Alton Towers 27th/28th March 2026

[Matt N]

27th March 2026: Alton Towers Day 1
After what has felt like a pretty long closed season (for me, anyway), March is upon us! And with me having purchased an Essential Merlin Pass back in November, what better way for me to start the season than with a trip to Alton Towers? With Alton After Dark being on for the first 3 weeks of the season and me now having the flexibility to come on a weekday, me and my mum decided to give the event another whirl following our less-than-stellar first go at it in 2024. And besides, I couldn’t wait to get back on some of my Alton favourites for the season, such as Wicker Man, Nemesis and others!

With us staying in the park late, we left our home in Gloucestershire at around 10am, getting to Alton at around 1pm after a… somewhat hairy journey, to say the least! We got stuck in traffic around Gloucester and Birmingham, but it seemed like every man and their dog was parked in the road during the non-motorway portions, and as always seems to happen when we let the satnav direct us to Alton, it directed us a slightly different way to last time, and hilarity ensued when we got directed up a seemingly never ending ascent followed by a seemingly never ending descent… anyway, we got to the park at 1pm, and as it was already a few hours into the day, I went ahead of my mum and was able to enter relatively promptly by 1:15 or so:

When I got into the park, I decided to head to a slightly different choice to usual for my first coaster ride of 2026…
Spinball Whizzer
Spinball Whizzer was on an advertised 45 minute queue time when I approached, and I decided to give it a whirl. It’s not something I ride terribly often, but as I was nearby waiting for my mum to enter and had caught wind that the ride was doing wet weather loading and only loading 3 to a car, I decided to try my secret weapon… the single rider queue! This proved to be a fruitful choice, as the single rider queue moved very quickly and I was on within 10 minutes; it’s great when that happens, particularly when the park is as busy as it was today! So, how was it? Well, I’m not normally Spinball’s greatest fan, but I have to say that it was pretty enjoyable today! It span well without being too excessive, wasn’t too rough either, and was overall an enjoyable way to start the season! I don’t know if it was just that it was my first coaster ride since September, but I definitely ‎enjoyed Spinball more than usual today and would consider moving it up in my estimations; it definitely put a smile on my face:

After getting off Spinball, my mum joined me and we headed over to Dark Forest to ride our first big coaster…
Rita
Rita was on an advertised 45 minute queue time, so we decided to have a go on there. I hadn’t ridden Rita since 2024, with it being closed on my last visit, so I was interested to get back on there for sure. We actually had a bit of a curveball thrown our way queueing for Rita, as the ride broke down when we were close to the front of the queue for about 30 minutes, meaning that we waited about 85-90 minutes in total. I do think they could maybe extend the tannoy system to better cover the bits of the queue going underneath the launch, as we could hardly hear the announcements being made. But how was the ride after all that waiting? Well, we were seated in row 2, and it was a very good ride! For all my sins, I actually really like Rita; as much as the layout is not the most interesting or dynamic, it has a cracking launch, there are one or two surprisingly good bits of airtime in there, and it was also riding pretty smoothly today! With us being seated in row 2, it also meant that we got a small taste of that front row sense of speed due to the staggered seating design, which was a bonus! Overall, then, Rita was great, and we both enjoyed it despite the lengthened wait time:

After getting off Rita, we headed to the other coaster in the area…
Thirteen
With Thirteen being the other coaster in the area and on an advertised 30 minute wait, we decided to take a spin on there. We pondered doing single rider on Thirteen after our lengthened Rita wait, but as the main queue on Thirteen was only advertised at a relatively short wait, we decided to ride together. This proved to be a prudent decision, as we in fact only waited 25 and single rider looked pretty long! But how was it? Well, similarly to Rita, I actually really enjoy Thirteen despite the flack it often gets. Today, we were seated on the very back, which is my favourite seat on there, and as much as the outdoor section isn’t greatly intense, the first drop was great and there were one or two other fun bits of airtime. And me and my mum both find that indoor section a laugh; I know very well that Thirteen is one of my mum’s favourite rides for that precise reason! I wouldn’t rate it quite as highly as her, but it’s definitely grown on me over the years and I’d probably plump for it being my 4th favourite Alton coaster behind Wicker, Oblivion and Nemesis. It’s great fun:

