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WTF Merlin?

CSLKennyNI

Giga Poster
Since towels are not included in the sheds they are offering 4 towels you can rent for an extra £10...
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JoshC.

Strata Poster
Surely they cannot be charging £10 for you to have towels for the night? I'd have understood a refundable deposit (if they want to go down the route of not providing towels in the first place, which they should be for the price, but that's another story...).

This whole investment started off as a reasonable idea at the wrong time. Now words fail me.
 

SilverArrow

Certified Ride Geek
Sorry, as always, I could have explained myself better. I used to be responsible for creating 24 hour cover staff rotas in a former life, and in the early stages of local government cutbacks, we had to occasionally double up staff, without increasing payroll...specifically overtime.
We managed it by splitting the usual full time staff into two groups, those who preferred earlies, and the lates group.
The same staff hours in total, just juggled.
The earlies came on..understaffed but tough...cuts.
At break time, the part timer came in to cover, and double up, to cover lunch, then the part timer would go off duty as the later full timers come on.
There was then a couple of golden hours when we were fully staffed with full time permanant staff.
As the early full timers reach eight hours work...and overtime rates about to start, they went and, if needed, another part timer came in to assist.
Longer hours covered, with less overall costs because of a reduction in unplanned overtime.
I know it isn't the same in theme parks, as they are more reliant on casual and zero hour contracts, but you don't need an extra set of full time staff to open for an extra two or three hours.
Well you would if you were not working understaffed for most of the day by splitting your full timers into two halves, if that makes sense and if you had a set amount of rides to run you couldn't run understaffed past a certain point (unlike say in retail or hospitality where you could just have less people on the shop floor). Part timers at theme parks usually work a full day shift even if they're zero hours and get paid the same as full timers anyway (who are often also on zero hours too) so you're not saving anything from using them.

Either way more hours = more wages and organisation and just not something merlin or UK parks seem keen on.

That towel thing is actually ridiculous!
 
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zazobo

Hyper Poster
Does anyone know how much those pods/pig stys are costing per night? I'd be interested to know...
 

Fluorineer

Mega Poster
Just for contrast, in Biddinghuizen (Walibi Holland) I can rent a shed with an actual kitchen, living- and bedroom for 70 bucks per night at the absolute most (I'd have to be intentionally looking for almost booked out days), usually well below 50, and I can have a direct view onto the Veluwemeer if I want to.
 

zazobo

Hyper Poster
Read the post at the top of the page.

Oh and yeah I agree with all points above. It's ludicrous but I expect nothing more from Merlin nowadays.

Ahh thanks, didn’t see that post! Expensive accommodation for a (towel-less) ****ing shed!!!
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
Just for contrast, in Biddinghuizen (Walibi Holland) I can rent a shed with an actual kitchen, living- and bedroom for 70 bucks per night at the absolute most (I'd have to be intentionally looking for almost booked out days), usually well below 50, and I can have a direct view onto the Veluwemeer if I want to.
Yeah, but do you get a towel?
 

Fluorineer

Mega Poster
I can't quite express why, but this video makes me actually angry. Not the typical "armchair writing in capslock angry", but physically angry. Can't they rent out some ****hole like Parques Reunidos do all the time, and leave Alton Towers alone?

Like, treat the place with a little respect.
 

Peet

Giga Poster
An interesting watch for anybody who still believes that vloggers give genuine balanced views, rather than giving mindlessly positive reviews of everything in order to make sure they get invited back (which is clearly what's going on there).
 
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