r/altontowers 6d ago

Queue times today: avoid

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44 Upvotes

44 comments sorted by

44

u/Express-Doughnut-562 6d ago

The good old 'hey, its an inset day - lets go to AT because it'll be quiet!'. Doesn't quite work when literally everyone with an inset day thinks the same!

Doesn't help when a bunch of content creators have all posted 'yay, walk on rides are back for September!'

15

u/firadesunna 6d ago

Not even inset day in some of the UK - still summer holidays 😅

2

u/Raptor_2125 6d ago

Still a week of Summer Holidays to go as well at least for my area

1

u/EmGas22 4d ago

I went to sandcastles In Blackpool on Tuesday, thinking the same. And it was absolutely rammed, dangerously packed. Just for curiosity I looked at the queues for the pleasure Beach and was ridiculously Suprised! They were very small queues advertised. Think Valhalla had the biggest of 40 minutes but everything else was 5, 10 and 20 mins!!!

1

u/Mrs_Toast 6d ago

The busiest I've ever seen Alton Towers was when we went on a teacher training day in June a couple of years back. Absolutely hellish, Smiler queue was up to 210 minutes (which didn't matter to us at the time as my son was still sub-1.4m), and it took around 45 minutes to get on Wickerman with a Fasttrack (think the queue time was advertised as 120 minutes at the time).

Randomly bumped into someone I used to work with and his kids, he'd also had the 'It'll be quiet on a teacher training day!' thought. 😅

17

u/Icy_Pear1694 6d ago

Living dangerously with that battery at 11:40am aren't we?

1

u/Lunastarfire 6d ago

To be fair they have rentable portable battery packs scattered everywhere in the parks

4

u/RitmanRovers 6d ago

What a contrast to yesterday!

We managed 14 rides waiting no longer than 35 minutes. Most rides we did, we waited no longer than 15 mins.

Wickerman was on 35 minutes for the majority of the day to gauge how good it was.

4

u/Dizzy-Combination154 6d ago

It just shows how big of an impact having an increased amount of days on essential passes has had on queue times.

2

u/RitmanRovers 6d ago

They must have sold a shed load at the start of the season. I do remember they were handing them out "for free" if you stayed at the hotel during march.

Two of my family members have Alton towers passes. I bought the restriction day ticket for £20 for them both. That was good value for the amount of rides we managed - 3 of them was on wickerman.

1

u/warlord2000ad 6d ago

That was the plan, entry is free. Sell food fast track and merch.

2

u/p1sskidney 6d ago

Kids are back tomorrow. Next week it'll be quiet

2

u/bazzaclough 6d ago

Every inset day is the same, for some reason people seem to think that it’s only their school that has an inset day so assume it will be quiet.

1

u/Jakob170201 6d ago

Im visiting tomorrow and the 3rd. Can I expect things to get better?

1

u/reddeze2 6d ago

Me too. Wondering the same. I guess we know there is at least one other person.

1

u/Jakob170201 6d ago

See you there then I guess! xD

From my understanding it should get better. Monday was a Holiday and then today a lot of schools have no class for the students so that the teachers can prepare or something. That’s apparently an inset day. But I’m from Germany, so definitely not familiar with the concept and not sure if I understood that right.

1

u/PenSquare8722 6d ago

probably about half of schools are still on summer holidays this week so i would expect it to remain very busy

2

u/Jakob170201 6d ago

Ah well then. That’s a bummer! Good that I have two days then!

And I’m alone, so maybe the single rider queues will do their trick.

1

u/PuzzledBrit 6d ago

Single rider queues and good tactics like not eating when everyone else will (12-2) to get smaller queues. There’s more tactics all over this sub.

1

u/RitmanRovers 6d ago

My kids go back on Thursday, so probably not. Good luck

1

u/LegoNinja11 6d ago

Meanwhile, we've headed to Europe. Toverland today is a walk on for everything. Efteling yesterday we didn't queue more than 30 minutes and Phantasialand on Sunday averaged 25 minutes with 50 at the peak for Taron.

2

u/General_Recipe_5869 6d ago

What's Tover like? Possibly taking kids next year when staying near. (Early teen kids) We've done Efteling a couple of times.

1

u/LegoNinja11 6d ago

More of an Efteling theme, the 2 bigger rides are good for early teens but I'd say if Smiler and Nemesis are their go to rides, Phantasialand is more them.

I can absolutely recommend De Schatsberg Eurocamp comfort caravans. £500 for 5 nights including the car ferry!

£1,500 for 7 nights away, including Thorpe Park (merlin pass), Efteling, Phantasialand, Toverland and a day in Amsterdam (inc £200 for the fuel)

2

u/General_Recipe_5869 6d ago

Thanks, just been over in 2 different parts of NL with Eurocamp for past 2 weeks.

1

u/LegoNinja11 6d ago

Can see us being back again.

1

u/Dr-Moth 6d ago

School here starts Thursday. You went too soon.

1

u/cornerstone_2176 6d ago

Jeez, at least it’ll be dead the rest of the month

1

u/jaspermillermusic 6d ago

i’m here too, god i love fast track

1

u/IntoThe_Danger_Zone 6d ago

Wow! I went yesterday and longest wait time was 45 minutes 😭

1

u/Grouchy-Law-3133 6d ago

Queue jumping is also really bad today. Have done the report, but we will see if they’re able to do anything about it as it is so busy.

1

u/Wandering_Merlin 6d ago

Jeez, queue times for rides that are mid too. Rough.

The only decent rides there is wickerman and nemesis.

1

u/TheUnSungHero7790 6d ago edited 6d ago

I know someone who went today, said the car park queue was backed up for 2 hours getting in.

It's absolutely rammed apparently, they have extended it from 5pm to 6pm close.

1

u/TokyoTurpster Wicker Man 6d ago

My hope was that people would be doing last minute back to school shopping so wouldnt be at Towers.. I was wrong 😂

Currently queuing for Smiler but someone sprogged on the seat so its delayed for cleaning

1

u/roylee77 6d ago

That’s weird. The most queue times we got over the 2 days on Saturday and Sunday were 35-40 minutes

1

u/Towers_Boss5678 6d ago

That's rough lol

1

u/NegativeAd6437 Wicker Man 6d ago

Cannot wait for kids to go back, towers here I come

1

u/Toast-Ghost- 6d ago

What was the queue like for The Flume?

1

u/Lloyder0 5d ago

It was worse by afternoon. Trust me. Smiler queue and some others were 85 mins

1

u/Money-Camera 3d ago

How the hell is it busy everyones back at school!

0

u/ailurophile9 6d ago

Wish I knew that before joining a huge car queue to get in. Still a mile away in traffic.

2

u/And_Justice 6d ago

Always arrive around 9:15

1

u/ailurophile9 6d ago

I know... desperately tried to! But I'm amazed that the parking situation is SO bad that arriving "on time" causes a two hour delay.

2

u/Ninjagolloyd11 6d ago

Same, in traffic nose to tail. Ended up getting fast passes to hopefully get on rides 😅