After Thirteen, I headed into X-Sector to ride my next coaster…
The Smiler
The Smiler was on an advertised 60 minute queue time, but as my mum didn’t fancy riding it, I used my usual secret weapon of single rider once again. The single rider queue on here hasn’t seemed quite as fruitful as it used to be ever since they restructured it to hold you at the bottom of the stairs before baggage, with it spilling to the entrance of the station building today, but even still, I got on in only 30 minutes compared to the advertised 60, so I can’t really complain! So, how was it? Well, Smiler isn’t an absolute favourite of mine, but I was sat in row 2, and I have to say that to its credit, it wasn’t riding too badly. It was a bit rough, but not too terrible, there were some good forces on there, and the OTSRs didn’t seem quite as uncomfortable as they can be. I do find it’s not a layout that I like quite as much as some, as I find the repetitive-feeling motions in places not the most interesting and a little bit nauseating, but I’ll admit it’s creative, has some good forces and wasn’t riding badly at all today:

After The Smiler, I met back up with my mum and we headed to ride a coaster that we were both likely to enjoy more…
Wicker Man
Wicker Man was on an advertised 40 minute queue time, so we decided to take a ride on there. The ride only appeared to be running 2 trains, but was dispatching pretty quickly considering this, and the queue time board was broadly accurate, with the queue taking around 40-45 minutes all in. You can’t complain about that, really! However, I should say that as much as the content of the pre-show on there is good, I always find the whole experience of Wicker Man between the merge point and the station more frustrating than it needs to be, simply because it’s utter disorganised carnage. That pre-show needs either scrapping or completely reorganising, in my view; perhaps controversially, I quite liked how it ran during COVID, and my mum seems to agree! Anyway, how was the ride? Well, we were seated in row 7, and it was phenomenal! I absolutely love Wicker Man, and this ride was no exception; despite the somewhat middling seat placement, the ride had a great sense of pace throughout, had some fun pops of airtime, and was just generally a great laugh! While not the most head-meltingly intense, Wicker Man is my favourite coaster at Alton simply because of how fun it is. It consistently reduces me to fits of laughter every time, and it’s the sort of coaster that I would quite happily sit on all day and likely still enjoy just as much at the end of the day as I did at the start; it’s got more than enough thrills to be compelling and exciting, but strikes the right level of intensity to not be overbearing. All in all, then, I loved getting back on Wicker Man; it’s my favourite on park and one of my favourites in the UK, and it’s not an Alton visit without a ride on it, in my view:

After Wicker Man, we headed over to Forbidden Valley to ride a coaster that we’d not yet ridden, strategically picking a ride that we weren’t so focused on riding at night…
Galactica
Galactica was on an advertised 35 minute queue time, so as we hadn’t yet ridden it, we decided to take a spin on there. The queue was shorter than advertised, taking around 25 minutes, but I have to say that operations were pretty slow on here and the queue felt longer than it was, with the ride only running 1 station and attaining a throughput somewhere in the realms of 600pph. As we only waited 25 minutes, I can’t complain too much, but psychologically, it felt slower to us and it didn’t leave the best taste, if I’m being picky. Anyway, that’s enough complaining about ops; how was the ride? Well, neither of us were massive fans of this, unfortunately. After today’s ride, I’ve come to the conclusion that Galactica is definitely my least favourite of Alton’s operating major thrill coasters, because while smooth, I just find the riding position of those B&M flying coasters incredibly uncomfortable, and that makes it difficult for me to overly enjoy it. I don’t like having my full weight resting on the restraints like that, and I also am not a massive fan of some of those extended periods on your back either (while the pretzel loop on Manta is worse, Galactica’s first turn is not the most comfortable). My mum came off it feeling a bit wiped out, unfortunately, so then didn’t ride the next ride as a result. All in all, then, Galactica is, perhaps controversially, not one I’m overly a fan of, particularly after today’s ride; I used to like it, but I’ve just gone right off it over the years, unfortunately:

After Galactica, I headed for a ride I had planned to do at night, as it was getting dusky and the queue was relatively short…
Nemesis Reborn
Nemesis was on an advertised 5 minute queue, and while the queue looked longer than 5 minutes, it didn’t look excessively long by any means and I was keen to get on it late, so I joined the queue. The queue took around 25 minutes overall, and in contrast to my experience on Galactica, I have to say that operations on here were absolutely smashing it; my average of 10 hit nearly 1,200pph even with 1 or 2 anomalously slow dispatches in the mix, and they were attaining dispatch intervals as fast as 90s or below at times, with little to no stacking during the entire period I was in the area! The night lighting on here also looks awesome; I love the red lighting, and the search lights going around the area are an awesome touch! So, how was the ride itself? Well, it was solidly a dusk ride bordering on a night ride by the time I got on, and my row 2 ride was absolutely fantastic; it was probably one of my best ever rides on Nemesis! It’s an absolutely superb coaster in the day, but it was running so fast with such brilliant forces and was also incredibly smooth (I once again find myself finding all this rattle talk hugely overblown, personally)! Nemesis has such a brilliant layout design, with sequences such as the first drop-corkscrew-helix-zero-g roll quartet being so inspired and exciting, and I’m increasingly convinced that it’s my favourite B&M invert and looping B&M period. The traditional looping B&Ms, while almost consistently solid to decent, don’t excite me quite like they once did, but Nemesis definitely stands out from the pack, in my view. All in all, then, I absolutely loved my ride on Nemesis; it’s a brilliant coaster in the day, but it’s an even more cracking night (or dusk in this case) ride:

After Nemesis, I met back up with my mum, who was feeling a little better having recovered from Galactica, so we decided to head over to our universal favourite in the park, Wicker Man, for one final night ride on an advertised 45 minute queue time. Despite starting from a later point in the queue, the queue was much slower this time round and we ended up waiting 60 minutes. The ride was, if anything, dispatching more quickly than earlier (they were quick to the extent that I wondered if they’d added a 3rd train… remarkably, they hadn’t!), so I’m unsure of the cause of this. Anyway, we were sat in row 5, and the ride was absolutely phenomenal; given we’d only ridden a few hours prior, the ride felt like it had sped up phenomenally, and the speed, laterals and airtime were top-notch, even more so than usual! Once again, we were both reduced to absolute fits of laughter on the brake run, and that definitely ranks up there as one of my best Wicker Man experiences despite it only being a row 5 ride! Wicker Man is a night ride I’d highly recommend if you ever attend a late opening at Alton, and today’s night ride was a superb way to end the day:

After we got off Wicker Man, the park had closed for the day, so we headed out and back to the car after a really good day:

Before I wrap up, I should mention a really pleasant encounter that me and my mum had in the Premier Inn in Uttoxeter. We were sat in the bar chatting about our day over a drink, and a friendly Welsh enthusiast who had been to Alton on a solo trip of his own overheard us at one point, chimed in his thoughts, and we ended up having a lovely long coaster chat for what was probably almost an hour (we got turfed out of the bar by the staff at 10:45…)! I have to say that this was a lovely surprise encounter, and if the enthusiast in question is reading this, I’d just like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed our chat and you definitely added a nice pleasant surprise to my day!

So, that brings me to the end of our first day at Alton Towers! I had some trepidation going into this trip, both after my last experience at Alton After Dark in 2024 and recent reports from others’ visits in 2026, but I have to say that I had a really good day! I got on 8 rides, with one ride on every operating coaster (bar Octonauts for hopefully obvious reasons) and a reride on Wicker Man, which I’m not displeased with at all given that the park wasn’t quiet and the fact we were in the park for around 7 hours rather than the full 10 hour day! Yes, there are things I could pick at (operations were slightly inconsistent, and it’s not ideal that a number of attractions including Oblivion were closed), but I overall had a really enjoyable day, so I don’t feel I can complain too much. I always love an Alton trip, and while I’ve had heavier riding days at Alton, I think 8 rides is a pretty good effort and today did not disappoint for me!

Thanks for reading; I hope you’ve enjoyed this report! We’re going to be back on park tomorrow, so keep your eyes peeled for that report! Although I should say that if you’re expecting a Bluey review from the opening day, you will almost certainly be disappointed, as I plan to avoid the likely carnage and give CBeebies Land a very wide berth…

P.S. I’ve tried a new way of embedding images from imgBB, but I’m unsure if it works; could somebody please confirm whether my images show properly?

 

[Bowser]

P.S. I’ve tried a new way of embedding images from imgBB, but I’m unsure if it works; could somebody please confirm whether my images show properly?

I’m looking on an iPhone and about 50% of the images have loaded.

 

[rob666]

Likewise from laptop, on t'intenet.

