Alton Towers Trip Reports

[treeis]

I went to alton towers yeaterday and the day before that, and It is definetly the best british theme park in my opinion. Nemesis is still my favortiot ride, cos of the sheer speed and the g-forces. Oblivion was ok but nothing special. I think going on detonator alot ruined it. Rita was amazing. The launch was barely a launch but the airtime is increadible! Its like an ejector seat! Dual I seem to love as well. I dont know why...Its just so damn fun. Spinball whizzer was ok but I feel that dragons fury is better.Munity bay was ok... Battle galleons looked quite fun, but I was in no mood to get wet. The munity bay area was quite cool, with a spinning boat ride and a spinning barrels instead of spinning teacups. But most of the area looked just like merrie england unfortunatly.I was dissapointed in submission most of all. The restraints just hurt your legs and lower parts sooooo much. Also, the restraint hit me in the head when raising. NO FUN-JUST PAIN. Also, the skyway was broken ALL THE TIME which made walking from area to area very hard. Beause me and my friend had anual passes, we gor early ride time which was SOOO helpful. We also had Yourday DVD's which werent as comlicated as we thought, but we did have to wear a really uncomfortable wristband.All in all: 9/10. It could have been top marks but the skyway wasnt working... still, an amazing day nonetheless.

[Chris]

We also had Yourday DVD's which werent as comlicated as we thought, but we did have to wear a really uncomfortable wristband.

I also did the YourDay thing, I was looking forward to doing it, but I didn't realise how large the wristbands were actually going to be !I'm putting my vids on YouTube soon

[Marc]

Are you now able to view your video before you actually buy it now?

[Fred]

Also, the skyRIDE was broken ALL THE TIME which made walking from area to area very hard.

Hmm wonder why, cant've been cos of that fire last year .And YourDay.. did it actually pick you up on all the rides?!Going tomorrow!

[Chris]

we got to watch a little preview of the bit with us on it,there was 3 of us and 2 of our wristbands picked up 5 of the 6 , but luckily the other one picked up all 6

[Fred]

Sounds better than last year, when we went on all the rides countless of times, with 3 people wearing a wristband.. best we got was 2 films, which we weren't allowed to watch..

[Chris]

But the annoying thing about YourDay is the fat "Wristbands" which are the same size and shape of a large watch

[treeis]

its funny tho, cos you have to shake your wristband in the station. But you look like an IDIOT and get strange looks from others.

[James]

Are you now able to view your video before you actually buy it now?

I didn't even know you could view it in the first place.Does anybody here actually have a yourday video?

[Chris]

yep!ill put the link in here when I put it on youtube

[Chris]

Okay here is my YourDay footage, the whole thing was too long to fit on YouTube so I did them all separately,Treeis I think you should keep an eye out, since we both went on the same day you could be in one of these 1.

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[treeis]

how come you get 6 on ride videos? I only got 5...Also, I had a mix up with my video, and seemed to have got my friends. I'm with him in only THREE of the videos. I would send it back but I dont want to lose my dvd...

[Chris]

I guess we were lucky ?also,maybe you didnt shake it enough

Edited April 17, 2008 by Chris-Denny

[Tom]

how come you get 6 on ride videos? I only got 5...Also, I had a mix up with my video, and seemed to have got my friends. I'm with him in only THREE of the videos. I would send it back but I dont want to lose my dvd...

mixup... you want to hear about a mixup? um... I went on nemmie, spinball, cork, rita, obliv... and it just didn't take me on spinball or nemmie, and on oblivion it wasn't even me!!!!! corckscrew hurt, so I didn't like the video much anyway, rita... was ok, I supose

[Chris]

yeh corkscrew hurt me loads too!there was to much room between me and the restraints and I was bouncing round and bashing me head

[treeis]

mixup... you want to hear about a mixup? um... I went on nemmie, spinball, cork, rita, obliv... and it just didn't take me on spinball or nemmie, and on oblivion it wasn't even me!!!!! corckscrew hurt, so I didn't like the video much anyway, rita... was ok, I supose

Yeah, but I HAD my videos... the only problem was I think the staff assumed me and my friend would have the dame dvd. I dont know who said it but it wasnt ME...

[Tom]

ok... your day sucks

[Chris]

Nah..you've just had crap experiences of it ;)mine came out great !

[NickD]

Nah..you've just had crap experiences of it ;)mine came out great !

The thing is, I dont think yours came out really great. Now I'm not too sure of the price, but I would never pay at least five pound to have about two slow motioned clips of me on each ride at a theme park. Theres about, in total a minutes worth of footage of you out of the whole of the yourday video, 29 minutes is just other footage of the rides. I think it's a poor idea, and knew it wouldn't be pulled off well.

