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Sunny Day guarantee at Darien Lake

ECG

East Coast(er) General
Staff member
Administrator
Darien Lake is offering free return tickets for inclimate weather. :shock:
I know many parks offer return tickets for early closing due to inclimate weather, but this is just for 90 minutes of continuous rain. Don't think any UK parks would ever offer this type of guarantee. :p

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From the park's Facebook page.
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
As far as park policy goes, this is a very progressive stance by any park.

From a logistical stand point, it is very difficult for a larger park to rationalize using a return-ticket policy due to weather or early closing. There will be one-off, unique cases; but in general it is very difficult to essentially refund an entire park population. Yet this kind of policy really helps drive at customer satisfaction - there is nothing worse than a rainy day at an amusement park.

I hope Darien Lake is able to pull this one off.
 

trav

Mega Poster
ECG said:
Don't think any UK parks would ever offer this type of guarantee. :p


I know that Thorpe Park offers something similar for more than 60 minutes of rain. I'm sure that other Merlin parks at least have something similar. The Thorpe Park one is not for any day of the year though, only for a specific week, which can mean that you see those days, especially if it's a weekend, being far busier and actually annoying people and staff and just generally leading to a bad time for all involved.
 

ECG

East Coast(er) General
Staff member
Administrator
^It pissed rain for over two hours straight and about four hours in total when I visited Thorpe Park a couple of years ago when Swarm opened and they wouldn't give us anything (return tickets, partial refund or even discounted return tickets), so their policy must have changed.
 

marc

CF Legend
It was advertised last year as we had even worse weather than normal.

Cannot post the page as it wants me to download the app, but here's a picture lol.

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trav

Mega Poster
Yeah I'm guessing it changed over the 2012/2013 closed season, I remember a few rainy days working there during Fright Nights 2012 and don't remember any return tickets, but remember at the start of the 2013 season that we were giving out the tickets when it was snowing pretty bad.

Chessington also offer this, although Legoland do not. Interestingly, Towers make no mention of the weather even having an effect on any of their rides on the easy parts of their website, the only place where anything is said is in the Terms and Conditions:

'4. ATR will endeavour to ensure that as many rides and attractions as possible are available for use by visitors. We may, however, without refund or compensation, change the operating hours of the Resort in its entirety or any part of it; close the Resort in its entirety or any part of it; temporarily restrict the number of persons having access to the Resort or any part of it; and/or suspend or cancel any attraction or entertainment programme, due to capacity, inclement weather, power failure, special events or any other circumstances or grounds which are judged to be necessary to ensure the safety of guests and staff'

Of course, that's only to cover their own backs. Even more interestingly, it specifically later states:

'Alton Towers reserves the right to transfer tickets to another date at any time or offer an alternative ride in case of ride breakdown.'

So that makes it sound even more like it's to cover their own backs - if they have the right to, why not just offer it to everybody? I mean, they might be offering it to everybody, I don't know, but I'm sure if they were they'd have it plastered on their site like Thorpe and Chessington.

Looking at a few more UK parks brings about similar results. Flamingo Land only has a line in their T&Cs about weather affecting rides, and does not even give a slight mention to transferring tickets to another day. Oakwood is similar to Flamingo Land, but it at least warns that rides may close due to weather in their FAQs. Drayton Manor doesn't say anything at all on the subject, and doesn't even have any T&Cs or FAQs on their website.

One last interesting thing that I noticed when looking through T&Cs is parks positions on plaster casts. Going off topic, sure, but I doubt it warrants it's own topic.
Flamingo Land states in their FAQs that guests with casts would be unable to ride the majority of their rides.
Drayton don't say anything about it because their website is evidently crap.
Thorpe Park, in their Ride Access guide, first say that guests with casts are unable to ride anything at all, then literally 2 bullet points later say that guests with casts are only advised not to ride.
Alton Towers says that those wearing casts may ride some, but doesn't give any indication as to what the rides are, and while I'm sure most people would be able to put two and two together, it does provide a small loophole.
Chessington offers a detailed list of what rides a person with a cast can ride, dependent on where the cast is on your body. Weirdly, a guest with an arm cast can go on Tomb Blaster, but a guest with a leg cast cannot. I guess it's for evacuation purposes, but it still strikes me as a little odd.
Legoland also gives you a list on what you can and cannot ride specifically, although doesn't indicate a difference between upper body and lower body casts.
Oakwood, however, doesn't give a **** and says as long as you can brace yourself, go for it cast boy.

Anyway, off topic bit over and in an attempt to link it all together, it seems as though all the main UK parks, even the ones owned by the same company, have many disparities within their T&Cs and how they operate, whether it's to do with the weather or even something like casts.
 

ATTACKHAMMER

Strata Poster
trav said:
One last interesting thing that I noticed when looking through T&Cs is parks positions on plaster casts. Going off topic, sure, but I doubt it warrants it's own topic.
Flamingo Land states in their FAQs that guests with casts would be unable to ride the majority of their rides.
Drayton don't say anything about it because their website is evidently crap.
Thorpe Park, in their Ride Access guide, first say that guests with casts are unable to ride anything at all, then literally 2 bullet points later say that guests with casts are only advised not to ride.
Alton Towers says that those wearing casts may ride some, but doesn't give any indication as to what the rides are, and while I'm sure most people would be able to put two and two together, it does provide a small loophole.
Chessington offers a detailed list of what rides a person with a cast can ride, dependent on where the cast is on your body. Weirdly, a guest with an arm cast can go on Tomb Blaster, but a guest with a leg cast cannot. I guess it's for evacuation purposes, but it still strikes me as a little odd.
Legoland also gives you a list on what you can and cannot ride specifically, although doesn't indicate a difference between upper body and lower body casts.
Oakwood, however, doesn't give a **** and says as long as you can brace yourself, go for it cast boy.

Anyway, off topic bit over and in an attempt to link it all together, it seems as though all the main UK parks, even the ones owned by the same company, have many disparities within their T&Cs and how they operate, whether it's to do with the weather or even something like casts.

Interesting stuff! I had both legs in plaster a couple of years ago. Thorpe let me ride everything and gave me a disabled pass. Alton gave me a fast pass that covered everything bar Air. Legoland however were reluctant to let me ride anything. I did get to in the end. I guess T&C's change a lot then?
 

DelPiero

Strata Poster
ATTACKHAMMER said:
I guess T&C's change a lot then?
Generally company T&Cs change on a cycle time, around every 4-6 years. It's totally dependant on the company size though. A smaller company will change theirs on a more regular basis, as approvals to change these are quicker.

If a new law comes into place then they are changed pretty quickly afterwards, so it's also dependant on the company's business area.
 

Lofty

CF Legend
Camelot used to do this to some extent... If it continuously rained for more than an hour, they gave you free tickets to return before the end of the season.
 

Jordanovichy

Credit Whore 2016
I didn't know Thorpe offered it based on rain. They certainly give you another ticket if it's too cold to run the rides which wasn't a problem this year but certainly was at the beginning of lasts season when the temperature struggled to get above freezing.
 
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