MattyMoo

Indeed and to you too Stealth fan My new years resolution is to still not buy a Merlin pass and try and visit Alton Towers this year NOT in the aftermath of a tropical storm.

Saturday 31st is good for me, even though I voted for the 18th

Cool Well, if there's no car then we can be South West Trains buddies for the evening!

Haven't been on here for a while, and after all this activity on this thread, I was hoping to read about exciting developments for 2015 Can anyone confirm - is Pizza Hut definitely going? Thanks in advance.

I should be OK for 18th! I'll train it up there and back unless Smidget and Ian fancy giving me a lift back again (Thanks muchly for that last time!) PRO TIP: If we are going to go for a meal in the evening, we should ring at lunch time to book for the evening. That was fun last year, trying to get 13 of us in to any of Guildford's restaurants last minute

We've just worked it out - Pizza and Pasta Buffet in place of Pizza Hut

That poor boat

Just throwing this in there - apparently the concern about poor drainage (or lack of!) in the queueline was raised by the contractors during construction but was chosen to be ignored. On the subject of the dark ride though - I'm intrigued, excited and cautious in equal amounts... I hope Merlin surprise us all and pull it off.

Not so much a rant, more of a ponder for the day - is TowersStreet never not at Alton Towers? Do they have a job? Do they ever get bored of photoing queue boards and reporting on non-stories? ("The parks troubles continue. We are now being evacuated from TH13TEENs queue line, due to a fire alarm" - then 5 minutes later it's open again )

When is TPMCopter1 going to be flying over for some spy shots and the censoring of photos to cover up the "Telephone box element"?

That sounds epic and just reminds me of going to my first halloween (or possibly even fireworks?) event at CWoA in the 90s <3

Yes we were glad when the back of the queue was in the indoor section once we'd battled the puddles along with everyone else- but as I say, there was still a fair bit of water inside too!

Thirteen's queue wasn't too clever either in parts, but Smiler's took the biscuit. Good to see that the drainage has been worked on in closed season, ahem...

Ooops sorry to hear that! One thing I forgot to mention about the Smiler - the drainage (or lack of) in the queue is an absolute joke, it was so bad that there was standing water in the projection room too. Some parts of the queue had a good inch of water.

I went to Alton yesterday (21st) - unfortunately, being that we'd booked accommodation there was no flexibility with the date, as the weather today was far far better than yesterday! Me and my mate were utterly drenched by the end of the day, because of the wind the weather changed so quickly from sunshine to chucking it down! We left about 4:30 as we were shattered, cold and wet - still had a good day though! A few points from the day: Highest queue I saw was Sonic Spinball at 65 minutes, think I saw Smiler peak at 50 at one point. Smiler opened late due to technical difficulties (I was concerned we weren't going to get a ride at all for my only trip to AT for the year when it didn't open on time!) We rode Blivvy instead which was good. Next we ventured to Dark Forest... Both Thirteen and Rita weren't open, probably due to the weather... so we endured some pain on Sonic instead! No "Choo choo" by the ride op on Mine Train, bad times Didn't bother with the mazes in the end, I noted it was £14 for two, and was only bothered about the Sanctuary... so guessed that would probably be £9 by itself, combined with the aforementioned drenchedness, we gave it a miss! Nemesis certainly felt more intense in the wet. And I prefer it muchly over Inferno... Staff were nice and friendly considering the weather! (Especially staff in CBeebies land - we had to go and have a look as it was new, and have to say we were quite impressed with In The Night Garden ) As it was so dead, Air was on one station operation and as said previously, queues were mostly non existent all day Saw the Ancestors as soon as we arrived, which was a nice touch and added to the magic! We ended up riding the Smiler at about 3:30pm. The weather was nice when we started queuing in the 15 minute queue. By the time we got on - it really wasn't. It wasn't just raining, it was hailing - and as I said on Facebook, we weren't smiling by the time we got off Ouch ouch ouch! Still, one off the bucket list I guess! (Before anyone says, yes I KNOW there are announcements saying you don't have to ride due to weather, yada yada...). Was so cold and wet (and must've been holding on for dear life!) as I had pins and needles in my hands for a good few hours on and off afterwards! Still, I'm pleased with my Smiler TV remote cushion for £14 in the sale - the £9 umbrella isn't the best mind you Get Set Go Treetop Adventure will always be Squirrel Nutty to me Was funny eating doughnuts and then lunch surrounded by pairs of beady eyes of the Alton ducks eyeing up your food! Does anyone REALLY pay £16 for premium parking? I witnessed people that had bought Fasttrack yesterday - maybe those are the same people that buy premium parking..!

By the sounds of things, they run out of those 9 hours before the mazes open

Your/you're is the biggest one that gets my proverbial goat around here That and dropped apostrophes. Anyway - back to discussion about Reserve and Ride... did people seriously queue (in real life, not virtually) for 4 hours for SAW Alive? That's a horror story in itself without even entering the maze. Precisely why I stay away at peak times, I wouldn't queue 4 hours for anything.

Yes can't see X being removed/touched after the rebranding and improvements! I'm going with just some sort of refurb for the arena too.

Vampire - so true. That station, and tunnels into it scared the crap out of me when I was younger (in the 90s ). It's still rather imposing now to be honest

I'm still a scumbag that doesn't have a Merlin pass, so put me down as a maybe for now! I do need a Winter Wonderland fix. Mmmmm Mulled Wine....

Sorry Ruby - I really don't like Rita, it's the uncomfortable offspring of the beautiful (and much adored by me) Stealth! I tolerate it at Alton Towers but don't enjoy it. You're right though, it's not up there with Colossus in terms of uncomfort!

Ahem, that's on purpose, it's all part of the "theming"...!

As long as you are fine with queuing it's up to you Ruby - Won't be as busy as next weekend (or the weekend after) but if you've been already, you could go and just do the stuff you want to do again!

I can. You only have to glance at daytime television to see adverts for claiming for compensation for whatever stupid reason you can think of. Decided to throw yourself off the top of a ladder at work? Not your fault, there was no sign telling you not to. OK, I jest a bit to make my point, but unfortunately that's the blame culture we live in.

I think it should be a blanket policy to avoid confusion/arguements/all of the above. Doesn't bother me having to walk all the way round again to ride, as I'm not bothered if I ride something once or ten times, I've been on before anyway I can't say I'm fussed about ride counts, I find that an increased ride count has a detrimental effect on my wine count, which could result in me having to E-Stop in the toilets.