News: Reduced Attraction Operating Hours *Updated*

[Lucieloo]

Well that makes sense I guess. The whole world is trying to save money and survive so I can understand to a point. But as a customer I want to get in there for 9:30 and ride some rides ~ its not exactly cheap to get in there anymore..!! We are even staying closer this time to avoid parking and can just walk straight in..
It is a shame but as .Adam says, this may just be a suggestion and when they hear the uproar they will revert back to 10:00am!!

[Boz]

I think it's purely down to what saves the most money in terms of staffing, not ride cost, but they will have looked to spread out these late openings across the park so that the impact of it seems small. Whereas if all the rides were in one area it would be much more noticeable.

I would have thought opening Rita later would save considerable amounts of money in terms of power but obviously not.

I dont know the exact number of staff for each attraction or how much they get paid, but if you reduce 10 rides by an hour and each has 5 staff getting paid £6.00 an hour then that's £300 a day saved or £9,000 a month.

I'm sure it will actually be a lot more than that. Someone more knowledgeable than me on these matters should do a precise calculation

sounds about right but that gets me thinking

you're probably looking at an average of 6 or 7 staff per ride if you include their break cover. if we just go with the higher value, just for arguments sake, then your looking at £420 a day and £12,600 a month. or even £61,740 for the remainder of the season.
plus the electricity saved, i don't know how much it costs to run a ride for 1 hour, but i think £250 per ride should cover. it so that's another £2500 a day

doing some more calculations, based on a 3000 gate figure (which apparently is the average this year) with that full figure split evenly to 4 to a car (unlikely i know), and all cars in paid parking, they will take £4500 a day, just in parking fees. now I can assume possibly 10% loss in hotel guests and another 10% for premium pass holders which brings it down to £3600 parking income per day.

now lets work out gate takings, this is assuming that 50% of guests have BOGOF vouchers or pre-booked discounts, the same 10% premium annual pass holders, plus 10% standard, and then there's people with hotel discounts, and child tickets are cheaper too. so i think a nice low figure of 30% of that gate figure paying full price ought to cover everyone (feel free to dispute this if you want), and i make it £37,800 in gate takings per day.

now lets assume that every group of four spends £130, collectively, on park (my group did so i think that's fair). this covers food, drink, photos, souvenirs, and the odd fast track (being as i personally spent quite a bit on souvenirs). and i make that £97,500 in general park spend, which is probably an understatement

and our grand total for the days takings is £138,900. and that is a quiet day and probably an understatement. as there are many other things i didn't factor in, such as pay to use attractions, games stalls and arcade takings, being as i never spend any money on those anyway. if i round up to include those however to say £150,000 a day. which equals an average of £50 per person per day

so merlin strapped for cash? un-bloody-likely

[Queenmaya99]

I am so annoyed...
I like to go up to Air fist thing, so I can get it straight over and done with. But no, now I can't :3

[altontowerskid]

sounds about right but that gets me thinking

you're probably looking at an average of 6 or 7 staff per ride if you include their break cover. if we just go with the higher value, just for arguments sake, then your looking at £420 a day and £12,600 a month. or even £61,740 for the remainder of the season.
plus the electricity saved, i don't know how much it costs to run a ride for 1 hour, but i think £250 per ride should cover. it so that's another £2500 a day

doing some more calculations, based on a 3000 gate figure (which apparently is the average this year) with that full figure split evenly to 4 to a car (unlikely i know), and all cars in paid parking, they will take £4500 a day, just in parking fees. now I can assume possibly 10% loss in hotel guests and another 10% for premium pass holders which brings it down to £3600 parking income per day.

now lets work out gate takings, this is assuming that 50% of guests have BOGOF vouchers or pre-booked discounts, the same 10% premium annual pass holders, plus 10% standard, and then there's people with hotel discounts, and child tickets are cheaper too. so i think a nice low figure of 30% of that gate figure paying full price ought to cover everyone (feel free to dispute this if you want), and i make it £37,800 in gate takings per day.

