More Traveller Reviews of Splash Landings Hotel
Good for children but beware the alarm!
from WidleyTraveller
I stayed at this hotel on business over the period 3-5 May and found both good and bad. On arrival I was booked in relatively easily but found the staff were not overly helpful. As you leave reception and make your way to the rooms you can use two lifts. One has a Hawaii Five-0 theme playing whilst the other has Captain Pugwash. The Cariba Creek water park looked good fun and whilst I never got time to use it some of my colleagues who did were very impressed. Beware the £1 charge for towels and £1 (returnable) is needed for lockers. If you are not booked in to the hotel it costs £12 a time. The rooms were great for children and came with two goodie bags plus bunkbeds. The colour scheme was dramatic (see photos) and the carpet looked like it had been ruined but was a beach scene. The bathroom included several Imperial Leather goodies to take away - they specifically ask you to. Food in the breakfast area was very typical fare and the self service drinks were not very nice. Small plates prevent you from overloading your plate of the full English breakfast. Plates were cleared very quickly but the background music was too loud. We also ate in the Alton Towers Hotel and that was good for the main meals. The bad side was having a 4am fire alarm on the Wednesday night because of an electric fault with the pool area. We left by the fire exits and then wandered outside as fire escape signs were not obvious. We followed a route that took us close by other buildings and then were take back into the hotel reception area where we were asked to stay. The staff were not well prepared and wandered around aimlessly. There were several families with very young children and no attention was offered. No drinks were organised and we had to wait until 6.25am (nearly 2.5 hours) before we could return to our rooms. No further apology was offered later in the day or at check out - this was particularly irritating when we found out it had also happened on the Monday night - twice in one week. Overall, it was a great fun place to stay but the customer care was awful - be warned.
Not worth writing home about
from KAP_7
Just arrived home from 2 nights at the Splash Landings Hotel. Checked in at 3pm and headed for our room. Room was small, 1 double bed, and bunk beds. Small portable tv that was fuzzy and buzzed a bit. No hairdryer! Took several calls to eventually get a hairdryer, hairdryer arrived with muck all over it. No fridge. Went on to use Cariba Creek water park. Lack of signs, couldnt find the toilets and couldnt work how to lock the changing room doors. (must of been having a blonde moment). Water Park was excellent. However there was a shortage of floats for the Master Blaster (super fast water slide). Queues were ok, bit slow waiting for floats. Also had a one day ticket for the Theme Park. Got there early to avoid queues, headed straight for the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ride. Waited 45 mins for it to open and it didnt even work it had broken down! Went on the runaway mine train, whilst we were on it, it broke down! Basically you are ok if the rides dont break down. Breakfast at Splash Landings was very noisy and not enjoyable, staff are very quick to clear you table when you are not even finished! Overall I found 95% of the staff pretty unhelpful and need to smile a bit more. Refused to pay the £18.95 each adult for a buffet dinner excl drinks. If you do your research before you go their are restaurants within a 20 min drive. Where you can get better & cheaper food. Upon checking out, we were not even asked if we enjoyed our stay! Overall we all enjoyed the Water Park the best.
Fantastic :D
from Vicky_03
We went to alton towers splash landings over the weekend, there was 8 of us, 4 adults and 4 kids, me just being a adult, i loved it, The place was just really good and the people around were very friendly. It was brightly coloured and is a great place for the younger kids, The pools were very big and anywere you went you were likely to get splashed, it was fun! The breakfast was very good quality and the buffy at night was gorgeous, they had a huge variety of food. I think that the cost of the whole place was so good for such great quality. The rooms were very nice, and the childrens bunkbed were very nice and comfortabl! There was also lots of room to move about. On the saturday We got to go in the theme park for 4 hours which was good but because it was before opening season, most of the rides were closed. The shops were not expensive they were just right. The jacuzzis were very good there was about 3, 2 outside and 1 inside. they were just nice to sit and relax in. When we went in the outside one it was snowing, and it was nice to be out in the snow and still be warm. It was great and i would deffinatly reccomend you to go.
Reasonable rooms lousy food
from cookfamilyLeeds
We stayed for one night, as a family of four just after the peak Easter period. Hotel rooms are fine although slightly small, but food is poor quality and V overpriced. Reminded me of school dinners, luke warm, bland and obviously prepared to a budget not a quality standard. Not cheap - over £60.00 for a buffet meal for 2 Adults and 2 kids including only one round of drinks. Splash landings is good for younger Children (our 10 year old was too old to really enjoy it) but the 8 year old thought it was good.
Fantastic short break
from A TripAdvisor Member
Took our two young daughters (6 + 3) here for a february break. We had a great time, the staff really are that friendly and helpful. Place is a little tacky but it's a theme park.
