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WTF Merlin?

Eh, other parks do likewise and the only people it's going to affect is going to be people like us who sprint to the back of the park whilst it's quiet. So yeah, it'll put me off going, but for most people they probably won't notice.

It's ****, but from a business point of view I can understand it.
 
TowersStreet on Facebook have reported on some more cuts.
Further to this afternoon's news, we can now report that the Tree Top Quest high ropes course, which opened in 2015, will be closed all year. There will also be alterations to the food and beverage offering across the resort and we understand that the Burger Kitchen in Forbidden Valley could be closed entirely during 2018.
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I know everyone is moaning about Nemesis, but it means Galactica as well for 12pm.....it's not like the queue goes quickly on that thing! Two big b&ms!

(I heard that theme park worldwide suggested that it's viewers go to non-merlin parks this year. Considering their ties that is amusing and shows how bad it is haha.)
 
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TPW are now telling people to visit family owned parks in 2018 instead of Merlin parks... and Shawn works for Merlin!

Also, Tree Top Quest has apparently been mothballed for the season, as has the Forbidden Valley Burger Kitchen.
 
Maybe if they didn't devalue their product so much, they might have had enough money to actually run a park properly.
 
This news actually makes me glad I bought the season pass, as I'm not sure I could get my money's worth out of a single day ticket! At least now I can visit 3 or 4 times over the season and get some value.

The most baffling decision I've read is that they're no longer giving ERT to people buying advance tickets. So they're taking away the only value for buying a ticket up front for £33 or whatever and everyone will just use BOGOFs instead, which ultimately mean every person entering is paying less to do so. Great business sense! :confused:

To be honest, I doubt these changes will make much difference on quieter days, but if they're sticking to those opening times in the Summer it's going to be awful.
 
Matt N said:
TPW are now telling people to visit family owned parks in 2018 instead of Merlin parks... and Shawn works for Merlin!
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Not for long he doesn't.

This isn't Miracle on 34th Street he's not gonna be made Santa for telling people to go elsewhere.
 
Smithy said:
Not for long he doesn't.

This isn't Miracle on 34th Street he's not gonna be made Santa for telling people to go elsewhere.
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Yeah I would be shocked if Merlin's social media policy didn't have something about employees slagging them off on social. As much as I completely agree with the sentiment, if you're working for a company you shouldn't be slagging them off on social, especially if they've been as generous to him as they have. I'd guess a severe disciplinary is in order, probably not a firable offence as I doubt they'd want to see the full extent of his opinions of them get spread across his channel.
 
They were doing this at Gardaland last year, and it was annoying. I was there in August so it was heaving, and Kung Fu Panda, Sequoia Adventure and Shaman (ie Magic Mountain) didn't open till 12. Shaman was the "new" attraction and had an awful throughput (1 train only, with VR) so a lot of people will have missed out on it completely.
I'm really surprised they chose Forbidden Valley because that will really affect the hotel guests who enter the park there. I wonder how much cash it actually saves!
 
Peet said:
I wonder how much cash it actually saves!
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Aside from the obvious saved wear and tear/maintenance costs, it seems like the operating hours are short enough that they only need one shift of ride ops, whose workdays will be so short that they're not legally mandated to have a lunch break. This means they can run the rides with an absolute minimum of crew all day, which again translates into having to hire fewer people.

Quite sad to see so much cost cutting going on, though. I know it's been speculated that Merlin has overextended and bought more properties than they could sustain, but one would think Alton Towers would be one of their big income generators. Or is the park actually losing money overall? I wonder what the numbers look like, to justify drastic cost cuts like these.
 
I'm enjoying the annual Alton OUTRAGE even more than usual this year.

"You've lost a customer!" - sent while booking an Alton Hotel room.

"We won't be renewing this year!" - turns off the heating and buys platinum passes for the whole family.

"Time to try other parks!" - while putting Alton into the sat nav.

"I was going to hold a school reunion for 2,000 people, but now I'm reconsidering!" - didn't actually finish school.

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk
 
^Not forgetting the classic "I'll come once to try the new coaster, but that's it!"
Which, let's face it, applies to most of us lot.
Seems both Blackpool and Alton Towers are using their new coaster announcements as 'a good time to bury bad news'. :(
 
Peet said:
I'm really surprised they chose Forbidden Valley because that will really affect the hotel guests who enter the park there. I wonder how much cash it actually saves!
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Yea I love taking the woodland walk in the morning getting some early rides in on Nemesis. This makes the woodland walk redundant.
 
^Hate to break it to you, but the woodland walk has gone too. Yep, no more shortcut to Forbidden Valley. Been gone a couple of seasons now. :(
 
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