Alton Towers Resort - General Discussion

Mon Jul 02, 2018 8:28 am

The reply on the Facebook post that I linked on the previous page of this topic is still present, as shown by this screenshot taken 2 minutes ago:

Maybe they just haven’t got round to changing the opening times on their system which then filters it down to RideTimes and the app.

I guess we’ll find out in an hour and a half.

Mon Jul 02, 2018 8:51 am

On ridetimes, it is now displaying all the rides will open from 10am (except those a part of ERT) apart from the rapids, duel and the mine train.

Mon Jul 02, 2018 8:55 am

DeadJack5 wrote:
On ridetimes, it is now displaying all the rides will open from 10am (except those a part of ERT) apart from the rapids, duel and the mine train.

See

We shouldn’t be so quick to bash Towers all the time. They’ve recognised that what they were doing wasn’t working so they’ve altered it, which in my eyes is a positive step.

Mon Jul 02, 2018 9:02 am

Hooray! Shall return the pitchforks to the shed for the next potential angry mob

Even Th13teen, Rita and Hex are stated for 10am opening. They were on 11am this time last year if I remember correctly.

Mon Jul 02, 2018 2:39 pm

Well, I'm relieved. Still not particularly impressed though. It adds an hour onto people's day, and that's only in the semi-likely event that they actually manage to have all the rides open on time. Put simply, it's not really enough, even if it is a step in the right direction.

Next step is for them to get the park open longer at the end of the day. 5pm during the summer, when the weather is nice and the park is busy, is not acceptable. 6pm is okay but they should be able to do better than that really. 7pm. Given that the summer holidays are marked as 6pm, I'm expecting lots of extensions to 7pm.

Tue Jul 03, 2018 4:23 pm

I was on park yesterday.

Wicker Man didn't open until 9.50 which means ERT was wasted and the rest of the rides opened at 10. Rita was down in the morning. Having all the rides open at 10 made a big difference to the day, it’s just a shame that they don't fill the Rapids boats up, instead sending many around with just one or two people, some were completely empty. The queue-line stretched almost to the Rapids entrance, no way I was queuing for that. I've never seen the Rapid queue as long as that before.
Don't ask the staff why they are not filling the boats, they will not give you a straight answer and they get very funny about you asking as if you are the 100th person asking that day. Apparently they don't pump as much water into the Rapids due to the DMP incident, so the water levels are now lower than before the incident.

Tue Jul 03, 2018 4:37 pm

ROYJESS wrote:
I was on park yesterday. Wickeman didn't open until 9.50 which means ERT was wasted and the rest of the rides opened at 10. Rita was down in the morning. Having all the ride open at 10 made a big difference to the day, just a shame that they don't fill the rapids boats up, sending many around with just one or two people, some were completely empty. The queue-line stretched almost to the rapids entrance. No way I was queuing for that. I've never seen the rapid queue as long a that before. Don't ask the staff why they are not filling the boats, they will not give you a straight answer and they get very funny about you asking as if you are the 100th person asking that day. Apparently they don't pump as much water into the rapids due to the DMP incident. So the water levels are now lower than before the incident.

I've seen a lot of complaints about the rapids the last few days. Common complaints have been the stated queue time being way too short compared to the actual queue time, along with issues about the boats being sent out empty or mostly empty fairly frequently.

It definitely seems weird, as they would normally be packing those boats in if the queue had got that long. Thorpe were being very vocal a couple of weeks ago with a 25 minute queue on Rumba, that regardless of your group size, if they could fit you in with others, or others in with you, then they would. Having Alton staff seemingly act indifferent to even answering why they weren't doing this, gives me the impression they've been told not to fill those boats up. Did you see any boats go around with a full load?

Glad that full park opening at 10am made everything else run better though!

Tue Jul 03, 2018 4:50 pm

Swarm Chris wrote:
Having Alton staff seemingly act indifferent to even answering why they weren't doing this, gives me the impression they've been told not to fill those boats up.

I've been thinking this might be the case too. I have a feeling Alton are trying to prove a point to Merlin or something... it's as if they are trying to make the Rapids seem even more popular than they are, maybe because they either fear that Merlin will want them removed in the near future, or because they want Merlin to invest in another water ride for the park... I don't know, just a theory... then again, it could just be some ill thought out safety measure because of the Drayton accident...

Tue Jul 03, 2018 4:59 pm

Maybe it’s a ploy to try and sell more On-Ride Photos?

I know I’d be much more likely to buy a Rapids photo if it was just me and my other half in the boat, than if we were sharing one with another group.

Tue Jul 03, 2018 5:08 pm

Dan wrote:
Maybe it’s a ploy to try and sell more On-Ride Photos?

