What is Alton towers like?

[Floridatilly]

We recently went to Blackpool pleasure beach. I don’t know if we picked a bad day or just unlucky but it was incredibly busy so we only got in about 3 rides. There was so many people swearing and being not very nice to put it mildly. There was rubbish on the floor and all the staff were extremely young. Nothing against young children but they seemed to lack experience.
So this has put us off going to Alton Towers. How does it compare?
We would never go back to Blackpool, I am not a big ride fan so I like nice walks, gardens etc but my older two love big rides 👍🏻
Its expensive to go and not enjoy it 😬

[Rac20]

We went a couple of weeks ago and had a really good day. There’s a much better mix of family plus thrill rides than say Flamingo Land.

We got there early and did about 7 rides. The park is massive though and you definitely can’t see it all in a day. There are some lovely gardens that I just didn’t get chance to see.

Please don’t bother with Flamingo Land. We went at half term and it was awful. We got on 3 rides all day and they kept breaking down.
Edited to add, I know you haven’t mentioned Flamingo Land - but just in case! 😂

[Shani]

We went on Tuesday. Honestly, it was our worst theme park experience. It was SO incredibly busy. We were there 9 hours and managed to get on 2 rides. We queued 90 mins for Nemesis for it to go down and we exited the queue, and that was that.

They ran out of fast track tickets before the park opened, so we couldn't even pay to skip any lines.

We queued 3 hours for Smiler and an hour for Thirteen. Food queues were ridiculous. We queued 30 mins at the end of the day for a waffle with strawberries and cream.

It was a "work" trip. We're a coach hire company, so there were 30 of us - all split up into smaller groups round the park and everyone's experience was the same, apart from one who took her 2 year old. They had a great time. All the teens+ literally all got on 2-3 rides.

We're not Alton Towers novices - we spent two nights at the Alton Towers hotel last year and the year before and this year, in comparison was dire.

Maybe others experiences will be better, but for the cost (of entry and travel) it was SO not worth it.

[di5ney]

We went the end of june and had a great time. We got there for opening, the car park is a bit if a trek from the main entrance but there is a monorail that had a queue of 30 mins. My youngest loves cbeebies land and my dh and older dd went on some bigger rides. The park is huge though. We spent 2 days there and stayed at premier inn at hanley. We r going back next month to do 1 day at the theme park & 1 day at the water park.

[Cj25]

We went on Monday, got there just after 9, headed straight to The Wickerman which opened at 10. Then onto Nemesis and Galactica. Daughter and son had pre booked fast passes for Smiler and then got 1 for Oblivion. We queued 2 hours for Rita having joined the queue as it said 70 minutes and then only 35 minutes for 13. No queue for Duel. Didn't really see much else but quite a few rides were down. Glad we had buy 1 get 1 free tickets.

[YorkshireT]

A lot nicer than Blackpool Pleasure Beach so a big plus there.

[LLamb]

It’s definitely better than Blackpool. We went in May before the indoor rides were open. It was a bank holiday weekend so pretty busy but like any theme park you just have to get there early and have a little planning.
We did all of CBeebies land first as my kids are 8&5. Got five rides done there in just over an hour.
Then headed out for an early lunch by the lake. There were plenty of picnic benches and I would recommend bringing your own food.
We did the mine train and the spinning ride at the top but none of the other bigger rides. Left about 2pm.
There are lovely gardens and a glass house in the center to walk around. It is massive.
If the park opens at 10am you want to be parking up at around 9.15 so you can walk and be straight in, then make the most of the first hour.

[ScoopsAhoy]

Love alton towers, been for two weekend breaks this year and have another for Scarefest this October.
It will be busy but we’ve always managed to get on the rides we want although we are passholders so we don’t have to worry about ticket prices.
You can buy one shot express pass if there’s a ride you really want to do but you have to go first thing as they sell out.

[GoldenAvalanche]

We had a great weekend there a couple months ago. Got on a few rides immediately (Air and Nemesis without any queues) then about 30-45 min queues for the rest of the day. We didn’t manage to get on gangsta granny though, that was always 90 mins.

[Lostbrain]

We were there for a couple of nights last week. It was clean, queues for rides weren't too bad, but the weather was quite wet and cold. Food was awful, I'd definitely take a picnic.

We complained about a few things, food, room could have been cleaner, breakfast was very poor. Alton Towers apologised and have offered us a heavily discounted return stay.

It's okay, it's really huge, rollercoaster are good. It's a shame it's not better, it's a shame there's not more variety of rides. For preschoolers and teens who like big coasters it's definitely a good day or two.