Can't wait to get there? (Alton Towers (Staffordshire))

Member Name: Chick219

Product:	Alton Towers (Staffordshire)
Date:	20/06/02 (396 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Range of attractions

Disadvantages: Wait times, Entrance fee

Well, I may have been spoilt by three trips to Florida in the last four years, but I think Alton Towers could learn a lot from our American friends....

We arrived at the park at around 10am on a Friday in May. The queues at the ticket booths were already quite substantial, and considering this was an "off-peak" day (entrance fee £18.50), we were quite surprised at the amount of people already in the park.

Once inside we headed over to the new Air ride, but with a queue time of around 2 hours we thought this would probably not be the most productive way to spend our day.

We managed two rides on Nemesis, queuing first for twenty five minutes and then for forty five minutes, and one go on Oblivion, which was an hour's wait for a twenty second ride! We also went on Hex, this was enjoyable, and I would definitely recommend it, but I won't say too much as it would spoil it for you.

I was quite astonished that on a day when wait times for Air reached three hours, Alton Towers didn't feel it was necessary to use their Virtual Queue system. Virtual Queue means you can take your admission ticket to a clever machine near the ride you want to go on, and "book" a timeslot to come back and ride, therefore saving you the hassle of lining up for a couple of hours. I appreciate that the system probably costs a certain amount of money per day for them to use, but people who are standing in a queue for three hours are not spending money on food, drinks and souvenirs, are they?

I also felt that the general standards of cleanliness throughout the park left a lot to be desired, particularly in the ride queue areas.

I have been to Alton Towers a few times over the years, and have always enjoyed the visits, but I feel that they have become complacent recently. Merely adding a new ride to a theme park is not enough to keep people coming back, especially if you have to wait a couple of hours to get on it. <
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There is fun to be had at Alton Towers, just so long as you don't mind hanging around waiting for it!

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