Alton Towers Resort Quick Questions

General discussion regarding the UK's No.1 Theme Park. Talk about anything and everything Alton Towers here.
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Owen
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They stamp your hand, just let the staff at the gates know and they’ll be happy to help! :)

To Count-Vonduel, I think if you’re planning on booking the day before at any point you’re taking a risk - and if you’re trying to book fir the final Scarefest days you really can’t expect to get a room. Right now all accommodation options are currently under ‘Last Rooms Remaining’ so I wouldn’t keep my hopes up!
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Robert.W
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Owen wrote:They stamp your hand, just let the staff at the gates know and they’ll be happy to help! :)
They must be doing it differently to last year. I'd have thought wrist bands would have been easier though.
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Owen
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Robert.W wrote:
Owen wrote:They stamp your hand, just let the staff at the gates know and they’ll be happy to help! :)
They must be doing it differently to last year. I'd have thought wrist bands would have been easier though.
It’s because stamps can be done once and then if people would like to leave again they’ve already got the stamp and therefore don’t have to faff about getting a new one. It’s also much cheaper!
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Mickeyray
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Count-Vonduel and Owen, Thank you!! I really don't have a lot of money being self employed so obviously shelling out a small fortune and coming from Weymouth, it's a 10 hour round trip plus with the park opening 10am to 9pm it's going to be a very very long day and wanting to make sure we don't get locked out the park!! My son is only 9 and we recently went August 2017 for his first time (I've been going since 1990 but my first time since 2003) with Ultimate fast track because I know queuing up with kids can be crazy.
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Robert.W
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Owen wrote:
Robert.W wrote:
Owen wrote:They stamp your hand, just let the staff at the gates know and they’ll be happy to help! :)
They must be doing it differently to last year. I'd have thought wrist bands would have been easier though.
It’s because stamps can be done once and then if people would like to leave again they’ve already got the stamp and therefore don’t have to faff about getting a new one. It’s also much cheaper!
Ha ha! I was just about to add that it must be cheaper!
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Count-Vonduel
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I got hand stamps every single year since 2009, never heard of them using wristbands.
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Robert.W
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Count-Vonduel wrote:I got hand stamps every single year since 2009, never heard of them using wristbands.
Hmm... that's strange. It was the 21st when we went last year - the first day of the main Scarefest event, possibly they ran out of hand stamps, or were using both methods and just pure chance which you get given? Who knows?!  :)
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Count-Vonduel
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I think I remember seeing some wrist bands stacked up by the turn stiles, but could just be false memory syndrome.
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Count-Vonduel
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Adding on to what I asked yesterday,
What are the odds of it being fully booked on the 30th (if I book on the 28th)?
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Jcoaster
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Hi, does anyone know what's going on with the smiler? apparently it's been unavailable since Sunday evening?
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Dan
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Jcoaster wrote:Hi, does anyone know what's going on with the smiler? apparently it's been unavailable since Sunday evening?
I imagine it's downtime is related to the high winds that we have seen over the past couple of days thanks to Hurricane Ophelia. I have been monitoring the weather at Towers quite closely and on Monday there were gusts of up to 45mph while today it's been anywhere up to 35mph. Wind of this speed will automatically shut the ride down so I'm not surprised it has been unavailable, I live 90 miles east of Towers and the wind here has been very strong so I'd be surprised if its closure isn't weather related.

That being said, there is always a chance that it is experiencing a technical issue. The park is closed tomorrow so hopefully it'll be back open on Thursday (I'm actually on park on Thursday so mainly speaking for myself :lol )
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Jcoaster
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I really hope it's back up for the weekend, I'm at scarefest on the 22nd and 23rd and the smiler is always a highlight
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stevebrown
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Jcoaster wrote:Hi, does anyone know what's going on with the smiler? apparently it's been unavailable since Sunday evening?
I was on one of the last trains of the day on Sunday at gone 9pm and it was running perfectly!
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Colinweir
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stevebrown wrote:
Jcoaster wrote:Hi, does anyone know what's going on with the smiler? apparently it's been unavailable since Sunday evening?
I was on one of the last trains of the day on Sunday at gone 9pm and it was running perfectly!
Currently laying in a bed in the CBeebies hotel hoping it’s open for my visits tomorrow and Friday!
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Owen
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I can also confirm The Smiler was running fine on Sunday evening!
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Dan
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The Smiler was open all day today and was running like a dream
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Nickolai
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How many trains has The Smiler been on these days, because from all recent videos I have seen it looks like they have been running it with four trains a lot.
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Dan
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Smiler313 wrote:How many trains has The Smiler been on these days, because from all recent videos I have seen it looks like they have been running it with four trains a lot.
It was on 3 today.
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Colinweir
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Smiler was running great today, all day. Rita was closed for a while this morning but opened certainly by lunchtime.

Queuing wasn’t an issue today, walked onto the front row of the Smiler and Oblivion and had to wait about 2 mins for Nemesis and Galactica. Walked straight onto Thirteen too. Biggest queues were in CBeebies land and at Spinball Whizzer (first time I’ve been on that one today and it’s a really fun ride). Ran out of time for Rita :(
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Colinweir
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When did they start searching bags at the entrance to the park? Haven’t had this done the past two years when I’ve been down.
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