Great rides - shame about the queues & the terrible customer service!

“Great rides - shame about the queues and the terrible...”

Written on: 15/06/2011

Overall, the rides are great. Oblivion, Air, Nemisis and Rita are the best ones. Don't be too worried if you don't fancy waiting in the inevitable queue for Thirteen, it's not worth more than a 20 minute wait. I've been to Alton Towers regularly over the years and have always enjoyed it - however I have noticed over time that the friendliness and professionalism of the staff there has fallen dramatically downhill. Some of them are borderline rude. They are also very unaccommodating - for example, we had ordered a ticket online which we wanted to cancel as we had been given a 241 voucher to use instead ... but they wouldn't let us at the gate, leading to us having to pay a £40 each entrance fee. Ridiculous. Yes, it was a mild error on our part - but when there are thousands of people queuing to get in, would a £40 refund really have effected their days' takings? I think not.

As a huge hint, if you need to draw money out of your account - don't do it in the entrance plaza as the machines charge you a fee ... but once you're inside the park the machines are free to use.

I'm not saying I'll never go back, but I'll be trying out their competitors before heading back there ...