AstroDan

Oddly, the main car park was full and much of the Air car park was too on Sunday, yet queue's after around 2pm seemed to really die down - possibly people leaving to watch the match.21 rides on Nemesis is too much for me though, I can handle 8 or so in a day but the intensity and general looping make me feel ill if I ride too much more.

Sadly, there are only shoddy recordings available of most of the Alton Towers music since 2006. There is a good version of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory lift theme online, however if you're looking for anything to do with Sharkbait Reef, Battle Galleons, Mutiny Bay, Cloud Cuckoo Land, Th13teen, Rita, Dark Forest, new Towers Street theme then there's nothing proper out there.

I totally agree.BUT I will say one thing. A load of EP Enthusiasts whom I speak to regularly on line visited Alton Towers for the first time last month.They thought it was amazing, and some preferred it to Europa-Park stating that Air and Oblivion were fabulous attractions. They even thought Rita and Th13teen were pretty good.Now I am not saying it is - I think EP is wonderful, but I am merely stating that's what they thought...

I am making a complete hash of my point here. I didn't rush around the park, nor did I expect to just not get on anything. I like to do both. We got on 5 rides that day, which for me was a dissapointment - we didn't actually get on every ride. If I go to a park once every couple of years, and only manage 5 rides - frankly I am a little dissapointed. I did not arrive in order to have 10 goes on everything - far from it, but 2 or 3 rides on the likes of Zeus would have been nice - and I have managed that at parks even when they have been busy before. But the busiest day of the year and a 2 1/2 hour queue is pretty horrendous, surely you would agree with that! Your visit does not sound anywhere near as busy as it was when I went in Aug 08...You are of course to say that all parks suffer when they are ultra-packed, but Asterix's main problem is that many of their rides don't have massive throughputs to cope with their guest figures.To be honest I don't even want to disagree with you, as I love Parc Asterix although it is a fair way off the likes of Phantasialand, Europa-Park etc. for the time being - they could do with a more regular programme of new rides rather than every 3-4 years given their guest counts!However, I repeat - I went in October 2009 and the longest queue was 1 hour which was far more acceptable and made for a much nicer day.

Thing is, I am not a ride-count whore usually - but when I am at a park like Asterix once every couple of years (or less!) and you arrive to find that it's the busiest day of the year (yes, you read that right) - you really do get down.I don't just want to take in "atmosphere" when I hardly ever get to a park - I want to get on the rides too, and do the best several times. When I went in Summer 2008, the park was almost at capacity and the queue for Tonnerre de Zeus was 2 1/2 hours .We waited, of course - but I only got on it once. Transdemonium was also 1 hour. Indeed, nothing was below 1 hour of note (Defi, Menhirs, Trace, Oxygenarium, Rapids, Goudurix all 1hr+).The park, whilst I love it, is NOT made for massive crowds as they simply do not have the product to deal with it. However, for fear of people thinking I am slagging the park off - I am not - I do enjoy it and loved it when I visited last October when it was much quieter and more enjoyable all round.Asterix suffers as much as TP when it's packed.

Great pics - I too love Asterix although on VERY busy days the park is sheer hell.It's an odd place though - not that many amazing rides but the park sort of links up really well. I love their log flume, for example. And yes - Zeus is totally amazing. Even having been on Troy for example - I still prefer Zeus. It's just a shame the throughput is low and the queue gets long.Asterix opened long before Disneyland Paris - so it was never built as a rival. In fact, they aren't really rivals. I read somewhere that their relationship to the French was somewhat symbiotic so there's not really any angst.Le Défi de Caesar is certainly their finest work - I just cannot wait to see their next project which is rumoured to be a themed B&M Inverted Coaster!!!!RE: Food - the self serve cafeteria near the Menhir Express is really good, did you not see it?

I too have some anti towards the theme and coherence of the Dark Forest in general, but it is clear that Merlin do not wish to create amazingly themed areas like their competitors. Which is a shame.

The Attractions Map for Terenzi Horror Nights 2010 is now available for viewing at www.terenzihorrornights.com:)

To be honest, £500 for 4 nights at Alton Towers is actually pretty cheap by their standards - that's £125 a night for a room. However, it's still a lot based on 2 people.I hate Travelodge Uttox - it's about the scummiest, most horridly dated Travelodge I have yet seen. The Premier Inn down the road is usually slightly more pricey, but it's a LOT newer and better.

Hi guys, sorry I noticed I had not posted here.You may know of me, from TTF / ATA / Southparks / EPRust. Ok maybe not the last one but hey.I am not really much of a Thorpe Park person, but I love Chessington.

I waited 1 hour for this on Sunday and I wish I hadn't bothered. Quite a lot was not working and it was realy very dull.

