Alton Towers forced to close

[Beans]

Merlin Annual Pass - OFFICIAL


The extraordinary weather that has hit the Staffordshire Moorlands today has forced the closure of the Alton Towers Resort Theme Park at approximately 11.20am this morning.

This is an almost unprecedented action and not one the Resort has taken lightly. However the health, safety and welfare of guests and staff is the prime concern and it became apparent that the extremely high winds were not abating and were not only causing issues in the woodland areas, but were also affecting the Resorts ability to operate the headline rollercoasters.

Of course the Resort are extremely sorry for the disappointment and inconvenience that this action may cause guests, but safety in these extraordinary circumstances outweighs everything else.

The Theme Park is expected to re-open tomorrow and the Hotels, Waterpark and Spa remain unaffected.

 

[peep]

Yeah, seems reasonable to me, I hope the people that did somehow manage to turn up got a refund on their tickets or something.

 

[furie]

It's been really blowing down here, so not surprising. Oddly, Jubilee Odyssey is open

 

[Robbie]

A shame Alton haven't put this on their own Facebook and Twitter pages. What is the point of having a social media presence if you don't use it for this sort of thing?

Blackpool Tower are good at telling us when they're shut, but Alton have barely tweeted for weeks.

 

[Lofty]

Wow. Yeah, as a guest that day, i'd be annoyed, BUT, it's totally understandable. For the safety and welfare of their guests, it's totally understandable.

 

[nadroJ]

The hell is wrong with British weather this week?

 

[Snoo]

Wait.. what did I miss?

 

[ECG]

Oddly, Jubilee Odyssey is open

Are you sure? Not according to their facebook or twitter accounts.

Hi All!
Due to the weather conditions only the indoors rides will be open today which means the prices will be for low season! £10 for an adult and £5 a child!
We will still have character shows throughout the day and FTW(Britain's Hottest New Boyband!) will be performing on Scallywags stage at 1pm, 2pm and 3pm!

 

[furie]

There may have been some sarcasm there...

A gnat farted last year and closed the ride down, so no way it's open as we experience THE WORST WEATHER FOR YEARS!!!! well, a couple of weeks

 

[SaiyanHajime]

Wow. What was so bad about the weather today then, no ones actually said?

 

[furie]

It's been really blowing down here, so not surprising.

Sorry I didn't mention it earlier Joey

 

[Mark]

Its really bizarre reading that... it has been lovely in Southend today. Very warm and sunny...

I guess its about to change though.

 

[Ben]

It's been grotty in the Midlands today. We had loads of snow and wind. Walking to work was vile.

A girl from work went today. Shows her for sitting there bragging about being on Reets whilst I'm working <3

 

[Beans]

Lovely and sunny here in Sussex, wind a bit chilly but fine....

 

[Lofty]

I suppose we've been really lucky here in Merseyside. We've had a lot of strong winds, bitter cold, but no snow. We're VERY lucky.

 

[Ben]

You live in Merseyside. Unless every decent place in the World spontaneously blows up, you will never be 'lucky' to live there.

 

[Will]

No snow in my bit of the world, but I'm about 30 miles from the Towers - the wind was bloody nasty during the night though, woke me up and we've had a few things in the garden spited. Didn't see any snow (though there was sleet) but again, nearer Leek was nasty.
I'd guess it comes down to this being totally unexpected and catching people off guard, staff included, who then had difficulty getting into work because conditions were apparently truly vile in the Leek area.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's only the third time (second time in main season) that weather conditions have closed the park - though today's winds weren't a patch on October 27th '02 - I wouldn't have wanted to be at a firework display that night any more than I'd have wanted to be at a theme park today!

 

[Nemesis Inferno]

Apparently a couple of big trees got blown over blocking pathways and the like... Plus the snow on one of the routes into the park was pretty bad...

Better safe than have someone trying to enter the Flume queue and being crushed by a tree...

 

[marc]

Shame it's not the trees that are protected lol

 

[Will]

In tiny letters at the top of the page 'We intend to re-open as normal on April 5th...'
Now, I'm not one for picking on Alton, but that, combined with the lack of anything on Facebook etc. strikes me as a little bit useless. I KNOW this took them as much by surprise as us, but surely some of the staff left twiddling their thumbs today could have kept the web updated?

v Sorry Gavin, I'm... quite a bit nearer Alton than a lot of members, so thought I might be able to give some explanation