February 20, 201015 yr comment_83551 Then went to the "Free Cash Machine" which I get annoyed about because it's a lie! Which is free if you're with alliance&leicester which it clearly states
February 20, 201015 yr comment_83553 I am talking about the 3 by the entrance, it's not free, it takes money out of your account!
February 21, 201015 yr comment_83618 Sam; smartguy on here once meeting with him we all had another go on Sonic SpinballSorry but, L.M.F.A.O.
February 21, 201015 yr comment_83630 Well I had an amazing time at the Towers yesterday, with Peter Fairweather, his sister, his sisters bf, and Dan Oblivion.I'm still too tired to make a detailed post like rich's, so I'll keep it simple.It was my first trip ever to The Towers, so I was eccstatic about going, my first ride of 2010 was Heave Ho! which was feeling a little tired imo, it was cold so I'll give it some credit. Second ride was Mauraders Mayhem, I still think you can get a better ride on Storm in a Teacup, but I do like the themeing and especially the Smoke Machine!I cant actually remember what we did after that, in detail, so I'll just list all the rides I went on.AirNemesis (nearly typed Inferno then!)Oblivion x2Sonic SpinballRunaway Mine Train ("Choo Choo, oh yeah!" Though she wasnt there yesterday. other staff members tried it, but didnt live up to her standard)Singing BarnDoodle Do DerbyHexDuel x3Twirling ToadstoolThe BladeMonorailAir is a good ride, though others will disagree. However, I think the interior section could/should be themed, even though it's short, a plain concrete hut just doesnt do it for me.Nemesis completely owns Inferno, inside out. The ride has alot more force, last's longer and is generally just much better. After riding this, Inferno is nothing.Oblivion is now my favourite ride at the park, although it would seem the holding brake isn't as long as it used to be. I love the force that your up against as you're released. Absolutely brilliant it was.Sonic Spinball, wouldn't call it useless, but theres just nothing there. Queueline ball game things are a nice touch, as are the Ring Collection SFX, but the ride itself is a letdown. It's all about Fury!Hex was just dizzying, but I loved it!Duel hurts my fingers, as do all Laser Shooting Games, but had a good few jumps here and there, my third go, I just pulled my hat down my face and went to sleep, that was fun.Twirling Toadstools, again, nothing like Billy's Whizzer (Monkey Swinger), no force, doesnt go as high, but an advantage here is that there are no Water JetsThe Blade was alright, stands in the middle of Banana (Thorpe) and Buccaneer (CWoA)Monorail was bumpy, is it meant to be? But I loved this too, saves me a hell lot of walking.We all also visited the Hotel, Peter bought a coke for £1.44, which is alright I guess. A Lush Hotel, with a great view of the waterpark from the lobby. The Bucket in Splash Landings is amazing too, takes a while to fill up though. After Peters drink, we all went to the Arcade, I told Peter not to spend his money on the Fruit Machines as he gets carried away, yet he ended up spending all the change he had! Which included my petrol money! I also embarrased myself on the Dancemat, EuroMix 2 if anyone wants the techy details. Got an E on that, got an F on the last one with Keith I think? Dan got a B.Then we went to Tescos, saw BOGOF on Easter Eggs for £2, Me, Dan & Peter then went to KFC, I never did get that crispy strip delivered to me in the end. meh.We finally headed back to the car for sleepy times, more theme park/club music, Peter and his Easter Egg, and a failing TV on my iPhone!EPIC DAY!
February 21, 201015 yr comment_83635 All these reports sound great, would people agree that 11 to 5 openings would be better if the weather, ice has an effect on the speed of the rides?. One more thing do you et a god view of Thirteen from the top of oblivion?
February 21, 201015 yr comment_83646 Great report there Tpkabz! Agree with your thoughts on all the rides, but I must say, don't judge Sonic Spinball too harshly, I rode it on Friday and it was running terribly compared to usual. It's still nowhere near as good as Fury, but usually its a bit closer to it.I especially agree with the Nemesis completely owning Inferno thing :DGreat to hear you had a good first trip to the Towers, and only half the park was open and on half capacity!
