By all means these are just things over the years we’ve learnt and done to help enhance our visit. We hope this helps at least one person if not more. If you have any tips we’d love to know them below or across our socials.
1) Arrive Early / Prior to 9am:
This is a tip for mainly those who have early ride time or don’t mind waiting at the gates until 10am. Over the years we’ve found arriving prior to the monorail opening is the most ideal situation. As I struggle to do the walk from the car park to park entrance due to health conditions. We’ve learnt arriving roughly 10 minutes before 9am is the best way to ensure you catch the monorail. This season they’ve had roughly 5 monorail on in the morning meaning the wait is next to nothing.
2) Breakfast on Towerstreet:
If you’ve missed breakfast or in a hurry if you head the cafe on Towerstreet next door to CBeebies Land / Box Office. They do some real nice sandwiches, bacon & sausages baguettes etc. We’ve discovered it works out perhaps a couple pounds extra then 2 McDonald’s breakfasts including merlin pass discounts.
3) Remember a Water Bottle:
Since last season Alton Towers has had water taps next to their rehydration centres where you get free water. We usually take our own bottle in with us and fill up throughout the day. If you don’t like just water then you can take a bottle or a squeeze squash with you. It’s a cheaper way to stay hydrated all day and a great addition to the park.
4) ERT (early ride time):
Again those who can receive early ride time we’d highly recommend using it. If you wish to make the most of your day. We have noticed this season they open up at 9:15 rather half 9:30. Again that’s a pretty important information given those who didn’t know will miss out on the extra 15 minutes. As part of ERT is Oblivion & Wickerman both of which are two big coasters. We usually head straight for Wickerman before the 10am guest come in and it gets busy. However we do know Oblivion will practically be walk on during this time. Again for families there’s CBeebies Land is open along with currently Maurders Mayhem which is next to Wickerman.
5) Late Opening Rides:
Anybody or families wishing to the rides within Katanga Canyon & Duel. These areas do not open until 11am. We only found this out on our last visit but other areas such as Cloud Cuckoo Land, Hex & Blade do open at 10am. All other major rides and coasters open at 10am.
6) Dark Forest / Forbidden:
We’d recommend one of the first areas to head to after ERT is either Dark Forest or Fobidden Valley. Both of which are very quiet at the start of the day especially Forbidden Valley. Majority of people who head in at 10am either head to Wickerman or The Smiler. They are two of the newest coasters so if you fancy re rides on Thirteen or Rita or Nemesis & Galactica we’d recommend to start of the day within either area.
7) Exit via Galactica Gate
Back to tip number 1 if you don’t like / can’t handle the walk from the main entrance to car park. We’d recommend ending your day in Forbidden Valley as it’s very quiet and great way to re ride the two coasters. But the main factor is at 5pm or 6pm depending on the closing time they open the Rollercoaster Restaurant gate. Its a straight walk to the main car park / golf. Roughly it’s only about a 5 minute walk and much flatter then the main way. Otherwise if you want to catch the monorail the queue can be quite deceiving. Sometimes it’ll be out the door but only takes 15 minutes to go down but that is depending on how many they have on.
8) Extraordinary Golf:
If you don’t want your day to end once the park closes we’d recommend checking out the golf. It’s super affordable in our opinion and is one of our favourites crazy golfs. You pass through different areas / rides which are or were at Alton Towers. There’s nice touches of history whilst also having a lot fun. Merlin Passes do receive 20% off and it’s just plenty of fun for all the family
So there you have our top 7 tips for your day at Alton Towers. We hope you’ve enjoyed this blog and it’s helped you in some way. Let us know if you’d like to see some more of these sort of blogs.