AstroDan
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance, Cedar Point
It is rare with 10+ trips a season that I find myself compelled to write a trip report for Alton Towers. But today was, by far, the worst day I have seen delivered by Alton Towers in the past five years and one of the weakest I have seen in all my visits. It's that old thing that issues never seem to be isolated, they snowball - and before you know it, you're looking at the watch at 4pm thinking 'how did I get here?'. Compounded by frequent showers throughout the day, I didn't see anything particularly positive from the park today. I travelled 40 minutes. Had I travelled the 200 miles that my partner and friend had, or from another part of the country - I would have been furious at the time, money and energy invested into a day which did not deliver anywhere near the experience that should be offered. This, after a largely euphoric day last Saturday when everyone went home largely happy.
We parked at 9.35am with minimal fuss and walked to the Monorail. Problem #1 presented itself - within seconds of joining the rear of the queue it was announced that the monorail was suffering a delay, and all guests were asked to walk. This then ensured that hundreds of guests made their way across the car parks and along the very narrow paths with traffic oncoming (it was peak arrival time after all) towards the entrance. After the 15 minute walk, with some showers, we made it to a very busy plaza where we queued 5 minutes for bag check before being ushered through the turnstiles. Things then briefly picked up, as we strolled down Towers Street, through Mutiny Bay and up to Katanga Canyon, where the Mine Train was advertised a 5 minute queue. We decided to ride before making our way up to Gloomy Wood. Nothing wrong here.
We arrived at Gloomy Wood in a shower of rain to be met with a closed Curse at Alton Manor. This wasn't a major issue, as it opened late last Saturday. However, it transpired that the ride had infact opened around 9.30am and had operated for the best part of 1 hour before closing shortly before we arrived. Either way, we stuck it out for 10/15 minutes before deciding it best to go grab a coffee in Forbidden Valley and returning to Curse at Alton Manor after.
We had our coffee and one of the delightful new cupcakes and sat for 1/2 hour, whilst checking the app to see that the new ride was still closed. We headed back over to Gloomy Wood for about 11.30am. We got back to find that the ride was still closed, and decided to sit it out for 15-20 minutes. However, it failed to open. By 11.50am, we decided to head to Mutiny Bay to grab a drink and lunch. The Welcom-Inn duly opened, and we sat with a pint and mused over the morning so far, desperately hoping that Curse at Alton Manor opened. We noted that Congo River Rapids, Battle Galleons and Spinball Whizzer (which we were aware of beforehand) hadn't opened at all, and Oblivion, Get Set Go Tree Top Adventure and Th13teen seemed to be suffering sporadic issues. Queues for the likes of Smiler, Wicker Man, Rita were over 1 hour at this stage. By 12.40pm, we decide to go and get some lunch. We were going to go for a pasty and wrongly thought these were available at Lunch Box - however, when we arrived, they weren't. No problem, we knew they were available at Corner Coffee. However, the hot counter there has been removed and replaced by a fridge. No pasties there now. So we decided to go to Eastern Express. However, the prices there are objectionable (£8-9 for a jacket potato, £9-10.50 for the wraps)... Rollover to the rescue!
By this point it was 1.45pm. We headed back over to Curse at Alton Manor to see what was going on. We joined the queue outside the entrance and waited 20 minutes. It didn't open. So we decided to head to Galactica, advertised 40 minutes. Battling the sporadic showery rain, we arrived at Galactica which was out the entrance, but 40 minutes was 40 minutes - and we wanted to remain reasonably close to Curse at Alton Manor if it opened. It quickly transpired Galactica was on 2 crafts. The queue moved slowly, but after 25 minutes, where we thought the queue would turnaround back towards the station... no. It was going all the way down the bank and back! Easily another 45 minutes after the 25 we had already waited! We decided to bail, as we didn't want to queue this amount of time.
