Help us help the park: Merlin - Their Response:

[Rob L]

[quote=""DiogoJ42""]It's great to see that he is anti-Fanta, but the rest of it just seems... I dunno, most of the letter is just recapping past glory, and not actually answering any of our points. Seems like another Watchdog style fob off to me. [/quote]
To be fair the two main points were answered and answered well. Also without seeing the petition it can't really be said that other points were not answered as we do not know what other points people made. If only one person made one point then chances are it was not going to get answered specifically. However if other points were made by lots of other people then maybe we could say it has not answered these. It's impossible to say without knowing what content was sent to Merlin for Mr. Varney to reply to!

[Stelios7]

Was this directly written by Nick, or was it wrote down by a secretary or something? at first site is a basic spelling error, otherwise a ok response! 



Good explanation for Fanta and no new attraction, the future looks bright!

[Nathan]

Nice to see Nick take the time to reply, but I feel the same way as Diogo - the majority is a history lesson with responses to the main concerns slapped on the end.

At least they were answered though, which is the main thing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Pennywise]

[quote=""LCWatAlton""] By saying that it was "awesome in every sense of the word"! :P[/quote]

It was awesome in every sense of the word? Damn. I missed it.

[AstroDan]

[quote=""DiogoJ42""]It's great to see that he is anti-Fanta, but the rest of it just seems... I dunno, most of the letter is just recapping past glory, and not actually answering any of our points. Seems like another Watchdog style fob off to me. [/quote]

Part of would like to agree with the above, but in all honesty - the fact we have a fairly lengthly letter speaks volumes for our community.

This isn't some letter sent by some third level manager, this is from the boss of one of the biggest leisure firms in the world - sent to a humble theme park fansite.

Sure, it doesn't answer every point. But what can he do? He can't exactly start sending letters to public domains that openly criticize his own company, as that's corporate suicide. This isn't small town theme parks - this is Merlin Entertainments. He has, however, indicated using a fair choice of words that he wishes the Fanta sponsorship to go and that there are fairly large plans for 2012 and very large plans for 2013. In addition, I learnt a few things about Alton's past which I never knew before.

I can't remember a time previous to this when such a major figurehead of the company has written to TTF. It is just what we needed, really.

[Khalichanan]

Seems people are determined to be miserable whatever the outcome...cheer up guys!

[Tom G]

To be positive, he has directly addressed the point about Fanta sponsorship and his words seem encouraging. He's taken time to respond to us in depth. His response seems genuine and it's a relief to know he has walked around Oblivion and thinks it is inappropriate branding etc.

To be negative, it's all words until proven otherwise. Without wanting to be too vague, he still strikes me as what I would describe as a threat to many of the things I like about theme parks. He's praised the status quo of management and marketing personnel - so the people who have made all of the changes we've slagged this year are here for the long haul.

So our best hope is that a bad season this year will make them re-evaluate their approach, as I suspect our petition alone will not do that.

[oldgitBEN]

I disagree that Im looking for the negative at every case with alton at present,

I appreciate that Nick took his time to write to us, that is nice of him and to be fair an effort he did not have to make.

However his responses took a rather easy route out of:
a) new attractions next year than sw7*
b) perhaps that tacky sponsorship isnt great, but its money, but ive looked**


* = nothing we didnt always know, and sometimes feeding abit of extra info to fans is enough to whip up a frenzy, so nothing ground breaking there, just abit of pandering.
** = yep its crap, we know, we all do, they have paid us, we cant do much now.

--

Again I realise this looks cynical but I do feel he played to the strengths he could from the options he gave.

I do note, rather more significantly that:

a) nothing has been mentioned about the morning battle on towers street of 'buy this' 'fast tack' 'cola refills' etc etc
b) nothing mentioned about the ridiculous legal threats TTF received.
c) he mentions Ian <name removed> is great for customer service. Have we seen any evidence of this? It looked very thrown in to defend a man who choses to stay hidden.

--

Yeah in my eyes nothing has changed. I'll be watching, but expect this season is going to be a 'lump it' one. Ah well, how long until november?

[AdrenalineAlex]

This letter made me smile a lot. Does shows that they really do care about enthusiasts and their opinions (or so that's how I've interpreted it that way) and that they have reasoning for why things have been carried out and this just makes me excited for what's to come for Alton!

