MikeC Posted March 21, 2013 Report Share Posted March 21, 2013 Arrived just after 9.00am at a very quiet Alton Towers! Made my way straight to Nemesis, but had to wait due to being the only person on the ride. In the end a member of staff went round with me. It was pretty surreal being the only person in Forbidden Valley. Rita next! The tunnel looks even uglier in real life and is completely overkill. Th13teen was down during the morning, so I did three rides on Rita before heading over to X Sector. Wow, what can you say about The Smiler? This is one amazing project, and the attention to detail in all areas is amazing. I was lucky enough to watch the team install the sea serpent roll. The Smiler actors were a pretty good addition to the area, too. Roll on May! Oblivion looks absolutely gorgeous with its new colour scheme. It was back to Forbidden Valley for some Nemesis next. I grabbed some lunch in Fresh Fish and Chips, and then it was time for The Sanctuary.I’d read several spoilers online about the new and improved Sanctuary. Needless to say, I was pretty nervous about going round again, but at the same time quite excited to see what had changed since Scarefest. The Sanctuary is a little more extreme in places, so much so that one woman had to be evacuated today due to a panic attack.Spoiler:It was great to actually see Dr. Kelman himself today. The batching dialogue is still very much the same as last year. The changes are very noticeable once you go “downstairs”. One room features a cold and misty mortuary, while in another section an autopsy is being carried out on a dummy. The actor in this room frantically jumps up and down, shouting at you to “hurry it along”. A rather narrow inflatable wall connects this room to the final strobe maze. This is the most intense section of The Sanctuary and is accompanied by the rather insane rambling of Dr. Kelman: “You’re the failure - they’re the failure. Join the rest of the failures behind bars. Join us; Get corrected!”The odour of rotting cheese now fills the air, as guests cautiously navigate caged walls towards daylight.That’s it; you’ve made it out Sonic Spinball next (via FV and another ride on Nemesis), and then up to Towers Trading to grab me some Smiler merch. Ride count:Nemesis x6Rita x3Ripsaw x1The Sanctuary x4Sonic x1Blivvy x4Merchandise bought:A “Made Me Smile” Smiler T Shirt An eerily quiet FV Thanks for reading Mer, pluk and Han30 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mer Posted April 3, 2013 Report Share Posted April 3, 2013 Twas on a wet spring night on Friday 15th March, when the rumble of a car engine signalled the return of 4 TPM members back to the theme park, Alton Towers…” If you hadn’t already guessed, here is my trip report for Alton Towers on the weekend 16th – 17th March! After a cold, wet night of riding Swarm 9(?) times, myself, Peaj and Sidders made our way up to Alton Towers, via picking up Jaymie and Ricky (a friend of him and Peaj). Due to roadworks on the motorway restricting our speed limit, service station/supermarket stops, and bad weather, we didn’t actually arrive until about 4am at our Travelodge in Newcastle-Under-Lyme! Needless to say, we went straight to sleep! Instead of having a family room and a double room, we actually had two double rooms. So most unfortunately I had to share a bed with Peaj and Sidders! Sidders originally insisted on sleeping on the floor but we insisted he didn’t…only for him to then fall into such a deep sleep on the bed that we had to move him so I could actually get in! After a much needed sleep (with the addition of dodgy noises emitted by Peaj in his sleep!), we awoke bright eyed and bushy tailed! Well, I did – which is a BIG thing! Usually I am terrible for getting up in the morning and have to be nagged to get ready at these hotel meets. But the moment the alarm went off, I somehow got straight up and in the shower! Which was pretty bad as the water flow was useless so I took ages to rinse everything off properly, and the shower curtain was so short that the floor flooded! Meaning that my clothes were drenched, luckily I had a spare pair of jeans (and people say I pack too much! Better to be safe than sorry!). I should have remembered this as it has happened before! Anyway, onto the park we went! Peaj took a cheeky shortcut, ignoring the road sign that says not to use the road if you are going to Alton Towers, meaning we got there surprisingly quickly! And I have never seen the car park so quiet, what a beautiful sight it was! Onto the monorail we hopped, which was a rather exciting journey for Sidders, especially when he saw Air and Nemesis! We met up with Stuz then made our way over to Forbidden Valley to whore out Nemesis. No really, we did. It was walk on! We went straight on back row, then went back for more, this time front row – barely a few minutes queueing! We then had another cheeky front row ride while Liam and Luke arrived, and I spotted them whilst in the brake run! Lovely to see the Trolley Dolly and Luke again! After seeing that Air