now lets assume that every group of four spends £130, collectively, on park (my group did so i think that's fair). this covers food, drink, photos, souvenirs, and the odd fast track (being as i personally spent quite a bit on souvenirs). and i make that £97,500 in general park spend, which is probably an understatement

and our grand total for the days takings is £138,900. and that is a quiet day and probably an understatement. as there are many other things i didn't factor in, such as pay to use attractions, games stalls and arcade takings, being as i never spend any money on those anyway. if i round up to include those however to say £150,000 a day. which equals an average of £50 per person per day

so merlin strapped for cash? un-bloody-likely

I understand the calculations you are trying to make - but you are forgetting a huge amount of 'business costs' which need to be factored in before the park can even attempt to function. I'm not saying that Merlin wouldn't be making a profit, even on a quiet day, but even on the basis of taking double what you have estimated, Alton Towers is a huge attraction to operate and there are many more costs.

However, opening attractions at 11am, especially those such as Air and Th13teen, IMO is very cheeky of them to think they can get away with it. It's a shame they've decided this decision is going to be made 

[jackgcse]

What the hell is wrong with you people!?
Its a far better solution than having to close an attraction all day! Theme Parks around the world stagger opening times, admittingly they could have been a little smarter about what rides to open, but still!

If its not one thing its the other! Gee. Its a fine solution! Just go on a different ride in the morning! Why let a ride be completely empty for an hour or so!? Just don't open it, untill the park actually starts to get busy, at around 11-12!

So calm down! Its not WW3...Yet! Although the way Alton are having to cut and save, there may well be, and if its not the 'national socialist TT' it will certainly be the liberal facebookers! LOL!

If Alton had been a little sensible, they should have shut maybe x-sector or Dark forest completely, rather than all over the place because they could have at least staggered the park, like Port Aventura, and other such parks!

However, many parks shut there rides either first thing, last thing or at lunch time, depending on what and where the park is! Its not a total disaster! Gee! Keep calm and carry on!

Just saying it like it is! There are far worse things the park could have done, and just think, in about a week or so, they will recoil this system and it will no longer exist!

[PeteB]

Well nobody wants to see cuts of any kind, and clearly everyone is frustrated by this but I think we can all I agree that this is a better solution than the previous attempts.

[aru]

I guess that these are the rides people don't rush to when the park opens? Except for Thirteen.. 

[PeteMadden]

I'm going with my school soon. Air's probably one of the first rides I go on thats pretty much ruined that now!

[Delta79]

well it could of been worse, they could close rides for the whole day, and if you want to ride them all you have to go two days running.

I hope they carry this 11am start over the the upsellers

[CoventryBee]

Sigh...that is how I can sum this up.

As 13 is my favourite ride, this has upset me quite a bit. I don't attend Alton as much as I like, and with some rides opening at 11, it's really disappointing to say the least.

Let's not forget, that in September weekdays, the ride close is 4pm (or at least it said that on the website last time I checked). I'm going for my birthday on a weekday in September. 5 hours for two rides that pick up lengthly queues is really bad.

Hello Tussauds days, have you missed us?

[Morgano]

The figures are probably correct but remember Alton towers is just one asset of many attractions under merlin. Merlin have debts/loans to be paid. Even if all the attractions were making a good profit merlin are probably paying lots of money towards loans/debt which overall means losses or minimal profit. Clearly every penny is counting right now, even these minuscule savings.

[Malin]

What the hell is wrong with you people!? Its a far better solution than having to close an attraction all day! Theme Parks around the world stagger opening times, admittingly they could have been a little smarter about what rides to open, but still!

Mostly my Theme Park experience has been with Disney, Universal, SeaWorld, and Cedar. And I have never known any of them to have eight rides or attractions not running inside the Park at opening. And in the case of someone like Disney when rides are pushed to later openings its usually the smaller things. Not some of your most popular rides. So I do see this as a serious problem and very poor of them. I can think of better ways to cut cost and this is not one of them.