 

[Mick]

Always enjoy your reviews Matt, looking forward to day 2.

 

[Matt N]

28th March 2026: Alton Towers Day 2
We (well, I for most of the day) had a second day on park today! Although the plan wasn’t to stay until dark today, I was still looking forward to another day on park getting some more rides in!

Now before I get into the meat of today, I should preface that today was also the opening day of Bluey in CBeebies Land, which I hadn’t realised prior to booking. If you’re expecting a review, I’m afraid you will be disappointed; each to their own, but as Alton Towers is a non-trivial journey from the South for me and I only go a couple of times a season at most, I have better things to do with my time there than wait in an obscene queue for a kiddie coaster. I’ve previously ridden worse in terms of size than Bluey, but on short to walk-on queues. I’m not ruling out ever riding it, but Bluey stayed between 90 and 150 minutes all day from what I saw, so I did not partake in a ride on this particular occasion!

Now I’ve got that out of the way, let me start the day. My mum fancied a quiet morning, so on her suggestion, I actually tried something I’ve never done to get to Alton before… I caught an Uber from the hotel in Uttoxeter! I was sceptical of how well this would work given the well documented rural nature of Alton Towers’ immediate surroundings, but it actually worked very well; the driver turned up within a few minutes, and I was at the park before 9am! This is definitely a way forward for if I ever go to the park with my parents again, I feel, and it has made me think that doing Towers alone without driving may be more achievable than I’d thought, particularly if I was willing to make a few sacrifices in terms of day length.

Despite getting to the resort at 8:56, there was already a pretty considerable queue waiting to get into the plaza, and when I saw that this was the state of the plaza at 9:02, I had a feeling we were in for a busy day:

After a bit of a countdown for the aforementioned Bluey opening, the turnstiles were opened at 9:30 or so, and I went against the grain and headed to Dark Forest for my first ride…
Rita
I have always favoured Dark Forest as a morning starting point at Alton Towers, and on this particular occasion, I felt very vindicated in this, as while hordes of people were heading to CBeebies and a fair few were heading towards the likes of Wicker Man and Smiler, I was one of only 3 people within my line of vision heading into Dark Forest, and when walking speed was taken into account, I was only the 2nd person in line for Rita prior to opening! I had hoped that this would put me in good stead to be on the front row of the first train of the day, and while Fastrack or Ride Access Pass unfortunately took front row on the first train, I got front row on the second, so I can’t moan too much! So, how was this morning ride on Rita? Well, I thought it was absolutely cracking! These Intamin hydraulic launch coasters really shine on the front row, in my opinion, and this morning’s ride on Rita was no exception, with the ride packing a sensational sense of speed throughout! For all its flaws and the flack it receives, I do really like Rita; it was certainly a good way to start the day:

After I got off, nothing else within a reasonable walking distance was open and Rita was only on an advertised 15 minute queue, so I went for another ride! The queue took more like 35 minutes, but my row 8 reride was good fun just as the previous one had been; while the back lacks the sense of speed of the front, and I would definitely favour the front on Rita if I were choosing, I thought some of the airtime felt a bit more potent further back on the train!

After my reride on Rita, I decided to join the pre-queue for the other coaster in the area…
Thirteen
It was nearing 11am, so as reliability was still patchy elsewhere due to weather, I decided to wait a few minutes for the opening of Thirteen while I was in Dark Forest. The ride opened on a queue that was advertised at 60 minutes by the time I reached the entrance, but I decided to use my secret weapon… the single rider queue! This worked in my favour, as I managed to get batched into row 7 within 20 minutes; I can never complain about that! Operations were also awesome on here, with 3 trains running and dispatch intervals of less than a minute at points! So, how was the ride? Well, as it was yesterday, the ride was great fun, with smooth tracking and some good pops of airtime during the outdoor section and an indoor section that’s always a laugh! I was sat next to a woman on my ride today who’d never ridden before, and when she asked me “is there a loop on this one?” and then uttered “thank god for that” when I said no, I did have to stifle a chuckle when I thought of the impending surprises that were to come… she then proceeded to scream her head off throughout the ride and the indoor section and asked me in a horrified voice “is it over?” when we hit the final brake run! I always love riding Thirteen next to people who’ve never ridden it before… that indoor section is still surprising plenty of people 16 years on:

