Partly disappointing - Not enough water rides. Not enough tamer rides for people with health problems. Food and drink quite expensive Very little seating to have a drink or food unless eating in one of the food places which as already said very expensive

Disappointing birthday treat - Booked the theme park as a birthday present for an 11 year old. We parked at Splash Landings as we were staying there for the night after visiting the theme park. Very long walk to the entrance, probably about 15-20 minutes but we were excited and couldn’t wait to get in. We organised the RAP (ride access pass) and were told to collect this from guest services. So, we joined a very long queue of what seemed to be a lot of disgruntled parents/carers. This was our first time ordering the RAP and apparently rules had changed on how it worked previously and you had to make sure you booked this prior to attending the theme park. We didn’t think we’d have an issue as once the RAP was ordered we had linked it to our visiting date, so you’d assume it was a prior booking as they know our date of visit. After standing in the queue for approximately 40 minutes, we were told we could have the RAP card but not use it as it had not been booked! Still don’t understand how this works. Many people were really upset and arguing with the staff but we decided against it and thought let’s just try and enjoy the theme park as best as possible. Although, we did know some who did complain got the access requested! So we joined the nemesis reborn queue for that to be closed due to maintenance issues. Walked to galactica to be told it’s closed, asked why and told by staff “it’s galactica” no idea what that means! Walked to thirteen stood in that queue for 1 hour to be told over tannoy maintenance issues, left there discovered hex and blade not open at all! By this time we were stressed it was getting on for midday and not one ride since we walked through the gates just before 9.30an. Disappointed and annoyed. Tried to communicate with Alton Towers via instagram to be told to go to guest services, what to join another long queue. We later managed to get on oblivion, followed by nemesis reborn. Walked to Rita, joined this queue as the app was saying a shorter queue time but it transpires they were running on one train and we hardly moved in the queue after 30 minutes so left and went back to thirteen. Again, after 40 minutes of so queuing it’s announced maintenance issues and they’re temporarily closed. We wouldn’t leave the queue this time and held on in the hope they’d reopen soon. Luckily, after another 40 minutes they opened. By this time we were tired of going from one end of the theme park to the other. We walked back to the nemesis area and joined the queue for nemesis sun terra, we didn’t queue for long and managed to experience this. After this had finished we had a reservation at the rollercoaster restaurant for 4pm. We experienced 4 rides in 6 1/2 hours, disappointing! We have already decided to not return to the theme park, not worth the hype/stress and frustration. However, on a good note we attended the waterpark the following day and had a great day there.

Poor day out - Unable to obtain fast pass at the guest services for my visit with my sons red ride access pass "as the terms and conditions have changed for the start of the new season 2024" management Would not even make an exception as we didn't know and never had a problem before Manager said the park was at its "capacity " Que times massively long all the time Over priced food and drink Been coming to alton towers for years but doubt if I will return Feel it's not value for money anymore There is better theme parks to go to

No reasonable accommodation for those with disabilities. - It is now impossible to go to the park if you have a ride access pass unless you’re booking some months ahead. I have had a gold merlin annual pass for some time now, which is useless to me without a ride access passcode, and half way through my Merlin annual pass validity date they have changed the terms and conditions to outright discriminate against those with hidden disabilities. The pass will let me attend next week, but my ride access pass will not work as the next few months of weekends are fully booked for ride access pass. I have emailed the ceo and I’m wising for a response, very concerning.

Downright unacceptable/useless - I went Alton towers with my freind and his mother who’s disabled and it stayed on the website she is eligible for a pass to go through a quicker queue due to her disability. We go to guest services to obtain this “pass” and a worker named karim or kermim (don’t know spelling of the name) says it has to be “pre-booked” which not once was stated online and then we got told we would have to wait until 1pm for the pass. The worker showed a lack of energy and interactivness and seemed like he had 0% of empathy. I understand they may be rules for pre booking but it should be told on the website/app or atleast give the fast track just that once as a form of apology for THERE ERROR! It also would have been better if karim seemed like he was sorry. Special credit to worker Ryan on wicker man and Jordan at guest services the second time round. Wicker man shut for a bit and Ryan kept us updated and then at guest services Jordan was very nice. Also another special credit to a trainee worker on Rita who informed us about all the rides and was extremely polite and helpful best regards-Harry Herbert. Date of arrival at Alton towers- Sunday 5th of may 2024

A pale shadow of its former self - The general experience was fine (if I’m being nice), only one of the rides that we were interested in appears to be permanently closed. Most of it looked fairly tired though and we were unable to use three of the rides that we queued for which ate up a fair bit of time in the day. Newer rides lack any imagination, having been to Efteling in Holland last year we were very let down by what should be its British competition. Merlin have a lot to apologise for given how good Alton Towers used to be. Some of the staff tried to provide enthusiasm but others are not suited for providing a fun filled day out.

