Alton Towers General Discussion

[Glitch]

Find it fascinating how the GP are going oh it’s just ripsaw and the enthusiasts are trying to fight back saying it’s a newer model!

[Inferno]

It’s an odd and unfortunate situation at towers, because they’re pouring a lot of money in to things, but to “the GP” really they’re treading water and there’s nothing truly new happening…

Realistically, despite the bits of investment over the last 5 years, you’d struggle to argue with these statements:

- Ripsaw has re-opened 

- The same Nemesis is still there but is now black and red

- The same Skyride is still sat there but is broken

- Same old Hex has been sat there for years but is broken 

- The haunted house ride is still there, but has had a refurb.

 

Don’t get me wrong, this is all money well spent in my opinion and was badly needed and overdue, but really I think AT needs something truly new.

There is little that they’ve done since Wicker Man that truly offers something new.

 

As much as I think Toxicator is a fantastic addition, it’s arguably yet another “re-opening of something that closed” if you know what I mean.

[MattyMoo]

9 hours ago, Inferno said:

- Ripsaw has re-opened 

- The same Nemesis is still there but is now black and red

- The same Skyride is still sat there but is broken

- Same old Hex has been sat there for years but is broken 

- The haunted house ride is still there, but has had a refurb.

 

100%. You have to take a step back from being an enthusiast and see what the public see. Nemesis is still Nemesis, as good as it is.

[Benin]

Ignores also the amount of stuff that's vanished over the years.

 

Even this year we're down 2 rides what with Blade and Clem Fandango leaving. Plus Dungeons being mothballed. 

 

Genuinely not enough to do at the park. And without things like Blade there's nothing to do with little one whilst rest of group does Nemesis or whatever else. 

[JoshC.]

The park have spent the last 3 years replacing Haunted House, Sub Terra, Nemesis and Ripsaw with...Haunted House, Sub Terra, Nemesis and Ripsaw.

 

They've removed other flats and experiences and other attractions haven't been around for a long time (Hex, Skyride).

 

The refreshing / replacing / reopening of old attractions wouldn't be as bad if they did it across the whole park rather than one area. But focusing on one area for 3 years, plus removing (even temp rides) from other parts of the park compounds the issue. It feels like bad strategic planning.

 

Next year we know is a CBeebies coaster. After that is rumoured to be Project Horizon. Unless they add in more, it's a rough time for your mid line up, with little for your 1.1-1.4m crowd.

[MattyMoo]

Also have to wonder if/when the Galactica retheme is going to happen, as it was seemingly planned for this year... it sticks out just a tad now...

[Glitch]

3 hours ago, MattyMoo said:

Also have to wonder if/when the Galactica retheme is going to happen, as it was seemingly planned for this year... it sticks out just a tad now...

Guess it depends on if MMM are available to do something costing 250k and then compromise and cut the budget.

[Matt 236]

Imagine someone revisiting Alton Towers this year after previously going in 2015 who’s not an enthusiast?
 

Essentially they are witnessing an upgraded Ripsaw, plushed up Nemesis and a modified Haunted House. Essentially in their eyes Wickerman is the only new ride they notice since last time besides maybe some bits and bobs in Beeb land.

 

No Blade, no Flume and couple of other missing attractions, amongst some yet to open attractions and some of the most ludicrous park food. In both price and substance. Certainly makes for a rather negative return visit so far. 
 

We shall see how this season goes, but can’t hold too much optimism so far.

[a guy]

Honestly I think Merlin have a few glaring issues at Towers, and item one is that 11 years ago the park was arguably better. The loss of all the flats, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, and the Skyride that never opens makes the lineup feel hollow.

 

For a long period of time you had to trek 20-25 minutes to get from Smiler-Nemesis, a massive walk when the park only Is operating 10-4 (which it does most days.) the park are bringing back Skyride, have revamped Nemesis, added Sub Terra back and now the Ripsaw replacement, but we still lost Blade. The park as other have said needs something really new- a fresh ground up ride with a new theme. Maybe something less disturbing than all the doom and gloom themes.

