Blackpool, Alton and a castle in Warwick

[Mitchada04]

So my annual trip to Alton Towers occured over the Diamond Jubilee and for the first time in 5 years we visited Warwick Castle and Blackpool Pleasure Beach. We set of Saturday morning to the hotel when my dad surprised us with a visit to Warwick Castle. It's such a great place. Every staff member is in costume which just makes the place so unique (for Merlin anyway). As we only had 3 hours to spend there we passed on the Castle Dungeon and Merlin Tower thing and headed straight for the birds of prey show whci were all eagles. It was a great show and they really make the eagles fly low over your heads which makes everyone duck and dive. We were told that one of the eagles (Merlin) is known to fly so low he hits people with his wings so I put this to the test and his wing just skimmed my head. Overall a great show with a decent bit of humour.

We then realised that the Jubilee Jousting event was starting so headed straight to the arena by the Trebuchet and watched that which again included some great snippets of humour. One line I remember in particular is 'give him a boo, give him a hiss, now I need to go and have a huge...' King Henry stopped the jester from finishing. There was also a slight break from the jousting to the rest the horses whci led to the jester playing the drums, trumpet and blowing fire. Once again a great show.

Whilst walking back to the castle to walk around the ruins I saw loads of game stalls. Normally these annoy me as they ruin the theme of the area and the staff are shouting at you to 'have a go' '1 hoop to win' but here all the games were themed such as archery and shield painting. Yes the prices were still ridiculous (£8 to paint a shield) but the staff weren't shouting at you so the atmosphere remained in tact. I remember going to the catle when I was younger and came out loving it but couldn't remember why, until Saturday. Great place and atmosphere which Merlin haven't ruined since they took over.

After a restless night with rain banging on the hotels window all night we woke up nice and early to have our buffet breakfast and head of to Blackpool. We arrived just after 10 to meet my uncle and 2 cousins. After being ushered through this really posh building to buy our wristbands and having our bags searched we were pushed into the park, literally. The turnstiles force you in as if to say there is no turning back. As I was expecting the worst from it, we headed straight to Infusion all prepared for a banging headache. I have never been so surprised. I came off wanting to go again, quite possibly the smoothest Vekoma SLC I've been on. We then headed to the madness that is Wildmouse. My uncle literally had to duck to avoid hitting the 'mind your head' signs but again a great ride helped by the comfy cars. As it was one of the few rides I hadn't done before I went to Ice Blast as I love drop towers but this one was so dissapointing. After being on Dr Doom and Cliffhanger I was expecting something special from this but it just felt forceless compared to others I have ridden. Whilst walking to the Big One I noticed that the Ghost Train has also closed down but wasn't covered up so really mad the place look like it was dying especially with the Goldmine closed the other side. I was really looking forward to the Big One as the last time I came it stopped 50ft up the lift so we had to walk down and the ride didn't dissapoint. We sat at the back andthe pull you get off the lift is ridiculously amazing. Even though the ride was seriously rough and felt like it was going to stall going over each hill it was brilliant. Just felt sorry for Richard Rodriguez who has to ride it consecutively for 103 days to beat his own record as the rain was like hail.

After some lunch at Burger King we did Steeple Chase which was fun, nothing more, nothing less. Avalanche was next and that ride really pushes you up the sides it was insane. Just don't get stuck in a long queue in the station as the music is really annoying and repetitive. we then went over to the newest area at Pleasure Beach, Nickelodeon Land. The old rides that have been used have been given a really nice spruce up and work well with the new rides. The Mack splash battle was great and the floor was really cool as it raises to drain the water so you can get on and off. Nick Streak, formerly the Rollercoaster, has recieved an awesome orange coat of paint and is really fun for the whole family with great pops of airtime. After wandering past this really annoying animatronic laughing clown we did the freshly painted Revolution. The ride itself is a bit meh but the new colour scheme is great and doesn't stick out like a sore thumb. It also has quite possibly the coolest surpport structure of any coaster. We then did a family race on Grand National and wow, the ride never slows down. The airtime is ridiculous and the double drop is mental but it really does look disgusting and needs a paint job. This led us to Big Dipper as we were in a wooden mood and it's so comfy and pretty smooth.

To finish the day we went on quite possibly the best water ride I've ever ridden. It is so good. The waterfall effect is amazing and is the best way to disguise a building (take note Merlin). The theming inside is something I wasn't expecting form Pleasure Beach and the amount of fire effects used is ridiculous. You even get a great view of the park when turning to go backwards. The ice room is well placed as you've just been soaked so feel like you're going to freeze. You then enter a battleground with this huge revolving mace about your head and water explosions. Once again you drop and end up in a tube of water (much like Bubbleworks but much lower so you get soaked). Before the end you drop again and enter more rooms of fire. Then you leave the building soaked but wanting more.

