Alton Towers Resort Reviews 

Filthy water park. Wanted to charge me £10 to watch relatives in water park !! 70 minute queues in water park for master blaster

Paid nearly £300 for gold fast passes on top of all other costs.

Complete rip off. Ridiculous answers when made complaint.

I went to the water park yesterday, the park itself is ok, it doesn’t have a lot to do but it’s enough for a few hours. The issue starts when you get inside, the staff (lifeguards) are for the most part very young and have no authority, seemingly prefer to be chatting to each other rather than doing their job. I witnessed numerous queue jumps that went ignored and people doing flips in the outdoor area while there was 2 staff in eye shot, the cafe was closed and just a snack hut to purchase from. It was 12:30 midday and there was 1 sandwich available to purchase.

A complete and utter failure of reasonable adjustments for disabled guests.
Our family spent over £400 for a night at Splash Landings Hotel, relying on the waterpark access and early entry perks to accommodate my Lymphedema, EUPD, and agoraphobia.
Instead, we were turned away from our pre-booked waterpark slot due to overcrowding, ruining the trip for my children.
Management offered no immediate resolution.
On top of this, their mobility hire policy forces disabled hotel guests to walk the entire length of the park to collect a scooter.

When I physically couldn't return it to Towers Street at the end of the day due to severe pain and medical risk, security staff flatly told me I had no choice and refused to accommodate my agoraphobia regarding crowded public transit links. I had to abandon the scooter keys at Galactica and walk back in agony.Appalling customer service, shocking lack of staff training, and a clear breach of their anticipatory duty under the Equality Act 2010.

Very disappointing experience, particularly for what was supposed to be a special family trip.

I booked the CBeebies Land Hotel through the Blue Light Card offer and paid £257.20. I genuinely believed park admission was included. I arrived at the park confident that I had tickets, only to discover at the gates that I didn’t. I then had to purchase three tickets for a further £150.

I raised this with the team because the booking journey had not made it clear to me that park admission was excluded.

Alton Towers’ response was that the terms and conditions were present further down the landing page, and that this was sufficient. However, I did not scroll down because the landing page had a very clear “Book Now” button prominently displayed at the top, which took me directly into the booking process. On my device, the terms were not visible without scrolling, and there was no indication that I needed to scroll down to find them.

I was also told that the absence of tickets from my booking confirmation was sufficient to show they weren’t included, and that I should have phoned to check. I had no reason to do this. I genuinely believed I had booked the short break I intended to book.

I was subsequently told that I should have booked the park tickets separately and could have used Blue Light Card to receive a discount on those tickets too. However, nowhere in the booking journey was I prompted or directed to purchase park tickets separately, and none of the subsequent information I received told me that I needed to do so.

The pricing also contributed to my understanding. The price shown on the main Alton Towers website was the same as the discounted price I was being offered through the Blue Light booking journey. Importantly, the main website was advertising the CBeebies Land Hotel short break with a park ticket included, plus a second day free.

The booking journey didn’t make such a significant exclusion sufficiently clear.

The final outcome was that there was nothing further they could do.

I have to say that I’m quite disappointed with the experience so far.

The Merlin Pass is a significant expense, yet booking some of the additional benefits and extras can be surprisingly difficult. The Passholder Hub also still feels very much like a work in progress, which makes the overall experience more frustrating than it needs to be.

Once you are inside Alton Towers, it also feels as though almost everything beyond the basic entry ticket and car parking comes at an additional and fairly expensive cost. I appreciate that running a theme park is expensive, but as a pass holder, the overall value starts to feel questionable when so many things require further spending.

The biggest disappointment today, however, has been the reliability of the attractions in the children’s area. We queued for three different children’s attractions — Octonauts, Go Jetters and Bluey The Ride — and all three experienced difficulties and had to stop while we were waiting.

I completely understand that attractions can break down and that safety has to come first. I have absolutely no issue with a ride being stopped if there is a genuine safety concern. However, experiencing problems on three different children’s attractions during the same visit is extremely disappointing, particularly when you have young children who have spent a significant amount of time waiting in the queues.

It honestly got to the point where I started wondering whether the frequency of the stoppages was contributing to the pressure to purchase the various “skip the queue” options. I’m not suggesting that this is actually happening, but when you are already paying a considerable amount for the pass and then repeatedly spend time standing in queues only for the attraction to stop, it certainly leaves that impression.

