Any Alton Towers experts around?

[Jenniferturkington]

I’m taking my 3dc to Alton Towers in the Easter holidays. I’m intending on doing two days in the park, and two nights at a nearby hotel e.g. a premier inn type place.

What do I need to consider? Should I pay for fast tracks? Water park?

Kids are 11, 10, 6. Just me taking them. Long drive to get there.

Exactly what I do! My kids are a little older, early teens but I do it prob once a year for about the last 3 years. We have a 3 or 4 hour drive traffic dependant. Always stay at a premier inn. Nice comfortable room, easy food next door. We tend to do 2 days in the park. See what the queues are like on the day and then make a decision about whether you need fastracks. The park is huge although there is a monorail which takes you from the top to the bottom and a stop by the entrance. Be prepared to do a lot of walking. It will be likely to be busy but I love getting away and having the kids all to myself just for a couple of days. We treat it as a big adventure. I usually take a bag of snacks in with me each day and some drinks. There are lots of food places about but pretty much all fast food donuts waffles ice creams. Not cheap. There is a pizza pasta all you can eat buffet restaurant but never been in there. There is a rollercoaster restaurant which is gimmicky and fun for the kids but neither they nor I rated the food there at all.
There is a beautiful monkey forest nearby at Trentham which we have been to on the morning before we travel home again. Have a look on the internet. Lots of monkeys just roaming free, a lovely play area and cafe and beautiful outside area if the weather is good.
Have lots of fun!!

Fast tracks are expensive so only but if you can afford. They do a platinum fast track ticket which is something ridiculous like £95 per person which is unlimited fast tracks. There are lower priced ones though. I’ve never gone in school holidays so I don’t know how busy it is but I would imagine pretty busy.

You should pay for at least a day in water park-it’s fab and the kids love it having said that-check the ratios they are quite strict.

Budget well for food and expect to eat nothing but junk. Roller coaster restaurant the food is awful which is a shame because watching the food come down the tracks is pretty cool.

Make sure you are wearing comfy shoes, if for any reason the Sky Ride is out of action (or you don’t like heights) it’s a big site and a lot of steps can be acheieved.

Get the app - it shows live queue times so you can decide where to go. If you get there for opening hot foot it as quick as you can to the far side of the park, then work your way back - you'll avoid some queues that way.

We have got Merlin passes so go to Alton towers a lot (about every two or three weeks) if you are going for two days I wouldn’t bother fast tracking and I wouldn’t bother paying for splash landings either if you want the two full days in the park.
The problem you will have is your youngest child won’t be able to go on a lot of rides the eldest can go on and so the thrill rides may be hard for you to get on unless you are happy for them to go on themselves, most of the thrill rides are 1.4metres. If there is a particular ride your eldest ones want to go on it maybe worth getting single fast track for that ride (that costs between £5-10)
My dd is eight and I struggle a bit with her in there as there aren’t many rides that are fun for her as she is to old for CBeebies land but to little to go on the thrill rides! There are a few little rides in each part of the park that you can all go on together but not enough for two days.
Food is expensive but pizza pasta buffet is good value for money but drinks and things are really expensive so take your own and your own snacks!
And remember you have to go with the mindset you are going to spend most of the time queuing if you are going in school holidays! Sometimes by the time we have queued for the monorail and then to get in it’s taken an hour/an hour and a half and we have Merlin passes so don’t have to queue really to get in!
Saying all of this I do love Alton towers but I never go with the expectation that we are going to get on many rides!

From AT website:

"Alton Towers Waterpark operates a strict adult to child Ratio of one adult (16+) to one child (4 and under) or 2 children (5-9) to comply with health and safety standards. Please note: All members of the party must be swimming.

Children aged 10+ years can swim unaccompanied."

Check Staffordshire and Cheshire holidays compared to yours. Every local authority have very different Easter/ Spring breaks this year - lots with the two weeks being completely different weeks. Book for days that your kids are off but Staffordshire are in school if you can - it'll be much quieter.

Thanks for all the points raised so far, very helpful.
My two eldest like the thrill rides and (I think) are both over 1.4m. My six year old is a bit of a scaredy cat so will probs still enjoy the very small rides. I’m happy to let the older two go on the rides while I wait with child 3. I which case I guess it makes sense to buy the two eldest the fast track so we aren’t separated for long each time. Bloody expensive though!
Madasamarchhare- which premier inn do you usually use? I agree that the proximity of the beefeater next door makes it an easy option.
The monkey park looks good. I was planning to drive back at the end of the second day, but on reflection it might be better to drive back the next day. In which case we could defo consider the monkey park.