Ride count and rating /10

Valhalla: 1 9.5

Big One: 3 8

Infusion: 3 7.5

Revolution:2 6

Avalanche:1 7

Big Dipper:2 8

Grand Nash:1 7.5

Nick Streak:2 6

Steeple Chase:1 5

Ice Blast:1 4.5

Avatar Airbender:1 6

Derby Racers:1 5

Alice :1 4

Wild Mouse:1 7

Spongebob splash battle:1 7

River Caves:1 6

Pics

Me trying to get artsy shots

Revenge on my uncle for telling us we wouldn't get soaked on Valhalla

Alton Towers report to follow soon.

[Mitchada04]

The next morning we once again enjoyed our buffet breakast and headed of to Alton nice and early to take full advantage of ert. Upon arrival at the gates I was shocked to see a designated queue for annual passholders. Luckily for us we got the first monorail train of the day so were at the front of the queue but come 9 the line was past the nearest ticket booth. As there was only one staff member scanning the passes with one of those dodgy handheld scanners the queue must have taken forever. When we got to the bottom of Towers Street we took our passes out thinking they were going to check them here as they have done in previous years to stop non ert guests recieving this perk but no, everyone was just streaming in. We headed straight to Rita as I love the ride and layout and know it is likely to get a huge queue. As we were expecting everyone to be allowed on we were a tad worried there would be a queue but they were checking your tickets at the entrance to all ert rides so the only waiting we had to do was for our dad to find our passes once again to show the staff members. After getting front row walk on we headed straight over to Nemesis (would have been nice to have the Skyride but that's life). After showing our passes once again we got straight on to the back row. I had heard alot about Nemesis running well this year and it most definately was. Quite possibly my best ever ride on the beast. As we still had 30mins till Air opened we did it another 4 times. It was now just before 10 and Air was just opening. As they were only running the 1 station at that time we had to wait 10mins but it was worth it because it really packed a punch in some places.

As Sub-Terra had an hours wait we hopped on the Skyride over to Dark Forest to find Thirteen broken so we did the parks other new attraction, Ice Age 4D. The theming is really well done and the experience is great for families with snow, bubbles, leg ticklers, wind and changing lights to suit the area you're in. The only downside to it is it has no new material, it is all just snippets from Ice Age 3 and not many things fly out of the screen at you. Overall a great additon to the park tbut am unsure how long it will stay as Ice Age due to its popularity. As Thirteen was now open we did that and othe than a little blip whilst we were at the baggage hold it was running well. My dad thought the drop was really forceful and unique (as he'd never done it before) and thought the ride was a good fun experience. We then entered X-Sector to find Enterprise and Submission with 20min queues. With Oblivion having a 40min queue the areas popularity seems to have shot up without SW7 so that area will be heaving next year. We did Oblivion single rider and thanks to the second car only being loaded with fastrack they used the single rider queue to fill up all of the spare spaces (and there weren't many fastrack). The person I sat next to said 'I never knew the drop was that steep.' Didn't you see it upon entering X-Sector, it's quite hard to miss.

After some lunch at the pizza/pasta buffet we did Runaway Train and the rapids. RMT is really good fun and it's nice to see a unique layout instead of the figure of 8. The rapids were soaking with our boat dipping into a wave so the water just flooded into our laps. We thought this was a good time to do the Flume which now has adapted boats for families with children over 1m and under 1.2m. These boats basically have a second back pad and handles on the side of the pads. The queue seperate just before loading and seems to be quite popular and working well. I then soaked my sister on Battle Galleons and sat next to a grumpy kid on Sonic Spinball which is a great ride just with an awful throughput. We then shot of to Forbidden Valley to get my ride on N:ST to find it was broken so never did get my ride on Sub-terra After going on Nemesis and Air again to lift my spirits I went on Duel and just sat there for the whole ride admiring the theming which really is amazing because half of it I've never noticed before as I'm to busy shooting the little red lights. We then realised it was 5 so decided to leave to avoid the car park madness at half 5. Other than not getting on N:ST it was a good day with a pretty decent ride count.

Ride count:

Nemesis: 6

Rita:1

Air:2

Oblivion:1

Thirteen:1

Duel:1

Flume:1

RMT:1 (3 laps)

Rapids:1

Sonic:1

Ice Age:1

Battle Galleons:1

Skyride:4

Monorail:2

Picture time

Me trying to be artsy again

Bye Alton for another year, now comes the persuading to try and get a trip to Scarefest.