A Weekend trip to Alton Towers with Children!
Why Alton Towers?
We have Merlin Passes which allow us access to over 30 Merlin attractions around the Country. We live close to Chessington World of Adventures (blog post here) and Legoland Windsor (see my post on going to Legoland with children here) so go to those frequently.
However, once a year we try to take a weekend trip to Alton Towers. It’s the largest theme park in the UK and home to Cbeebies Land, an absolute treasure of a place for little children.
Via our Merlin Passes we got a great deal on a short break at Splash Landings hotel which is one of the resort accommodations. We paid £139 for a room for 4 with breakfast which I think was an excellent deal!
This blog post will include:
- Getting to Alton Towers and Parking
- What we did on our first day including Cbeebies Land
- What there is to entertain young kids at Alton Towers
- Splash Landings Hotel and Secret Garden Restaurant
- What we did on our second day, including Fast Passes.
- Final thoughts on taking a weekend trip to Alton Towers with Children
Getting there and parking
We left home at 6am on Saturday, stopped midday way for a bite to eat and arrived at Alton Towers by 9.15am. This was great as the park opened at 9.30am. I had pre-booked Express Parking which is directly outside the park entrance (£16) and means you bypass the need to get in the queue or ride the monorail from the car park.
Last year I hadn’t booked the express parking and ended up taking an extra hour to get into the park. This was far from ideal when you are only there for a short period of time. It was lovely to get there, park outside and be in the park within minutes.
The first day
Once we were in the park we headed straight to buy a poncho and umbrella as it was pouring with rain, much to our surprise after weeks of sunshine! It wasn’t ideal but it probably kept the crowds away so you win some you loose some.
Cbeebies Land
If you take a weekend trip to Alton Towers with children then Cbeebies Land should be a priority. Our 4 year old loved it and, for the first time, our 1 year old really got excited to be on the rides which was really nice to see. It is just inside the entrance of Alton Towers so a good place to visit first thing.
There are 7 rides, plus a sensory garden and play park. There are also various shows throughout the day which I’ve always been impressed with – particularly Mr Blooms Allotment and The Furchester Hotel.
As we got in early we managed to get on some of the rides with no/very little queue. This was great as when there is queues they can be very slow moving which is obviously frustrating for little ones.
At 12.30pm there is Bings Picnic which is a great show to sit and watch while eating a picnic lunch – handily it was also pouring with rain at this time and it’s sheltered so a great place to hide out for a bit. We hung around and watched the Teletubbies show at 1.30pm too. Finally the rain stopped so we headed out to explore a different area of the park.
What else is there for young kids?
We walked to Cloud Cuckoo Land which is at the opposite side of the park (you can get the Sky Train which is handy if you don’t fancy walking). Here there is the Gallopers Carousel, Froghopper ride and Cuckoo Cars Driving School.
Our eldest loves the driving school and there was only a short queue for it which was great. We also stopped for her to get her face painted (not cheap at £7.50 but she loves it). Thank goodness our youngest is too young for face painting otherwise it’d be getting expensive!
We then slowly headed back to the entrance as we had dinner reservations for 5.45pm. On the walk back we went via Mutiny Bay where there is the Heave Ho boat ride that our eldest enjoys.
After picking up some pic n mix (mostly for me!) we got in the car and drove the couple of minutes to Splash Landings hotel.
Splash Landings Hotel
For this years weekend trip to Alton Towers we decided to stay at Splash Landings Hotel. The check in was straight forward and soon we were settling into our room.
The room was a decent size with a double bed, bunk beds and a travel cot for our 1 year old. There was no air conditioning but a wall mounted fan and a window that opened wide. It was on the ground floor though so probably wouldn’t want it open over night. The tv had all channels so we popped CBeebies on for a bit to give the girls some down time.
Dinner at Secret Garden restaurant
When it was time to go for dinner we headed over to the Alton Towers hotel (the route is marked by green footprints on the floor). This only took about 5 minutes and we were quickly at our table in the Secret Garden restaurant.
I’d had to pre book our table for dinner and breakfast, as apparently the restaurants are popular and book up fast. As I did this far in advance we had the pick of time slots so went for as close to the girls normal dinner time as possible and booked for 5.45pm.
The food was great, both Dave and I had the veggie burgers (which were huge!) and our eldest had spaghetti with chicken and our youngest had sausage and mash. For dessert there was a make your own ice cream sundae station which the girls loved and Dave had a chocolate cheesecake and I had a lemon meringue pie.
We were a little surprised that it was £90 (including tip) especially as we hadn’t ordered any alcohol. But we had been warned that it might be expensive so perhaps that’s just normal for these types of hotels.
We headed back to the room and the girls eventually settled to sleep with us not far behind!
Breakfast at Flambo Jambos
The next morning we had breakfast booked in Flambo Jambo’s (the restaurant in Splash Landings hotel) at 7.30am so we headed down there and were promptly seated. It was very busy but there was plenty of food to go around and a wide selection of options. These included cereal, a full english breakfast, pastries and toast.
After we’d had our fill we headed back to the room to shower and pack up our things. The monorail opens at 9am so we checked out and packed up the car then headed to the monorail (which is next to the hotel) – we were straight onto a train and waiting at the park entrance ready for it opening at 9.30am.
The second day
Having done some research the evening before I headed to get a couple of individual fast passes for some big rides. While I was doing this Dave took our eldest to the couple of rides in CBeebies Land that we’d not managed the previous day.
Whilst they were doing that I took our youngest on one of the rides she’d particularly enjoyed the previous day, the Tree Fu Tom Treetop adventure.
Fast passes
Once we’d completely ticked off Cbeebies land we headed over to Galactica as the fast passes are timed. When we got there there was no queue so I didn’t even need to use the fast pass! Hands down one of the best rollercoasters I’ve ever been on. It leans you forward like you’re flying and it’s brilliant.
Whilst obviously the trip is primarily for the girls, it’s nice to get to do a few rides for adults! Dave then went on it seeing as there was no queue and then we headed over to Rita to use my other fast pass. Another brilliant ride and I walked straight on (bypassing the 45 minute queue).
The main issue on this day was that the sky ride cable car wasn’t working so we had to walk everywhere. We walked 7km’s all before 1.30pm but the girls coped brilliantly and it’s an attractive park to walk around so not all bad.
We then headed over to the aquarium where we picked up some burgers and chips for lunch (about £20 for 4 of us so not too bad) and then had a look around the sea life centre. Our youngest was enthralled. Our eldest not so much (she’s an adrenaline junkie and only interested in the rides!) but it was a nice way to finish the trip.
Final Thoughts
Having ticked off pretty much everything we wanted to do, and being pretty exhausted after a full on couple of days we headed back to the monorail and to the hotel car park to collect the car. We headed home and were back by 5pm, tired but happy!
We had a superb weekend trip to Alton Towers and it was so nice that our 1 year old got so much out of it this year. It also was pretty much stress free as I’d learnt from last year the benefit of staying at a hotel on resort and getting express parking for the first day.
See you next year Alton Towers!
