How long to spend at Alton Towers?
Discussion
I remember Alton Towers in the early/mid sixties, before it became a "theme park".
Miniature Railway, Boating Lake, ("Come in number 37, your times up"), Pottery studio, Cable cars, Old fashioned fun fair with "chair a planes" and Helter Skelter, Camera Obscura, mini zoo, Beautiful gardens, Huge model railway.
Much nicer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIhdwq7csNw
Miniature Railway, Boating Lake, ("Come in number 37, your times up"), Pottery studio, Cable cars, Old fashioned fun fair with "chair a planes" and Helter Skelter, Camera Obscura, mini zoo, Beautiful gardens, Huge model railway.
Much nicer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIhdwq7csNw
I went three or four times a few years back, I think at weekends.
I would echo what others have said regarding a fast pass. From my experience you will have to queue at some point, along time. Having a fast pass allows you to plan more in the day.
We learned to go for the car parking at the gates. I've just googled it, they called express car parking, £18 against £6 for bog standard. Nowadays looks as if it needs to booked in advance. You might argue why pay an extra £12, but this is good value in my opinion. The car is 1 minute outside the main gates, if you want to take a picnic or have access to the car this is the only way to go. Bog standard parking you queue for the mono rail train and guess what, so is everyone else. My point at the start of the day you rock up at the gate and queue to get in, everyone else has been there 30 minutes at least, queuing for the mono rail. At the end of the day when you've got the very last ride in and the park is closing, rather than queue for the mono rail with everyone else, you depart in the car. It's a long day as it is, £12 to reduce it by an hour is excellent value and gives you more stamina at the park.
Pedro.
I would echo what others have said regarding a fast pass. From my experience you will have to queue at some point, along time. Having a fast pass allows you to plan more in the day.
We learned to go for the car parking at the gates. I've just googled it, they called express car parking, £18 against £6 for bog standard. Nowadays looks as if it needs to booked in advance. You might argue why pay an extra £12, but this is good value in my opinion. The car is 1 minute outside the main gates, if you want to take a picnic or have access to the car this is the only way to go. Bog standard parking you queue for the mono rail train and guess what, so is everyone else. My point at the start of the day you rock up at the gate and queue to get in, everyone else has been there 30 minutes at least, queuing for the mono rail. At the end of the day when you've got the very last ride in and the park is closing, rather than queue for the mono rail with everyone else, you depart in the car. It's a long day as it is, £12 to reduce it by an hour is excellent value and gives you more stamina at the park.
Pedro.
Wacky Racer said:
I remember Alton Towers in the early/mid sixties, before it became a "theme park".
Miniature Railway, Boating Lake, ("Come in number 37, your times up"), Pottery studio, Cable cars, Old fashioned fun fair with "chair a planes" and Helter Skelter, Camera Obscura, mini zoo, Beautiful gardens, Huge model railway.
Much nicer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIhdwq7csNw
That is fantastic, excellent find. Miniature Railway, Boating Lake, ("Come in number 37, your times up"), Pottery studio, Cable cars, Old fashioned fun fair with "chair a planes" and Helter Skelter, Camera Obscura, mini zoo, Beautiful gardens, Huge model railway.
Much nicer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIhdwq7csNw
Pedro Raynard said:
I went three or four times a few years back, I think at weekends.
I would echo what others have said regarding a fast pass. From my experience you will have to queue at some point, along time. Having a fast pass allows you to plan more in the day.
We learned to go for the car parking at the gates. I've just googled it, they called express car parking, £18 against £6 for bog standard. Nowadays looks as if it needs to booked in advance. You might argue why pay an extra £12, but this is good value in my opinion. The car is 1 minute outside the main gates, if you want to take a picnic or have access to the car this is the only way to go. Bog standard parking you queue for the mono rail train and guess what, so is everyone else. My point at the start of the day you rock up at the gate and queue to get in, everyone else has been there 30 minutes at least, queuing for the mono rail. At the end of the day when you've got the very last ride in and the park is closing, rather than queue for the mono rail with everyone else, you depart in the car. It's a long day as it is, £12 to reduce it by an hour is excellent value and gives you more stamina at the park.
Pedro.
