April 1st, 2017.
Based in Staffordshire, Alton Towers is not just a theme park, it’s also a water park and hotel complex.
The hotel complex consists of: Alton Towers Hotel – which opened in 1996 and was the first one to open at the park, Caribbean-themed Splash Landings Hotel – which has an adjoining water park that opened in 2003 – and the most recent is The Enchanted Village that opened in 2015. In July 2017, a CBeebies Land Hotel is set to open.
Opening hours for the theme park are between 10am and 5pm, but there are early ride times from 9am if you book online or are a guest at one of the hotels. Price-wise, there are a few things to take into consideration. If you go on the day to book tickets, it will cost you £52.80 for an adult and £46.80 for a child. However, if you want to grab yourself a bargain, book 1-4 days in advance as an adult ticket will cost you £40 and a child ticket will be £35. If you are an unbelievably organised person like myself, book 5 days or more in advance and your tickets will cost you £32 for an adult and £27.50 for a child.
As well as being a theme park, water park and hotel venue, Alton Towers also hosts exciting events throughout the year, such as concert nights, a ‘Scarefest’ for Halloween and firework displays.
I’ve been a few times to Alton Towers during the peak seasons, and if you have, you will know how ridiculously long the ride waiting times can be. I’ve waited for at least 3 to 4 hours for Oblivion, Rita and Nemesis before – and it’s not ideal. This time it wasn’t too bad, queuing times were about 20 – 30 minutes (this was end of March 2017).
You can now buy fastrack tickets to jump these long queues. There are a few different options you can choose from.
- Fastrack The Smiler – £10 (single use)
- Fastrack Galactica – £10 (single use)
- Fastrack Bronze – £20 to ride four of the biggest rollercoasters, to include Oblivion, Nemesis, Rita and TH13TEEN.
- Fastrack Silver – Similar to the bronze ticket, it includes Galactica and The Smiler, costing you £35.
- Fastrack Gold – This is £55 and includes Fasttrack access to Galactica, Oblivion, Nemesis, Rita, TH13TEEN, The Smiler, Duel, Runaway Mine Train, Congo River Rapids, Marauders Mayhem, Battle Galleons, Enterprise and Spinball Whizzer.
- Fastrack Platinum – This is the ultimate ticket you can get. Costing £95, it gives you unlimited Fastrack access to all of the following rides: Galactica, Oblivion, Nemesis, Rita, TH13TEEN, The Smiler, Duel, Runaway Mine Train, Congo River Rapids, Marauders Mayhem, Battle Galleons, Enterprise and Spinball Whizzer.
- Fastrack Adventurer – This only costs £12, and gets you a Fastrack to the Congo River Rapids, Spinball Whizzer and Runaway Mine Train. Please note that Spinball Whizzer requires you to book a time slot.
- Fastrack Solo – This is ideal if you are unsure of what you want to Fastrack, or don’t know what the waiting times will be. The Solo ticket is £5 per ride and you can use it on: Rita, TH13TEEN, Oblivion, Nemesis, Congo River Rapids, Runaway Mine Train, Spinball Whizzer, Duel, Enterprise, Battle Galleons and Marauders Mayhem.
The waterpark cost £15 when booking online, which isn’t all that bad when you compare it to the theme park cost. Just note that you have to buy a separate ticket for entrance, it isn’t included within the theme park ticket. The waterpark doesn’t open on Mondays, but is open midweek 10am until 4pm and then 10am to 5pm on weekends.
The waterpark itself is partly indoor and outdoor, themed like a tropical Caribbean lagoon – so you get the best of both worlds when the weather is having a good day. Just like the theme park, it holds many rides for everyone to enjoy, as well as lazy rivers, tipping buckets and your typical water park water features.
For parents, you can enjoy a few swimming pools, including one called Volcanic Springs, as well as an indoor heated pool and a whirlpool.
Monorail
Alton Towers has a great set up for transporting yourself to each part of the resort – the monorail. When you have parked up in the car park you will soon realise how far away you actually are to the main entrance of the park – this is where the monorail comes in handy.
You can see signs for the monorail – so it isn’t tricky to find. They ride overhead, so you will be able to have a sneaky-peak into the park when travelling in.
If you get to Alton Towers for when it opens, or leave when it closes, expect long queues, they are popular.
The park is noticeably huge, so if you want to go on the likes of Oblivion and Nemesis, you have quite a walk on your hands. A great way of getting yourself from one part of the park to another is by using the SkyRide.