 

The main reason to why I struggle to visit Alton though is the opening hours and Aramark's 'food'. They have destroyed every food option in this park. Aramark are awful in all Merlin parks but Alton Towers has the hardest offenders in my opinion. The Burger Kitchen feels like it would be a great episode of Kitchen Nightmares. I have worked for Merlin and eaten the crap they make at the canteens and it is food for for a low budget prison. Charge £18 for that £3 burger they put together with probably the lowest quality of ingredients, utterly nasty. McDonald's is fine dining in comparison 

 

Woodcutters was the only decent option left in my opinion and they've replaced it with an expensive seemingly confused restaurant. The donut burgers have seemed to evoke disgust more than excitement. Pizza Pasta maybe still there but the Pizza is honestly questionable, and to my partner the coeliac offering is a half cooked soggy mess in a box for £20.. Blackpool's Pizza Buffet was miles better and their food isn't the best either. 

 

Merlin is ruining their parks by letting Aramark rob their customers for £18 burgers that could barely please a death row inmate. Thorpe at least has KFC and Burger King, I swear to God they do not change it..

 

 

[Inferno]

It’s a worrying time isn’t it.

 

They seem to be really pushing the engineering apprenticeship, which is associated with JCB.

 

I assume that a lot of the reliability issues recently have come partly from a lack of engineers? It would make sense given the remote location especially.

Apprenticeships like this might be something they’re looking at to try to improve the situation in the long term I suppose.

 

I do feel for the people who show up for work every day and work hard to try to improve things.

Hopefully whatever he issues are they’ll get to grips with it all very soon.

 

I still think there’s a good chance things will be better once the staff have settled in, and Skyride and Hex are open again. As for the food…. Well I’m not so sure - hopefully people will just stop buying it and they’ll have to make changes 

[Benin]

On the engineering side it's probably a mixture of factors of having lower staff numbers, poor retention of said staff, high turnover of staff over the last few years (losing the knowledge), ageing ride population and the newer rides are far more complex in their nuances.

 

Engineering as an industry is struggling to fill in the next wave of people. Having a job offering below average wage and out in the sticks isn't particularly enticing for a number of them.

[Matt 236]

Visited Towers this weekend for the first time this season. 

 

First impressions weren’t great, from the misleading car park layout, various delapited areas and the monorail running just two trains. Rather embarrassing to what could be argued to be the UK’s flagship park. 

 

Operations seemed noticeably inferior to previous standards, with Rita on just 1 train and Galactica on just 2 trains and 1 station, disappointing every 5 minutes. Having 3 rides closed ( albeit expected) is also a shame for a park that’s had 4.5 months to sort things out. On the p,us note, the Thirteen team were doing great!

 

Although not rammed, queues often reached/exceeded 90 minutes. Spinball,oblivion, Wickerman, Galactica and Rita at the very least experienced lengthily shutdowns. This excludes the heavy rain closure that evening where most rides understandably closed for a short while. However closing Spinball in the rain (as opposed to reducing capacity) now is just disappointing.

 

Despite running the Alton After Dark and being the start of season, there wasn’t any real buzz or atmosphere at the park which I’ve felt previously, even post Covid. The vibe improved noticeably after dusk, but there was just something missing and I can only put it down to further quality retraction from the Merlin machine. I had a Toby carvery breakfast, so therefore didn’t need to eat the overpriced and underwhelming food selection.

 

I don’t want to be constantly negative about the resort, so I do have some positives. Toxicator is a great addition to the park, it looks the part more than I was expecting and looks great off ride. The setting was the right level of intensity and adds more to the area. Curse is still an exceptional dark ride and epitomises what the creatives can do with the right resources. Although a little rattly, Nemesis Reborn is still fantastic and looks stunning at night. 

 

I really want to be more appraising and positive towards the park, because they have so many great rides. But I can’t sugarcoat the place solely on this. Towers has a lots of operational issues at the moment and with current trends I see things getting worse rather than better. The park ideally needs millions spent on infrastructure upgrades, however this will probably never happen.

[Benin]

Visited yesterday. Was fine overall since didn't set foot in X-Sector or Dark Forest (a recurring thing).

 

Probably should've had some alarms when parking in what is usually the coach park rather than the disabled/express area, but there was a queue so directed elsewhere.

 

Didn't bother with Toxicator as queue was consistently long. As per most of the thrill attractions on park. Wickerman batcher wasn't doing a great job as wasn't actually batching the main queue just RAP/Fastrack. Which meant baggage dump was a mess of people.

