Attraction Source Forum

Just heard from my good friend that went to the park today that it was very packed due to school trips going...really kind of ruins a nice peaceful term day for everyone as now its supposed to be quiet

Seems odd doing school trips of a very non-educational nature so close to the start of term, fair enough near end of term...

Last week I don't think we saw a single obvious school trip group on Thursday and Friday, but there were a lot of school age kids around who were either bunking off or were on a trip, just in small groups.

Wish I'd had trips like that at school, best we got was the zoo...

Back in my day... We had done school trips in October in the past. So I don't think its that unusual.

True but like i remember last year at this time was practically empty...im sure its good for the resort in the ways of money but As a Student or worker's day out/break from everything...it can put a downer if you're stood behind a whole bunch of chavvy lads smoking in the queue for Nemesis/Air etc haha (in my opinion of course not sure if anyone else would agree) and they always get in the way

The schools have just as much of a right to be in the park as anyone else right now, regardless of the time of year.

Unlucky for anyone that was on-park but thats just the way it is.

Yeah, I don't quite see. On school trips I'd always go to the theatre or something.

Alton Towers would be a wicked school trip.

I agree that they probably can be annyoing on your day out.

Of course im not saying they dont have a right to be there. (They should be learning) but anyway...< lol!

But yeah its kind of like a wave of depression when you're standing waiting for the open thinking you're going to get on everything with little wait and then see a huge group of school kids come around the corner. Its a smack in the gut of course but hey...noone can do anything i suppose so yeah its something we put up with. Lets hope my next visit doesnt result in that which should be next week before Scarefest

I can't say that I have personally ever had a school trip in October time but I don't think it is that uncommon to have one. I think that it is very nice that kids get a trip to the towers in the middle of a term, especially with all the stresses that are on you with school a lot of the time.

I know it would be a pain if you are thinking you will get on the rides really quick and then there are school trips, but everyone can share the Alton Towers magic I guess!

pah! in my day a trip wasn't allowed to be fun! The closest we got to a theme park was the London planetarium!

My mother works for the local sixth form, and she goes in october

I find it annoying that schools all seem to go on the same day. If I go on a trip with school it's horrible.

If I was in charge of parks I would limit it to one school a day!
I ended up going to Lightwater on school trip day last year... they gave us discounted entry it was that bad! We queued 2 1/2 hours for the Rat!

In the past I've been to Thorpe, taken a brief look around at the chaos, thought "sod this" and walked straight out. At least I'm local!

It was awful at Lightwater Valley last year with the queues on the school trip days. Guess it is not good any where though.

My school went on a trip to Alton yesterday with Business studies. Alton towers do a half an hour talk on runnig a business and the rest of the day you get to go on the rides. most kids dont listen to the talk as they want to just go on the rides.

[quote=""Air Time""]My school went on a trip to Alton yesterday with Business studies. Alton towers do a half an hour talk on runnig a business and the rest of the day you get to go on the rides. most kids dont listen to the talk as they want to just go on the rides. [/quote]

HaHa, I was going to suggest that probably the only Schools on park would have been part of an educational visit, half an Hour though seems a little pointless?

Obviously not pointles from the Students point of view. :P

Drayton Manor was horrible on my school trip there. My superior theme park knowledge told me to go on G-Force first so we got on that in 20 minutes but other queues were around 2 hours (at least we avoided the 4 hour queue for G-Force later on).

Yeah, my 6th form are going on the 22nd, for a physics trip! Apparently where doing something physics related, but my physics teacher openly said that its lie just so he can get some funding.

When I was in Year 5 or 6, we went to Flamingo Land and then did work on it about many different things (can't remember exactly what, but they tied it in with a lot of different topics - I know at the end we had to build a 'rollercoaster' for art and design!). Obviously they have animals too, but I can still see them justifying a trip to Alton Towers as 'educational' (even if only slightly!).

Some schools also reward good behaviour with 'fun' trips, and some probably leave their 'end of year' trips for the new academic year (I'm sure that even on a bad day it's generally quieter now than at the end of June/beginning of July).

Last year with school I went Alton Towers in October, not too unusual.

A couple of years ago me and about 12 other people went on a free trip to West Midlands Safari Park for having good results. Nothing compared to Alton Towers obviously, but not too shabby :P