ALTON TOWERS REVIEW: Does it live up to the hype?
Вставка
- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- Get ready for the ultimate Alton Towers review! In this thrilling video, we're taking you on a journey like no other, showcasing the good and the bad of the UK's number one theme park! From heart-pumping rollercoasters to spine-tingling attractions, we'll reveal what makes Alton Towers a must-visit destination for thrill-seekers and families alike. Whether you're a seasoned coaster enthusiast or just looking for a fun day out, this video is packed with tips, attraction reviews, and first reactions that will help make your first visit so much better! So, sit back, relax, and get ready to experience Alton Towers like never before!
Instagram: @maloneys_coasters
Discord: / discord
Join this channel to get access to perks:
www.youtube.co...
Like, subscribe and click the bell icon. Become a channel member for early video access and exclusive perks.
Footage:
AdventureDrone
Alton Towers Fan
Alton Towers Resort
ATC
Attraction Source
British Pathe
Canobie Coaster
Coaster Clips
Coasters World
CoasterTalk Source
GK Adventures
JB Coaster
Mega YEET
Scream Seekers
Stubwood
Theme Park Worldwide
Your Experience Guide
Music by Ryan McCaffrey/Go By Ocean
#rollercoasters #themeparks #altontowers
As someone from the UK, I always heard that Alton Towers was somewhere special. My parents and relatives would always speak of it as if it was a utopia. A place to escape all your problems in your everyday life. With everybody, coaster lovers or otherwise, having their own special stories about this place. Similar to the Netherlands with Efteling, it felt like a British right of passage to visit Alton Towers.
I was always fascinated by coasters, but due to a variety of reasons I never got to see Alton Towers until I was in my teens. When I finally visited, it was exactly the place I imagined. And quickly made my at the time dormant interest skyrocket once again. I loved all the attractions, the clever use of restrictions and just the general atmosphere was fantastic.
However, being able to revisit the park plenty of times in the past few years, the magic has slowly been dying. Constant overcrowding, inconsistent operations and terrible ride closures, including the long term and now reopened hex, Galactica's constant issues, wickermans extended closure and losing Nemesis for a year and the skyride for more, it's just slowly got worse and worse.
It's just such a shame, this park should be the best park in the UK, but it just isn't anymore. Once upon a time this was a special place, but recent management decisions and slow rotting of their own attractions have climaxed, becoming one of my least favourite parks in the world, with unacceptable pricing and food quality issues making this park feel like a chore. Even more sad considering how highly regarded it once was. As someone who wants to love the park, it genuinely breaks my heart seeing how far it's fallen.
Not wishing to be pedantic, but Corkscrew was a Vekoma, although basically an Arrow design with Arrow trains.
Great review and very fair comments.
Also, despite what the park claims, it was not the first of its kind in Europe. In fact, an identical ride had opened on the German fair circuit the previous year. However, since rcdb does not list travelling coasters, this ride does not appear there until it was later sold to Traumlandpark (now Movie Park Germany).
Loving your videos, you're creating some great content. Alton Towers' maintenance has been a complete omnishambles this season. I think they're really short staffed, and I suspect their remote location doesn't really make recruitment particularly easy either.
I consider myself as a long time (40+ years) fan of Alton towers, but I was there last year and I have to agree with you. I think Merlin and the new management need time to work things out, not forgetting all the soaring cost's, logistics etc.
Thumbs up to all the staff.... friendly, efficient and proud of their work, defiantly an extra bonus star to the park.
I first visited the park in 2023, but that was only decent in comparison to the one I had in 2024. My 2024 visit was amazing, and I got to experience most of the major rides, with my favourites being Oblivion and Nemesis: Reborn. Can’t wait for the new flat ride that’s due to open next year.
I think you're absolutely right on the park overall, and the supremacy of Thorpe Park. When I last went 13 was closed until litterally the last hour of the park because it coulddn't work in the wet... In the Uk....
Its massive size is both a feature and a bug, it means you'll be exhausted just getting around, but at least going through the gardens is nice.
I'd absolutely recomment Hex. That is an amazing experience.
I know I’d need 2 days there, one day to focus on the major rides, and a day to explore the grounds and gardens and dungeons etc.
maybe i have a high tolerance for roughness but my alton towers rankings are
1. smiler (i loved my 2 night rides it was so fun, the whippiness and airtime was rlly good)
2.wickerman (row 9 night ride some airtime was a bit odd with a more lurching forward type then straight vertical)
3.nemesis (whippy, row 4, positives felt a bit weak for some reason but still rlly whippy)
4.TH13teen (night ride in row 9 the dorp and following hills are really fun and i had my mum on it for the first time she was already so scared from the layout and the surprise finished her lol)
5.Galactica (fun got some flying airtime but a bti tame)
6.Rita (rlly fun 2 nice airtime moments sorta fizzles out)
7.Oblivion (really good drop but thats about it)
i agree with your issues my 2 visits this year have had multiple issues with reliability and availability for example on my october half term visit while nemmy was open it was on one train meaning i ahd to wait 2.5 hours on it when i only had 2 other rides at that point that ive been on which were slammed because of the terrible ride availability thank god for the longer operating hours during halloween
So I'm fairly local to Alton Towers (I live in Derby - hope you liked our train station lol) so I end up visiting 4-5 times a year - here's what I think.
