Pirate Takeover 2025

[MrTowers]

Pirate takeover 2025 certainly seems to have been a busy one despite repeating the same entertainment as last year.

It does highlight the demand for such an event with it being sold out every day this year. Worryingly it also shows how few attractions are open and for an event advertised as a quiet time to visit, and it certainly is rather poor for parents taking their kids.

Today's queue_times are showing 80 minutes for in the night garden ride, 60 minutes for octonaughts, 55 for go set and 45 minutes for go jetters. Spinball is closed again and so is postman pat ride. This is hardly easy for anyone to endure with kids.

This is not a one off as everyday has ultimately been the same throughout half term. Has alton towers over stretched themselves or is there opportunity to grow?

 

[Craig]

I think the main problem is that Alton need to decide what they want February Half Term to be. It’s fine as a limited extra for hotel guests staying over February Half Term. However, start filling up hotels and inviting day guests and it quickly becomes a bit of a mess.

If the park did “go big” for February half term and had a more substantial opening, that brings its own set of problems. You’ll need additional staff trained and in place earlier, rides ready from maintenance and areas ready for guests a month ahead of the current time. Putting aside the obvious financial outlay required, I don’t think the state of the resort at the moment gives them the ability to be able to do that - especially when it’s been a difficulty in recent years to even get rides ready for main season opening, let alone February.

For me, it’s only worth considering once they sort out the issues that affect main season so much before they start considering expansion to February events.

 

[CoventryBee]

If the park are choosing to continue offering a FHT event to day guests, then from 2026 they need to focus on a bigger ride offering to avoid this.

If the park can sort out the state of the main issues, then I see no reason why we can't have the following line up. If the numbers are high, surely it would pay off.

Cbeebies Land:
All rides bar new coaster/get set go predicted re-route.

Spinball Whizzer

Mutiny Bay:
Heave Ho
Marauder's Mayhem
Sharkbait Reef by SEA LIFE
Wicker Man

The World of David Walliams:
All riders (if the area is still open next year)

Hex

Katanga Canyon:
Runaway Mine Train

Gloomy Wood:
The Curse at Alton Manor

Personally I would like to see the event expanded to include the above, and I don't think it's beyond the realms of realism either... although given Merlin's current climate, who knows?

 

[MrTowers]

I think what i am trying to get at, is there enough rides and attractions in cbeebies and mutiny bay or does the park need to fill in some gaps and make this part of the park a lot more dense.

Some examples would be moving the driving school into cbeebies, an actual pirate ship in mutiny bay as well as something like seastorm at chessington.

As well as this, sorting out capacity on existing rides such at get set tree top adventure.

Just as a comparison for Feb half term:

Alton towers

Rides 11
Attractions 5
Playgrounds / softplay 1

Drayton manor

Rides 19
Attractions 2
Playgrounds / softplay 1

Paultons

Rides 34
Attractions 0
Playgrounds / softplay 7

Legoland

Rides 21
Attractions 5
Playgrounds / softplay 3

Blackpool

Rides 13
Attractions?
Playgrounds / softplay?

 

[owenstreet7]

If the park are choosing to continue offering a FHT event to day guests, then from 2026 they need to focus on a bigger ride offering to avoid this.

If the park can sort out the state of the main issues, then I see no reason why we can't have the following line up. If the numbers are high, surely it would pay off.

Cbeebies Land:
All rides bar new coaster/get set go predicted re-route.

Spinball Whizzer

Mutiny Bay:
Heave Ho
Marauder's Mayhem
Sharkbait Reef by SEA LIFE
Wicker Man

The World of David Walliams:
All riders (if the area is still open next year)

Hex

Katanga Canyon:
Runaway Mine Train

Gloomy Wood:
The Curse at Alton Manor

Personally I would like to see the event expanded to include the above, and I don't think it's beyond the realms of realism either... although given Merlin's current climate, who knows?

Having this line up for the February and Christmas events would be a no brainer.

It includes most of the indoor rides and would include more for a wider range of families.

A park with winter events where all indoor rides are closed is a bit embarrassing...

 

[Alphe86]

Didn’t go this year but went last year and it was mostly deserted. Day tickets were available then as now.. so it wasn’t that.
Same event. What changed?

 

[MrTowers]

Didn’t go this year but went last year and it was mostly deserted. Day tickets were available then as now.. so it wasn’t that.
Same event. What changed?

I think last year was generally well received so I think it's sold fairly well. This year unfortunately all schools had the same half term meaning the event is only over 1 week and not 2 as it was last year. Not really the fault of the park but it's probably made this year less profitable and more costly to cater for. I would love to know how they manage to staff the park and hotels for 1 week only to go back to nothing next week.

 

[Alphe86]

Yeah. Didn’t consider the half term thing. Good spot.

 

[Danscott22]

I think it’s fine as it is for families. Most families seem to be going for CBeebies for what is cheaper than what the main season would cost them to probably just do CBeebies. I think priority needs to be sorting things out for the main season but the current offering works fine for families.

 

[Ash]

Having this line up for the February and Christmas events would be a no brainer.

It includes most of the indoor rides and would include more for a wider range of families.

A park with winter events where all indoor rides are closed is a bit embarrassing...

Completely agree

A sensible long term plan would try to address this would be to install more indoor and covered rides/attractions that require some, little or no maintenance.

Some:
Flying theatre, Project Horizon, trackless dark rides, indoor boat rides, simple covered flat rides

Little:
4D/5D cinema, permanent night/light shows

None:
Indoor stage show, Museums, Walkthrough historical attractions, indoor children’s playgrounds, walking trails

All reasonable additions which could help capacity wise in the long term

 

[MrTowers]

If Alton could open more areas of the park it would probably help the mix of visits for Christmas and half term. With the heavy focus on cbeebies land all guests shared similar dynamics meaning that the few other rides in mutiny bay were dead and spinball was walk on when it actually opened. If you added wicker man, RMT and some of the dark rides you would see a slightly older mix of guests probably taking some of the strain off cbeebies land.

However this still wouldn't address the need for more rides and attractions in cbeebies land. The sort of rides needed do not cost huge amounts of money but would vastly improve guest satisfaction. Kids just want to be on a ride, they aren't overly fussy but can't stand queuing. I would also argue that the furchester, Andy's adventure dinosaur dig and Jo Jo and Gran Grans house are 1 time wonders and do little to help reduce the queues with very low through put and probably very high costs with needing actors in the first 2.

 

[Alphe86]

This is ultimately why I generally recommend Drayton over towers for young kids.
Even though the rides are very “same-y” the kids don’t care and the fact there’s iirc 22 rides there helps a lot

 

[flyingguitar]

If the park are choosing to continue offering a FHT event to day guests, then from 2026 they need to focus on a bigger ride offering to avoid this.

If the park can sort out the state of the main issues, then I see no reason why we can't have the following line up. If the numbers are high, surely it would pay off.

Cbeebies Land:
All rides bar new coaster/get set go predicted re-route.

Spinball Whizzer

Mutiny Bay:
Heave Ho
Marauder's Mayhem
Sharkbait Reef by SEA LIFE
Wicker Man

The World of David Walliams:
All riders (if the area is still open next year)

Hex

Katanga Canyon:
Runaway Mine Train

Gloomy Wood:
The Curse at Alton Manor

Personally I would like to see the event expanded to include the above, and I don't think it's beyond the realms of realism either... although given Merlin's current climate, who knows?

It is important to remember that many of the rides are currently undergoing their maintenance, I am not sure how long specifically each ride requires but they will be dismantling, NDT'ing and then reassembling all the vehicles thus it may not be possible to open rides like the wicker man.
the lands such as katanga canion and gloomy woods are also quite far from the main area and I would be curious to see how many people would go there if it was open, the lands may also be repairing additional stuff which may require them to be closed (e.g installing toxicatior, fixing a river rapids flume part, etc)

 

[VerticalLoop123]

I think this year they’ve been very lucky with the weather as well- yes it’s been a bit wet, but not too cold.

The issue with feb half term could be if they go for opening more attractions and then it snows or is very icy it could impede on operations.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but in the early noughties they used to open more of the coasters in feb half term, but I think a combination of weather and low visitor numbers put them off. I distinctly remember Towers Nerd live reporting from Air in the snow one year!

 

[jon81uk]

Yeah things like RMT used to be open, but they had a few half terms of heavy snow and they could't run some rides so they scaled back the event to stuff they felt they could guarantee to be open.