wasn’t yet open, we decided to do Nemesis: Sub Terra. I had only done it once before and it was the second version (the one before the maze was added) so I was keen to see how it would compare. I was very impressed and enjoyed it far more this time, probably because I could focus more as I already knew what to expect, plus it didn’t break down this time! The egg scene and the whole ride part were far more enjoyable and I felt far more immersed. The maze afterwards – wow! Very hectic and panicky! Sidders ran for his life after the ride – and I kind of let slip there was more to come in the second lift by saying “What do you think so far?” His response of “So far?!” was priceless! Next up was Air. Not really much I can say on this, Air is Air really! I couldn’t help but think of John Wardley saying “Get a life” when going through that tunnel though, and I had a pleasant surprise when I saw that my ORP for once didn’t make me look like Cousin It! My hair was mostly OFF my face! Duel – loved it as per! I got myself a new high score of 27500, woo! I must thank Peaj for teaching me his fingering technique, worked like a charm Got the Skyride over the Dark Forest, where they have an advert for the Smiler playing now, along with the usual park and hotel adverts. Rather amusing to listen to! Dark Forest – Rita was bearable as I put my head forward, infact it was rather smooth that day! Such an eyesore having all that scaffolding under the launch track though. Then it was off to Th13teen, Liam’s favourite ride. Sidders was not a fan of the Tesla coil! Had a good laugh on this, doing my Marcella Whittingdale impression throughout the ride! The crypt wasn’t a good as usual though as the door didn’t close, which was a shame. After this we crowned Liam for his (belated) birthday! * Group shot: * Next up was Hex – fantastic ride as usual and another ride that Dara hadn’t yet experienced. Bless him, he was SO overwhelmed by it and couldn’t believe the UK has something that good! I loved it when the whole room clapped after the first video too! It really shows how much people enjoy and appreciate it! After this was The Sanctuary, which many of us hadn’t done yet and was walk on! Loved video in the queueline with the brilliant Dr Kelman, and the theming and clinical smell before you go in. The actors were great too! Then we were let through and Dr Kelman himself was there! The actor was fantastic and very mad and funny! I ended up adding him on Facebook, as have many other enthusiasts. The maze itself was amazing, once again another brilliant maze by Alton, so much thought and effort clearly put into it. I personally found it was less about “jumpy” scares and more about how it makes you feel psychologically. Really enjoyed it, especially being marmalised and then the finale. The smells, effects and video in the marmalising scene were great, that video was quite disturbing! And the audio in the finale was great – “SMILE, SMILE! ALWAYS!” Had a bundle of laughs in Katanga Canyon! RMT was good fun, although sadly the operator did not participate in any choo chooing! Despite the fact that we all did it as loud as possible when going through the station! Congo River Rapids – best Congo ride ever! All 8 of us in one boat, we all got a good soaking and a brilliant ORP! Shall post at the end of the report! Had some fun in the shop with Liam... * Pizza Pasta was nomaliscious and it was Liam and Sidders’ first time there. We had to sit in 2 groups of 4 and I wasn’t on Sidders’ table so I’m not sure on his opinion (presumably he enjoyed it though!) but Liam was on our table and he loved it, bless him! I also presented him with his birthday card at this point which I had got a few members to sign the previous evening when we stopped off at the Monkey Puzzle. I honestly had intended to get members sign it during the ERT meet but it was rather hectic and I genuinely forgot, so when I signed it, I also signed it from TPM The Flume…well, it was flumey! Rough old thing, was nice to see the big duck again, and we had a little competition to see which boat could make the most noise on the drop, I think our boat won! Liam was very proud to be wearing the crown and getting it soggy! After this we had the crazy idea of doing Battle Galleons, so we got ourselves all prepared, put loose belongings into bags and whatnot…only to then find the ride was closed! X Sector – Oblivion is looking fabulous with its new paint job! I just love how it all looks so new and fresh! The new restraints really stand out too and they’ve even repainted the logos that are on the supports, up until then I didn’t even know they existed! Plus you could still smell the paint while queuing – not in an overpowering way but in a nice way. Had a great ride on it as usual, but unfortunately the mist wasn’t on. Also the rumours some had heard about them also fixing the issue with the holding brake isn’t true, or at least not yet, only some cars were holding (and still not for as long as they used to, and supposedly they were going to get it to return to