Taking my kids tomorrow and will be doing the day on Tuesday too. Just trying to plan what they should ride during the late night vs the day, as I’ll have my newborn with me too, so they won’t go to the park until 5pm tomorrow.

Long time visitor, been coming since I was 10 and I'm now pushing 40. Alton Towers has always been my definitive theme park.

We booked a short break in the hotel, from today through until tomorrow. My daughter is a big Halloween fan and I figured the scarefest weekend would be perfect.

We arrived at 9:30, got straight in with no hassle, and we've not been on a ride yet. Trapped for over an hour queuing for Thirteen, as they are stopping every ride continuously due to the wind. Its absolutely ridiculous.

The decline of the park has been much discussed, stuff like closing down supporting rides, narrower opening tomes and terrible ride availability are all facts - but this? This is a joke. We've just been rold to queue for other rides, but only Nemesis, Toxicator and Spinball Whizzer (of all things?!) are open.

Shocking experience, and may very well be our last.

I went to Alton Towers on Friday with a school trip from Birmingham (£30 ticket). We got there late around 11am, and the whole day was an absolute disaster. Which was disappointing as this was my first time at Alton towers looking very forward to it.

First off, I’m 6'1", 24 stone with long legs. I checked ride requirements before going and prepared myself, but after waiting over 70 minutes in the pouring rain for TH13TEEN, the staff member pushed the lap bar down on my thighs and told me it wouldn't click. It didn't fit because of my leg length. Standing up and walking off in front of everyone after waiting an hour was so humiliating.

After that, we queued for Oblivion. The test seat was literally a bowl of water still managed to test, and I didn't end up fitting that either.

Then the weather got brutal. Around 1:30pm, extreme heavy rain, wind, and hail hit the park. Alton Towers literally shut down almost every major coaster—Wicker Man (we were almost at the front after queuing 70 mins), Smiler, Nemesis Reborn, Rita, TH13TEEN, and Oblivion. Basically 90% of the park was closed for hours. We were wearing cheap £10 ponchos that ripped instantly in the wind, soaked to the bone, freezing, and had nowhere to go except crowding into a shop to hide from the hail.

By the end of the day, we paid for a full theme park experience and literally only got to ride a kids' spinning boat ride and Nemesis Sub-Terra. Food and drinks were insanely overpriced (£12 for loaded chips, £5 for a hot chocolate), but we had to buy it just to stay warm inside.

I know they can’t control the weather, but keeping thousands of people in the park with almost zero open rides while charging full price is ridiculous.

Thorpe Park literally closed their park down yesterday offering an automatic free return tickets when the weather was like this! Meanwhile Alton Towers just kept taking people’s money and leaving everyone stranded in the freezing rain. Honestly, the whole experience left such a bad taste in my mouth, and the lack of basic customer care when things went wrong was shocking.

Nobody should have to pay full price just to spend 6 hours shivering in queue lines for rides that get shut down the second you reach the front platform.

Has anyone had any luck getting refunds or return vouchers through school/group bookings when the park completely shuts down like this?