WTF Merlin?

[Nicky Borrill]

So I'm going to Alton Towers next week, having not been there for 6 years.

Today, it seems they have changed next week's closing times from 6pm to 5pm. In summer holiday.
Explain!

Weird, I went yesterday and it was 6pm, yet today is listed as 5pm.

Yesterday was very busy, plenty of school trips around still. But the last of the local schools break up today as far as I know.

So maybe they just don't have the bookings, over the next two weeks, to justify 6pm. Might head on over, if it's going to be reasonably quiet, haha. I couldn't care less what time they close, give me off peak any time!!!

 

[JoshC.]

I was at Alton Towers yesterday and it was quite easily the worst day I've ever had there.

-Opening was advertised as 6pm when I originally booked and then shifted to 5pm last week. I only realised that Tuesday.
--On that note, it was busy. I usually visit around this time of year, and the park was busier than I'd experienced for this time of year.

-Got to the park for 9am gate open and headed to Dark Forest to get that duo open. It was only at 9.57am did they do any sort of announcement to say that each ride was going to be late. Th13teen hadn't tested at that point, I was later told. Rita had done multiple test runs. So we had spent about 30 minutes waiting for nothing.

-Should be noted that Walliams World opens at 11. With Hex still closed, this meant *nothing* was open beyond the Towers at park opening. It wouldn't be until WW opened that anything was.

-Upon park opening, Galactica and Smiler were the only major coasters open. Spinball was too.

-Oblivion became listed as open on the app, so headed over there. By the time we got to X Sector, it was shut but continually testing. As a group, we don't like Smiler so figured we'd wait it out a bit (along with a reasonable sized crowd). After a few minutes, we were told by the host that "we should try other rides as it could be hours before it opens".

-Spinball was the nearest open ride we'd consider riding, but it (and Smiler) had 70 minute queues. Headed over to the just opened Wicker Man, which also had a 70min queue by the time we got there.

-Wicker Man ops were poor. Staff were forcing us through the closing automatic doors into the pre show. I literally had to squeeze pass the two doors and still caught my shoulder.
As we were an odd group, by the time we got to the airgates we were asked to wait to the side for another odd group. We had to wait another 2 whole trains before one came along. Minimal in the grand scheme of things, but when you're stood right there, it's a bit of a kick in the teeth.

-When we headed over to Forbidden Valley, we were greeted with a closed Nemesis (which apparently opened late on 1 train, although the 2nd was added at some point), a closed Galactica and a closed Sub Terra. Had lunch and Galactica reopened with an hour queue, so managed that. Nemesis was still closed. Went over to Alton Manor. Closed. Nemesis still closed. With no Sky Ride, you're left weighing up options: stick around idly waiting, or have to waste 20mins of round walking to get to another ride and back.

-Any time I checked the app, there were always multiple rides closed and multiple 70-90min queues. As I say, never usually this bad at this time of year.

-Got fed up of the park, so went to do mini golf and leave early. Mini golf has seen better days; all of the info signs about the holes have either been removed or stolen, bar 2, and the course just looks and feels very tired.


Parks have bad days. People have bad luck. I experienced both of those yesterday. But based on the numbers I experienced, I doubt it's ticket sales that have realistically driven the park to cut open hours.

And as I say, this was the worst day I've had at Towers. Sure, we could have stayed those extra 3 hours on park and gotten a couple more rides in. But honestly I was so fed up and tired of thr constant shutdowns, poor communication and general vibe on park that I have no regrets.

 

[Tonkso]

5pm close in the summer holidays is inexcusable if you're getting >1hr queues. 6 really should be the bare minimum, but honestly I'd expect 8 for the summer holidays.

As a customer, short hours put me off. I look at my recent visits, my first this year wasnt great, my second was better, but that's because it was a much quieter day. If I am expecting 7 hours on park and >1hr queues, I won't be going, because I do nkt feel as if I would be getting my money's (and 2hr each way drive) worth.

10 hours on park, yeah I'm going to consider that.

 

[Ollie]

I work a small/medium sized park and even our opening times over summer are 9:30am-6:30pm with all attractions being ready for guests at 9:30. A couple close 30 mins before park close to get through any remaining queues but we still open longer to let visitors get more out of their day while it's busier during the summer holidays.

Merlin opening times have always given off the impression that they do it purely for profit. Short opening times means massively reduced wage cost and also pushes people to visit more than one day and/or stay over in onsite accommodation.

 

[Nicky Borrill]

I don't understand what's going on at all... It's seemed busier than usual every time we've visited this year, even the off peak days, though very quiet, were not as quiet as in past years. So it's not easy to make up an excuse for this...

Is there a staff shortage maybe?

