Alton Towers Resort General Discussion

Tue Feb 25, 2014 6:41 pm

Just been on alton towers online and found that a smiler fast track this season could be £10 alone!

Tue Feb 25, 2014 6:54 pm

TheSmilerMan wrote: Just been on alton towers online and found that a smiler fast track this season could be £10 alone!

This is worrying. Where on the website did you find this?

Tue Feb 25, 2014 7:03 pm

TheSmilerMan wrote: Just been on alton towers online and found that a smiler fast track this season could be £10 alone!

Well they saw the queue length last season and know if guests want to not queue for upto 2 hrs then they either not ride or pay £10 to jump the queue.

I do wonder the max any guest would pay to jump any queue?

Tue Feb 25, 2014 7:08 pm

You have to go right through to the ticket selection process and select The Smiler fastrack before you find the price. This link should take you to it.

Personally I think £10 for a single fastrack for just one ride is too much, even if The Smiler is the latest addition to the park. A Fastrack Scream for 3 rides is just £2 more at £12. I don't normally use Fastrack, if there are large queues I tend to use single rider, typically it's much quicker than the main queue (although you have to judge it as sometimes single rider does take longer). However, as Themeparksandy1981 said, there is usually someone willing to pay to skip a 2-4 hour queue.

It will be interesting to see if this price remains for the season, or if it reverts to the £7 it was for a single Smiler fastrack last year.

Tue Feb 25, 2014 7:11 pm

Just save for a bit and buy the best fast track. It makes you feel both rude and important. Plus if you are only there for a day then at least you can get on everything at least once, maybe twice.

Tue Feb 25, 2014 7:12 pm

They have probably had to so this in order to start making their money back. They must have gone well over budget with the late opening and extra work needed over closed season so it doesn't really suprise me

Tue Feb 25, 2014 7:24 pm

I agree that while £10 for a single ride may be a tad much, I'm completely for price hikes on Fastracks. They're a premium product and should have a premium charge to go with them so as to not effect general guests experiences.

Tue Feb 25, 2014 7:33 pm

As much as £10 is ridiculously expensive, if I was only visiting once a year I would pay it (or even do as Dom said and save for a platinum fastrack)

I paid for one Smiler fastrack last year when I went with my brother, so I wanted to make sure we got on it without spending a large proportion of the day queueing, but generally I don't touch them as I tend to use the SRQ's.

Tue Feb 25, 2014 7:45 pm

Yep, the less people using fast track the quicker the normal queue moves, so higher prices to keep it a limited premium product are a good thing.

Tue Feb 25, 2014 9:46 pm

The biggest problem I have is the prices Merlin charge for the gold package. Universal Studios express pass is the same price but as the exchange rate $1.58 to the £1, the Universal ticket works out to be cheaper and the rides are 100 times much better.
Even Disney spend £1bn on the magic bands, fastpasses+ and ticketless machines to enhance guests' enjoyment. They listen to their guests and now most of the queues are interactive.

Wed Feb 26, 2014 11:04 am

Good to see blivvy on it

Wed Feb 26, 2014 11:52 am

I like this very much.

Good to see another thrill ride on there this season, but it will be interesting to see if they keep the same layout of ERT as the end of last season (entrance by Battle Galleons) as that will mean anyone heading to Oblivion will have to go all the way round the lake...

Wed Feb 26, 2014 12:01 pm

Im happy with it, before only nemesis was good, at least now you have another decent ride on.

If they keep people at the barriers this year, you will get a good few goes on them.

Also you can get in the queue first for the smiler

Wed Feb 26, 2014 5:23 pm

£10 for The Smiler Fast Track started last year? It was an additional cost on top if you wanted to ride front row however.

Wed Feb 26, 2014 5:35 pm

It's certainly good to see another big coaster on the ERT line-up, I know many people were disappointed that Oblivion wasn't on the list last season.

Of course the decision will be: Do you head over to forbidden Valley first to do a few rides on Nemesis before doing Air at 10am? Try and do both Nemesis and Oblivion during ERT meaning a sprint across the park, or head straight to X-Sector, ride Oblivion a couple of times before queuing for The Smiler?

ERT is always going to be tricky to get absolutely perfect, you could argue that maybe it would be better if they opened everything in one area. However, I doubt the resort would want to have a potentially large number of people concentrated in one area so early. The new line up will spread those with ERT across the park quite nicely.

Wed Feb 26, 2014 5:37 pm

I think it's good of them to open Oblivion.

On balance, get Nemmy done, and queue early for Air, as Oblivion often doesn't get massive queues during the day.

Wed Feb 26, 2014 5:48 pm

Nice to see my favourite ride on the ERT line up

Wasn't open this half term!

They should really add more thrill rides though, two isn't enough!

Wed Feb 26, 2014 5:50 pm

You also have family rides such as Duel, RMT and The Blade, as well as stuff in Mutiny Bay (not the Flume)

Wed Feb 26, 2014 5:52 pm

lf2001 wrote: Nice to see my favourite ride on the ERT line up Wasn't open this half term!

They should really add more thrill rides though, two isn't enough!

Honestly two is enough, how much more do people want before they open the park at 9

I just think people should be happy we get the early ride time and that we get the rides we do, the resort could be mean n just open flats and dark rides. It's nice they have re-added oblivion though

Wed Feb 26, 2014 6:38 pm

How do you get early ride time? Because we won tickets so would we get it?