that) and our car barely stopped at all! Poor Sidders put his arms up all prepared for a short wait but then BOOM! The Smiler – wow! My first thought when seeing it was “Oh wow, it looks so much bigger in person!” It really is dominating in some aspects without taking over X Sector or ruining it. Was nice to go up to one of the shiny new supports and touch it <3 A few pics (the rest are on my Facebook, if you haven't already added me, do it ): We also got some awesome group photos! * * (I have my marmalised face on it that one ) Next it was off to Spinball, where we strategically planned how to balance the cars in order to get the best spin. Me, Luke, Peaj and Sidders had a WILD spin! I looked like I was being flung out the car in my ORP! For our last ride of the day we did Nemesis (first ride on it for Luke and Liam though), front row as it was still completely dead and made the most of it! We then had a group shot taken by the famous sign! * Then headed back to Towers Street for some browsing and shopping in Towers Trading. The Smiler merch is fantastic! Nice variety of hoodies and t-shirts, even a jacket! The yellow bears smell lovely and sweet – sort of like lemon, but not like lemon? Can’t quite put my finger (or should I say, nose) on it. We didn’t see the other ones with the rotating head though! Love the clocks they do too, which don’t really tell the time as the numbers are in a totally random order! Lots of other usual stuff like keyrings etc, and of course the other new merch such as Nemesis, Air and Oblivion is all looking fab too! Had to save my money for DLP so resisted buying anything, but that shop better watch out when I return in May! After our goodbyes to Liam and Luke, the rest of us headed back to Travelodge, where some people were rather sleepy. Awww! https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/v/862524_10152610976435391_16993205_n.jpg?oh=ccbad1a711447232e2e805494ac628cc&oe=5167FC77&__gda__=1365862166_60d85ce585744e307edfcadb52950af0[/img] We had a chilled evening instead of going out drinking as we were pretty tired and it was snowing heavily (fortunately it didn’t settle). Still had a laugh though with taking random photos, spooning, Pringles, and Peaj having a giggle fit/choking on Naan bread. For once it wasn’t me choking on food through getting the giggles Caj spooning... * That night was just as eventful - for me anyway, and not in a good way! Dara was very fidgety and talkative in his sleep; the best part was where he said “Everything. F**k it!” before digging his elbow into my back Peaj uttered a few things in his sleep too – such as “Nearly there…*dodgy breathing noises*…OK bye!” Dara eventually ended up sleeping the wrong way round on the bed, moving the covers off me in the process and curling up so much that his arse was squashing me Cold and feeling a tad sorry for myself while everyone was snoozing their heads off, I considered taking advantage of Peaj…as in, using him as a human radiator I was wondering to myself how he might react if I cuddled up to him ( 1) Might seem a bit random and 2) considering the crazy things he told us he has done in his sleep!) but then he rolled over and nearly elbowed my face. So I gave up and slept on the floor! Sunday Can’t remember the order of the rides for this day (probably due to only gaining about an hour’s sleep!), but again the park was very quiet. We met up with Mark9, Dan9, Benin and Nicky for a bit too which was nice. Oh and we also met Sid The Sloth and had our photo taken with him! * The highlight of the day was getting Hex all to ourselves – Dara decided not to join us incase he ruined it by going on again, and it was such a shame he missed out! It was SO eerie, especially the Octagon room! Didn’t make it better that a certain someone was in my face when the lights were coming back on! Luckily I wasn’t too scared by it (not as much as I was at The Dungeons but more on that in my Dungeons TR coming soon!). Gah it was just so amazing, this weekend I really appreciated and loved Hex more than ever. Really got me excited for Disney too! We also did Riverbank Eye Spy for the laughs. First time I’d ever done it, have to say it was an interesting experience! Saw some chickens going at it too! * We also did the Sanctuary for a second time, again it was just brilliant. The fireball effect was working this time too! Still no mist on Oblivion today and Nemesis still doesn’t have the red water – I’m guessing this is due to the flooding issue last year? It would be a real shame if it never actually comes back. I didn’t get as good a score on Duel today either, only 23700! I blame the fact that I had nobody next to me. I know this sounds whimpish but I really do get freaked out in there! I think the fact that I have to focus on the shooting aspect has an impact; in a maze where actors jump out at you, all your attention is on that, whereas because the shooting distracts you in Duel you’re not as prepared. Plus the fact that it’s so fast paced and there’s so much going on. I love it really but kinda hate