Alton Towers Resort General Discussion

[Dom]

Yes its crap. Chances are the backlash will cause them to change their minds. So I wouldn't worry to much. On a plus side. ERT on Wicker Man. I call that a win!

[Liam.W]

Luckily I've had a few weeks to come to terms with this news... And I still can't come to terms with it! Aaaaargghh!

[Nickolai]

Alton Towers better change their mind. A member of my family GP said for this year with Wickerman, the whole place needs to be 'singing and dancing', in other words at its best.

[Teammaddiz]

Yes its crap. Chances are the backlash will cause them to change their minds. So I wouldn't worry to much. On a plus side. ERT on Wicker Man. I call that a win!

This worries me slightly though. They know there is strong public opinion against these changes now so are aware that they could get away with even small changes to the opening times from what we have now. These changes, that I can see coming in the next few days, were always intended to be the actual opening times for this season but they knew that they would get this sort of response if they just went straight into them, meaning they'd had to be improved. To counter this, create these fake opening times that are beyond reasonable then "due to customer feedback" drop them back down to what they intended them to be (which will be just slightly better than what we're getting now). 
It seems far fetched but I've seen it happen before and there's apparently a term for it, "making the outrage outdated". It might not be the correct use of the term here but I think we could just see them doing something similar to this.

[Joel Allen]

I doubt they’d stay the same now due to the colossal backlash from the GP. I just hope the forbidden valley opening time is moved back and also the Congo river rapids to have increased operating days in the year. I hope...

[Loakin]

I honestly feel that these new openings aren't coming from Merlin. Look at Thorpe's openings this year, 6pm closures from March, and 10pm closures throughout the summer. If Thorpe can do this, then it couldn't have come from Merlin. This is Towers themselves doing this, and the primary reason is simply spending £16m on Wickerman whilst still recovering visitor numbers from The Smiler crash.

[Robert.W]

Also looking like Tree Top Quest will be closed though 2018, as it has completely vanished from the website... 

[Dom]

Its looking like its going from bad to worse. Congratulations AT. Only you are able to hit and miss with a new coaster opening

[S.J_O'Grady]

This is bad beyond belief. I hate to say it but it's hard to log onto a forum and act passionate about a place when it's being run like this. Ride line-up next, I can't wait....

[Robert.W]

Another not so good thing about the ERT is that it will only be available to onsite hotel guests and MAP holders.

[Dan]

I don’t think the ride lineup will be that much different from what we had in 2017.

Implementing the staggered openings and closing more attractions would be suicide. Guests are already going to be limited with what they can do at their own leisure, if more attractions are closed then I will really begin to worry, even more so than I already am.

[NemeJaney]

Perhaps at this stage it would be better to pay per attraction  :lol (although that would mean fewer guests would come from far away of course)

[Justin]

With Alton Towers being a leading theme park, this announcement is an embarrassment to the resort and has the potential to damage their reputation beyond repair. Just look at the backlash on Facebook!

I don't agree with the staggered openings at all, especially Forbidden Valley opening at 12pm. Guests will soon grow tired of stumbling across closed attractions or hoardings, therefore leading to dissatisfaction!

The reversal of Forbidden Valley would soften the blow!

[Coaster123]

Wow!  I never, ever thought we'd actually reach the point where I would find myself sitting here seriously questioning whether to bother with any trips this year.  Up until today, I've been close to pushing the button on the purchase of 3 Premium MAPs but not sure whether I'll bother now.
I've been one of their most loyal and biggest fans for over 25 years, supporting and defending them through the recent "bad times" and visiting multiple times a season - but today they've hit the ultimate low with the proposed staggered openings for 2018.  Whoever is making these decisions (whether it be Merlin or AT themselves) must be totally and utterly deluded.  Words fail me.  Who on earth in their right mind would even consider sanctioning the reduced availability of one of the most renowned coasters on the planet?! The backlash already from the GP, in such a short space of time since the announcement, speaks volumes.  It's so ludicrous that I'm half expecting to see the waterpark opening this year with the tagline "World's First Completely Dry Waterpark!" with the level of cuts we're seeing at present.
I could rant for hours over all the bad recent decisions and short-sighted investments (I'm looking at you Galactica, which was clearly such a wonderfully thought out investment that it spent half of last season without VR only to be mothballed for a third of the day each day in 2018!) but I'll just finish up with saying that It's so, so sad to see a once vibrant, magical place have every last piece of what made it so special sucked out of it.  

[NemeJaney]

Just a thought...what happens if it's between 10 and 11am and Oblivon and/or Smiler is closed? There will be no other major rides open in that hour (until DF rides open, of course). It will be awful.

Relating to this, if crowds aren't dispersed evenly enough, surely on busy days that is a security concern worth thinking about?

[Justin]

Health and Safety will be a nightmare with overcrowding!

[Nickolai]

Exactly Janey and Justin. I really don't think they have thought this through!

[NemeJaney]

Let's hope they have enough funds to employ sufficient security personnel and don't make too many cuts in that department

[Dan]

I don’t think the overcrowding will be all that bad. People are forgetting that Alton is a sizeable park and they will have looked at guestflow trends from the past few years when making these decisions.

The last thing they need is another Health & Safety issue so I highly doubt they haven’t considered all possibilities.

[Justin]

It will be more the initial rush as it will be on a similar scale/concentration to Fireworks. The path and queue lines will be rammed!