News: Reduced Attraction Operating Hours *Updated*

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From the TowersTimes homepage:

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In a surprise move the popular 'Acorn' walkabout character from the new Ice Age 4D attraction has also been withdrawn from the park.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-towers-general/news-reduced-attraction-operating-hours-32728/

View the updated article here.

[lozzyhickers]

This has really made me want to cry. This is ridiculous! i think i'd prefer any of the other cuts to this!

[Nemesis Of Oblivion]

OH, HELL! 
What is wrong with that place this year?!

[ParkLogic_Chris]

Disappointing to say the least, however it's a personal improvement to the closing rides entirely scheme.

Minus duel it doesn't effect me too much though as I tend to do Air mid day, and start on Nemesis, then do Sub-Terra, so I can still hammer Nemesis from Half 9 till gone 10, do Sub-terra once or twice before heading towards Air, maybe throw a go on Ripsaw and blade in now too, giving me more ride opportunities.

[urbanislands]

Ugh! More than a little annoyed as im going next week on the 20th-22nd 

[onair]

And they seriously wonder why visitors numbers are down

I posted a comment about this on their facebook page about this too. Ok it may only be an hour later but whats next ? This year they sure are going a great job at driving visitors away, its just amazing they cannot see that.

Not everyone lives on Altons doorstep and all these restrictions give me even less interest to visit.

I really do dread to see the cutbacks they have planned for The Scarefest this year too. I thought last year was bad but this year just tops it all. Like someone said on facebook why bother opening at all.

Very dissapointing. Think I will stick to the south this year. 

[PeteB]

Its a real shame but I prefer them opening rides at later times than closing things altogether. I think its just say acceptable, unlike the skyride and early closing farce that nearly went ahead.

Merlin are  just being too tight fisted though, I honestly do not believe that profits can be down and require cuts given all the price increases and upsells now around the park.

[Malin]

Is this just during non peak times or is it going to be a year round cost cutting move. I think it's a disgusting move and will be sending them a complaint. I actually feel sorry for anyone who's brought one of the Fast Track tickets. Your access to these rides will be an hour less. Yet I don't expect the £85 fee will be dropped.

[Boz]

Is this just during non peak times or is it going to be a year round cost cutting move.

same question i was going to ask, surely they can't do this on peak days as well?
some amount of cuts were going to happen, thanks merlin  , and if its going to be anything this is better than other actions they have tried to take. my criticism however, is that it's very "all over the place" with the attractions they have picked to open late. forcing guests, especially ERT guests, to bounce around the park to get on rides, with no skyride to do it with.
i can appreciate opening quiet rides like duel, and all the water rides, later than the rest, but Air???!!! that ride has just as long a queue when it opens at 10 as nemesis and N:ST, or it did the last days i visited.
i know the weather hasn't helped so far this year,but the main problem in all this is the pricing. regardless of BOGOF vouchers making it cheaper. it is still becoming more and more expensive to visit. merlin are effectively pricing lower income families out of their parks, and then wondering why their gate figures are falling.
i took my sister and her 2 kids to AT in april, and ignoring the cost of the hotel (which is also pretty damned expensive these days), we managed to get through £200 between us (including petrol to get there £70), and we all have annual passes. £130 in food drink and a photopass, in just 2 days ??!!! WTF merlin?

[NemmyJunkie]

This doesnt bother me too much as I have an annual pass, however, I feel sorry for people that pay good money to come to the park. Thats really unfair!

[Nightfall]

From what I've heard this includes peak days as well.

[Jammydodger]

U-Turn coming in 3...2...

[Boz]

This doesnt bother me too much as I have an annual pass, however, I feel sorry for people that pay good money to come to the park. Thats really unfair!

fair comment, but should any of us really bother to spend good money renewing our annual passes when the parks we all love are being run into the ground?
although we may not pay to get in every time we go, we are still paying customers and should be outraged when services that we have paid for, get restricted and changed without any apologies. it wouldn't happen in any other industry so why should merlin get away with it?
service withdrawal due to mechanical/electrical failure, or hazardous operating conditions is acceptable. but when i bought an annual pass, i bought it on the pretext that services were to be available at the advertised times and dates that had been established at the beginning of the year.