If you're not comfortable (or unable) to drive in the UK, then Alton is a pain. Your best best is to get to Uttoxeter/Derby/Stoke-on-Trent and take the bus, otherwise - as you mention - it's an expensive uber. Very much designed for cars which is unfortunate, but just a consequence of where it is. If you're not local, 100% reccomend stopping in either an offsite hotel if you've driven, or an onsite hotel if not - it's a big park! I often don't complete everything in a day. Although you might not be able to help it, try and come super offpeak. The park closes at 4 but queues rarely exceed half an hour.
Operations these past few years have been dismal and it's upsetting to see. To see how great the park used to be, it feels like Merlin isn't giving it the surge of money it needs - and are giving it the bare minimum to stay relavent. I only think this will get worse when Universal UK breaks ground and eventually opens.
I agree that Thorpe has a far better collection of rollercoasters. I love Alton for it's history, themes and is a much nicer park to just walk around and be in - but for rides, Thorpe is far better. It is a shame that you missed out on the best coaster at the park, Nemesis, which imo is far superior to Thorpe's Inferno and is the reason I still love visiting Alton Towers.
Going forward, the park definetly needs some major investments. The monorail/entrance situtation needs working out urgently, the Sky Ride needs reopening, flat rides need replacing, and aging coasters (looking at you Rita) need replacing. It feels like the park is a sinking ship and their too busy bailing buckets rather than planning a route out of the icebergs.
Thanks for your input! Always good to hear from a local - even though it's kinda my job on this channel, I sometimes feel a little out of my depth reviewing parks after one visit, knowing I might have experienced a totally unusual day.
I definitely see a lot of potential in Alton Towers, especially for the theming and the sheer scale. It's a park I immediately knew I would have to revisit, and not just because of the Nemesis closure. Even though I used Fast Passes like there was no tomorrow, there was so much that I just had to skip so that I could get on the rides I most wanted to experience.
I'll be back, and I hope that between now and then, they can figure out whatever is going on with these operational issues, because it sounds like the day I experienced was not out of the ordinary in terms of closures.
If a ride does open and close in alton towers, if people missed their fast pass timing because of closure then it’s valid all day, so it’s going to be an even longer queue
I think your comments are fair, I think recently Alton Towers has put in a lot of investment in a short period of time, Curse at Alton Manor, Nemesis Reborn, the new Hex and now Toxicator along with general improvements to lighting and theming around the park all in the space of two years. This is unusual for Alton Towers and they perhaps bit off more than they could chew financially and have had to make cuts and it's those cuts that are showing across the park in various ways this season. I am optimistic that it will all be under control in the coming seasons.
The park has issues a lot during the last few weeks of the season. If you can go there mid week (specifically early season Tuesdays or Thursdays) you can get on more, recently when I went I got on 6 rides (smiler, curse , nemesis, oblivion and 2 wickerman rides) at the run alton towers event where you do a large run and then ride everything.
The ride closures here makes me really nervous. There is nothing worse than traveling to another country and a major ride that you were looking forward to being closed. I just got back from Japan and last minute Takabisha got added to the closure list while I was at Fuji Q. Such a bummer!
Yeah Alton Towers was a rough park for that. Missing Nemesis was a huge bummer, and luckily this was part of a bigger trip so I had plenty of other bucket list rides to remember it for and it was only one disappointment in an overall excellent week.
But it's a concerning sign for the park. There was a point during the day where I was looking at the closures in the app and wondering if I was going to miss a lot more. Like I said, The Smiler, Oblivion, Rita and Th13teen all opened late that day as well. When they were still down, I was getting really nervous. I didn't come all that way just to get Galactica and Wicker Man.
I'm hoping they'll improve it, because there's clearly something going on behind the scenes
I'm soft planning Hot Euro Summer and I do want to get here. It's good to get a bit of warning that it might be unreliable. I've accepted the fact it's going to be busy but I would be curious what the fastpass situation is.
Fast passes were available through the app, so you can purchase them in park. I originally didn’t plan to use them so I just purchased two individual fast passes for Smiler and Th13teen, and waited in regular queues for the rest. It was 10 pounds for each individual fast pass
Alton Towers used to be my favourite theme park in the UK but in recent years it has really fallen behind Thorpe Park. I go every year and since 2022 there has been at least one major coaster I couldn't ride because of how unreliable the operations are along with hex being closed.
I have to agree that the coasters really aren't that good and missing nemesis on your only visit makes the park even worse. On the back row, it used to be almost too intense. Not quite as forceful on row 3 which is where I got assigned twice this year
they need an exa coaster
fr
@@RomanSecundus yeah, but I'm sure the neighborhood may not like this.
Beyond everything else the park mainly is wasted potential to me. Some really good stuff but a lot of problems.. could be so much better
Skyride being out all year hasn’t helped with getting around the park.
It’s not magical. Hasn’t been for many decades. Anyone who is insisting it is magical has a narrow scope, and hasn’t visited EU parks.