We had to pay for parking at the entrance to the park. Hadn’t done it on the way in so queued for ages on the way out. For various reasons we then took ages to leave. Probably an hour after closing time. Got to the exit and the barrier was up with no attendant! Could’ve saved a few quid there. I would echo what others have said regarding a fast pass. From my experience you will have to queue at some point, along time. Having a fast pass allows you to plan more in the day.
We learned to go for the car parking at the gates. I've just googled it, they called express car parking, £18 against £6 for bog standard. Nowadays looks as if it needs to booked in advance. You might argue why pay an extra £12, but this is good value in my opinion. The car is 1 minute outside the main gates, if you want to take a picnic or have access to the car this is the only way to go. Bog standard parking you queue for the mono rail train and guess what, so is everyone else. My point at the start of the day you rock up at the gate and queue to get in, everyone else has been there 30 minutes at least, queuing for the mono rail. At the end of the day when you've got the very last ride in and the park is closing, rather than queue for the mono rail with everyone else, you depart in the car. It's a long day as it is, £12 to reduce it by an hour is excellent value and gives you more stamina at the park.
Pedro.
soad said:
2 hours queues?! I wouldn’t want to wait for half an hour either!! Sounds seriously overbooked/populated.
It is, and badly organised, even starting at the monorail station it was like watching a farcical comedy in action, they could easily have sped up the loading times about 6 fold with no compromise to safety, probably done just to relieve queuing at the pay booths which are similar to security at Skanchester airport usually only a 1/3 to 1/2 open despite the queues.Wacky Racer said:
I remember Alton Towers in the early/mid sixties, before it became a "theme park".
Miniature Railway, Boating Lake, ("Come in number 37, your times up"), Pottery studio, Cable cars, Old fashioned fun fair with "chair a planes" and Helter Skelter, Camera Obscura, mini zoo, Beautiful gardens, Huge model railway.
Much nicer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIhdwq7csNw
Boating lake was certainly still there, with the god-awful swan boats, in the 90s and 00s. I haven't been back since Miniature Railway, Boating Lake, ("Come in number 37, your times up"), Pottery studio, Cable cars, Old fashioned fun fair with "chair a planes" and Helter Skelter, Camera Obscura, mini zoo, Beautiful gardens, Huge model railway.
Much nicer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIhdwq7csNw
Pre-kids the wife and I went for a couple of years running during the week in mid October. It was great, longest wait for anything was probably about 20 minutes and towards the end of the day you could pretty much get off a ride, walk round and get back on again. Did Nemesis several times and ended the day going on Rita pretty much continuously, must have had 4-5 goes before the missus declared enough
If you can avoid the weekends the whole place is definitely doable in a day though there weren't quite so many rides back then.
As for the car park / monorail, you can walk you know, it's really not that far from the car park to the entrance gates
If you can avoid the weekends the whole place is definitely doable in a day though there weren't quite so many rides back then.
As for the car park / monorail, you can walk you know, it's really not that far from the car park to the entrance gates
Edited by C0ffin D0dger on Friday 19th July 13:10
In 2017 I went to Thorpe Park in June outside of school holidays and, due to the queues, we only managed to go on 4 rides the whole day. When all costs were taken into account, it worked out at about £25 per ride.
Last year, decided to try Alton Towers instead. We went in June, outside of school holidays, but this time bought the fast passes and... didn't need to use them. It was a nice warm, sunny day and there just weren't any queues anywhere. We even managed to go on The Smiler three times in a row (not recommended after lunch). So yeah, that time I was annoyed I'd spent the money on the fast passes but you just never know what it's going to be like.
Last year, decided to try Alton Towers instead. We went in June, outside of school holidays, but this time bought the fast passes and... didn't need to use them. It was a nice warm, sunny day and there just weren't any queues anywhere. We even managed to go on The Smiler three times in a row (not recommended after lunch). So yeah, that time I was annoyed I'd spent the money on the fast passes but you just never know what it's going to be like.
Done both AT & TP.
Never spent more than a day at either.
Always done AT around the Scarefest times, but we would go on a weekday, it was generally quieter in October, especially on a weekday.
We've also done TP towards the end of the summer, but bought fast tracks as it seems to get a lot busier than AT.
Never spent more than a day at either.
Always done AT around the Scarefest times, but we would go on a weekday, it was generally quieter in October, especially on a weekday.
We've also done TP towards the end of the summer, but bought fast tracks as it seems to get a lot busier than AT.
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