Alton Towers Resort Reviews 

The maintenance and availability of the rides needs serious improvement. Queues were massive and soo many rides were closed. Not much was open before 11.30am despite advertising opening at 10am. Overall a very disappointing experience as didn't get on many rides and spent hours queueing.

£15 for parking good luck

Literally hell on earth! , it blows my mind that people are prepared to stand for 100mins for a ride that last less than a minute, why does anyone think that’s a good family activity ? There’s very few food options available and the ones that are open are shockingly bad and even more shockingly priced
I don’t get it

1.8 stars is generous. There is only one word to describe the state of Alton Towers. Embarrassing.

We pay entry for already abysmal opening hours, typically 10am-4pm, and now: Galactica, Spinball Whizzer, Th13teen, The Curse of Alton Manor, Sub-terra and the whole World of David Walliams are staggered until 11am. What feels like 25% of the park doesn't even operate when the turnstiles open, leading to crowds descending en-mass to a handful of rides that do open, leaving to excessive queues from the word go.

Alton Towers: we visit to have fun, not to hit walls of disappointment and sheer negativity throughout the day.

We’ve been going for years, In the past few years we feel it’s become over priced with more and more rides either closing or just closed on the day due to maintenance or just broken down on the day. Went on Saturday, the fast pass ticket for two is now £375, £8.50 for 5 donuts is just bonkers. Sadly, this will be our last visit, just not worth the money any more

Theme park is fantastic but don’t bother using live chat for help especially Charlie or Lew they stereotype people and try to shame people for asking for help.
Very unhelpful and discriminatory from start to finish.
Asked for the chat log to be sent over and edited it to save themselves lucky I was screenshotting the chat log.

We attended Alton towers overnight on the 14th Feb. Our daughter has complex needs, is a wheelchair user & is in receipt of higher rate DLA. We were therefore able to get a ride access pass. We went to the first ride & were told sorry the lift is broken so you will have to carry your 13yr old up the stairs which my poor husband just managed. We then went to the next ride & had no clue that with a ride access pass you have to then wait & it has set a timer for 1 hour so we had to wait with a child who has an inability to wait or queue for an hour! We eventually got to the front & were told sorry the lift is broken again!!! What a joke- my husband carried our daughter again but they were not on the ride for another 15 mins- so he had to take all her body weight for this length of time. This was the end for us, we couldn't take anymore waiting or lifting of our child. In our opinion the lifts are not broken, they just don't have staff operating them at busy times. We decided to leave & went to a cafe just outside of the Cbeebies land entrance. The cafe has electronic ordering points & i successfully ordered a coffee for £4.50. My husband & our son went to another till point & tried to order a sandwich & a drink for £11 but the transaction failed. They tried twice more & it failed again. We asked a staff member & they said it was because they closed in 10 mins so were no longer selling food. We therefore went back to the electronic ordering point & successfully ordered two more drinks. I yesterday realised that this cafe has taken 5 debit amounts from our bank including three charges of £11 each for the failed sandwich & drink order which we never received. I have tried to email Alton Towers & was told to call an 01538 phone number - i had to email again to say i am a fulltime carer who receives £70 per week carers allowance i cannot afford to call this number at 50p per minute & i need the £33 taken out of our bank in error put back in immediately. I have been given an email address which i have now sent a message to & have received an auto reply that it will be dealt with in 7-10 days! This has been a terrible experience & Alton Towers should be ashamed of their lack of support of the most profoundly disabled children & for taking money out of customers banks for items they have never received!

Extremely disappointing stay at Alton towers resort. The rooms weren’t particularly clean. The food was terrible and the price was extremely expensive. There wasn’t enough staff in the secret garden so orders were delayed or missed completely. It was an extremely cold day also, I’m not sure the staff were adequately catered for with regard warm weather clothing. This adds to the perception that the company is penny pinching and not really focusing on quality customer service. Finally, the booking confirmations were confusing. We were sent lots of emails but nothing really stated where to park, e.g express car park, where to drop off and where to eat breakfast. It also was stressed that evening meals needed to be booked in advance. We were fortunate to get a last minute booking.

The park its self is brilliant and the water park was great kids loved it. The only downside was the price of food and drink. I got a pint of beer and a glass of wine nearly £18. The buffet price is ridiculous £30 for an adult all you can eat.

We booked a 1 night visit to include Cbeebies splash park and evening entertainment. Very expensive but you expect that at half term. What we did not expect however was the blatant corporate greed demonstrated. Queues of over an hour for all rides some even cancelled completely as the queue was too long. Our 8yr old was so upset it meant effectively that a total of 4.5 hour waits resulted in 7 mins riding. When we complained at Guest services they said" its because its half term" well yes which Alton towers are aware when taking bookings, clearly they know how many children are booked into the park!!. We were told several times by staff "its been like this all week". So many people complaining. The so called entertainment for the kids later between 6 and 7.30 was 2 young ladies singing a selection of adult songs, no meaningful interaction with the kids whatsoever. The only time the kids were included was during the repetitive message to warn parents to keep them off the ship. The water park was packed and clearly over subscribed which seems to be something else everyone is aware of. This is our first and last visit. They should be ashamed of what they provide selling something they know they cannot deliver and ignoring guest complaints.

