BigDave
TS Member
Ok so I was a bit tipsy for most of this event, but here's a bit of what happened and what it was like.
Last year we went to Alton Towers for works Christmas meal. It was the cheaper package they did, but was still expensive enough. I think it was £20 per person. It was ok, but it felt cheap through out and the food wasn't that great. This year we gave them another chance and opted to go for the more expensive package they offered. All year I said I wasn't going to go, but I suddenly got told that someone had pulled out and if I wanted to, I could have their ticket and it would be doing them a favour as they would get their money back and a ticket wouldn't be lost. I still wasn't really that fussed about going and it was still £50 a ticket, but had to quickly rush up some plans to get there and what to wear.
So after work I went home and managed to blag a lift off my dad to take me. I dressed up and rushed off to the towers. The hotels look great all lit up, but was slightly disappointed that there wasn't anyone there to welcome you. I do admit though, I was a bit later than most of the other groups, but people were still arriving. We headed over to the conference centre and was greeted there by a few members of staff and a few costume characters. It looked really nice and they were offering free bucks fizz which went down nicely, but in honesty, I expected a better/bigger free drink on arrival as there was hardly a mouthful in the glasses. Also this area was MASSIVELY over crowed. Even the staff found it hard to work out who was coming in, who was given a drink, who was leaving. It really needed better crowd control. We were then told to go down to the main conference area, but again this was an issue as no one knew where to go as no staff seemed to be taking control of the crowds.
The main seating area was really nice and its clear they had gone to town with the enchanted forest theme. It really was a great wow when you walked inside, but again people were struggling to find out which table was there's, which leads straight on to the next problem. Our group booking was made for 15 people originally and we later changed that to 17. Surprise surprise, no one had forwarded this information onto the seating organisers and we ended up getting a table with only 15 seats. We managed to shuffle around a bit and they came down with an extra chair and some more cutlery, but it did feel like they were slapping you onto an already crowded table. In addition this extra seat was now blocking the staff doors which they used to bring food into the main seating area. We did get two complimentary bottles of champers though for the inconvenience.
So onto the starter. It was melons and prawns. Melons I like, but prawns are a no no. This wasn't a problem and a friendly member of staff had noticed I hadn't eaten anything and came over and asked what was wrong, which I thought was a nice touch. I explained I didn't like prawns and she came back with a plate of melon, strawberries and loads of other fruit with some sweet sauce (not sure what it was). This was nice and they even let our table keep the extra prawn an melon dish, which was shared around (classy I know).
After the starter we noticed the crackers and party hats. Inside some crackers were some odd shaped balloons which as you can imagine kept us amused for a while. The soup dish was served next and it was really nice. There was a little mix up with only half our table getting bread, but then yet again they noticed something was wrong and the manager came over and gave us more bread rolls and loads of butter. By this point the live show started up and we got a few songs sung for us. The soup was really nice, but wasn't much of it. Im not a fan of tiny portions. Just because you pay for top quality food, shouldn't mean you get half sized portions. Anyway, it was really nice and everyone commented on how much they enjoyed it.
The main was turkey dinner and it was so epically tasty. The plates were brought out steaming hot and the food was out of this world. It was probably the best roast turkey I have ever had and the team were bringing out various sauces too. I really cannot say start to explain how good it was!
On to my favourite bit.... dessert! We had a choice of Christmas pudding or chocolate cheesecake. Im not a huge fan of Christmas pudding so opted for the cheesecake. Mine looked amazing, but someone's on our table fell over whilst being brought to the table and ended up looking like an heaped mess. Still it tasted great and yet again everyone who had it said how amazing it was. The addition of a nutty icecream and a orange jelly was a nice touch too.
The live band played and they were really good. This was followed by a bit of a DJ set later on. Many people were drunk by this point and the towers clearly hired in some extra security, but they were low key and everything seemed to go very smoothly apart from the little hiccup at the start.
Sorry for spamming peoples Facebook pages with drunken updates. It was a good laugh and I would recommend it to other groups looking for a Christmas meal somewhere.
