Have to agree with Drumx7 on this one. I'm 51 but always feel like a kid again when I visit AT. There is a magic that works on me, that I don't get anywhere else.
It doesn't need fibreglass castles, huge commercial IP's (or any IP's at all, someone please tell Merlin) or to be the trendy thing of the month.
It has its own magic.
I agree completely - and am also 51
I first got taken there in the late 70's when the rides were temporary ones like you get at a travelling fair (I don't remember much of it, to be honest, but there are a couple of old family album photos)
I went twice with junior school, and remember both times. It was amazing - mostly because it was unique at that time. Even got to ride the Corkscrew as the highlight of the trip, aged 10 - the school insisted you needed to be tall enough and have written permission from your parents (I really can still remember that first plunge and the scary chaos that followed). Mass (deliberate) fallings-over in Cine 2000
I remember queueing for almost 2 hours to go on the Black Hole the year after and feeling like a seasoned pro on the Pirate Ship. Running wild in the actual Towers and throwing wetted bits of issue at people below from the roof
pensive
Going again with senior school and the new thrill of being totally unaccompanied by teacher chaperones.
Then a few years later, with my mates several times - the vicious water fights on the Log Flume, wasting too much time in the arcades (why???).
Going for the first time with just my now wife, back when Air had just opened.
Then taking my eldest when she was a toddler (a whole different experience!!), and later when my youngest was a toddler and eldest was starting to go on bigger rides.
Our first Scarefest in around 2016. Every Scarefest since.
Yeah. It's still magical. When you grow up, you notice negative stuff that you just wouldn't when you were younger. Could Merlin do better? Damn right they could. But, looking back even with the benefit of hindsight, there wasn't some golden era where everything was done way better than now. It always fell short of perfection when you look through adult eyes. Parts were cheap and naff, although it didn't matter when you were a kid.
I've done Universal and Busch and Seaworld, and they're great. Aspects of them knock Alton Towers out the park (to use an Americanism pun), and I'd rate their rides overall as better. I've done DLP three times and it's amazing in terms of atmosphere and theming.
But Alton Towers is the best theme/amusement park in the UK. It also has an atmosphere, bound with its history, that American or Disney parks will never have. And, perhaps because it's because it invokes such awe-inspiring memories (although note that my kids - now 15 & 19 - adore it at least as much as I ever did, and they've only known it during the Merlin era), it is always magical to me. When I'm driving there, I'm like a kid wanting the journey to be over. When we park and begin to walk to the monorail, I'm hustling along wanting the get there like yesterday and hoping there's hardly a queue. I'm always in as much hurry to get to the next ride (much to the annoyance of Mrs W). I always want 'just one more ride' at the end of the day and we never leave before we've done just that, getting into the final queue line with seconds to spare.
Long may the magic live on.
