All Activity

12th April 2026: Adventure Island With me having worked for the last 6 months and now being out of work for a period, I thought it might be nice to do a park trip. And seeing as I had such a dry year last year in terms of new creds, I thought I’d redo my Solo South East Jaunt from June 2024, but instead combine a Merlin visit on my pass with a new park and do a double bill of Adventure Island and Thorpe Park! I always love a Thorpe visit, but I was also excited to try something new in the UK, with Southend being a place I’ve never been before (as well as Essex more widely, aside from Stansted Airport)! Now, I should say that one of my reasons for delaying doing Southend was that from my neck of the woods, the public transport journey involves crossing London, which I was nervous about for a litany of reasons. However, it went absolutely fine, and I actually found some of the London transport quite cool! I set off from my home in Gloucestershire at around 7:30am this morning, with my parents dropping me off in Bristol Parkway at just after 8am in time for an 8:30am train towards London Paddington to start my journey: After getting off the train in Paddington, this is where things began to get interesting. I next took an Elizabeth Line service between London Paddington and London Liverpool Street. This took around 10 minutes, and for all my nerves, I have to say it was absolutely fine and very easy! It was busy, and I would advise holding onto something as the train is very fast, but This was also my first time in London since the opening of the Elizabeth Line, and as someone who has at least a passing interest in all things rail, I found it really cool to see and ride on; it’s all so slick and modern: The final leg of my journey was a C2C train between London Liverpool Street and a Southend Central. It was pretty prompt, taking just over an hour, meaning that I got to Southend at just before 12pm and into Adventure Island just after following a walk that took just under 10 minutes: Upon entering Adventure Island and collecting my pre-ordered wristband, I decided to start my day on the most noteworthy coaster on offer… Rage Rage was near to where I entered and arguably the biggest draw of Adventure Island, so I decided to give it a go. With it being the final day of the Easter holidays, I wondered if the park would be busy, but these thoughts were quickly quashed upon seeing the near walk-on queue for Rage; I got pretty much straight on there, so I can’t really complain! One stray observation I’d like to make, which proved to be a recurring theme throughout the day, is that the staff were incredibly enthusiastic, possibly more so than any other theme park staff I’ve ever encountered! They were dancing, they were encouraging us to show our enthusiasm for the coming ride, they got us to play games… I’m a bit of an introvert, so I’m not sure it’s my thing (apologies if I sound a bit of a killjoy here…), but I can’t fault the enthusiasm! But enough about that; how was the ride? Well, I rarely love Gerstlauer Euro-Fighters, and Rage wasn’t really an exception to that, but it was enjoyable enough and is certainly an impressive headliner for a park of this size. I always enjoy the beyond vertical drop on these, and like the others, Rage offers a nice bit of airtime here! The loop and initial turn were also decent, with some good forces, and to its credit, I would probably say that Rage is the smoothest of the Euro-Fighters I’ve ridden. However, it definitely has a more basic layout than the other Gerstlauer thrill coasters I’ve done, and I don’t massively care for it once it starts going into the slow hangtime sections. I enjoyed the ride, though, and it was a good way to start the day: After Rage, I headed to the next coaster I needed to ride… Green Scream Green Scream was nearby and appeared to be a near walk-on, so I went to give it a ride. Knowing very little about this coaster aside from that it was a Zierer Tivoli and holds (once held?) the peculiar world record of having the most naked riders on a roller coaster, I was interested to see what it was like. I just missed the cycle that had just gone, so I waited around 5 minutes for my go. So, how was the ride? Well, I do have a small soft spot for a Zierer Tivoli, and this was a nice one! Compared to some of the others, it’s quite a sizeable and substantial ride, which definitely gives it a few additional brownie points compared to your Treetopses and your Cat-O-Pillars! I was sat in row 4, and some of those helixes picked up a fair amount of speed, with the ride having a good length to it too! Once again, the host on here was also brimming with enthusiasm, and I did think the announcements and music were a nice touch! All in all, then, I thought Green Scream was a fun Tivoli; there’s something I find inherently quite charming about these Tivoli coasters, and it was nice to see a slightly more substantial one: After Green Scream, I decided to change things up a tad while I was in this side of the park (I didn’t realise Adventure Island was dual-sided, with each side being separated by an arcade), and go for a flat ride that I’d been advised not to miss… Time Machine Time Machine had a nominal queue, so I got in line for the next cycle. I’m not normally a great lover of flat rides, but I know that Time Machine is a unique ride (built by the park in-house, if I remember rightly?), so I decided to give it a go for that reason alone. The cycle ended quickly, so I waited hardly any time at all for my ride; you can never complain when that happens! So, how was it? Well, I’ll be diplomatic and say that it’s certainly… different. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it on my first go; it certainly pulls a lot of g-forces and is quite an intense ride. I wasn’t sure on how it did some sustained upside down action at the beginning, and I did feel a bit dizzy getting off, but even as someone who doesn’t go mad for flat rides, I didn’t think it was a terrible one (I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it after the first go, but it didn’t merit the instant negative reaction that some flats have) and will laud it for being quite a different ride to anything else I’ve ridden: https://I.ibb.co/vRhz7wx/IMG-1713.jpg After getting off Time Machine, I decided to go for something a tad less intense… Spooksville Spooksville was nearby, so after the intensity of Time Machine, I decided to give this dark ride a go to pace myself a little. I have to say that the queue for this is quite nice; I thought queueing indoors made a nice change for a dark ride in a park like this! The queue initially looked a fair amount longer than any of the others I’d seen so far, but due to the length of the train, this ended up only being a one cycle wait and I was on within 5 minutes, which is never bad. So, how was it? Well, I have to say