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School trips.

M

Maya

TS Member
So,we all know that its school trips week, I'm visiting tomorrow, and so are many,many other schools (so i suspect)
Also, next weeks the start if the holidays, so it will still be packed with kids
So, here is the plaace where you can give advice to people who are going on school trips, how to avoid the queues, and have a great time (without getting stuck into a group of chavvs)
And also, if you've been this week, tell us queue times?
Take a look at the queue times- if its worth buying fast tracks, buy them
 
Yeah, riffing on that theme, does anyone know how busy it will be on Sundays in August? I mean like, average queue times for people who have been before on those dates. Are we talking like, 10/15 minute queues, or an hour wait for Nemesis?

Looking at taking my boyfriend who's never been before, and obviously since he's paying for his ticket, we'd rather not go on a day with long queues, but do want to go on a day with late opening!
 
This time of year Alton is packed with school trips, I went last week and only got on 3 rides! However two years ago when I went in the first week of the 6 weeks holiday it was really quite, me and my friends walked on most of the rides, our longest queue was only 20 minutes. :eek:
 
This Thursday towers have apparently got around 400 coaches booked in, so it's going to be reaaaally busy. As for the holidays, for the first few weeks on weekdays and Sundays it tends to be relatively quiet, the park only gets very busy all the time during the last few weeks of August.

As for Nemmy's queue, even on quiet days just now it tends to rack up at least a 30 minute queue during the busy times of the day, but as usual should be dead by 5 o'clock :)
 
does the coach amount include minibuses. two of them = 32, if the driver like Alton then that 34 people.

13 minibuses = 208 people. 221 if the drivers join in too.

just think 400, 56 seater coaches comes out at a possible 22,400 people.
 
Have visited Alton Towers the last two days, and the place has been packed with school trips. Queue times have varied between 1 hour to 2 hours. However due to me and my best friend buying fastracks so we could do all the rides we wanted to get on (we do have annual passes so we felt it was worth buying them), we didn't really focus on queue times that much. We did also take advantage of the 1 hour ERT at 9am.

We did notice that towards the end of the day, particularly around 4pm, some of the bigger rides like Oblivion and Air had a much smaller queue time (around 30 mins for Air I'm sure I saw.)
 
If you can do ERT, its best to make the most of it, as pretty much none of the school kids will have it, and alot of them wont be on park that early. I would say get a good few rides on Rita and Oblivion during ERT. Sub Terra is also best to get done early before the majority of people get there. Towards the end of the day (especially with 6pm ride close) the park usually gets more quiet and the big rides wont be as busy.
 
The best way to avoid queues is to make the most of ERT, by which I mean legging it around trying to get on many rides!

Also, and I can't believe I'm saying this, buy Fastracks! (Someone shoot me...)
They will reduce your queuing times, and allow you to get on more rides. However, they do cost a fortune and make other guests angry, so it's your choice.

At least there hasn't been a 3 hour queue like G Force at Drayton Manor...
 
School trip? You'll be extremely lucky if you can get at least 3 rides done.
Oblivion and Nemesis was on a 1hr+ queue throughout most of yesterday. Air, Rita and Th13teen were easily over 1 hour 30 minutes all day, too.
Within the just under 5 hour day yesterday (we arrived late because of traffic) I could only manage 3 rides. Even Hex had a queue of up to 30 minutes! :eek:
 
Best advice? Avoid the busiest rides - there's no way you'll get all of them done anyway so you'd be better off sticking to the smaller rides. Aim to do Duel, Blade, Ripsaw, Marauders Mayhem, Rapids, Twirling Toadstool, Hex and Enterprise. If there's time do RMT as well, and maybe one other coaster - Nemesis, Thirteen or Oblivion are likely to be the best bet.

That way, you may miss out on your favourite rides but at least you've got a healthy ride count in, and I guarantee you'll have had a better time than the people who only got on 2 or 3 coasters.
 
Thanks for the advice- we have made a plan! Th13teen first, then maybe rita, and then oblivion (in ert/ when the parks just opened) then go onto rides such as duel, hex,ripsaw, submission,enterprise and ice age. We might fit air or nemesis in, but probably not.

We might buy fasttracks...maybe

Good idea?
 
Well if today is anything to go by, fastrack queues for the major rides will be in excess of 30 minutes, so the benefit is debatable. I'd rather save my money and do the smaller rides/attractions.

You can get Rita, Oblivion and Nemesis done in ERT, after that your aim should be to get on Air and Thirteen as quickly as possible. After doing both queues will be building up so it'll be time to move onto the smaller rides, but keep checking the queues as towards the end of the day you may get a 2nd chance to ride something major without having to wait too long.
 
^ I also give you hot debate on the same photo.

EDIT: Jonathan Balsdon likes my argument (There's a surprise ;) )

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