What Has Happened To Ride Availability At Alton Towers? 

You shouldn’t be paying for a full price ticket if they can’t offer you the full amount you’re paying for , period.

Alton Towers is supposed to be our flagship theme park and it's utterly embarrassing what's happening at the park. Both regulers and newbies are being more and more disappointed with their visits.

Shutting at 4pm is a disgrace. Make it something like 11 to 6. Feels and looks like Alton Towers is massively on the downfall. The lack of flat rides is insane.

Honestly I am not surprised that you have released a video about this, Shawn. When I go to Alton Towers, half the rides are shut every time! Glad you also understand the issue 😄

Every time I've been to the park this year I have the same morning. Get into the park for 9:45, walk fifteen minutes to a ride, find out it's shut, walk to the other side of the park and join a queue that's already 40 minutes because there are no other rides in the area open. I use to go to Towers 20-30 times a year, this year I've only gone 5 times because I can't be bothered with the hassle.

It's really shocking at the moment, isn't it. Towers really have struggled sooo much over the past 2/3 years. I had faith in this season, but that seems to have disappeared

Faulty Towers

I went to Toverland last week in the Netherlands. Absolutely brilliant. I urge everyone to take a look and go. Queue times were a maximum of 10 minutes. 100% ride availability. Honestly incredible. Worth a look.

Great piece of theme park journalism, Shawn. Proves your channel is an all-rounder and not just about the (always brill) blogs.

Your honesty sets your channel apart from all the other theme park channels. It takes us three hours to travel to Alton Towers and we’d be so disappointed as it currently is.

Bianca tells people what they want to hear, but the reality is the whole park is not delivering. Whether she has hands tied or not is another question. Make a stance Bianca!!!

With the layout of the park being very spacious, it’s a frustration to walk a far distance to your first ride of the day to find it shut with delayed opening and you find yourself walking around in circles searching for an open ride

I visited Alton Towers about 20 times as a merlin passholder last season, but I've only been twice this season due to poor ride access availability for my wife. Sadly, I will not be renewing our season pass. It's been a very poor season for many reasons.

As a Dad to a child with disabilities, the Ride Access Pass being for pre-bookings only is an absolute nightmare. So many weekends that we look at when we know we can make the journey, they already have NO RAP availability. We used to visit so much, and we've only been twice this year, the first time with no RAP, which caused so many problems for my son we just can't go without it anymore. Really sucks that we now feel forced out because of his condition. I know other Merlin parks have the same system, but i dont seem to have problems booking the dates we want for those.

Think this is a really fair assessment of the situation this season. 👍 It takes me 7 HOURS(!!!) to get to Alton Towers and I spend an absolute fortune to stay in the hotel... I'm there to actually RIDE the rides, not walk from one area to the next hoping that something will eventually open. 😅

Fair play to you, Large channel and calling the park out .. takes balls and you have that, very impressive Shawn. Well done for this.

I’m American so I probably won’t ever get out to this park. But, shouldn’t the park release a statement or something about this? It seems unacceptable for people paying full price and a lot of your major rides are consistently down or not opening on time.

Hello Shawn thanks for the informative vlog. Totally support and agree with you. We were at Alton Towers on Sunday and ride availability was poor. We have visited several times this season and the same issue along with keeping an eye on ride times, very poor. Being a former Engineering Director there is a shortage of engineers to start with and the pay conditions for engineers at Alton Towers compared to Toyota and JCB is poor so they can't attract the most experienced people. Keep up the great work.

This is frustrating from the lack of communication to the lack of compensation when 3 rides are open on one day... I'm not even bothering going to Alton Towers this year, much rather enjoy my day at the better park at the moment. Thorpe Park. I had really high hopes for Bianca but she has let me down, there is no excuse. Alton Towers need to step up.

You’ll open up the flood gates with this question as I’m sure lots of us have had issues. We went in Aug. Between booking tickets and going they changed opening times from 6pm to 5pm (in Aug!) We waited in queues with a child for 4 different rides, which all went down, wasting 3 hours of time, and a very disappointed little one. No one at ride entrances meant no one to measure in advance of queuing when our child was right on the border of 120cm. Drinks machines in pizza/pasta broke, with no apology. We did talk to guest services but they said they don’t refund anymore despite the amount of time we wasted in queues. You need to talk to Bianca again like you did before!

ride availability really is terrible at towers recently needs to be resolved

Nemesis should reintroduce single rider queue. Was great back in the day. Got 21 rides in 2017.

