olliethehut
TS Member
Quick trip review - I went on Saturday 31st August with my 2 kids (13 and 10). I used to be an annual pass holder (20 odd years ago) but hadn't been to AT for about 15 years.
I have some great memories of the place, and remember riding Black Hole / Thunder Looper / New Beast / Log Flume / Nemesis / Corkscrew loads of times over the years. I can remember going on Enterprise with my dad when I cant have been over 8 years old after going on a bus trip from the local pub, so to say I was excited about being able to take my kids was an understatement.
This was done as a proper day out on the rides - my youngest is 142cm (!) so I was a little worried about his height, but hoped he'd be ok. We used the Kellogs discount vouchers, and I refuse to pay for fast track tickets. This was a packed lunch in the bag, eat it in the queue kind of day ;-)
We parked up around 9.15 and walked up to the entrance which was open despite the app saying it opened at 10, a quick wander down to the rapids and they opened the gate to Forbidden Valley. Straight onto the Nemesis queue, the little one got his pink wristband and we were all good to go. Nemesis was awesome as always, I can remember it being built, and I'm a little disapointed the blood like waterfall has gone, but the theming is great, the ride is awesome, and my kids loved it.
We quickly ran over to Air (sorry, Galactica) and had about a 20 min queue before getting on - again, its a classic ride, and the kids loved it. My eldest thought it was better than Nemesis, but we all know that hes wrong. Yeah, the theming is all out of whack with the area, but its still a really cool ride and quite long.
Blade had a 5 min queue, so we hopped on for a quick ride (swear this is the same Pirate ship that used to be next to the Black Hole all those years ago) then headed over to X Sector.
As we walked past the Rapids (about 11.20 ish) we noticed they were testing, and as we walked past the gate opened. We decided to walk straight on rather than queue later! I have memories of getting soaked on this ride, but as my eldest said - I got wetter sitting on the seat than I did on the ride. It was still fun, but if I'd had queued for 1hr plus in the sunshine I'd have been dissapointed.
On the way into the park my youngest had seen Battle Galleons, and as a water pistol addict was determined to have a go. Wow. I dont think I've laughed so much and enjoyed a ride so much in a long time. For what I saw as a kiddies ride (swan boats anyone?) this was so, so good. And all 3 of us got absolutley soaked through. A 10 pack of Donuts later (from the donut stand that used to be on the exit of the log flume) and we were good to go.
When we got to X sector the queue for Smiler was upto about 80 mins, and Oblivion was shut - again just as we went to look down the hole they opened the queue line!. 20 ish minutes later and we were boarding. My youngest had a bit of a meltdown and bottled out, but my eldest rode on his own and loved it. After we'd had a can of Tango we figured it was time to hit one of the queues as the park was at peak time. As the smallest didnt want to go vertical on Smiler we wandered over to WickerMan which was showing a 60 min wait. This was the longest queue we did all day, but it gave the kids time to have a sandwich, some crisps and another can. The theming of wicker man was awesome, I loved the ride (especially the pre ride room) and it brought my little ones confidence back after Oblivion.
They jumped onto the spinning teacups whilst I tried to take some pictures, and there was no way I was letting my kids spin me around and make me sick, then we checked the queue times and saw that Nemesis was down to a 20 min wait, so it was back to Forbidden Valley.
Another ride on Nemesis, and then another on Galactica and it was getting close to 5.30. The little one said he'd be happy for us to queue for Smiler (60 min wait) and decide if he wanted to ride when it was boarding time, so we headed back over to X Sector (with another go on Battle Galleons just to get wet again).
We got to Smiler at 5.50, with a queue time of 40 mins, so headed in. The theming in the queue line is great, you really feel like a rat trapped in a cage, and the music is living rent free in my head 3 days later. After about 30 mins we were ready to board, and we managed to bag the front seats. The little one was up for it, and we rode the final ride of the day from the front. Smiler is a cracking 'coaster and it was an awesome way to end the trip.
All of us had a great day out, the kids "got" it, and I relived some awesome memories (especially driving back past the JCB sculpture in the dark)
Total ride count -
Nemeis 2
Galactica 2
Blade 1
Rapids 1
Battle Galleons 2
Oblivion 1
Wicker Man 1
Teacups 1
Smiler 1
Total spent in the park - £10 on Donuts and a few bucks on the grabbers waiting for Forbbiden Valley to open,
For a weekend in the holidays it wasnt as busy as it could have been, but we did get proper lucky with some of the rides reopening at the right time. Longest queue was Wickerman at 60 mins.