Europa-Park is not a thrill seekers park - it never will be the man focus and never has been. However - it is the best park in Europe from my experience (based on my visits to PortAventura, Disney Paris, Asterix, Holiday Park, Phantasialand and UK parks) - because it is simply operated to a perfect degree. Europa-Park has, to my knowledge, more rides than any other park in Europe and also more shows per day. These shows are of such an excellent quality and testimony to this is that EP also do opening ceremonies etc. for major events in world sport (CL Final ceremony 2005 was done by EP, for example). They also have immaculate, but not over the top theming, which is pristine and kept fresh every year with new additions. They have throughputs on their rides like no other and, in Blue Fire and Silver Star also have world class rollercoasters. The likes of Eurosat and Euro Mir whilst not everyones cup of tea, are certainly unique. Indeed, although not the best coaster I have ever been on, Eurosat certainly holds that "favourite coaster" place in my heart. It's fantastic!I saw their Mysteria end of day show in Halloween 2009 and was blown away. I didn't think anything could beat FiestAventura but this really did - simply stunning.And, I haven't even got onto the Hotels and Tipi Village yet...! You really need 3 nights/4 days to experience everything on offer at EP.A guy I know prefers Flamingoland to EP because of the "rides". If you are the kind of person that only cares about track and train and doesn't give a hoot about theme, experience, general ambience etc. then stick to the likes of TP.

Maybe they're adding £1million in new SFX!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree - but, with the ongoing issues with Intimidator305 in the States, it could have been Intamin who have called the shots. It's not good, but no matter when it's done they'll have thousands of dissapointed guests.

Th13teen will remain closed tomorrow, Thursday 3rd June. Work is being carried out by Intamin.

The theme of Th13teen is great, it's just not very transparant to most people that ride it because there is not even a basic/brief storyline to advise guests what is happening.

When Th13teen is running at its absolute max throughput, it should be able to achieve 1,500pph. This means that, theoretically, with all areas open the queue would be no more than 1 hour. To put it into context, 1,500 will represent around 200 more than Nemesis and 4-500 more per hour than Rita. It's also doube Sonic Spinball.Hopefully the days where Th13teen runs at full capacity will arrive soon!

Excellent report, but not suprised! I have been visiting since 2004, when I lived in Strasbourg - and it's always been amazing yet with all the attractions added it just gets better and better. A new attraction in 2011 plus the next resort hotel for 2012 keeps the place ticking over. There are two new attractions opening in July too, the Historama and Litill Island.Amazing, amazing park.

I am a little dissapointed to learn that the advertised 7:00pm ride closes in Half Term week have now been scrapped, and it has simply reverted to 6:00pm. I was looking forward to a long, lazy day. Alas.

I have read that the queue for the Monorail was "1 hour". I find this impossible. For example, at the end of the day, even with each of the pens open in the Entrance Plaza station and a queue to the entrance - the queue is 20 minutes MAX (in spite of the fact the ride hosts will tell you it is 30 minutes). A queue of 1 hour for the Monorail would require approxmately 4,000 people waiting for it at any one time.This simply does not happen - even on the busiest (20,000+ guests) days. The longest queue's at Alton in the season tend to be around 90 minutes - for example, the park had around 19,000 guests on May 8th. The queue's on that day were approx. 80 minutes for Air, 90 minutes for Th13teen, 70 for Nemesis, 80 for Rita and 60 for Oblivion. Now, although these are long queues for any park, the likes of Thorpe Park regularly get these kinds of wait times - even on medium days. For example, on a visit to Thorpe over Easter, I waited 75 minutes for Saw and the Colossus queue was in excess of 2 hours. The ride capacties at Alton are far greater than those of Thorpe - example:Nemesis has an extra row so can get a higher throughput of around 12% to Nemesis InfernoRita is the same as StealthAir's throughput is much higher than Colossus (by around 400pph)Th13teen can get 1,400 per hour which is massively more than Saw (by several hundred)Oblivion gets 1,500 per hour or more.I think that although queue's at Alton can be long, and the park attracts larger crowds than Thorpe, the geography of Alton is much better to deal with the larger crowds and people are dispersed. For example, at Alton - half the guests of that day are likely to be walking from point to point, wheras at Thorpe you literally roll off one ride and find yourself at the next. Not to mention that Thorpe have a lot of low capacity flat rides.Just try to stay clear of the July Weekday School Visit periods, the P!nk concert day and the last Saturday of Scarefest along with Fireworks days if you do not want to see the longest queue's at Alton Towers!

I would not imagine that part of the old Nemesis queue will re-open - as Fastrack merges prior to it. The main reason it was closed off and has remained so, is because if it was in use it would add 10 or so minutes to the queue time and this would not go down well with Fastrack ticket holders.Nemesis' queue also used to have even more to it. As you enter the existing queue to go left and up the bank, you would immediately go left (across what is now an access road). There was a small tunnel (which remains, covered in ivy etc.) and it would head round, and back to join the existing queue. Some of this old queue formed part of the Dynamo queue line but obviously Dynamo closed several years ago. With all areas full, Nemesis would have had enough queue line to hold in excess of three hours queue. Today, on the majority of days they only use Areas 1 & 2 which has enough queue for around a 1 hour wait, although Area 3 was open just last Saturday which goes around by the loop offering great views of the ride. The original Nemesis logo, which was removed from the bridge a couple of years ago is now located in Area 3 for those wanting a bit of nostalgia, too!