For families with young children, this is particularly frustrating. The whole point of visiting is to give them an enjoyable day, and spending a large proportion of that day waiting in queues for attractions that then stop makes the experience considerably less enjoyable.

I really want to like the Merlin Pass and Alton Towers, and there are obviously some great attractions and experiences here. However, based on this visit, the combination of the cost, additional charges, difficulty booking pass-holder benefits, the unfinished feel of the Passholder Hub, and the reliability issues with the children’s attractions means that the overall experience has not felt like good value.

I hope Merlin and Alton Towers take this feedback seriously, particularly from the perspective of families with young children. The experience needs to feel like good value for pass holders, rather than leaving people feeling that they have to keep paying extra to get the most out of their visit.

Our visit on August 11th was a complete waste of time. You would expect a weekday to be manageable, but the park was overcrowded and absolutely not worth the high ticket prices. The most infuriating part of the day was wasting more than 3.5 hours standing in queues for nothing. Three of the main rides went out of order right as we finally reached the front of the line. My two kids were left incredibly disappointed and frustrated by the constant breakdowns.

Let’s start with the website, very hard to navigate if looking for Mobility scooter hire, easy to book tickets and parking but that’s it. PARKING is expensive and people are left to park how they want so when busy can be chaos. SECURITY checks upon entering park are a simple open your bag, thank you, away you go, very lax leaving us feeling unsafe. While they are friendly, checks are insufficient. Security inside the park seems non existent, after several visits this year I’ve only ever seen 2 guards in the food area on one occasion. If anything kicked off it would be too late by the time help arrived. RIDES are always closing down, I believe it’s done to filter footfall around the park, smiler, oblivion, Rita to name 3 seem to go down at least once a day, even just after pre day checks, frustrating for customers who have queued for an hour or so. Each ride has a clock showing queue times which is helpful if the ride is actually working. FOOD is very overpriced, baked potatoes with a filling £12.50, fish n chips £12, eastern wraps around £9, even chocolate bars, ice cream from vending machines are expensive, bottle pops £2.50, my advice take your own food and drinks. SHOPS are well stocked and have varied gifts to be fair, clothing is expensive but you can buy nice little gifts for a decent price. RIDE QUEUE JUMP TICKETS are extortionate, over £100, no thank you. FACILITIES like toilets are generally clean with staff ever present cleaning them, STAFF on the whole are pleasant, I was served recently by a young lady in customer care when collecting a scooter who was most helpful, cheerful and polite, I saw her in the park later in the day and she recognised me and asked how I was, very good young lady, unfortunately I did not get her name. CONDITION OF PARK is generally good, as a disabled scooter user some paths are treacherous and dangerous for scooters but generally the park is well maintained. TICKET PRICE is expensive when you consider rides not working, queues for rides and prices for refreshments inside. Your lucky to get 8/10 rides in during a visit and considering parking is extra it can be a very expensive family day out. We purchased a annual pass but have since found out this does not include scare fest or the special days. Still worth it if you visit over 3/4 times a year.

Never, ever again. I treated my family of 14 for a day out here. Paid for tickets and £13 x 3 for the carpark. We arrived near to opening time, but the queue to park in a field (not a car park) 20 minutes walk away, took about one hour and ten minutes to park. It was far too packed out! Stupidly and greedily so. A foreign woman attempted to take my baby grandson pram out of my hands in the tight hustle and bustle, but I challenged her and yelled out loud to alert others. Family got on two or three rides, no more. Two hour queues!!! Food expensive for what it was. By the time, we got to the car, my phone had died, so I couldn’t show proof of payment after another queue to get out. Had to wait 7 minutes holding the queue up behind me, whilst she made checks and was finally allowed to go. Rip off. Greedy corporation allowing thousand of people in snf unable to go on rides with one main one closed.

Travelled all the way from Edinburgh to have a day here and they shut everything down after waiting over an hour for one ride (didn't even get on) not even an apology to anyone, not just us. Not exactly cheap either. As a person who disabled, they have no way to help when the entry train has broke down.
All in all, one star is being kind. App is useless too.

Worst experience ever ,, don’t waste your money . Got there soon as the gates opened 10am , waiting times on rides are close to an hour . Staff are soooo slow in coordinating and ushering people to the rides which results in ridiculous waiting times . Ended up just going on 2 rides the whole day . Absolute waste of time and money .

