Alton Towers Early Ride Time Announced & Staggered openings confirmed

Alton Towers have now announced the Early Ride Time (ERT) line up for 2018.

Early Ride Time will include Spinball Whizzer, Cbeebies Land and surprisingly Wicker Man for early riding from 9:30am.

As like previous years, the same rules apply for ERT:

"Early Ride Time is not available during Scarefest, Fireworks and other Special Events, or after the 5th October 2018.

The Early Ride Time line-up is subject to availability and can change throughout the season - be sure to check out this page before your visit to find out the attractions on Early Ride Time."

However, one thing that could be misunderstood is if whether ERT is included with online tickets, as this sentence seems to suggest only accommodation with tickets and Annual Passholders, this also doesn't seem to include the new for 2018, Season Pass. 

"Early Ride Time is only available for guests who have booked tickets alongside accommodation packages or are Merlin Annual Passholders."

EDIT: This content has been posted after the original article was released:

It also seems that the park has announced staggered opening around the resort:

Xsector and Mutiny Bay will open from 10 am,

Dark Forest, Cloud Cuckoo Land, Sharkbait Reef by SEA LIFE, Battle Galleons, Runaway Mine Train and Hex will open at 11 am,

The Skyride which opens at 11.30am and Forbidden Valley, Duel and Congo River Rapids* which open at 12.

Also, the rapids will be open seasonally from 26th May – 4th September 2018