Alton Towers 23rd/24th March 2024

[Matt N]

23rd March 2024: Alton Towers Day 1
Hi guys. Today was an exciting day; the start of my personal UK theme park season with a trip to Alton Towers! We were keen to come to the park this weekend for the Alton After Dark event and a first ride on Nemesis Reborn, and after thoroughly enjoying his first visit to the park last year, my grandad joined me and my parents for a return to the park. He was incredibly excited for his first ever ride on Nemesis after it was closed on his first visit!

Under the pretence of us wanting to stay in the park until 8pm, we left our home in Gloucestershire slightly later than usual, at around 9:15am. Due to congestion on the M5 and an accident on the M6, the journey took a little over 3 hours, with us arriving at Alton Towers at around 12:20pm. Unbeknownst to us, this ended up being rather symbolic of the day ahead… this should become more apparent as the report progresses!

Upon arrival, we took the monorail into the park and pretty much walked straight on, so with a brief stoppage on the ride, we got through Alton’s gates at around 12:45pm:

After getting into the park, we decided to make a beeline for one of the key draws of our visit…
Nemesis Reborn
Nemesis Reborn was on an advertised 110 minute queue time. It was one of the key draws of our visit, and realistically, we knew the queue would probably be long, so we decided to just get in it. This ultimately proved to be a good decision, as the queue only took around 60 minutes, which was in part due to absolutely phenomenal operations. Dispatches were incredibly speedy, and a throughput of around 1,300pph was being attained on 2 trains, which is as high as I’ve ever seen on Nemesis! But how was the ride? Did Nemesis Reborn live up to the hype after a 2 year retrack? Well, I have to say that it was great to get back on Nemesis; not riding it for 2 years did make me realise what an excellent coaster it is! I rode in row 7, and it was one of the best rides I’ve had on it, with awesome speed, just the right amount of intensity and a pretty much glass smooth ride experience! My grandad, who was taking his first ride, absolutely loved it, saying that “you can’t not love that” and that “it was somehow even more insane than Smiler”! He even told me to specifically mention that “the outside loop was so insane, it made snot spread all over my nose”! I also have to say that I really like what they’ve done with the area; it’s looking absolutely brilliant, and my parents were also very impressed! I’ll do a more detailed review of Nemesis Reborn at some stage, but all in all, our verdict was very positive:

After Nemesis Reborn, the rest of the rides were either closed or on very long queues, so we decided to head for the shortest coaster queue…
Runaway Mine Train
Runaway Mine Train was on an advertised 60 minute queue time. As the other coasters were all either closed or on queues of over 100 minutes, we figured that it was the least worst option and decided to give it a go. This queue was ultimately slightly longer than advertised, taking around 65-70 minutes. So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 17, and it was good fun! Runaway Mine Train is a definite guilty pleasure of mine; that tunnel helix is surprisingly intense for a family roller coaster, and the ride definitely feels faster than 22mph! My grandad also really enjoyed it, saying that it was faster than he’d remembered, with the tunnel helix gaining particular plaudits from him! So overall, Runaway Mine Train was a good, fun ride that we all enjoyed:

After our ride on the Runaway Mine Train, we headed to the snack stand near Wicker Man so that my parents and grandad could get some coffees. However, we were told that the stand had “run out of hot drinks” (my mum’s face upon hearing this was a picture…), so we headed to a different stand to get coffees before heading over to Rita.

At that point, Rita’s 100 minute advertised queue time was the shortest of that of any of the open coasters we hadn’t ridden, so we initially decided to get into the queue. However, the ride was running 1 train and attaining a throughput of slightly under 400pph. This meant that the main queue pretty much wasn’t moving, with it moving more quickly from people leaving it than from the actual ride throughput. Therefore, we decided to bail after 15 minutes of minimal movement, as more rides were opening with shorter advertised queues:

