Alton Tower

[MrsRandom123]

I know there will be people who feel the need to post and say “don’t go” “it’s terrible” “save your money” etc but i’m not interested in that - we ARE going regardless as like everywhere there will be people who will have good and bad experiences.

we’re doing 3 nights (so 2 days in the park and one in waterpark) expecting it to be busy as it’s a weekend in July but before the school holidays so maybe people will hold off lol (we’re in Scotland) 13th birthday treat for our daughter.

Anyone any tips in park order to do rides in?

am i likely to need fast track? (£140 so thinking not buy them see how first day goes and if possible buy for 2nd or buy individual ride ones which would be £16 per ride if we can)

how far is enchanted woodland from park / hotels (for entertainment) anyone stayed there?

what like is the entertainment?

how is food? Not expecting much in terms of quality and standard for a place like that but is breakfast any good? Rollercoaster restaurant worth the novelty?

we have realistic view it’ll he hell on earth 🤣 but have accepted it is what is is and just looking for tips / advice / feedback to make the most of it and make it the best we can. We know it’ll be busy & it’s not a luxury break so we know what to expect but i want to hear positive stories to try to get the most out of it as my daughter is buzzing & been wanting to go for years. We’ve stayed in Havens, Butlins, blackpool etc before so it shouldn’t be a shock to the system in terms of how “bad” it’ll be like some previous posts on here i’ve read make out it def will be!

happy thoughts only please

Just following because we are heading down at start of Scottish holidays too. We've done it before and I will say be prepared for it to be much hotter than you'd imagine. It was BOILING both times we went. Equality of course it could be our usual rain!

A lot of the hotel guests head to galactica. Don't bother, the queue for that will get down to 30 minutes or less by 5pm.

Get straight to wickerman or smiler where the queues will stay upwards of an hour all day. The tip about queues closing at 6 is a good one.

Take snacks for the queues, powerbank ds are a must. I really like the new Emily ride. It's better than Hex. But don't queue an hour for it.

You'll all have fun in Justin's house, CBeebies is fun even if the older one gives you the side eye.

The restaurant in Splash Landings hotel does an all you can eat for about 20 quid each I think. We really enjoyed it. It was tasty and lots of options.
Plus soft drinks and ice cream included

We stayed in the woodland lodge last year, they are very cute.
Double bed in main room and bunks in a little side room. Little green outside a cluster of lodges to play in too.
Crooked spoon for breakfast was fine, buffet style much like a Travelodge.
We've been lots of times but this was our first overnight and first fast passes and unfortunately I don't think we'll ever do the park without them again. So so much better than all that queueing. I don't do any of the rides, just hold the coats and drinks so that saves a few quid.
Waterpark was horrendously busy but the DC enjoyed it, I couldn't wait to get out!
Walk to the park from the lodges is 10/15 mins but wear your comfiest shoes as you'll cover miles and miles.
And like others the refillable cups are great value.
I'm sure you'll all have a fabulous time.

We stayed in a lodge at the enchanted village shortly after it first opened and got the monorail to the park. My kids loved the swimming pool. Youll get crazy golf to play too. There was entertainment, magic snd a treasure hunt, for children in the evening in the village. We loved the crocked spoon. Was a little underwhelmed with the rollercoaster cafe.

Thanks nice to hear positive about the enchanted village and crooked spoon too. My kids love a buffet breakfast as we only ever have them
when we are away. We chose those for the novelty factor as it’s a bit different & i’m also hoping they are a bit quieter as the hotels have the entertainment in them but they were also over £300 cheaper when i looked to book so could have the extra night on the start for no rushing.

We don’t mind walking but will look at planning a rough route and will look to do wickerman first (will it be busy if everyone does that?) rollercoaster going to see if we need to eat a meal or can just get desserts for novelty value rather than expense of eating. Thats booked for our 1st night not booked anyyjing for other 2 yet but might get pizza or something delivered one of them so will have a look at the other menus online so they can get booked. Our arrival day we are hoping to do golf after check in then dinner - it’s just to get us there with no rushing & straight in the next day as we then have the 2 days in the park and 2 more nights with water park ok checkout day. Thinking 10-2 in there if we can last get the moneys worth lol. Car is parked from when we arrive to leave anyway

You all want to go on Wickerman, the area that it is in is close to other rides you can all do together (runaway train, congo river rapids, ghost thingy, battle galleons, marauders mayhem)

Everyone wants to ride all the rides, as the day goes on the queues just get bigger until the last hour. There is some sucking up of queuing to be done here.

The other option is to head straight to smiler but then you need to separate the family as soon as you get in the park so I'd leave that for day 2.

I'd do Wickerman first and have the first morning together riding and then at lunchtime go separate and queue for a big ride (Tesco meal deal in the queue).

If there is any hint of rain forecast in the next hour skip thirteen and rita for the time being because they just close them.

You'll find that the second day you can take it easier and queue for longer, download stuff to phones to watch or play on. If you're lucky and get oblivion just as it re-opens (watch the app for temporary closures) you'll be able to run round about 3 times in 20 mins.

You can download the app now and watch queue times to get an idea of queuing trends.

