Coaster

I don't agree with them closing more rides because The Smiler is unavailable. I think that Oblivion, Submission and Enterprise should be operating unless they also have a problem.

Call it "Bedlam" and keep it the same

I don't mind riding alone (that is the point of a SRQ), but they shouldn't be closing restraints over empty seats.

We don't know if it's going yet! We won't know until next year probably.

They need to sort out these issues. After finally getting on The Smiler I really enjoy it and it's a great ride - now sort out the issues!

I really enjoyed the day I spent here on Saturday 2nd November. The park was open until 9pm as it was their fireworks event, and we got plenty of rides on everything! - G-Force was much enjoyed by us. Despite all the negative reviews we really enjoyed it, especially the hangtime on the first lift-hill (provided that you don't crush yourself with the restraint). The restraints did tighten throughout the ride, but that was our only niggle. It was nice to have inversions without OTSR's! - We also enjoyed Shockwave, as it was quite forceful in places and didn't have a very big queue. - Apocalypse was also very good - my favourite drop tower. RIDECOUNT: Shockwave x8 G-Force x7 Apocalypse x5 (Was planning to hammer this in the last hour but it closed due to wind ) Pirate Adventure x2 Stormforce 10 x1 Splash Canyon Rapids x1 Maelstrom x1 Pandemonium x1 Ben 10 x1 Golden Nugget Shoot Out x1 The Haunting x1 The park was coping well with crowds and queue times were not bad at all. Operations at the park were much better than those experienced at Towers! The fireworks were also very nice.

ALTON TOWERS - Wednesday 30th & Thursday 31st October and Friday 1st November. DAY ONE We arrived at the park before half nine expecting a busy but well handled day. I had heard horror stories about their operations this year, and I know how badly the park is run sometimes but hoped that at their peak time they would make an effort. I was very much wrong. We queued up for the monorail, which was moving at a snails pace. Half an hour later, it was announced down the PA that they were only running two trains! This was frankly ridiculous and I can not see how they are allowed to get away with this on such a busy day. After arriving in the park it was well past 10am so we headed to Th13teen instead of The Smiler. On arrival to Dark Forest, we noticed that Rita was closed with a huge queue of people waiting for it to open. Pushing past this (under the awful scaffolding), we walked over to Th13teen to see that the queueline was being evacuated as that was also closed! After this we headed to the X-Sector to ride The Smiler. After a quick(ish) ride on Oblivion, we joined the 140 minute queue. The theme music, which sounds effective from the top of the area, was playing very loudly down in the queueline and most of the speakers were blown. Therefore it sounded awful and did it's best to ensure that we had a headache! After 2 hours of this, it was announced that the ride was experiencing a "technical delay." Everyone in the queueline groaned, and looked more fed up than before (which was very difficult). Another half an hour passed, and an announcement played telling us to evacuate the queueline. After 10 more minutes we got out of the queueline, and were given a priority pass for one ride that was not valid on The Smiler! After another long walk to Katanga Canyon, we did the rapids and had lunch at the pizza buffet. On entering the pizza buffet it was almost 2pm, and we had only managed 2 rides! As MAP holders we still felt ripped off - imagine paying over £40 for a ticket!! After this the day did improve slightly. We headed over to Forbidden Valley and had a few re-rides on Nemesis (in the single rider queue, which wasn't managed that well). I can't remember how the next few hours went, but we went on Hex and a few other rides. By this time it was dark and we were very hacked off - after travelling 3 hours to visit the park they give us this? We headed to guest services and told them how disappointed we were, and they allowed us to use the priority pass on The Smiler. We headed back to the area and got in the (very long) fastrack queue. After about 20 minutes the ride had another technical delay! We waited, and after about half an hour it re-opened and we finally got a ride! The ride itself is very good (in my opinion), and I can't understand why people say it's rough. It was fairly intense in places, and was very good. DAYS TWO AND THREE Days two and three were much better, with us managing 7 rides on The Smiler over the two days in the single rider queue. With this said, there were still quite a few niggles: - Lots more breakdowns on The Smiler - Nemesis SRQ not being managed properly (By the end of day two it was raining and the main queueline was almost empty, however we wanted to re-ride it without travelling a mile each time so went in the single rider queue. Instead of letting us all on, they closed three restraints in each row and put us on the fourth! WHY?) - Staff were not at their best at all. - Loads of broken effects on Duel - Carnival of Screams was awful compared to last year (presumably because it's now free). Thank you for reading

That is far too similar to The Swarm's train!

One thing really noticeable this year is the number of actors. They have a lot more than in previous years, and the mazes are much better as a result of this Well done Thorpe!

Why are the rapids and flume closing early on Scarefest? I'm sure they didn't last year, and I love night rides on the rapids

300pph?! That's worse than I thought - how the hell can they get away with running it that badly? Stupid - not selling fastrack does NOT make up for this!

^ Nope, I just hoped that it would be quieter because of the forecast.

Was it fun? Where were you on the ride?

I know! I don't think the theory works in school holidays (although it did in the weeks leading up to them).

Wish I went there today - Fright Nights was awful today!!

This flipping thing had better be open on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week or I will not be happy!

Not open today. Too many rides shut for such a busy day - Slammer and Samurai both down all day, and Loggers was also down for a lot of it.

Poor day at Fright Nights today. The park was packed, and the new lighting changes in Asylum were awful! (See my post in the Asylum topic for details). Thought that the new lighting in CITW was ok though, although it was much darker than the other weeks!

The park was packed tonight! Asylum was at 90 minutes for most of the day/night, Cabin averaging at around 70 mins, Saw Alive 60 mins and I saw My Bloody Valentine get up to 140 mins! Not very impressed with today.

Hopefully these price increases will mean less sold, therefore a less stuffed up main queueline.

This is great news!

Sounds bad! Wonder how busy the park will be tomorrow...

I think it's quite good! Good effects/props, well themed and a hilarious soundtrack - what more could you want?

Oh dear, I thought the ride was doing well when I rode it back in April! I wish they'd look at maintaining the effects more - I know it's really complex (without a doubt the most complex dark ride in the UK) but things like the projection on the first lift hill really add to the experience. Not sure why there were floodlights on - they are on occasionally, but usually if you go again afterwards they will be off. Maybe just for routine checks?