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2026: General Discussion

AT86 said:
No sign of any theme park hours being released for 2026, but with the resort side of things reopening today from the winter shutdown the waterpark and golf hours are up on the website.

Waterpark seems set for another year of rubbish hours, with the latest being 5pm closes even through the summer.

In better news it looks like Alton After Dark may well be returning. Extraordinary Golf is scheduled to open until 9pm on 14/15/20/21/22/27 and 28th March.

Given the golf typically opens for one hour after the theme park, this would line up with 8pm closes for After Dark to return on the first 3 weekends of the season.

www.altontowers.com

Opening Times - Theme Park & Waterpark | Alton Towers Resort

Our Theme Park and Waterpark Opening Times vary throughout the year to it's best to plan ahead. Use our calendar to check what time Alton Towers opens.
www.altontowers.com www.altontowers.com
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Not sure if this has been updated in the minutes since you posted but the Waterpark is open till 530pm in February which to me suggests the dates from March onwards are placeholder ones. I'd guess they'll be updated when the main park hours are listed.
 
AT86 said:
No sign of any theme park hours being released for 2026, but with the resort side of things reopening today from the winter shutdown the waterpark and golf hours are up on the website.

Waterpark seems set for another year of rubbish hours, with the latest being 5pm closes even through the summer.

In better news it looks like Alton After Dark may well be returning. Extraordinary Golf is scheduled to open until 9pm on 14/15/20/21/22/27 and 28th March.

Given the golf typically opens for one hour after the theme park, this would line up with 8pm closes for After Dark to return on the first 3 weekends of the season.

www.altontowers.com

Opening Times - Theme Park & Waterpark | Alton Towers Resort

Our Theme Park and Waterpark Opening Times vary throughout the year to it's best to plan ahead. Use our calendar to check what time Alton Towers opens.
www.altontowers.com www.altontowers.com
Click to expand...
I don't get there decision with the waterpark if it was to open directly after the park closes it would in tice more people to go there at the end of the day, its been ages since I have been to the waterpark mainly because it hasn't changed they need some new slides
 
Bowser said:
Not sure if this has been updated in the minutes since you posted but the Waterpark is open till 530pm in February which to me suggests the dates from March onwards are placeholder ones. I'd guess they'll be updated when the main park hours are listed.
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I didn’t spot those, I suspect they are due to Feb half term Pirate event, the 2026 hours pretty much line up with what 2025 were so wouldn’t expect them to change, although would be good news if they did.
 
Hid said:
I don't get there decision with the waterpark if it was to open directly after the park closes it would in tice more people to go there at the end of the day, its been ages since I have been to the waterpark mainly because it hasn't changed they need some new slides
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Costs more to hire the staff for longer and harder for said staff to travel unless they drive.

Usual staffing issues basically.
 
Benzin said:
Costs more to hire the staff for longer and harder for said staff to travel unless they drive.

Usual staffing issues basically.
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This reasoning gets trotted out all the time in regards to Alton Towers and i'm not saying it's wrong but equally AT isn't the world's most isolated theme park... is it?

How do other parks get on? For example i heard Toverland is difficult to get to without public transport yet they're open almost 365 days a year. There must be other parks too. Presumably vehicle use is generally higher in rural areas so there's less of an expectation to use public transport for employment anyway.

Do Merlin simply pay particularly poorly in the industry? Or is this being used as an excuse to justify what are ultimately conscious cutbacks in the offering to satisfy shareholders?

Is it really going to cost them so much to open the water park for an additional hour? The public transport options aren't going to be vastly different from 5pm to 6pm so that doesn't track to me in regards to staff availability. I think it's more likely that doing so doesn't increase profit and shaving costs wherever possible is preferable to a greater customer experience.

To have an onsite water park that hotel guests cannot use the same day they visit the park is absurd.
 
I would have thought it’s better to open later in the day (say midday) and then stay open later in the evening. That way they attract customers leaving the park who fancy a swim, and gives families time to enjoy the theme park and then go into the waterpark before having dinner in the hotel.

Doesn’t make sense!
 
Bowser said:
This reasoning gets trotted out all the time in regards to Alton Towers and i'm not saying it's wrong but equally AT isn't the world's most isolated theme park... is it?

How do other parks get on? For example i heard Toverland is difficult to get to without public transport yet they're open almost 365 days a year. There must be other parks too. Presumably vehicle use is generally higher in rural areas so there's less of an expectation to use public transport for employment anyway.