They literally did this one year at Scarefest. I have a screenshot of half the park being shut. People were PISSED!

I went a few days ago and it was shocking. The only thrill rides open from 10 till about 12 were galactica , nemesis reborn and sub terra! They all had a 2 hour queue until the other rides opened. They really need to sort this out as (especially since it is September now) that means there would only be 4 hours of the day where most of the rides are open

Thorpe Park is taking the crown 👑 for the next few years until we get Universal Bedford

I went to alton towers today and I can attest that availability is awful. Nemisis, Oblivion and Wickerman were all down until about half 12

I used to love going to Alton Towers but especially this year after my first few visits , I have got bored of going. It feels like it's lost its magic and something doesnt feel right about the place. I have been lucky enough to do parks abroad and the difference between our parks and ones in Europe is staggering. I'm really hoping that Towers can get some of its magic back and soon

Thorpe has clearly taken the crown from Alton, there’s a lot more Towers can be doing to deliver a great experience for the everyone

It's appalling really, alton towers is such a lovely place and one of my favourites but the operations and lack of rides is a real issue. Me and my family Wouldn't bother visiting as there is literally nothing open, pathetic short opening times and whatever is open seems to constantly go down, I seen an advertisement for a maintenance manager at alton towers some months ago so suspect staffing and operational management could be one of the contributing issues, hope it gets sorted as bad reputations are hard to get rid of.

As you said. It costs a lot to visit Towers. I can't speak for everyone but I can only afford to do the Merlin parks thanks to the "free" tickets in the national paper (not naming which one coz I actually hate it). And that means that I get 1 trip a year to each park. When I visited back in May it was an off peak mid week day. Nemesis didn't open till 2pm. Rita opened at 3:55pm!! 5 mins before park close! Throughout the day every major attraction went down several times. Shortest closure was Thirteen which only went down for 10 mins but smiler, oblivion, Galactica and Wickerman were all down for an hour to 2 hours each throughout the day. When rides were open the queues were around an hour long due to everyone moving away from the closures to whatever was open. It's sad and it makes it difficult to enjoy your 1 visit for the year when you're worried you're not gonna get on all the rides. Fingers crossed Towers can sort this out for next year!

Fair play for calling them out on this. It really does need sorting out.

Visited AT for the first time this year. Been twice. Really surprised after years and years of wanting to visit to see the park with such bad availability, poor operations, run down areas (something similar to Thorpe's project sparkle needed in lots of areas), short opening times.. they cut the advertised closing time from 6pm on the days we visited to 5pm. Comms about Hex seem awful. Toilets were dirty (the ones by Forbidden Valley were downright gross) & the food quality was dire! Thorpe by contrast this season feels sleek, organised, efficient & value for money. Night & day sadly.

My friend is coming over from New York for Oktoberfest, I live in stoke, and I'm really hoping everything will be open for him to experience after me saying for years how awesome it is 😆

It basically sounds like the theme parks version of shrinkflation. Same price less quality or availability, it's so annoying. Thank you for posting this video hopefully someone will realise this isn't on.

This is unfortunately the worst ride availability I’ve ever seen at the park. What’s been going on in the UK? Pleasure Beach having around 3 or 4 SBNO rides, Towers having so many closed rides. It’s crazy!

Much prefer a visit to Thorpe Park, been loads this season already and not really had any issues apart from my Shark Cabin room flooding lol 😂 only been to Towers once this year and that was for Nemesis Reborn opening day which was ages ago…….such a shame how Towers picks up and then slowly fades away again

Just got back home today after a two day stay. Felt like we were chasing our tails the whole time, ride closed > walk to opposite side of park > those rides are now closed > walk back to where we were originally > those rides close again. Also, I swear Thirteen is cursed, never even got to ride it once!! Every time we queued it broke down right before we reached the station.

