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A much better day

Snagglemama

TS Member
Favourite Ride
Wicker man.
So today we headed back to towers. We caught the train to Derby and then the bus. Some changes over in the transport thread.

I had purchased fast passes I had been watching the queue times and decided they were the best way forward.

We were in the park just after half eleven and the queue for tickets was pretty quick.

Most coasters were on multiple trains.

Hex- thought I'd get sick on this but didn't.

Oblivion. This was on five trains and they were tanking people through. This was the first out of the 3 B&M I rode and Omg I loved it. Had two rides as it was walk on around fourish. Don't care that it's short. Don't care what the haters say I loved it.

Wickerman - Had a Benny before we got on it. But by the time we had a drink and a bite was sorted pretty quick. Big Bob has found his flames. Asked to be batched onto back row and had a wicked fast ride on it.

Thirteen - I loved this coaster, totally and utterly. Had two goes. One front one middle. Love that first drop off the lift hill and the backwards section. Thought it would be slow but it wasn't.

Battle Galleons - Brings out your competitive side doesnt it? Got soaked but didn't care because it was hot.

Congo river rapids - Okay, didn't really get wet.

Runaway mine train - Very rough today. Made some strange noises.

Galactica - Hmmm not keen on the restraints. Felt like I was going to fall out the first drop off the lift hill. The staff were tanking it through. We were front row. And my feelings are mixed I'm not sure whether I like this coaster. We didn't do VR.

Nemmy - We were second to last row. I'm not sure if I love or hate this coaster or both. I love the loop surprisingly. Made a weird noise coming up the lift hill which I don't know if that's normal or not. I felt really sick coming off it.

Smiler - I didn't do smiler. My lad went on it and he loves it. He did say it was rough.

Spinball- again I didn't do. But my lad said he enjoyed it.

Rita - She surprised me. I enjoyed the ride.

Sea life- This was a funky attraction to walk through. Loved the rays and stuff.

The staff were friendly and I felt I was at a totally different park. No skyride again today but felt like we did less walking.

Fantastic day. Still buzzing.
 
I'm glad that you had a better day. Alton is a great place when it's run properly and this year has been their worst for ride operation.

I'm glad that you love Oblivion, it's my favourite and it's very much underrated.

I would also recommend that you ride Nemesis on the front row, it so much better.

Rita is also good front row, but not worth the extra queue time if there is a lot of people in the front row queue line.
 
Great news you've had a better day at Towers. I remember suggesting you go back and i'm glad you did. It's that kind of place, you can still have a great time if you go, and other times not so great. Depends on a lot of stuff reallly.

Next time try the Smiler, it's a lot of fun. It took me a while to do it, but glad i did.
 
Yeah if you can do Nemesis, you can do Smiler.

On Oblivion, I like sitting in the middle seats and making sure they are closed as loose as possible, then at the top, put my feet onto the bar and count to three, then kick myself off, if you time it right you can free fall all the way to the bottom.
 
I don't mind what seat I have on Oblivion, I try not to have any of my harness to tight, just push belly out when harness being checked. I just assume the star jump position on the way down.
 
Great news you've had a better day at Towers. I remember suggesting you go back and i'm glad you did. It's that kind of place, you can still have a great time if you go, and other times not so great. Depends on a lot of stuff reallly.

Next time try the Smiler, it's a lot of fun. It took me a while to do it, but glad i did.

Hmmm maybe. Perhaps I need to ride nemmy a few time more times first lol

I'm glad that you had a better day. Alton is a great place when it's run properly and this year has been their worst for ride operation.

I'm glad that you love Oblivion, it's my favourite and it's very much underrated.

I would also recommend that you ride Nemesis on the front row, it so much better.

Rita is also good front row, but not worth the extra queue time if there is a lot of people in the front row queue line.

I will make sure that I try those next time. I will deffo be back, I like the side seats actually feels a bit like a wing coaster


Glad to hear you had a better day today. Which band of fastrack did you buy?

We brought the gold. Only because it had wickerman on it.

I don't mind what seat I have on Oblivion, I try not to have any of my harness to tight, just push belly out when harness being checked. I just assume the star jump position on the way down.

I need to teach that to my son he said the harness was too tight.
 
Glad to hear you had a better day. :) I agree with you on thirteen- Some enthusiasts don't like it and think it is mediocre but I absolutely love it, and Oblivion too. Not Keen on Galactica either, and I find the flying position very uncomfortable.
 
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Glad to hear you had a better day. :) I agree with you on thirteen- Some enthusiasts don't like it and think it is mediocre but i absolutely love it, and Oblivion too. Not Keen on Galactica either, and I find the flying position very uncomfortable.