it at the same time. Those damn zombies are the worst! This will always be one of my favourite rides at the park though <3 Soon it was the end of the day and time to leave! I have never had such a great time at Alton Towers before and with such lovely people, was quite emotional at one point I blame the lack of sleep again though But Peaj: The Ride cheered me up! * It was lovely of Luke to tweet saying it was the best Towers trip ever and for Liam to tell me this on WhatsApp: “I have never in all my trips to Alton gone home and thought ‘What an amazing bunch of people’ “ Oh and “Peaj should be made illegal to be around, he is such a nice person lol!” So yeah, there you have it. Thank you to all those who came and made such an awesome weekend and thank you to Peaj for all the driving! *You may have noticed a * next to many of the photos. These photos belong to Stuz, so credit to him for them Apologies, Stuz, for not actually asking you beforehand if I can use them, but I posted this late at night and wanted to get it done after taking so long to get round to it. Hope you don't mind! I shall end this with the awesome group photo on Congo Inferno, Luke_A and Liam T 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James & Co. Posted April 3, 2013 Report Share Posted April 3, 2013 That is a really good trip report Mer, love the group photo at the end on Congo, would have been lovely to be there but I have lots of stuff going on I.E: School, etc. I do hope that I get to go to a towers trip with you lot, looks like you had an amazing time there. Hopefully in the future I will be able to join you guys at Alton Towers Fingers Crossed Mer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mer Posted April 3, 2013 Report Share Posted April 3, 2013 That is a really good trip report Mer, love the group photo at the end on Congo, would have been lovely to be there but I have lots of stuff going on I.E: School, etc. I do hope that I get to go to a towers trip with you lot, looks like you had an amazing time there. Hopefully in the future I will be able to join you guys at Alton Towers Fingers Crossed Why thank you! It really was an amazing time I keep reading it as it cheers me up so much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam T Posted April 3, 2013 Report Share Posted April 3, 2013 Fantastic reading back on that report Mer It was a great trip all day! Even if we had all the weather known to man happening! Also seeing Sidders face just as shock at Towers made me smile! I love bringing newbies to Alton! I can't wait to the next for the next one! SMILE, SMILE, SMILE... ALWAYS! Mer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mer Posted April 4, 2013 Report Share Posted April 4, 2013 Haha I know, he was so taken back! And I'm glad he prefers Nemesis over Inferno It was running well that weekend actually, smoother than usual but still packing a punch Ooft! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeC Posted April 5, 2013 Report Share Posted April 5, 2013 Awesome PTR, thanks for sharing. Mer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whiteknuckle Posted June 11, 2013 Report Share Posted June 11, 2013 Just a brief one. Headed up to the Towers yesterday on a day off work especially to ride the Smiler. Was disapppointed to find it had valleyed, especially after hearing it and seeing it go round as we were walking up there. We had a chat with the woman on the end of the queueline up the front of the Towers saying keep an eye out, just incase, but in the end it was'nt to happen. Ride count Oblivion 2 Rita 1 13 2 Nemesis 3 Spinball 1 Hex 1 RMT 1 Duel 1 Even more gutted to learn Smiler was open today. I will get to ride it somewhen, hopefully Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pluk Posted June 11, 2013 Report Share Posted June 11, 2013 You appear to have handled that spiteing better than I would have. Feel for you! Whiteknuckle 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Posted June 16, 2013 Report Share Posted June 16, 2013 Okay, so I know I ripped into towers for buying a cheap ride that had the worst construction I've ever seen. I travelled to Alton Towers on Wednesday to spend Thursday & Friday on park. We had a normal, "The Smiler will open around lunchtime. Didn't want to wait around for it so decided it was best to do the other attractions around park starting with Oblivion, we got stuck on it on station approach and to my understanding hasn't reopened since. Flying start to the day with sonic, smiler, oblivion & enterprise closed. Got to about 1pm and took another gander to X sector to find everything but submission closed. Thought nothing of it at the time and decided to leave it another couple of hours. Unfortunately it didn't open at all which I was rather annoyed about, but these things happen not a lot many people can do. Was disappointed by 3pm most of the park was closed including Oblivion, Smiler & Air. Day 2 Got to the entrance to find the huge "a million apologies, but The Smiler will be in available today". Was