We went 7 times during the summer holidays and it was so hit and miss with ride availability, what's frustrating is the knock of effect a ride closure has on other queues.

*Get out there and keep on waiting*

You’re a brilliant advocate for our UK theme parks predominantly for Alton Towers. They’ve got to do better. Safety is priority yes but surely checks can be done earlier

We come once a year from the south coast so try and get as much done as we can and get there before gates open. Headed straight to thirteen and Rita… neither opened… then couldn’t go to Walliams as opening at 11… smiler down so huge oblivion Q, wicker man shut because of the fire… rapids opened at 11… We did sooooo many steps just trying to find things that were open. It’s such a shame as we look forward to coming every year. 😢

Yes I agree! I have noticed queues have been very big recently , I’ve been 3 times this year totally agree. Great video! ❤

Sad to hear the curse tunnel has stopped again. It was active on the 24th when I went and I was so happy for it to be back, so to hear its gone down again after being down for over a month is realy sad to hear

Well said Shaun, glad you called them out. It's shocking how bad it is it needs addressing

We could learn a thing or two from the Germans over at Europa Park and the powerhouse of a park they’ve built there. I feel that theme parks in the uk have never been consistently reliable - there are some great rides but you never know what you’re going to get. There was a huge fire when I attended and within a year they had overhauled the entire area and it was operationally seamless again.

You'd think with Universal UK on the horizon, Alton Towers would be investing like crazy to make sure the park and guest experience is on top form. But no, and they haven't for years. Extremely high ticket prices, shocking ride availability, god-awful food and food pricing. I fear Universal will consign Alton Towers to the dustbin, as they'll do everything properly, with a true A+ approach to operations, theming and guest experience.

I visited Alton Towers for the first time a couple of weeks ago (managed to somehow avoid it until my late 20s) I generally enjoyed the park, and it was a thrill to experience the rides (that were open) for the first time, but I couldn’t help but notice how tired the operations were. It was almost exactly how Thorpe Park was until recently. Thorpe, on the other hand, has been absolutely stellar this season. It’s like night and day.

I’ve seen some people saying it’s a staffing issue and it’s hard to get staff because of where towers is located but this hasn’t been a problem before the last 2 seasons so that’s not a good enough reason

Hi shawn Glad you have taken the time to give us an update on what appears to be another bad year for operations etc at towers I always appreciate your opinion over others as I know what towers means to you and will only give negative reports if deemed necessary. It is my favorite uk park and the first big park I went too and means alot to me too. I do get a little frustrated with other vloggers who seem to diss towers and other uk parks at every opportunity also consistently comparing it and other uk parks to larger american parks that have heaps more money and no real restrictions like towers and some other uk parks have. I think on the whole towers has some brilliant rides considering the restrictions they have we just need more flats in x sector and the dark forrest. I look forward to hopefully seeing coaster corner in use again when construction starts on project horizon. I have fond memories of riding Alton mouse and beast and the four man bob coasters. I will call it a day there as I'll be writing a novel befor too long lol just one more thing what's your opinion on the Disney parks at the moment as there seems to be alot of negativity towards these by quite alot of vloggers and the general public. Look forward as always to your next updates/vlogs 🤓👍🎢🎡🎠

I was there yesterday and enjoyed 4 rides! It is really frustrating as a Merlin Annual Pass user who only is able to get there a couple times in the year when days like this happen. The last couple of times I’ve been to Alton this year ride availability has been awful, it’s sad to see. Do not get me wrong, there has been a lot of greatness this year, but reliability has not been apart of that sadly. There should be some form of compensation scheme for pass holders when these bad days happen. Whether its free fast track or what, there needs to be SOMETHING

Told you Nemesis wouldn’t save Alton Towers. People beyond coaster fans are really not interested in the same old rides having a repaint Especially when the rest of it is laughable and the ticket price is simply a rip off. It will not get better.

Bianca is terrible, so much is going on bts which is damaging the park and it’s reputation, she promises things she can’t keep 🤦‍♂️

So glad you've made this video. The park knows you have a good pull over the enthusiast community so hopefully this will ruffle a few feathers! I've only been twice this year but both times were utterly disappointing in terms of ride availability. I spent more time walking the park hunting down rides that were actually available!