that I thought this was actually a very nice little ride! It’s not the most jumpscare-y ghost train out there, but as someone who’s not a big horror buff, that suited me quite nicely! The ride also had a fair amount of pop-out scenery, there were also some fun little details peppered throughout the scenes, and the ride overall had quite a nice ambience to it! For a park of this calibre, I overall thought Spooksville was a nice ride; I certainly enjoyed it, anyway: https://I.ibb.co/mrrqpNww/IMG-1714.jpg https://I.ibb.co/XfMdnzwQ/IMG-1715.jpg After getting off Spooksville, I decided to try another flat ride… Sky Drop I actually wasn’t sure if Sky Drop was open, as there were no guests in the area at all, but the very friendly host confirmed that it was open and beckoned me on board, so I thought I’d take a spin on there. Contrary to what I said above about not being a big flat ride fan, I do love a drop tower, and I remember Great Yarmouth’s version of this ride type being good fun, so I was keen to try this one! Due to the aforementioned lack of crowds at the ride, I rode alone with no one else in the area, which was interesting… and this is perhaps where the “pumping up” the hosts do here pre-ride feels a little awkward. When the host was doing it and saying to me “Come on, you can do better than that!” when I didn’t respond with what he deemed appropriate enthusiasm, I did feel that this sort of exercise maybe works better when there are more people on the ride, or the riders are younger than me. It’s no criticism of the host at all, as he was very friendly and personable and I can sense that this might be a policy from above seeing as everyone does it, but I’ll admit it’s not really my personal cup of tea, even if it makes me sound miserable. As for the ride itself, it was fun enough, but I thought it lacked a bit of kick compared to my memory of the model, with not even the slightest bit of airtime to speak of. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the ride and I would like to commend the host on his friendliness even if the “pumping up” perhaps isn’t to my personal taste: https://I.ibb.co/N665BXLS/IMG-1716.jpg After I got off Sky Drop, I decided to go for another ride on Rage while I was in the vicinity. I only had a one-car wait, and while the ride was once again fun and I do enjoy that beyond-vertical drop, it seemed a bit rougher this time and I had a tight restraint that did… squash me down below a little uncomfortably as these Gersts sometimes can: https://I.ibb.co/r28q0skS/IMG-1717.jpg https://I.ibb.co/qLf2XLGx/IMG-1718.jpg After my re-ride on Rage, I headed over to the other side of the park to nab another coaster credit… Barnstormer Barnstormer had a very nominal queue time, so I decided to take a ride on there. After a short wait of less than 5 minutes, I was seated on row 3 of the next cycle; I can never complain about that! So, how was the ride? Well, it was good fun; as I said about Green Scream, I do have a soft spot for a Zierer Tivoli, as family coasters go! This one is definitely weaker than Green Scream for me, but even still, the downward helix packs some nice speed and I would perhaps take it over some of the more regular Tivoli layouts I’ve done. It’s nothing spectacular, don’t get me wrong, but Barnstormer put a smile on my face overall: https://I.ibb.co/6c8kTF6Y/IMG-1719.jpg https://I.ibb.co/ym4ZL4Fm/IMG-1720.jpg After Barnstormer, I decided to give the other coaster next to it a ride… Mighty Mini Mega Similarly to Barnstormer, Mighty Mini Mega was on a nominal wait, so I got in line and was quickly batched onto the next cycle. With this being a theme of the day so far, I certainly couldn’t complain about the efficiency of my visit to Adventure Island; I should add that I had only been in the park for around an hour at this point and this was about to be my 8th ride! So, how was the ride? Well, with Mighty Mini Mega being a Pinfari, a manufacturer where I have not had particularly great experiences with their hardware, I did not have high expectations… but I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised! By Pinfari standards, I’m going to say that Mighty Mini Mega was not half bad; it’s definitely my favourite Pinfari (a very, very low bar to clear, admittedly) and probably my 2nd favourite coaster in the park behind Rage, which surprised me! From where I’m standing, the ride was smooth, had comfortable trains (a pleasant surprise given that my prior experiences with Pinfari have had trains where I’ve either had to sit sideways or fold myself into a very cramped OTSR), and actually had some fairly good speed to it! I liked some of the drops and undulations, and the ride maintained fairly good speed and force through the layout for a family coaster of its size! Overall, then, I thought Mighty Mini Mega was a pleasant surprise, and certainly a solid family coaster; I enjoyed it, anyway: https://I.ibb.co/PvM3z2kQ/IMG-1721.jpg https://I.ibb.co/SD5stWY5/IMG-1722.jpg After Mighty Mini Mega, I headed for the park’s second drop tower… Vertigo Vertigo had a walk-on queue, so as a self-professed drop tower fan, I fancied a ride on it. When a drop tower is on a walk-on queue, I can never turn it down! So, how was the ride? Well, even though it’s not the most intense drop tower by any stretch, I thought Vertigo was really good fun by the standards of these family drop towers! Unlike Sky Drop earlier, the ride provided some genuine tickles of airtime which are always appreciated, and it was also a fairly long cycle too! All in all, then, I definitely enjoyed Vertigo, and would probably say it was one of my better rides of the day: https://I.ibb.co/23ZrFyvZ/IMG-1724.jpg https://I.ibb.co/cSBWYqKk/IMG-1723.jpg After Sky Drop, I headed up some stairs to grab the final credit of the day… Kiddi Koasta These days, I frequently don’t ride kiddie coasters, but I already felt as though most of the rides I’d been on had had me surrounded by children, so as the queue for Kiddi Koasta also appeared nominal, I figured I might as well take a ride and get the clean sweep of coasters at Adventure Island. I was on the next cycle after I joined the queue, I was joined by another solo rider and interestingly, this was perhaps the only ride where the host did no “pumping up” whatsoever, which surprised me given that it was the one ride where I might have anticipated it given the target audience. So with all this in mind, this was possibly the least embarrassing kiddie coaster I’ve ever ridden, which was great as someone who worries about this! Anyhow, how was the ride itself? Well, it was what it was, really. It’s a good enough coaster for kids, with some moments of mild speed, but it’s not going to make any top coaster lists for adults. The main thing that stuck out to me about the ride was that the lift hill rivals Wicker Man’s for the title of “joltiest lift hill