 

Ended up waiting over 30 minutes in a fairly quiet Rollercoaster Restaurant for food. Think it went missing on system as food we did initially receive wasn't ours nor table next to ours. Who ordered after us but got food first. Burger was actually decent but seemingly toasted within an inch of its life?

 

Skyride was testing and staff were training on Rapids at least. No Hex wasn't too problematic for us since not taking lil one on it.

 

Spending most of our day in CBeebies Land really does mean we miss out on most of the problematic issues currently at the park. The sheer lack of support attractions is so telling though. No Blade meant faffing about doing nothing whilst others went on Nemesis, and also why we don't bother with 2 major areas of the park. It's daft and needs sorting not just from my selfish side but also to ease the pressure on the coasters in those areas.

 

Justin's House is absolute chaos though. 

[Inferno]

It will be an interesting time for Alton Towers over the next few years.

 

With Universal aiming for a 2031 opening, Towers will no doubt want to rise to the occasion.

 

I wonder how this will work out?  We could be looking at a long period now before a major new ride is built so that it lines up with Universal - alternatively they might want to install a couple of new rides in the meantime.

 

I would imagine they will want to get timelines “in the diary” so to speak, as many of the country’s engineers etc will be involved at universal and unavailable before too long.

 

Either way, I really hope they are able to get on top of the reliability issues over the next year or two, and start rebuilding their reputation ahead of Universal’s opening.

 

Now that the 2031 date is out there, I bet there’s some planning and re-scheduling of projects going on at Merlin.

[Benin]

Mean Horizon has gone very quiet.

 

Thing is currently with Towers, the current problems cannot be solved by throwing big investments down. The general experience of the park is the main issue that requires work on. 

 

Why is Paultons so well liked? Because the atmosphere is pleasant, they're not obviously attempting to fleece cash off you at every opportunity and queues are manageable. Towers doesn't really do anything of the sort currently.

 

Work on maintenance, operations and support infrastructure/rides before we start building something "big". The entire top end (Dungeons/Walliams) needs reworking, Dark Forest and X-Sector DESPERATELY need support attractions, Blade needs replacing and we need a need flume ride somewhere.

 

Most that'll happen is prices get knocked down as it moves from the currently advertised "premium" product it apparently is.

[Inferno]

The Skyride, due to open tomorrow, is now not opening tomorrow due to “needing to add some finishing touches”…  there is now no date or timeframe mentioned anywhere for its opening.

 

a very frustrating and embarrassing situation given the amount of time it’s been closed.
 

I wonder what’s happened?  It’s been running gondolas empty for weeks on end.

 

Is it the poorly timed hot weather perhaps?  (Although it regularly ran in hotter weather than this previously)

[JoshC.]

Weather could be an answer, but if they're not comfortable/able to run it in mid-to-high 20s⁰C heat, then they're going to struggle over summer.

 

The most frustrating thing is that by delaying it until an unknown date, they will have known for a while it wouldn't be ready for today. Which means they've left it until the last second to pivot the announcement. 

 

Now yeah, it's *just* the Skyride. But it still is poor communication. 

 

I guess in their mind their backs are already against the wall. Either way they'd have gotten flack, so they decided this was the best way to deal with it. I disagree, but oh well.

[Mark9]

Do they want to explain how similar sky rides run in hotter (and colder) temperatures then.

 

Sounds like one of those 'Merlin enforced rules' which makes absolutely no sense and severely prohibits the ride from providing its basic function. 

[Cal]

Skyride planned to open tomorrow now. 

 

If it was just down to the heat then they should've said that, instead of "working hard to create a truly magical experience", there isn't a lot magical about a transportation ride 

[Inferno]

A bit weird isn’t it.  Perhaps there was an issue and it wasn’t the heat?  Who knows.

 

Either way it’s great news it’s opening finally  

 

I took Skyride for granted for years to be honest.  It’s actually a brilliant experience even ignoring the extremely useful transport element of it!

 

Looking forward to getting back on it again.

[Coaster_Contrarian]

Skyride is down today. Staff saying it will 'hopefully open later' which is no good once I've already walked to the other side of the park 😒

 

Edit: Also, it's very sad to see Toxicator's queueline scratched-up with graffiti.