Good for kids. a bit of a struggle for grown ups
from yoooreds
It is very difficult to review "Splash landings" for two reasons. Firstly due to the nature of the resort, I'm sure that there is great disparity, between Peak Season, (weekends & School Holidays) and Low season, (School days). Secondly, the review must include a review of the excellent water theme park, as this is probably the only reason to visit the hotel. We purposely chose to visit, off-peak, arriving Sunday afternoon and leaving Monday at Noon, during school term time, to avoid the crowds. Our three year old son "loved" his time in what is an excellent themed swimming pool. It wasn't overly busy and by 5pm was quiet. Monday morning was quieter still, with just a handful of couples with young Pre-school children and the odd family, "bunking-off school", Tut tut. There were no queues and we had the whole place to ourselves, for a lot of the time. The outdoor area was closed, I guess as a result of reduced numbers. I can imagine that it is hell, during the school holidays, although can't by sure. We paid £99 for bed, breakfast and free entry to the waterpark. We found this to be pretty good value. On the negative side. By six O'clock the pool closed and the child was very tired. The portable TV in our room helped, killed the time, Our only choice for food was a "Themed Carribean Feast". Due to it being low season, the feast was pityful. A pile of re-heated burgers and sausages, chips, ribs that were stone cold despite the cook prodding the meat with a thermometer. The caberet was closed, as was the barbeque grill. The piped music was near deafening, and very eighties. The gateax wasn't bad, but at a rip off price of £18.95 a head, I left with a bad taste in my mouth for more than one reason. And I guess that this is the problem with Splash Landings. It's either packed with queues and overcrowding plus a premium price, or near empty and liveless. That said, our son loved the water park, and slept very well in the themed bunk bed. Also we enjoyed seeing our son excited and happy. I would reccommend visiting Splash Landings, but beware of down sides that a break like this offers. Best Wishes
Avoid the weekends
from Charps
We visited here on one of ALton Tower's winter specials. We got a great price for the room but don't feel that we did so well on the evening meal. We went on a Saturday and both hotels were full to capacity - loads of kids (and most of them not too well behaved). This impacted on the waterpark which was running on a one in, one out basis. The main pool was packed solid and there were queues approaching an hour in length for the main flumes. The evening meal which they failed to tell us when we booked is buffet only at weekends. We ate in the Secret Garden restaurant (buffet) which was OK but definately not worth the £16.95 price tag. The rooms are comfortable and the few minor issues we encountered were quickly resolved. The hotel was very noisey (this may be due to the fact it was fully booked and so many children) with kids shouting and running up and down the hallsways even until 2am. Don't get me wrong - this is a nice place to stay. We've stayed mid-week before and had a great time and a fantastic menu meal. If you're looking for less stress and more relaxation, I'd just recommend that avoid the weekend.
Had a great 1 nights stay at the hotel
from A TripAdvisor Member
Had a great nights stay at Splash Landing Hotel, think we paid just over £100 for a family room. We really enjoyed the buffet breakfast and kids enjoyed the early entry to the park and also the priority passes to some of the main rides. As we arrived late the splash landing pool was closed but you can still have access the next day even if you have checked out, we went once we had finished at the park. You could spend a full day at the pool. The only negative thing I could say about the hotel was the lack of snack type food, as we arrived later we weren't looking for a big meal but they didn't really cater for this and as the hotel is in the middle of no where it's quite a treck to go back out again looking for somewhere to eat. We plan to return again in the Spring.
One fire and lots of chaos
from A TripAdvisor Member
We arrived at the hotel at 14:00 on the 31st of August 2005. We had fun in the pools, but the outside flumes were closed as they had had problems with the monitoring cameras. The rest of the pools were good fun. We had an over-priced meal and went to bed. At 01:57 in the morning the fire alarm went off. So we got out of bed and stood outside in our boxer shorts and night dresses. Thank God it was not raining as I had five kids with me! The hotel staff did not come and direct us for twelve minutes! After half an hour we were able to stay in the reception area of the hotel next door. The fire service put out the small electrical fire and at 03:01 we were allowed to go back to our rooms. I know these things happen, but the next day the hotel staff denied that there had been a fire! We have the photographs to prove it. When I told them this they did admit it. I asked them why there had not been any hotel staff to direct the guests. They told me that there were twelve staff and they were all assisting elderly guests. We were very tied the next day when we got up early to go to the priority gate to get into the park. The gate keeper arrived fifteen minutes late "as there had been an incident last night". This is why I have to rate it as "Okay, but some problems". Mr. G Lecrivain
not a magical experience
from mark-southside
As other Reviewers have noted, this is not cheap. We managed to get a rate of £160 (family of 3) and our evening meal was £50 on top. What are the advanatages? + free parking close to monoral to park + get into park 1/2 hour early + avoid the queues arriving in the morning / evening + kids like the themed hotel and rooms + buffet food and dinner - you can eat until you burst + you can get inclusive packages to the theme park + pool feature in hotel, which runs to outside pools, is great 4 kids + nice toiletries placed by park partners - we have been buying parmolive foam ever since so what's the downside? + price mainly + our room was the size of a travellodge except for a bunk bed for our son which was cool + the room looked onto a grass bank (no view) and smelt very stale + excited kids ran up and down the corridor and upstairs till 2am and started again at 6am, making sleep difficult + we couldnt get a table for evening meal and had to wait till after 9pm when no booking is needed, but this was late for a 5 year old to eat + in the end it was not worth getting into the park early as the kiddies rides by the entrance did not start until half an hour later, but next time we could make a beeline for rides that are open My opinion is this is a poor imitation of Disney-style hotels, and the premium price is not justified. However the convenience of being on-site and the kids-friendly facilities means they are not likely to have empty rooms.
2 readers found this review helpful
Me and my partner stayed at the splash landings hotel Alton towers on the may 2011, on arrival we found staff very pleasent and helpful, on arrival at our room we just ditched our things and went to the swimming pool, which was nice but very busy, the que for most of the... more