[Closed] Alton Towers

We are going in a couple of weeks. Were last there about four years ago, just after the accident and the place was very quiet so there were no queues. I'm hoping that although it probably won't be that quiet it'll still be reasonable as we're going on a Thursday before the English schools are on holiday. If you're just going for one day I doubt you'll have time for the waterpark. When you're there you will be bombarded by opportunities to spend money on every corner. Every ride seems to have a gift shop, there are food and drink kiosks everywhere and photo booth things where you can buy pics of yourself looking ridiculous. We had a meal on site at the end of the day, it was ok, average quality and probably overpriced but we had taken our lunch with us.

did you use fast track?

was thinking of staying at the splash landings the night before, its only an extra £20 and you get early bird entry... if we checked in at 3pm we could have a couple of hours in the waterpark... but £40 is harsh.... maybe we just just check in at 6pm then its not my fault they cant go in the water 🙂

It waould be a shame to miss out on the stench of urine in the changing rooms of the water park - its a real draw! Then the queues for the rides in the water park, then the surly staff shutting rides early 'because they want to'. Other than that I'm a fan!

Might improve, Merlin who own Alton Towers have just been bought by Lego. Might improve the Lego parks as well which were also owned by Merlin (not Lego as we were curtly told in the Trafford center Lego discovery place when trying to use Lego vouchers that they were not a Lego shop, despite being surrounded by Lego!).

haha cb. tbh i think id written off the hotel idea even before reading that. looks ****.

just gonna day trip, without fasttrack.

We didn't have fast track passes, it was so quiet we got on some rides 2 or three times. My daughter was too short for a lot of the rides, which is one of the reasons we are going back. I think if you are going midweek before the schools break up and can get in early then you'll have plenty of time. Go to the most popular rides early.

Been a regular visitor over the years due to living close by so know the place inside out.
I'm afraid without fast track at this time of year you will queue and queue all day. We're in prime school trip time over the next three weeks which pushes the numbers up big time. If you can wait I'd suggest the first week or two after the school hols, the weather is still usually nice mid September as well.
Stayed at the hotel a few times combined with a waterpark trip, you used to get early entry and they also used to leave it open late when the normal punters had gone home who weren't staying over but that has stopped now too, I've literally been in tbere with perhaps 20 others just sessioning the master blaster. It's not the greatest waterpark and to be honest kids over 10/11 would get bored quickly.
Couple of short cuts road wise but at the end of the day both directions are narrow village roads as you get close by.

Went about 2 years ago in August and was fearing the big crowds and queues, the longest we queued was about 45 mins for the smiler. A lot of the time it was around 20 or 30 minutes and nearer the end of the day walking straight on. We used the App to monitor the queue times and went to the ones with the lowest times.

Looking at going again this year for a couple of days as we all loved it.

Went there a couple of weeks ago. It rained, lots. But that didn't stop the fun. Some things I'd do differently next time:

Go for doors opening. It shuts promptly at 5 and that soon comes around. Download the app now & become familiar with it. It shows queue times, but isn't as intuitive as you'd expect. Make a list from the app of things you want to go on. Prioritise those. You can walk from teh entrance to teh furthest point in less than 10 mins. That'll get you to Rita and the other fast rides, then work backwards from there. I'd wear waterproof shorts as many of the ride's seats don't drain properly if it's been wet. Take a packed lunch as food inside is abysmal. We went to the Pizza & Pasta place next to the Runaway Train. They repeatedly ran out of pasta, which when it turned up was sloppy goo. Toilets in the restaurant were disgusting (2 for 200 covers?) and it certainly wasn't cheap. Toilets in Cbeebies land are great though. Monorail to get in /out is slow & queue for it was 45 mins: treble the walking time!

We went last year and the year before on one of the overnight splash landing deals. To be honest the hotel is getting tired, the food is getting worse, dinner the first year was an all you can eat buffet, which has now changed to a pizza buffet, but it's limited. We ended up taking a drive to the nearest village and getting a take away. We also avoided the water park as its not up to much really, we prefer more time in the park.
There will be queues at this time of year, 2 years ago you could go "single rider" on most of the large rides which we took advantage of with young kids, it meant one of us could ride some bigger rides whilst the other watched over the kids, took it in turns etc. They have now stopped that on all rides so it limited our options and meant long queues on most rides.
We won't be going again for a while, it feels tired overall and to get the most out of it you need to fast track, but its expensive.

If you don't want to spend money on FastTrack you need to be at the front of the Mono Rail queue well before the park opens. At least that way you can get to the big rides first.