Edited May 6 by Coaster_Contrarian
Addition to avoid double post.

[JoelAllen]

Rita has been spotted testing today 😁

[MattyB]

NEMESIS at Alton Towers Documentary | Building Europe’s First Inverted Coaster

 

Brand new documentary courtesy of Euro Theme Park Archive.

 

Really good!

[Cal]

https://www.towerstimes.co.uk/news/2025/07/11/alton-towers-resort-update-july-2025/

 

Bianca is out.

 

Big shame in my opinion. Shes was a breath of fresh air and has done a lot of good for the park since shes been there. 

 

Sounds like she wanted to do a lot more too, but has never had the budgets to do so. 

 

Will be interesting to see what happens next. Towers needs someone good and long term. 

[Matt N]

 

I couldn’t find an exclusive topic for it (apologies if there is one), but I did Toxicator for the first time over the weekend. I shared a few thoughts in my trip report from the Saturday, but I’ll give a few slightly more in-depth thoughts here.

 

Let me start with the theming and presentation…

Presentation

On the presentation front, I think it overall looks really nice. To give a few more refined thoughts:

• I was unsure on the platform prior to the ride’s opening, but I have to say that it does make the ride look really dominant and visually striking; that platform absolutely towers above the area!
• Theming-wise, I think they’ve done an excellent job. There are some really nice little details around the area and queue, as well as in the underpass, and I also really like things like the audio and the toxic waste tanks (?) on either side of the ride. Yes, it might not quite match the grandeur of something like Talocan (from what I’ve seen of that one), but it’s better themed than 95% of flat rides out there, including any of the ones that used to populate Alton Towers in years gone by, so I’d consider the theming we have on Toxicator a big win!
• As with anything designed by John Burton, there are quite a few Easter eggs, or “nods to the past”. Maybe not as many as on some of his other work, but I did notice a couple of “Can you cut it?” references, as well as a reference to 1997 somewhere.
• I would say, though, that the platform is a double edged sword. I say this because while I think it makes the ride look really dominant, it does maybe sacrifice some practicality in that when the ride is in operation, it seems to leak water everywhere. I’m not sure if this is intentional or a design flaw arising from the ride’s placement on top of a platform, but there was a bit of the queue that I noticed people not standing in because the ride was raining water into it during operation, and the underpass is difficult to walk under for similar reasons.

But on the whole, I would give the park top marks for presentation on this one; the ride looks great thematically!

 

Let me talk about the ride now…

The Ride

Now prior to Saturday, I had never actually ridden a Huss Top Spin before. I never did Ripsaw when it operated, and I also never did Rameses Revenge either, so this was a new ride type for me! I’m not a great lover of flat rides in general, but I had heard people say that Ripsaw “wasn’t as bad as it looked”, so I wondered if I might like Toxicator.

 

Unfortunately, I’m sorry to say that the ride really wasn’t for me at all. I really hoped I might like it or not dislike it that much, but unfortunately, I would say it was right down there with Air Race at Drayton Manor and Samurai at Thorpe Park as one of the most vile flat rides I’ve ridden, and I would it was my least favourite thing I rode all weekend at Alton Towers. I’m aware this is quite strong criticism, so I feel I should back up my stance with reasons. My reasons for disliking the ride so strongly are two fold:

• Firstly, it has a fair amount of slow and very sustained upside down hangtime. I can take brief or fast hangtime to a point (e.g. the inversion on Swarm’s dive drop, or Smiler’s indoor inversion), but the really slow and sustained kind of hangtime where it just leaves you hanging upside down for ages and ages is the kind that I absolutely hate. Toxicator seemed to have loads of it, unfortunately, and that turned me off it for sure.
• Secondly, I found the flipping a bit too violent for my liking. I’m not someone who’s averse to going upside down by any means (I’m absolutely fine with it on coasters), but Toxicator seemed to flip over and over in a ridiculously violent fashion that I just did not find remotely enjoyable. It made me feel a bit queasy, if I’m honest, and I just found the flipping too violent and jerky for my liking.