After I got off Thirteen, a lot of things either weren’t open or had extremely long queues. I initially scoped out the advertised 95 minute queue for my on-park favourite Wicker Man, but it looked at least as long as advertised if not longer, so I changed course and ambled steadily over to Forbidden Valley, riding a near-guaranteed short queue on the way there…
The Curse at Alton Manor
Curse was on an advertised 10 minute queue time, so I decided to take a ride on there. The queue for this was coming out of the house and almost into the extended queue, which is probably the longest I’ve waited for it; I think it might be the first time I’ve ever seen the full pre-show while waiting! However, the queue moved quickly and took 10 minutes, as advertised. So, how was the ride? Well, I do really like Curse; I think it’s a big improvement on Duel, and it has grown on me as time has gone on. It’s very atmospheric and has lots of really nice scenery and effects, and it’s also very cohesive in a way that Duel never was! It was also a very good run on here today effects-wise, with practically everything of note working! Overall, then, Curse was a nice way to break up the coastering; if nothing else, the short queue and some time indoors were appreciated on a day where the feels like temperature was billed at -4°C:

After Curse, I ambled over to Forbidden Valley to ride another coaster…
Nemesis Reborn
Nemesis was on an advertised 80 minute queue, but as it never seems to get an overly long queue, I had my suspicions it may not be 80 minutes. And even if it was, I figured that of all the long queues on park, Nemesis was probably the least arduous to be in, with it being an interesting queue line with lots to look at and also a fast-moving queue too, so I decided to take a ride on there. My suspicion of 80 minutes being overstated was correct, but perhaps not quite as correct as I’d hoped, with the queue still taking 65 minutes. However, it moved quickly due to relatively good operations, so it could have been worse! So, how was the ride? Well, it was excellent; while not quite as good as the night ride yesterday, that layout always packs a punch! I always find Nemesis a really exciting coaster in terms of pacing, with the first few elements being brilliantly structured, but the ride also regaining pace quite nicely with that final inversion at the end! Today’s ride maybe had a slightly more noticeable vibration than yesterday’s, but even still, I maintain having now had a double-figure number of rides on the retracked version that the much-discussed rattle is an entirely benign sensation and does not affect my enjoyment at all. It’s more of an odd noise than anything that actually impedes enjoyment for me! All in all, then, I loved my ride on Nemesis; it’s an absolutely fantastic coaster that’s definitely among my top 3 on park, and I also think that the revamp gave it a brilliant new lease of life:

After I got off Nemesis, I met up with my mum, who entered the park while I was in the queue. We headed down to Wicker Man, which was reopening from some downtime when we got there. I originally joined the advertised 70 minute queue for a final ride, but after 45 minutes had passed, the ride went down for a weather delay. As I knew my mum was keen to get home, I hadn’t even reached the queue line shop after 45 minutes (the queue was moving oddly slowly despite the ride dispatching quicker than yesterday, if anything), and it was frankly cold as anything and starting to hail, I decided to bail out of the queue at that point and meet back up with my mum:

As it was past 2pm at that point and my mum was keen to get home, we slowly made our way out of the park. I did catch a brief glimpse of Bluey as I walked out, and while I didn’t partake in a ride, it looks nicely done and bigger than I expected!

So, that wraps up the second Alton Towers day of the trip! I must admit that this maybe wasn’t my best ever day at Alton, but they can’t change the weather and I also acknowledge that attending on the opening day of a new roller coaster, whether intentional or not, may not be the best idea. And besides, there was plenty of fun had today; the two Dark Forest coasters were good, as were Nemesis and Curse! I would have liked that ride on Wicker Man at the end to seal the deal, but I did ride it twice yesterday, so it’s not exactly devastating that I wasn’t able to ride today. I always like a trip up to Alton regardless, and this has been a good and roundly successful trip! I don’t think 13 rides across 2 (or maybe more like 1.5) days is a bad effort myself; I was pleased to get on all operating coasters of interest at least once across the weekend, and some rerides were had too, which is never a bad thing! Not to mention, I managed to get those all-important night rides on Nemesis and Wicker Man, which were awesome!

Thanks for reading; I hope you’ve enjoyed this report! My next report will be on 12th April, when I head to Adventure Island in Southend for my first ever visit. I’ll be interested to see a new UK park and get on the likes of Rage for the first time!