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Apologies for double post - but following on from the optimism above, all of the Alton Towers accommodation is fully closed on weekdays over winter until March, and even some weekends in January. This is a very interesting development, and something that as far as I’m aware hasn’t happened before. Usually they have at least one accommodation available over winter. I understand that the hotels will be much quieter during the closed season, but to close down the entire operation feels like a dire situation to be in… it can not be normal for a company to have so many assets doing nothing for such a portion of the year, and to be performing so poorly that they feel it’s better to close them entirely? It seems a shame that they can’t use the off-season to capitalise on their water park breaks or make more use of the conferencing facilities for businesses etc, if they insist on not opening part of the theme park for months. Places like Silverstone make near constant use of their assets for conferencing very successfully. I wonder why Towers can’t achieve the same over winter? Especially being so central in the UK. An interesting time for Alton Towers, who seem to be basically in a never ending process of shutting down rather than expanding and growing :(

In a totally predictable turn of events, all be it a lot later than everyone thought, the world of David Walliams has now permanently closed. The enormous unused space they suddenly find themselves with at the back of the park now is staggering. This appears to be a historic opportunity for Alton Towers to do something spectacular. Right in time for Universal to open. I really hope Merlin are considering big changes over here to transform Alton Towers. I know Merlin at in financial trouble, but I can’t help but see this as a bit of a make or break moment for Towers. I really hope they can somehow find the funding to bring in a multi-year transformation project, including Horizon, and replacements for Charlie and Walliams. Despite the money troubles, I don’t see something like this being too big for Merlin. they operate in an industry that relies on continuous investment for starters, and they are pouring money in to certain areas of the business, even close by at Chessington. Even if they have to look at selling off other areas of the Merlin empire to fund it all I think it would be worth it to really cement Alton Towers as THE theme park to visit in the UK outside of universal. I really do hope they are going to make the most of all this space in the next few years. It feels like too much of an opportunity to let go.

FN was a 10pm close up until Covid. I would rather the park opened later instead, maybe 11-10.

I can't help but feel its just in the wrong location. I never bother going over there and feel its just a bit out the way, but maybe thats just cause I haven't had good enough reasons to go over there. If only they had an arena in the centre of the park... feel like that location would've worked perfectly for something like this. Also, in my opinion the food options there have been pretty dire and think theres much better options elsewhere on park. Was a big fan of Cargo at Towers but don't think anything they brought in for launchpad have been good at all unfortunately.

What a weird season, it’s been good but boring. Ride availability was good everytime I visited, events were good. Good opening hours. Launchpad wasn’t everything it could have been. We just need more rides and multiple years of it, to keep it interesting

What time is the park allowed to operate to in terms of noise? I thought it was 11pm.

Well that's the 2026 season done then. Overall I think it's been a good season. No idea on actual figures, but the park has certainly felt busier this season, which can only be a good thing. The lineup is starting to feel a little stale, and Fright Nights felt quite stale overall, but the park has continued to operate very well in my opinion. I do feel like the park is crying out for a new flat ride, but unfortunately it doesn't look like that'll be happening for next season. The only actual new ride hardware we've had since 2014 are Dodgems, Ghost Train (less said about the better) and obviously Hyperia. As we've seen this season, the flats are certainly showing their age now. There are rumours going around that Huss are coming in over closed season to work on Zodiac, so I'm hoping Zodiac and Vortex will both be back for the start of next season. But I do desperately think a new flat is needed to keep things fresh. I also think sorting out the entrance needs to be a priority. Seeing reports of people waiting 70 minutes just to enter the park is crazy. I personally can't think of another park that has a similar issue. It's a terrible first impression. A couple of other things I'd like to see: • Build on the 9pm closes over summer. They seemed well attended and a success overall, so I'm hoping the park can build on them next year. • Fright Nights 10pm closes. I know I say this every year, but Fright Nights feels busier than ever and I think the park needs to be doing what it can to help with capacity. Opening an extra hour would surely help with that, as well as enhancing the guest experience. The park looks SO good at night and deserves to be seen more in the dark. • Finish the Colossus repaint, although I can't see that happening with it being left untouched last year...

Seeing The Walking Dead hit three figure queue times on the regular this Fright Nights has been wild to me - but as stated above, with so many flats down, and now no Swarm I guess it's no surprise.

At Stealth yesterday heard a youngster (about eight years old) screaming at his Mum "but I don't want to ride on the front of everything"

Yesterday there was less smoke from the "fright night" addition, than coming from the smokers and dummy suckers in the queue line.

I visited earlier today. It feels that the park is lacking capacity. Vortex, Quantum, Zodiac and The Swarm were closed all day. Depth Charge was only open until 2pm. Hyperia hit 190 minutes. Even Tidal Wave was up to 30 mid afternoon. All the ride staff were trying their very best to keep throughputs up. Lighting has improved over the years. For me the bottom line is that the park feels stale and is crying out for some major hardware investment. Apart from GT, Hyperia and some bumper cars the park is no different to 2012.