[Craig]

To be fair, the main reason for the petition was due to the recent Fanta sponsorship, and the concern that this was going to be a regular occurrence moving forwards. Throughout the responses, this was far and above the main point people were making, and thankfully it seems to be being addressed. Admittedly, it doesn't specifically say it's going - but he's right in saying there's a contract there and negotiation is going to be required. Remember, this is a letter that he expected to be published on a public forum. He's not going to go into every minute detail - as others have said it would bit much.

Admittedly Towers Street was mentioned in some responses to the petition too, although I would imagine this should be something left for the park themselves to respond to.

In reference to the legal threats, this did not form part of this petition and wasn't mentioned in people's responses heavily either. We have as a team made our feelings clear on that matter already however, and indeed the topic in TTNAYV puts across the views of our members too.

[DiogoJ42]

Ah, but the legal "issues" came after we submitted the petition. (I never said there was a connection there. I am not implying anything at all. No, really. :sus: )

[Stelios7]

[quote=""LCWatAlton""]That is a Fantabulous Reply! I like how he made us even more syked up for SW7! By saying that it [s:x98x8t56]was[/s:x98x8t56] will be "awesome in every sense of the word"! :P[/quote]

Maybe it could be better Than Nemesis or Oblivion.

[thefatone]

I think this is a fantastic response. It's great to see that he's taken time out to write a letter and explain the circumstances.

As for the "history lesson followed by answers" - he was doing what he said at the beginning of the letter. Showing that he knows his stuff, that he is VERY passionate about the park and wants to do well.

All of his interviews, whether in the times, on marketing magazines or here, show his enthusiasm for the company and them wanting to be the best.

At the end of the day, I'd far prefer having a CEO who has worked his way through the business, has it close to the heart, and will respond to petitions.. than have some random banker who does not give one solidary crap

[Colossus]

My view:

As to be expected really. Without seeing the letter which Towers Times sent, its quite hard to judge the response from Mr Nick Varney (am I even allowed to say his name on here anymore? )

As mentioned it does sound like a "watchdog" style response. There is a promise of 2 new attractions for the next two years which may have been included to "please" us.

However, the proof will be in the pudding. There is nothing in that letter which is making me want to jump in my car to recapture the magic of Alton Towers.

I think its also a bit confusing when in that previous article from the marking magazine, Nick Varney stated that he prides himself on visiting the attractions throughout the year, but as an MD he didnt know what had gone on in the Oblivion queueline and ride? Seems a bit strange to me, but then again maybe he doesnt sample the parks as a normal person, but is just made to see what he a) wants to see or b) what he is shown.

Also the comments about the shows made me I witnessed more shows / costume characters in 2 hours at Fantasy Island last weekend than I have seen at the UK's number one theme park this year. No one can argue that the entertainment at Alton is poor, for a park of its size and status.

Anyway, thats just my feelings. Yes it was nice of him to reply, but that reply has not renewed my faith in Merlin.

[Magrathea]

I'm very impressed with this reply, and I know that some people aren't going to be happy until someone writes a 30 page reply responding to every single concern raised, but I think it's very good of Mr Varney to write such a long and comprehensive reply.

He could have easily fobbed off our concern for the Fanta sponsorship, and he'd be in every right to defend his company's decision as regards the sponsorship, but instead he's been honest with the community and publicly stated that he shares our disapproval. That alone is laudable.

What'll be interesting to see now is whether Ian Crabbe, or another senior figure within Alton Towers, will also respond to the petition, as it'd be fascinating to see their input .

[Chris W]

Don't forget that the mural in the queueline, which was many people's main issues with the sponsorship, disappeared in recent weeks and as far as I'm aware has yet to be replaced.

I'd be also interested to see if Alton towers management respond to our petition.

[dmmosh1]

It is nice to get a personal reply and that is rearly appreciated and as AstroDan said he cant go sending long emails to every where that requests why there doing some thing they dont like thankyou for getting back to TT.

But dangling a carrot over us and telling us that the rides are going to be great doesnt exactly restore my confidence, based on merlins rep i think that dreamworks were probably right to pullout. I would of liked to of read some thing like "we have learnt form what happened with dreamworks that we need to put more effort in and not be as chaep" or some thing to that effect and like everyone has said it was a very 'watchdog' letter

I dont expect investment every year and based on the proposed 10 year plan i would of not expected some thing next year since the plan gives room for 2 years with out investment (not that i think 2 yeras with out some thing new is OK)

But with the money from the investment i would of expected and reinvigorated park, fixed affects paint work and some TLC to make it better but instead we got fanta.

