I was at Alton Towers yesterday and it was quite easily the worst day I've ever had there.
-Opening was advertised as 6pm when I originally booked and then shifted to 5pm last week. I only realised that Tuesday.
--On that note, it was busy. I usually visit around this time of year, and the park was busier than I'd experienced for this time of year.
-Got to the park for 9am gate open and headed to Dark Forest to get that duo open. It was only at 9.57am did they do any sort of announcement to say that each ride was going to be late. Th13teen hadn't tested at that point, I was later told. Rita had done multiple test runs. So we had spent about 30 minutes waiting for nothing.
-Should be noted that Walliams World opens at 11. With Hex still closed, this meant *nothing* was open beyond the Towers at park opening. It wouldn't be until WW opened that anything was.
-Upon park opening, Galactica and Smiler were the only major coasters open. Spinball was too.
-Oblivion became listed as open on the app, so headed over there. By the time we got to X Sector, it was shut but continually testing. As a group, we don't like Smiler so figured we'd wait it out a bit (along with a reasonable sized crowd). After a few minutes, we were told by the host that "we should try other rides as it could be hours before it opens".
-Spinball was the nearest open ride we'd consider riding, but it (and Smiler) had 70 minute queues. Headed over to the just opened Wicker Man, which also had a 70min queue by the time we got there.
-Wicker Man ops were poor. Staff were forcing us through the closing automatic doors into the pre show. I literally had to squeeze pass the two doors and still caught my shoulder.
As we were an odd group, by the time we got to the airgates we were asked to wait to the side for another odd group. We had to wait another 2 whole trains before one came along. Minimal in the grand scheme of things, but when you're stood right there, it's a bit of a kick in the teeth.
-When we headed over to Forbidden Valley, we were greeted with a closed Nemesis (which apparently opened late on 1 train, although the 2nd was added at some point), a closed Galactica and a closed Sub Terra. Had lunch and Galactica reopened with an hour queue, so managed that. Nemesis was still closed. Went over to Alton Manor. Closed. Nemesis still closed. With no Sky Ride, you're left weighing up options: stick around idly waiting, or have to waste 20mins of round walking to get to another ride and back.
-Any time I checked the app, there were always multiple rides closed and multiple 70-90min queues. As I say, never usually this bad at this time of year.
-Got fed up of the park, so went to do mini golf and leave early. Mini golf has seen better days; all of the info signs about the holes have either been removed or stolen, bar 2, and the course just looks and feels very tired.
Parks have bad days. People have bad luck. I experienced both of those yesterday. But based on the numbers I experienced, I doubt it's ticket sales that have realistically driven the park to cut open hours.
And as I say, this was the worst day I've had at Towers. Sure, we could have stayed those extra 3 hours on park and gotten a couple more rides in. But honestly I was so fed up and tired of thr constant shutdowns, poor communication and general vibe on park that I have no regrets.