Trip to Alton Towers Water Park

On the Monday after Lee's birthday he was off work (a company wide day off - again a perk of working for an American company) so we had booked to go to Alton Towers water park. We went before back in 2019, and have wanted to go back. Now, because of Covid, you have to book an arrival time, and the website does say that your visit is limited to time, but we didn't find this at all. We booked to go for 1.30 and left around 4.45 but no one seemed to be policing how long you had been there. We had a relaxed morning then set off from ours around 11.30.

We stopped at Tibshelf services to get some lunch. There's a McDonalds so I knew they'd had the McPlant meal, but I didn't really want that, so we looked at the cafe just next to it, and I was impressed because they had a ton of vegetarian and vegan options. For instance: vegan fish and chips, vegan hotdogs, vegan burgers. I went for this vegan New York deli style bagel, which turned out to be delicious. We ate the food in the car because we were running a bit late. We got to the water park about 1.40 and got changed and in! It was busy, but still pretty much okay.

There's a pool with a big spume in it, and that leads on to the lazy river, where you can snaffle a rubber ring when they become free. From the back of there you can queue for the slides (we didn't) or go outside, where there's a pool with seats, and also a hot tub. From there you can come back inside and then past the baby pools to the upstairs, where there's another hot tub, and a bridge over the main pool, and then the splash zone, where there's a HUGE bucket that tips every six minutes or so. We did this circuit a bunch of times. It wasn't boiling hot outside but warm enough. Plus at one point there were BABY DUCKS and their mother in the outside pool! I can honestly say I've never swum in a pool with ducks before! It was so cute. 

We got out about 4.45 and got dressed. There was a huge queue waiting to come in at 5pm, I guess if you've been in the theme park all day it makes sense to go to the water park later? We got a hot drink on the way out and then set off home. It was so tiring but so much fun - I really recommend the park as it's got a lot going on but isn't too expensive. It was really fun!

"Pastrami" bagel, it was nice!

This is outside the water park, outside the Splash Landings Hotel

Cute umbrellas and lights inside the hotel foyer

The water park from the hotel foyer. I love it, we'll go again!