Bianca Sammut has quite a few questions to answer given the guff she fed the vloggers at the start of the season.

Send the Thorpe Park team up there to teach the towers team a lesson

Hey Shaun! I’m coming for the opening day of October fest, and if your there aswell, it will be great to see you!

I agree with everything you’ve said in this vlog Shawn. When I met you and Charlotte there in April operations and ride availability was fine. Yes, Nemesis was late opening, but that can be expected with a new ride. I remember saying to you both what an awesome time we were having. It really is frustrating to see that things have slipped and the park is going backwards. I hope they pick up their game before the end of the season and especially for 2025! Like you I’m very passionate about the park having been visiting since the 1980’s. I have many fond memories of the place and I want to feel proud of the park 😊

I was there 2nd september and my god was it bad the only saving grace was getting off oblivion just before it closed only to have smiler open up and it take 10 minutes to get on

I know this has nothing to do with the subject of the video but that morhen or coot running across the grass at around 8.25 creased me up 😂

Shaun I think it might be great if you and Charlotte did another vlog of having another honest chatwith bianca finding out what's going on like you did when she first stepped in to the divisional director shoes even if it's at the end of the theme parks season then you could also include your thoughts on and feedback for scarefest as well as we all know the attic returns again altonville mine tours returns for a second season as tinys revenge, these should have been retired by now. I'm thinking that you might say stale about scare fest offerings but who know until the scarefest vlog is released

Well done Shaun for being so up front and honest knowing your relationship with the park but also a shame the park not doing more to let people know like you said in the current climate it costs a lot of money to go there and don’t think it’s right your not getting a full days ride on things.we understand things can break but this looks pre planned as soon as school holidays were over when there is enough time in the winter for maintenance along with the park looking dirty and no transport to get people around it really does not send out good signals. If and it’s a big if now labour our in if universal gets the go ahead is 6 years going to be enough to improve things in the parks or will they be sold off big worry either way.

From what I know, Alton a little over a year ago shook up a tonne of their engineering team and many of them left as a result. That I'm certain is a major reason we're seeing this park being run in this abysmal state.

My partner and I visited for 2 days a few weeks back. Experience was awful as 4-5 main rides were shut constantly throughout the day, causing long queue times on all available rides due to the concentration of guests being heightened in the remaining queues. We had to wait in Rita for 3 hours and Alton towers actually issued us with VAFF vouchers as it was that bad on the day

Thorpe park is currently the king of UK theme parks (Merlin)

Not surprised in the slightest that you have commented on this shocking service! So glad people are starting to speak up about how ridiculous the park has got in the last few years. We are due to come on Sunday and unfortunately I don’t have high expectations at all. I used to love this park, but for the prices they now charge, it really doesn’t reflect the service that is provided. Very disappointing! Always grateful for your videos and updates!

Great video!

It's super important that folks with your influence call this out, so thank you for that. It's not fair given their ticket prices, and its happening too often.

Went to AT waterpark during a really hot week in June and really disappointed that the outdoor area was closed all week due to staff levels, this is unacceptable especially due to special needs going in school holidays is too stressful due to how busy it is. Not planning to go back there, will try Center Parcs especially as they have self catering on site which is something sorely missing from AT.

Great video Shawn! Unfortunately when you hear 'the rapids are expensive to run' you know this park is being run to such a tight budget. Can you imagine Disney/Universal operating a park like this?! I've only been to Alton once this year because every time that I've visited post covid most of the rides are shut at some point during the day. Also to be closing rides during September when a lot of people (including me) visit because it's quiet is a joke. This includes Thorpe Park as well! Alton - listen to your paying visitors and invest some money into the rides this closed winter season. People will just go abroad instead of visiting your parks!

Thank you for for highlighting this as my daughter has finally got to the magic 1.4m and loves coasters! We've been 4 times this year and each one has been disappointing at times.

Oblivion hasnt been using its dual loading for most of the day to cut staff and ive heard from a member of staff towers is looking at removing ritas front row queue as it can sometimes spill into the main queue and confuse guests.

