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Quick Questions

Are Car park tickets the same price on site as they are online?

Online they’re £10 atm but a few months ago me and my mates managed to get them for £7 (not sure if it’s because we’re students).

Booked our tickets for tomorrow but they didn’t give us an option for the £7 ticket cause I’m assuming that’s the price during off peak season?
 
Dhev123 said:
Are Car park tickets the same price on site as they are online?

Online they’re £10 atm but a few months ago me and my mates managed to get them for £7 (not sure if it’s because we’re students).

Booked our tickets for tomorrow but they didn’t give us an option for the £7 ticket cause I’m assuming that’s the price during off peak season?
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It used to be £7 (up from £6), but is now £10.
 
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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Just under a month ago, I asked about whether VAFF would be valid on 28th July. After the helpful advice I received here, I shot Alton Towers customer service an email, and they gave me very little new info apart from reiterating what @GooseOnTheLoose said. With all things considered, it sounded as though I’d be fine to use my ticket on 28th July.

However, Alton Towers have since announced that the CBeebies 10-year anniversary event is happening throughout the entire summer holidays. VAFF excludes special events, so I was wondering; do you reckon the CBeebies event would be considered a “special event”, or do you think this refers exclusively to Scarefest, Fireworks and Oktoberfest?
 
Matt N said:
do you reckon the CBeebies event would be considered a “special event”, or do you think this refers exclusively to Scarefest, Fireworks and Oktoberfest?
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I think VAFF vouchers are redeemable for Oktoberfest and the CBeebies "event", because nothing actually happens during them. Having said that, your original ticket was also for a special event, "Alton After Dark", which came with extended opening hours for night time riding. I'd follow up, again, and persevere with Guest Services and be specific in your request.

"Which events / dates are explicitly excluding from VAFF? Given that my original ticket was for a special event, do I get some discrepancy?"

They can't be vague with when you can't use your visit again for free ticket, they do need to be specific in what the terms are / exclusion dates. They ought to have worked out by now which dates the VAFF tickets aren't valid on, so that they can enforce this at the gate.
 
They can't be vague... but they often are.
They ought to have worked out the relevant dates...but they probably haven't.
Or they possibly have, but haven't informed the people that need to know.

I have struggled with aught, vague, and possibly with customer services for a couple of years now.
They used to be quite good, in my personal and professional opinion, in the past.
I think it used to be just scarefest and fireworks in the past, where you couldn't use repeat weather tickets.
 
I emailed Towers this morning, asking for exclusion dates for VAFF tickets as some of my gaggle have some to use and this is the response I received (TODAY!)

"Regarding your enquiry for our vaff dates the exclusion dates are 31st October, and between 8th-10th November (fireworks), Any other day will be perfectly fine."

CC @Matt N
 
Thanks for the info @GooseOnTheLoose; that’s great!

I’m surprised your companions were able to get much specificity out of them. The first time I emailed Alton, the reply I got back seemed like it was possibly AI-generated at a guess, and basically just regurgitated, word for word, the vague extract on the website.

I’ve emailed Guest Services back myself, just to be 100% sure. For clarity, though, this is merely because I don’t think Alton would accept hearsay from a TS member as my source of validity for the offer…
 
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Matt N said:
Thanks for the info @GooseOnTheLoose; that’s great!

I’m surprised your companions were able to get much specificity out of them. The first time I emailed Alton, the reply I got back seemed like it was possibly AI-generated at a guess, and basically just regurgitated, word for word, the vague extract on the website.

I’ve emailed Guest Services back myself, just to be 100% sure. For clarity, though, this is merely because I don’t think Alton would accept hearsay from a TS member as my source of validity for the offer…
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Ought to clarify, I emailed Guest Services today for the request as I was the ticket purchaser. I am the first source for this, no hearsay.
 

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GooseOnTheLoose said:
Ought to clarify, I emailed Guest Services today for the request as I was the ticket purchaser. I am the first source for this, no hearsay.
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Wonderful; thank you for clarifying that!

I got a response from Alton Towers myself, and I got explicit confirmation that my ticket is valid for VAFF on 28th July 2024!

On a side note, I’m less convinced than ever that Alton Towers Guest Services is actually manned by a human, or that parts of it aren’t outsourced to AI… I actually got quite a human-seeming response at the beginning, but then it randomly went into regurgitating the exact same spiel that I got given last month, word for word. And to top things off, the name responding to me changed midway through the email; I got initially greeted by one name, but the email was signed off by a completely different name!
 
Matt N said:
Wonderful; thank you for clarifying that!

I got a response from Alton Towers myself, and I got explicit confirmation that my ticket is valid for VAFF on 28th July 2024!

On a side note, I’m less convinced than ever that Alton Towers Guest Services is actually manned by a human, or that parts of it aren’t outsourced to AI… I actually got quite a human-seeming response at the beginning, but then it randomly went into regurgitating the exact same spiel that I got given last month, word for word. And to top things off, the name responding to me changed midway through the email; I got initially greeted by one name, but the email was signed off by a completely different name!
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Even if it is a human replying they will have set responses they can copy and paste or click a button to insert into a reply.
 
Hi, just a couple of quick questions 😊 we are due to stay in the woodland lodge on sat 7th sept.. when we arrive early on the sat would we be able to park at the alton towers hotel car park?

Also does the resort still offer the early access to the park by galatica and can we use that on sat 7th when we arrive early or is it only available the day after our stay, the 8th?

Thank you guys
 
Will be the first visit since my son reached 1.4m next Friday so will be going on some of the big rides for the first time. I was thinking of getting the unlimited ride photos pass. Has anyone got this before? Just wondering how it works.
 
geo4chg said:
Will be the first visit since my son reached 1.4m next Friday so will be going on some of the big rides for the first time. I was thinking of getting the unlimited ride photos pass. Has anyone got this before? Just wondering how it works.
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You'll create an account with iMagic, which will be used to store, order and download your photos (and videos on some rides). At the end of each ride, in the photo display kiosk, you'll see a wall of screens with ride photos on. Either copy down the photo number, or scan the QR code on each photo you'd like to add to your photo pass.

You can find links to purchase the photo pass and sign up to iMagic in the Alton Towers app, or on their website.
www.altontowers.com

Theme Park Ride Photos | Alton Towers Resort

The Alton Towers imagic gives you access to view photos from rides, studios and walkabout photographers. Book a digital photo pass online and remember the excitement!
www.altontowers.com www.altontowers.com
 
Thanks for the response.

It says you need to activate it at the Box Office on arrival, I was planning on going straight to Galactica first thing. Do you think they will be able to activate it at the Guest Services in FV? Don’t fancy traipsing all the way back to Towers St for it if possible.
 
geo4chg said:
Thanks for the response.

It says you need to activate it at the Box Office on arrival, I was planning on going straight to Galactica first thing. Do you think they will be able to activate it at the Guest Services in FV? Don’t fancy traipsing all the way back to Towers St for it if possible.
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You can add photos to the app without activating it first. Activation can be done at any point in the day at the Box Office. Do not leave the park without activating your pass. Some staff members at Guest Services may be trained to activate the pass, or they can point you in the direction of an outlet that is.
 
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