[Fred]

£20 is the DVD cost, lovely stuff

[treeis]

I got my 5 videos for £15.99 cos of the 20% of anual pass deal. AND I got a free single vidoe dvd cos I got it before 3.00. I think yourday is a bloody good idea.Also, there were more camaras than I thought. for example, in the montage inbeetween the lift and brake of nemesis. Go on slow mo and they have videos of you on the 0-g roll and stuff. ;)

[James]

Hmm I never really liked the idea of it in the first place, and now I've seen them it looks like money not well spent.

[Alex]

I think it's bloody awesome. The videography is just brilliant, and you get footage of yourself as well. Might look into it next time I visit.

[Chris]

I got my 5 videos for £15.99 cos of the 20% of anual pass deal. AND I got a free single vidoe dvd cos I got it before 3.00.

I did that too, although I got 6 videos, I think YourDay is a good service if,after all, your DVD comes out right

[Sheepie]

Deprived of Alton for 6 years, I finally got the chance to get back up there on Saturday. Came straight from work on Friday and met James at Waterloo, and we then travelled to his house for the night ready for Alton in the morning.Whilst at his house, I experienced probably the best ride of the entire three days that I spent with him.We boarded our Pendolino train (which are rather sexual I'd like to add) whiched provided our 06:46 service to Manchester Picadilly. 2 Hours and 17 blissful minutes later we managed to collapse it off our train and stumble into Stoke on Trent station.I demanded in typical diva fashion that we go to Pumpkin and grab some breakfast, where we found that there was ample of choices on offer, that consisted of Coffee and Walnut muffins, a selection of lunchtime sandwhices and chocolate bars. The muffin it was, as well as a hot chocolate to go with it. We sat down and went on the magical endevour that was eating our muffins, I mean, we had an hour to wait for our bus so we had plenty of time.Whilst we were eating however, we saw another bus that took us to Alton. Although we noticed that it was a local bus and took a lovely 70 minutes to get there, instead of the 45 minutes that we had anticipated on the other bus. Fortunately, we figured that it still got us there earlier than the X65, so we ventured on to the bus- £4.50 return, which is fantastic considering it's about a 25 mile journey! Got to Alton, and used my Melin Magic Pass to get in, at which I actually had an orgasm at for an hour because the stamp they used was a star! How magical?! :oAfter a load of faffing about and James being indecisive about what to go on, we decided that Hex was our first stop. Omg I got scareds! But feck mine it was amazing. Went on this when it first opened, when I was ten, but didn't really appreciate it back then. But oh my I came off it and I was actually going on about it until we went on it later in the day. Effing amazing ride, and actually one of the best attractions we have in the UK. I'd also like to point out one of the cringfest moments that happened during the day. Was in the part just after we'd been batched through when some chavs decided they wanted to ruin it by talking really loudly so I couldn't hear what was going on. I actually told them to be quiet, and the look I got was priceless! Obviously James hid, and I stood there and lolled. HEHE.People are going to hate me for this, but I've come to the conclusion that I like RITA more than Stealth. Yes it has totally ruined UG Land, yes it's been plonked in and has less themeing than Stealth, but it has such a better atmosphere! It has actual substance to it; a bit of a neck chopper though, but the ride length and consistent high speed makes up for it. They got the interaction with the queueline spot on, as always with Alton, however you can tell that it was a last minute decision. I'd also like to point out that the staff on this were absolutely amazing at their jobs, apparently they broke the throughput record for it with 1120 people! Was really noticable as well, I think we only queued about 20 minutes for it in the end..... I know we only got to heaar about 3 or 4 songs anyways. Later in the day we saw it go up to a 80 minute queue: ouch!Over to Forbidden Valley then via the Sky Ride, and my god the cars are in dire need of a refurb, something on the scale of the monorail (more on that later), but yeah it has seen better days I have to admit. The main drive station looks good with its new roof and shiny new look, though, but if I'm being totally honest I was more looking eager to get on the epic coaster that is Nemesis.A 60 minute queue apparently; James was not happies! HA, I made him do it though I've never queued up round by the lift hill before, nevertheless it was good to actually see the ride in action once again. And as I said, it is actually epic. The surroundings- the lead up to the ride and the amount of effort they put in to make this as impactful as possible. The attention to detail is sublime- loved the Kitchen underneath the station, which I'd never noticed before yesterday. The top of the station needs a bit of a repaint though, and also the music needs to be looped better- it cut out just and then restarted in a classic Thorpe Park Style. We actually ended up queueing about 45-50 minutes; I think they were having a throughput day or something, as they were sending trains before the last train was ready to get back into the station again. Whatever was going on, it was good to see anyways! The actual ride however, well, it certainly knocks the socks off of Inferno, and is one of our best coasters. Although I think I hyped myself up a bit too much for it and whilst I wasn't dissapointed, I also felt I wanted to be offered with something more. I think it's more because I'm starting to become obsesed with dark rides more than rollercoasters as dark rides offer more of