Alton Towers - a 5* theme park with fun for everyone (Alton Towers (Staffordshire))

Member Name: chrisc92

Product:	Alton Towers (Staffordshire)
Date:	29/06/09 (65 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Entertainment for all ages

Disadvantages: Extremely large queues on popular rides, some breakdowns

My only reservation with Alton Towers is that it takes so long and is so far away from Plymouth at nearly 250 miles, 3.5+ hours is the best I've ever done and was accomplished at 4.30am. Typical - I expected bad traffic queues around the M5/M6 interchange and there weren't any!

It was originally owned by the Earl of Shrewsbury and originally known as Alton Abbey. It's situated about 15 miles from Stoke on Trent, and about 6-8 from Uttoxeter. This by far is the one theme park in the Merlin group (formerly Tussauds) that is talked about first, and for those that like thrill rides it's not hard to see why.

For me, I love the log flume, rapids, runaway mine train, duel and hex - which is ride in which the room revolves! There are a high number of thrill seeker rides like oblivion, air, rita, nemesis, submission, and blade, and my former step children loved them all. They are scattered around the park.

To get around areas of the park there's a cable car ride (skyride), but don't get too carried away as I've yet to see it working non-stop during the times we've been there as it oftens breaks down - on one occassion we were left hanging above the tree tops for a good 15 minutes.

For younger children there's also a small farm, a boat ride round a pond and an indoor play area. Unfortunately (or not) the small rollercoaster has been replaced by a play area. There is however a large childrens area with an indoor play, a couple of carousels, a mini race car circuit and a theatre where younger children could see Bob the Builder (used to be the tweenies).

There's KFCs and a McDonalds around the park as well as the odd shops, and toilets are pretty well located. It does have some pretty steep slopes - particularly around duel/air. There's also some very beautiful gardens to explore, and for those that feel they lost it, a golf challenge to get a hole in one to win a car - the masses of balls around the lake should tell you how difficult it is, but I'm sure someone will still try.

So far, I've tried to tell you how great the rides are, but there are two things to remember - often one (or more) of the thriller rides are out of action for all/part of your visit. Secondly, certain rides can experience queues of more than an hour - so either plan your visit carefully or visit it in September/October when it's quieter. (During the Summer, my former step children could sometimes be limited to 4-6 rides during a full day), yet around Halloween time (2 years ago), they managed to go on all the main rides and there was not one queue of more than 15 minutes.

For £35 (adults), 4-6 rides to me don't seem very good value, and despite having annual passes through Tesco clubcard, travelling so far for so little to me constituties the same.

I certainly recommend Alton Towers as the best theme park I've visited to date, and it certainly has something for everyone. As my final note, your visit isn't complete without the monorail trip to/from the main carparks, which are around £4-6 unless you go for the express car park which is significantly higher - but closer to the park entrance.

Summary: Alton Towers is well worth visiting - during September/October when quieter