BT tried to do a similar thing to my parents a number of years back. we were paying for a dual line service from them, when one day BT wrote to my parents telling them that the service was too expensive for BT to run and not popular enough to be profitable for them. so my parents would have to pay BT to come out and change the service to one of their other ones, which were all more expensive, and didn't do what they wanted. naturally my dad threatened to take them to court and they backed down immediately, but we still left them for virgin.

the point being i have paid for a service from merlin, and they have changed the service to suit them not me, with no other reason behind it than their own greed. merlin are not in financial trouble, far from it, they're just another greedy corporation, run by what like to call the executive class, who find their figures more important than their customers.

edit:

From what I've heard this includes peak days as well.

unbelievable! 

[Lucieloo]

Do we actually know why?? This seems a bit daft to me. Maybe they want people to have breakfast or eat before hand.. Either that or just wander around for an hour lol

[smudge.]

I'm sure there are very valid reasons for this line-up to be the ones reduced, but i really cant see how air, possibly 13 are in it...

Congo River Rapids, The Flume, Battle Galleons, Skyride, Driving School, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory I can see the reasoning though.

In my opinion working the other way would make more sense, the rides with the high throughput & shorter ques ie Nemesis, Oblivion & Duel to open later? This way more people get to experience all of the rides without wasting it in the que to a ride that has a relatively long wait anyway, made even longer by reduced opening times!

13 - SW6 (opened 2010) reduced opening in 2012 - not good news.

SW7 (opening 2013) reduced opening in 2015?

So they have chosen to open Rita before 13, Nemesis before Air... is this maybe the park acknowledging what rides the  GP like the most? Or is it purely down to what saves the most money?

[ParkLogic_Chris]

I'm sure there are very valid reasons for this line-up to be the ones reduced, but i really cant see how air, possibly 13 are in it...

Congo River Rapids, The Flume, Battle Galleons, Skyride, Driving School, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory I can see the reasoning though.

In my opinion working the other way would make more sense, the rides with the high throughput & shorter ques ie Nemesis, Oblivion & Duel to open later? This way more people get to experience all of the rides without wasting it in the que to a ride that has a relatively long wait anyway, made even longer by reduced opening times!

13 - SW6 (opened 2010) reduced opening in 2012 - not good news.

SW7 (opening 2013) reduced opening in 2015?

So they have chosen to open Rita before 13, Nemesis before Air... is this maybe the park acknowledging what rides the  GP like the most? Or is it purely down to what saves the most money?

It's based on operating costs as far as I can tell, with Air and Th13teen requiring the most staff of all the major coasters, also being the more advanced technologically.

[stu1980]

Hi Sorry if my post is a little woooooo but im new here - This tbh really really makes me sick to the bones. Its ok to say we going to chop 9 rides from the list till 11am - However with this said there a few things i feel i should add to the comments that no one has said yet.
First off the water rides i can cope with not being open till later.
2nd - when i come to the park 180 miles each way trip i always arrive early to make sure i use the XRT why becuase i come with a child who is in a wheelchair so who by 4pm wants to go home as she has had it. So out of the list now we have lost Batlle Galleons which she loves to see us all wet. Driving School which she loves (shes 9 btw) Charlie which i hate and perf toyland tours but she loves it and 13 which she loves. Oh wait and the skyride which helps the 2 carers she need to help her around the park and push her all day up and down hills. This is tbh a joke even without a wheelchair to que all day as you do for the bigger rides is a laugh as they have just wiped 2 of the bigger rides out of the list full stop (air and 13) which you could use the XRT on so why pay £43pp or even more so upto £150 for a pass to miss half the rides - Could it be that they want you to miss half the park so you go again the next day so in turn they get more cash out of you.
Another thing also Ticket prices up in 2012 - Early shutting on some days in 2012 - Food up in 2012 - parking £6 per car in 2012 - need i go on. What ever the game is Merlin are playing they really need to play ball now and sort it out as from what ive been reading a group of 5 year olds could run the park better than merlin at time of press they need to sort it. We are in very hard times and i know that like everyone BUT these moves just put people off going. you get ripped off once you never go back. Is Alton Towers or merlin not Proud of Air and 13 and other rides they are shutting. And 2 last things as ive had my say now. 1 - Merlin keep saying they want to become the biggest op over disney and at time of press they are 2nd in the world - Merlin if you see this post up your game as disney and others wont even dare do what you are because of backfires as has been the case most of this year about the park and 2nd - Has the magic gone - We are back in the Tussauds dark days almost and to end sorry folks the hour glass with the magic in is almost gone for me

[Adam]

Assuming this is just another trial like the recent failed SkyRide cut. Give it a week or so and It'll be dropped... well, hopefully.

[Tom G]

Money's too tight to mention.

[PeteB]

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