an emotional thrill (as well as a physical thrill).Lunch time me thinks, and over to the Fish and Chip shop it was! Was quite expensives, but it was yummy so I'm not really complaining, also got staff discount which also helped a bit. Felt a bit bad just leaving my rubbish on the table though as I couldn't find a bin. We went over to Air to see if it had reopened after an earlier break down, and lucky for us it had and we queued an epic 15 minutes for it - was quality. I was really nervous about this ride, I couldn't remember what it was like. I came off feeling really good about it- such an underated and an amazing ride experience. I genuinely would love to see some love going into some extra themeing and landscaping. I think it could easily rival it's older sister if it had the same impressive effort put into the details.Duel is actually so much better than Tomb Blaster! I think it's a brilliant ride. Although maybe a little ruined by the excess of LED's around the ride. I wasn't too bothered about shooting, I wanted to look at what had changed since the Haunted House- which I loved btw! Nice Noticed a few things not working such as the rocking horse in the queue and a couple of effects such as the blue lighting behind the window and the blowing curtain that had apparently been fixed for this season. We may have just been unlucky however. Good to see the strobes in the first section of the ride back, I'd never seen them before but obviously I knew they were meant to be there! You can now see the walls collapsing in which is a great effect. I got to see my old friend electric Bill! YAY. He is an actual legend. It was actually pretty scary, haha, bless it. I think the ride is a bit anti-climatic though, whereas the old HH had the great ending. HEHE. It also seemed a lot faster than I actually remember! Definately a lot better than it's southern counter part.A trip to Mutiny Bay, which btw is awesome! Got rides on Mauragergere Mayhem (sorry I dunno how to spell whatever the first word is) and Heave Ho. Mayhem absolutely pissing all over Thorpe and showing how a re-theme should be done- not painting cracks on to a dated ride and then fobbing it off as part of Amity Cove! The operator was a legend, bless her! they actually are so intense as well: imagine cup 9 at Thorpe, and then times that by two, and that's how fast Alton's ones go. Actually insane, so insane in fact, that James found it neccessary to perform an act of violence on my wrist and slash it open with his claws. He gets excited bless him, so just humour him..... *pats* :PHeave Ho is adorable, and you have to love the "remains in your seats" announcement. I actually awwwed! HAHA. :angry:It was James' turn to have a Diva strop when he did a Tyra Banks spoof whilst expressing his feelings towards riding Battle Galleons. Haha, to be fair though, it is Tidal Wave wetness, it's legendary! Overall though, I love the area and think that it was a fantastic way to invest £6M.We then went and did Corkscrew .......not my desicion, but yeah it was nesseccary. Didn't particularly enjoy it, but I know quite a few people still do, so whatever floats your boat really. Second cringefest moment of the day: RITA had broken down for whatever reason and we got people coming into our Corkie queue, so these people jumped infront of us and I asked them if they were physically feeling okay, the dad apologised for jumping in and gave some bullsh!t excuse, so I gave him the dirtiest look I could muster .We redid Hex, had a sex p!ss moment again and then queued about 30 minutes for Oblivion. The mist was on which was awesome, and everything was working that should have been. Not much to say about it really. Looks a bit odd with some restraints being new and strikingly orange and some really faded. A total refurb of all restrains would have been a good way to show some love for its tenth birthday. However, I do love the merch for the ride it's actually amazing. I wanted to buy quite a lot of stuff! =P We got an on ride photo, which James will upload when he's able to, hehe, loves the dark hole. =\X sector is in need of a lot of TLC- the actual them is so genius! But it needs some investment, and along with it a total spruce up of the area. Including a repaint of Oblivion kthnx bye.Katanga Canyon was our last stop, we wanted to do RMT and Congo! RMT is orgasmic and I want to bring it home and make love so we produce little RMT's that run all around my house. How cute and disturbing that would be. Congo was also cool, but I was a bit dissappointed that the waterfalls weren't on for our ride when they were earlier in the day.We legged it over to The Flume and if I'm being honest I wish we hadn't have bothered running LOL. It's really an awful ride, which also backs up the third cringefest moment of the day when some chavs spat and I thought I'd shout "NIIICCCEE" as loud as I could. Apparently I got an awesome dirty look, lol.That was actually it, we bought donuts, and then made our way to the bus stop. Whilst waiting for the bus we saw the new Mutiny Bay train! OMG it's fit! It needs to be raped over and over again. Can't wait to take a ride in it over the two days we have there in July. Got back to the station within 45 minutes and boarded our sexual pendolino train! The journey back was hillarious. We got some drunks get on and then later on during the journey this bloke was on the phone and then he decided to tell them to "fooking shut up man.... they're drunk innit," LMAO and then "fooking pussyholes," followed by "someone needs to fecking punch their lights out". Me and James roffled!!! HAHA.Wow, I've waffled so much and I'm so sorry to bore you with petty details. Thank you for reading though if you have indeed read it all. Was a good trip, although I liked the idea of spending three days with James a bit more than the Altob bit =PTake care everyone.