During this fascinating event we heard from Lizzie Roberts (Head of PR and Media Relations), Wayne Burton (Product Excellence Director), Laura Gerrard (Head of Brand Marketing), Eddie Saul (Creative Director) and Chris Carter (Head of Entertainments).

This was a unique opportunity for us to enter the construction areas for both additions to the resort, see the current progress and meet some of the people working on their development.

The Alton Towers Dungeon

Work on the attraction began just six months ago, in September 2018. Usually a new version of The Dungeons would take 18 months to deliver, but a team of over 200 people have been working at pace to get it ready to open on Saturday 23rd March.

There are six sections to The Alton Towers Dungeon; which are The Judge, The Black River Boat Ride, The Torturer, The Highwayman, The Plague Doctor and The Haunting.

For the event we were taken into every section apart from the The Black River Boat Ride, and full performances were given in The Judge and The Torturer shows.

Tickets to The Alton Towers Dungeon will cost £5 per person when booked online in advance and, subject to availability, they will cost £7.50 on the day. This does not include admission to the theme park, which must be purchased separately.

The Dungeons invite you to delve into horrible history. Participants come face to face with live actors who provide laughs, scares and shocks through mini interactive shows and sometimes rides. There are elements of theatre, lots of jokes and plenty of special effects, plus historical storytelling by the iconic characters themselves.

There are currently five such attractions in the UK; in London, Blackpool, Edinburgh, Warwick Castle and York. The Alton Towers Dungeon will be the sixth.

The Dungeons also operate elsewhere in the world; in Shanghai, Amsterdam, Berlin, Hamburg and San Francisco, which all offer a unique combination of real history, horror and humour to bring gruesome historic events to life.

The Alton Towers Dungeon is located in the building previously occupied by Charlie and the Chocolate: The Ride that closed in 2015, and it has taken 45,000 man-hours to transform it.

Alton Towers auctioned off the theming used in Charlie and Chocolate Factory: The Ride for charity, raising over £10,000.

23 actors have been recruited for The Alton Towers Dungeon, who will receive 240 hours of training each – 5,520 hours in total.

The new attraction can accommodate 27 people in each group, with groups entering every 8 minutes. Each of the boats will take 9 people down The Black River for the 4 minute ride and upon disembarking a mini rolling show will entertain those arriving until each boat as arrived.

For the first time ever, live actors will be used during the ride section, as well as animatronics and special effects.

Props used in The Alton Towers Dungeon include 25 rats, 7 skeletons, 4 turkeys, a cauldron, 12 herb pots, 35 tankards and a beef joint! Several life-like human organs have been created including intestines, a heart and liver. The blood used throughout the dungeon is a mixture of ink dyes, mixed accordingly for purpose.

Smell pods will be used throughout attraction, simulating the scent of a rotten corpse, burnt flesh, putrefying bodies, stale ale and 'eau de Ghost'.

Alton Towers Stargazing Pods

There are 102 Stargazing Pods arranged around a ‘village green’ where guests can enjoy the outdoors and use the telescopes to look at the night sky. These will be open over 149 nights during the 2019 season, offering an alternative type of accommodation to the existing room, lodge an treehouse options at the resort.

Prices start from £88 off peak and £123 peak, which includes the overnight stay, a breakfast bap and hot drink, and bed linen. Towels can be hired, or bring your own.

Each of the Stargazing Pods can sleep up to 4 people in 1 double and 2 single beds. All the showers and toilets are located in a facilities building located on the site.

A tipi structure will include a bar and offer live entertainment. but guests can also enjoy the restaurants and entertainment in the other resort hotels during their stay.

The pods were constructed in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, at the factory of Hawthorne Forest Products. All their timber is sustainably sourced European Whitewood from managed forests in Finland under Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) guidelines. FSC compliance means that each piece of timber used in the pods can be traced back its forest of origin.

More than 250 people have worked on the project, with the first pods arriving on 3rd October 2018 and the final pods arriving on 18th February 2019.

The site has been planted with 16 varieties of trees and bushes. Nearly 900 have been planted in total, and the varieties are all native to the area, including field maple, silver birch, common hornbeam, hazel, hawthorn, holly, wild cherry, blackthorn (sloe), English oak, dog rose, willow and mountain ash.

Alton Towers now offers themed accommodation in five areas; Alton Towers Hotel, Splash Landings Hotel, Enchanted Village, CBeebies Land Hotel and Stargazing Pods. Across the resort there are almost 700 rooms available.

The Alton Towers Hotel opened in 1996, followed by the Splash Landings Hotel in 2003. The resort then diversified with the opening of 120 woodland lodges and 5 luxury treehouses in the Enchanted Village in 2015, then the Cbeebies Land Hotel in 2017.