Thankfully, though busy, we did get every coaster done before we left at 5pm on Tuesday, apart from Galactica, which we opted not to do. As well as some rides in cbeebies. Pleased about that as we were taking family, who were over from the Isle of Man, one of whom had never visited. We noticed rides were down at different times throughout the day, but more through luck than anything else, they didn't affect us, and were back up fairly quickly.

 

[VonRolland]

I don't understand what's going on at all... It's seemed busier than usual every time we've visited this year, even the off peak days, though very quiet, were not as quiet as in past years. So it's not easy to make up an excuse for this...

Is there a staff shortage maybe?

Thankfully, though busy, we did get every coaster done before we left at 5pm on Tuesday, apart from Galactica, which we opted not to do. As well as some rides in cbeebies. Pleased about that as we were taking family, who were over from the Isle of Man, one of whom had never visited. We noticed rides were down at different times throughout the day, but more through luck than anything else, they didn't affect us, and were back up fairly quickly.

A severe lack of good staff is currently plaguing them but that's on ATR, not sure why they keep cutting opening hours that should be banned

 

[Ethan]

I was at Alton Towers yesterday and it was quite easily the worst day I've ever had there.

-Opening was advertised as 6pm when I originally booked and then shifted to 5pm last week. I only realised that Tuesday.
--On that note, it was busy. I usually visit around this time of year, and the park was busier than I'd experienced for this time of year.

-Got to the park for 9am gate open and headed to Dark Forest to get that duo open. It was only at 9.57am did they do any sort of announcement to say that each ride was going to be late. Th13teen hadn't tested at that point, I was later told. Rita had done multiple test runs. So we had spent about 30 minutes waiting for nothing.

-Should be noted that Walliams World opens at 11. With Hex still closed, this meant *nothing* was open beyond the Towers at park opening. It wouldn't be until WW opened that anything was.

-Upon park opening, Galactica and Smiler were the only major coasters open. Spinball was too.

-Oblivion became listed as open on the app, so headed over there. By the time we got to X Sector, it was shut but continually testing. As a group, we don't like Smiler so figured we'd wait it out a bit (along with a reasonable sized crowd). After a few minutes, we were told by the host that "we should try other rides as it could be hours before it opens".

-Spinball was the nearest open ride we'd consider riding, but it (and Smiler) had 70 minute queues. Headed over to the just opened Wicker Man, which also had a 70min queue by the time we got there.

-Wicker Man ops were poor. Staff were forcing us through the closing automatic doors into the pre show. I literally had to squeeze pass the two doors and still caught my shoulder.
As we were an odd group, by the time we got to the airgates we were asked to wait to the side for another odd group. We had to wait another 2 whole trains before one came along. Minimal in the grand scheme of things, but when you're stood right there, it's a bit of a kick in the teeth.

-When we headed over to Forbidden Valley, we were greeted with a closed Nemesis (which apparently opened late on 1 train, although the 2nd was added at some point), a closed Galactica and a closed Sub Terra. Had lunch and Galactica reopened with an hour queue, so managed that. Nemesis was still closed. Went over to Alton Manor. Closed. Nemesis still closed. With no Sky Ride, you're left weighing up options: stick around idly waiting, or have to waste 20mins of round walking to get to another ride and back.

-Any time I checked the app, there were always multiple rides closed and multiple 70-90min queues. As I say, never usually this bad at this time of year.

-Got fed up of the park, so went to do mini golf and leave early. Mini golf has seen better days; all of the info signs about the holes have either been removed or stolen, bar 2, and the course just looks and feels very tired.


Parks have bad days. People have bad luck. I experienced both of those yesterday. But based on the numbers I experienced, I doubt it's ticket sales that have realistically driven the park to cut open hours.

And as I say, this was the worst day I've had at Towers. Sure, we could have stayed those extra 3 hours on park and gotten a couple more rides in. But honestly I was so fed up and tired of thr constant shutdowns, poor communication and general vibe on park that I have no regrets.

Sorry to hear that you had a similar day to mine, it's not a good look for the park at all.

A severe lack of good staff is currently plaguing them but that's on ATR, not sure why they keep cutting opening hours that should be banned

Crazy that awful wages don't make people want to work harder! I agree that if they've advertised opening hours, they should honour it and if not, partial refunds should be issued.

 

[Ollie]

I got approached to be a supervisor at Towers a few years back which sounded amazing. But the wage was much lower than what I was on at the time and the extra commute distance made it even less worth my time. So I'm not surprised if they're struggling to retain staff or fill positions when they can do the same role for more pay and less stress elsewhere.

 

[VonRolland]

I got approached to be a supervisor at Towers a few years back which sounded amazing. But the wage was much lower than what I was on at the time and the extra commute distance made it even less worth my time. So I'm not surprised if they're struggling to retain staff or fill positions when they can do the same role for more pay and less stress elsewhere.