relatively angry by this and was ready to call it day after 3 hours on park! However when we went to ride Th13teen we saw Rich & Rob who conveyed a message that The Smiler may be opening mid afternoon. I was generally excited that there was a chance that the ride could open, so after a quick ride on Hex we decided to conveniently have lunch at the Fried Chicken Co. the chicken was okay, but the chips weren't cooked which was a massive shame as the lady who served me was one of the nicest members of staff I've ever encountered at Alton. We sat outside and it was very quiet as most of the staff didn't know that the ride may open, it seemed as many where still claiming the ride is very unlikely to open, whilst in the background we couldn't help noticing two trains where transferred onto the track with the water dummies being filled up. I was actually teeming with joy upon seeing this as I hadn't previously seen the ride move, by this point I didn't care if it didn't open! We were wondering around the toilets when we saw movement in the station, moments later the first lift started moving. Next thing we know we were stood near the entrance hoping it didn't stall after a good 45/50 minutes the ride opened and within 10 minutes the queue was registered at 150 minutes. I must say after all the pessimistic views I've given in the last 6 months, I wasn't expecting anymore than a longer version of SAW, how very wrong I was indeed. The queue, even though it was the biggest cattle pen I've EVER seen, was phenomenal, with every step giving a fantastic view. We waited about 30 minutes to get on the ride. With no knowledge if the ride I was pleasantly surprised by an indoor experience. The atmosphere when the first train was sent was brilliant, everyone in the queue was cheering and everyone was so excited! The ride itself took my breath away, never would of expected to be smiling so much throughout a ride and to be only half way through and feeling dizzy and weak at the knees I was very ecstatic about riding it. The second section was just as good a nice speed with a lot of positive and negative G's. however the issue I had was the exit of the cobra roll, the transition is so tight as is taken as such speed that you do smack your head several times, but unlike saw didn't give you a headache. So overall, hats off to Alton, I was VERY surprised with the ride and thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish, cannot wait to ride it again! I love the fact that everyone is 'smiling' from start to finish and then afterwards! Liam T, Luke_A, pluk and 3 others 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stretchy Posted June 19, 2013 Report Share Posted June 19, 2013 Glad you enjoyed The Smiler. Quite surprisingly you get the cheer of the first public train every day I have been there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Posted June 19, 2013 Report Share Posted June 19, 2013 Well, I'm pretty sure everyone who was in the queue at the time must of been there the day before as well, a lot of people had accepted the fact it wasn't going to open, as that is what was advertised! Even I did a cheeky cheer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldFarmerDean Posted September 24, 2013 Report Share Posted September 24, 2013 unreal day today, would go as far as saying my best day at a theme park ever... Nemesis x4 The Smiler & Sonic Spinball x3 TH13TEEN x2 Rita & Oblivion x1 amongst doing most of the other rides as well! After nemesis being closed pretty much all day, they managed to open it back up at park closing time (which they didn't have to, but did all the tests and everything especially for the few guests waiting in hope), and stayed open til about 25 past 5, which I managed to get in 4 rides - so good on alton for getting the ride open... Heard the smiler had one small bit of downtime, but queues were peaking at 30 mins... and at one point while in charlie they were announcing smiler had less than a 5 minute queue - I didn't believe it when I seen it on the queue board a bit before that! Inferno 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmangi Posted September 28, 2013 Report Share Posted September 28, 2013 Hi guys, I havent ben to Alton since a school trip not long after Nemesis opened. I went last Friday (20th) and had an amazing day. We prebooked tickets and got thhere about 9:30, went straight to Nemesis. Over the course of the day I went on: Nemesis x4, Air x2, Oblivion x2, Rita and Thirteen x 1, Duel x2, Runaway train x1 and the Smiler x2 (Although the 2nd time I gave in and bought fasttrak passes as it was just over an hour queue time). Apart from smiler I think the longest queue was for Rita and was only 30 minutes long, all the rest were under 20 mins. I didnt think I did too badly for a Friday. I have several pictures I will try to share :-). The highlight of the day was, Thirteen. Purely becuse I was expecting a tiny rollercoaster bit and was genuinly bricking it about the drop in the dark (I dont do Pirate ships etc, but love coasters). So