Spent a fortune on Alton Towers and nearly everything was closed

[Foxy200]

Warning to anyone thinking of taking the kids to Alton Towers this Easter, AVOID it unless you have checked exactly what is open.

We drove all the way up yesterday, paid for a hotel last night and again for tonight, and arrived to find that nearly everything is shut. Only a handful of rides are actually open.

It is absolutely disgraceful to be charging full ticket prices when so much of the park is closed. After just an hour of walking around and seeing the reality of it, we asked for a refund and were told no.

The disappointment for the children has been awful, and to say I am angry is an understatement. We have spent a huge amount on tickets, travel and hotels for what has turned into a complete waste of money.

Families deserve to know before making the trip, this has completely ruined what was meant to be an Easter treat.

That's only 6 closures though - one of them is the monorail, as someone else mentioned, it's not even a ride.
According to the website, there are 40 rides/attractions - 6/40 is only 15%, not 50%...not quite enough to justify wanting a full/partial refund IMO

No I don’t believe this for a second. Well ok yeah it’ll be exorbitantly expensive and a huge shock to anyone who hasn’t been to Florida or similar, but have you seen the size of the park? These theme parks are not like the UK. Merlin are not comparable. I will be buying express passes though as we always do!

Of the six attractions that are closed, two are ways to get into/around the park, and two are water rides so are often closed at this time of year. We went a few weeks ago with exactly the same closures and had a great day

I'm not normally a fan of posters answering like it's homework but in this case Im interested in your thinking

How is it unreasonable to expect something you've paid for to be available?

The closures have a bigger effect than just not being able to go on those particular rides - they also mean longer queues for everything else. The monorail sucks up a lot of people.

OP said hardly anything was open...of the (approximately) 40 attractions there, only 6 were closed - 2 of which are just means of getting around the park...

How are they supposed to know what's closed in advance? The rides are normally closed because they need urgent maintenance or because of weather, its not planned

The app publicises whats closed on the day

Alton Towers is just awful now- dirty, awful food, insane queues/overcrowding. It costs an absolute fortune and I recommend spending that money on a trip to Efteling in Holland instead. It’s clean, beautifully landscaped, excellent rides, reasonable queues so you’re able to get on more than three rides in a day, lovely places to sit and have a coffee, can’t recommend it enough.

If 50% of the rides are closed, I agree they should be providing at least a partial refund. However, their app and their website show that most rides are open. The only dippers that are shut are the Runaway Mine Train and Oblivion. Toxicator, Nemesis Reborn, Wicker Man, The Smiler, Nemesis Sub-Terra, Galactica, Thi3teen and Rita are all open. Alton Towers has over 40 rides and attractions, so 6 being closed is hardly 50% of them.

Was it set out on their website what would be open and what would be closed? Normally theme parks are really clear about this sort of thing, and advertise scheduled closures months in advance based on the season and school holidays.

If this was on the website and you just didn't look then YABU as they could not do more. If it was not on their website or their website is incorrect that YANBU and I would kick up a stink.

Did their website list the closures?

nearly everything is shut? Bollocks, I’ve just looked on the app two of the things shut don’t count as it’s the monorail, two open in May, (congo river and battle galleons) two are in CBeebies (go jetters and Justin pie house) , one for maintenance (runaway mine train) and one hasn’t be open for ages (oblivion) There’s still plenty open and running

Not really - the monorail and Skyride (cable cars) aren't rides as such - just ways of getting around the park

The rapids and battle galleons are water rides so don't open until May - that isn't unexpected and is clear on the website.

It is only Run Away Mine Train and Oblivion - both of which are older, generally less popular rides!

It’s not the school holidays yet for a lot of areas, maybe that’s it and they’re getting ready for the hols and Easter weekend? If a lot was actually closed and it impacted your day that much then they should have really given you an update beforehand.

That's not very accurate - If you ignore the monorail, food outlets, gift shops and snack concessions there are 36 "attractions".
Of those 36 attractions, 13 are in Cbeebies Land and 6 are "Young Fun and Imagination".
That leaves 17 actual rides for older kids and grown ups, of which 5 were shut. That's a bit shit really.

There's plenty open...

Run away mine train and oblivion are the only rides closed.

The water rides are never open this time of year.

Yabu

Agree @bunsnroses1 Also Europa in Germany (near French border). Fantastic park- excellent value for money, decent food, small queues… We are shit at theme parks in this country. I don’t like them anyway so it’s no skin off my nose, but my kids like them and they LOVED Europa. We’ve been twice and they both said it was much better than Paris Disney (and waaaay cheaper).

My 40 count wasn't including gift shops or food outlets, it was the attractions.

Even if 17 attractions for adults and older kids are left, 5 of which are closed, that still leaves 12. Sure, I'd be disappointed to not get to go on Oblivion, but there's plenty of others to choose from!

As someone else said - water rides closed until May (fair enough, weather is only just starting to improve this time of year) and I'd rather rides be closed for essential maintenance than risk a serious accident that could close the park completely!

Sounds irritating but not something that would ruin the whole visit to me - as pp have said there are plenty of rides open. Having said that, Europapark is fantastic and surprisingly little-known in the UK. We had a brilliant trip a few years back and they have opened a water park since then too.

Are rides other than Oblivion and Runaway Mine Train closed?

Rita, Smiler, Toxicator, Nemesis Subterra, Nemesis Reborn, The curse, Wicker Man. Galactica, Thi3teen, Hex, Spinball Wizzer?

What about CBeebies land, the teacups and the pirate ship?

If any of those are closed but not listed as closed on the website - you may have an argument.

However, if they are all open and you are moaning about what is essentially two rides being closed (monorail and skyride are not rides as such and the Rapids and Battle Galleons never open until May) then you are being very unreasonable.

Even more so for using hyperbole and claiming 50% of rides are closed!

We went to Alton towers in the summer,cost over £200 but we only managed to get on 4 rides all day,the queue’s were that long,I think it would be best to pay per ride or something similar an no it wasn’t the school holiday either.

We went last year for my son's birthday and we got on 2 rides all day! They were closing rides left, right and centre.
We would queue for a ride for more than half an hour, get near the front and then they would shut it!

We stayed overnight in a hotel because it isn't just a day trip due to our location.

So disappointing for my son.

An absolute disgrace of a place.
We complained and they sent out tickets to return, but we won't be going back.

Think oblivion is actually open again actually so only runaway mine train that's closed for the day

Rides do close temporarily so maybe OP had bad luck, but she hasn't clarified so it's difficult to respond

This...worked for me in the past

The issues with oblivion are posted online, I can’t see it properly reopening again unless they rebuild it. If that’s the full list of closures I think it’s ok at this time of year, the water rides always open a bit further into the season don’t they?