Come 3.00pm, we had migrated over to Fountain Square. We rode Hex, which had a fairly short wait. It was pretty decent. But Oblivion was closed, Th13teen was open then closed, Smiler was 1 hour, Rita was the same. We then had slowly meandered for a short while before the rain came down heavier, so took shelter in Woodcutters. But as we only wanted drinks we had to sit outside at the tables, which were covered in previous guests' meals. We ordered on the website and drinks came in 10/15 minutes. There are new speakers attached to the exterior of the restaurant, but these were playing rock music which clashed horrendously with the heritage track playing loudly at the other side of Fountain Square. Who installed these!? Come on, guys... By 4.30pm, we decided to make our way down to Wicker Man for a ride. Thankfully, Wicker Man was the beacon of the day and was running three trains. We waited around 40 minutes, getting off by 5.30pm.
We headed for the exits quite honestly feeling that Alton Towers had failed in most respects to deliver a day out worthy of the brand, price and marketing power it has.
Main issues:
1. Oblivion closed for significant periods of time
2. Ride close 5.00pm in spite of 60 minute queues
3. Galactica on reduced capacity and queue times being massively understated
4. Curse at Alton Manor opening for a maximum of 1 hour during the day and not riding, countless guests were disappointed - was the app also not updating when the ride did briefly open?
5. Skyride, Congo River Rapids, Battle Galleons, Spinball Whizzer closed entirely (not including Nemesis)
6. Monorail breaking down first thing, causing dangerous crowding against traffic flow on the walk in at the top of the car park
7. Th13teen frequently closing, Fabio's Fabulous Fandango also broke down during the day
8. Get Set Go being closed for the vast majority of the day
9. Food choice in terms of takeaway offering is diabolical - there is just no choice.
10. Exorbitant prices at Eastern Express - £8-9 for a jacket potato, what planet are they on?
11. Horrible audio clashes at Woodcutters on Fountain Square exterior
12. Galactica queue line generally a bit of a state. None of the speakers work now aside from the covered queue line bit on top of the hill...! What have they been doing over winter!?
13. Many queue times wildly inaccurate. 50 to 100% more than advertised on some.
I can handle the odd issue, it is a massive operation to run a theme park after all - but when guests pay good money, travel for hours *and* it's raining, they really need to do better, When the weather is so mixed, people get ratty as it is - and Alton did nothing to abate these issues today.
Honestly? The park was lousy today and judging by commentary in the AT News & Discussion Group on Facebook, I am not the only person who had a crap day. Someone needs a kick up the arse and actually have the park ready to open at the start of the season. Maybe last week because I was so ecstatic about Curse at Alton Manor, and the fact I only really went in half the park and was just as keen to catch up with friends than I was to ride anything - I didn't realise.
We parked at 9.35am with minimal fuss and walked to the Monorail. Problem #1 presented itself - within seconds of joining the rear of the queue it was announced that the monorail was suffering a delay, and all guests were asked to walk. This then ensured that hundreds of guests made their way across the car parks and along the very narrow paths with traffic oncoming (it was peak arrival time after all) towards the entrance. After the 15 minute walk, with some showers, we made it to a very busy plaza where we queued 5 minutes for bag check before being ushered through the turnstiles. Things then briefly picked up, as we strolled down Towers Street, through Mutiny Bay and up to Katanga Canyon, where the Mine Train was advertised a 5 minute queue. We decided to ride before making our way up to Gloomy Wood. Nothing wrong here.
We arrived at Gloomy Wood in a shower of rain to be met with a closed Curse at Alton Manor. This wasn't a major issue, as it opened late last Saturday. However, it transpired that the ride had infact opened around 9.30am and had operated for the best part of 1 hour before closing shortly before we arrived. Either way, we stuck it out for 10/15 minutes before deciding it best to go grab a coffee in Forbidden Valley and returning to Curse at Alton Manor after.