I think this year the relatively mild weather obviously encourages more visits. But might be better off keeping it hotel guests only, or blocking passholders so the event isn't too busy.

 

[MrTowers]

I think the problem Alton Towers has is opening up large parts of the park adds increased gritting and staffing to make the place safe. There is also additional toilets that need cleaning, litter picking, shops, eateries. Keeping the event focused around the entrance area seems to be what works for them. The issue I think is that they have a limited amount of rides in this area making the capacity quite low, the areas themselves don't feel overloaded but with queue times in excess of 70 minutes means there is a crying need for more to do especially when the opening hours are 10 till 4.

For towers to expand the event and look towards 365 day operations the question has to be can you almost create 2 parks. 1 for the main season and 1 for the out of season. The map below shows the blue outline that I think they have settled on for out of season, so I have highlighted areas in yellow that could accommodate additional rides.

• Cbeebies land corner, there is a large tree in the middle but could accommodate something
• In the night garden, this ride takes up a huge chunk of space, could the central area be used for something or could the ride be re-routed creating a tighter ride footprint with more turns.
• The conference area could be moved or used for something event wise
• Back of house facilities behind the sky ride, this area is huge and I imagine probably needs updating as these building have been here a long time. Maybe this could be consolidated into fewer better managed buildings as I imagine a lot of old props sit in these sheds.
• Space in front of wicker man, there is quite a lot of room here for a small flat ride of some sort
• Staff car park in the corner by sea life, again a big space close to the start. Staff parking could be moved creating space for a new ride.

I think indoor rides would be key if possible especially in the area around the back of the sky ride.

 

[owenstreet7]

I think the problem Alton Towers has is opening up large parts of the park adds increased gritting and staffing to make the place safe. There is also additional toilets that need cleaning, litter picking, shops, eateries. Keeping the event focused around the entrance area seems to be what works for them. The issue I think is that they have a limited amount of rides in this area making the capacity quite low, the areas themselves don't feel overloaded but with queue times in excess of 70 minutes means there is a crying need for more to do especially when the opening hours are 10 till 4.

For towers to expand the event and look towards 365 day operations the question has to be can you almost create 2 parks. 1 for the main season and 1 for the out of season. The map below shows the blue outline that I think they have settled on for out of season, so I have highlighted areas in yellow that could accommodate additional rides.

• Cbeebies land corner, there is a large tree in the middle but could accommodate something
• In the night garden, this ride takes up a huge chunk of space, could the central area be used for something or could the ride be re-routed creating a tighter ride footprint with more turns.
• The conference area could be moved or used for something event wise
• Back of house facilities behind the sky ride, this area is huge and I imagine probably needs updating as these building have been here a long time. Maybe this could be consolidated into fewer better managed buildings as I imagine a lot of old props sit in these sheds.
• Space in front of wicker man, there is quite a lot of room here for a small flat ride of some sort
• Staff car park in the corner by sea life, again a big space close to the start. Staff parking could be moved creating space for a new ride.

I think indoor rides would be key if possible especially in the area around the back of the sky ride.

Those are fantastic spaces and I've definitely got some thoughts on what could be done.

The Conference Centre will likely be part of a Cbeebies Expansion along with the Spinball site.

The site by Wickerman, that could be a good site for a Pirate Ship

The site in the corner of Cbeebies Land is the site I think they should relocate a rethemed Pat to.

In the Night Garden definitely needs condensing so think it'd be a no brainer to do a flat. I'm thinking one of those Jump Around rides from Zamperla.

The Back of House area would be perfect for something like Piraten in Batavia at Europa Park.

That staff car park area definitely would be a fantastic area to invest in. My ideas are either a relocated Spinball Whizzer or a new compact water ride. I'm thinking either a traditional flume ride or a shoot the chute like Tutuki Splash. It may not be the best time of year for that style of ride but the theme would be incredible. A flat like a Disko or a Pirate Ship or an outdoor playground could join the water ride on that site.

I am very much of the view that most dark rides should be part of the line up moving forwards including Hex and Curse.

I also think some of the space on Towers Street could be repurposed so it's more attraction space i.e. Fun House etc.

Those are some of my ideas on how Towers can use some of the deadwood space.