Alton Towers

Bring your own bottle for water as there is water filling stations around the park. You can bring a picnic too and most rides have bag storage. Food prices were ok, drinks were abit steep. Single rider - there was single rider for a few rides but not all, which was frustrating as you'd see alot of the rides that didnt have it had quite alot of si gle empty seats but queuing time of 45 mins+ DO NOT USE SINGLE RIDER FOR TOXICATOR - we waited longer than it took people to queue up, I waited so long after 2 of my friends went on (at different time and about 10 mins after each other) I left the single rider queue in the end as I time was getting on and I wanted to go on thirteen and Rita. We used the app to monitor ride times and it worked fairly ok Came here during the Easter holidays, we arrived early around 0910, ready to park, get to the park and get to the first ride to avoid big queues later in the day. We went for smiler first, and it was a good choice as the queuing soon became busy. We visited most of the park but didn't have time to do all the rides due to queuing. We were there for the whole day, was hoping to get on thirteen and Rita towards the end of the day. unfortunately, the cable cars had a tech nicely problem so had to walk through the gardens from forbidden valley to dark forest, it's a nice walk but did it each way and it is quite a steep walk to get up each bankment. Thirteen wasn't working so missed out on that ride and ran out of time to do other rides, was hoping to get through abit quicker as skngle rider but this was not an option for some big rides like Rita and Nemesis, bit sure if they try and steer you to get the fast passes. The monorail was busy when the park closed so we walked back to the carpark as it was quicker to walk than queue for the monorail. The battle gallions looked fun, and look like you would get very wet! Aquarium was good too, make sire to look at the times for Ray feeding etc and the talks from staff. There are coin operated machines around the park, for water squirters, fish food & amusement stalls. I didnt have any coins but did find a machine that let you pay by card for coins, this was by the battle galleons ride on the side by the food stalls. If you found this review helpful, please leave a like.

I will never get bored of visiting Alton towers. Thrilling rides, lovely gardens and plenty of facilities. This time we visited with the silver fast passes and it completely changed our experience - 100% worth the extra money! This was the first time we visited where we didn't need to rush from one ride to the next, or rush to eat our lunch etc. Having that fast pass definitely made the day feel much calmer and far more pleasant. I don't think I could ever go back to normal queue times after that! Unfortunately, Rita broke down when we were in the fast pass queue (just 1 or 2 rides away from going on the ride as well) which is part of the silver pass package. However, guests services were amazing and informed us that due to Rita breaking down, all other rides have been instructed to accept fast pass carriers - which meant we got to ride Wicker Man on the silver pass (not originally included)! We were so happy with this as it's our favourite ride. There are still issues with Alton towers however: the parking is £12. Daylight robbery. The food remains expensive, yes you should expect this nowadays, however, it still feels like a kick in the teeth when you spend all that money just to get in the park. Dread to think how much you would spend if you bring the family along without preparing your own lunch, snacks and drinks. Also, Galactica (with a 90min queue and 1 cart on the track?!?) paused the ride to collect an item lost by someone who had been on the ride, during the middle of the day. With the million signs and let's be honest, common sense, to not bring loose items on the ride with you, I was very surprised that this is the protocol with lost items. I'd prefer that staff tell people to return at the end of the day if they loose items, as opposed to making all of these people wait in a queue for 1 person's silly mistake. It delayed the queue by around 30 to 40 minutes. That was disappointing. Thankfully, I was in the fast pass queue, but I could imagine how frustrating that would be for the regular 90 min long queue. All in all, a great day. Highly recommend the silver pass (you will never go back to queuing normally again). Oh, and toxicator is a fab little ride. Thanks for bringing ripsaw back for those of us that never had the chance to ride it before!