February 21, 201015 yr comment_83648 Yeah they did brilliantly yesterday.All the queues were also quite short too, longest queue was an hour for Air, but it was on one train when we joined, and 20 minutes into the queue the second train was rolled out!
February 21, 201015 yr comment_83651 Gosh, I would hate to imagine Air on 1 Train, it's bad enough on 2 Even on 3 it's not the quickest of queues
February 21, 201015 yr comment_83654 The Team were dispatching very very quickly, especially when it was on 2 trains, so the queue was okay.It didn't matter to me as we were all having fun anyway!
February 22, 201015 yr comment_83715 Tried going to Alton Towers yesterday, but they closed the park due to the snow :PAlas went to Pleasure Beach instead which was a refreshing change...
March 20, 201015 yr comment_87027 Just got home from an AMAZING day at the park!Thirteen really is fantastic in my opinion and the park is looking great!Wish I was in the mood to write a longer report.Wasn't at the park long and did Thirteen 5 times and Nemesis twice
March 20, 201015 yr comment_87041 Good stuff James, I am looking forward to visiting on Wednesday after our text convo
March 21, 201015 yr comment_87147 Thirteen was really dead after lunch it would seem... For my second go it was about 15 minutes at half 4ish... Amazing...Maybe it was the rain, maybe people left, but it shocked me how non-busy the park was yesterday... Hell after the first hour or so Air got the longest queue with Spinball, it was like Thirteen didn't exist it was so like previous years...Ride Count Thirteen - 2Nemesis - 2Oblivion - 2Rita - 1Duel - 1Congo - 1Mine Train - 1Charlie - 1Blade - 1
March 21, 201015 yr comment_87150 I too, was up there yesterday. I thought 13 was a good ride, but overhyped, with all the talk that Alton Towers was saying about it. Oh, and I finally met John Wardley My ride countTh13teen-2Hex-1Rita-1Oblivion-1Nemesis-1Sonic Spinball-1P.s. Was good to bump into you Benin
March 21, 201015 yr comment_87165 ^Same here Andy, it's always good to bump into people you haven't seen in a while... :)Best part of my day was the second time on Thirteen, with John Wardley operating it... Then it breaking down on him...
March 21, 201015 yr comment_87171 I was, like you guys, amazed at how after a couple of hours, Thirteen wasn't even the 3rd biggest queue, with Spinball, Rita and Air all above it. Maybe it's just the great capacity, but even then , that doesn't bode well.As I've said I absolutely love the ride But that queue time was worrying, hopefully it was the rain, but today at Chessington, on annual pass day, Kobra's queue got up to 120 mins...
March 21, 201015 yr comment_87213 I was, like you guys, amazed at how after a couple of hours, Thirteen wasn't even the 3rd biggest queue, with Spinball, Rita and Air all above it. Maybe it's just the great capacity, but even then , that doesn't bode well.As I've said I absolutely love the ride But that queue time was worrying, hopefully it was the rain, but today at Chessington, on annual pass day, Kobra's queue got up to 120 mins...True but we're talking a ride with 1,200 throughput against Kobra which has a throughput of I'd say.... 450?Rita didn't seem to have a long queue to me all day tbh. Compared to the B&M cousins over in Forbidden Valley, Intamin corner was pretty quiet.
March 21, 201015 yr comment_87215 ^ TrueBut it's definitely higher than 1200, that would mean a train leaving every minute, and they were leaving usually every 30 secs, 40 at most. And that's with only 3 trains running.
