Alton Towers Pirate Takeover and Splash Landings Hotel Ice Cave Room

During the February half term, we always go to the Alton Towers Pirate Takeover event. This year, we actually floated not going, as we felt Kai and Amelia were a bit old for the whole thing, but after talking it over with them, everyone decided they really wanted to go and that we needed to. With that in mind, we booked up tickets to the Pirate Takeover, with a night at Splash Landings in the Ice Cave Room.

Pirate Takeover Event

The Pirate Takeover event has a small portion of the park open, which has a bunch of extra games and activities all pirate themed. This area has a few rides; the spinning cups, the twisting boat ride, and the ride which has you becoming a pirate with an actor while riding across a bit of the sea. This year, they also opened up a pretty big roller coaster that Kai and Amelia very much enjoyed! For younger ones, Cbeebies Land is also open, but we don’t actually go there. On the first day, we entered the park and headed right to the pirate area, collecting our maps.

These maps had the challenge of finding numbers, though there were some people searching for letters as well. As we have been for the last few years, we had seen quite a few of these challenges and activities, but there were a few new ones too; one where we stuck our hands in holes in crates, looking for pirate treasure and another where we needed to move port holes to find specific pictures. Robin really enjoys these activities, as they are aimed so well at her age group, but Kai has a few favorites and Amelia quite enjoyed many of them too. When you finish an activity, you get a number to complete a code, which can be used at the end for a prize.

We also spent some time in the aquarium at Alton Towers, which is open this time of year. The aquarium is full of sea life, and we got to pet a star fish as well, which is always so magical. There are plenty of actors walking around acting like pirates and lots to actually do. There are also pirate-themed shows playing, but our family isn’t big in those types of little filler shows, along with some new food trucks that we weren’t expecting to see. Due to the limited food options last year, we packed a lunch, but might re-consider if we go next year.

We also found all of the stamps to fill in our map, after getting all of our code numbers, and then went to hand them in at the end of the day before tacking another go at all the rides that were about. The prize for this year was a solid, metal coin that had Alton Tower and Pirate Takeover on it, along with some candy that we all enjoyed eating! When we were done with Alton Towers, we checked into our hotel.

Splash Landing Hotel Ice Cave Room

Previously, we have stayed in the Beach-themed room, but this year we wanted to stay in the Ice Cave Room to do something a little different. This was the only room on the floor with an ice door, instead of the beach hut themed door, and when we entered it was very well themed. The lights were torches and ice cubes, there were icicles hanging from the ceiling, and the bunk beds that Robin and Amelia ended up sharing hand their own lighting and log pillows. Dann and I had a big bed with fake fur bedding, which was very silly. On the wall was a challenge, which had Robin and Amelia busy trying to solve the riddles through finding stuff in the room.

I then noticed the safe tucked into the fake-tree leg of the desk along the side of the room and announced that I thought the riddles were for the key to unlock it. The riddle itself just said it was for fun, but once the girls had got the numbers, they put it into the safe, and it opened giving us a big bag of chocolate buttons! This was absolutely magical and everyone spoke about it all night! Splash Landings Hotel does have a buffet dinner, but we don’t care much for the food there, and opted to go off-site for dinner. There are also more pirate theme shows in the lobby, an arcade, and a little shop, so plenty to do. As apart of our package, we had mini-golf added in, but this year skipped out on it due to the weather on the second day. We did go to the buffet breakfast where there was everything you’d imagine at a full English.

Splash Landings

The real reason we book Splash Landings is due to the water park. Everyone in our family absolutely loves swimming and water, even Kai who’s in his full teenager stage. We were the first family into the Splash Park and were basically the last out. There are so many fun slides, an outdoor, heated area full of slides, a lazy river, tons of playground-like areas, a massive pool, and just so much to do. They do have time slots, but if the place isn’t busy (and it never is on Sundays), then you are able to stay as long as you want. We did eat lunch at Splash Landings, which had more food options this year than last year, with some salads and sandwich options along with the Cinema-style nachos, hot dogs and burgers. We really used all of our energy here and had a fantastic time, before heading back home.

Pirate Takeover and Splash Landing is such a fun getaway for our family, and we really do have an awesome time each year.

You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!