entry” and the brake at the end was really quite sharp! All in all, then, Kiddi Koasta was a perfectly adequate kiddie coaster, with my main takeaway being that I was glad to get the clean sweep of credits at Adventure Island: https://I.ibb.co/fzHzbbry/IMG-1726.jpg https://I.ibb.co/zk3JbK1/IMG-1725.jpg After I got off Kiddi Koasta, I decided to give another flat ride a go… Axis Axis was on a one-cycle wait, so I decided to take a ride on there. It did feel like the operations on here were quite slow, as it seemed to take a while for anything to happen once I was seated, but as there was only one staff member running the whole ride and the queue was short, I don’t think I should complain too much. So, how was the ride? Well, these gyroswings have been growing on me somewhat in recent times, even if they still aren’t an absolute favourite of mine, but this one was completely ruined by the 360 degree function for me, I’m afraid. The initial swings were good fun, and the ride gains some good speed in the troughs, but I just don’t like the extended upside down hangtime at all, unfortunately. So all in all, then, I came off Axis feeling a little worse for wear and having not overly enjoyed the experience, I’m sorry to say: https://I.ibb.co/tpQGGsR9/IMG-1727.jpg https://I.ibb.co/zWhgsqcJ/IMG-1728.jpg After getting off Axis, I decided to start doing some rerides. I initially went for a walk-on reride on Barnstormer; I was sat in row 7, and the ride was perhaps better than it was the first time around. It was still good fun: https://I.ibb.co/23ZXbX5N/IMG-1729.jpg https://I.ibb.co/V0m2wTcj/IMG-1730.jpg I then went for a reride on Mighty Mini Mega on a one-cycle wait. I was seated in row 9, and the ride was once again good fun; I was still pleasantly surprised that Pinfari could build something that fun: https://I.ibb.co/yFdFm47V/IMG-1731.jpg After that, I went for a walk-on reride on Vertigo. Once again, I thoroughly enjoyed the ride: https://I.ibb.co/yBNVSZfh/IMG-1732.jpg After getting off Vertigo, I decided to go for a sit down, having done 14 rides in under 2 hours. I grabbed a King Kone (a Mr Whippy with a flake… what a nostalgic throwback to my childhood seaside holidays!) and a Pepsi Max, and decided to just sit on a bench and take things in for a bit. Once I’d finished my ice cream, I went for a reride on Green Scream. The park was busier by this point, and while I only waited one cycle, the operations were quite slow, which meant that the wait was 15-20 minutes overall. I do think they could maybe do with more than one staff member on the platform on busier days than this one… nonetheless, the ride was once again good fun in row 2: https://I.ibb.co/xtHH3TTG/IMG-1734.jpg https://I.ibb.co/MD15ptDZ/IMG-1735.jpg After my ride on Green Scream, I, perhaps against my better judgement, headed for a reride on Time Machine, as I wanted to better suss out my opinion on this unique ride. And while it is undeniably unique, I’ve concluded that it is just a bit too intense for my tastes, I’m afraid. It makes me feel quite dizzy, it isn’t something I could reride lots in quick succession, and I think it’s stymied by the fact that I’m simply not a great lover of flat rides, for the most part. Interestingly, my second ride on here took over 20 minutes all in all, as they had to get a mechanic to manually release our restraints: https://I.ibb.co/SDQphyLm/IMG-1738.jpg After getting off Time Machine, I headed for one final reride on Rage. By this point, the park had taken a car off Rage and left it running only the 1 car (it had been running 2 earlier), which meant that I waited 15 minutes (still by no means a long queue, but longer than it had been earlier). It was a good way to end my time at Adventure Island, although as with the second ride, it was a little rougher than it had been earlier in the day: https://I.ibb.co/rKc76kyT/IMG-1740.jpg After getting off Rage, I decided to end my time at Adventure Island there. While I had only spent 3.5 hours in the park and it was only around 3:30pm, I was content with what I’d done and didn’t want to get to Staines ridiculously late, so decided to leave for the train station: https://I.ibb.co/r2FNb0mF/IMG-1742.jpg To get back to Staines for my overnight accommodation ahead of a Thorpe day tomorrow, I took a slightly different route. I took a C2C train from Southend Central to Stratford, took the Jubilee Line on the Underground down to London Waterloo from Stratford (this was possibly faster than the Elizabeth Line train earlier… I forgot to hold on and nearly fell on top of the poor woman stood next to me when the train pulled away!), and took a South Western Railway train from London Waterloo to Hounslow (SWR have jazzed up their trains since I last rode one, I have to say!), taking an Uber from Hounslow to my hotel in Staines due to the trains only running to Hounslow. I must admit, I’m proud of myself for having successfully negotiated the London transport alone, and it was cool to see the tube and the Elizabeth Line for sure: https://I.ibb.co/1G0Dpt6r/IMG-1743.jpg https://I.ibb.co/jZ9cLSfF/IMG-1744.jpg https://I.ibb.co/dJpg3Yg6/IMG-1745.jpg https://I.ibb.co/hr6N73S/IMG-1746.jpg So, that brings an end to my first ever visit to Adventure Island! I had a really good day; I certainly can’t complain about 17 rides in 3.5 hours, and I enjoyed seeing the park for the first time! As for my thoughts on the park itself; I enjoyed my time there and I’m glad I went, but it’s not somewhere I can see myself rushing back to in the absence of major investment considering the distance I live away from it. It’s more of a “couple of hours” kind of park than a “full day” kind of park. With that said, I did enjoy my time there, and for comparison, I would probably say that the park felt as though it had more substance than either of the two parks I visited in Norfolk/Suffolk in 2024. It definitely is more of a funfair-type park than a “proper” theme park, but it has some decent rides; for the scale of the park, Rage is an impressive headliner, and I also think the two Zierers and Mighty Mini Mega are not bad supporting acts either. Spooksville is a nice dark ride, I enjoyed Vertigo, Time Machine is certainly unique even if it wasn’t my cup of tea… there is a fair bit here! One thing I will say is that the staff are universally very friendly and clearly very much like working here, which is nice to see! The “pumping up” prior to rides isn’t to my personal taste, but that is a me thing rather than a them thing and based on my accompanying riders during the day being predominantly children, I can sense I’m not the target demographic! Thanks for reading; I hope you’ve enjoyed this report! Tomorrow, I’ll be spending a day at Thorpe Park, so keep your eyes peeled for that report tomorrow evening! I can’t wait to get back on Hyperia and my other Thorpe favourites for the first time in 2026!

