The sky has fallen on his head.
Crowded parking lots, traffic jams on the motorway, and above all a good number of visitors who have never been able to cross the entrance gates of Parc Asterix.
For this first weekend of the holidays, the maximum level of 15,000 people, imposed by health measures for leisure equipment in the Oise, was considered reached only a few minutes after opening time, at 10 hours.
An unanticipated crowd of which Alice, a 22-year-old Parisian student, and her 12-year-old sister, who came specially from Montpellier, paid the price, among many others.
“We're disgusted.
We were at 10:10 am at Charles-de-Gaulle station to wait for the shuttle.
There were at least 80 people.
We were told that the shuttles were canceled because the park was full.
We had undated tickets.
But for others, they were dated.
"
🔴 Parc Astérix is full this Saturday, October 24.
We invite you to postpone your visit.
For everyone's safety, we remind you that wearing a mask is compulsory and that barrier gestures must be observed.
- ParcAsterix 🎃 (@ParcAsterix) October 24, 2020
The misadventure does not end there for the two sisters.
While some of the visitors have already given up, a bus eventually arrives.
“We were told:
You can still try.
We arrived an hour and a half later.
To be told that no one could enter.
Everyone yelled in the shuttle.
"A disappointment relayed by social networks:" Too disappointed this morning to arrive in front of the park and see full, 2 hours of drive gone for nothing "," I have dated places for today I do how to be reimbursed !!
», Commented this Saturday some visitors annoyed on the Facebook account of the park.
The insoluble problem of undated tickets
The management of Parc Astérix affirms "to understand the disappointment of the visitors", but pleads the surprise.
“We did not expect such attendance.
This is exceptional.
During the summer, we only reached the gauge twice.
And since the start of the Toussaint school holidays, we have been around 9,000 to 10,000 visitors a day, ”explains Guy Vassel, Deputy Director General.
"As soon as we saw the situation, we posted messages everywhere, on our site, on social networks, on the highway to inform people that we were full," he says.
Yes, but here it was, it was already 10:30 am, and therefore too late for a certain number of visitors ...
#PeurSurLeParc is launched!
👻 RT if you are planning to come 🔁 pic.twitter.com/WsxL9xKBD6
- ParcAsterix 🎃 (@ParcAsterix) October 3, 2020
Couldn't do better in terms of forecasting?
By only selling dated tickets, for example, a solution favored by many parks?
“We communicate as much as possible to encourage visitors to do so.
But almost two-thirds prefer free tickets… It is therefore very complex to manage.
We imposed the dated tickets for a while during the summer holidays.
But we never reached the gauge, ”notes Guy Vassel.
Obviously taken by surprise on Saturday, the park will try to be more forward-looking for the coming week.
An alert to the "high attendance" and the postponement of the visit to another day of the week has already been launched for tomorrow Sunday.
For Halloween 31st, only dated tickets should be accepted.