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Quick Questions

I'd imagine school trips will start picking up around the 17th, it's late June/early July when they start being out in full force to the point weekends are quieter.

But regardless it should be manageable but the park won't be quiet until September.
 
Never really been too bothered by school trips on a weekday visit. Their usually only there for a couple of hours anyways lol, did have one very crap visit to thorpe this time last year though got on like 5 rides haha. https://queue-times.com/parks/1/calendar is great for getting a rough idea on what the park will be like, has data going back to 2015.
 
I have a couple of queries regarding the Rainy Day Guarantee/“return for free” offer.

I went to the park for the Alton After Dark event on 23rd March, and due to the day’s weather-induced sporadic ride availability and very long queues, the park activated the Rainy Day Guarantee and allowed anyone with a pre-booked ticket for 23rd March to return for free at another point in the year.

I now have an opportunity to return to the park on 28th July. I might be alone, or my grandad might come with me, but I was thinking of possibly redeeming my free return ticket from 23rd March when I visit on this day. I know that my mum and dad’s desire to return to Alton Towers in 2024 is quite low, so they seemed perfectly OK with the idea.

My questions were:
  • Are there any hidden clauses in the “return for free” offer that might mean that a ticket from 23rd March wouldn’t be valid on 28th July? Or are you allowed to redeem it on any day in 2024?
  • And if I am allowed to redeem it on this day, do I have to do anything beforehand, such as reserve the day, to ensure that the park doesn’t sell out and they won’t let me in?
I just don’t want to travel for 2.5 hours under the pretence that I can use the free ticket and find out that I can’t get in with it, for whatever reason, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

If it’s at all relevant, the ticket would likely also be in my mum or dad’s name, as I did not originally book it, but I was part of the party who originally used the tickets.
 
The rainy day guarantee was ‘relaunched’ this year after the ASA got involved with the previous iteration. One consequence of that is they don’t seem to have any information on the website, but previously you definitely needed to prebook your return visit and check the dates it was valid.

I would ask whoever booked your original tickets to check their emails incase they were sent something back in March when it was activated. If they don’t have anything then drop an email to [email protected] to ask how a visit should be rebooked.
 
Matt N said:
I have a couple of queries regarding the Rainy Day Guarantee/“return for free” offer.

I went to the park for the Alton After Dark event on 23rd March, and due to the day’s weather-induced sporadic ride availability and very long queues, the park activated the Rainy Day Guarantee and allowed anyone with a pre-booked ticket for 23rd March to return for free at another point in the year.

I now have an opportunity to return to the park on 28th July. I might be alone, or my grandad might come with me, but I was thinking of possibly redeeming my free return ticket from 23rd March when I visit on this day. I know that my mum and dad’s desire to return to Alton Towers in 2024 is quite low, so they seemed perfectly OK with the idea.

My questions were:
  • Are there any hidden clauses in the “return for free” offer that might mean that a ticket from 23rd March wouldn’t be valid on 28th July? Or are you allowed to redeem it on any day in 2024?
  • And if I am allowed to redeem it on this day, do I have to do anything beforehand, such as reserve the day, to ensure that the park doesn’t sell out and they won’t let me in?
I just don’t want to travel for 2.5 hours under the pretence that I can use the free ticket and find out that I can’t get in with it, for whatever reason, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

If it’s at all relevant, the ticket would likely also be in my mum or dad’s name, as I did not originally book it, but I was part of the party who originally used the tickets.
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The Rainy Day Guarantee was renamed to Visit Again for Free this year (VAFF). I was also in the park the same day as you and eventually got the same notification, although you did help me out with a screenshot of it when it wasn't loading for me.

The support article for VAFF can be found here:

The article says to email Guest Services for the full terms, but essentially it's not a pre-book and you turn up with your original ticket and ID. Probably not a bad idea to email them anyway though and explain the situation, or get the person who made the booking to do it for you.

As pass holders we've had Fastrack vouchers posted out to us instead, but our friends and family who were with us are now able to go by themselves because VAFF was activated.
 
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