We had our coffee and one of the delightful new cupcakes and sat for 1/2 hour, whilst checking the app to see that the new ride was still closed. We headed back over to Gloomy Wood for about 11.30am. We got back to find that the ride was still closed, and decided to sit it out for 15-20 minutes. However, it failed to open. By 11.50am, we decided to head to Mutiny Bay to grab a drink and lunch. The Welcom-Inn duly opened, and we sat with a pint and mused over the morning so far, desperately hoping that Curse at Alton Manor opened. We noted that Congo River Rapids, Battle Galleons and Spinball Whizzer (which we were aware of beforehand) hadn't opened at all, and Oblivion, Get Set Go Tree Top Adventure and Th13teen seemed to be suffering sporadic issues. Queues for the likes of Smiler, Wicker Man, Rita were over 1 hour at this stage. By 12.40pm, we decide to go and get some lunch. We were going to go for a pasty and wrongly thought these were available at Lunch Box - however, when we arrived, they weren't. No problem, we knew they were available at Corner Coffee. However, the hot counter there has been removed and replaced by a fridge. No pasties there now. So we decided to go to Eastern Express. However, the prices there are objectionable (£8-9 for a jacket potato, £9-10.50 for the wraps)... Rollover to the rescue!
By this point it was 1.45pm. We headed back over to Curse at Alton Manor to see what was going on. We joined the queue outside the entrance and waited 20 minutes. It didn't open. So we decided to head to Galactica, advertised 40 minutes. Battling the sporadic showery rain, we arrived at Galactica which was out the entrance, but 40 minutes was 40 minutes - and we wanted to remain reasonably close to Curse at Alton Manor if it opened. It quickly transpired Galactica was on 2 crafts. The queue moved slowly, but after 25 minutes, where we thought the queue would turnaround back towards the station... no. It was going all the way down the bank and back! Easily another 45 minutes after the 25 we had already waited! We decided to bail, as we didn't want to queue this amount of time.
Come 3.00pm, we had migrated over to Fountain Square. We rode Hex, which had a fairly short wait. It was pretty decent. But Oblivion was closed, Th13teen was open then closed, Smiler was 1 hour, Rita was the same. We then had slowly meandered for a short while before the rain came down heavier, so took shelter in Woodcutters. But as we only wanted drinks we had to sit outside at the tables, which were covered in previous guests' meals. We ordered on the website and drinks came in 10/15 minutes. There are new speakers attached to the exterior of the restaurant, but these were playing rock music which clashed horrendously with the heritage track playing loudly at the other side of Fountain Square. Who installed these!? Come on, guys... By 4.30pm, we decided to make our way down to Wicker Man for a ride. Thankfully, Wicker Man was the beacon of the day and was running three trains. We waited around 40 minutes, getting off by 5.30pm.
We headed for the exits quite honestly feeling that Alton Towers had failed in most respects to deliver a day out worthy of the brand, price and marketing power it has.
Main issues:
1. Oblivion closed for significant periods of time
2. Ride close 5.00pm in spite of 60 minute queues
3. Galactica on reduced capacity and queue times being massively understated
4. Curse at Alton Manor opening for a maximum of 1 hour during the day and not riding, countless guests were disappointed - was the app also not updating when the ride did briefly open?
5. Skyride, Congo River Rapids, Battle Galleons, Spinball Whizzer closed entirely (not including Nemesis)
6. Monorail breaking down first thing, causing dangerous crowding against traffic flow on the walk in at the top of the car park
7. Th13teen frequently closing, Fabio's Fabulous Fandango also broke down during the day
8. Get Set Go being closed for the vast majority of the day
9. Food choice in terms of takeaway offering is diabolical - there is just no choice.
10. Exorbitant prices at Eastern Express - £8-9 for a jacket potato, what planet are they on?
11. Horrible audio clashes at Woodcutters on Fountain Square exterior
12. Galactica queue line generally a bit of a state. None of the speakers work now aside from the covered queue line bit on top of the hill...! What have they been doing over winter!?
13. Many queue times wildly inaccurate. 50 to 100% more than advertised on some.
I can handle the odd issue, it is a massive operation to run a theme park after all - but when guests pay good money, travel for hours *and* it's raining, they really need to do better, When the weather is so mixed, people get ratty as it is - and Alton did nothing to abate these issues today.
Honestly? The park was lousy today and judging by commentary in the AT News & Discussion Group on Facebook, I am not the only person who had a crap day. Someone needs a kick up the arse and actually have the park ready to open at the start of the season. Maybe last week because I was so ecstatic about Curse at Alton Manor, and the fact I only really went in half the park and was just as keen to catch up with friends than I was to ride anything - I didn't realise.
Last edited:
