Early Ride Time 2016

[Burniel]

Early Ride Time was pretty disappointing on Friday, luckily I didn't go for it (but entered the park at around 9:40). Both Oblivion and Spinball were closed due to technical reasons leaving only Enterprise and CBeebies Land open, which would've felt like a waste of time if you'd actually gone for ERT. Would it have been possible for them to open another ride?

Opening another ride would be difficult. It would only really be feasible if they knew the ride was going to be down a long time in advance (EG prolonged difficulties for the past few days), as they can't suddenly open a ride at 9am without thoroughly testing it. They'd also need to find ways of communicating the change in the lineup to guests on arrival, probably through use of additional staff members, thus increasing the cost of running ERT.

[ROYJESS]

Early Ride Time was pretty disappointing on Friday, luckily I didn't go for it (but entered the park at around 9:40). Both Oblivion and Spinball were closed due to technical reasons leaving only Enterprise and CBeebies Land open, which would've felt like a waste of time if you'd actually gone for ERT. Would it have been possible for them to open another ride?

Both Oblivion and Spinball was never signed off during my ERT on the first Monday of this season, but this had nothing to do with technical issues, they was never signed off. I think this has more to do with the lack of staff and cost cutting.

It looks like the ERT is slowly being eroded.

If Alton are going to have the ERT, then they need to manage it properly, ensuring that all the ERT rides are up and running on time or have an alternative ride on standby ready to run for when these rides are down.

They also need to ensure that the non ERT's are not allowed in to ride before 10. Otherwise the ERT seems pointless nowadays.

I do like the ERT to get the rides in early before the influx of people and before the big queues start to develop.

[MJNemesis]

Was there yesterday and was on Oblivion by 09:10. It was a good way to wake me up in the morning but I ended up just sitting down for 45mins after that waiting for Smiler to open. I'd have seen it as much more of a privilege if the whole area was open rather than just Oblivion.

Unless you have some particular reason to want to be on the first ride of the day, early access seems little more than a minor perk for hotel visitors. On previous visits most seemed gravitate towards X Sector in the morning anyway which makes me think it would make more sense on busy days to open Nemesis early to disperse the thrill seekers to the other side of the park.

On another note: I love the park when its quiet but the lack of flat rides really hit home. I'd done all of the coasters (plus mine train, rapids and even Blade) by 1pm. Ended up leaving the park at 3pm as I'd run out of things to do. Not having to queue for 2 hours really shortens the day . Seeing that pathetic 'jump over the spinning poles' thing that's in place of Ripsaw didn't make me any happier either. Although I didn't look as unimpressed as the ride op

[owenrita121]

^Why didn't you re-ride the coasters? I went the other week and everything bar Glacactica was walk on but didn't leave till closing.

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[Aidan Lowe]

^Why didn't you re-ride the coasters? I went the other week and everything bar Glacactica was walk on but didn't leave till closing.

There will be many who would love the quiet spell and countless re-rides, but if your a regular goer you'll end up finding your days become shorter and shorter the quieter it is. People need a coaster fix and it doesn't take all day to do the park as it currently is.

As short as their opening hours are I doubt I'd even make it till closing anymore.

But anyway back on topic I'm glad Oblivion is opening for ERT, love that ride.

[JonDoesTT]

There will be many who would love the quiet spell and countless re-rides, but if your a regular goer you'll end up finding your days become shorter and shorter the quieter it is. People need a coaster fix and it doesn't take all day to do the park as it currently is.

As short as their opening hours are I doubt I'd even make it till closing anymore.

I completely agree. It usually takes me until 2/3 in the afternoon to have done everything I want to do, including re-rides and visiting other places such as Sharkbait Reef to kill the time.
However, with the new ERT lineup I head to oblivion first instead of nemesis in the morning, and this does add time to the day. The time I spend on park during the day depends on if I do Galactica, and if so, how long the queue is

[lewis97]

Towers have confirmed on Twitter that there will be no ERT from October 8th (the first Scarefest date) onwards. As per previous years, this means that there will be no ERT during Scarefest or Fireworks, but then also includes some non-Scarefest midweek dates with this year's change of scheduling for Scarefest.

[ROYJESS]

I can't seen anything on the main Alton Towers website regarding that there will be no ERT on the non Event days after the 8th October.

http://www.altontowers.com/theme-park/e ... ride-time/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is bad news for those of us that have already booked months ago an over night stay at the resort and expecting to get that extra hour of rides in first thing in the morning.

However as with previous years, I didn't expect any ERT during the scarefest and fireworks events, however again this is not made clear on their website.

[lewis97]

The Scarefest and ERT pages have now been updated to say the following:

Please Note: There will be no Early Ride Time after Friday 7th October. Those staying in the hotels will be provided with complimentary Fastrack tickets to use before 12pm instead.