AstroDan
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance, Cedar Point
2.9.12
Hot on the heels of my visit to Thorpe Park last week, where the park closed far too early, fastrack resulted in painfully slow queue lines and the park was packed - I really never thought I would feel similarly with a day at Alton Towers!
OK - it was nowhere near as bad as the situation at Thorpe Park - i.e. there were no horrific 100 minute waits or anything like that - but, with higher expectations of Alton Towers than any other UK park - I am afraid it didn't really deliver.
The park took the decision to make today the first 5pm ride close, after the past 6 weeks of 6pm. Obviously, they expected it to be quiet(er). Well - it wasn't. In fact, themed areas were packed out, queues on rides were longer than I have seen as at any stage so far this season!
Maximum queue times seen:
Air 60
Nemesis 30
Th13teen 65
Rita 80
Sonic Spinball 90
Oblivion 30
Sub Terra 60
Squirrel Nutty 60
RMT 30
Flume 40
Rapids 25
Now, is that a busy day for AT or is that a busy day?
Fastrack queues were really quite long... almost Thorpe Park-esque - on most of the major rides. On Nemesis, a group of 20 or 30 people just cut right in front of the main queue, and the Th13teen fastrack queue was down past the photo unit! Th13teen had a ride stop due to an incident, and our waiting time - with no extensions open - from the entrance - was a whopping 80 minutes. The longest I have waited for a ride at Alton Towers all season. We joked in the Th13teen queue that the view we had was of a motionless Th13teen queue line, and beyond - an absolte mass of people, again motionless, waiting in the painfully arranged Rita queue, which was 80 minutes long!
Queues for food outlets at lunch time in Mutiny Bay were also enormous - I chose not to have anything from the Courtyard BBQ due to the queue size.
The queue for Air was outside the entrance - with just minutes to go before ride close!
I cannot believe that Alton Towers did not extend the park hours today! Last season or before, it would easily have been a 6pm close!!
Hot on the heels of my visit to Thorpe Park last week, where the park closed far too early, fastrack resulted in painfully slow queue lines and the park was packed - I really never thought I would feel similarly with a day at Alton Towers!
OK - it was nowhere near as bad as the situation at Thorpe Park - i.e. there were no horrific 100 minute waits or anything like that - but, with higher expectations of Alton Towers than any other UK park - I am afraid it didn't really deliver.
The park took the decision to make today the first 5pm ride close, after the past 6 weeks of 6pm. Obviously, they expected it to be quiet(er). Well - it wasn't. In fact, themed areas were packed out, queues on rides were longer than I have seen as at any stage so far this season!
Maximum queue times seen:
Air 60
Nemesis 30
Th13teen 65
Rita 80
Sonic Spinball 90
Oblivion 30
Sub Terra 60
Squirrel Nutty 60
RMT 30
Flume 40
Rapids 25
Now, is that a busy day for AT or is that a busy day?
Fastrack queues were really quite long... almost Thorpe Park-esque - on most of the major rides. On Nemesis, a group of 20 or 30 people just cut right in front of the main queue, and the Th13teen fastrack queue was down past the photo unit! Th13teen had a ride stop due to an incident, and our waiting time - with no extensions open - from the entrance - was a whopping 80 minutes. The longest I have waited for a ride at Alton Towers all season. We joked in the Th13teen queue that the view we had was of a motionless Th13teen queue line, and beyond - an absolte mass of people, again motionless, waiting in the painfully arranged Rita queue, which was 80 minutes long!
Queues for food outlets at lunch time in Mutiny Bay were also enormous - I chose not to have anything from the Courtyard BBQ due to the queue size.
The queue for Air was outside the entrance - with just minutes to go before ride close!
I cannot believe that Alton Towers did not extend the park hours today! Last season or before, it would easily have been a 6pm close!!