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I visited Alton Towers with my two young sons, Odhran, 11, and Reuben, 8, for this summer's Minecraft Meet the Mobs event.
Head down to The Towers area, where the attraction Hex is located and Fountain Square has been taken over by the mobs.
Grab a trail card from one of the members of staff (identifiable in their green Minecraft uniform) and track down six game-inspired set scenes across the park to collect stamps. Then, hand the trail card back to a member of staff, who will give you a digital code to claim an exclusive in-game reward, which is a never-seen-before Baby Axolotl Hat. This is only available at the Minecraft Meet the Mobs event at Alton Towers.
Odhran and Reuben loved running around and finding and interacting with the different Minecraft stations, which thankfully weren't too spread out across the park. Watch out thought, as one of them squirts water!
There are character meet-and-greets at Fountain Square, so you can get your photo taken with iconic figures from the game, including a creeper, iron golem, chicken jockey, axolotl, baby panda, chick, and baby wolf.
As Odhran and Reuben posed with a mob, I was surprised when an older woman came up to me and asked, 'Excuse me, is that an Iron Golem?' She explained that she'd been trying to play Minecraft with her grandkids but 'couldn't get the hang of it.' Still, diamond helmet off to her, at least she'd sought to engage in her grandkids' passion.
In the hub at Fountain Square, stalls sell all kinds of Minecraft merch from themed cups and water bottles, to plushies and clothing. And there are snack stalls - purchase a Wall's Minecraft ice-cream stick, or visit the TNT popcorn stand, where you can get a small salted (ours tasted sweet and salted) popcorn for £5 or £7 for a large, or opt for one of the more exciting themed popcorn buckets: Piglin Gold Crunch (topped with toffee sauce, toffee pieces, cinnamon sugar); Baby Mob Mega Munch (topped with milk chocolate M&Ms, bubble gum popping candy, 100's & 1000's); Creeper Kaboom (topped with green white chocolate, apple popping candy, white chocolate chips). These are priced £6.25 for a small or £9 for a large. Odhran chose a large Baby Mob Mega Munch bucket (the popcorn comes in a paper TNT box) and he was munching on it for about two hours, as the 'toppings' were layered throughout.
Entry to the Minecraft event and the trail card is covered in your Alton Towers theme park ticket. Online day passes cost from £34.13 with current summer VAT savings.
Minecraft Meet the Mobs runs until Friday 28th August. Find out more here