After bailing on Rita, we decided to head for a ride that had just reopened on a shorter advertised queue time…
Wicker Man
Wicker Man had just reopened on an advertised 70 minute queue time, so as all four of us really like Wicker Man, we decided to get in the queue. We had our suspicions that the queue may be a little longer than 70 minutes based on where it stretched to, but we hadn’t bargained for the actual length. It moved quite a bit slower than usual, likely in large part due to a combination of reduced capacity (only 2 trains out of 3 were running) and far more Fastrack and RAP than usual, and with a brief 5-10 minute weather delay, the queue ultimately took 145 minutes. No, that is not a typo… it took us nearly 2.5 hours to get to the airgates, and by the time we got off the ride and were stood in the shop, it was a full 2.5 hours later than when we had joined the queue (we joined at 4:30pm, and we were off the ride and in the shop at 7pm). That is quite possibly the longest queue I’ve ever waited in for a UK coaster, and up there with the likes of Gringotts at Universal in opening year as one of the longest I’ve ever waited in. To be fair, the weather delay added a small amount of time on, but even without that, the queue would still have taken well over 2 hours. But enough about the queue; how was the ride? Well, the longer-than-expected queue actually worked in our favour somewhat for the ride experience itself. By the time we got on the ride, it was pretty much dark, so we had an unexpected night ride with all the themed lighting on! I’d been hoping for a night ride on Wicker Man before our trip, but I had not expected to get one when I joined the queue at 4:30pm, so that was a definite bonus! Perhaps controversially, Wicker Man has long been my favourite Alton Towers ride, and people have always said about how brilliant it is at night. And my god, it did not disappoint! I was seated in row 5, and it was absolutely sublime! The pacing was phenomenal, with the ride absolutely flying through the course, there were loads of excellent airtime moments, and overall, it was just a phenomenal amount of fun! I should also add that it was absolutely belting it down with rain during our ride, which added an… interesting dimension to the experience! Overall, that night ride on Wicker Man was absolutely phenomenal; all four of us were shocked and in complete hysterics at the end, and that ride, for me at least, is an experience I will never forget! I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that it was the best ride I’ve ever had on Wicker Man and quite possibly the best ride I’ve ever had on a UK coaster; it almost made the 2.5 hour queue feel worthwhile! And it was in row 5; I can only imagine how insane it would have been on the back:

After our absolutely sublime night ride on Wicker Man, it was 7pm. As we’d changed our minds about staying until 8pm earlier in the day and booked a restaurant reservation at our hotel, we decided to leave the park to head back there at that point:

So, that wrapped up our first day at Alton Towers out of this 2-day trip! I’m not going to beat around the bush here; it was a pretty weak day overall. I’m sorry to be negative, but I’ve had a lot of theme park visits over the years, including countless trips to Alton Towers alone, and it’s definitely the weakest day I’ve ever spent at Alton Towers. In fact, it’s probably down there with Thorpe Park July 2018 as one of the weakest days I’ve ever spent in a theme park full stop. A combination of long queues, sporadic ride availability, and cold and windy weather did definitely test our enthusiasm at times.

However, this wasn’t Alton Towers’ fault. The problems were largely caused by excessive wind speeds and poor weather; they can’t change the weather, and to be fair, it was pretty windy and cold today. And they were kind enough to give us all a free return visit for our troubles, so we are thinking of returning for an additional day trip later in the year.

Also, the day was not without its positives at all. For one, I really enjoyed getting on Nemesis Reborn; I’m a big fan of what they’ve done with the theming and area, the ride itself was running excellently, and it seemed like my parents and grandad were also fans! Secondly, that night ride on Wicker Man was simply sublime; as much as the queue was very long, I’m so glad we got to do that! It was possibly the best ride I’ve ever had on Wicker Man, or any UK coaster for that matter, and it left us all in awe and in complete hysterics!

Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed this report! I apologise for a slightly more negative report today, and I admit that I may have been overly harsh at points, but I do feel that I need to be honest with you all, and that means not pretending that things were brilliant when they weren’t. Keep your eyes peeled for another trip report tomorrow, as we’ve got a second day in the park tomorrow!

 

[NuttySquirrel]

Thanks for the write-up @Matt N . It's unfortunate that ended up going to the park on a day so severely affected by the weather; I'm sure you would have booked expecting this weekend to be less busy than opening weekend - but you are right that three rides in a day isn't good!