I believe it sounds an alarm if the restraint comes down enough to indicate that the person in the test seat would fit. Very annoying I know - would be better to have a green/red light like I've seen at other parks 🤣 At least its working though I guess! SAWs test seat does the same.

Why is an alarm often sounding on the test seat outside the queue entrance?

And what does Parm Pap like, beyond long-winded ways of saying (I presume) "the water effect won't make a splash back soon"?

I don't like splashes, I don't like pipework, erm, I don't like, don't like, lake water, particuarly, I don't like sweeping brushes, I don't like much really do I? but what I do like, I love passionately

That’s interesting! Fingers crossed it’s not just manual mode I’m surprised it’s not reopened just yet. Wonder what went so wrong with it!

Something I've noticed with Zodiac testing is that its actually reaching the full 90 degrees height and staying at full height for a few seconds before it starts to lower again. Haven't seen it reach full height in years! Will be interesting to see if it does that when it opens or if its just engineers running it in manual.

It appears some visible work has happened to the splashdown. Although I remember the same thing happening last year at some point and nothing seemed to happen. Strange.

I know this is technically an Alton Towers/Chessington question, but I was recently looking over photos and footage of Old McDonald's Farmyard and it made me think about the old furry friends that lived there. I then found out that the miniature donkeys George and Granville alongside the other animals were apparently moved to Chessington. I was wondering if anyone knew about the wellbeing of these animals in the present day, specifically the 2 donkeys? Sometimes I do miss the Old McDonalds area, albeit the singing barn was annoying.

