Alton Towers Opening Day Disaster

I was so excited to visit Alton Towers for the 2025 opening day, but honestly… it was an absolute nightmare. From the moment I arrived, it was clear things weren't going to plan.

🛠️ Rides closed everywhere - major attractions down for the entire day.
⏳ Ridiculous wait times for the few rides that were actually running.
🍽️ Terrible food - slow service and disappointing quality.
💩 Burst sewer pipe - yes, you read that right. Underneath the park's brand-new ride!

I've been to plenty of opening days before, but this one felt like a total shambles. In this vlog, I share everything that went wrong.

👉 Have you ever had a theme park day this bad? Let me know in the comments!

#AltonTowers #AltonTowers2025 #ThemeParkDisaster #ThemeParkVlog #CoasterDad #AltonTowersOpeningDay #UKThemeParks

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[davelloyd]

The issues, the neglect and the price over the years has had me venturing abroard for my thrills. This video has cemented 'rip off Britain' even more for me. Thank you for this.

[YapEmporium]

The fact that Alton Towers looks so good lit up at night is extra depressing because it always closes at 4pm

[Zerobob]

The ultimate irony of Alton Towers is that it's a park designed around having fun, yet you spend the vast majority of your time there miserable, frustrated, or bored. The last 4 times I've been, rides were periodically breaking down all day (this is completely "normal") so you're not guaranteed a ride at the end of a 90 min+ queue... and that's the biggest issue... long queues. It could so easily be managed by allocating people ride times (à la US theme parks) which would minimise queues and allow people to go on more rides, explore the minor attractions, explore the gardens, eat, etc. Instead, Alton Towers manufacture horrendous queues in order to upsell expensive fasttrack tickets. Sadly I'm never going again.

[ToThePointCT]

This parks become ridiculous. The golden days were the late 80s early 90s. Yes there's more rides now and more intense rides, but it's not the same.

[chrislox]

Shocked at how badly organised this day went. I can't remember ever going to Towers and experiencing that amount of down time. However, your vlog was spot on - honest and balanced. Looking forward to you coming back here to Blackpool.

[nonononononononononononononope]

The way this park treats it’s loyal fans and their time is disgusting. Minimal operating hours out of the day and they consistently take hours to get the major attractions running in the morning. It’s like an ultimate screw you.

Imagine paying these prices for a piddly Eight hour day and the first two hours all the major rides are closed. And then icing on the cake, the operations are so horrible that you spend two hours of that queuing for one ride. Alton towers does not care about guest experience anymore and they haven’t for many years now.

[MrJGandAOffical]

I was in the queue and saw the man hole come up as all the waste flowed out. It smelt awful. Great video keep up the good work

[sallyweddell]

Merlin are polishing a turd. You cannot neglect a park the way Alton Towers has been neglected for years and hope that some new fences, lighting and rebranding is going to be the sticking plaster needed.

[flawdgenius]

06:15 - RIP ALTON TOWERS
On a plus side, The lighting looks great at night, wish UK theme parks would open later and shut later.

[Fanriffic]

Lots of vloggers all saying the same thing, opening day at Towers this year was really bad. Last year Blackpool, this year Towers and next year Thorpe, they all take turns to have a bad opening day. I personally think all UK parks should hold back their opening days until first weekend in April to allow the staff and engineering teams to get the park ready. I think they all rush back too soon to put money and profits over the guest experience.

[BenandHolliesTPA]

07:09 I’m not entirely sure why you would wear this unless you want to get people asking you why rides are shut 😂😂😂 Comedy gold mate 🤣

[blirt]

Went few months back with my younger sister. Was extremely disappointed - arrived at 9.30am and didn't get on our first ride until 2pm. Was our first time at the park and qued 100 mins for Nemesis Sub-Terra. We started our day queing 45 mins for The Smiler but the ride closed down - went over to Nemesis but had the same experience. Then qued for Sub-Terra without realising how utterly pathetic of a "ride" or "attraction" it is. We left after this as pretty much every ride was shut other than The Smiler which had come back online with a 190 minute wait and after our day so far certainly weren't going to chance that. The only positive was that we were refunded easily - which apparently is not usually the case.

[johnmelling]

How do they get away with charging people full price for entry only to find out half of the rides are closed? Surely theres a case to be made with trading standards?

[FakeFantum]

When the sewage started leaking I packed up my stuff and headed home. The issue wasn’t fixed until 2 hours later when I’d already driven home. Glad I did as those 2 hours of there only being like 4 rides open must’ve been miserable. Didn’t get to do Toxicator, Galactica, Thirteen, Spinball or Rita due to queue lengths and the down time. Which, considering I was a single rider, was pretty poor. Hoping it’s better when I go again in 2 weeks, but, I doubt it.

[alexashman]

I went to europa park last week in Germany for their pre-opening, all the rides were open and I got on them all multiple times, no fast pass needed and the maximum wait for a ride was 15-20 minutes. They know how to run a park!

[epicgirl]

This deserves so much more likes!! Your amazing and so easy watching I love it!❤

[Djmarcymoo-ob]

This might be controversial, but I think Wetherspoons should be running The Oak and Chains. The food in Spoons is nothing special but it's cheap and edible.

[Its_Jenn_againn]

Spotted you several times and was going to wave and say hey but chickened out as i felt awkward😂 hope you had a fab weekend despite the queues ect 😅

[RealistGamer]

Let me explain something as a Staffordshire lad that lived ten mins from towers and did two seasons there it was going downhill in 2001 and people still throw money at this theme park when the price they charge you can go abroad!
Place is a joke!
Restrictions on rides due to the skyline etc the best thing that could happen is it closing its doors and the uk going full speed on the new theme park that’s planned!

[stephenknowles]

Great honest vlog as usual Chris, was better on day 2 but it couldn't be much worse! Thanks for taking the time to chat to me and my son Alex, was good to hear about your plans this coming summer! Hope you had a good drive back north!