Friday 3rd November
This was the first time my mum and dad had visited since 2004, so I was expecting quite a bit of negativity from them on lack of ride availability, with comments such as, “where’s Boneshaker? Where’s Ripsaw? Why have they replaced Enterprise with that THING?” But they didn’t seem to notice the lack of variety and it certainly didn’t impact on their day.
Anyway…here’s how my day went!
We arrived on park just before 0930 to a flurry of activity on the lawns. Luckily, the weather held out pretty much all day and the only significant rainfall happened immediately after the fireworks had finished. We headed straight for….
…The Smiler! The ride was already testing when we joined the queue, and the ride opened around 10:10. We rode at 10:30 and were batched onto row 2. The ride was excellent, and was far smoother than my last ride on row 4. This is a ride where it really does make a difference as to which row you are on! After The Smiler, we headed to…
Rita! We got to Dark Forest around 10:50 and Rita was only on a 20 minute queue, so we joined it. It’s been a while since I’ve ridden Rita, but wow that launch is intense and I may have shouted an expletive that starts with F during the launch. Again, a great ride and the two pops of airtime are fantastic. Considering we were in Dark Forest, it was only natural to join the queue for…
Thirteen! This was now on a 45 minute queue - the park was now filling up. We rode around midday, and we kept the drop track element a surprise from my dad, and it was brilliant to see his reaction. All in all a good all round fun ride. The first drop always surprises me as it’s far steeper than I always remember! We were getting hungry now so headed down to Mutiny Bay, but before lunch we had a ride on…
Marauders Mayhem! We only queued for 10 minutes, which would’ve been 5 if the ride operator had not fancied a chat with a colleague over the fence. Not much to say here other than that it was a good fun ride for all the family.
Lunch - I’ve posted my thoughts on BK in Mutiny Bay on the appropriate thread, but let’s just say, it was a load of overpriced sh!te.
After lunch we had a quick walk around the aquarium before joining the queue for…
Wickerman! Me and another decided to fork out for a one shot fast track for this, purely on the basis that others in our party didn’t want to ride and we didn’t want to leave them hanging around for 70 minutes, which was the advertised queue time around 2pm. FT, RAP and main queues were all really busy and I felt sorry for the ride host in charge of merging them together before you enter the bag drop area. It really was quite chaotic and on a peak day like yesterday, felt quite poorly designed from a crowd management perspective. On to the ride, I can’t remember which row we were batched into but it was somewhere in the middle. I always love a ride on Wickerman, all of the smoke and lighting effects were working and it’s arguably the best “all round” ride package currently on offer at the park. The track was damp after a bit of drizzle so we were flying around the track at an incredible pace. It was around 2:45pm by the time we got off so we headed on down to…
The Curse At Alton Manor! This was advertised on a 25 minute queue but in reality it was more like 10 minutes. The outdoor queue line was really atmospheric - smoke was pumping out and it genuinely was really eerie. My main reason for riding this today was to get my family’s reaction to the ride. I’ve always said it’s a highly theatrical ride with a strong story, so if you don’t appreciate things like that then you might not like the ride. Needless to say, they were all pretty underwhelmed with the ride, which disappointed me slightly. They cited the lack of scares as the main disappointment, but I just feel if they’d had paid more attention in the queue line and pre show then they may have appreciated it more. It was now around 3:30pm so we headed on to Forbidden Valley to see if Galactica showed any sign of opening, and I can’t believe how lucky we were because when we arrived they were just opening the queue line!
Galactica! Owing to our incredibly good luck, this was walk on for us and we actually managed to get onto the front row, even though we joined through the main queue. The ride continues to ride excellently and it is a beautiful piece of hardware, however, the ride is in the most disgusting state. The station is completely hanging now - there’s mould all over the inside, none of the themed lighting works, and the whole package is quite frankly an embarrassment to the park because the whole ride just looks abandoned. This must indicate a retheme or a heavy dose of TLC is coming for 2024? That Galactica portal does closely resemble the Nemesis rebel logo doesn’t it……coincidence? It was now 4:30pm so dusk was setting in, so we decided to take a brisk walk over to….
Congo River Rapids! This ride closes at dusk and if we had arrived 10 minutes after than when we did, the queue would’ve been closed. I felt a bit daft telling my family that you no longer get wet on CRR, because yesterday’s ride was the wettest I’ve had in years. Have they added bigger/more logs to the trough to make the “rapidy parts” more rapidy? We got struck by a couple of rogue waves which drenched my jeans! It’s also great to see the waterfalls back on - whilst you never really get that wet passing through them, it’s a huge amount of fun and long may they stay. Our last ride of the day was….
Runaway Mine Train! We joined the queue around 5:10pm and were done by 5:40pm. Nothing much to say here - it’s a solid, fun all rounder which everyone can enjoy. Just please, PLEASE get rid of that stupid revolving exit door! It massively slows down operations what with them not letting new riders onto the platform until the old riders have left. Seriously - what purpose does it serve?
We then headed over to the lawns and bagged a decent spot by 6pm at the bottom of towers street. After some chips and a couple of red wines, it was time for the display to begin. For those interested in detail on the display, I’ve made a few comments in the relevant fireworks topic.
It was a really good day all round. For those that weren’t on park, you’d be forgiven for thinking that operations and availability was awful based on looking at the app alone, but we must’ve got lucky (we really did with Galactica), and I maintain my view of starting at the back of the park and arriving no later than 0930. You can really maximise the first two hours of ride time this way. We also got really lucky with the weather which was a real worry for us.
Including the £10 one shot fastrack, we paid £52 for our day not including food. For a ride count of 9 and the UKs best firework display, I felt we got good value for money.