Thanks. Smiler is one i’m prepared to pay for queue jump on as we’ll be split up for that one so will aim to do that 1st thing on day 2 or buy.

i’d like to get wickerman (& those other rides we can do together) done on the 1st day. The new ghost one we’ll avoid as my kids hate stuff like that (my son can go on if he wants but doubtful) & ideally 13 & spinball as well on day one as the other 2 are height for those. If we could then get another big one at the end maybe smiler if we queue right at the end as not rushing away (other 2 could do smaller rides and head back to lodge in front of us for a play outside if its nice) which would leave oblivion and nemesis and rita for 2nd day but obviously i need to look at a map and have a realistic plan so we aren’t going back and forth wasting time but if we can do half bigger ones one day and half the 2nd i’m hoping we can avoid the need for fast track but as i said will pay individually if need be but the 3 we can all go on we’ll try to do together and split in between. My younger 2 will like a few in cbeebies (ghangsta granny, justins house) so they can go in there for a bit. Just hoping it’s dry. Supoose until we see how good or bad day 1 is we won’t know.

Did legoland last year (for younger ones birthday) & it was terrible!

Gangsta granny and CBeebies are at opposite ends of the park and not sure if your kids will like nemesis sub-terra if they can't manage the new ghost house thing!

Gangsta granny is good for all of you, as is blade and Justin's house.

We love Alton towers! Your set up seems great to make the most of it.

Double check if you get a mini fridge in the room, we took lots of snacks for the kids and filled the li if fridge to keep drinks cold (we also took some ham, bread and butter to make a few lunch sandwiches for the little kids as they are fussy and I didn’t want them eating chips for 3 days)

I wouldn’t bother with fast passes if you have two days, aim for two big roller coasters each morning with your early access.

Theres an easy access gate open for the hotel that gives you access at the nemesis side of the park so you don’t have to walk all the way to the main entrance.

I'm pretty sure they haven't brought the early access back since covid which is a pain as it was a real perk of staying in the hotels/having a merlin pass.

I was planning on taking the kids this Saturday but this is slightly putting me off …are the queues really so awful? Haven’t been myself since teen years!

And yes gangsta granny is not near cbeebies! We loved it as a ride though
And in cbeebies my youngest quote liked octonaughts.

"I was planning on taking the kids this Saturday but this is slightly putting me off …are the queues really so awful? Haven’t been myself since teen years!"

They can be but if you plan well and get there for the park opening you'll be ok. The queue to get into the car park is horrific after 10 so just be there very early. First in the park and you can probably manage 2 big rides in the first hour

Agatha you can't truly predict AT queue times but I think June will be better than July. Sundays are usually a bit quieter than Saturdays.

The problem is that at full capacity the rides can be an hour+ long queues for the big rides so people going for those can end up only riding a handful of rides.

Yes great point Home makes - people often arrive for the opening time or just before. We arrive an hour before and get in early, go to the loo etc and you can easily beat the rush/queues to get in before it gets too busy.

This sounds ok. We probably don’t want to do more than two of the biggies. DH is a scaredy-cat anyway

If you drink lots of water you can refill your bottles at the drinks dispensers for free rather buying the refill pop drinks every day.

If anyone in your party struggles to queue for medical reasons eg mobility, autism, sensory processing then register for a ride access pass before you go.

You'll have a great time, with two days try not to worry so much about the queues and as someone else said as long as you're in a queue before it closes you still get to ride even if its after closing time.

They've started having bits of extra entertainment on again and food stalls at the moment its mardis gras but I'd imagine there will be something else in Summer. You'll have a ball, enjoy xx

Useful to know - DS has ASD and does struggle with long queues

I loved Mardi gras when we went 2021 I think! It really was very jolly 😊

My oldest will (the younger ones are too small) she’ll do it as it’s a big ride and she loves rollercoasters but they hate ghost trains, haunted houses etc which scare them
more!

Don’t think theres a fridge but i’ll take cereal bars / crackers etc. we’ll have breakfast then dinner so not fussed about lunch usually at theme parks snacks are enough.

no early access since covid which is rubbish as legoland had it last year but hopefully straight in & into the queue and maybe get on one before we leave as well as no car parking to faff with.

will buy the individual ride fast tracks if we need them just don’t want to buy them now if we can get one most (i’ll queue but if they are all 1 hour plus i’ll suck the cost up but hoping at the start and end of both days to get a few bigger ones done to make it a bit cheaper as we’ll pay per ride via app if available on the 2nd day if 1st one is hopeless.) we can be in straigjt away & queue tight til the end which helps.

Thanks again @Cuckoosheep they mainly drink water so if we can refill bottles (forgot legoland had that) we’ll likely just do that which saves a bit more as well!

looking forward to it and kids will love it and as long as we can tick the big ones off one way or another even if she gets on nothing else my daughter will be happy. I quite like the look of some of the retro rides - remind me of when i was her age!

I need to look at a map lol

You need to download the app. Everything is on there. Nemesis is closed now for refurb, it is nemesis sub terra that is open and if she'd be scared by the curse then I'd be surprised if she wasn't scared by sun terra!