March 22, 201015 yr comment_87232 So a new season, and another first day visit.Well aside from some personal issues, Alton was looking very impressive. Clearly a lot of work is going on over at Alton to make the whole experience more enjoyable and nothing says this more then the entrance and the Corkscrews looping away in the plaza. They look absolutely fantastic and the new purple colour suits it perfectly. It's only when you are under them you realise just how bloody huge Corky was. Corkys info board is just below the corkscrews joining bit and is a lovely touch. With Tussauds, you always got the idea they didn't care about the look of something. Rodeo, Black Hole, Flying Fish, Boneshaker, all were just left to rot or dumped behind the scenes. With Corkscrew and Merlin, they have made me see so much more into how they operate their parks. With Wild Asia, Th13teen and Mutiny Bay already with us, I can't wait to see what they give us in the future.So anyway, back to the report. Headed over to Th13teen, queue was at the entrance. At this point we were doing a Saw VS TH13teen tally. Just which ride could open on time, breakdown very little and last the whole day? Find out at the end of this report. We joined the queue basically at the entrance and the queue was very quick. We queued.. I'd say an hour and 15 minutes including a breakdown whilst we were in the station. For an Alton rollercoaster, and a new one at that, I was very impressed. I liked the queueline, I dunno if it's a good thing but it's hard to tell what wood has been deliberately cut down to add to the theme and what wasn't. Later on, Th13teens queue would drop down to about 15 minutes. Is it a worthy replacement for Corkscrew? I'd say no to be honest. It isn't ground breaking and people certainly weren't queueing way past Hex and down towards the Log Flume to ride it. But it's what Alton needed, a solid family rollercoaster with a high throughput. Alton have shot themselves slightly in the foot with it's hype.The new Rita looks excellent. The new announcements are slightly crap, but the redone Rita cars look excellent and fits in right away with the new area. The ride itself is still ouch and it is in the way of Th13teen but thankfully, with two big rollercoasters next to each other, they will share the bulk of the queues.We saw the new Skyride station in Cuckoo Land, very impressive. I could hardly believe that 9 months ago the building was just buckled metal as it fits in right away. Finally Sonic Spinball. Just crap frankly. The day they remove this awful rollercoaster, will be a good day for Alton. Low throughput, can only load two people per car when it rains, stupid weight restrictions, stupid restraint restrictions, wrong location. This ride does nothing right. It had a 45 minute queue for a lot of the day. Ridiculous.Ride CountTh13teen - X2Nemesis X2Oblivion X2Duel, Blade, RMT, Congo, Charlie and Rita X1Oh and for final score?Ride Open on time Th13teen - Yes, Saw - NoRide Lasting all day Th13teen - Yes, Saw - NoRide queuetime? Th13teen - 75 mins, Saw- 90 mins (with no ride at the end)Ride throughput Th13teen - 1200 Saw- 800/900Ride open for preview events Th13teen - No, Saw- NoTh13teen - 4 Saw - 0
March 22, 201015 yr comment_87265 Thanks for the trip report Mark My main reason for replying is... Oh and for final score?Ride Open on time Th13teen - Yes, Saw - NoRide Lasting all day Th13teen - Yes, Saw - NoRide queuetime? Th13teen - 75 mins, Saw- 90 mins (with no ride at the end)Ride throughput Th13teen - 1200 Saw- 800/900Ride open for preview events Th13teen - No, Saw- NoTh13teen - 4 Saw - 0LEGENDARY!
March 22, 201015 yr comment_87299 Great trip report Mark, always love reading them. Sounds like you had a great time with just a few little exceptions, Alton really is a stunning park.I get the impression that some effects and scenery are yet to be completed on Th13teen. To me the main gripe people seem to have is that Alton have marketed the ride as a thrill ride, when the actual experience is a very special family coaster. Some of my faveourite coasters are family coasters though so I think I'll enjoy the ride very much!
March 22, 201015 yr comment_87302 The Thirteen tally is very nice read . To me, Thirteen seems to be similar to Expedition Everest in ride intensity and target market. I came off Everest slightly disapointed ridewise but I will have to wait until the Summer to judge Thirteen.
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