When i worked at ATR we worked out the assistant rides managers which make up most of rides managers earned just under what we did per hour based on the 39hrs contracted week however it was very rare for them to do 39hrs they'd always do over in effect earning even less per hour

 

[toofpikk]

It's something that's plagued Merlin for a while, and they've got in some big doodoo recently for not having proper staff remuneration. My experience at a merlin park was much the same; manager worthy workers preferred to stay on 0 hours because they actually got paid the time that they worked despite unguaranteed work hours, whereas the permanent management team would have dozens of days in lieu owed to them by the end of the year, often in an irredeemable capacity.

A very noticeable element of enjoyable theme parks from a guest perspective is, when a park treats their employees well; they are far more efficient, professional, and more likely to enjoy the job, in turn enhancing the visitor experience.

The limited park openings could well be a staffing issue - with no second wave of staff coming in for break swaps, many workers will not be comfortable, or able to work more than an 8 hour shift daily. Once you take into account opening and closing checks and responsibilities, there is your 9-5 day.

A term I often hear thrown around these days is visits to merlin parks feel 'transactional'. You give them X amount of my time and money, and they give you their product. More and more frequently though, I hear of people having a less enjoyable time - The recipients of a bad product, with no refund. These days to me, visits to merlin parks feel like a scam. Last year I was lucky enough to visit Alton Towers for free, but it was unquestionably one of the worst visits I've ever had to a theme park, and it felt like a colossal, miserable waste of time. All the reputation places like Alton Towers and Legoland have as being these magical, vibrant places culminates in a depressing experience. This feeling is of course enhanced by the knowledge that many of us have as people interested in parks, of how things are ran elsewhere, how things are designed to be ran, how things used to be ran, and the nostalgic lens of fantasy cripples your experience in the moment.

Proper staffing, staff training, equipment, and staff treatment would be a seriously good way to jump start the heart and soul of the merlin parks when they feel so money-syphoning. It's expensive, and the UK struggles to have good incentives for lower income jobs such as being a ride host or operator compared to many other countries around the world... But when guests are happier, they're more likely to spend more money, and people actually being able to do their jobs properly, comfortably, and well, could realistically achieve that fairly quickly.

 

[Will]

A severe lack of good staff is currently plaguing them but that's on ATR, not sure why they keep cutting opening hours that should be banned

I think the two go hand in hand. Granted, 6pm and rides opening on time still shouldn't be an issue, but they don't have the staffing levels to open any later than that.

I don't know if things have improved this year, but the staff I spoke to said last year had been dire, which has lost them at least two damn good Smiler hosts, along with a couple of operators.

Across the pond, particularly at the Cedar Fair parks, it couldn't be more obvious how much better their job satisfaction is.

 

[Nicky Borrill]

I think the two go hand in hand. Granted, 6pm and rides opening on time still shouldn't be an issue, but they don't have the staffing levels to open any later than that.

I don't know if things have improved this year, but the staff I spoke to said last year had been dire, which has lost them at least two damn good Smiler hosts, along with a couple of operators.

Across the pond, particularly at the Cedar Fair parks, it couldn't be more obvious how much better their job satisfaction is.

Unlikely to have improved, the more I think about it, the more I think I know the reason....

Alton Towers rely heavily on young staff to keep the wage bill down. It's no secret, that's how these places can charge so little for passes / tickets and still make a profit.

There's one thing that I'd forgotten has happened this year, which has affected most businesses, but will have affected Alton Towers more than most... Whilst Adults have only seen a 10% increase to minimum wage, youngsters have had between 15 and 21% increases!!! Not great when most of their staff fall into this category.

Their wage bill rising by 15%-20% over night is a hell of an increase. And we haven't really seen any planning for this... Tickets and passes haven't risen significantly (not to the tune of 20% plus VAT anyway!!!) Nor has anything else. Price increases we've seen over the last few years will be to cover other spiralling costs, like energy and insurance. So the only other solutions are to reduce costs or increase footfall.




There is of course another potential solution, a third way, an elephant in the room. We keep saying it, but it falls on deaf ears. The other potential solution is to increase park spend per visitor. Extending your hours well beyond dinner time is a sure fire way of doing this. People will need more drinks and a second meal on park. Increased hours would also lead, potentially, to higher footfall. A lot of people are saying they won't visit whilst the hours are so short.

Oh well, it is what it is, we can speculate, and they will have their reasons, but at the end of the day, we'll never really know for sure. They're Merlin, they do what they do...

 

[Jamesss]

Another thing that baffles me is that the water park is only open during the day.

We're staying at the AT hotel next week, and if the water park were open in the evening we 100% would have spent money on tickets. But with the current opening hours, it will eat into too much valuable park time.