Great point about checking term dates. Stupidly I’d assumed everyone would be off by then. However Staffs are still at school, yay!

Fast passes are fab if you can afford it. I did it once when we went on a Saturday and it made the day. Book online and get money off.

Check Kellogg’s boxes, they almost always do 2for1 for Alton Towers.
Rather than PI, would have a look at the website of a local B and B called Chained O*k (not sure if I’m allowed to say the name, but the missing letter makes a tree 😁). About a mile away, you can walk to the park across a country footpath if you want to. Fantastic place, good family rooms, tree house, rope swings etc. brilliant breakfasts and a lovely conservatory overlooking countryside where you can have takeaways delivered in the evening: the proprietor provides crockery, cutlery and gets rid of your rubbish.
I’m not related, don’t work for them! we’ve stayed a couple of times and thoroughly recommend.

We went a few times when we had Merlin passes. I would recommend Splash Landings for an afternoon, as it's fab, and probably better for your 6 year old than a lot of the main park.

I would plan what rides you want to go on before you get there and get passes accordingly. There are several different options for passes. Some older rides you can get on relatively quickly anyway - Nemesis never seems to have long queues these days, (I don't think I waited more than 15 mins last year), but things like Smiler are worth the passes, as the queues seem to be well over an hour. If you get in first thing when the park is quiet, you can go on several rides quite quickly - although not all areas seem to open at once, so you have to be careful!

We stayed at a Travelodge in Ashbourne which was next door to a pub that serves breakfast. It think is about 10 miles away or so. Not exactly next door, but it was clean and dirt cheap.

Oh just thought of something else, you can’t buy single fast pass for wicker man but you can for everything else. Smiler is £10, Rita is £5 and I think nemesis is £5 so might be worth buying fast track for those separate, if it isn’t half term you might not need fast pass!

You have got a bit of a difficult age spread there tbh for Alton Towers.

There aren't enough family based rides to accommodate you all and they aren't spread very well. The rides are grouped so basically when the 10 & 11 year old want to go on smiler and oblivion the 6 year old will be just waiting. Similarly, if you take the 6 year old to CBeebies land, the older ones will be bored.
Are they actually tall enough for the rides?
Wicker man is 125cm, thirteen I think is 130? All the other big rides are 140cm. My 11 year old loves AT but I won't take the 7 year old because of the ride height restrictions and he is pretty tall

We stay at Derby West which is about a 20 min journey into the park. We drive up and have that day in the park. Full day the following day. Then do monkey park or something similar on the 3rd morning and then drive home.
Worth checking the rides when you’re there should be details on the leaflet when you walk in but I think a couple of rides have single rider lanes so if your older 2 are happy to ride as singles (although would poss still get on together) saves you fastrack money and not a long wait for them or you! Personally I wouldn’t fastrack the first day, I’d have a chat with the children during the evening while you’re eating. Think about what you managed to get in which had queues that were ridiculous and then make a plan for the following day. Anything they are desperate to go on if fastrack then. Last year the wicker man opened so that attracted a huge queue. Not helped by the fact it kept breaking down. Hopefully some of the pressure will be off that this year and spread the queue lines out a bit. How tall is your 6 year old? They may be tall enough for some of the slightly bigger but not thrill rides. Sure you’ll have a great time.

I can recommend a very good 4 star bed and breakfast only 5 minutes away from Alton towers.
It has loads of lovely little extras which you don't normally get and it was very clean and cuts down on the traffic getting in and out of Alton towers.

It's called The Laurels in Oakmoor. I don't know how to do links but look them up on tripadvisor they are very highly rated. The last thing you want to be doing after a full day walking is driving for 20/30 mins away when this is literally 5 mins away

Thanks again for the tips.
JRMisOdious I have booked that b&b for two nights- it looks ideal, thank you!
I like the advice given regarding not booking fast passes for day one and then seeing if we need them for day two.

I’m not too concerned about the age span tbh. My eldest two will be happy to ride without me, and they fully understand that they will be expected to spend time on the smaller rides and play areas too.

We are looking forward to it!

Oh no: I’m really worried you’ll hate it now! 😁
We thoroughly enjoyed it, such lovely hosts, hope you do too.