One of the worst theme park experiences I have ever had

I have visited more than 20 theme parks and amusement parks around the world, and Alton Towers has been one of the worst experiences I have ever had.

We stayed at the resort for four nights, from Monday to Friday, with park tickets, Waterpark access, FastTrack and meals on site. We went there expecting a relaxing family break. Instead, we left frustrated, disappointed and regretting the amount of money we spent.

The food was extremely poor and massively overpriced. The Rollercoaster Restaurant was particularly bad. The concept is fun for children, but the quality of the food was dreadful and nowhere near what should be acceptable at those prices. The Secret Garden was not much better. I understand perfectly that food inside a theme park is expensive, but there is a difference between paying a premium and feeling completely ripped off.

The Waterpark was probably the most acceptable part of the stay. It was reasonably enjoyable, although several areas felt tired and in need of more care and investment.

The most serious issue, however, was accessibility and the way we were treated by hotel reception.

My mother-in-law has serious mobility difficulties and can only walk short distances. We had rented mobility scooters for use inside the park, but because hotel guests enter near Galactica and the scooters are collected at the main entrance, we needed some assistance getting her to the monorail.

We spoke to reception on Monday and again on Tuesday. On both occasions we were told that they could help by taking us in one of the resort buggies at least as far as the monorail.

Then on Wednesday, when we actually needed the help, we were suddenly told that this could not be done.

No proper alternative was offered. No meaningful solution was provided. Nobody seemed interested in taking responsibility for what we had been told during the previous two days.

Even worse was the attitude shown towards my wife when she initially approached reception.

My wife is Black and I am white. The way she was spoken to and barely acknowledged was noticeably different from the way I had been treated. I cannot claim to know what was in that employee’s mind, but my wife felt discriminated against, and after witnessing the attitude myself, I completely understand why.

I eventually had to step in, ask for a manager and have a very unpleasant discussion just to get anyone to take the situation seriously.

What makes the accessibility issue even more frustrating is that these buggies apparently exist and are used for certain premium or VIP guests. So the transport exists, the vehicles exist and the resort is capable of providing the service, yet when somebody has genuine mobility difficulties, suddenly there is apparently nothing that can be done.

For a resort of this size, I find that unacceptable.

Another major problem is the complete inconsistency between staff. One employee tells you one thing, another person tells you something completely different the following day, and nobody seems willing to take ownership of what has previously been promised.

We were not day visitors spending a few hours in the park. We were staying four nights, paying for accommodation, park access, FastTrack, Waterpark tickets, food and everything else that comes with a resort stay.

For that amount of money, expecting basic organisation, accessibility, respect and decent customer service should not be asking too much.

Before visiting, I had seen many negative reviews about Alton Towers and hoped they were exaggerated.

Unfortunately, after this experience, I understand them completely.

For the money we spent, I genuinely wish we had gone somewhere else. I would much rather return to Paultons Park, visit another UK attraction, or travel to somewhere like Phantasialand than spend this kind of money at Alton Towers again.

This was supposed to be a family holiday. Instead, it became one of the most frustrating and disappointing theme park experiences we have ever had.

I cannot recommend Alton Towers based on our experience.

For the prices they charge, the standard of service, food quality, accessibility support and customer care simply were not good enough.

I booked the silver fast track online assuming that it included the entrance fee, I paid £190 for two people and £30 car parking.
When I arrive they would not let us through and was told to purchase the entrance tickets at the payment. Window, the silver fast track can be used once you are in the theme park. It cost an additional £124 to get in!

3 of the rides were not working and the bloody sky ride had broken down!
Some advice for the males. Don't sit down on the toilets as it flushes automatically which washes your genitals (disgusting feeling).
Alton Towers is definitely overrated! Don't waste your time and money.

We had a good day 👍but i am disgusted by the accessibility pass.Someone i was with has FND (functional neurobiological disorder) this affects daily movements like waiting hard and if people get to close they can strees out and have a episode. We got there and she doesn’t use the internet only whatsapp and she didn’t know you have to book online if you require assistance. Thay said they were at copasity which means they gave out to many but this is the worst bit she uses a wheelchair on holiday when you walk far but she didn’t need it today the staff said that they can’t give her a ride access pass she asked if she had a wheelchair they would help and said yes and also kept on saying to go online to pay 25 pound and wanted to make her rent a wheelchair to push around she had her sunflower lanyard on,her passport for id and a blue badge this is discrimination to non visible disabilitys and only recogniseing visible disabled people but all in all great day