Don't queue for the likes of Nemesis, Oblivion, Thirteen, Smiler at the start of the day. If you wait till later in the afternoon you can generally hop on and off with very short queues.

And if you have certain rides in mind have a plan! Don't amble around getting sidetracked walking from one end of the park to the other.

As for water parks - my daughter and friends always preferred WaterWorld in Stoke...
https://www.waterworld.co.uk/

Was there early May and stayed in new stargazing pod - small and basic but did a job and breakfast was better than expected. If you stay there advice is to get up early, breakfast queue ramps up after 8.30am. Early park access got us on 6 big coasters before queues picked up on second day, again get to monorail earlier than you would think. We fast tracked (gold) first day which was great, got 14/15 big rides that day, don't really see the point in all the expense and time (travelling from Scotland) to spend the day standing in queues!
All in I kind of enjoyed it, not really a fan in general, but my daughter and niece loved it and had a great couple of days.
Also try your hardest to focus on a plan and a route as you can lose a lot of time getting between areas if you get it wrong - Skyride can help but don't get it in wrong direction!!

I've been a few times as we're relatively close to it.

1) Defo use the App but it is slightly pants especially if you have used the one for Disney World.

2) Getting for opening and started at the back is good advice for any theme park to be honest.

3) Apparently Wickerman is shut at the moment which may well push crowds already committed to going (school trips) onto other rides but stop some people from going.

4) Take sandwiches, snacks and drinks

Went at Easter and with the dust bin lids, 11 and 8, and we had a brilliant time.

I was pleasantly surprised that some of the park is just that .... quite a nice a country park with rides dotted about (its not a bad place to be... much nicer than disney Paris)... and the rides are brilliant !!

Hotel is tired and the food poor.... but for 20 quid more and being easy to get to, after a long day walking and standing about, it does the job .... Re breakfast ... get down there 10mins before the opening time... Not knowing that, we got lucky and just happened to go early, but as we left the que was very long.

But the overall experience was really good ... we'll go back in a few years when the 8 year old can get on all the rides.... That's a good point actually.... how old/big are yours ? ... It's a bit limited for smaller kids

Good luck

Have fun

Just a heads up, the newest and arguably best roller coaster in the park, Wicker Man, is currently closed and awaiting parts from the ride manufacturer. This is the first wooden roller coaster to open in the UK for over 20 years and certainly seems to be the most popular ride whenever I’ve visited.

Wicker Man being closed has had a knock on effect on the queues for all the other rides and I’ve seen reports of queues in excess of an hour for all the major rides this week with school trips being in full-force.

I’d recommend waiting until Wicker Man re-opens to visit as it really is a great ride and much faster or smoother than any of the old wooden coasters in the UK. I’ve ridden modern wooden coasters all over Europe and in the states and it definitively compares well and is a really immersive experience with a pre-show before the ride.

Thanks for replies.

we went yesterday (without fast-track) had a great day out. longest we queued was about 40 minutes for Wicker Man which has re-opened.

kids were a smidge too short for the big thrillers (1.4m) which took the stress out of queuing for those rides, although queue times were only about 30mins each according to the app (which is brilliant btw) we rode all the 1.2m min rides though; Thirteen, Wicker man, pinball, as well as a few goes each on the rapids and the runaway mine train which the youngest loved! Sealife centre is decent too.

in and out the carpark smoothly, short walk to gates, entry was quick and easy and we took alll our own food & drinks so the kids were allowed to spend a few quid in the gift shop.

less impressed with the opening hours tho, 4pm arrived far too soon! there were whole areas we never even made it to.

less impressed with the opening hours tho, 4pm arrived far too soon! there were whole areas we never even made it to.

Later in July it stays open until 6pm but you still need 2 days to make sure you get to all the rides.

We went a week last Friday. I walked straight onto Smiler using the single rider queue, the sign said 40 mins for all others. That ride is incredible btw.... I queued for 45 mins for Thirteen and 20 mins for Nemesis.

The kids stuff looked like you could walk straight on with minimum wait, although Congo rapids was very busy for some reason.

Overall I thought it was quiet, I've certainly seen it much busier in the past. The Monorail from/to the car park is frustrating, we walked back at 5.30pm as the queue was huge. On that topic, I think I spent as long buying a car parking ticket at the exit as I did waiting to get on Nemesis....

ah yes, i bought my car park ticket as soon as i got in there - made my day when i saw the queues on the way out!! 😀

I spent as long buying a car parking ticket at the exit as I did waiting to get on Nemesis….

Once went with a mate in his Fisher Fury: just drove under the barriers on the way out.