term plan to sell these AP's at a low profit margin and then encourage people to move onto to the MAP's next year? I dunno but something really interests me on how Merlin seem to market ticket sales.

[Robert.W]

Undoubtedly they'll want gate figures to be as high as possible this year, so they can say that Wicker Man has been a success. These new season passes create the perception of a good value day out, and lure people in to buying them. Then some people will inevitably want to "upgrade" to MAP for any extra benefits they might get that aren't included in the Season Pass. 

What I just don't understand is, why on earth do they want so many visitors to come to the resort only to be put off by the extremely poor operations etc.? That doesn't make business sense at all. The idea that visitors will return only works if a high quality and good value product if offered, and it's quite clear that Alton simply can't offer their guests that. So the more guests they have, the more guests that won't make a return visit. 

Merlin, please explain.. where is the logic in this?

[Stan.H]

I personally think they've done it so more people pay £55 to get in, instead of £27.50 with 2-for-1 vouchers. Also, most of the people buying these will be visiting probably a maximum of 3 times for the season; especially considering all summer holiday weekends are blacked out, as well as Scarefest. It basically gets the average day gate figures up, increases in park spending, mainly car parking and also gets them paying more to get in (instead of Tesco and 2-for-1 vouchers) as well as (most likely) visiting Scarefest as well.  

I think it's quite a good idea in my opinion. 

[Robert.W]

Absolutely, the idea should work. But the quality of the product they are offering isn't up to standard, which will inevitably put off many people from returning to the resort again. Which means in the long term, it doesn't work, it only damages the parks reputation as a quality visitor attraction, and will result in poorer attendance in the future. It's not good for the park at all. It's just a strategy to get Merlin some quick cash which will go straight into the pockets of their shareholders.

[Dan]

The resort have also posted on their Facebook page that Season Passholders can ‘bring a friend for £15’ with a maximum of 5 people each visit being permitted.

Full details can be found here.

[LittleReidy]

First year I have bought a season pass, I used to always get the return next day. They were great value for money and I was wondering how long it would take to get rid of them.

[Stan.H]

Bit annoyed about that 'Bring A Friend' offer, because as a PMAP holder, one of the perks is 3 'Share The Fun' vouchers - would like to see this rolled out to the annual passes as well if I'm being completely honest. 

[MakoMania]

4pm closes have now been rolled out into July as well. What is going on!? This is madness.

[Dan]

4pm closes have now been rolled out into July as well. What is going on!? This is madness.

Only July 2nd-5th are 4pm closes.

10th-20th July are still only showing as “Open” but, as previously reported by TowersTimes, the park is open 10am-6pm between the dates of 21st July and 2nd September.

[Robert.W]

Doesn't make it any better. A park operator who actually cares about their guests would have the park open 10am to 5pm MINIMUM (including ALL rides and attraction obviously), for the entire length of the main season, with special events and peak times closing even later than that. What sad times we live in..

[ThemeCrafter264]

It's still ridiculous what has happened to Early Ride Time.

You used to be able to do it with a prebooked ticket but now you can't. This means without a MAP, you have to queue for Wicker Man for over an hour, showing once again Merlin just caring about money. It's just unfair on paying guests who have to queue for longer as they spent less. I understand hotel guests but giving MAP holders and not prebooked ticket holders is just unfair and unnecessary.

[MakoMania]

4pm closes have now been rolled out into July as well. What is going on!? This is madness.

Only July 2nd-5th are 4pm closes.

Which are dates that will be rammed with school trips.

Last year the minimum ride close in June was 5pm, now we have 4pm closes working their way into July. The park have made some operational improvements in recent weeks but this is an absolute laughing stock! It's becoming a bit of a pattern, more cuts in 2014 than 2013, more cuts in 2015 than 2014, more cuts in 2016 than 2015, more cuts in 2017 than 2016 and now the harshest cuts of all in 2018 despite the opening of a major new attraction.

I am sure that park management are doing the best they can but unfortunately Merlin have demonstrated once again that they are unwilling to provide the necessary budget to properly run a theme park.

[Dan]

Alton Towers have tweeted the following this morning, informing guests that the weather conditions at the resort are going to impact ride availability today.

At the time of writing; Enterprise, Oblivion, Th13teen, The Smiler, Congo River Rapids, Heave Ho and Runaway Mine Train are unavailable.

Coming to see us today? We're experiencing high winds, meaning right now many of our big rides can't operate safely. We're monitoring the forecast closely, and working hard to open rides as soon as it's safe to do so. Keep an eye on ridetimes.co.uk for availability!

[Dan]

Alton Towers have extended ride close to 5pm today after having some issues with ride availability this morning.

Thankfully, RideTimes is showing that every attraction is currently available.