Ridiculous waiting times

This place has gone to the dogs. Decided to treat the niece who was visiting from abroad. The day started well managed to get on 3 rides in total. Then announcement whilst waiting for Wickerman telling us there were technical issues and that they were looking into it. We waited about another fifteen minutes same message repeated several times, at that point we left. After that most rides were either closed or not working. How are they getting away with this. Anyway we decided to eat and had burger and chips, £90 for the pleasure of burgers chips and drinks for 5. Wouldn’t mind but the burger and buns were cheap crap. On way out had a staff member saying goodbye see you later to people leaving to which I replied we were quite disappointed by the day he then said, and I quote “ see you later, give your your feedback to head office”. The customer service was as bad as the park. Rude little sod, the parking attendant was nice, said she was sorry to hear we had that experience and if it was up to her she wouldn’t charge us for the parking. That’s the difference between the young and the experienced. At the very least apologise even if it’s not your fault. I work for the NHS and apologise daily on behalf of service even if their not the ones I work for. People want to hear sorry, not see you later complain to head office. Seriously, Alton Towers, sort yourselves out and train your staff better. Also the park has deteriorated since I was last their and the staff have lost their zest. Used to be exciting bright and fun. Now drab, dull and full of bored staff. Won’t go back ever again. When Universal opens staff will lose their jobs cause no-one will be going there….. wish I hadn’t spent the £150 in tickets. Alton Towers…… crapton towers more apt. “See you later”

The only good thing about Alton was the concierge Mick at the hotel if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have even been able to make it to the park that man deserves a massive raise going out of his way to assist a disabled person!!

When I booked the three nights four days at the hotel customer service on the phone told me there would be plenty of mobility scooters available they did not tell me I had to pre-book for a mobility scooter so when we got to the park we went to customer service to obtain one to be told there is none left day two done the same day three we did the same again this time we put in a complaint the manager told us I'd be first contact if one was to come back guess what one came back they didn't call me and they gave it to someone else right front of me when we asked for it. due to them I was not able to fully enjoy the park due to chronic pain , ended up with blisters and having to keep stopping and sitting down for ages due to my mobility my poor kids did not get to do as much as what they wanted to in those four days due to me not being able to move around the park safely and quick enough I spent most of the time in the park sat down taking painkillers I ended up going for a month's supply popping them like Smarties because of how much pain I was in even now unable to get out of bed my legs are killing me I'm unable to stand and this is all due to the customer services failing a disabled people and allowing anybody to obtain a mobility scooter there was plenty of abled body people with them at one point I saw three teenagers on one scooter because they didn't want to walk I saw another one where a woman brought her own scooter but fancied another one just in case there was plenty of people there was a woman that was running walking able to get up the stairs no issues yet she had a mobility scooter. your accessibility team is not fit for purpose as you just let any one take a mobility scooter when they clearly do not need it and the wheelchairs don't even get me started on them all busted up and due to the Hills and hardly any flat surfaces they can't be used safely. Will be making complaint and I will be looking for reimbursement for the 4 day 3 nights as compensation for the distress and pain you have caused.

Went to alton towers about a year or so ago. Was a bad experience then. Thought we'd give them another go though. What a huge mistake yet again. Visited as a family of 5. Monorail not working. So had to walk in. Sky lift not working again, just like last time. So many rides broken down, as normal. 90 ÷ minute cues on most of the other rides. Definitely won't be going again. Save your money and do something else instead.

dont bother eating at the roller coaster restraunt it is over priced frozen food. We was shown to our table no plates to put food on but when food came it was cold then the plates came hotter than the food then on way out we left feedback on the tablet on way out .I did as the manager if they read them her reply was yes if food was good my reply was so you won't be reading this then so she just walked off no how was your food or any thing please DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY. We stopped at the water park hotel overall not bad but the room could have done with a good dusting and stop charging £8.50 for a pint of lager

Alton towers made google take down the review I posted of them showing them provide raw chicken to customers at overinflated prices so I am posting it here.

DO NOT GO, raw chicken served at outlets, incredibly overpriced, everything closes early and they charge a ton of money for even as simple as parking.

Poor poor experience, will not go again ever.

Went to the accessibilities team for some help with my visit, to receive no help whatsoever.

When i pointed out that it wasnt good enough for them to refuse any help, I was told ‘no one made me come’.

Horrible company, useless, incompetent vile staff.