I sat there and near the top of the hill I looked over and realised it is reasonably high, and then noticed the drop was steeper than expected, so grabed the side of the car and me and a mate were just laughing our heads off all the way round the outside bit. Overall I loved it and cant wait to go back. pluk and SteveJ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted November 3, 2013 Report Share Posted November 3, 2013 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 pluk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted November 4, 2013 Report Share Posted November 4, 2013 - 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?) You've answered your own question there. To make sure people travel a mile each time, without abusing the SINGLE RIDER queue. Least they actually let you use SRQ at that time, I know that they generally close it when there's no queue to prevent this occuring. Ultimately, SRQ is to fill up empty seats on busy days, it's not there to become a substitute for the main queue which would occur if they allowed everyone on via it. It becomes completely unmanageable, and hence why they usually close it or make people ride alone so prevent them using it. Inferno, pluk, Benin and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted November 4, 2013 Report Share Posted November 4, 2013 Ultimately, SRQ is to fill up empty seats on busy days, it's not there to become a substitute for the main queue which would occur if they allowed everyone on via it. It becomes completely unmanageable, and hence why they usually close it or make people ride alone so prevent them using it. I don't mind riding alone (that is the point of a SRQ), but they shouldn't be closing restraints over empty seats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted November 4, 2013 Report Share Posted November 4, 2013 Obviously not listened to the reason behind it, lets hope it's shut instead next time for you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted November 4, 2013 Report Share Posted November 4, 2013 Obviously not listened to the reason behind it, lets hope it's shut instead next time for you Maybe they should have closed it. It wasn't just that - they were putting the restraints down on empty seats during the day when there was a queue etc as well. Seems like laziness to me... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted November 4, 2013 Report Share Posted November 4, 2013 SRQ slows down the actual operations of the ride. You won't get full seats going out everytime, especially on a ride where singles aren't batched into the bays. Nemesis SRQ moves relatively quickly anyway, particularly when you compare it to other rides also offering it on park. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt 236 Posted February 1, 2014 Report Share Posted February 1, 2014 Following on from my Oakwood ones, here's another due video trip report of part one from my trip to Alton Towers. Part two should hopefully follow soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt 236 Posted February 6, 2014 Report Share Posted February 6, 2014 Double Post (yikes), but it's been a while. Part two of my Towers trip last year is now online. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EC! Posted April 14, 2014 Report Share Posted April 14, 2014 So yeah I went to Alton Towers on Saturday and I got my best ride count ever at the park... Even though it was a Saturday on the Easter holidays and it was almost dead. Smiler had an initial big queue for the morning for about an hour or so but then went down to 45 minutes and pretty much stayed the for the rest of the day. Oblivion was walk on all day which was great! As was Air which was surprising!! I have to say the Smiler and Nemesis were running insanely fast and intense that day it was INSANE!! Oblivions airtime of the drop was mental too! The biggest the rest of the queues got was about 40 minutes and that was for Th13teen and Rita, Spinball was quiet but running a lot more mental then it usually is. We also did river rapids which got me bum soaked which wasn't fun also Th13teen got stuck on the lifthill from about 4pm until the rest of the day which was funny. I almost forgot to mention Rita was running well also!! But yeah it was fantastic best day in terms of rides at the park ever!! The Smiler x3 Oblivion x3 Nemesis x3 Air x2 Skyride x2 Ripsaw x1 Sonic Spinball x1 Rita x1 Th13teen x1 Congo River Rapids x1 Duel x1 Monorail x1 (never been on it so I am counting this one in!) Overall: 20 rides done today! Awesome!! JamminGamer and Coaster 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomathy Posted April 20, 2014 Report Share Posted April 20, 2014 ALTON TOWERS - Monday 14th - Thursday 17th April 2014 I live in Suffolk so Alton Towers is a fairly large journey compared to Thorpe and Chessie but as a family we just bought Merlin Annual Passes and so decided a trip up that way was in order. We have been before and stayed at the Alton Towers Hotel last time but worked out that it the price of our 4 