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Do you prefer it alone or with friends?

Scott

Former TS Team Member
Favourite Ride
Nemesis
And by that I mean visiting a theme park you filthy lot...

We all tend to visit Alton (and other theme parks) with our friends and families. Whether it's an official TowersStreet meet or a wee sosche with friends who don't even know what this place is, most people go in a group.

Many people also visit alone on occasion though. Whether it's for a full day, or a couple of hours after work to chill out - people do visit theme parks alone.

There's pros and cons to each - some like to have time to whore rides while others enjoy the peacefulness of being on their own. Some can't think of anything worse - after all isn't a theme park meant to be somewhere to enjoy with other people?

I've never been to a park on my own and really don't think I would ever want to. I enjoy spending time with friends and family at parks just as much as I enjoy riding things and I don't think the pros of ride whoring would ever outweigh that to me...

But what do you, the great people of TST think hmm?
 
I personally like both depending on how I feel, the group are brilliant especially those who enjoy the tavern

And also sitting in the gardens on my own I like just thinking
 
I prefer visiting with friends and that is what I do most of the time. However, I have visited Towers on my own a fair few times which I have also really enjoyed.

It was a two or three years ago when I first went on my own. My head wasn't in a great place and I just remember Towers being a fantastic place to go to and quite literally escape from everything. I can still remember one of my visits, sitting eating nachos on the terrace outside the Mexican Cantina in the sun and it was just so relaxing. It's also lovely to just wander around the Towers and Gardens when you are on your own, especially when the weather is nice.

Then more recently I visited Towers a lot on my own in the early part of the 2013 season, in fact despite living an hour ago I was going pretty much once in the week and once at the weekend every week for quite a while (weekdays tended to be on my own, weekends with people). This was, as you probably all know, to follow construction of The Smiler. It's something I'll probably never be able to do again to the same extent. It was great fun being able to go and see the changes between each visit and I did thoroughly enjoy doing all of my construction updates.

On pretty much all of my visits where I've been on my own I've also made use of the single rider queues, particularly on Nemesis, Oblivion and Thirteen. And quite often I've bumped into people I know from here working at Towers!

So all in all, you can have a really enjoyable time at Towers by yourself. I wouldn't do it for a full day but for an afternoon it is just really relaxing and quite different to going with friends. If you ever just feel like getting away somewhere on your own sometime, give Towers a try.

:)
 
I've never been on my own and tbh I would never go around the theme park on my own.

However I would have a wander around the gardens and towers on my own. There's something quite tranquil about that.
 
I have never visited Alton Towers for a day without having planned to meet others. That said, I have been to the Spa twice on my own, but that lends itself more to that sort of thing.

I tend to find that the experiences of sharing a day at Alton Towers with others as central to the day, really.

That said, if I was close to a theme park which I hadn't been to before, or one that I rarely visited, I would go to one alone. I went to Futuroscope on my own a few years ago, for example.

:)
 
The one thing I love about going on my own, is the fact that you will always meet new people. I did Scarefest on my own this year, mazes, rides etc a decision based on when my friends could meet for other days and what they liked to do etc.

The irony is, most of the people I ended up speaking to or hanging around with for a bit, had ditched their family/friends to do their own thing anyway lol! I found as the day went on, I'd made new friends with about 4 different groups of people and kept bumping into them everywhere, grabbing a quick ride with them (ahem) and toddling off to the next attraction! Worked brilliantly, especially for the mazes that day.

You have to enjoy your own company I guess, and I do.
 
I enjoy going to Alton Towers with my daughter. Spending quality time together having fun and enjoying the memory creation machines (sorry slipped into the firework show).

It is a time where we can loose ourselves in a place we enjoy and forget our daily lives.
 
I've not exacly done any theme park alone. The closest I got were my first visits to Thorpe and Phantasialand.
Phantasialand was part of a school trip to Germany in 2005, but I never really hung out with anyone from my school so I just went off on my own to whore Colorado Adventure.
Thorpe was with college, and I knew absolutely nobody on this trip - I was the only one on my course who signed up for it. I ended up hanging out with this one guy for most of the day, but eventually got a bit tired of him.

Besides that, I always go with friends or family. Mostly family being dragged along as transport. Me and CobraRoll have had a few trips in the past year - the best part is we always end up with some sort of in joke, such as shouting BARREL ROLL over and over during heartline rolls or in-line twists.

Maybe when I get my own transport I'll try doing one on my own to see what it's like, but for now I prefer going with company.
 
always prefer to go with some one but that will not always be possible so i would go alone just treat it like going to the gym alone got to be more fun than wondering around the shops in town or being in front of the x box give me more times to check stuff out like the garderns for example.
 