I’m sorry if that’s controversial. I know many, many people love these Huss Top Spins, and rate Toxicator and also the likes of Talocan really highly, but that experience just was not for me at all. In a park like Alton Towers, where there are loads of great rides to pick from, it’s not a ride I see myself rushing back on any time soon.

 

Wetness-wise, I didn’t get as wet as I feared I might. I got a bit of spray on my legs, but nothing overly terrible; it dried quite quickly, even on an overcast morning like Saturday. I can imagine the spray might be nice on a hotter day!

 

I really want to be excited by Toxicator, and I do think the park should be applauded for building a new flat ride, but my experience on it over the weekend reminded me why I have little to no personal excitement for the idea of new flat rides at Alton Towers. I’m just not a massive fan of them in general, and the types I do really like (namely drop towers and S&S Screamin’ Swings, to name a couple… mainly things that offer notable airtime and don’t really spin!) are types of ride that Alton Towers can’t build due to height restrictions. I get that the park lacks flat rides, but I struggle to muster up an awful lot of personal enthusiasm for any hypothetical flats that Towers might build in the future, and Toxicator has definitely not changed that, I’m afraid.

 

One other thing I would say, which I admit is perhaps slightly picky, is that if the park builds any more flat rides in the coming years, I hope they go for something that the park hasn’t had before. As much as Toxicator is a brilliant visual piece and looks really cool, I get the overriding impression that many people see it as “Ripsaw in a different colour”. While Toxicator is a new ride, the fact that it’s effectively a revival of a ride from 1997 does only add to the impression that Alton Towers isn’t really progressing and hasn’t done much that’s meaningfully new in years. Curse and Nemesis Reborn were brilliantly executed projects, but they were refurbishments and/or revivals of old staples rather than meaningfully new things, and I feel that Toxicator kind of has this feel to the casual visitor as well. I don’t think Toxicator being a Top Spin was necessarily a bad thing per se, as the ride type does offer many really cool aspects, but I do hope that future flat ride additions to Alton Towers offer something the park has never had before rather than simply being similar “revivals” of Enterprise, Submission, Blade et al. My fear is that the casual visitor might lump Toxicator in with the likes of Curse and Nemesis Reborn as being a refurbishment or revival of the old rather than properly new blood, and I feel that Alton Towers is maybe at that point where it could do with some properly new blood ride-wise.

 

I hate to leave negative reviews, so I’ll try and be somewhat balanced and diplomatic with my summary. In summation, I would say that Toxicator is an excellent ride visually, and I will give them top marks for presentation. The ride really does look brilliant! I will also applaud them for trying to fill the flat ride gap in Alton Towers’ lineup. And if you like flat rides more than I do, I’m sure you’ll really enjoy the ride itself! But I’m afraid that the ride experience was not for me at all, and it’s probably a one and done within the sphere of Alton Towers for me; I don’t see myself rushing back on it any time soon. I’m sorry to leave a negative review, but I feel obliged to be 100% honest whenever I review things, and that is how I honestly felt.

 

Here are a couple of photos I took (I didn’t take many, as I didn’t spend very long in the queue):

On the plus side, being disappointed by Toxicator was the only real dampener on what was a broadly excellent two-day visit to Alton Towers!

 

Operations were generally excellent; Nemesis was hardly stacking, Galactica was in “slowing down on the lift hill” territory on 3 trains and 2 stations, and Thirteen was throwing out trains at a rate I’ve never seen before! They were getting dispatch intervals as fast as 50 seconds on there, and even with a few larger guests who needed an extra restraint check as well as a dispatch where people weren’t leaving the exit platform quickly enough to dispatch, my average dispatch interval while in Thirteen’s station was 56 seconds, or 1,272pph. That is awesome! Wicker Man and Smiler were also doing well on a full capacity service.

 

Availability was also generally pretty good, and some of the rides were running as excellently as ever! Wicker Man remains my favourite on park, and I got a particularly fantastic row 11 ride this trip, but Oblivion was also running brilliantly and I got my first front row ride on Nemesis following the retrack, which was sublime! The hotel was also really nice overall; it was nice to stay on-site again, and given the drama around Aramark, I thought the breakfast was absolutely fine!

 

Given some of the negativity around Towers at the moment, I feel I should give credit where credit is due and say that this was an excellent trip to Alton Towers overall!