That or their standards for retention are extremely low 😉

Luckily for me I was able to attend TP on Wednesday. It's always an interesting observation on one's first visit of the season. I was amazed to see and find out that TP has had over 90% returns of staff, which must mean they are doing something right.

Interesting point on the ages of the flat rides. Given the forces and the fact it was the first large swing id have thought that rush will be first to be replaced. I'm sure they could replace it with a far more efficient modern version. Something that I'm sure is far more appealing with where energy prices will be heading.

Zodiac has been doing a lot of testing so far this season so will likely re-open soon. I do agree with your point though. I’d love to see Thorpe add some new flats rather than slowly losing them like we’ve seen at other parks.

Zodiac is still yet to reopen and has been removed from the app. It's 22 years old and possibly at the end of it's operational life. Thorpe received it second hand from Drayton Manor. It shouldn't be costly to find a replacement from another park or possibly a new 2G version from HUSS. This does raise a wider concern with Thorpe's ageing rides: Teacups - 40 Banana - 32 Samurai - 27 Vortex - 25 (currently closed) Detonator - 25 Quantum - 23 Rush - 21 Coasters: TWD - 30 All of these are fairly low cost investments for a major operator. However, if they all reach end of life at a similar time it will be very costly to replace all of them in a short space of time. Tussaud's rapid growth of the park in the 00s and Merlin's lack of investment for long periods has resulted in this situation.

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: [img]https://I.ibb.co/r2mQJ04k/IMG-1688.jpg[/img] 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: [img]https://I.ibb.co/5g591cmS/IMG-1691.jpg[/img] [img]https://I.ibb.co/wr7CkzZc/IMG-1689.jpg[/img] [img]https://I.ibb.co/ccX0Gbry/IMG-1690.jpg[/img] 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: [img]https://I.ibb.co/7tx5hwhP/IMG-1694.jpg[/img] [img]https://I.ibb.co/yF52Nz7z/IMG-1693.jpg[/img] [img]https://I.ibb.co/zHnwVvy0/IMG-1692.jpg[/img] 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: [img]https://I.ibb.co/YF1bbzSy/IMG-1695.jpg[/img] [img]https://I.ibb.co/6R3rywwT/IMG-1696.jpg[/img] [img]https://I.ibb.co/7tcKdNyK/IMG-1697.jpg[/img] 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!

They should have kept the price high. It's weird Towers is charging £20 for one of their coasters, yet Thorpe have reduced the cost of a one shot of their newest coaster foe their newest coaster. I'd hope that yesterday's long Fastrack queues is a one off due to the mixture of the taste unlimited Fastrack, first day having extra Premium Passholders, etc The Premium Passholder perk of one free Fastrack per visit is a real wildcard and I expect we'll see lots of quirks over the coming weeks. I agree most people will end up wanting to use their's on Hyperia at Thorpe.