I've never gone alone to a park, and I don't think I would ever. For me going with people is an integral part of the experience - I genuinely don't think I'd enjoy it at all if I went on my own. I can understand how some people could like it though, personally I wouldn't do it though.
 
I'm glad this topic has come up.

I often (majority of the time) go alone – none of my friends seem to like theme parks! I don't mind going with others, but it always feels like a day full of compromises.

There are certain differences when doing it on your own. Firstly, I think FastTrack is essential; I don't mind one or two hour queue when I'm with a friend and we can chat about stuff and enjoy each other's company, but when you're on your own, you really don't want to have to queue more than half an hour for anything.

You also always stumble upon a lot of other people who are also on their own! Most of them had split off from the people they were with, which just goes to show how going with friends is a mixed blessing!

Plus you see the place from a whole new angle. You get time to explore the gardens etc, which you would never have if you are with a friend due to the pressure to do the headlining rides.

Mainly though – if you're going to be spending a day on your own anyway, why not spend it at Alton?

And just to clarify – I'm also perfectly happy to go to Disneyland Paris alone, and take a special trip to do so. It's the best way to enjoy it in my opinion.

I do think coming to a meet one day sounds fun though!
 
I've never been alone but I did spend a good 3 hours on my own at Paulton's Park as no one would come on any of the bigger rides with me. I've never visited on me todd thouh although I have considered it on a few occasions. I probably would have done if I lived within 10 to 20mins of a park.
 
The best parts of doing anything, for me, is the responses of those around you. Even when I go to a park on my own I tend to end up talking to people but the best times, I find, are those when you are with people you know. Laughter is the best medicine for all of life's upsets and the randomness of good friends provides the best laughter.
 
I always tend to go to Alton Towers with other friends, in general its a much more enjoyable day, you can chat to your friends, have lunch with them, etc. On your own you can get a bit lonely! I have been on park before on my own, usually when friends are turning up later, or just to get some photos or for a wonder round. But I could certainly never enjoy a full day there on my own, there are so many rides I would not be able to ride on my own without feeling a little silly, such as Duel, Rapids, Flume, etc. I feel bad enough getting the monorail on my own when friends are turning up later/already on park.
 
I go with friends, be it TSTers, school friends or aliens, I like company on park. Even if it is just one friend I find it better than even the idea of being on my own all day at a park.
 
djtruefitt said:
I always tend to go to Alton Towers with other friends, in general its a much more enjoyable There are so many rides I would not be able to ride on my own without feeling a little silly, such as Duel, Rapids, Flume, etc.
No reason to feel silly on those rides. You get your own car/boat/whatever (at least I did).

OK, it is a little silly... But nobody else is watching ;-)
 
I'm glad this topic has come up as I've been thinking about dong a cheeky trip to AT sometime in October. Here is the reason why. The missies has told me that during a weekend in October. she will be heading to Benidorm for a hen do (please don't judge her) Thus ruining a trip I want to do with her around that time. So I have been planning since to do the trip to AT on my on. I realise this may sound sad but a lot of my mates are married and will bore me to death about there kids, or will always pull out. live near Castleford, and think that the trip will be a nice way to escape the doom an gloom of her not being there. Plus Yorkshire isn't s good as Staffordshire in having a good theme park.

I am more the aware that I will be walking around AT on my own will look weird, and as DJtruefit has mentioned it does rule out certain rides. Although in winter water rides can be ruled out for me and duel.....pah. So thank you for having this subject I really think t would give me confidence to do the rip alone. hopefully being scarefest some brilliant dark riding times
 
I vary depending on mood :p

As much as I love our meets and any days out I have there with friends sometimes I like nothing more than a trip to Towers on my own, and just spend the day chilling down the bottom of the gardens, and then maybe go for a stroll through the Towers. It's such a nice place to be to unwind and forget the rest of the world for a couple of hours :)
 
I don't think I've ever gone to a theme park alone. I like visiting with friends as I think I would get bored. Visiting with friends/family is part of the atmosphere and excitement. Visiting with friends/family makes the day memorable, saying "I can't believe we went on that" or "Do you remember the time...".

I think that visiting with people is a major part of visiting a park, as it makes the day special.
 
Slugjc said:
I'm glad this topic has come up as I've been thinking about dong a cheeky trip to AT sometime in October. Here is the reason why. The missies has told me that during a weekend in October

If you're unsure, I bet some/many/any TSTers would turn up anyway if you posted when in the Trip Plans section.
 
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