How do i Get to the front of the queue at alton towers

[JAJA]

Is there any way of getting to the front of the queue at Alton Towers.

By front, i mean, RIGHT to the front. I'm only asking because i've seen people walk through the exit of a ride like Rita and get straight on with no questions asked!

I'd love to be able to get to the front. I know there is the fastpasss and the priority pass and the single rider pass, but in the holidays, these still have queue times of up to 15 mins!

Anyway of doing it? I've also seen people with little slips of card saying that a ride they were on broke down so they are entitled to walk RIGHT to the front of the queue of any ride. How can i get these or how can i get to the front like the other people?

Any Ideas?

Thanks, Jon!

[PoohBears#1fan]

You can buy priority passes, or you can be a single rider or do parentswap - there's no way to bypass that line though. Parentswap (or parent Q share as they call it) normally uses the exit on most rides, but uses the priority/single rider line on some rides, so I assume this is what you've seen happening.

Or of course you could be queuing for a ride and have it break down, then you'll get a pass for that ride once.

[lefthanded]

I was at Alton Towers at the weekend. Because DW is disabled we were given wristbands entitling us both to go straight to the front of the queue of any ride. This only works if DW does the ride. If I do it on my own then I have to queue as normal.

But to be fair to Alton Towers, we both went through the wheelchair entrance for Air, but when DW saw it she wimped out, so they let me ride it on my own without queueing.

At Nemesis I went to the single rider line and only waited a few minutes, despite the "main" queue being about 90 minutes long.

Incidentally, I thought Rita was disappointing. True the initial acceleration is impressive but after that it is a fairly basic ride. But Nemesis is something else. The best roller-coaster in Europe in my humble opinion.

lefthanded

[JAJA]

Thanks guys - I didn't think Alton Towers did a pass to get right to the front using the exit queue. It was probably just a one off occasion. I think i'll go with a priority pass next time as it will cut most of the queue (£8 aren't they?)

[JudyC]

We stayed at the AT Hotel last week and because we were in one of the themed suites we got an Accelerator pass each, which meant we could go straight on 15 rides each including the new ride Rita. The suites are pretty expensive for one night but it includes these Accelerator passes and entry to the park for one day. It was my sons 18th birthday so we splashed out staying in the Celebrations Suite, as we can't afford to go back to Florida again yet.

[mollykipper]

Hi, My daughters going tomorrow with school, and she wants to know what the queues are like for the rides if anybody knows? as hopefully iut won't be very busy because its a week day.
The things they do now on school trips!! I never got to go on a trip like this when i was at school!!! lol

Lisa

[JudyC]

We were there last Friday and it was fairly busy, the queue time for Rita in the afternoon was 90 mins, but queues for Oblivion and Nememsis about 30 mins. Spinball Whizzer is also very popular, but the River Rapids and the Mine Train queues were quite short especially in the morning. Maybe a Monday will be a bit quieter. They would be best get a fast pass for one of the rides and head over to another of the popular rides as soon as they get there before the queues builds up.

[Momofffthree]

I have just got back from Alton Towers

I got a pass to go straight onto Rita :jump: via the exit too :jump:

It is possible to get passes to go straight onto this ride via the exit but they cannot be bought, you do have to queue originally and they are VERY strict on who gets them.

Incidently the passes that you can buy do NOT let you go to the front of the queue for Rita. Its Air Nemisis Oblivion The Flume and one other ride ( sorry i cant remember which right now) cost of this is 5 pound. Or you can get a family one ( for gentler rides) again this is 5 pounds.
There is a parent swap scheme too, but for this to work you need to still get one parent to que in the regular queue then after they have rode, the other 'parent' gets to ride either then or at some point durring the day

Today the queues were horrendous ( i thought anyway)
Rita 90 minutes all day from 10am even single rider que was the same.
Oblivion was 45 minutes
Nemisis at 50 minutes most of the day
Air 60 minutes then it broke and was closed:angry:
Spinball wizard was at 45-65 minutes all day too

[mollykipper]

Well she went today did DD and she only got on a few they were nemisis which was 45mins long, air, and she waited 2 hours for that, river rapids which wasn't very busy only about 5mins wait, the hex, which the waiting time was 0mins, but she enjoyed it and that was the main thing!, but a let down as she really wanted to go on Rita, but that was 90mins long so she didn't bother!

Lisa

[JudyC]

Unfortunately that AT for you. I really don't rate it as value for money if you pay the full entry price. While I was there last week I got bounce back tickets for only £10 for my daughter and her boyfriend who are going in August. If they only get on 3 or 4 rides each it's not so bad as if they'd paid the full £28 each.

Having said that my son who is 18 really appreciated the Accelerator passes we got for staying in a suite in the hotel last week. It was his 18th birthday so it was a special treat. Believe me it wasn't cheap, I think Disney and the Orlando parks are better value (just a shame they are so far away)

[Gazpacho]

Does anyone know of a good ride/park strategy like we see for the orlando parks ?

[Villainlover]

Originally posted by Gazpacho
Does anyone know of a good ride/park strategy like we see for the orlando parks ?

I would like to know this as I am going on Saturday... I have never been so sorry can't help ... yet ;)

[isanda]

Originally posted by Gazpacho
Does anyone know of a good ride/park strategy like we see for the orlando parks ?

Yes....don't go!!! ;)

Sorry I'm a bit anti-Alton Towers at the moment.

[loadsapixiedust]

DD is also going to AT with a school party soon so would also appreciate any tips. They won't have a long day in the park as they are travelling so far, so any good strategies will help them do as many rides as possible in the time they have.
Can you buy the express passes in advance or just at the gate?

[stevered1]

Tips, well one is get there early and get on the skyway thingy to the other end of the park and get on nemesis as early as possible, then work your way back to the front of the park

Thats what we used to do but havent been for some time

Otherwise best tip is to go during week as weekends are too busy, we would go on a weds and most things were walk ons, we did nemesis 4 times in 10 mins and alot of that was running back to the start ( remind me never to eat a hot dog before going on nemesis )

[JudyC]

Try to get a fastpass for one popular ride and then queue for another ride. Also get there as early as possible. Allow half an hour after getting there to catch the monorail if you are going by car and then buying your ticket. I would head straight for Rita at a very quick pace (run) as there are no fast passes for this.

[Villainlover]

Originally posted by JudyC
Try to get a fastpass for one popular ride and then queue for another ride. Also get there as early as possible. Allow half an hour after getting there to catch the monorail if you are going by car and then buying your ticket. I would head straight for Rita at a very quick pace (run) as there are no fast passes for this.

I have told DD to run for Rita but having never been befor where does she run? is there a good map of Alton Towers?

[JudyC]

She needs to go to the other side of the lake to Ug Land. This might help http://aolsearch.aol.co.uk/redir?urn=http://www.alton-towers.co.uk/themepark/&rank=2&source=AstWebSearch&searchType=MS&partner=Google&query=alton+towers
A map is under ride guide. She should get a map at the entrance though.