Rides evacuated after Alton Towers power cut
By Ellie Marshall: Thousands of visitors were affected by a power cut at Alton Towers today (April 13th).
Alton Towers suffered a power cut.
At 2pm Alton Towers and the surrounding area suffered 40 minutes of power failure, causing major disruptions for the theme park.
Tourists staying at the Splash Landings Hotel were left in darkness and hundreds of people were evacuated off rides.
Liz West, a spokesperson for the resort owned by Merlin Entertainment, said: “The resort has an excellent team of staff trained for these situations. Thanks to them visitors were evacuated from rides safely and calmly, and there was as little panic as possible.”
“The power failure only affected the hotels but it is standard procedure that whenever there is a power failure all the rides are evacuated.”
The theme park is now up and running again and visitors have been compensated with an extra hour to spend in the theme park.
“We would like to apologise to all of our customers for today and hope that their visit wasn’t ruined.”
It was at least 40 minutes before any power came back ( and then went off again). All power, lights etc was off at theme park not just the hotels. 90 minutes later the staff were promising that rides were being started up again but didn’t know which. Nor did the electronic notice boards as they informed us all listed rides were closed. Most went home or to complain ( waste of time)
Excellent trained staff, well if there was any, they were hiding. What a waste of time, for all our party. We arrived at 10.30a.m, went straight to Oblivion, 1 hour wait, over to rita 90 min wait then power cut, another 30 min wait, climbed out of ride waiting line, then to guest relations, where complimentary tickets were being given, until our turn, by which park up and running no more tickets being given (1 hour extra in park), hang on but we had waited 2 hours for nothing walked to guest relations at least another hour wasted so decided to leave. Oh by the way today is my birthday and my best mate who came, her brothers 30th, who died 2 months ago, there was 10 of us, we travelled 150 miles round trip, had to still pay for parking, had all taken the day off some without pay and were totally miffed.
Towards the end of the day signs were put up at the exit stating the parking was free and the tickets from today are valid any day for the rest of this year (except the pink concert!). Don’t lose your tickets!
We also visited alton towers today, we were given an extra hour to catch up on the rides being closed, we also were told we could return for free anytime of the year (but had to have our tickets signed) and also parking was free. It was a horrible situation to be in but the kids are more then happy with tickets to return and asked if there would be a power cut everytime we went lol.
Had a wonderful day.
Power cut was very inconvenient, to say the least, but the extra hour was a good gesture.
We expected the occasional wait for popular rides, but we were very lucky with our timings and route round the park.
When the power cut struck we were amply compensated with fast-passes for the ride we were waiting for.
I’m not sure what else the staff could have done under the circumstances. I thought most people just waited calmly for the park to get back up and running, which it did.
We left at 18:00 having spent an extra 30 mins in the park.
Day was ruined, no staff in the park knew what was happening.. However on the way out we were told to keep our tickets and return free of charge on any day, and the barriers had been lifted and so we didnt nede to pay for parking.
All in all satisfied.
We arrived at 11 and 2 of us paid half price while the other 2 had free tickets via The Sun newspaper.. Queued for Air, got to the front and was waiting to be next on only to be told that it was broken. Went off and rode Ripsaw and Nemesis and then walked down to the water rides
By the time we had got there the power cut had happened so we decided to go and wait by Oblivion. Glad we did, the seriously funny blokes in the queue kept us well entertained. Cheers lads!!
Got on there after the power came back on (maybe an hour?), then onto enterprise, back on oblivion (which we had blagged priority passes for). joined the queue for Rita only to get to the front and be told that it too was having techy difficulties so gave up and went over to 13 which we rode twice and then went back over to air which was working this time and was very good..
got back to the exit to find that car parking would be free and we managed to blag an extra set of free tickets so very happy with our day!!
Did anyone ever actually see Kev in the end? :))
Nightmare!!!
I arrived at 10.20am with my partner waited for 90 minutes to get on 13, it was great, had food, stood and waited for rita for 60 minutes, didn’t get on, power went down.
Tried to speak to staff, free return tickets were being given out, the lady ran out stated she was coming back with more, she came back said sorry we aren’t giving any more out, we will open the park longer…. NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!
i had to leave at 4 30pm no matter what. I paid car park £5 spent money on food and money getting to Alton towers and have been on 1 ride all day. I am not asking for car park money refund or any thing else. I am asking for just a return date.
I was told when leaving the park are tickets would be valid for any other day however there is no proof which i asked for. so all i have is my tickets with the date on.
If this is true can somebody please let me know???? as i have called customer service and they don’t seem to know anything.
I understand this is not Alton Towers fault, however their lack of communication and compassion towards poorly treat guests is very disappointing. Opening the park for an extra half hour does not compensate people.
Please if anybody has further information can you let me know.
All in all after all these years i have been going to Alton towers this is the first time i have been extremely disappointed with them, i go 2 times a year!
went to Alton Towers. Seem Park doesnt treat all customers fairly. No signs to say free fast track for rides so those who paid for fast track found themselves in ques with those who were signaled out with free ones. Alton towers should now issues all customers who can prove they were there with new free tickets or even money back. Bad experience at alton towers when everything goes wrong. Not the first time according to the web April 2009 and October 2009. Surely they have procedures inplace by now
“Excellent team of staff trained for these situations” ??? None of the staff in fact knew what was happening, at first we were told that the power would be back up and running in 5 minutes, then half an hour and it was almost an hour before it was actually back up. Funnily enough the shops and tills reopened well before the rides! I was actually at one of the shops buying hot food whilst people were being brought down from the top of a rollercoaster. Obviously alton towers’ priority was to ensure their profits were the least affected. If the power only affected the hotel then why were people stuck on the rides, underground and at the top of rollercoasters? Fair enough we got our parking for free and can go back any time through the summer which is quite good compensation.
I HAVE SPOKEN TO ALTON TOWERS WHO ASSURED ME THAT IF YOU WERE THERE YESTERDAY AND HAVE YOUR TICKETS YOU CAN HAVE A FREE DAY AT THE RESORT APART FROM ON ANY CONCERT OR SPECIAL EVENT DAYS!!!
Just wanted to say that all the staff I dealt with yesterday were great, and did their best to keep you informed and entertained. The extra opening hour ensured we finished our day well. The only rides that didn’t reopen I think were the water rides so it was unfortunate if you were saving them till last.
I have retained my tickets but they were not signed. will they still be valid etc
what number did you call
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