I don't find it Mediocre in the slightest. Would love to do it back row as the front was pretty cool.
 
Yeah, I've always wanted to do the front and finally got to a few weeks ago. Made my day. :)

On my second go the train before ours the staff were pretending to blow the train out of the station. The guy in the booth was joking with riders. The atmosphere was great.
 
Glad you had a good day.

I dont think there are any haters for Oblivion, we all love it, just wish it was a tad longer! Out of interest was the mist working over the hole?

Nemesis noise up the lift hill is prob just the noise of the ratchet system to stop the train rolling back if it needs to make a stop of the lift hill. Galactica - its a ride you had to totally relax on and put your entire faith in the restraints. I agree at the top of the lift hill looking down can be a bit un-nerving!

Going back to Nemesis, as Royjess said, you have to ride it front row to have the best experience. I only ride it front row!

Now - head up in October for Scarefest and go on them in the dark!!!
 
Glad you had a good day.

I dont think there are any haters for Oblivion, we all love it, just wish it was a tad longer! Out of interest was the mist working over the hole?

Nemesis noise up the lift hill is prob just the noise of the ratchet system to stop the train rolling back if it needs to make a stop of the lift hill. Galactica - its a ride you had to totally relax on and put your entire faith in the restraints. I agree at the top of the lift hill looking down can be a bit un-nerving!

Going back to Nemesis, as Royjess said, you have to ride it front row to have the best experience. I only ride it front row!

Now - head up in October for Scarefest and go on them in the dark!!!

No mist on oblivion sadly. Although the famous B&M roar kept us entertained.

Glad Nemmy was okay lol.

Problem is with Galactica I was saying before we left the station that my restraint wasn't tight enough. I've discovered I like to be pinned to my seat.
 
Wanting to be "pinned" is normal when you are new to coasters. It feels "safer". But you'll find the more you ride them, the more freedom you'll want. ;)

It can depend on the ride and restraint, of course. I find if something has a lap restraint and inverts, you absolutely DO need to be pinned. Lap restraints that are loose give great floater air if there's no danger of getting thrown out. But with an OTSR, a bit of play is a good thing nomatter what.

If something had a seatbelt AND lapbar, let the belt do the work and keep the bar looser.

Then you get wierd ones like Mindbender (Edmonton Mall) or Olympia Looping, where you want the lap bar to be tight, but the shoulder clamps to not touch you.

.... And then there's The Ultimate, where if you aren't pinned you will certainly die....
 
Wanting to be "pinned" is normal when you are new to coasters. It feels "safer". But you'll find the more you ride them, the more freedom you'll want. ;)

It can depend on the ride and restraint, of course. I find if something has a lap restraint and inverts, you absolutely DO need to be pinned. Lap restraints that are loose give great floater air if there's no danger of getting thrown out. But with an OTSR, a bit of play is a good thing nomatter what.

If something had a seatbelt AND lapbar, let the belt do the work and keep the bar looser.

Then you get wierd ones like Mindbender (Edmonton Mall) or Olympia Looping, where you want the lap bar to be tight, but the shoulder clamps to not touch you.

.... And then there's The Ultimate, where if you aren't pinned you will certainly die....

Great advice there :eek: did make me chuckle with your parting words. I think I've done the hard part. I've done two inverting coasters now that are B&M and man are they smooth. That loop on Nemmy is something else. Like you said the more I ride the more relaxed I will be.
 
Just don't expect other rides to be as smooth as B&Ms. Case in point: The Smiler. ;)
 
Just don't expect other rides to be as smooth as B&Ms. Case in point: The Smiler. ;)

Oh lol no ive been around coaster forums for years and have heard that B&M are special coasters and I now know why. Nemmy and Galactica are good coasters to cut your inversion teeth on I would say. As for smiler. I will do it at some point to get the cred. But my 18 year old said it was rough and the idea of inversion after inversion after inversion Doesn't really interest me at all :eek:
 
It's mostly the later sections of Smiler which are a bit rough for me. mainly the rolls before the brake run. maybe try to ride it early in the day before it gets warmed up too much and hope for a seat closer to the front and in the middle over the track.

it's a cool ride though, not perfect but still fun.
 
It's mostly the later sections of Smiler which are a bit rough for me. mainly the rolls before the brake run. maybe try to ride it early in the day before it gets warmed up too much and hope for a seat closer to the front and in the middle over the track.

it's a cool ride though, not perfect but still fun.

Yes perhaps thanks for the tip
 
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