The 'How busy will it be?' Topic

Been to an attraction recently? Planning a trip? Tell us about it here or get some hints and tips for your next visit.
Stan.H
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For people visiting Florida parks, as well as Disney parks. This is a great link, where it has live queuetimes from the parks! :D https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/wait_times.php
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DeadJack5
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So now that the new season us nearing us, I would just like to ask would the 28th Of March be quiet being mid week and being the first week of the park being re open?
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phenom
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Hi,

I'm planning a trip to Alton Towers on the 12th april this year. As I'm from germany, the park is not exactly "around the corner" from where I live. This is why I want to avoid long queues and just concentrate on enjoying the day!

Unfortunately, the 12th april seems to be inside the UK easter holiday period if I'm not mistaken. Even though this date is not on the easter weekend, I'm concerned that the park could be very crowded. Now my idea is to pre-book the "Platinum Fast Track Pass" for 95 pounds, which is quite a lot to be honest.
Now my questions are: Do you expect the park to be very crowded, so that the platinum pass is worth the money? Please consider that I already pay for the flight, a hotel and a rental car to even get there, so of course I want to get the maximum out of my day at Alton Towers (but of course I don't want any unnecessary expenses at the same time!). Furthermore I would like to know whether it is necessary to pre-book the fast pass. My idea is to see on the date if this pass is worth the money or not. Is it possible to buy such a pass after you already entered the park?

I hope you can answer my questions and give me some tips. Thank you in advance!

Regards
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Ladyofthelake
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Although the 12th April is inside the Easter Holiday period it is a mid-week date so shouldn't be as busy as the weekends. You are able to buy fast pass once you are at the park so my advice would be to wait and see - if you find the park busier than expected then you can buy individual fast passes for rides, or the platinum fast pass if it is very busy.

I'm sure you'll have an amazing day - you'll have to post again to let us know how you found the park on your visit :)
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phenom
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Thank you for your help! So I won't pre-book the fast pass, the individual pass option sounds more reasonable to me.

I will let you know how I found the park, if I manage to get there. Being in the UK for the first time in my life, I just hope I'll get used to you guys driving on the wrong side of the road. :no: :P So even driving there will already be an adventure.
ThemeCrafter264

My friend is going to go to Thorpe on April 3rd which is a Monday in the Easter school holidays. How busy will it be? Also what fastrack should he get out of swarm, inferno, colossus or saw, if he is doing the fastrack package? Many thanks
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ThemeParkCrafter wrote:My friend is going to go to Thorpe on April 3rd which is a Monday in the Easter school holidays. How busy will it be? Also what fastrack should he get out of swarm, inferno, colossus or saw, if he is doing the fastrack package? Many thanks
With it being in the Easter holidays (which I believe that lies in the London break as well) Thorpe Park will almost definitely be busy, but with moderate crowds at the very minimum. It'll be even busier depending on the weather as well, so take that into consideration if you are pre-booking Fastrack (e.g. Hydration package - £12 etc). Personally (judging from previous years and opening day) I'd expect the main coasters to be on at least 60 minutes, going all the way up to the maximum of 180 minutes. Then the 'Thrill" flats being probably between 35-50 minutes. DBGT on the usual 120 minutes at the least, but most likely higher due to the "Rise Of The Demon" addition - causing more people to ride that due to the "new" nature, and fairly dodgy reliability :lol and hopefully it isn't #unavaliable for you guys! The water rides will be quiet if it's cold busy if its hot - but Storm Surge will be 'busy' but not if that makes sense, once again due to the bad capacity on it!!

Personally, I'd recommend getting the Full Throttle Fastrack, and then purchasing one-shot FastTrack's for IAC and DBGT (which I believe are available, but don't quote me on that :D ) and if its hot buy the Hydration package. I'd also say don't buy Fastrack till your there, and try to judge the crowd level when your arrive (Ticket queues, Car Park traffic etc). But if he want to do all the coasters at least once the Full Throttle package is well worth the money and time it saves!

Hope you have a good day, and look forward to hearing about it and seeing some pictures!! :)
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Count-Vonduel
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I am going Blackpool on Thursday and leaving on Friday, after a trip to York Dungeon last year where it was overcrowded forcing me to be too far away to see or at one point (Execution scene) forcing me to flat out have to lean round a corner to see! How busy will Blackpool Dungeon be, does it get over crowded like York's and what is the best time to avoid this issue?
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DeadJack5
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Just booked a 2 day trip to Thorpe Park on the 28th-29th of June (Wednesday-Thursday).

Any idea on big the queues will be?
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Burniel
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DeadJack5 wrote:Just booked a 2 day trip to Thorpe Park on the 28th-29th of June (Wednesday-Thursday).