Like you Shawn, if it wasn’t for Alton I would have such an interest in theme parks. Every time I visited I had so much excitement and the place felt magical even in to my adult years. But now, it just feels flat. A money making machine. It makes me so sad that my favourite place to escape reality for a few hours has gone to become this. Like you (and we used to bump into each other a lot at the hotels over the years) I can’t even bring myself to stay in the hotels anymore and I’d love to if only the quality of the offering was there. Great video.

I have to say, I’ve been most years since I was little. I came in august got platinum fast tracks for me and my children as birthday presents this year. We travelled 4 hours to get to Alton towers, and we had lots of disappointments during the day. We arrived early so we could get our passes, drinks and make our way over to thirteen, to get there and it was closed. So decided to head to nemisis - that was closed also. An hour in and we hadn’t been on any rides. We also found that actual operations for fast track were diabolical. We were ignored most of the time - oblivion even muddled up which line was which and used our line as a single rider queue until someone finally spoke up - we waited longer than then standard queue. Thirteen we had a really moody worker and made us wait and wait and wait, it was obvious she didn’t like fast tracks… so I’m beginning to think I wouldn’t come back and spend all that money again. Such a shame, it used to have such a great atmosphere.

I really wanted to like this park but it was just so dissapointing. I had a much better time at Thorpe Park!

They are clearly being trying to be very smart with their operational costs and shutting rides for periods to either drive people to profitable food outlets, and keep running costs low. Problem is now, is that they have let it the ride closing get completely out of control through complete lack of communication between ride teams and absent management.

Just come back from 3 days at Thorpe park and everything about it knocks spots off towers unfortunately, towers is my local park and it's disappointing to see what is happening 😔.

We went before the summer holidays and it was shocking. Took 3 hours in the Wicker Man queue. We managed to get on 3 rides in a whole day - absolutely shocking!!

I think another problem is that with skyride being down it takes so long to navigate the park. When I visited earlier in the year we went to x sector to ride oblivion but that closed down so we went to ride curse and by the time we reached that that had also gone down. Just made for a really disappointing customer experience. When everything is working as planned it's a fantastic park so it's so sad to see how things have been recently.

As always thank you so much for the video! I am growing more and more concerned now about the running of Merlin parks. I was planning on a nostalgic road trip up to Alton Towers when I get back home with my best friend but after seeing this get worse and worse I just can`t part with the money it will cost to visit. I fear this will get worse until financially they can`t continue. Furious that Curse of Alton Manor is ALREADY breaking, this makes me sad.

we have 2 days booked for octoberfest with an overnight stay, wasn't cheap! Hoping it's not this bad. Such a shame. Universal need to take it over

Skyride has to be the biggest crippler to Alton Towers at the moment. Having already created various barriers for disabled visitors when it comes to RAP availability, most like myself struggle to navigate round the park throughout the day when we can visit. Especially when you finally get there and the queue has either jumped in time or it is down as it happening a lot recently. They say "we have more scooters available to rent", however at £50 a time (granted £25 comes back in 3-5 days), it is an expensive doo for those who like to visit frequently. I imagine even to most able people, the distances around the park can be tiring, meaning most are knackered and fed up by 4 anyway. Wouldn't it be far more beneficial to rent or buy a collection of road trains to travel around the park until the skyride is finally back in action? Surely that would increase numbers and with less people being fatigued by lunch time, the park will stay at capacity for longer each day.

Thank you for this video and calling it out exactly how it is! I think it's really affirming to see someone else feeling the exact same way. Went in June and played the absolute gamble of choosing which end of the park to start my day... of course we chose wrong. Nemesis, Galactica, Wickerman, Spinball, all closed. Wickerman didn't open at all, Nemesis was intermittent all day, Galactica opened 30 minutes late, and Spinball was down (this was outside of this scheduled maintenance).To make matters worse there's no Sky Ride to take you to the other side of the park where the rides have opened on time! The nerve to close at 4pm too after an hour wasted. Thanks once again, I hope the management look into this. Isn't great when the new coaster for this year is incredibly unreliable, Rita seems to be on its last legs going down sporadically throughout the day with no warning. 13 has a mind of its own too (and heard it couldn't run in the rain? Not sure how true that was.) Capacity is a huge problem at this park. Not going again this year to queue hours for the very limited selection of coasters. :/

Hi Shawn I saw you by the lake today thank you for your time to say hello and have a photo, was great to meet you! I go once a year for my birthday and the whole day feels more stressful than anything hoping rides open and stay open rather than relaxing and enjoying the day, definitely needs sorting. Another great video!