Worst Day at a Theme Park, ever. Not hyperbole. - Today was, frankly, the worst day I have spent at a theme park out of all the parks and attractions I have visited across Europe and the United States. Oblivion, Wicker Man and The Smiler were down all day due to wind, though there were significant periods throughout the day where windspeeds were low. I have no doubt that these rides could have opened at some point in the day. Additionally, queue times were often inaccurate. I joined the Galactica queue on an advertised 20min wait; I ended up waiting over 100 minutes (after spending 40mins in the queue, you're kind of committed). Got to the station and they shut down for another 15 minutes to add another train. I told the platform attendant that they should have done it a good hour ago. It would be remiss of me not to mention that Galactica is looking really shabby and could probably do with removal in the next couple of seasons. RAP appears to be open to abuse. I understand that it allows disabled guests to board quicker, and this is not a slight on those who *genuinely* need it, but RAP queues were long and always given priority over standby riders, which I think contributes to the wildly inaccurate queue times. For a supposedly off-peak day, the park was extremely busy. A lot of children on park despite the Easter holidays being over. Opening times 10am-4pm is an absolute joke for a park of this size, and I effectively spent my entire day in Forbidden Family. Guest Services nonplussed by the complaints and all solutuons offered involve you returning at a later date and spend more money, so either way, the park wins. Bianca Sammut has offered a lot of platitudes in interviews with vloggers and the like, but she has her work cut out here. Ride count: 1x Runaway Mine Train 1x Curse of Alton Manor 1x Galatica 2x Nemeis Reborn 1x Nemesis Subterra 1 star awarded due to The Curse of Alton Manor being a class-act dark ride.

DISABLED CUSTOMERS READ THIS - NEVER AGAIN !! We, as a family, held an annual pass to Alton towers last year along with a Red Access Pass for our disabled daughter. Towards its expiry date in August / Sept time we were told and information was displayed rhat NIMBUS independent assessors were taking over the ride access pass process. We applied and received the new ACCESS PASS from Nimbus. Today was the first time this season we booked to visit Alton Towers. We entered the park and went to guest services to obtain the ride assess pass time card. We were then asked by a staff member if we had pre booked. I asked for what. He said all access pass holders had to pre book now. It's new this year. At no time was any information relayed to us as a family of any changes to the pass system other than the need for the new access card. He said that we couldn't, therefore, get in as there was a limit on numbers. We then went to the desk where another staff member said we needed the RED access pass as Alton Towers didn't accept the NIMBUS access card they had told us we needed. In the off-season, Alton Towers changed the rules AGAIN requiring the NIMBUS card to be linked to an Alton Towers Access Pass as well as now requiring pre booking. The manager we spoke to was very unhelpful, lacked empathy, was unsympathetic, and demeaning of our position given our daughter was in the middle of a full meltdown. She refused to do anything, stating I have a disabled child, too. What the relevance of that comment was is beyond me. I would question what staff training has been given to staff to deal with disabled customers as it was shambolic. No emails, nothing to explain any updates to the process. We said to the manager we would never be back, and as I turned with my wife and daughter to leave, she felt the need to follow us. I said, "What are you doing and she said she was escorting us from the park. I said we are leaving there was no need to escort anyone. At no point on the app where I booked tickets was there anything to indicate when I was booking a carers ticket to ask did we have an access pass and to enter the number. PLEASE PLEASE check before travelling to this place as they say you need to book a week in advance. And apparently this is the same across all Merlin owned parks so beware of this issue. Merlin and Alton Towers have managed to make what should be a standardised process, an absolute mess and seriously need to relook at how they treat disabled guests as this is completely unsatisfactory. It's the parents left to try and pick up the pieces after the event.

Spend your day waiting in a queue. - Queues for all rides greater than an hour. Price of fast track to avoid queues is a rip off. Not enjoyable at all, won't be coming back.

Discriminatory Staff - Visited on a Thursday during Easter booked 1 day in advance as we had payed for Merlin annual passes as we thought this would be a nice day out. This was not the case at all, we were greeted by a rude staff member that told me that I would not be able to get my Ride Access Pass as they were ‘sold out’ and that it doesn’t matter that there was a risk of me collapsing in the ride queues and that they would deal with it if it happened which does not seem fair at all ! We then went into the park and queued one hour for guest services which is clearly understaffed. After waiting that hour we spoke to a rude lady in guest services that told us to go and speak to a manager if we had a problem. The manager who’s name was Jordan spoke to us and refused to speak to a under 18s parent as he didn’t feel this was needed and came across as very rude and unprofessional as well as being quite discriminatory towards multiple people who had conditions such as cerebral palsy, diabetes and more. We were left to leave and tried again at the forbidden valley guest services where in fairness there was a very kind staff member who had some sympathy and explained to try again as it wasn’t right how we were treated. So after walking back and forth we ended up at guest services again where we spoke to a lady called Natasha who I would like to say thank you to as she understood that we had been treated wrong and offered us silver fast track to help us not have a total failure of a day. My advice would be to try and book their new system or don’t bother as you will be treated in a discriminatory way by some staff members and it is not worth the way it makes you feel.