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Fireworks 2024

I didn’t have fastrack or VIP. Arrived at 9am and was pleasantly surprised to be guided to park pretty much right outside the Galactica gate. At the monorail for 09:10 and was at the main entrance by 09:20.

Managed Smiler, Oblivion, Hex and Gangsta Granny before 11:30. Packed lunch break for an hour. Then tackled Nemesis, TCAM, Wicker and Sealife. Had some dinner at 17:30. Secured a spot in front of the first mound at the top
Of the lawns at 18:45. After the fireworks went over to FV for another ride on Nemesis and finished the day on Galactica.

Thirteen was obviously closed all day and saw Rita open halfway through the day but didn’t bother heading over.

In the car by 20:50 and exited the park by 21:00

Not sure if I was just lucky with the order of the rides but didn’t queue more than an hour for anything.
 
A lot of the Towers experience nowadays is down to luck, due to the risk of downtime. That said, I managed a fair few rides on both Friday and Sunday (no FT required but spinball SRQ was a real boost in the rain). Saturday was less focussed on rides but we still did a few things without having to join any truly dreadful queues.

TBH I thought the park really didn't feel particularly busy on any day over the weekend, I'd guess maybe 10-12k guests both Saturday and Sunday. Going back a few years, fireworks days would generally see queues of 100min or more for the likes of WM, Rita, Smiler & Thirteen most of the day. On Saturday Rita had a 30min wait just before 5pm. I think only WM and Smiler had queues that stayed over an hour for any significant period. If ride availability had been 100% it would not have felt busy at all. Likewise we had minimal trouble getting food simply by avoiding mutiny bay in the evening. We even got straight into Woodcutters on Sunday at around 12.30.

I really enjoyed the show, particularly the "battle" sequence between Nemesis and the spaceship with red gradually overcoming blue. Lots of fire and explosions is always a winner too, reminiscent of "the ground may shake" from many years ago.
 
This year was only my second Fireworks, and Chimpy's first. Last year I only managed Sunday, this year we did both Saturday and Sunday. We left home at 0645 on Saturday, and didn't get back until 0100 on Monday - top mumming there as Chimpy had school at 0830 :oops: The crush after the show each night to leave the lawns is still a bit much, but I'm guessing there's never going to be much more they can do to control that.

Saturday we arrived for park opening, did Nemesis and Curse then left the park for a pub lunch, so I've no real idea about how availability was. We walked through the woods to The Talbot Inn which is brilliant for food, and caters for vegans. I had the mushroom pie with proper fat chips, gravy and mushy peas, and Chimp had a burger almost as big as her head. It's a lovely place with loads of dogs visiting. With excellent navigation from Leigh, the walk was easy after the initial steep bit, and the White Hart was also nice for a drink before a wander back via the old train line and the Chained Oak. Once back on park we managed one last ride before making our way to the lawns for the show. I thought the show itself was extremely good - much better than I remember last year's being. Interestingly, it was scarily accurate to Defence events I've visited previously which were very macho with the loud rock music - although the similarity between the Phalanx hand symbol and a certain Makaton sign was cause for much hilarity. After the show we struggled through the crowds to Wickerman and got stuck there for quite a while. We failed to get food before the show, so ended up with pot noodles from the garage near our hotel which was the Premier Inn in Uttoxeter (not recommended as the rooms aren't quiet).

Sunday was good day for us, we stayed on park all day, and managed 11 rides, I thought the park seemed busy but not crazy. Queues weren't ridiculous, and down time didn't affect us particularly. We had lunch at Woodcutters, I had my usual, the vegan chickpea curry, and Chimpy had the BBQ Chicken Stack. Both were tasty, although the way the wine was presented left a little to be desired - I've never had a wine glass full to the brim before :eek: Sunday evening we made sure we got some nachos from near Mutiny Bay before the show started, and we were not disappointed. I had the vegan nachos which were nice. They could have done with some vegan cheeze, but otherwise they were tasty. Chimp had the pulled port version and said it was very nice. Seeing the show again meant we noticed some bits we hadn't spotted the night before, and the atmosphere with our group was really good fun. Queing for Nemesis with a bunch of tipsy thoosies is a lot of fun, even if the others around us were puzzled 😂

Something I noticed, which surprised me in a good way, was how clean the toilets were, despite the park being busy. I've been before and they've been horrific, not flushed, toilet paper all over the floor, pee all over the seats, and other grimness. This time, although I didn't see many extra cleaning staff, every time we went in they were clean and tidy.

All in all, a really fun weekend. My levels of cheer have been completely replenished, and Towers pretty much redeemed themselves my eyes. Goes to show they can do it, even Aramark were on form, here's hoping next season continues in a similar vein.
 
Alix said:
Chimp had the pulled port version
Click to expand...
Feeding her port? Very good mothering! 😂

Yes, as mentioned many times above, ‘twas a fantastic show done incredibly well and a marked improvement on last year (which was also great!). Availability all weekend was on point and it seemed generally a lot quieter than last year - looking at the queue times on Saturday afternoon you could’ve been forgiven for thinking it was a normal weekend!

The new routine for accessing X Sector after the fireworks seemed to work pretty well too - using a much wider path to the left of the stage removed the worst crush point going past CBeebies Land, and also meant the security staff only had to guide people as far as Spinball before releasing.
 
And there I was thinking I was missing out on the hot new sandwich sensation...
 
I absolutely loved the show this year, probably my favourite of all the ones I have seen at Alton Towers (2010 - 2024). The story was brilliant and had just the right amount of humour and cheese thrown in there. We had been joking about Phalanx: The Musical on opening day this year, and that's pretty much what it turned out to be.

The music choices were all spot on, the pyro good, lots of lighting and lasers, and a tonne of fire! The Nemesis battle scene was the highlight for me, and I also loved how the integrated a little bit of the Nemesis music in to the ITHOTMK finale.

So many fireworks shows at Alton Towers just blur in to one, but 2024's will live long in the memory!
 
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