Alton Towers Resort General Discussion

[Nickolai]

Whether this is the same thing or not but recently Tesco made a significant change to their club card points offer on attractions and restaurants which many people hated however, Tesco have listened and are now pushing this condition further back. Although it isn't ideal, Tesco listened to their customers and made a significant change.

[ROYJESS]

What I don't understand is why Congo River Rapids has become a seasonal attraction? It can't be due to the weather as we go in September every year and a lot of the time the weather is actually really warm. Nor can it be due to not wanting to have it operate in the dark, it was open for Scarefest with a 3pm-4pm close.

It will also be closed during the Easter Holidays,  with the exception of the battle galleons (which is not worth going on), looks like there won't be much water rides operating now.   As much as I love rollercoasters,  I just don't want to ride rollercoasters all day long, it's nice to have some alternative choice of rides too.

[TheDuke]

Forgive me if this has already been mentioned. But why invest in a brand new hotel, and build a multi million pound ride, if you can’t afford to keep existing rides operating all day? Don’t get me wrong, we all wanted a new coaster. Cool. But is it worth all of the cuts that have been made else where ?

It really does not make sense to me. They keep building more accommodation but the visitors are not increasing ?

This is what does it for me I've been saying since the new hotel was announced, theyve already got 2 of them which never seem at capacity why not remodel splashlandings? Just seems to me like an investment with no reason behind. I know it might entice more families but I don't really buy it considering the other accommodation available.

[abigsmurf]

Alton Towers for the day requires me to be driving 7 hours in total. Frankly I'm not sure it's worth it now. 

This is simply shameful. Family rides either torn down, closed for large parts of the year and/or only operating from 12PM. You're forced around the park by the staggered openings of the other rides (can't take the cablecar of course) so you can tire yourself out and pass all the closed rides and outlets along the way.

This is a great way to rob all the excitement for the new ride, wasting the money spent on it attempting to boost visitor figures. How many people will return to the park if they wake up at 5am, drive for hours, find most of the park closed when they get through the front gates and then fail to ride everything, not because of crowds but because they had such a small window to ride them. If families are feeling ripped off, they won't want to stay at the hotel either.

[ROYJESS]

Don't forget that the Smiler and Oblivion don't operate if wind gust reaches 30mph +  So avoid windy days otherwise there be even less choice of rides in the mornings

[DeadJack5]

Alton Towers appear to have reworked their staggered opening times for their rides. Instead of some rides being open from 11am and the rest opening at 12pm, all rides will be open by 11am.

This full information can be found here: https://www.altontowers.com/useful-info/opening-times/

[Dan]

In addition to the above, Congo River Rapids will now be open for the entire 2018 season.

[Adz]

A huge step in the right direction. 

I'm hoping their new flexible approach to closing times is actually put into practise. They tried it a few years back and it was rarely used. 

[DeadJack5]

I'm very happy with this decision. At least all rides will be open at 11am and the Rapids will be open all season.

I think they did extend some opening hours for the park last year, on the odd few days where the closing time was extended by half hour-an hour if I'm remembering correctly

[hursty]

Really good news, whilst having not attempting it in the first place would have prevented reputational harm, it is at least a strong sign that they were willing to look again.
I suspect the fact it was starting to gain mainstream news coverage (although local), and was eroding the impact of the SW8 launch would have been factors.
It'll be interesting to see whether cuts are needed elsewhere to fund the changes, or perhaps an admission that they need to preserve a higher standard of guest experience and take a hit on profit margins.
But positive move so far

[RobHand]

This news has given me slight faith in Merlin again. Showing they are listening to the opinions of their customers.

But on the other hand, it shouldn't take an uproar in negative comments for them to listen. I almost feel like they were testing the waters to see what they could get away with before people started to complain.

I have mixed feelings, but I am happy in their decision to keep Congo River Rapids open all year, and to revise opening times.

[Tom170499]

Part of me thinks this was planned all along. Create attention by cutting the operating hours, receive complaints, and then make changes based on feedback. It gives them some publicity (albeit negative), and shows they they “listen to guest feedback”. The exact same thing happened last year... 

[lewis97]

This revision of the staggered and seasonal openings is obviously a positive move, although it just seems silly that the last couple of years have seen a similar pattern of announcing these sort of cutbacks and then having to backtrack a few days later following the negative PR it causes. It almost certainly comes as a result of the budgetary constraints placed on the Resort by Merlin, with them probably trying to minimise costs as far as possible without impacting on guest satisfaction too significantly - although I think it's fair to say they misjudged it by a lot on this occasion.