Very unfortunate timing. I agree, would’ve thought capacity would be lower than usual with Swarm down and 3 flats closed. Apparently there are over 15k booked for today, tomorrow and Friday. Not sure what the usual capacity is.

Swarm is currently stuck on the lift, so will likely be closed for a while. I doubt they're at actual capacity, but will have stopped numbers coming in because of that capacity hit.

It seems today and tomorrow have sold out with no tickets available to purchase on the website. The Swarm has been updated this morning to show as closed all day, which if so is very unfortunate timing, being one of the highest throughputs on park.

Looks like it reopened this morning. Was quite impressed to see them hoisting it back up so quickly. Must’ve been a tough few days for them operationally but hopefully that’s the end of bad weather now!

Saw valleyed yesterday afternoon, not making the dive loop after the final MCBR. As I understand it, it had been on the MCBR for a while, empty, and they tried to get the car to complete the circuit, and it didn't succeed, likely in large part due to the weather. Engineers were hoisting the car back up to the MCBR a couple of hours later.

Saw aside, the whole park is open now. Rough day, but the weather has been forgiving for the afternoon / evening.

Apparently, because there wasn' t much of an option, the Q for the Walking Dead was over three hours.

Looks like another tough day operationally today due to the winds - the only thrill rides which have been open most of the day are Rush, Inferno and Walking dead. SAW has valleyed so is done for today at least. Quantum has been closed for a couple days and now has scaffolding so is closed for the short term at least, meaning there are now 3 flat rides closed in that corner of the park.

Woo, its nearly that time for the best part of the year, UPDATED TOP TENS. I'll start with my 'best of newly ridden in 2026' list. There was only 24 new rollercoasters added to the count this year, a lot of my visits being re-vists such as Magic Mountain and Knotts Kondaa - What an incredible ride. Absolutely loved it and an utter joy to ride. X2 - An iconic ride and I'm very thankful that I managed to get on 6 weeks before its final rides. Lasso of Courage - A surprisingly intense and good RMC. it's bare bones queue and station leave a lot to be desired but it is a really good ride. Turbine - Absolutely loved this. Very disorientating and fun. Twisted Colossus - A really good but also a frustrating ride. If they got lockers at the entrance and actually shared basic information to guests before they ride it could be really good duelling each time. But every single time you don't duel so its gimmick is wasted. Mahaledon - I'm a sucker for Gerstlauer family coasters and this one is a very long, fun ride and perfect for Walibi Belgium. I'd love to see one of these in the UK, maybe Paultons. Pulsar - I was a little surprised by this to be honest, I didn't expect the powerful launches and the fantastic air time. The turntable really helps its capacity too and it was very well operated. I like Ghost Rider - It was a really good ride but the operations are so frustrating. Where is the third train! It's a really long solid ride though and recently retracked. Journey to Atlantis (San Diego). This was a very pleasant surprise with lots of little tricks to make it more memorable then the Orlando version. Anubis - Solid little Gerstlauer. Relatively compact, forceful launches, not too rattlly. Nice. And the other 14 Electric Eel, Manta (San Diego) Arctic Rescue, Emperor, West Coast Riders, Revolution, Hang Time, Drakon, Taka Wawa, Pilot, Cobra (Walibi Belgium), Calamity Mine, Loip-Gaoru, Vampire (Walibi Belgium),

It's a tricky one. If they chose to keep running it, it adds mixed signals - "the weather is bad enough to close the park, BUT we'll keep running this ride here because people are in the queue". And if the ride has to then temporarily close for weather, how long do they make people wait? It had a very full-looking queue too at that point, a good couple of hours. Very much feel for anyone who was near the front of the queue. Hope they get more compensation than just a return ticket.

Does seem like it was quite poorly organised from some of the posts I've seen online. Even this seems odd. If Inferno was running, why not run off the queue. Just adding further to a poor guest experience and creating a bottleneck.

I was there - well, I arrived at 4ish, announcement came at about 4.45. I'd planned to go for a couple of hours. Wasn't fussed by rides really, hoped to do a couple of scare zones / shows. I noted Survival Games, Stitches and Tenement never opened. When I arrived, Rebel Ball was deserted, not even any guests in the Launchpad. No actors in Lucifer's Lair or Purgatory. Shortly after 4 I noted that the other two mazes closed. When I got on park, no one mentioned about poor ride availability, which was surprising and disappointing. I saw the announcement on the screen by Inferno. Inferno was running, but they made an announcement to the queue telling them to leave the queue and the park. Guest Services had a queue back to Launchpad. I get the decision to close. On park communication could have been better though. I'm also a bit surprised they had close...I have had lots of visits to the park where the weather was worse. Again, I get it, I get that this where the park and industry are at. The park's current operating conditions likely meant rides would have kept opening and closing and it would have been annoying. And it's likely best for staff. But still, just surprised me.

The park have now announced on social media that they’re closed for the rest of the day due to the storm. Looked like they’ve struggled to keep anything open so makes sense. Don’t think I’ve ever known them to close due to the weather though. Big blow for them closing during the busiest period!

And it's "uncomfortable" for loading staff, glaring.