27th March 2026: Alton Towers Day 1 After what has felt like a pretty long closed season (for me, anyway), March is upon us! And with me having purchased an Essential Merlin Pass back in November, what better way for me to start the season than with a trip to Alton Towers? With Alton After Dark being on for the first 3 weeks of the season and me now having the flexibility to come on a weekday, me and my mum decided to give the event another whirl following our less-than-stellar first go at it in 2024. And besides, I couldn’t wait to get back on some of my Alton favourites for the season, such as Wicker Man, Nemesis and others! With us staying in the park late, we left our home in Gloucestershire at around 10am, getting to Alton at around 1pm after a… somewhat hairy journey, to say the least! We got stuck in traffic around Gloucester and Birmingham, but it seemed like every man and their dog was parked in the road during the non-motorway portions, and as always seems to happen when we let the satnav direct us to Alton, it directed us a slightly different way to last time, and hilarity ensued when we got directed up a seemingly never ending ascent followed by a seemingly never ending descent… anyway, we got to the park at 1pm, and as it was already a few hours into the day, I went ahead of my mum and was able to enter relatively promptly by 1:15 or so: [img]https://I.ibb.co/dsSMyTWG/IMG-1653.jpg[/img] [img]https://I.ibb.co/VczWm43f/IMG-1654.jpg[/img] When I got into the park, I decided to head to a slightly different choice to usual for my first coaster ride of 2026… Spinball Whizzer Spinball Whizzer was on an advertised 45 minute queue time when I approached, and I decided to give it a whirl. It’s not something I ride terribly often, but as I was nearby waiting for my mum to enter and had caught wind that the ride was doing wet weather loading and only loading 3 to a car, I decided to try my secret weapon… the single rider queue! This proved to be a fruitful choice, as the single rider queue moved very quickly and I was on within 10 minutes; it’s great when that happens, particularly when the park is as busy as it was today! So, how was it? Well, I’m not normally Spinball’s greatest fan, but I have to say that it was pretty enjoyable today! It span well without being too excessive, wasn’t too rough either, and was overall an enjoyable way to start the season! I don’t know if it was just that it was my first coaster ride since September, but I definitely ‎enjoyed Spinball more than usual today and would consider moving it up in my estimations; it definitely put a smile on my face: [img]https://I.ibb.co/bM4Qsvsv/IMG-1655.jpg[/img] [img]https://I.ibb.co/4n53Z0zH/IMG-1656.jpg[/img] After getting off Spinball, my mum joined me and we headed over to Dark Forest to ride our first big coaster… Rita Rita was on an advertised 45 minute queue time, so we decided to have a go on there. I hadn’t ridden Rita since 2024, with it being closed on my last visit, so I was interested to get back on there for sure. We actually had a bit of a curveball thrown our way queueing for Rita, as the ride broke down when we were close to the front of the queue for about 30 minutes, meaning that we waited about 85-90 minutes in total. I do think they could maybe extend the tannoy system to better cover the bits of the queue going underneath the launch, as we could hardly hear the announcements being made. But how was the ride after all that waiting? Well, we were seated in row 2, and it was a very good ride! For all my sins, I actually really like Rita; as much as the layout is not the most interesting or dynamic, it has a cracking launch, there are one or two surprisingly good bits of airtime in there, and it was also riding pretty smoothly today! With us being seated in row 2, it also meant that we got a small taste of that front row sense of speed due to the staggered seating design, which was a bonus! Overall, then, Rita was great, and we both enjoyed it despite the lengthened wait time: [img]https://I.ibb.co/JjgVD3Q2/IMG-1658.jpg[/img] [img]https://I.ibb.co/GySY5G3/IMG-1657.jpg[/img] After getting off Rita, we headed to the other coaster in the area… Thirteen With Thirteen being the other coaster in the area and on an advertised 30 minute wait, we decided to take a spin on there. We pondered doing single rider on Thirteen after our lengthened Rita wait, but as the main queue on Thirteen was only advertised at a relatively short wait, we decided to ride together. This proved to be a prudent decision, as we in fact only waited 25 and single rider looked pretty long! But how was it? Well, similarly to Rita, I actually really enjoy Thirteen despite the flack it often gets. Today, we were seated on the very back, which is my favourite seat on there, and as much as the outdoor section isn’t greatly intense, the first drop was great and there were one or two other fun bits of airtime. And me and my mum both find that indoor section a laugh; I know very well that Thirteen is one of my mum’s favourite rides for that precise reason! I wouldn’t rate it quite as highly as her, but it’s definitely grown on me over the years and I’d probably plump for it being my 4th favourite Alton coaster behind Wicker, Oblivion and Nemesis. It’s great fun: [img]https://I.ibb.co/Y7PNhqtW/IMG-1659.jpg[/img] After Thirteen, I headed into X-Sector to ride my next coaster… The Smiler The Smiler was on an advertised 60 minute queue time, but as my mum didn’t fancy riding it, I used my usual secret weapon of single rider once again. The single rider queue on here hasn’t seemed quite as fruitful as it used to be ever since they restructured it to hold you at the bottom of the stairs before baggage, with it spilling to the entrance of the station building today, but even still, I got on in only 30 minutes compared to the advertised 60, so I can’t really complain! So, how was it? Well, Smiler isn’t an absolute favourite of mine, but I was sat in row 2, and I have to say that to its credit, it wasn’t riding too badly. It was a bit rough, but not too terrible, there were some good forces on there, and the OTSRs didn’t seem quite as uncomfortable as they can be. I do find it’s not a layout that I like quite as much as some, as I find the repetitive-feeling motions in places not the most interesting and a little bit nauseating, but I’ll admit it’s creative, has some good forces and wasn’t riding badly at all today: [img]https://I.ibb.co/3ym65126/IMG-1661.jpg[/img] [img]https://I.ibb.co/WXdd0sm/IMG-1662.jpg[/img] [img]https://I.ibb.co/r29Z4n3X/IMG-1663.jpg[/img] After The Smiler, I met back up with my mum and we headed to ride a coaster that we were both likely to enjoy more… Wicker Man Wicker Man was on an advertised 40 minute queue time, so we decided to take a ride on there. The ride only appeared to be running 2 trains, but was dispatching pretty quickly considering this, and the queue time board was broadly accurate, with the queue taking around 40-45 minutes all in. You can’t complain about that, really! However, I should say that as much as the content of the pre-show on there is good, I always find the whole experience of Wicker Man between the merge point and the station more frustrating than it needs to be, simply because it’s utter disorganised carnage. That pre-show needs either scrapping or completely reorganising, in my view; perhaps controversially, I quite liked how it ran during COVID, and my mum seems to agree! Anyway, how was the ride? Well, we were seated in row 7, and it was phenomenal! I absolutely love Wicker Man, and this ride was no exception; despite the somewhat middling seat placement, the ride had a great sense of pace throughout, had some fun pops of airtime, and was just generally a great laugh! While not the most head-meltingly intense, Wicker Man is my favourite coaster at Alton simply because of how fun it is. It consistently reduces me to fits of laughter every