premium MAPs (£400) plus the price of a room at the premier inn in Uttoxeter for 3 nights (just north of £300) was the same price as staying at the resort hotel for the same dates. Day 1 - Monday We set off from our house in Suffolk at half 8 and managed to get to the park and on the monorail by around 1:30 which gave us a few hours to get on some rides. Once on park we realised that it was fairly empty and so headed to the Skyride to get to Forbidden Valley where we walked on to Sub-Terra (which scared the hell out of my little 9 year old sister) and Nemesis (which she loved). Air had a measly 10 minute queue so we took a flight on that before heading back to the Skyride to head over to Gloomy wood. Again we queued around 10 minutes for Th13teen, decided to pass Rita with its 45 minute queue and headed for Hex as its a personal favourite dark ride for me. After this we headed straight over to Oblivion which always seems to be close to walk on every time we visit the park. Lastly me and my two sisters headed over to get marmalised by The Smiler which had a huge 120 minute queue. Out of all the days that we were at the park The Smiler heavily dominated the queue boards with times at least twice as high as any other ride. Anyway, after this we jumped on the monorail and headed back to the Premier Inn. Ride Count: Air - 1 Nemesis - 1 Oblivion - 1 Th13teen - 1 The Smiler - 1 Hex - 1 Sub-Terra - 1 Skyride - 2 Monorail - 2 (I count this as I love flying over the park listening to the soundtrack at the beginning and end of the day) Total - 11The Premier Inn Considering it was a lot cheaper than the resort hotels we were not expecting much but ended up being pleasantly surprised. The room was about the same size as the ones we had experienced before on resort and the beds were fairly comfortable. The restaurant was reasonably priced and served a combination of pub grub and slightly more 'classy' dishes. There was something for everyone (which is saying a lot as my sister and I are fairly fussy) and the staff were also on the whole pleasant and helpful. We had a waitress called Alex that served us a couple of times over the course of our stay who was happy to have a laugh and joke with us when collecting plates and bringing meals. Day 2 - Tuesday Smiler's queue was 60+ minutes from 10am onwards so we spent the time taking the route through Katanga Canyon to take a trip on the Runaway Mine Train followed by a walk to Duel for a double ride and then to Forbidden Valley to take a ride on Nemesis and Air when it opened at 10. We took the same route everyday as it seemed to be the most effective way of getting things done. Skyride was shut so we walked through the haunted hollow and along to Rita and Th13teen to get on before a large queue developed. This did not go to plan. Rita was running on one train operation with a calculated throughput of just under 500pph. Needless to say the queue was moving at a snails pace but it was bearable considering we were almost under the launch track after queueing for 5 minutes. At this point we heard that Rita was going to be adding a second train over the speaker system which would take a few minutes. It ended up taking 20 minutes just to add the second train and perform a test. Afterwards we took a trip to Th13teen followed by Charlie and Ice Age. Hex was down as we passed by and so gave it a miss on the way to the flume and rapids. Whilst towards that side of the park we decided to try out Sub Terra again this time without my little sister who I quote "never ever wants to go in there again". Afterwards we took a couple of rides on Duel on the way back towards Oblivion and The Smiler which were the last rides of day 2. Ride Count: Air - 1 Nemesis - 1 Oblivion - 1 Rita - 1 Runaway Mine Train - 1 Th13teen - 1 The Smiler - 1 Congo River Rapids - 1 The Flume - 1 Charlie - 1 Duel - 4 Ice Age 4D - 1 Sub Terra - 1 Monorail - 2 Total - 18 Day 3 Much the same as the previous day in terms of ride planning minus a trip on Air in the morning substituted by 2 trips on Nemesis. We also took a couple of trips on Sonic Spinball which seems to get a huge queue yet an almost empty single rider line allowing us to get on twice within 15 minutes. Hex was back open again which made me extremely happy but this was only counteracted by Rita getting up to her seemingly normal tricks. One train operation until half 10 when a 50 minute queue had emerged. This queue barely died down all day even when the second train had been added. It is beyond me why it isn't ran on 2 train operation from park opening. Ride Count: Nemesis - 2 Oblivion - 2 Rita - 1 Sonic Spinball - 2 Th13teen - 1 The Smiler - 1 Congo River Rapids - 1 Charlie - 1 Duel - 2 Enterprise - 1 Hex - 1 Sub-Terra - 1 Monorail - 2 Total - 18 Day 4 Our last day on park and the only day that we rode all of the 8 coasters. It was fairly similar to days 2 and 3 in the order that we rode each attraction with the exception of Rita. 1 train operation in the morning had caused a rather large queue early on in the day which never seemed