On top of it giving your legs a rest, you have some fabulous views of the resort as a whole.
It’s a nice relaxing experience. And if you time it right, the queues won’t be that long … I don’t know what timing it right would involve, but you get what I mean, right?
The Towers
The Towers, where they got the name of the resort from, are in fact ruins – and they are on site for the public to have a mooch inside. Entering The Towers, you can see things such as a banqueting hall, a chapel, a conservatoire and gardens.
Within The Towers is a ride called Hex – The Legend of the Towers, which is a walk-through ride. During the Halloween season, they have ‘Scarefest’ which is a scare maze that operates within the Tower.
Katanga Canyon
Katanga Canyon is themed like an African village, and incorporates rides such as the Runaway Mine Train and the Congo River Rapids. The river rapids last six minutes long, and riders do get soaked – don’t assume it’s like a log flume.
Gloomy Wood
The Gloomy Wood contains the ride Duel, which is set in a haunted house-themed area. In the early years of Alton Towers, Duel used to be a ghost train, and has now been upgraded to a ride with plastic laser guns, which allows riders to shoot their way through.
The Gloomy Wood is soon to have a new ride called SW8, which will be a wooden coaster ride.
Forbidden Valley
Forbidden Valley is one of the areas that has a SkyRide station and the area is set out in a post-apocalyptic landscape – housing the rides Nemesis and Galactica.
Recently opened, ‘Rollercoaster Restaurant’ is at the entrance to the Forbidden Valley. It gives you chance to sit down indoors.
Mutiny Bay
Before seeing this area, you can already guess that it is pirate-themed. Mutiny Bay has Battle Galleons, which is an interactive water ride, and Marauders Mayhem, which is the same ride as the tea cups.
A new sea life centre called Sharkbait Reef opened in 2009, and it is one of the most heavily-themed Sea Life Centres to open worldwide.
Tower Street
Tower Street is the first area visitors go to when arriving. It has spectacular views of the gardens and looks directly over the lake towards The Towers.
During the last hour before closing, guests can be entertained by three people wearing police costumes, who go around on a segway, playing party music…obviously.
Dark Forest
The Dark Forest is a recent modification in Alton Towers, with an opening date of 2010. It’s themed as a supernatual woodland, and has rides TH13TEEN and Rita.
Both rides are very fitting with the theme. TH13TEEN is a haunted crypt and Rita is the fastest ride in the park that swoops on the outskirts of the forest.
Cloud Cuckooland
You will be able to tell from the name that this area is targeted towards a younger audience with bright colours and oversized objects such as flowers.
All rides here are suited for young children, such as Frog Hopper and Galloper’s Carousel.
X Sector
X Sector holds the rides Oblivion, Enterprise and The Smiler. The whole area is seen as being sinister and features elements of psychosis, mind control and manipulation.
Containing the three thrill rides, you do get a different vibe when compared to the other areas. It certainly feels more adult.
The area itself is quite close together and by standing in the middle, you can pretty much see every ride that is based there.
Again, another area for the children. If your child is young enough to watch CBeebies, then they are in for a treat – it will almost be like Disney World – as everything is themed CBeebies.
Here you can find attractions based around In the Night Garden, Postman Pat, Charlie and Lola and many more.
The Gardens
The gardens here are beautiful. I’ve definitely been lost in here a few times. The gardens have some remarkable landmarks that are maintained very well. You will see fountains, cottages, a miniature ‘Stonehenge’, monuments and orangeries.
It’s great, because being in the theme park is quite overwhelming, and emotions are all over the place with all of the adrenaline pumping. Then you can visit the gardens, and it almost resets your body.
If you didn’t already know, Galactica used to me called ‘Air’ and it’s the same ride with an extra touch … so if you are a fan of Air, like I am, then no need to panic.
Galactica is your average ‘loop de loop’ ride, but you are lying down. When you get onto the ride, an over-the-shoulder harness and lapbar that covers your legs hold you in place before the seats swing back so you feel like you are flying – pretty impressive really.
The new thing with this ride is that you wear a VR head set, so you can feel like you are flying through space. However, this time the VR head sets weren’t working. Without this, it’s just Air with a new name.
Nemesis is an inverted rollercoaster – inverted, meaning it goes beneath the ground. It is located in the Forbidden Valley, opposite Galactica.
