That’s interesting Rick. If attendance fell a lot in 1995 and there wasn’t an obvious cause (like particularly poor weather), then it might imply that a lot of the people who visited in 1994 weren’t that impressed. I’m wondering whether some people visited and found the park overcrowded.
I didn’t visit Alton Towers until 1999 so I don’t have any personal memories. I suspect that in 1994 attendance was heavily clustered between March-August, as Halloween wasn’t celebrated back then. They also didn’t have any accommodation, which can help to space out when people come and go. I can imagine that the roads leading to and from the park must have got incredibly congested at times if there were 3 million visitors.
Inside the park they did have some high throughput rides like the monorail, cable car, rapids, log flume, Haunted House, Toyland Tours and Nemesis as well as more shows. It’s clear from interviews with John Wardley that throughputs were a strong consideration. They also didn’t have Fast Track and the number of exit riders that they have now, and no doubt fewer safety restrictions which can slow things down. Nonetheless, 3 million visitors clustered between March-August must have created congested roads and long queues inside the park. Some of the older rides like Corkscrew and Thunder Looper didn't have terrible throughputs, but clearly behind rides that were added later like Oblivion and Air. On paper the mid-90s looks like a golden period, but perhaps not everyone had such a good experience.