Last year we went to Alton Towers for works Christmas meal. It was the cheaper package they did, but was still expensive enough. I think it was £20 per person. It was ok, but it felt cheap through out and the food wasn't that great. This year we gave them another chance and opted to go for the more expensive package they offered. All year I said I wasn't going to go, but I suddenly got told that someone had pulled out and if I wanted to, I could have their ticket and it would be doing them a favour as they would get their money back and a ticket wouldn't be lost. I still wasn't really that fussed about going and it was still £50 a ticket, but had to quickly rush up some plans to get there and what to wear.
So after work I went home and managed to blag a lift off my dad to take me. I dressed up and rushed off to the towers. The hotels look great all lit up, but was slightly disappointed that there wasn't anyone there to welcome you. I do admit though, I was a bit later than most of the other groups, but people were still arriving. We headed over to the conference centre and was greeted there by a few members of staff and a few costume characters. It looked really nice and they were offering free bucks fizz which went down nicely, but in honesty, I expected a better/bigger free drink on arrival as there was hardly a mouthful in the glasses. Also this area was MASSIVELY over crowed. Even the staff found it hard to work out who was coming in, who was given a drink, who was leaving. It really needed better crowd control. We were then told to go down to the main conference area, but again this was an issue as no one knew where to go as no staff seemed to be taking control of the crowds.
The main seating area was really nice and its clear they had gone to town with the enchanted forest theme. It really was a great wow when you walked inside, but again people were struggling to find out which table was there's, which leads straight on to the next problem. Our group booking was made for 15 people originally and we later changed that to 17. Surprise surprise, no one had forwarded this information onto the seating organisers and we ended up getting a table with only 15 seats. We managed to shuffle around a bit and they came down with an extra chair and some more cutlery, but it did feel like they were slapping you onto an already crowded table. In addition this extra seat was now blocking the staff doors which they used to bring food into the main seating area. We did get two complimentary bottles of champers though for the inconvenience.
So onto the starter. It was melons and prawns. Melons I like, but prawns are a no no. This wasn't a problem and a friendly member of staff had noticed I hadn't eaten anything and came over and asked what was wrong, which I thought was a nice touch. I explained I didn't like prawns and she came back with a plate of melon, strawberries and loads of other fruit with some sweet sauce (not sure what it was). This was nice and they even let our table keep the extra prawn an melon dish, which was shared around (classy I know).
After the starter we noticed the crackers and party hats. Inside some crackers were some odd shaped balloons which as you can imagine kept us amused for a while. The soup dish was served next and it was really nice. There was a little mix up with only half our table getting bread, but then yet again they noticed something was wrong and the manager came over and gave us more bread rolls and loads of butter. By this point the live show started up and we got a few songs sung for us. The soup was really nice, but wasn't much of it. Im not a fan of tiny portions. Just because you pay for top quality food, shouldn't mean you get half sized portions. Anyway, it was really nice and everyone commented on how much they enjoyed it.
The main was turkey dinner and it was so epically tasty. The plates were brought out steaming hot and the food was out of this world. It was probably the best roast turkey I have ever had and the team were bringing out various sauces too. I really cannot say start to explain how good it was!
On to my favourite bit.... dessert! We had a choice of Christmas pudding or chocolate cheesecake. Im not a huge fan of Christmas pudding so opted for the cheesecake. Mine looked amazing, but someone's on our table fell over whilst being brought to the table and ended up looking like an heaped mess. Still it tasted great and yet again everyone who had it said how amazing it was. The addition of a nutty icecream and a orange jelly was a nice touch too.
The live band played and they were really good. This was followed by a bit of a DJ set later on. Many people were drunk by this point and the towers clearly hired in some extra security, but they were low key and everything seemed to go very smoothly apart from the little hiccup at the start.
Sorry for spamming peoples Facebook pages with drunken updates. It was a good laugh and I would recommend it to other groups looking for a Christmas meal somewhere.