This was the first time my mum and dad had visited since 2004, so I was expecting quite a bit of negativity from them on lack of ride availability, with comments such as, “where’s Boneshaker? Where’s Ripsaw? Why have they replaced Enterprise with that THING?” But they didn’t seem to notice the lack of variety and it certainly didn’t impact on their day.
Anyway…here’s how my day went!
We arrived on park just before 0930 to a flurry of activity on the lawns. Luckily, the weather held out pretty much all day and the only significant rainfall happened immediately after the fireworks had finished. We headed straight for….
…The Smiler! The ride was already testing when we joined the queue, and the ride opened around 10:10. We rode at 10:30 and were batched onto row 2. The ride was excellent, and was far smoother than my last ride on row 4. This is a ride where it really does make a difference as to which row you are on! After The Smiler, we headed to…
Rita! We got to Dark Forest around 10:50 and Rita was only on a 20 minute queue, so we joined it. It’s been a while since I’ve ridden Rita, but wow that launch is intense and I may have shouted an expletive that starts with F during the launch. Again, a great ride and the two pops of airtime are fantastic. Considering we were in Dark Forest, it was only natural to join the queue for…
Thirteen! This was now on a 45 minute queue - the park was now filling up. We rode around midday, and we kept the drop track element a surprise from my dad, and it was brilliant to see his reaction. All in all a good all round fun ride. The first drop always surprises me as it’s far steeper than I always remember! We were getting hungry now so headed down to Mutiny Bay, but before lunch we had a ride on…
Marauders Mayhem! We only queued for 10 minutes, which would’ve been 5 if the ride operator had not fancied a chat with a colleague over the fence. Not much to say here other than that it was a good fun ride for all the family.
Lunch - I’ve posted my thoughts on BK in Mutiny Bay on the appropriate thread, but let’s just say, it was a load of overpriced sh!te.
After lunch we had a quick walk around the aquarium before joining the queue for…
Wickerman! Me and another decided to fork out for a one shot fast track for this, purely on the basis that others in our party didn’t want to ride and we didn’t want to leave them hanging around for 70 minutes, which was the advertised queue time around 2pm. FT, RAP and main queues were all really busy and I felt sorry for the ride host in charge of merging them together before you enter the bag drop area. It really was quite chaotic and on a peak day like yesterday, felt quite poorly designed from a crowd management perspective. On to the ride, I can’t remember which row we were batched into but it was somewhere in the middle. I always love a ride on Wickerman, all of the smoke and lighting effects were working and it’s arguably the best “all round” ride package currently on offer at the park. The track was damp after a bit of drizzle so we were flying around the track at an incredible pace. It was around 2:45pm by the time we got off so we headed on down to…
The Curse At Alton Manor! This was advertised on a 25 minute queue but in reality it was more like 10 minutes. The outdoor queue line was really atmospheric - smoke was pumping out and it genuinely was really eerie. My main reason for riding this today was to get my family’s reaction to the ride. I’ve always said it’s a highly theatrical ride with a strong story, so if you don’t appreciate things like that then you might not like the ride. Needless to say, they were all pretty underwhelmed with the ride, which disappointed me slightly. They cited the lack of scares as the main disappointment, but I just feel if they’d had paid more attention in the queue line and pre show then they may have appreciated it more. It was now around 3:30pm so we headed on to Forbidden Valley to see if Galactica showed any sign of opening, and I can’t believe how lucky we were because when we arrived they were just opening the queue line!
Galactica! Owing to our incredibly good luck, this was walk on for us and we actually managed to get onto the front row, even though we joined through the main queue. The ride continues to ride excellently and it is a beautiful piece of hardware, however, the ride is in the most disgusting state. The station is completely hanging now - there’s mould all over the inside, none of the themed lighting works, and the whole package is quite frankly an embarrassment to the park because the whole ride just looks abandoned. This must indicate a retheme or a heavy dose of TLC is coming for 2024? That Galactica portal does closely resemble the Nemesis rebel logo doesn’t it……coincidence? It was now 4:30pm so dusk was setting in, so we decided to take a brisk walk over to….
Congo River Rapids! This ride closes at dusk and if we had arrived 10 minutes after than when we did, the queue would’ve been closed. I felt a bit daft telling my family that you no longer get wet on CRR, because yesterday’s ride was the wettest I’ve had in years. Have they added bigger/more logs to the trough to make the “rapidy parts” more rapidy? We got struck by a couple of rogue waves which drenched my jeans! It’s also great to see the waterfalls back on - whilst you never really get that wet passing through them, it’s a huge amount of fun and long may they stay. Our last ride of the day was….
Runaway Mine Train! We joined the queue around 5:10pm and were done by 5:40pm. Nothing much to say here - it’s a solid, fun all rounder which everyone can enjoy. Just please, PLEASE get rid of that stupid revolving exit door! It massively slows down operations what with them not letting new riders onto the platform until the old riders have left. Seriously - what purpose does it serve?
We then headed over to the lawns and bagged a decent spot by 6pm at the bottom of towers street. After some chips and a couple of red wines, it was time for the display to begin. For those interested in detail on the display, I’ve made a few comments in the relevant fireworks topic.
It was a really good day all round. For those that weren’t on park, you’d be forgiven for thinking that operations and availability was awful based on looking at the app alone, but we must’ve got lucky (we really did with Galactica), and I maintain my view of starting at the back of the park and arriving no later than 0930. You can really maximise the first two hours of ride time this way. We also got really lucky with the weather which was a real worry for us.
Including the £10 one shot fastrack, we paid £52 for our day not including food. For a ride count of 9 and the UKs best firework display, I felt we got good value for money.