Alton Towers (Alton Towers (Staffordshire))

Member Name: ClaireMiller

Product:	Alton Towers (Staffordshire)
Date:	02/03/08 (236 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Amazing rides, shops

Disadvantages: large queues

Alton Towers is arguably the best theme park in the United Kingdom. The park is set high in the hills of Alton in Staffordshire. It regularly sees 2.5 million visitors through its doors and caters for every age group providing rides for the youngster and the thrill seeker.


Opening Times

The theme park is open from mid March through until November. The park opens at 9.30am with the rides and other attractions opening at 10:00am. Season tickets holder can enter the park at 9am with early ride times being made available to them. I would advise getting to the park early to beat the queues for the monorail and ticket stands that usually become busy at 10am

Ticket prices vary as to when the customer wants to visit. Events provided by alton towers at Easter and Halloween result in higher ticket prices around the time of celebrated events

Adult
Normal Day Pass: £32
Event Day Pass: £34
Buying Online: £24

Child (A child by Alton Towers' standards is seen as Under 12)
Normal Day Pass: £22
Event Day Pass: £23
Buying Online: £16

Senior
Normal Day Pass: £16
Event Day Pass: £17
Buying Online: £12

Disabled
Normal Day Pass: £16
Event Day Pass: £17
Buying Online: £12

So once you have been on the monorail, brought your tickets and entered the park. What do you do first?

The park itself is huge and made up of lots of different areas. It may be an idea to plan what rides yuo want to go on before or even buy a priority pass to help you miss those queues. The park is spread out. With rides like oblivion and air being at opposite ends of the park.

Upon entrance to the part you will be in 'Towers Street.' This contains quest services, lost property and other shops.

Old MacDonald's Farmyard and Cred Street are the perfect places for the young visitors. As you can probably assume from the name, Old MacDonald's Farmyard is a few farmyard oriented children's rides. Children's rides are available at Cred Street too which contains the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ride along with some other smaller rides. This area is a bit like a carnival with a carousel and a playground. It also has a large MacDonalds for lunchtime.

Forbidden Valley, Ug Lang and X-Sector contain more of the thrill rides as Nemesis, Air, Rita, Corkscrew, Oblivion and others reside within them.

The Towers and The Gardens are some of the more relaxing places. Take a walk around the Alton Towers if you dare

Katanga Canyon and Merrie England contain the two largest water rides in the park. Katanga Canyon is home to the River Rapids ride which is always a bit of fun. Merrie England contains the Flume which is a dead certainty to get you wet so go on it early so you can dry off on later rides.

|:| Food |:|

There are food stalls and restaurants placed all over the park so you will not have to walk far when you are hungry. It is not an awful lot cheaper to buy at an Alton Towers provided stall than a MacDonalds, KFC or Pizza Hut so don't think taking the kids to one of those will be any worse. Grabbing seats to eat your food does turn into a bit of a problem so try and eat outisde the peak eating periods of midday

Summary: Plan the day before you go, it will be great value for money