time, and it’s the sort of coaster that I would quite happily sit on all day and likely still enjoy just as much at the end of the day as I did at the start; it’s got more than enough thrills to be compelling and exciting, but strikes the right level of intensity to not be overbearing. All in all, then, I loved getting back on Wicker Man; it’s my favourite on park and one of my favourites in the UK, and it’s not an Alton visit without a ride on it, in my view: [img]https://I.ibb.co/r29Z4n3X/IMG-1663.jpg[/img] After Wicker Man, we headed over to Forbidden Valley to ride a coaster that we’d not yet ridden, strategically picking a ride that we weren’t so focused on riding at night… Galactica Galactica was on an advertised 35 minute queue time, so as we hadn’t yet ridden it, we decided to take a spin on there. The queue was shorter than advertised, taking around 25 minutes, but I have to say that operations were pretty slow on here and the queue felt longer than it was, with the ride only running 1 station and attaining a throughput somewhere in the realms of 600pph. As we only waited 25 minutes, I can’t complain too much, but psychologically, it felt slower to us and it didn’t leave the best taste, if I’m being picky. Anyway, that’s enough complaining about ops; how was the ride? Well, neither of us were massive fans of this, unfortunately. After today’s ride, I’ve come to the conclusion that Galactica is definitely my least favourite of Alton’s operating major thrill coasters, because while smooth, I just find the riding position of those B&M flying coasters incredibly uncomfortable, and that makes it difficult for me to overly enjoy it. I don’t like having my full weight resting on the restraints like that, and I also am not a massive fan of some of those extended periods on your back either (while the pretzel loop on Manta is worse, Galactica’s first turn is not the most comfortable). My mum came off it feeling a bit wiped out, unfortunately, so then didn’t ride the next ride as a result. All in all, then, Galactica is, perhaps controversially, not one I’m overly a fan of, particularly after today’s ride; I used to like it, but I’ve just gone right off it over the years, unfortunately: [img]https://I.ibb.co/1fXkt28L/IMG-1669.jpg[/img] [img]https://I.ibb.co/d00k68Xd/IMG-1668.jpg[/img] [img]https://I.ibb.co/5Wzjp6zv/IMG-1670.jpg[/img] After Galactica, I headed for a ride I had planned to do at night, as it was getting dusky and the queue was relatively short… Nemesis Reborn Nemesis was on an advertised 5 minute queue, and while the queue looked longer than 5 minutes, it didn’t look excessively long by any means and I was keen to get on it late, so I joined the queue. The queue took around 25 minutes overall, and in contrast to my experience on Galactica, I have to say that operations on here were absolutely smashing it; my average of 10 hit nearly 1,200pph even with 1 or 2 anomalously slow dispatches in the mix, and they were attaining dispatch intervals as fast as 90s or below at times, with little to no stacking during the entire period I was in the area! The night lighting on here also looks awesome; I love the red lighting, and the search lights going around the area are an awesome touch! So, how was the ride itself? Well, it was solidly a dusk ride bordering on a night ride by the time I got on, and my row 2 ride was absolutely fantastic; it was probably one of my best ever rides on Nemesis! It’s an absolutely superb coaster in the day, but it was running so fast with such brilliant forces and was also incredibly smooth (I once again find myself finding all this rattle talk hugely overblown, personally)! Nemesis has such a brilliant layout design, with sequences such as the first drop-corkscrew-helix-zero-g roll quartet being so inspired and exciting, and I’m increasingly convinced that it’s my favourite B&M invert and looping B&M period. The traditional looping B&Ms, while almost consistently solid to decent, don’t excite me quite like they once did, but Nemesis definitely stands out from the pack, in my view. All in all, then, I absolutely loved my ride on Nemesis; it’s a brilliant coaster in the day, but it’s an even more cracking night (or dusk in this case) ride: [img]https://I.ibb.co/JwvwXVsq/IMG-1672.jpg[/img] [img]https://I.ibb.co/XZCN2Sfn/IMG-1673.jpg[/img] [img]https://I.ibb.co/cK730W68/IMG-1676.jpg[/img] After Nemesis, I met back up with my mum, who was feeling a little better having recovered from Galactica, so we decided to head over to our universal favourite in the park, Wicker Man, for one final night ride on an advertised 45 minute queue time. Despite starting from a later point in the queue, the queue was much slower this time round and we ended up waiting 60 minutes. The ride was, if anything, dispatching more quickly than earlier (they were quick to the extent that I wondered if they’d added a 3rd train… remarkably, they hadn’t!), so I’m unsure of the cause of this. Anyway, we were sat in row 5, and the ride was absolutely phenomenal; given we’d only ridden a few hours prior, the ride felt like it had sped up phenomenally, and the speed, laterals and airtime were top-notch, even more so than usual! Once again, we were both reduced to absolute fits of laughter on the brake run, and that definitely ranks up there as one of my best Wicker Man experiences despite it only being a row 5 ride! Wicker Man is a night ride I’d highly recommend if you ever attend a late opening at Alton, and today’s night ride was a superb way to end the day: [img]https://I.ibb.co/Xf1CNyyC/IMG-1678.jpg[/img] [img]https://I.ibb.co/YFf31xQT/IMG-1680.jpg[/img] After we got off Wicker Man, the park had closed for the day, so we headed out and back to the car after a really good day: [img]https://I.ibb.co/BVwH3YT3/IMG-1683.jpg[/img] Before I wrap up, I should mention a really pleasant encounter that me and my mum had in the Premier Inn in Uttoxeter. We were sat in the bar chatting about our day over a drink, and a friendly Welsh enthusiast who had been to Alton on a solo trip of his own overheard us at one point, chimed in his thoughts, and we ended up having a lovely long coaster chat for what was probably almost an hour (we got turfed out of the bar by the staff at 10:45…)! I have to say that this was a lovely surprise encounter, and if the enthusiast in question is reading this, I’d just like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed our chat and you definitely added a nice pleasant surprise to my day! So, that brings me to the end of our first day at Alton Towers! I had some trepidation going into this trip, both after my last experience at Alton After Dark in 2024 and recent reports from others’ visits in 2026, but I have to say that I had a really good day! I got on 8 rides, with one ride on every operating coaster (bar Octonauts for hopefully obvious reasons) and a reride on Wicker Man, which I’m not displeased with at all given that the park wasn’t quiet and the fact we were in the park for around 7 hours rather than the full 10 hour day! Yes, there are things I could pick at (operations were slightly inconsistent, and it’s not ideal that a number of attractions including Oblivion were closed), but I overall had a really enjoyable day, so I don’t feel I can complain too much. I always love an Alton trip, and while I’ve had heavier riding days at Alton, I think 8 rides is a pretty good effort and today did not disappoint for me! Thanks for reading; I hope you’ve enjoyed this report! We’re going to be back on park tomorrow, so keep your eyes peeled for that report! Although I should say that if you’re expecting a Bluey review from the opening day, you will almost certainly be disappointed, as I plan to avoid the likely carnage and give CBeebies Land a very wide berth… P.S. I’ve tried a new way of embedding images from imgBB, but I’m unsure if it works; could somebody please confirm whether my images show properly?