However, we are arguably still faced with a worse situation than last year in terms of Early Ride Time and the staggered openings. ERT is still only half an hour and sees a slight reduction in the number of attractions available, although the inclusion of Wicker Man is some consolation, and I suppose removing it as a perk for those who purchase tickets online could be seen as a positive by those still entitled to it. We are also still potentially seeing staggered openings across more of the park than we did last season, with the closing times (and the flexibility of these) remaining to be seen.

Of course we are more willing to accept the above given what we were faced with on Monday, but this still doesn't seem like the big comeback we were expecting from the Resort given that this season sees the opening of their latest Secret Weapon. Hopefully, the flexible approach the Resort are taking with their opening and closing times will however bring some pleasant surprises as the season progresses.

[Joel Allen]

Thank God! I'm very very pleased to hear the rapids will be a non-seasonal attraction again, and I can get some earlier rides on good old Nemmy! (As well as Galactica and The Blade of course!)

Thank you Alton!

[S.J_O'Grady]

Towers Street are also saying that the Traffic Patrol will be returning this year, which is more good news. No idea where this information has come from but I've never known them be wrong in the past.

[Teammaddiz]

However, we are arguably still faced with a worse situation than last year in terms of Early Ride Time and the staggered openings. ERT is still only half an hour and sees a slight reduction in the number of attractions available, although the inclusion of Wicker Man is some consolation, and I suppose removing it as a perk for those who purchase tickets online could be seen as a positive by those still entitled to it. We are also still potentially seeing staggered openings across more of the park than we did last season, with the closing times (and the flexibility of these) remaining to be seen.

Exactly why they've done this. They knew from the start people would complain about 12PM opening just as much as an 11AM opening. They were going to open everything by 11AM anyway, they just needed a reason to justify it. Instead of announcing 11 and probably having to reduce it due to backlash, they've announced 12PM openings and made it seem as though they've listened to the community and "done the right thing" by back tracking to 11AM openings after a few days since the announcement. It's been done before in many different industries for businesses to get what they want, later opening times, whilst at the same time making it look like they care about their consumers and listen to what they say.

[ROYJESS]

This time last year everyone kicked off just over the 30mins later opening time, before they reverse the idea leaving DF to open at 10.30.   

This year, despite the reversal of the staggard opening times, we are still worse off than last years proposed 30mins later open times.  Yet everyone on FB is singing Alton's praises for doing so 

[Robert.W]

I'll admit, even with the new changes, what we're getting isn't ideal. But considering the measures that they originally announced, this is definitely a bit better.

However, I am relatively pleased at what we have seen changed. More than what I thought would be changed to be honest, and there isn't really any point in complaining anymore as that'll change nothing.

I'm certainly not praising Alton though. Even if at the moment they are under immense financial strain. My response to that is if they don't have the budget necessary to operate what they already have, they should definitely not have been building more new accomodation and big investments in rides, like Wicker Man.

Having said that, my main issue is with Merlin over how they seem to be placing financial restrictions on their resort theme parks recently, especially Alton. Infact, I'd say the budgets given to their theme park resorts are a little disproportionate. They don't seem to understand that Alton needs the extra money, whereas Thorpe seem to be getting enough to the point where they can have late openings in the summer.

[Dan]

I'm certainly not praising Alton though. Even if at the moment they are under immense financial strain. My response to that is if they don't have the budget necessary to operate what they already have, they should definitely not have been building more new accomodation and big investments in rides, like Wicker Man

Capital Expenditure comes from a different pot than the Operations Budget.

Merlin decide what budget each park is going to get and it’s up them to decide how best to use it. I agree that the budget they have been allocated is nowhere near enough but given that Merlin’s focus is primarily on the Legoland and Midway attractions, I’m not all that surprised.

I would love nothing more than for Alton to return to the glory days and have every single attraction open, every single day but while the RTP’s are being strangled by Merlin we have to be realistic and realise that it isn’t going to happen.

[Robert.W]

Capital Expenditure comes from a different pot than the Operations Budget.

I still think that Alton themselves should be a bit more sensible in expansion of their current offerings, as they should be clever enough to know that even after the initial investment in a new ride, that that new addition needs the money so that it can be maintained and operated, without needing to further reduce the operating times of attractions that they already have.

What I'm saying is that it's all good and well to build a new ride, but I think Alton need to ask themselves wether or not they will get the necessary budget from Merlin to operate it. Most likely they won't, and that's what is frustrating!