Kids now want to go back for the fireworks!
I have some great memories of the place, and remember riding Black Hole / Thunder Looper / New Beast / Log Flume / Nemesis / Corkscrew loads of times over the years. I can remember going on Enterprise with my dad when I cant have been over 8 years old after going on a bus trip from the local pub, so to say I was excited about being able to take my kids was an understatement.
This was done as a proper day out on the rides - my youngest is 142cm (!) so I was a little worried about his height, but hoped he'd be ok. We used the Kellogs discount vouchers, and I refuse to pay for fast track tickets. This was a packed lunch in the bag, eat it in the queue kind of day ;-)
We parked up around 9.15 and walked up to the entrance which was open despite the app saying it opened at 10, a quick wander down to the rapids and they opened the gate to Forbidden Valley. Straight onto the Nemesis queue, the little one got his pink wristband and we were all good to go. Nemesis was awesome as always, I can remember it being built, and I'm a little disapointed the blood like waterfall has gone, but the theming is great, the ride is awesome, and my kids loved it.
We quickly ran over to Air (sorry, Galactica) and had about a 20 min queue before getting on - again, its a classic ride, and the kids loved it. My eldest thought it was better than Nemesis, but we all know that hes wrong. Yeah, the theming is all out of whack with the area, but its still a really cool ride and quite long.
Blade had a 5 min queue, so we hopped on for a quick ride (swear this is the same Pirate ship that used to be next to the Black Hole all those years ago) then headed over to X Sector.
As we walked past the Rapids (about 11.20 ish) we noticed they were testing, and as we walked past the gate opened. We decided to walk straight on rather than queue later! I have memories of getting soaked on this ride, but as my eldest said - I got wetter sitting on the seat than I did on the ride. It was still fun, but if I'd had queued for 1hr plus in the sunshine I'd have been dissapointed.
On the way into the park my youngest had seen Battle Galleons, and as a water pistol addict was determined to have a go. Wow. I dont think I've laughed so much and enjoyed a ride so much in a long time. For what I saw as a kiddies ride (swan boats anyone?) this was so, so good. And all 3 of us got absolutley soaked through. A 10 pack of Donuts later (from the donut stand that used to be on the exit of the log flume) and we were good to go.
When we got to X sector the queue for Smiler was upto about 80 mins, and Oblivion was shut - again just as we went to look down the hole they opened the queue line!. 20 ish minutes later and we were boarding. My youngest had a bit of a meltdown and bottled out, but my eldest rode on his own and loved it. After we'd had a can of Tango we figured it was time to hit one of the queues as the park was at peak time. As the smallest didnt want to go vertical on Smiler we wandered over to WickerMan which was showing a 60 min wait. This was the longest queue we did all day, but it gave the kids time to have a sandwich, some crisps and another can. The theming of wicker man was awesome, I loved the ride (especially the pre ride room) and it brought my little ones confidence back after Oblivion.
They jumped onto the spinning teacups whilst I tried to take some pictures, and there was no way I was letting my kids spin me around and make me sick, then we checked the queue times and saw that Nemesis was down to a 20 min wait, so it was back to Forbidden Valley.
Another ride on Nemesis, and then another on Galactica and it was getting close to 5.30. The little one said he'd be happy for us to queue for Smiler (60 min wait) and decide if he wanted to ride when it was boarding time, so we headed back over to X Sector (with another go on Battle Galleons just to get wet again).
We got to Smiler at 5.50, with a queue time of 40 mins, so headed in. The theming in the queue line is great, you really feel like a rat trapped in a cage, and the music is living rent free in my head 3 days later. After about 30 mins we were ready to board, and we managed to bag the front seats. The little one was up for it, and we rode the final ride of the day from the front. Smiler is a cracking 'coaster and it was an awesome way to end the trip.
All of us had a great day out, the kids "got" it, and I relived some awesome memories (especially driving back past the JCB sculpture in the dark)
Total ride count -
Nemeis 2
Galactica 2
Blade 1
Rapids 1
Battle Galleons 2
Oblivion 1
Wicker Man 1
Teacups 1
Smiler 1
Total spent in the park - £10 on Donuts and a few bucks on the grabbers waiting for Forbbiden Valley to open,
For a weekend in the holidays it wasnt as busy as it could have been, but we did get proper lucky with some of the rides reopening at the right time. Longest queue was Wickerman at 60 mins.
Kids now want to go back for the fireworks!