My point about the premium pass fast track is that most of the daily allocation will likely go to Hyperia. I don’t see that being as much of an issue at other parks. For example, at Towers I imagine a high percentage would be split on Smiler, Wickerman, and Nemesis. Just my thoughts anyway from what I've observed, no facts.

Merlin will still have a limited number of fast tracks that they will sell, they must believe that they will make more money priced like that than the previous £20. I believe the latest with the platinum passes (until Merlin backtracks) is that they cant use their free shot on any ride with a queue longer than 90 minutes. So hopefully any impact from them is limited.

I think Fasttrack might be a bit of an issue for Hyperia this year. It was overflowing outside the entrance at one point today. 1) Price of one shots have been reduced. £12 for off peak days and £16 for peak days. It has been a flat £20 every day for the last 2 seasons so not sure why its been reduced, certainly going to have more people buying it. 2) As we all know platinum passes get a free shot every visit now. The problem with that at Thorpe is that 90% of people are only going to be using theirs on Hyperia. 3) People that book the shark hotel on one of the closed days get unlimited Fasttrack including Hyperia all day. So everyone that booked for Thursday night had unlimited Fasttrack today. On days like today where there are a lot of enthusiasts, a high percentage of them are just going to be lapping Hyperia. When you combine the above with the high amount of RAP (which has a capacity for the whole park, but again a high percentage that just use it for Hyperia), thats going to take a huge toll on the main queue 😬

Tbf John B won't have had anything to do with the installation of some signs. That'll all be because of Thorpe's internal creative / marketing.

I might be misremembering this but think the initials related to one of the contractors that worked on the ride. I know the initials on the shop (PGB/PBG) relate to the architect involved with the project.

Lol at calling Walking Dead and Hyperia part of Thorpe's "Golden Era". Probably is just one last "DO YOU GET THE REFERENCE?" installation before he left. Maybe now rides will be focused on actual themeing elements rather than references and Easter eggs.

For a non-AI answer, there's no explicit reference. When the ride opened, it did have the "JBS.wrks" sign painted on the building. It was purposefully made to look faded, fitting in with the abandoned warehouse motif of the station and the general Saw storyline. Image from 2009. Back then, there was much less emphasis on Easter Eggs, hidden meanings, etc. It was likely thrown on there just to add an extra layer of 'this is an abandoned warehouse' and 'JBS.wrks' sounds like a plausible thing for a warehouse. The addition of the new signage is a bit unnecessary and doesn't add anything meaningful or worthwhile in my opinion. But equally, for some signs that were probably a couple of hundred quid, it adds another layer for repeat visitors to make things feel fresh. You could even argue that the "JBS.wrks Est 2009" signage goes against the original planned story, as the whole point is that the warehouse was abandoned and taken over by Jigsaw in 2009. But it's not that deep and doesn't matter. So yeah, no real relevance. Almost certainly doesn't actually mean anything. And very much done for the sake of it.