Thanks for bringing attention to this, it's been getting worse. Compared with continental parks Thorpe and Alton have had shocking reliability this year.

This is dreadful....they take your money without providing the full service......SHOCKING

Me and my wofe went monday and yesterday, it was by far the worst experience we have ever had in the park. Monday, smiler was down for a few hours (breakdown so nothing to shout about, out of the parks control), but they gave out so many fast passes, that ever the fast pass queue was over an hour when it reopened. There was a massive lack of staff, ever in the hotels and restaurants. I always try and cheer for towers, it was my first park visit over 20 years ago. I adore the place and it hurts to see it run so poorly. All the issues are, in my opinion, down to poor management. I really hope it improves soon.

It's great to see a video calling this stuff out too many people defend this stuff out of loyalty for some reason. With out respect we reject

Was going to visit, stay in the hotel and buy fast pass but not going to now. I have decided to visit Thorpe Park instead. BRING ON UNIVERSAL !!!! ❤

Its so stupid that they keep some rides closed until later in the day. I wanted to take my bf this year specifically to go on hex when it was due to reopen but ive given up, most of the rides aren’t even open. I remember going on school trips 12 years ago and all the rides were open. Also such a large space needs the sky ride!

It has been really bad recently for ride availability. We’ve complained to guest services which we’ve never done before! They are advertising for ride engineers though (more than one) so I think it’s a staffing issue. My husband looked at the job advert because he is a service engineer and would love the role in fact it’s his dream job however the pay isn’t worth the travel. We live 2 hours away. He currently gets paid as soon as he leaves the door for all of his travel so works all over the UK.

Well said Shawn. This is so honest. Thank you for this.

It seems that since the Smiler went down in halloween 2021, the ride availability has gone off a cliff. I'm really surprised as I used to think their availability and reliability were excellent. The same with Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

I’m about to go there in a week with my family. Since we need a wide amounts of rides available, I really hope most of the rides are open. It’s a shame that river rapids will apparently be closing down a few days before the day I visit. They really need to be careful with ride maintenance.

Today, I went to the park with the intention of heading to Spinball before anything else, but I missed the announcement so wasn't aware of the closure. I ended up going on Oblivion later in the day. My main issue is with the ride access passes and the requirement to prebook them. I have an annual pass, so I should be able to visit whenever I want. However, sometimes I can't plan in advance due to work, and by the time I do, all the spots are taken. This means I'm unable to visit, even though I've paid the same price. It's frustrating because I can't make the most of my pass. Despite the ups and downs with the rides today, I still managed to have a good day in the end.managed to have a good day in the end.

Hey man just wanted to say I saw you outside of nemisis filming but I didn’t say hi or anything because I didn’t actually think it was you but nice to see you man !

We went in a few days ago. Same issue. My mother needs a ride access pass, and we spent an hour trying to get it for her. All the rides were closed.

I love the fact that you always give an honest opinion, even when it needs to be on a slightly negative side. The good thing is, with your channel having the huge popularity and following it has, i honestly hope the hierarchy of Merlin are paying attention and resolve the issues🤞

As an engineer it makes me seriously wonder if they are just continuously fire fighting breakdowns on the rides. If maintained properly these rides should be fairly reliable......

Great work mate. Had the same issue at Chessington in 2022 and 2023. Rides opening 2 hrs after park opens. Luckily for us we were hotel guests so had time to get on the rides when they eventually opened. But if you only had a day ticket..... bad show merlin.

See Shawn this is why I like you. Unlike other enthusiasts you really show understanding about park issues. You don't complain every second even when there is issues. You don't let parks like Disney change your excitement for the simple idea of just being on a ride, that childhood excitement. You still get giddy when a ride has added a little animatronic. Keep being your wonderful slightly cringe self because I've been watching your vids on and off for about 9 years now XD