I know I’d be much more likely to buy a Rapids photo if it was just me and my other half in the boat, than if we were sharing one with another group.

I think the same could be said with all the rides. I've plenty of pics of me on the rides with a complete stranger sitting next to me.

One of the staff did tell me that they were told by someone higher up not to fill the boats, but didn't specify why?

Swarm Chris wrote:
ROYJESS wrote:
I Did you see any boats go around with a full load?

Only if there were 8 in a group. Mostly boats of smaller groups

Tue Jul 03, 2018 5:13 pm

Also brings up the question – do the majority of guests actually want to wait longer to have a boat of their own rather than experience the ride with another group of people? I know my family would prefer to have a boat to ourselves, I don't know how long I'd be willing to queue for that though...

Also, the water levels – if they're slightly lower / less powerful whatever, does that mean the boats can't take as much weight? Might be some logic in that perhaps... I wouldn't be surprised if on-ride photos have something to do with it though.

Tue Jul 03, 2018 5:23 pm

So my line of thinking was that due to the lower water levels they couldn't fill the boats, but if large groups weren't being split up then it's not that. With higher ups reportedly saying to not fill them, then there does appear to be more here going on.

On-ride photo's is a possibility, although it's probably one of the worst photo opportunities in the park.

For operations reasons it's possible - although it they wanted to make the attraction appear more popular to Merlin then why would they keep the ride times so artificially low, as surely this feeds into any data analytics they have about the attraction?

Fast pass sales is another, but with the reported queue times so low, people would have to arrive at the rapids, see the queue and then walk back to the park entrance to buy a fast-track, which they're just not going to do.

I guess there's only one real response to all this...

Tue Jul 03, 2018 9:25 pm

You know, that’s an interesting point, I wonder where the parks stand with regards to on ride photos and the new GDPR (the replacement to the data protection act). If you are sharing a boat with another family, and they purchase the image that contains you - essentially the printed photo is ‘data’ of you, you have control over it, and it is being sold without your knowledge or consent.

Tue Jul 03, 2018 9:36 pm

I presume that by entering the park you agree to your image being used for whatever they want. I'll check

Edit:

From time to time Merlin or other authorised parties carry out photography and/or video recording in the Attraction, which may feature guests. Entry to the Attraction is deemed acceptance of these Entry Conditions, and you therefore agree that Merlin or any authorised party may use such images in perpetuity in any promotional, advertising or publicity material in any format whatsoever. You further agree that copyright in these materials rests with Merlin or such authorised party (as the case may be).

From the Alton Towers terms and conditions

Tue Jul 03, 2018 9:50 pm

Hmmm,..I would imagine if challenged, those T&Cs would not hold up - the new rules are super strict and I think they'd struggle justify hiding copyright consent in small print. Having said that, I'm sure that Merlin know what they're doing, the fine for contravening GDPR is as high as 4% a companies annual turnover...shareholders wouldn't want that...

Tue Jul 03, 2018 10:14 pm

The pic argument is irrelevant.

Like I said earlier, the same came be said with riding rollercoasters, as a single rider, I often end up purchasing pics with me and some stranger. Also if you are a party of more than 2 on any of the rollercoasters, you all will not be in the same pic as all the rollercoaster pics only take you in pairs. If you are an in an odd number of a group, then someone in your party will end up with their pic taken with a stranger. Even if you are a couple, if you have an odd number in a group of people boarding Oblivion ahead of you in the same batch, you will find that you and your friend/partner will not be in the right seats for the camera to take a pic of you as a couple, you will both end up with a pic with a complete stranger.

Tue Jul 03, 2018 10:34 pm

Agree on the GDPR being a non-issue for the Rapids, as it's the same on all the other rides. On-ride photos are a slight grey area of the regulations, but if there was an issue then they would be turned off everywhere and at all parks across Europe.

Also going back to the previous question about whether people would rather wait for their own boat. I somewhat doubt the park is taking this into consideration here. Even Disney fills it's boats up, so I don't believe Alton could reasonably say it was what families prefer. Plus a management decision for better guest experience, this year!

Wed Jul 04, 2018 5:48 pm

Yes I agree that whatever is going on with the rapids will not be GDPR related, it just got me thinking that’s all. On our calendar last month we had a photo from Thirteen with a totally random guy sat in the car next to me, makes me laugh every time someone asks who he is...

Thu Jul 05, 2018 2:43 pm

TowersStreet are reporting that the age restriction on the Congo River Rapids has returned today, presumably just in time for peak school trip season.

As per the restriction, no under-18's may ride the Rapids unless accompanied by an adult.

Thu Jul 05, 2018 2:44 pm

And I thought DBGT had 'The longest warning and restriction board' in Merlin history....

Alton Towers Resort - General Discussion

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