Any idea on big the queues will be?
These are two random weekdays outside of school holidays, although exams will have recently finished so expect a fair few people (me!) on-park celebrating. That said, queues shouldn't exceed half an hour IMO.
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Vikki1978
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Hi we have booked the splash landings hotel for 26th august so will be at alton towers 26-27th August, can anyone advise how busy the park will be then and tide times please, thank you!!
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ROYJESS
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Vikki1978 wrote:Hi we have booked the splash landings hotel for 26th august so will be at alton towers 26-27th August, can anyone advise how busy the park will be then and tide times please, thank you!!
That is the bank holiday weekend, so expect it to be busy.  I'm not sure about the tide times as you are miles away from the beach...lol   

I presume you  mean ride times
9am to 10 am ERT selected rides (early ride time for hotel guest, Map holders and pre-booked tickets)
Most rides open at 10am 
Ria and Thirteen usually open at 10.30am 
The water rides usually open around 11am
Rides close at 6pm

If you check the ride times here before 10am any morning, they will tell you what times each rides is expected to be open

http://ridetimes.co.uk/
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Vikki1978
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Tide times ooops! Yeah i did mean ride times, thank you!!
I read on another post 50-90 minute queues for the big rides, would you recommend fast tracks?
Never been before so would like the kids to get on as much as possible really as we live quite far away so dont mind purchasing the fast tracks
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Burniel
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Vikki1978 wrote:Tide times ooops! Yeah i did mean ride times, thank you!!
I read on another post 50-90 minute queues for the big rides, would you recommend fast tracks?
Never been before so would like the kids to get on as much as possible really as we live quite far away so dont mind purchasing the fast tracks
I think 50-90 is a bit of an exaggeration, I've been in mid-late summer before and found that queues exceeding an hour is usually rare, depending on the weather. You should be able to get on everything important in two days without the fastrack, provided you're willing to wait. This is especially true if you're there for ERT and/or work around the park tactically, for example I would highly recommend getting to Rita and Th13teen in time for when they open at 10:30 on at least one of the days, as you can knock out two of the biggest queues for about 10-20 minutes each when they first open. It's also worth considering the fact that a lot of people head to The Smiler first, so it often has lower queues around lunchtime or late afternoon (as I speak, it's the first weekend of the summer holidays and The Smiler has a 10 minute queue).

On the whole, I wouldn't advise you to get fastrack. You have two days at the park, and could theoretically be there 9am-6pm, giving you plenty of time to see all the park has to offer, especially with the recent closures. I would even expect you to be able to have a few re-rides on your favourites. Had you been going for one day, I think fastracks might have been a good shout, but you'll be fine with two days. :)
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Vikki1978
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Hi Burniel thanks for the info thats great! Having never been before it gives us a good few pointers and what to head for first etc.
We were just a bit worried with it being the bank holiday weekend, obviously expecting it to be busy but not so much so the kids would be disappointed.
Some great tips there though which should definitely help us!!
Thanks again :)
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ROYJESS
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My advice is not to follow the crowed.  Check out the ride times link daily to get a rough idea what  time certain ride queues peak. Some rides tend to have a bigger queue in the mornings and then go quiet in the afternoon, whilst other rides do the opposite by being quiet first thing in the morning and then peak in the afternoon.  Leave the biggest of all queues for your last ride, as it's the queue lines that close at 6pm, not the ride.  They will continue to run the ride after 6pm until the queue line has emptied. Also what would be a two hour queue, is usually a lot quicker after they close the queue line as you won't be getting fast track, disable and single riders merging with the main queue, plus the staff tend to speed up put through as they are desperate to go home.  As a rule I make the most of ERT and try get all the big 6 rollercoasters done first (before the park peak at around lunchtime) then I got the rest of the day to enjoy the rest of the attractions at the park.  My experience of fast track is that is that they are a waste of money, if the park is quiet, then so will be the main queue, so no need for a fast track.  If the park is very busy, then so a % of the guest will purchase a fast track, only saving you around 10 mins per ride. 

Like Burniel say's everyone usually head for the Smiler (and Spinball) first, this leaves all the other rollercoasters with shorter queues, so I usually leave the Smiler and Spinball to last.  

I usually visit the park on the busiest day of the year which is the Fireworks weekend, and I manage to get on every ride I want each day. 

Again, get in early (9am) as the early bird catches the worm ;)

Roy  :D
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Vikki1978
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Thanks Roy!
I think from the sounds of it we will leave the fastracks and make sure we plan what rides and when and definitely get in the smiler queue at the end of the day :)

All the tips are really helpful, we've been to Thorpe Park, Chessington and Legoland as they are fairly near us but this is our first time at Alton Towers so its good to get as much info as we can beforehand.
Thanks again!
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xxzxcuzxme
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Hi there! How busy is the park on weekdays before Scarefest? Thinking about going next Tuesday!

Thanks!
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Justin
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It is an off peak day, so it should be quiet, especially as the children are at school and Scarefest is just a few days away! You should have a good day. Enjoy!
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MaxJohnson
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Hi, how busy will Thorpe Park be on Monday 30th October?
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