Alton Towers - too many punters?

Epping said:
Family of 4 yoh can do 2k on tickets over a fortnight.
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Shit, just checked - not £300 anymore, its £429/449 for a 14 day WDW pass!

5 of us, that's £2200 just for Disney ffs! And the cheeky fuckers are about to start charging $10 a ride for fastpass too, or stand in a queue for an hour for each ride (which I can't actually do anymore for medical reasons).

Going to be a lot of thinking whether I ever go back frankly.
 


PTR said:
Is that 100% confirmed now? I know the youtube channel (theme park worldwide) that I follow, he mentioned it was looking like they wouldn't open it in 2021, but that it wasn't entirely confirmed that it was permanent - but the year before it was breaking down all the time.
Its a shame, as it was their biggest thrill ride. Actually, there's barely any thrill rides left now - its become an under 10's theme park - and historically, those have never survived.


Anyway, found his latest video on Lightwater - seems its just been sold. Shame, they were only bought out 2 years ago, seems they just can't fix the problems :(
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It’s quite easy to run a theme park. We’ve all played the tycoon game. The model has been perfected all over the world. The problem is that owners get greedy and everything gets sacrificed for profit. Too many punters, queues too big, overpriced food, casual staff, lack of maintenance etc etc.
 
Dave Herbal said:
It’s quite easy to run a theme park. We’ve all played the tycoon game. The model has been perfected all over the world. The problem is that owners get greedy and everything gets sacrificed for profit. Too many punters, queues too big, overpriced food, casual staff, lack of maintenance etc etc.
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Herbal World would be f***ing class.............do it Dave!
 
PTR said:
Shit, just checked - not £300 anymore, its £429/449 for a 14 day WDW pass!

5 of us, that's £2200 just for Disney ffs! And the cheeky fuckers are about to start charging $10 a ride for fastpass too, or stand in a queue for an hour for each ride (which I can't actually do anymore for medical reasons).

Going to be a lot of thinking whether I ever go back frankly.
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Those prices are getting silly especially if fast pass charging... Used to be allowed to book 2 fastpasses each day
 
errant said:
Was there Sunday & Monday - and I’d second this…
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I was there Sunday and Monday too and I thought was pretty quiet. At peak hours Smiler and Wicker Man had ridiculous queues I agree but we planned quite well. Stayed at the shitty At Hotel which got us in early (just queue anyway but get to front) first day we came in hotel entrance and started at Galactica and worked way over. Walked on majority rides on way over to X-sector.
We were a bit cheeky but there fault and spent over a grand on 2 days there so don’t feel bad but had some bronze passes which they never scanned once so used a few times on Oblivion and spinball. We also had a one shot for smiler and they never scanned that so used that twice.

Wicker Man is some ride and did that first thing one day and later on the other.
 
Dave Herbal said:
It’s quite easy to run a theme park. We’ve all played the tycoon game. The model has been perfected all over the world. The problem is that owners get greedy and everything gets sacrificed for profit. Too many punters, queues too big, overpriced food, casual staff, lack of maintenance etc etc.
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In fairness, its very likely easy on the surface, but faced with losses and no spare cash, rather than improving to make money, you are forced to cut spending to break even, which leads to a never ending spiral, and then 2 different owners in 3 years....

Fingers crossed - its in a great location and has a history that has some value. It needs a massive investment though.
 
Travis said:
I was there Sunday and Monday too and I thought was pretty quiet. At peak hours Smiler and Wicker Man had ridiculous queues I agree but we planned quite well. Stayed at the shitty At Hotel which got us in early (just queue anyway but get to front) first day we came in hotel entrance and started at Galactica and worked way over. Walked on majority rides on way over to X-sector.
We were a bit cheeky but there fault and spent over a grand on 2 days there so don’t feel bad but had some bronze passes which they never scanned once so used a few times on Oblivion and spinball. We also had a one shot for smiler and they never scanned that so used that twice.

Wicker Man is some ride and did that first thing one day and later on the other.
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They’re absolutely useless at checking the passes mind. They clearly don’t give a fuck and mustn’t get assessed.
 
Epping said:
Those prices are getting silly especially if fast pass charging... Used to be allowed to book 2 fastpasses each day
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Was 3 in advance, then more after you'd used them. At least, that was the Mobile Fastpass+ system.
Before that, you had to take a ticket from the machine - 1 at a time only (that's what they still had in Paris until Covid had them pause fastpass entirely - it never came back and now its Premium Pass that you buy).

My folks much preferred the ticket system, as you could decide what to do at 7am, pick a park, get there and have a fair chance of doing anything on the day. The new system, you had to plan your days 30/60 days before you got there and book your fastpasses then, otherwise you wouldn't get anything good.

For people going once in a lifetime, the Plus system was great - but if you went regularly, it turned it into a bit of an admin slog that just wasn't fun and removed all the spontenaity from the holiday.
 
PTR said:
In fairness, its very likely easy on the surface, but faced with losses and no spare cash, rather than improving to make money, you are forced to cut spending to break even, which leads to a never ending spiral, and then 2 different owners in 3 years....

Fingers crossed - its in a great location and has a history that has some value. It needs a massive investment though.
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It’s always been stuck between being a kids day out and a theme park. Not enough thrill rides to be a thrill park now, so they’re going to have to be content with bing a kids thing anyway. Plus they’ve always had to compete with Flamingo Land being just round the corner. We went once about 15 years ago and haven’t been back, but we’ve been to FL 10+ times.
 
Dave Herbal said:
They’re absolutely useless at checking the passes mind. They clearly don’t give a fuck and mustn’t get assessed.
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Couldn’t believe it. Was going to pay for gold or platinum passes but they sold out. Glad only paid £30 a pop for bronze as got us on several times and planned bigger rides around it. Kids went on Oblivion about 6 times just gave them screenshot of pass 😂
 
Travis said:
Couldn’t believe it. Was going to pay for gold or platinum passes but they sold out. Glad only paid £30 a pop for bronze as got us on several times and planned bigger rides around it. Kids went on Oblivion about 6 times just gave them screenshot of pass 😂
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Bronze fastpass (£30) costs more than the cost of entry to the park???? Assuming you paid 2-4-1 @ £53 = £26.50 each. (or £34 for advanced single sales)
Wow. For 4 single rides.
 
SAFC_FTM said:
Slightly off topic but we took the kids to Paultons Park which was 30 minutes from where we stayed in Bournemouth.
Absolute night and day between there and Alton's Towers.
Crowds no longer than 35 minutes and that was at the beginning of the day for 2 most popular rides.
There's not as many big thrill rides as AT bit my kids are 8 and 11 so rides suited them perfectly.
Overall the theme park is much cleaner, better laid out.
Also fast food prices very reasonable and decent standard.

It's a good old trek to get there but definitely recommend if you are that way on with kids.
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Peppa Pig Land nowadays innit?
 

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