Last weekend saw Alton Towers Resort open for the 2021 Christmas season, expanded on from previous years with the addition of a Christmas Market and Europe’s longest light & lantern trail – Lightopia. TowersTimes were in attendance on Saturday 27th November to experience all of the festivities on offer.
Upon arrival into the theme park, guests are greeted by a festively decorated Towers Street, featuring Christmas trees aplenty, as seen in previous years, as well as an extravagant new Lightopia sign, which gives a taste of what to expect from the trail.
The first new addition for 2021 is the Towers Christmas Market, which consists of over 60 festive market stalls from independent vendors selling all sorts of gifts and crafts suitable for the occasion, located both along and at the end of Towers Street. To enhance the atmosphere, live musicians were playing versions of Christmas classics. We understand that they would usually play on the specially constructed Towers Street bandstand, which takes inspiration from features in the Gardens such as the bandstand and the Pagoda Fountain, but were relocated to one of the more enclosed huts given the weather on opening day.
Official merchandise for the Resort’s Christmas event is also on sale in Towers Trading Co, including drinkware, cuddly toys, headbands and pin badges. Merchandise for Christmas started appearing during Fireworks, and it was great to see a full selection of festive items for sale.
It wouldn’t be a Christmas event without plenty of festive food and beverage offerings. Guests can purchase a whole host of delicious snacks, refreshments and more substantial meals, ranging from churros, coffee, wraps and bratwurst sold in the Bavarian Village type area at the bottom of Towers Street, to marshmallows and mulled wine from the stalls in Fountain Square. The flooring used on the Front Lawns at Fireworks has been retained to create a weatherproof hub area, where both picnic benches and more enclosed huts can be found.
Towers Street Bar & Grill has also reopened as a restaurant for the first time in a number of years, with a menu that includes pizzas, burgers, sandwiches, wraps and nachos. Its bar also serves a range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Several other of the theme park’s permanent food and beverage outlets are also open for the event, including Corner Coffee, Towers Street Donuts and Hots Dogs, Eastern Express, Little Explorers Lunchbox, Woodcutters Bar & Grill, and The Burger Kitchen near to the Towers.
Elsewhere in the theme park there’s lots of festive entertainment on offer, from roaming street theatre (alternatively referred to as Mrs Claus) to regular shows on the main stage, which has been relocated to Fountain Square. There are four shows which run periodically throughout the day: A Rock’N’Roll Christmas, Panto Wonderland Sing-along, A Classic Christmas Party, and A Christmas Cracker Spectacular. It should be noted that only those with Festive Day Out tickets (or staying for a Santa’s Sleepover / Festive Break) will be able to access the area of the theme park where the main stage is located.
There are a choice of ticket options available for this year’s Christmas offering, depending on what elements you would like to experience. All guests are required to pay the standard £6 car parking charge per vehicle. Entry to the Towers Christmas Market is free for all guests, but should be pre-booked. Festive Day Out tickets are £16pp, and enable access to a variety of rides and attractions, including Spinball Whizzer, The World of David Walliams, Mutiny Bay, selected rides in CBeebies Land, and Hex – The Legend of the Towers. Admission to Lightopia is £20pp, with the requirement to choose a timeslot to enter the trail when booking. A combined Festive Day Out and Lightopia ticket can be purchased for £31pp. There are then separate queues at the turnstiles depending upon what ticket you have purchased, with those who have bought a Festive Day Out ticket given a wristband to permit access into the rest of the theme park from staff-manned entrances on either side of Towers Street.
The opening of the theme park on Saturday was delayed by the weather experienced overnight, which caused power cuts affecting the park’s ability to operate. This was of course beyond the Resort’s control, but the communication of the disruption being experienced was only made around 20 minutes before the scheduled 11am opening time, meaning many guests had already arrived at the Resort, and were waiting on the entrance plaza. Other visitor attractions had been able to put out similar messages earlier in the morning, so it was unfortunate that the Resort were unable to do the same. Social media comments also suggested some guests had been told all was okay when enquiring with the Resort ahead of the announcement being made, so it is unclear whether this was a miscommunication or indicates that the problems experienced were not discovered until closer to opening, hence the relatively late communication. Nonetheless, admissions staff were on-hand to provide complimentary hot drinks to waiting guests, and thankfully the theme park was able to begin opening up from 12.30pm.
Due to the near freezing temperatures throughout the day, Spinball Whizzer was not able to operate. A strategically placed snowman was located outside the ride entrance advising guests to try other attractions in the park! Nearby in CBeebies Land, construction walls are now up around Tree Fu Tom Training Camp, confirming that ‘something super exciting’ is being built to welcome new CBeebies friends in 2022.
After arriving early afternoon, we still had plenty of time to soak up the festive atmosphere on Towers Street and the Towers Christmas Market, as well as exploring the other areas of the theme park open for the event, before our Lightopia slot in the evening. The snowfall certainly added an extra wintery-touch to the event.
The headline new addition for 2021 is of course Lightopia Seasonal Wonderland. Open from 4pm each day, the attraction provides a enchanting walkthrough of the four seasons. The journey begins in Winter with installations that include penguins, snowmen and even dragons. The arrival of Spring brings with it an explosion of colour that sees you surrounded by blooming flowers, Spring animals, and an Easter display. Summer was certainly a distant memory last weekend, but beach-inspired lanterns do their best to bring some warmth to the trail. That ‘leaves’ Autumn as the final season, which features lanterns celebrating the Resort’s own Oktoberfest event, as well as Halloween and Dia de Los Muertos. Throughout there are some dynamic, mechanised lanterns, and both lights and lasers are used to add further magic to the trail. A water show finale was advertised, however this didn’t appear to be running on Saturday, potentially due to the weather. However, we were able to catch it on a subsequent visit. Starting in Mutiny Bay, travelling through Katanga Canyon, Gloomy Wood, the outskirts of Forbidden Valley, Haunted Hollow, then finishing near to the conservatories in the Gardens, the walkthrough can be experienced at your own pace, and can therefore take over an hour to complete if you want to spend time taking in all of the elements. Lightopia is a beautiful seasonal addition, and one which we hope will remain part of the event for years to come. It provides something different to what has been seen at the Resort previously, but is perfectly aligned with what guests would expect to experience from a Christmas visit to Alton Towers.
The decision to expand the Christmas offering and open it up to day visitors is certainly a welcome one, rounding off what has been an excellent line-up of events at the Resort this year. This season’s festivities are available on selected dates between 27th November – 2nd January, although the Towers Christmas Market will only be available up until 23rd December. The theme park, including its rides and the Towers Christmas Market is open 11am – 8pm, while Lightopia and Garden Lights Walk: Twinkling Stars opens from 4pm.
Do you have a festive visit to the Resort planned? Are you going to experience the bright lights of Lightopia? Have your say over on our social media channels.
