Alton Towers 27th/28th March 2026 (28th March 2026: Alton Towers Day 2)

28th March 2026: Alton Towers Day 2

We (well, I for most of the day) had a second day on park today! Although the plan wasn’t to stay until dark today, I was still looking forward to another day on park getting some more rides in!

Now before I get into the meat of today, I should preface that today was also the opening day of Bluey in CBeebies Land, which I hadn’t realised prior to booking. If you’re expecting a review, I’m afraid you will be disappointed; each to their own, but as Alton Towers is a non-trivial journey from the South for me and I only go a couple of times a season at most, I have better things to do with my time there than wait in an obscene queue for a kiddie coaster. I’ve previously ridden worse in terms of size than Bluey, but on short to walk-on queues. I’m not ruling out ever riding it, but Bluey stayed between 90 and 150 minutes all day from what I saw, so I did not partake in a ride on this particular occasion!

Now I’ve got that out of the way, let me start the day. My mum fancied a quiet morning, so on her suggestion, I actually tried something I’ve never done to get to Alton before… I caught an Uber from the hotel in Uttoxeter! I was sceptical of how well this would work given the well documented rural nature of Alton Towers’ immediate surroundings, but it actually worked very well; the driver turned up within a few minutes, and I was at the park before 9am! This is definitely a way forward for if I ever go to the park with my parents again, I feel, and it has made me think that doing Towers alone without driving may be more achievable than I’d thought, particularly if I was willing to make a few sacrifices in terms of day length.

Despite getting to the resort at 8:56, there was already a pretty considerable queue waiting to get into the plaza, and when I saw that this was the state of the plaza at 9:02, I had a feeling we were in for a busy day:

After a bit of a countdown for the aforementioned Bluey opening, the turnstiles were opened at 9:30 or so, and I went against the grain and headed to Dark Forest for my first ride…

Rita

I have always favoured Dark Forest as a morning starting point at Alton Towers, and on this particular occasion, I felt very vindicated in this, as while hordes of people were heading to CBeebies and a fair few were heading towards the likes of Wicker Man and Smiler, I was one of only 3 people within my line of vision heading into Dark Forest, and when walking speed was taken into account, I was only the 2nd person in line for Rita prior to opening! I had hoped that this would put me in good stead to be on the front row of the first train of the day, and while Fastrack or Ride Access Pass unfortunately took front row on the first train, I got front row on the second, so I can’t moan too much! So, how was this morning ride on Rita? Well, I thought it was absolutely cracking! These Intamin hydraulic launch coasters really shine on the front row, in my opinion, and this morning’s ride on Rita was no exception, with the ride packing a sensational sense of speed throughout! For all its flaws and the flack it receives, I do really like Rita; it was certainly a good way to start the day:

After I got off, nothing else within a reasonable walking distance was open and Rita was only on an advertised 15 minute queue, so I went for another ride! The queue took more like 35 minutes, but my row 8 reride was good fun just as the previous one had been; while the back lacks the sense of speed of the front, and I would definitely favour the front on Rita if I were choosing, I thought some of the airtime felt a bit more potent further back on the train!

After my reride on Rita, I decided to join the pre-queue for the other coaster in the area…

Thirteen

It was nearing 11am, so as reliability was still patchy elsewhere due to weather, I decided to wait a few minutes for the opening of Thirteen while I was in Dark Forest. The ride opened on a queue that was advertised at 60 minutes by the time I reached the entrance, but I decided to use my secret weapon… the single rider queue! This worked in my favour, as I managed to get batched into row 7 within 20 minutes; I can never complain about that! Operations were also awesome on here, with 3 trains running and dispatch intervals of less than a minute at points! So, how was the ride? Well, as it was yesterday, the ride was great fun, with smooth tracking and some good pops of airtime during the outdoor section and an indoor section that’s always a laugh! I was sat next to a woman on my ride today who’d never ridden before, and when she asked me “is there a loop on this one?” and then uttered “thank god for that” when I said no, I did have to stifle a chuckle when I thought of the impending surprises that were to come… she then proceeded to scream her head off throughout the ride and the indoor section and asked me in a horrified voice “is it over?” when we hit the final brake run! I always love riding Thirteen next to people who’ve never ridden it before… that indoor section is still surprising plenty of people 16 years on:

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After I got off Thirteen, a lot of things either weren’t open or had extremely long queues. I initially scoped out the advertised 95 minute queue for my on-park favourite Wicker Man, but it looked at least as long as advertised if not longer, so I changed course and ambled steadily over to Forbidden Valley, riding a near-guaranteed short queue on the way there…

The Curse at Alton Manor

Curse was on an advertised 10 minute queue time, so I decided to take a ride on there. The queue for this was coming out of the house and almost into the extended queue, which is probably the longest I’ve waited for it; I think it might be the first time I’ve ever seen the full pre-show while waiting! However, the queue moved quickly and took 10 minutes, as advertised. So, how was the ride? Well, I do really like Curse; I think it’s a big improvement on Duel, and it has grown on me as time has gone on. It’s very atmospheric and has lots of really nice scenery and effects, and it’s also very cohesive in a way that Duel never was! It was also a very good run on here today effects-wise, with practically everything of note working! Overall, then, Curse was a nice way to break up the coastering; if nothing else, the short queue and some time indoors were appreciated on a day where the feels like temperature was billed at -4°C:

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After Curse, I ambled over to Forbidden Valley to ride another coaster…

Nemesis Reborn

Nemesis was on an advertised 80 minute queue, but as it never seems to get an overly long queue, I had my suspicions it may not be 80 minutes. And even if it was, I figured that of all the long queues on park, Nemesis was probably the least arduous to be in, with it being an interesting queue line with lots to look at and also a fast-moving queue too, so I decided to take a ride on there. My suspicion of 80 minutes being overstated was correct, but perhaps not quite as correct as I’d hoped, with the queue still taking 65 minutes. However, it moved quickly due to relatively good operations, so it could have been worse! So, how was the ride? Well, it was excellent; while not quite as good as the night ride yesterday, that layout always packs a punch! I always find Nemesis a really exciting coaster in terms of pacing, with the first few elements being brilliantly structured, but the ride also regaining pace quite nicely with that final inversion at the end! Today’s ride maybe had a slightly more noticeable vibration than yesterday’s, but even still, I maintain having now had a double-figure number of rides on the retracked version that the much-discussed rattle is an entirely benign sensation and does not affect my enjoyment at all. It’s more of an odd noise than anything that actually impedes enjoyment for me! All in all, then, I loved my ride on Nemesis; it’s an absolutely fantastic coaster that’s definitely among my top 3 on park, and I also think that the revamp gave it a brilliant new lease of life:

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After I got off Nemesis, I met up with my mum, who entered the park while I was in the queue. We headed down to Wicker Man, which was reopening from some downtime when we got there. I originally joined the advertised 70 minute queue for a final ride, but after 45 minutes had passed, the ride went down for a weather delay. As I knew my mum was keen to get home, I hadn’t even reached the queue line shop after 45 minutes (the queue was moving oddly slowly despite the ride dispatching quicker than yesterday, if anything), and it was frankly cold as anything and starting to hail, I decided to bail out of the queue at that point and meet back up with my mum:

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As it was past 2pm at that point and my mum was keen to get home, we slowly made our way out of the park. I did catch a brief glimpse of Bluey as I walked out, and while I didn’t partake in a ride, it looks nicely done and bigger than I expected!

So, that wraps up the second Alton Towers day of the trip! I must admit that this maybe wasn’t my best ever day at Alton, but they can’t change the weather and I also acknowledge that attending on the opening day of a new roller coaster, whether intentional or not, may not be the best idea. And besides, there was plenty of fun had today; the two Dark Forest coasters were good, as were Nemesis and Curse! I would have liked that ride on Wicker Man at the end to seal the deal, but I did ride it twice yesterday, so it’s not exactly devastating that I wasn’t able to ride today. I always like a trip up to Alton regardless, and this has been a good and roundly successful trip! I don’t think 13 rides across 2 (or maybe more like 1.5) days is a bad effort myself; I was pleased to get on all operating coasters of interest at least once across the weekend, and some rerides were had too, which is never a bad thing! Not to mention, I managed to get those all-important night rides on Nemesis and Wicker Man, which were awesome!

Thanks for reading; I hope you’ve enjoyed this report! My next report will be on 12th April, when I head to Adventure Island in Southend for my first ever visit. I’ll be interested to see a new UK park and get on the likes of Rage for the first time!