I do think on days such as yesterday you do want to be maximising the time you spend in the park and be aiming to arrive well before lunchtime - it's often possible to get a couple of rides in between 10am and 12pm and then you've got ahead of the worst of the day's queues. Like you I am at the wrong end of the M5/M6 corridor for the park and I would never, ever want to be doing that journey at the start of a park day. I guess your parents thought that as the park was open until 8pm you didn't need to be onsite for the entire day but in your shoes I would definitely have encouraged them to make an earlier start, or perhaps stay the night before in a Premier Inn somewhere a bit closer to the park. It's a shame as well that you weren't able to stay until ride close, I reckon you could have headed to Forbidden Valley at 7pm to get in the queue for Nemesis Reborn and had a night ride - which by all accounts would have been a spectacular end to the day. However I appreciate that your parents and grandparents might not have been keen on such a late finish - especially if the weather wasn't great - but perhaps it would have been possible to work something out if they didn't want to join you.

It's great that you were able to get a night ride on Wicker Man - it is hands down one of the best experiences at the park especially now that the flames have returned. I'll often join the queue for this ride about an hour before dusk knowing that I'll be getting a night ride but before most people have clocked that it's getting dark. That queue time is astonishing though - not sure where you joined it from but 2 train operations and RAP/FT don't quite explain the full story to me, sounds like they might have been having issues beyond that, possibly weather related?

I think it's totally reasonable not to blame the park for the bad weather - which absolutely cannot be helped - and I don't disagree with them closing rides for high winds or extreme temperatures - however the reduced operations at the start of the season clearly compounded the weather issues yesterday and that is something well within the park's control, having had an entire winter closure period to prep the rides. So please don't apologise for being negative - many people got more rides in than you did yesterday and have been much more vocal in their displeasure, even going so far as to take it out on the poor ride staff yesterday who I'm sure were doing their best. It's good that you've had your tickets re-validated for another day anyway. I hope you have a much better day in the park today!

 

[Matt N]

Thanks for the write-up @Matt N . It's unfortunate that ended up going to the park on a day so severely affected by the weather; I'm sure you would have booked expecting this weekend to be less busy than opening weekend - but you are right that three rides in a day isn't good!

I do think on days such as yesterday you do want to be maximising the time you spend in the park and be aiming to arrive well before lunchtime - it's often possible to get a couple of rides in between 10am and 12pm and then you've got ahead of the worst of the day's queues. Like you I am at the wrong end of the M5/M6 corridor for the park and I would never, ever want to be doing that journey at the start of a park day. I guess your parents thought that as the park was open until 8pm you didn't need to be onsite for the entire day but in your shoes I would definitely have encouraged them to make an earlier start, or perhaps stay the night before in a Premier Inn somewhere a bit closer to the park. It's a shame as well that you weren't able to stay until ride close, I reckon you could have headed to Forbidden Valley at 7pm to get in the queue for Nemesis Reborn and had a night ride - which by all accounts would have been a spectacular end to the day. However I appreciate that your parents and grandparents might not have been keen on such a late finish - especially if the weather wasn't great - but perhaps it would have been possible to work something out if they didn't want to join you.

It's great that you were able to get a night ride on Wicker Man - it is hands down one of the best experiences at the park especially now that the flames have returned. I'll often join the queue for this ride about an hour before dusk knowing that I'll be getting a night ride but before most people have clocked that it's getting dark. That queue time is astonishing though - not sure where you joined it from but 2 train operations and RAP/FT don't quite explain the full story to me, sounds like they might have been having issues beyond that, possibly weather related?

I think it's totally reasonable not to blame the park for the bad weather - which absolutely cannot be helped - and I don't disagree with them closing rides for high winds or extreme temperatures - however the reduced operations at the start of the season clearly compounded the weather issues yesterday and that is something well within the park's control, having had an entire winter closure period to prep the rides. So please don't apologise for being negative - many people got more rides in than you did yesterday and have been much more vocal in their displeasure, even going so far as to take it out on the poor ride staff yesterday who I'm sure were doing their best. It's good that you've had your tickets re-validated for another day anyway. I hope you have a much better day in the park today!

You’re exactly right. We chose 23rd/24th March as our dark weekend because we thought that it was the one that was least likely to be busy. We thought opening weekend would probably be carnage, and we thought that Easter weekend would also be carnage. How foolish we were!