to go away and so we decided to use our £5 discount fast-track coupons from our annual pass packs to get free fast-track for Rita. This however was short-lived as whilst queueing to get on the queue-line was evacuated due to technical difficulties that could not be solved in the foreseeable future. At the point we decided to get unlimited pizza and pasta and head back afterwards when Rita had re-opened. Th13teen's shutter didn't shut whilst we were on the ride that day and by the sounds of other people in the area it had been happening a few times. Hopefully this was just bad luck though. Along with this Hex was running without the show lights in the Madhouse/Haunted Swing section of the ride which meant no sparkling branch, no smoke, no glowing eyes, no blackout and just no show really. The cinema section was also rather light as well as the octagon which was a bit lighter than normal, although normally I can't see my own hand in front of my face in there. So disappointing to a degree for a last day but hopefully I was just unlucky and the rides mentioned above were on best behaviour for the rest of the day. Ride Count: Air - 1 Nemesis - 1 Oblivion - 1 Rita - 1 Runaway Mine train - 1 Sonic Spinball - 1 Th13teen - 1 The Smiler - 1 Congo River Rapids - 1 Charlie - 1 Duel - 1 Hex - 1 Sub-Terra - 1 Monorail - 2 Total: 15 Overall Trip Review Premier Inn at Uttoxeter is only half an hour (with traffic) from the park and is rather nice with some very friendly staff. Premier Inn's free wifi policy is a little bit to be desired as it actually means half an hour free but the bar also has unlimited free wifi so it's nothing to worry about. The Smiler was better than I expected although seemed rather rough/rattly in the back row. That might be down to getting a rough train but still, its only a couple of years old and shouldn't be rattly yet. Saying that there are rough points in the track which caught me off guard and the trims are very noticeable, at one point we barely made it through the knot element. It also isn't duelling like it is capable of when two trains leave each lift hill at the same time which was slightly disappointing. Rita needs to be ran on two train operation all the time, it wasn't too busy on park but it wasn't exactly dead either and throughputs of 500pph is just silly considering what it is capable of. I have decided that after riding Sub-Terra with both the short maze ending and without I prefer it with although it needs to have at least a couple of actors in it instead of the one that we encountered every time we rode. It is also slightly odd that the masked men appear to be helping you out at some points but then jump out and chase you at others. We were slightly confused at this sign on the side of Woodcutters Bar & Grill which read "Miss the traffic, just let us cook for you" which suggested that it was open after park close when in fact it isn't. Also when did the Nemesis River stop running red, or is that just a beginning of the season thing? Overall a very nice weekend at Alton Towers that my entire family and I enjoyed. Especially my mum who conquered her fear of Oblivion and then proceeded to ride it each day. We could have got on more rides but with 4 park days we decided to have a more laid back approach and just meander around after the first couple of hours on park. I also picked up a copy of John Wardley's autobiography 'Creating My Own Nemesis' hidden under a pile of Air Bears in Air's shop which has proved to be a fantastic read. I read the entire thing within a day of having it and would definitely recommend it to anyone who either has a keen interest in his career or particularly enjoy learning the history of the UK theme parks mostly Chessington and Alton. Overall Trip Ride Count Air - 3 Nemesis - 5 Oblivion - 5 Rita - 3 Runaway Mine Train - 2 Sonic Spinball - 3 Th13teen - 4 The Smiler - 4 Congo River Rapids - 3 The Flume - 1 Charlie - 3 Duel - 7 (family favourite, couldn't score above 38,500) Enterprise - 1 Hex - 3 Sub-Terra - 4 Ice Age 4D - 1 Skyride - 2 Monorail - 8 Total Trip Ride Count - 62 A couple of photos to follow taken with my trusty Nokia Lumia 920. The Smiler from the single rider queue line Perfectly timed photo of Nemesis mid loop Just a little photo of Th13teen that I took just before Rita got round to adding it's second train Amusing little sign near the Duel toilets that I had somehow never noticed before For those of you that managed to read all of that you deserve gold stars and many many Easter eggs. JamminGamer, pluk, Ryan and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted April 21, 2014 Report Share Posted April 21, 2014 Thanks for the report You have to wonder what goes through their heads - why would you run Rita on one train in school holidays? The shutter not closing on Thirteen was something that annoyed me last October, so it looks like the issue hasn't been addressed. Glad to hear it was good overall though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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