[crofty2009]

can i just say that realistically this is a very bad idea.
it detracts from the value for pass holders, since they sell it as great value all year at the set price, they have damaged the value.

my solution would be to close sections and rides early, not open them late. Alton themselves recognise that the rides are under used in the last hour of opening by saying its a good time to get a quick ride in.
areas like Cloud Cuckoo Land become very quiet at the end of a day, because the younger children are tired and want to go home by 3 in my experience, but as a backup Old MacDonald's  farm as a backup area for those still in the park the savings could be just as great.

i could also understand the dark forest closing 1 hour early, however the dark forest would need to be available for early ride time in my opinion to balance the situation better.
hex could also close early as it has been having problems, and since food doesn't sell well after 3, the whole upper area of the park could close early without too much disruption and should save a decent sum of money, the sky ride could remain open only requiring a member of staff to prevent people getting off at cloud cuckoo land station after the area closes.

keeping smaller attractions like the water rides from opening till 11 is a good idea as the temperature needs to rise in my opinion before those rides open to help dry you off afterwards.

so i am not in favour of these proposals, however i would be happy to allow my own proposals as the park does empty early on most days, and clearly advertising the early closure of the upper area, would help guests plan there day and better enable the flow of guests towards the exit at the end of the day.

it is a point however that when the park is open longer they should not close areas more than an hour before closing as this will send the wrong message to customers.
i would like to hear some opinions as this would be better than full closures of rides, and my recommendations as far as i can see will be better than the current proposal.

speaking as both an enthusiast and a business manager.

[stu1980]

Tussauds please come back we miss you.....

[PeteB]

Just a quick reminder guys as I've removed a post, please keep the discussion constructive and not one-liners bashing Alton or Merlin. We like to see proper use of spelling and grammar too!

[jackgcse]

You get staggered opening at both Pleasure Beach and Port Aventura from my experience, and in the case of Port Aventura, half the park is not actually open until 11, and the whole park is not open until 12, however it is slightly counterbalanced by the longer opening hours, however as I say Blackpool do not open half there rides untill 11 and then some until 12, so you have got to understand this is not uncommon. However Alton really should have opened sections such as X-sector first and areas like forbidden valley at around 11, because its a distance from the entrance, and its one of the most popular areas, there by opening the less popular x sector and dark forest, you have a better flow of guests!
However as I say, give it a week and this will all be over! However I have no problem with the system, I have infact been suggesting it for a while (not physically towards Alton Towers I may add)

[Piescoffer]

They need to seriously rethink this for Air and Th13teen - it will just make extra queues for all the other rides....ridiculous!

[Adz]

I have to admit i'm a little surprised at the decision to open Air and Th13teen late. Smaller rides are not so much of a problem and the water rides are never popular first thing in the morning, however the resorts latest rollercoaster addition along with the rollercoaster which gets the longest queues definitely should not be opened later.

[MattsDesigns]

It seems like there hasn’t been a CREATIVE idea from AT headquarters in a while.

A trait of a creative idea is one that is WIN/WIN. Another way of saying that is something thats “greater than the sum of its parts”

Example: When King C. Gillette invented the disposable razor he took old razor blades and disposable plastic – plastic which is not very good on its own- and he put them together to make the disposable razor and from this he caused many benifits: ( something greater than the sum of its parts)

-people could shave a lot more often
-people didn’t need to sharpen any blades
-people could kiss easier, more often
-he got rich
-many people got a job

So you see thats a creative idea cause its win/win(win/win/win). A destructive idea is win/lose and and can often end up loss/lose. Hope I'm not just being nasty.

[Adz]

We have expanded our original news article on this subject to include even more changes across the resort:

From Monday 18th June the following rides will not open until 11am:

Air, Th13teen, Duel, Congo River Rapids, The Flume, Battle Galleons, Skyride, Driving School, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Wobble World is also expected to be on reduced operating hours.

TowersTimes can also confirm the following changes:

Spinball Noodles and the Rehydrator food and drinks outlets have been closed until further notice. Ride queueline kiosks will also have reduced operating hours with some remaining closed completely.

The Rita Shop is closed with the exception of the photo point and The Towers Family Restaurant will only be open in the morning.

In a surprise move the popular 'Acorn' walkabout character from the new Ice Age 4D attraction has also been withdrawn from the park.

These changes come during a year of significant financial difficulty for the entire attractions industry. Many parks across the country have made similar, if not so drastic changes.

Will these changes affect your trips to the park? Why not discuss these developments on our forum: http://forum.towerstimes.co.uk/alton-to ... urs-32728/