We did originally think about just spending a really long day there, but my parents later decided that they couldn’t quite stomach the idea of a full 10 hours at Alton, so we planned on spending a similar amount of time in the park to usual and simply shifting the timings a bit later (our normal Alton-visiting pattern is very “10am-5pm” so this was a change for us!). The journey has also never usually been that problematic for us; Alton Towers is normally roughly a 2.5 hour drive from where I live, so if we leave Gloucestershire at about 7-7:30, we can normally get to Alton before 10am and be on the park not long after opening. In terms of staying until ride close; at that point, we had all just been in a slow-moving 2.5 hour queue, we were freezing cold and we were very wet, so I think there was a universal acceptance that Wicker Man would be our last ride. Had I been under my own devices, I may have tried to eke out a last ride, but the queues were still long, my parents and grandad were cold and fed up, and to be completely honest, I was also utterly freezing and did not mount much resistance to leaving at 7pm. We’d actually bailed on 8pm much earlier in the day; my mum booked a restaurant reservation at our hotel for 7:30pm when we were stood in the queue for RMT at around 2:30-3pm and pretty much nothing else was open, because in her words “What’s the point in staying until 8pm if nothing’s going to open?”. To my parents’ surprise, we did actually have to move that back to 8pm in the end due to how long the Wicker Man queue took…

We did join from well into the extensions, to be fair, and we did have a feeling that the queue might be longer than 70 minutes, but we weren’t expecting 2.5 hours. There was a brief weather delay, but this lasted under 10 minutes, and there was also a particularly long coffee order from the shop at one point which I think brought the queue to a standstill, but even without those factors, I’d hazard a guess that the queue would still have taken well over 2 hours. Compared to usual, it was just crawling along so slowly; it took 70 minutes to even get out of the switchback portion under the first turnaround. At the time of joining, we’d figured that it was probably the best option, as our other option was a virtually non-moving, nearly 2 hour long queue for Rita on 1 train.

 

[John]

Aside from the dreadful ride availability, you've fallen victim to one of my current pet peeves at Towers - they're really poor at posting accurate queue times. Nemesis has been overstated for years but it's something of an exception to the rule nowadays as for most coasters you can easily wait far longer than the stated time. WM is a prime example of this, with only 2 trains in use they should have known that queue was going to be far longer than 70, some of us waited over an hour last week and that was only from part way up the hill towards the shop (and with the ride running with no issues during that time). Even on 3 trains the queue to the entrance (without extensions) can be 90 minutes when FT/RAP allocations are high. From your photo I'd never have joined that queue because I have enough experience to know the time at the entrance is wrong, the average guest cannot be expected to know this, especially if the ride isn't even at full capacity.

Queue times for WM, Rita, Smiler and Spinball were all clearly underestimated when I saw them last weekend, though yesterday they at least seemed to be in the right ball-park for Rita with 100.

 

[NuttySquirrel]

Forgot to mention as well that we had the same issues with the snack stand just outside Wicker Man last weekend, swung by to get a coffee before joining the WM queue and no hot drinks. Used to just be a coffee place but is now coffees and hot dogs, and they seem to be having trouble with the coffee part of it now. Hope they sort that because otherwise it's one less place in the park to reliably get a decent coffee.

 

[Matt N]

24th March 2024: Alton Towers Day 2
We had our second day in the park today! After a weaker first day, we went to Alton Towers today hoping to get on slightly more, including some of the stuff we didn’t do yesterday.

As we’d stayed in a local hotel the night before, we left there at around 9:30am and got to Alton Towers before 10am, meaning that we arrived in the park itself at around 10:10am:

Upon arrival in the park, we noticed that a certain ride we’d bailed on yesterday was on a far shorter queue, so me and my grandad headed to…
Rita
Rita was on a 25 minute advertised queue time, so my grandad and I decided to give it a go. The ride was still on 1 train, but the queue was vastly shorter than it was yesterday, and it ultimately took around 35-40 minutes. So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated on the back row, and it was great fun! I always love the launches on these hydraulic launch coasters, and the ride had a brilliant sense of speed and some absolutely brilliant pops of ejector airtime! There was a slight rattle, but nothing that overly detracted from enjoyment, and overall, my ride on Rita was great! My grandad enjoyed it too; he simply turned to me at the end, laughed, and said “insane machine!”:

After Rita, we met back up with my parents and went to ride another ride we hadn’t done yesterday, which was on a relatively short queue…
Oblivion
Oblivion was on an advertised 40 minute queue time, so me, my dad and my grandad decided to give it a go. The queue moved quickly due to brilliant operations resulting in a throughput of over 1,100pph, and we ultimately only waited 20-25 minutes. It’s always a bonus when the queue time is overstated! But how was the ride? Well, I’ve always loved Oblivion, and today’s ride was particularly awesome! I had a rather loose restraint, so I absolutely flew out of my seat going down the drop before getting that unbelievable hit of speed in the tunnel! I did, however, get whacked in the face by a rogue splash of water exiting the tunnel, which was slightly painful… overall, though, Oblivion was absolutely fantastic, and certainly reinforced its place as one of my favourite Alton Towers rides:

After Oblivion, we met back up with my mum and headed out of X-Sector to…
Nemesis Reborn
Nemesis Reborn was on an advertised 50 minute queue, so all four of us decided to reride it. We started queueing significantly further into the queue than we did yesterday, but despite this, we queued for the advertised 50 minutes, only 10 minutes less than yesterday. The queue moved notably slower than yesterday due to weaker operations; stacking was routine, and dispatch intervals were frequently over 2 minutes. But enough about the queue; how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 4, and the ride was absolutely excellent, and every bit as good as yesterday! The pacing was fast, the intensity was good without being excessive, the ride was smooth, and I must say that the recent rerides have given me a newfound appreciation for some of the more unique aspects of its layout design! Overall, then, Nemesis Reborn was absolutely excellent, and I’m thoroughly glad that such a great ride has been given a new lease of life:

After riding Nemesis Reborn, we decided to head to the other coaster in Forbidden Valley…
Galactica
Galactica was on an advertised 30 minute queue, so we decided to take a ride. I initially thought that this queue looked longer than 30 minutes, but it actually turned out to be pretty accurate, with us waiting around 35 minutes. So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 3, and I’m afraid to say I wasn’t the biggest fan. Granted, the ride is smooth, and it has some interesting manoeuvres, but I just find the riding position rather uncomfortable. I’ve gone off flying coasters in general in recent years. Overall, while Galactica has some interesting elements, it’s not really my thing. It’s definitely the weakest of Alton Towers’ Big 7 for me:

After Galactica, we headed out of Forbidden Valley to take a reride on…
Wicker Man
Wicker Man was on an advertised 65 minute queue time, so as we wanted to have a reride on it, we decided to join the queue. The queue was much shorter than it was yesterday, but the advertised queue time was still somewhat understated, as it took us 80-85 minutes to get on the ride overall. That’s a vast improvement on 2.5 hours, though, so I can’t really complain! But how was the ride? Well, I was a little nervous to see how the day ride seemed after the brilliance of last night’s night ride, but I have to say that it still held its own phenomenally! I was seated in row 11, and the ride was absolutely phenomenal! There was airtime for days, the pacing was relentless, there were loads of wonderful twists and turns, the ride was smooth, and overall, the ride was just absolutely sublime! Overall then, Wicker Man was absolutely phenomenal, and the two rides over the last two days have easily been two of my best ever rides on it; it’s most definitely reinforced its status as my favourite Alton Towers ride:

After our ride on Wicker Man, it was around 3:30pm, so we decided to head home after that in order to get back home at a sensible time.

So that brought the day, and our March 2024 Alton Towers trip, to an end. While I’d be lying if I said that it was my best Alton Towers trip ever when you consider yesterday, there were still numerous highly enjoyable moments, and today was definitely an improvement on yesterday! I really enjoyed getting on Nemesis Reborn, and I have to say that I absolutely love what they've done with the retrack project and area! I also had two absolutely sublime rides on Wicker Man this trip, with the night ride in particular being one that will always stick with me, and overall, it was just nice to get back to Alton Towers after a long closed season and get back on some of the rides! It is undeniably a park that holds a very special place in my heart, and it always will be. No weaker day will ever change that.

Thanks for reading; I hope you've enjoyed these reports! I'm not sure exactly when my next theme park trip will be, but if not before, my next trip report will probably be from Oakwood Theme Park at some point in May!

 

[richr87]

Following your first post glad you got a better second day Matt for u and your family and at least u have a free visit at some point to make up for the lack luster first day you had at the park!

 

[BarryZola]

Yeah, it's easy to forget how much fun Wicker Man is sometimes. In the dark it's especially nice. And then Nemesis, it's definitely been missed in the line-up.