To ask for your tips and pointers for Alton Towers?

[Cblockbitch]

Have just booked a one night stay for the scarefest! staying in the enchanted village. I.AM.SO.EXCITED However I am going with a 2 and a 5 year old so I am looking for some mumsnetters wisdom and tips to keep costs down and have a nice time! thank you all 😁

I was going to say drop the kids and go to leek on your own but I see that is not an option!!

Take sandwiches & snacks. Food there isn't great.

Look at these tips:
plutoniumsox.com/reviews/16-tips-for-visiting-the-alton-towers-cbeebies-resort-and-waterpark-with-young-children/

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There are a few water fountains around so you can refill bottles, not tons, but there if you look for them.
The ketchup and the mayo were the blandest, oddest things!

Get ready for queues and crowds. It's very very busy. The park stays open late, but can be poorly lit in some areas so watch you don't get separated from the LOs

Don't do it

5 and 2 are far too young for Alton towers. I’d cancel.

are there rides for children that small? I thought Alton towers was all big scary rides etc.

Ooh they have ceebebies land, that’ll be cute. Have fun.

I thought kids had to be over 16 for Scarefest?

5 and 2 are far too young for Alton towers. I’d cancel.

Alton towers is set in 910 acres of parkland. I'm sure that the OP will find something to do.

www.altontowers.com/activities/events/22-things/

@Aussie nope, the scare mazes are age restricted but the whole park is family fun!

Blackpool Pleasure beach. Rated massively higher by my tribe. I honestly think your kids are a bit young for a Halloweeny thing.

There will be very few rides for children that age - probably only CBeebies land (6 rides?) there are many better theme parks for their age in the U.K. Alton towers is great but probably 9+ based on height needed I would think.

Get the app to check queue times. Cbeebies land and Cuckoo land would be more than suitable. Check show times as they're still good fun if weather is crap or everything else has massive queues. Take food. Make sure you book dinner and breakfast as soon as you can. Get a family digipass if you want pictures. It's absolutely huge so consider walking times,it was very tiring even for us as grownups. You can pop in into the main hotel for evening entertainment if you want. The waterpark(costs extra ) is amazing. Is it just going to be just you and the kids?

No they are not too young at all in my view. Took my 4 year old in the summer and we spent most of the day in Cbeebies land. There are not just rides but shoes (Furchester Hotel, Mr Bloom's Allotment and a stage with several shows)? Charlie and Lola's house with a small soft play, Justin's pie factory where you can shoot balls around (ds spent a long time here!) and also a playground. Then in the main park we went round the aquarium, walked round Mutiny Bay area with pirate theme and went on the rapids. There is another children's area called Cloud Cuckoo Land but we didn't even have time to get to that! You'll have a great time!

Shows not shoes!

any recommendations on where to eat?

Cancel and go to Chester Zoo. We did CBeebies Land at Easter. It rained all day. By 12pm we hadn’t been on a single ride. Left before 4pm. Biggest waste of money ever.

Honestly everywhere to eat is very expensive. We had lunch in the Explorers Lunchbox in Cbeebies land which was basically sandwich deals and only slightly overpriced and then dinner at Windmill in Cbeebies hotel, nice kids food but limited adult and v expensive for what it was. I would take a packed lunch for the first day if you can and pack bottles of water or whatever and snacks

We took our 5 and just turned 3 year old the first week of the summer holidays. Stayed overnight in the original hotel.

We took a picnic for the first day, ate it whilst watching the hey duggee show in CBeebies land. Second day we ate lunch in the burger place up near the cuckoo driving school.

Make use of the app for the queue times and also the early ride times as you are staying over. You can get in early on both days so we made really good use of those 30mins and did a lot of the busy rides on CBeebies land before the park opened to the general public.

As pp have said - water fountains all over so take refillable cups. Obviously be prepared for a lot of walking (we took pushchair for 3 yr old) but we found that as we knew we were there 2 days we were a bit more relaxed and not rushing as much - we went on an INSET day a few weeks before just with our 5 yr old.

Have a a great time!

Ah scrap the early access I mentioned I don’t think it applies during Scarefest.

We also made sure we did the rides we really wanted to do on the first day then anything else was a bonus.

Depending on the height of you 2 year old but as a family we could go on things like runaway mine train, heave ho, the rapids, duel and things like the frog hopper and carousel

Buy fast passes. The queues for rides can be up to 2 hours. We went at Easter and some people only got on 2 CBeebies land rides by 3pm and ended up going home. The complaints queue at customer services was also 2 hours long! Fast passes not the cheapest but if you’re gonna do it and actually enjoy it I’d recommend splashing out.

I'll never understand why Mumsnet is so obsessed with the ages of children and where they should and shouldn't go.. of course there's stuff for the ages of OP's children to do and enjoy, the hotels on their own are a child's dream.

I go to Alton Towers most years and have a caravan very nearby. Your kids will love it and there's plenty of stuff outside of CBeebies for them to do (not previously having kids I've never been in there) but but the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ride is a must, as is rides like Hex and even just walking through the gardens and going on the cable cars is loads of fun!