Alton Towers is the most skanky, chavy and absolutely vile themepark that you could decide to go to. Today, i came with high expectations and absolutely nothing was open other than cbeebies which means even those rides will have a long queue like octonauts being 65 minutes! This is disgraceful as older children and adults will have nothing to do and children wont be able to wait for long. At the end of my visit, i decided to treat myself to chocolate buttons. I purchased them with their overpriced prices and when i decided to open them, there was a dead fly. I am heavily disappointed as i paid high prices for a poor experience. If i could rate it 0 stars i would.

Have to say enjoyed my time here during the fireworks event but your prices are robbery to the point many will stop going eventually. Also you charge high prices in most parts but give poor quality food. Stop treating customers like mugs and start to give a standardised affordable price for everyone.

How this company is being allowed to even consider not complying with the Equality act 2010 is completely beyond me. Compliance with an act of parliament is not voluntary especially as this is backed by the UN charter. This company should be brought to task by Parliament and told in no uncertain terms that discrimination is illegal

Very anti-disabled, it’s absolutely disgusting. Will never visit again.

Unsafe venue for people with disabilities

We booked a short break back in 2024, we enjoyed it all very much and it was very good value. Now the kids are a little older we thought we would book the same break again - 2 nights in one of their hotels, a day in cbeebies/mutiny bay and a day in splash landings. When I first looked at the available bookings online this was priced £348, when we came back 2 days later it was £398. We booked then and there so as not to see the price increase further. However our experience since has been very poor and we haven't even got there yet! I've not been able to link the short break to my app, I keep receiving a message saying my reference isn't valid, when it is. We received an email stating that breakfast reservations were open, but when I followed the link in the email the booking system wasn't working. When I went to use the online chat help service I was told not to worry as the bookings only open 14 days in advance of my stay. Brilliant, not to worry, I'll wait. However, when I did go to use the link to book at exactly 14 days in advance (so i could book suitable times for my young family to eat) I found all the suitable times already booked up because apparently the bookings opened 21 days in advance, not 14. So we are now stuck with a dinner reservation at a restaurant we didn't want (Flambos - we prefer the Secret Garden) and with breakfast reservations 1hr earlier than we would have wanted. We haven't been able to find a booking at any restaurant on site for the second night we are there, so we will be going to a pub nearby, outside of the park. To top it off, I received my ticket barcodes today and when I tried to link them to my app it wouldn't work. I waited 25mins for support on the chat function, and then gave up and telephoned. But waited 50 mins to speak to someone (Sophie) who, to be honest, didn't seem that bothered by anything but did try to help. She managed to get me to link the tickets to my app, but not the hotel stay. And she couldn't help at all with the restaurant bookings. She kept telling me how busy the helplines were due to a recent advertisement promotion.
It seems that Alton Towers are more focused on new bookings than supporting existing ones. We are very disappointed and we haven't even got there yet!

As a parent of a child with Autism, DCD, OCD and huge sensory challenges, yet again we find an organisation deciding to downgrade and discriminate against children who are not "disabled enough" or disabled in the "right way".

Autism and sensory issues are hard. They are hard for the person with them, they are hard for those who care for them.

Navigating a neuro-typical world when neuro-divergent is tiring, expensive and difficult. There are extra medical costs, having to constantly explain, battles with govt department just to get basic needs met - the list goes on.

For goodness sake - budget airlines provide fast track through airports and assistance - this puts Merlin Group and Alton Towers below them in levels of decency and caring for neuro-divergent paying guests.

This is not a case of Neuro-divergent vs those with physical disabilities as the PR team have tried to spin - it is down to costs and cost cutting and maximising shareholder profit at the expense of the vulnerable customer base.

As a previous regular visitor to the park - both as a child myself and as a parent of children, I will not be going back. Its a shame when companies put costs above those with special needs.

Shame on you Merlin and Alton Towers.

Disgusting treatment of those with disabilities. If you, or a group meebrr expects any level of support from this park you can forget it. You will be treated as a pain, and told it’s your fault. Staff simply don’t care. Avoid any attraction owned by Merlin.

We used to go 3 or 4 times a year but now we have had our nimbus card taken away our autistic son won't go as he has a multitude of issues from low muscle tone to severe sensory needs sorry but you lost another good paying customer

I suppose us parents with autistic children should just stay locked indoors for the rest of our days