Attraction Source Forum

Jack wrote: In my original post I said, and I still believe this, the park should have made both days only for those prebooking tickets for standard guests and annual passholders meaning they could easily limit the number of people who turned up in comparison to how they actually dealt with it.

Funny enough, if you bought "Family&Friends" tickets with your annual pass, those tickets count as pre-booked. So in worst case they could have turned you away while your friends get in no problem!

Survived two days in the park, and I had an amazing time. Made the mistake of leaving too soon on Saturday, resulting in being stuck at the car park for an hour. Traffic flow was badly handled, or rather just too much. Not really the park's fault in my opinion.
I had some issues with not being able to book All Day Dining on the weekend or that you weren't able to buy Hot Drink Refill cups.

The firework display itself was amazing, although I did prefer 2016 one a bit more though.
Space/Galactica does narrow your option down quite a bit!

Having seen the trailer Alton Towers released in the run up to the Fireworks event I have to admit I was a little bit concerned for the tone of this year's display, however, I was very glad that my initial impression from the trailer was proved wrong.

Having the portal as a centrepiece (which I am sill adamant that it looked like a Stargate) from which to tell the story was an interesting choice, and for the most part worked well. There were a couple of occasions when I wasn't quite sure if I should look at the screen or the fireworks going off, but these were few and generally when the main fireworks were being fired the action on screen was minimised. I quite liked how there were a number of occasions where there was pyro fired from the rigging surrounding the portal, and generally there was a nice range of fireworks used, both in terms of size, noise and effects, and colours. The overall mix of the soundtrack worked well with the storyline, the sci-fi geek in me loved the use of the Stargate theme, and there was also a nice nod to David Bowie as well. As the main story section was drawing to a close I was wondering just how they were going to manage to include In the Hall of the Mountain King, but as usual Towers managed to pull it off perfectly with the use of the 8 bit version of the Resort's iconic theme song.

I had initially only planned to attend on the Saturday, but ended up on park both days! Saturday was the first time I'd been on park on a capacity day and it was clear from the queues that built up for just about everything that the park had reached its safe limit. In a way it was nice to see the park buzzing again and just goes to show the reputation and pull Alton Towers Fireworks still have. I suspect the fact Bonfire Night fell on the Saturday also contributed to the number of people wanting to get in to see the display. I do have sympathy with those annual pass holders who were turned away, perhaps Towers need to look at using a system similar to what Thorpe use for Fright Nights for future years - however, and this may be an unpopular view, I do think Towers would be justified in charging a small fee for passholders to pre-book to ensure people didn't take spaces 'just in case' and prevent others from getting in. Sunday wasn't quite as busy, but I'd estimate it wasn't far off hitting capacity again. From my experiences the staff on Sunday did seem to cope a little better perhaps having had the chance to assess and devise some better strategies after the Saturday.

Whilst this year's wasn't my favourite display (that is still jointly held by 2013's and 2015's), it was still very impressive and I am glad that I made the impromptu decision to go up for the second night.

ladyofthelake wrote:(which I am sill adamant that it looked like a Stargate)

Did you notice the Stargate music at one point?

You can see how busy it was on the Saturday by the vlog here from the Allen family. They opted not to stay that day and just watch from 09 min 25 sec into that video and the backlog of cars coming to Alton Towers.

MAP can now pre-book firework tickets for £5.

Alton Towers Resort wrote:Last year the event was a complete sell out, so to avoid disappointment, we are offering Annual Pass holders the unique opportunity to reserve their space at this amazing event.

Please note this is not mandatory but highly recommended to avoid any disappointment.

https://www.altontowers.com/activities/ ... fireworks/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks for the heads up, I've got Jess and mine all booked for both days

I think it's pretty poor that you have to pay £5. It's only £1 to pre-book Fright Nights......

I must agree, although Fright Nights operate a system where Premium pay £1 and Standard pay £5.

Hotel guest should automatically get priority without having to pre-book

Hotel guests that only have Bed and Breakfast and no park tickets are advised to prebook.

Only way you don't have to prebook is if you have tickets included in your short break package

I can kind of see both sides of the arguments with regards to Alton Towers introducing this pre-booking charge for Annual Pass Holders.

Whilst I do appreciate that people may feel it's unfair to have to pay £5 to pre-book and guarantee entry it's not unusual for parks to ask their passholders to pre-book for events. Towers are also simply responding to the criticism they had last year when passholders found themselves unable to gain entry after the park reached capacity. It seems they can't win either way - they don't allow passholders to pre-book and they get criticised for not having pre-booking for pass-holders. They do allow them to pre-book, but have free tickets, or tickets for £1, then they risk people booking them 'just in case' and then not using them leaving people who genuinely do want to go unable to attend if the park reaches capacity again. By setting the price at £5 then it's just at the level to discourage the 'just in case' purchasers. Don't forget too, that there is nothing to stop people simply arriving at the Resort early when there is still capacity.

One thing I don't agree with however is the fact that Hotel guests are apparently not guaranteed entry. If you have booked a stay in the Resort accommodation then I personally think the Resort should guarantee you entry on production of either your booking confirmation or room key.

I think that they could also look into the idea of the possibility of reimburse the MAP with a £5 gift voucher to spend as they please on the resort on the day of park entry as a good will gesture.

So we've got the hotel booked already and also booked breakfast for the Monday. We always do hotel on the Sunday and waterpark on the Monday. I think it's a bit bad that we have to pay an extra £10 to guarantee entry even though we are booked already.

I reckon though if you arrive with your MAP first thing you'll be ok but on the downside no early ride time but hopefully we get the hotel ride passes that they give us every year.

I can see why it's been done and to a point I do agree to track numbers but why punish MAP holders that have booked Alton Towers Hotel as Splash Landings Hotel is going go be closed.

Only time will tell if the system has worked and not failed like last year's max attendance being reached. Best advice Get there early and get in to be sure.

The early bird gets the worm... or should that be the early worm gets Nemesis ERT time :lol

Details of a 'Big Bang' ticket (a sort of VIP package) have been added to the Alton Towers website. Here's what it includes:

• Golden Circle Fireworks viewing area 
• Priority Ride Pass on a choice of 3 rides
• Glass of bubbly or mocktail on arrival
• DigiPass - unlimited digital ride photos
• 2 course fabulous buffet
• Post show soup & roll
• Hot drinks, cordials and biscuits
• Poncho
• Special limited edition pop badge
• Children's entertainment
• Glow in the dark item for the children
• FREE Standard Car Parking

With theme park admission it's priced at £94.50 per adult and £76.00 per child, while excluding admission it's £62.50 and £48.50 respectively.

Some say that some MAP holders will buy this package... 

Just for the pop badge.

Correction - All MAP holders will do that.

What appears to be a potential TV advert for Fireworks has been posted on the Resort's social media. Towers have also updated their website to state that they will be "lighting up the night’s sky from more locations across the park than ever before".

If the event soon sells out on pre-booked tickets, there may be no point in a proper TV advert :P

Time for the third night back