So i hope that every thing that is promised is comes around.

thanks to nick for replying its rearly appreciated and thanks to the people at towers times for putting this together and representing our feelings good work peeps

[James]

Can't say I'm overly pleased with the reply; although I do really appreciate Nick writing a personal response back and acknowledging our views.

Now it's good to see that he is not happy with the Fanta sponsorship (by the looks of the way in which that paragraph is written) and if as he has said, that "We take the integrity theming and 'story' for our
rides and attractions very seriously" it only makes me wonder even more on whose idea it was to let this sponsorship come into fruition.

Understandably the Fanta sponsorship will probably remain as it is what with Coca-Cola having a contract and probably a good working relationship with Alton Towers/Merlin. This leads me to believe that we only have a Fanta sponsorship due to either:
1. The concepts shown to Alton Towers looked good on paper but didn't quite work out in reality.
2. Some one working for the management team either make just a really bad decision or thought it would be a quick and easy way to make a bit of money.

Although I'm glad to see that this will (hopefully) just be a one off, I don't mind sponsorships personally, but only when they add to the experience (like Cadbury's would work well sponsoring Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). In this case it's just taken the whole intimidation and dark theme of Oblivion and turned it around into some kind of bright colourful roundabout ride. It's full of contradictions and unreliable facts too.
180ft drop = 150ft drop
Don't Look Down = Looking down is the fun part

It's the "looking down is the fun part" that has annoyed me the most when the whole concept of Oblivion is about you trying to not look down, avoiding looking at dropping into the unknown.

I felt the end part about lan Crabbe felt a bit like it was just written in there for the sake of it. Funnily enough, when Morwenna Angove first came to our attention there was a lot of negativity about the way she handled her job and quite frankly, people wrote some horrible things about her on here; then the minute enthusiasts started meeting her in person on resort and she came more "into the light" all negative comments seemed to have disappeared about her. I think it is the same case with lan Crabbe, has anyone on here actually met Ian and spoken to him in person? The answer is probably no; but I could probably guarantee that he is just as friendly as Morwenna is to us.

We just base things on presumptions and the negative things we've seen in the flesh; while he over sees things (just like Nick will oversee everything, I highly doubt he has the time to travel to each Merlin attraction and look at every little detail) he hasn't got eyes every where and will not know what it going on every where, sure he will know the bigger picture of the operations at the resort but just like Nick, Ian just oversees each of the departments at the resort, gets involved with the developments, reports back to his seniors etc...

I'm not really that all surprised that things such as the upselling of products was not mentioned, Nick would have written that knowing that it would be posted on the internet; so there's only so much that can really be said and only so much information that can be freely released on a public forum.

While the majority of the reply was a history lesson, I'm not complaining, since it's good to see Alton Towers is a place that Nick has been highly associated with and I've learnt a few things I never knew about Alton Towers... I'm still pleased with the reply overall, it hasn't swayed me to become a lover of Merlin or the ways in which they operate; everything has become all too corporate for my likings but Nick Varney, if you're reading this, thank you very much for taking your time to reply to us; it's very much appreciated.

[stretchy]

I personally think it was a well put together reply. I think Nick should be commended for caring enough to reply with a letter that I would say probably took him a fair few hours to write.

When you normally complain to a company you get a 1/2 page reply at best, and normally a fob of with a free entry or free meal.

What you guys got was a narative and an acceptance of grevance from someone trying to tell you how much he genuinly cares, and for one. I believe he does.And I think he will also mention to COKE that thier theming isnt working. I would think that a company such as coke will want to put this right as much as we do.

I look forward to next years developement.

p.s. I think the word "AWESOME" is a clue for us.

[Dormiens-Dave]

[quote=""dmmosh1""]

But dangling a carrot over us and telling us that the rides are going to be great doesnt exactly restore my confidence, based on merlins rep i think that dreamworks were probably right to pullout.
[/quote]

I have an issue with the often quoted idea that Dreamworks pulled out of the Shrek deal when there isn't a scrap of evidence that this is what happened.. how do we know it wasn't Merlin who bailed out... maybe due to increases in the cost of buying the rights!

There is a presumption that dreamworks pulled out last minute because the plans where not to their liking, considering from Morwenna Angoves comments in June about the 2011 family project do we really think Dreamworks neglected to look at said plans until October? Especially as its often rumoured towers had begun some preliminary building work in the ice tent.