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Help with plan for first trip in a looong time!

shazzyboo

TS Member
Hi everyone!

We will be heading to Alton Towers on Friday 11th July - last time we were there was about 8 years ago so a lot has changed! I am trying to come up with a plan for how to fit all the rides in but I'm getting a bit stuck.

We will be using ERT but from the looks of the website the rides that offer this are spread out quite a lot, so I am not sure of which area is best to go to first. We are two adults, and are looking to go on the thrill rides, but not the kiddie rides.

My initial thoughts are at 9am head to Runaway Mine Train, then Oblivion, then wait for Smiler to open at 10. After Smiler, then head for Sonic Spinball (as I remember the queues being quite bad for this), then Rita, followed by Th13rteen. Then Rapids, Flume and Sharkbait Reef. Then towards the end of the day head over to Nemesis, Air and Sub Terra.

So I am looking for a bit of advice from you experts! Is that plan do-able? Would you swap things around in any way? Are there any must do's I have forgotten on there?

Any help and suggestions would be much appreciated!

Thanks :)
 
Hi & welcome!

That plan sound like it would work well & it is similar to most people on here, including me - you must have done your research :)

My suggestion would be that instead of doing Sonic after The Smiler, head to Rita then Th13teen, then hex. Spinball is always busy first thing due to the location. You'd be better off heading to spinball middle of the day, after hex. DON'T FORGET/SKIP HEX!

Forbidden valley always gets quiet at the end of the day, so bear that in mind if you want multiple re-rides on nemesis ;)

Make use or Single rider ques, if you don't mind sitting on your own of course. Note: Don't use the SRQ for Rita unless it looks almost empty, It's quite probable you could be waiting longer than the main que otherwise.

Hope you have a nice day :)
 
Welcome to the forums shazzyboo :)

11th July is likely to be busy due to school trips. You'd be best off from the entrance doing the left hand side of the park first these days, as everyone head to Spinball and The Smiler first before anything else. Forbidden Valley has been unusually quiet during the first part of the day thanks to this.

Obviously this does mean leaving The Smiler until later on, which considering you've not been on it might not be what you want to do. You could either head over around lunchtime when things might be a little quieter, or leave it until toward the end of the day (there'll still be a pretty hefty queue so keep an eye queue times!) when the school kids are heading back to their coaches. It's always a good time to get a good few rides in before heading off :).

ridetimes.co.uk is ideal for having a check on queue times while you're there, make use of the free wifi while on resort and use it to help plan your day.
 
There's also http://www.ridetimes.co.uk integrated with the official AT Resort app, which is available on the app store. It has extra features when you're on-park, such as exact queue times (to the 5 minutes, I believe) and you can select a ride, and tell the app to give you a notification when that ride's queue time is short enough for you personally to endure. :)
 
Thank you all for the welcome and the great advice!

I have been toying with the idea of buying fast track passes to the smiler. Initially I thought no way at the £10 price ticket but then as its so rare that we go to Alton Towers £10 doesn't seem so bad to save me over an hour of queuing...
.
Is it possible to buy it on the day? My current plan has me heading for Smiler at 10am, if the queue is not too bad then I will just wait. I'd like to get it done early on in the day just in case of any problems as I'd be really disappointed to miss it.

So my slightly revised plan is now...

At gates for 9am opening
Runaway Mine Train
Oblivion
Wait for Smiler to open at 10
Rita
Th13rteen
Hex (Thank you Smudge I nearly forgot about this one!)
Sonic Spinball
Rapids
Flume
Sharkbait Reef
Nemesis
Air
Sub Terra

What time would you advise getting to the entrance to the car park to give enough time to park up and get the monorail across?

Thanks again!
 
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