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General Queue Times Discussion 2023

Matt N said:
I always remember my school trips to theme parks costing about £30 in total, for what it’s worth. As that likely included coach costs as well, the figure that @Thameslink Rail posted would make sense for theme park ticket prices.
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Coach would be less than £10 per person I expect with 50-60 seats on a coach, maybe not so much this year with the changes in fuel prices.

The prices are correct because they are on the AT website, I'm just surprised AT are charging such a low price. Secondary spend from schools isn't that high even as most bring packed lunches.
 
jon81uk said:
I didn't realise school trip prices were so low! I would have thought the high price for secondary age would be closer to £25.
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Usually the the more tickets booked, the lower the price per ticket. Teachers sometimes go free as well.
 
I think you’ll find school kids often do spend money on park, as I imagine most parents will give them some spending money, which the kids will probably just spend on pick and mix and stuff like that.

I always remember back in the day during school trip season they would add a temporary kiosk at the bottom of TS (in a tent) selling sweets, footballs, etc. you would also get a tempo HB games stall at the bottom of towers street, which would disappear at the start of the summer holidays. In the end it became permanent and it’s now the basket ball game.
 
jon81uk said:
Coach would be less than £10 per person I expect with 50-60 seats on a coach, maybe not so much this year with the changes in fuel prices.

The prices are correct because they are on the AT website, I'm just surprised AT are charging such a low price. Secondary spend from schools isn't that high even as most bring packed lunches.
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Secondary spend from many school groups has got more and more over the years.
Watched it happen over the years, extra sweet and souvenir stalls at Blackpool, massive queues at the food stalls, and Bernard made a bomb on top sale fancy hot chocolate at his bar this time last year, I drank beer and watched him sell half a dozen in as many minutes.
Fasttrack/speedypass vouchers for 100% attenders and straight a students, many going back to the coaches clutching large bags of tat home after.
The parks sell student tickets cheap to cop the secondary sales.
Never seen so many sweet whips going over the counter at Blackpool on a temporary stall, and the sideshow stalls make a good trade from the schoolkids as well.
 
I used to buy ride photos on school theme park trips, somewhere I have one from Air, Nemesis and Splash Canyon at Drayton all purchased on school trips from around 2004/5ish. Kids do tend to have at least some money to spend even if it’s just on lunch. The sensible ones might bring a packed lunch as it does save money and time. but most of my friends at that age couldn’t be arsed carrying it around all day and would rather grab a hot dog.
 
djtruefitt said:
I think you’ll find school kids often do spend money on park, as I imagine most parents will give them some spending money, which the kids will probably just spend on pick and mix and stuff like that.
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This. I went as a helper on a Year 6 school trip to Lightwater Valley a couple of weeks back and the kids were all spending a load of money in the shop on pick and mix, slush drinks, and bottles of fizzy drinks. They absolutely swarmed the shop when they saw it, the mass sugar rush was real after that.
 
Ethan said:
Been nowhere near as busy today
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That’s good to hear. As it’s a week today im going I was keeping close tabs on the App throughout the day to gauge how it may be for me and particularly between 1-3pm there didn’t appear to be any of the ‘big 7’ on less than an hour queue. The Smiler consistently around the 1.5-2 hrs mark.

Had deliberately targeted this date due to being outside of English school hols, not factoring in the impact of school trips taking place again.
 
I have spent many a happy afternoon with the Tartan "early starters", sharing a table in Crevettes.
Often have a great time, but we don't understand half of each conversation, due to beer and accents.
 
The Scottish summer holidays stung me this time last year - there I was thinking a mid week day towards the end of June wouldn't be that busy, especially due to the schools not running trips due to social distancing still existing.

How wrong I was!
 
Hello all, newbie here :)

Firstly, thank you for a very informative and as a late 30 something an historically fascinating site.
With all this talk of school trips, Scottish summer holidays etc I have a trip booked for Friday 15th July. It is the last day of term in England and therefore I was hoping it wouldn't be too busy. I have a 3 and 6 year old (yeah I'm taking him out as a treat and 100% attendance! :) ) and I'm wondering how busy it will be? I doubt the school trips will be troubling Cbeebies Land :) but just thinking about things like mutinybay, gangsta granny, RMT ie some of the "middle" rides the 6 year old will be eyeing up.

I appreciate it can be pot luck but with tickets, hotel, waterpark I'm in for about £600 and starting to think I might be better off moving it?

Thank you very much.
 
petegeorge1 said:
Hello all, newbie here :)

Firstly, thank you for a very informative and as a late 30 something an historically fascinating site.
With all this talk of school trips, Scottish summer holidays etc I have a trip booked for Friday 15th July. It is the last day of term in England and therefore I was hoping it wouldn't be too busy. I have a 3 and 6 year old (yeah I'm taking him out as a treat and 100% attendance! :) ) and I'm wondering how busy it will be? I doubt the school trips will be troubling Cbeebies Land :) but just thinking about things like mutinybay, gangsta granny, RMT ie some of the "middle" rides the 6 year old will be eyeing up.

I appreciate it can be pot luck but with tickets, hotel, waterpark I'm in for about £600 and starting to think I might be better off moving it?

Thank you very much.
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Welcome!
Generally the last day of term is not overrun with school trips as schools don’t schedule them on the last day. However for Staffordshire and Derbyshire (plus probably a few more that I haven’t checked) the last day of term isn’t actually until 22nd July.

Therefore I would imagine your date to be pretty busy with school trips (sorry!), best advice is to arrive before opening and stay right until the end. As you say CBeebies shouldn’t be too impacted, but other rides outside CBeebies would be best done first thing or last, to avoid the crowds as much as possible.
 
Thanks AT and yes of course school holidays differ all over the UK, these are the Northants dates.
I think I'll take my changes in the hope it'll at least be better than actual school holidays and hopefully the teenagers will be on the big rides :)
We visited Drayton Manor once and whilst Thomas Land was fine the F&B outlets were totally over-run with schoolkids....
 
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