Do Merlin simply pay particularly poorly in the industry? Or is this being used as an excuse to justify what are ultimately conscious cutbacks in the offering to satisfy shareholders?
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Even with it not being optimal, the public transport infrastructure around Toverland makes Staffordshire look like the surface of Mars. It's also family owned, meaning they can choose to operate on lower margins for the sake of long term growth and guest satisfaction. They aren't answering to a spreadsheet in Poole or a private equity fund in New York demanding quarterly efficiency savings.

Alton Towers, conversely, is geographically hostile. It is surrounded by tiny villages with narrow roads, and the nearest centres of population (Stoke / Uttoxeter) are a good 30 to 40 minutes drive away.

The issue isn't just that Merlin pays poorly (they pay around minimum wage, which is standard), it's the cost of working.

If you are a teenager in Stoke, why would you drive 40 minutes each way (burning fuel and putting miles on your car) to work a 6 hour shift at Alton Towers for minimum wage, when you could waddle to your local Aldi or Wetherspoon and earn the same money with zero commute cost?

Merlin exacerbated this problem significantly when they cut back on the staff buses and employee transport options a few years ago. They made it structurally more expensive for their own staff to come to work.
Bowser said:
Is it really going to cost them so much to open the water park for an additional hour? The public transport options aren't going to be vastly different from 5pm to 6pm so that doesn't track to me in regards to staff availability. I think it's more likely that doing so doesn't increase profit and shaving costs wherever possible is preferable to a greater customer experience.

To have an onsite water park that hotel guests cannot use the same day they visit the park is absurd.
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You've answered your own question. It is entirely about shaving costs.

Heating a waterpark is incredibly energy intensive. Staffing it requires lifeguards (who require specific qualifications and breaks). Keeping the lights on, the pumps running and the staff paid for that extra hour adds up to a significant line item on the OpEx sheet.

Taking a look at this from Blackstone's perspective, the hotel guests have already paid for their room. They are a captured audience. If the waterpark closes at 5 pm, where else are they going to go? They will go to the hotel bar and spend money on overpriced drinks. Keeping the waterpark open longer doesn't necessarily generate new revenue; it just increases operating costs. At least on first glance. They could go down the Rulantica path, but that requires significant investment and, of course, the perennial problem of staffing.

It is, of course, a false economy that degrades the "Resort" experience and damages long term goodwill, but when you are managing a balance sheet for a future floatation, long term goodwill doesn't have a column in Excel.
 
And a further point...
GooseOnTheLoose said:
...If you are a teenager in Stoke, why would you drive 40 minutes each way ...
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If you are a teenager in Stoke...where the hell did you get the money to tax, insure, and run a car anyway???

Now the tales I have heard about cheap on site accommodation on and around parks to help with staff recruitment and retention.
Tales from the Beach in particular...
 
Bowser said:
How do other parks get on? For example i heard Toverland is difficult to get to without public transport yet they're open almost 365 days a year. There must be other parks too. Presumably vehicle use is generally higher in rural areas so there's less of an expectation to use public transport for employment anyway.
Click to expand...

Toverland is ridiculously easy to get to by public transport. Located near a train station which is well connected to major cities, which is on a bus line that serves the park. Did the trip before Christmas, and shocked at how easy it was. The bus back to the train station had a couple of members of staff.
 
The golf operating times show 10pm close towards end of September and early October, then revert to 6pm every day so id say not exactly correct yet, but does give us a indication that scarefest is starting again in September
 
GaryH said:
I would have thought it’s better to open later in the day (say midday) and then stay open later in the evening. That way they attract customers leaving the park who fancy a swim, and gives families time to enjoy the theme park and then go into the waterpark before having dinner in the hotel.

Doesn’t make sense!
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A significant number of people stay over at the hotel and then go to the water park in the morning on the second day. Makes more sense to be open from 10am for those guests.
 
The refreshed logo seems to suggest that the park’s steampunk brand has had somewhat of a revival. Might just be for the event, but I’d love for the whimsical steampunk branding revival across the wider park.

Great to Alton After Dark return, as it’s a brilliant event to mark the start of the season. Gives people the opportunity of dark rides after Mardi Gras and Oktoberfest got scrapped, and an event that’s fairly minimalist with just night rides might just have sticking power and develop resonance with theme park visitors. Also leaves the door open for the return of such events if Towers can move the cultural expectation for a significant enough proportion of guests away from the “home for teatime” culture.
 
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