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What percentage of an Alton Towers day is spent experiencing attractions?

Matt N

Matt N

TS Member
Favourite Ride
Shambhala (PortAventura Park)
Hi guys. Have you ever visited Alton Towers for the day and thought to yourself "How much of my day at the park is actually being spent experiencing attractions?" or "To what extent does queueing and walking between attractions detract from riding time at Alton Towers?".

If you have ever asked this question; fear not, dear reader, as I may finally have an answer for you!

In terms of how I actually answered this question, I decided to try and measure how much of my park day was spent experiencing attractions on my Alton Towers visit on Sunday 19th June 2022. I logged the times I entered and exited the park, and I logged the time whenever I boarded or exited an attraction.

Before I delve into my data, I should specify that:
  • 19th June was a 10am-5pm day.
  • The park was not overly busy.
  • I entered the park a little late, and I left slightly after closing time.
  • Being a hotel guest, I was able to enter through the hotel guest entrance. I exited through the main entrance on Towers Street.
  • For what it’s worth, I’ve been told I’m quite a fast walker.
  • I defined boarding a ride as being in the airgates and seeing my vehicle approaching. The definition of exiting a ride was not quite as clear cut, but I tried to make it to be at some point between exiting the station and reaching the public pathways again.
  • Both walking between rides and queueing for rides was defined as non-riding time, as well as the lunch break we took.
  • My ride on Duel included a brief 5 minute breakdown, which could be skewing things slightly.
My day yesterday was as follows:
  • Park entered through hotel guest entrance 10:25
  • Boarded Galactica 10:37
  • Exited Galactica 10:43
  • Boarded Nemesis 10:50
  • Exited Nemesis 10:54
  • Boarded Nemesis 10:58
  • Exited Nemesis 11:02
  • Boarded Duel 11:11
  • Exited Duel 11:21
  • Boarded Runaway Mine Train 11:42
  • Exited Runaway Mine Train 11:48
  • Entered Sharkbait Reef 11:54
  • Exited Sharkbait Reef 12:06
  • Boarded Wicker Man 12:54
  • Exited Wicker Man 12:59
  • Boarded Oblivion 13:39
  • Exited Oblivion 13:44
  • Boarded Smiler 14:01
  • Exited Smiler 14:06
  • Boarded Gangsta Granny 14:43
  • Exited Gangsta Granny 14:50
  • Boarded Thirteen 15:18
  • Exited Thirteen 15:22
  • Boarded Rita 15:51
  • Exited Rita 15:54
  • Boarded Oblivion 16:06
  • Exited Oblivion 16:13
  • Boarded Wicker Man 17:02
  • Exited Wicker Man 17:09
  • Park exited through main entrance 17:15
  • Alton Towers Hotel reached 17:34
To convert that into periods of riding and non-riding time:
  • 12 minutes non-riding time
  • 6 minutes riding Galactica
  • 7 minutes non-riding time
  • 4 minutes riding Nemesis
  • 4 minutes non-riding time
  • 4 minutes riding Nemesis
  • 9 minutes non-riding time
  • 10 minutes riding Duel
  • 21 minutes non-riding time
  • 6 minutes riding Runaway Mine Train
  • 6 minutes non-riding time
  • 12 minutes experiencing Sharkbait Reef
  • 48 minutes non-riding time
  • 5 minutes riding Wicker Man
  • 40 minutes non-riding time
  • 5 minutes riding Oblivion
  • 17 minutes non-riding time
  • 5 minutes riding Smiler
  • 37 minutes non-riding time
  • 7 minutes riding Gangsta Granny
  • 28 minutes non-riding time
  • 4 minutes riding Thirteen
  • 29 minutes non-riding time
  • 3 minutes riding Rita
  • 12 minutes non-riding time
  • 7 minutes riding Oblivion
  • 49 minutes non-riding time
  • 7 minutes riding Wicker Man
  • 6 minutes non-riding time to exit park
  • 19 minutes non-riding time to walk to Alton Towers Hotel
So in total, my park day was 6h 50m/410 minutes in length if you go from the time I entered the park to the time I exited the park, or 7h 9m/429 minutes if you count the time it took me to walk to the hotel as well.

My total attraction time for the day was 1h 25m/85 minutes (for clarity, my time in Sharkbait Reef is counted as attraction time here).

With that in mind, approximately 21% of my day was spent experiencing attractions if you go with the 6h 50m from park entry to park exit, and that figure is approximately 20% for the 7h 9m from park entry to reaching the Alton Towers Hotel.

If you take Sharkbait Reef out of my total (as I know it's not a ride per se), my riding time for the day was 1h 13m/73 minutes, thus making my percentage riding time 18% for the 6h 50m length and approximately 17% for the 7h 9m length.

But in conclusion, I think we can ascertain that my percentage riding time for the day was somewhere in the ballpark of 20%, to 1 significant figure.

I hope you find this interesting!

TL;DR: Following requests, I tested how much of my Alton Towers day on Sunday 19th June 2022 was spent riding. When I tested this, the figure came out at around 20%.
 
What percentage of your day was spent immersing yourself and enjoying a day out and how much was spent timing yourself.

What steps did you take to ensure your timings are accurate, did you get them independently verified?
 
MattyH said:
What percentage of your day was spent immersing yourself and enjoying a day out and how much was spent timing yourself.

What steps did you take to ensure your timings are accurate, did you get them independently verified?
Click to expand...
The bulk of it; all this took was a quick look at my watch and a quick note of the time in my iPhone notes at different points in the day, so the amount of time spent doing it was very low!

Regretfully, I could not get these independently verified, but I assure you, I tried to make everything as accurate as possible!
 
If you’d taken the monorail back to the hotel could have increased the ride count slightly. Or would monorail not count?
 
jon81uk said:
If you’d taken the monorail back to the hotel could have increased the ride count slightly. Or would monorail not count?
Click to expand...
That would depend on how long the queue was. If the queue was particularly long for the monorail (which it could well have been at just after park close), then it may actually have lowered the percentage.

I needed to get back to the hotel by 7pm or so, so I didn’t want to risk queueing for the monorail and not making it.
 
How much time was spent enjoying a beer in the sunshine? Dining in a quality sit down restaurant? Soaking up the atmosphere? Watching entertainment? Meet and greets with the kids? Walking the beautiful gardens and surroundings? Interacting with guests on rides with theming elements? Taking pictures as your kids enjoy Cbeebies attractions on their own?

I suspect on a 5pm close, the answer is not alot.
 
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