Planning for trip Thursday 8th August!

[OblivionMakesMeSmilier]

Right, I'm kind of new to visiting Alton Towers and this forum (Had my first visit two weeks ago) but of course I loved it loved it loved it, so I signed up here.
I'm going again this Thursday with my brother and dad, and need help planning the trip to find the quickest route around all of these attractions:
-Rita -Thi3teen -Oblivion -The Smiler -The Flume -Congo River Rapids -Nemesis -Nemesis Sub-Terra -Air
We will probably be wanting to ride Nemesis twice.
And any other rides you can recommend. Again, I've only been once so I haven't really had a chance to see everything!
One thing is we HAVE to go on Rita first, by the ruling of my stubborn but loveable brother :
Thank you

 

[Andrew]

Right, you should be able to get on them all pretty easily.

If you're not doing early ride time, then head to the Dark Forest first to ride Rita (which you have to do first remember ) and then head to TH13TEEN as it's right next door.

The, you can go either one of two ways. First you can go to X Sector for The Smiler (if it's open) and then Oblivion, or you can head towards Forbidden Valley and go around that way.

I'd suggest going to X Sector first as The Smiler will get fairly busy. Then ride Oblivion after this.

Then, you can visit Spinball if the queues not too big (it's not on your list but it's another coaster!) and then head towards Mutiny Bay for the Flume.

After riding the Flume, head towards Katanga Canyon for the Congo River Rapids and then you can travel through Gloomy Wood to get to Forbidden Valley.

At Forbidden Valley it's probably best to work your way down so start with Nemesis Sub Terra, then do Nemesis, and then Air. On your way back up you could then do Nemesis again.

---

Remember that you might not get on all rides though if it's busy so check the queue times whenever you can as you might find that one ride as a shorter queue than another so it's better to ride it then.

There are plenty of opportunities for eating along this route as well.

I'd also recommend going on Hex at some point during your day if you can as it's a really good, immersive ride. I also recommend trying the Runaway Mine Train as it's quite fun for a children's coaster.

 

[OblivionMakesMeSmilier]

Thanks for all of this I will let you know how we get on! ;D

 

[djtruefitt]

I don't think it will be that busy this week (unless maybe we have some mega heatwave ).

If you have got Early Ride Time (bought tickets online, staying in hotel, or have an annual pass), then head towards the valley first and get all the rides on ERT done.

If you don't have ERT, I would suggest either getting to the park for 9am and heading straight for the Smiler (and wait an hour for it to open at 10). Or what is sometimes better is to head over there at about 1-2pm, that tends to be the quietest time of the day, or if you are in no hurry to leave the park, just join the queue near ride close (6pm I think this week)!

Rita always gets a big queue, so do this earlier during the day, followed by TH13TEEN! You can then do any other rides in that area if you want, eg charlie, ice age, hex, etc. Then should head to the valley using the skyride and get all the rides done over there (Air, Nemesis, Sub-Terra, etc). Then walk towards Duel, minetrain, rapids, etc.

The likes of the rapids and flume don't tend to get too busy unless its a hot day, if it is a hot day, try and get these done earlier in the day (not only are they quieter but you have all day to dry out!).

Finally I hope you have a good day!

 

[OblivionMakesMeSmilier]

So, the day was a lot busier than I expected... and due to circumstances we arrived at 11am, to find queues for most things were pretty darn long.
Queues for Rita and THI3TEEN were already built up, so we decided to head to forbidden valley where the queues were not as bad. Sub Terra was broken down, so we decided to ride Air first followed by Nemesis (my brother, before this, was a roller coaster virgin. Going straight on Nemesis would probably have killed him!)
Then decided to have lunch before queuing for Rita, so we would have a chance to fully digest our food in the long wait. Queue was still mighty long but worth the wait! Brother and dad then decided they didn't like the look of THI3TEEN (Brother: you wont tell me what the surprise is! and it looks a bit slow Dad: looks like a rubbishy ghost train) so we gave Hex a go as there was literally no queue. Very strange ride, still not sure I liked it that much as I prefer my white-knuckle thrills, but B and D enjoyed nonetheless!
Then rode river rapids and flume, both with humungous queues for what they were (as you can tell I was itching to get back on a coaster).
Then over to X-Sector for a final ride of the day. We had to choose between Oblivion and The Smiler as both had long queues and it was nearing 6pm. Dad took one look at Smiler and his mind was made up! Queued just over 90 minutes I reckon, which I thought was a great queuing time considering it was rumored to be 3 hours earlier in the day. B didn't ride in the end (very overwhelming place to queue, I'm sure some of you can relate) but D was like an overexcited child again and we are now official smiling advocates.
Considering we arrived late, I think we did get a fair bit done! Great day good weather!

Thanks for all your advice guys but all plans sort of went to mush once we arrived....!