I think it seems a good idea to write a review on Alton Towers as I visited the park yesterday (23rd August 2009), so while everything is still fresh in my mind I will tell you what I think.

I have visited Alton Towers many times, as I only live around 45 minutes away in Stoke On Trent. Most years me and my friends will have a day out to Alton Towers and we always have a great day. I think if I lived further away I would visit the park, but I dont think that I would visit every year.

The Rides
There are many many rides at Alton Towers, too many to talk about all of them, but I will talk about some favourites.
Oblivion- The first ride we went on, love it!! This is my favourite ride at Alton Towers. We had to Queue for around 15 minutes for this ride at 11am, the Queue times vary for all rides throughout the day. This is definately one for dare devils and thrill seekers!
Air- This was the ride we had to queue for the longest, a 1 hr wait! This was around 4pm. This ride is great fun, although Im not sure if it is worth the 1 hour wait we had, so try to go on it when the queue is shorter!
Nemesis- Another thrill seeking rollercoaster! We only had a 20 minute wait for this ride, which is short as sometimes it can be around a 70minute wait, it's all about choosing the right rides at the right time, we havent yet accomplished this with many visits to the park!
Spinball Whizzer- We went on this ride last, around 6pm, and had a 40minute wait. The queue seems to go quicker on this ride becuase there are a few little games to play on the way round, although yesterday only 1 of these worked!
Water Rides- Out of all of my friends, I got the most wet! The Log Flume is great fun especially for the kids! (I sat at the front and got soaked, my friends behind me didnt get very wet al all!!) The Rapids- I think this ride could be improved (I dont know how exactly, but making it more fun somehow!) I again, got the most wet on this ride, and it really does depend on luck, as 1 of my friends did not get wet at all, again! Battle Galleons, well only come on this ride if you are prepares to get wet! You sit in a boat and you have to turn the wheel and water shoots out of the gun at the front, and you aim at other people in other boats, and bystanders! But of course this means the bystanders can also get you as there is other water guns placed around the ride. I really enjoy this ride, but definately be prepared to get wet!

Well thats just some of the rides, for a full list of rides visit Alton Towers website!

Food
There used to be a Mcdonalds at Alton Towers but this has been taken over by Burger King, as McDonalds didnt want to pay Alton Towers the amount of money they wanted, (or so rumour has it). There are many other places to eat, I will talk about the place where we went yesterday. We went to Pizza and Pasta, which is opposite the Mine Train, it is a buffet style resturant, which is all you can eat and drink for £7.95. There is a good selection of Pizza's, and there are 3 different pasta's of offer. It all tasted very nice! Although Im not sure if we'd go here again, as you cant really eat as much as you want, for fear of being sick on the rides! There are always snacks to eat on your way round the park, my friend purchased 10 doughnuts for £5.50, they said they were nice but they were heavily coated in sugar! Some may like, some may not!


One of the main reasons I wanted to write this review was for people who may be planning a trip to Alton Towers very soon. One thing that has never been a problem before in the park, but was a huge problem everywhere was wasps!! They were everywhere, they were in the restuarant where we ate, in the Queues, around every bin in the park. It was a sunny/dry day yesterday and the wasps were out in force! If this is problem daily then the park really should do something about it, luckily we didnt hear of anyone getting stung, but even so, they are really annoying! Ok rant over... nearly...

The Price
I think Alton Towers extremely over charges on everything! For an adult ticket it is £37 on the day, you can get slightly cheaper tickets over their website, but they are still expensive. We would never pay full price to go there, we only go if we have 2 for 1 tickets, which you can usual be found easily..(The Sun newspaper, Tesco etc all have offers on). You pay that price to get into the park and on the rides, nothing else. You have to pay for parking, which is another £5! You have to pay for any ride photo's you want, you have to pay for food/drinks/snacks, nothing comes free within that £37 entrance fee, which I think is ridiculous! What makes it worse is that the price always goes up each year, but nothing really changes! It should at least be free parking! It would be a great day out for families, so it's a shame some families just cant afford these prices!

Great park but put the prices down for once!!!