Early Ride Time
Early Ride Time (ERT) returned to Alton Towers in 2024 after several years.
On selected dates over May Half Term and Summer, hotel guests will be able to access a limited selection of rides from 9am, giving an hour of ERT before the crowds of day guests descend.
For 2025, ERT will be available on Nemesis Reborn, Runaway Mine Train and CBeebies Land.
During ERT (and throughout the day) hotel guests can enter the park through Forbidden Valley, using the Resort Gate located off the car park between Galactica and Extraordinary Golf.
Bags and Luggage
If you can avoid taking a bag to Alton Towers, that is the best tip, and if you do have to have a bag with you, we recommend making it as small as possible. The less luggage you have with you on your visit, the easier your day will be.
Alton Towers run enhanced bag checks at the park entrance, so you may find that you have a slightly longer wait to get into the park, especially if you have a larger bag with you.
If you’re lucky enough to be staying at the resort hotels, you can avoid taking your bags into the park by taking advantage of free bag & luggage storage at the hotels on the day of your stay and the day after – just ask at your hotel reception for details.
Storing your bags with lockers
The park offers automated luggage lockers for storage of all items, big and small. There are a number of automated luggage locker points around the park, including:
- Towers Street (next to the toilets by the turnstiles)
- Dark Forest (by the Rita tunnel in the middle of the area)
- X-Sector (located just up from the entrance to Oblivion)
- Forbidden Valley (located in the shelter next to the Galactica lift hill)
These lockers are available in different sizes at different costs per hour period or per day. The rental cost is charged at the time of hiring, however if you take longer than paid for, you must pay the additional rental cost before your locker is released.
For the duration of the paid for rental period, you can open and close your locker as many times as you like at no additional cost. When you open your locker, you’ll be asked if you wish to keep it or not, if you have rental time remaining.
The lockers are secured with your date of birth and a colour you select when you hire the locker, so don’t forget these as you will need to contact Guest Services to access your locker otherwise.
Bags on rides & attractions
If you’re taking a bag with you on any of the parks rides, you do so at your own risk. No matter what bag storage is available, the resort is ultimately not responsible for any theft or loss, although staff do their best to monitor the baggage stores.
On some rides, you must take any bags on the ride with you, including all the park’s water rides. This means you might consider leaving them with a non rider or in a locker, particularly if you do not want to risk getting your belongings wet or damaged. On other rides, such as the Runaway Mine Train and The Blade, you will be asked to leave bags on the platform area.
Quite a few of the larger rides and coasters, which do not allow bags or loose articles on board, offer free baggage storage for you to stow your items whilst you are riding. Some rides may have a staffed bag store facility in the queue, where you’ll be given a wristband to collect the items after riding. Other rides offer a baggage cage or rack that you place your items into yourself when you board the ride. You then collect the items as you exit the ride.