When you sit down on the ride, you pull down an over-the-shoulder harness, and after staff have checked everyone is safely strapped in, the floor beneath is lowered before the the rollercoaster starts.
You can find yourself doing plenty of corkscrews and loops throughout this ride.
While you are in the queue you stand next to ride, so you can see everything that happens before embarking.
You may know this ride as being the world’s first vertical drop coaster.
This ride always seems to have very long queues, considering from start to finish it is no longer than 30 seconds. It’s a great ride though that holds a lot of people, each train must hold about 30 people over three rows.
Before the drop, the train hovers over the edge for what feels like a life time.
When you drop, you bend around a corner, and then that’s the end of the ride. Short, but sweet.
Rita is the fastest ride in the park – accelerating from zero to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds! It’s apparently inspired by drag racing.
This ride doesn’t have any twists, turns and loops, it’s a normal rollercoaster ride that just goes ridiculously fast. The moment you take off, your picture is taken, so be prepared to pull a funny face.
TH13TEEN is my favourite ride at Alton Towers. It’s the worlds first vertical freefall drop roller coaster. Try and imagine how I felt when I saw the drop mid-way going up the track – totally unexpected.
I liked this ride the most because it feels like a lot of effort has been put in to make it immersive. Not wanting to brag, but having visited Disney World and Universal near enough 10 times, I won’t lie when I say I have high expectations when it comes to theme parks – most of the time I am left disappointed. But TH13TEEN felt like it had been pulled right out of Florida and dropped into Staffordshire.
Towards the end of the ride, you end up in a dark crypt, where there are a few surprises waiting, before the ride rockets of backwards for the rest of the journey.
The Smiler naturally has a lot of controversy with it, due to the incident that happened in 2015. Since then, it has re-opened with many health and safety checks. As far as I could tell, it hasn’t put people off visiting it.
The Smiler ride features lots a smiling images and hypnotic swirling faces. The iconic reason for riding The Smiler is that it holds the world record for the most inversions in a roller coaster – being 14 inversions!
Spinball Whizzer was the first ride we went on and the longest queue we had to wait for as it’s the first ride you hit, so everyone goes there.
If you have ever been on any kind of ‘cat and mouse’ ride – it’s like that but gradually spins on the move rather than hitting an edge and spinning a few times until you feel sick.
If you are someone who buys or wishes to buy all of the photos that are taken during the ride, well listen up! I would highly advise the DigiPass.
At the end of each ride, you will view your photo and then be given the option to buy the photo for 2 for £15, and then you can have added extras on, keyrings etc. However, if you buy the DigiPass for £30, you can get all of your pictures on it throughout the whole day. There was 4 of us, so it cost us £7.50 each to have all of our photos. If you pre-book your DigiPass, you can get 20% off the standard price.
To do this, after each ride note down the photo codes, so when it comes to buying the pass you can hand it over and they can be downloaded onto the pass for you (which is a wristband that has a bar code to scan the photos onto). You can add to this throughout the day with more photos.
The photos come through an app that you download onto your phone and will appear after 24 hours.
Rides that offer photos are; TH13TEEN, Galactica, Nemesis, Congo River Rapids, Duel, Runaway Mine Train, Sharkbait Reef by SEA LIFE, Spinball Whizzer, Rita, Oblivion and The Smiler. So if you get the DigiPass, you will definalty get your money’s worth.
Arcades and games
All around the park are indoor arcades, which are great for when the weather turns, and games where you can win giant teddies. These include basketball and hanging onto a bar for 2 minutes – which actually looked like an absolute killer after me saying that it would be ‘easy’.
Walking around, you will see loads of kids with over-sized teddies. So surely, these games can’t be too hard.
Like any theme park/ funfair/ carnival, there are always places to eat, from burgers and chips to candy floss. Throughout the park, you will see various food stalls, along with indoor and outdoor benches to eat at.
Because you’re in a theme park, you already expect that prices for food and drink will be a little over-charged….they are, but not as bad as I thought it was going to be.
For anyone who visits with younger children, expect to be dragged into the shops. There are shops dotted everywhere, even some rides finish exit through the gift shop style.
Shops sell basic snacks and drinks which mainly consist of sweets and crisps. Then they have tons of merchandise, from flasks, to bags, to notepads. Any shops that are attached to rides – Oblivion for example – sell themed merchandise.
Your Own Set of Wings 
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