FrightTime94
TS Member
[if you can't be bothered to read it, i have some questions at the bottom which i would appreciate being answered]
No idea why I'm posting this so late but meh
Anyway I generally only go to Alton for two days, about once a year. I would love to go more, but I live three hours away, and I visit thorpe a lot due to the annual passes and tickets being cheap, which isn't too true at alton.
Here goes
We drove up on Sunday night so we could get two full days, and crashed at a relative's place in Birmingham (about an hour away from the park)
Left at around 9 in the morning, but with parking and monorail queue, wasn't in the park until about eleven
As always, I headed straight for oblivion, as there's no better way to wake yourself up, especially when the queue's only 10 minutes
The smiler queue was too long, and i had no intention to do enterprise again, so we headed out of the x-sector to elsewhere
Dark forest is imo quite inconveniently placed to the other two coaster areas, but it's easy enough to get to from x-sector, so we headed there and went on thirteen which had a 20-30 minute queue, and which I had only experienced once before. It's definitely the tamest of the big rides there, but is pretty smooth and the backwards section is fun. I prefer it to rita anyway, which I went on next. Rita had about the same queue time, but I found it to be rougher than the last time I'd been on it. That hill which is the highest point on the ride has always hurt my head, but overall the whole ride was less enjoyable. At the moment (it changes a lot) my favourite ride at thorpe is stealth, and the launch on rita and the whole ride is just less enjoyable, but it's still fun.
What I'd been anticipating the most for the trip was galactica, as i'd never done a vr coaster before, but i can say i don't feel the need to again. I waited around forty minutes, and was very disappointed. The vr was low quality, the headset fell off my face, the tunnel over the bridge leaving to the left station made me claustrophobic, and it murdered a brilliant ride. However, I did bag a free fast track, so that was good. After a bit of a rest, I decided to go on Nemesis. When I was younger and less experienced with roller coasters (on my first visit to the park), I found Nemesis actually too intense. Bear in mind before this I'd done Chessington and Air, but that was it. However, this time it was brilliant, which was very good news.
After the long-ish walk to the x-sector, I used my fast track from galactica to get a virtually queue-less ride on the smiler, which as always, was great and much smoother than it looks (i also bought a ride photo).By this time, it was nearing the end of the day, so we got the cablecar to forbidden valley and went on nemesis again. It's astonishing how nemesis is the most famous coaster at the park and probably the best, yet still has the shortest queues.
We finished the day on rita, hoping to get on thirteen again, but were minutes too late. Rita was a bit better than earlier though. I bought a nemesis tshirt and a thirteen hoodie, and we waited in the car for a bit, until the time was right for us to make our way to the rollercoaster restaurant for an eight o clock booking. The food was very good, and I loved the experience, although it was a little pricey, however it was indeed everything I'd hoped for. We then drove to our (classy) premier inn for some well earned rest.
Desperate to get all of the ERT, we woke up at 7 and left the hotel at around 730 or 8, and got to the park before it opened, which was great (I also met theme park worldwide, which was cool). Obviously, when the gates opened we ran straight for oblivion, and managed to get two rides in, both walk-on. We were planning on joining the smiler queue early, but it was somehow already long, so we walked to spinball whizzer. I'd never done this, but I had done Dragon's Fury so I knew what to expect. It was surprisingly intense - I'd say more so than thirteen. We wanted to try galactica again with the vr, so started the confusing journey to forbidden valley. Foolishly, we went the dark forest route, before realising the cable car was closed, so walked through the gardens, which was nice but wasted some precious ride time.
When we (eventually) got there, the queue for galactica was only about 20 minutes, so we went in, but the vr gave me yet another bad experience. I was disappointed but hadn't lost all hope, so explained, got a fast track and queued again, only to find it was just as bad. This time I got another fast track and saved it for later (I think I might've slightly exploited this system). We used the fast track from the first ride to ride without vr, which was familiar and wonderful, then had another go on nemesis and walked to the x sector. We used the fast track on the smiler which was really good, then had lunch outside and realised the queue was now 20 minutes so went again, and then had another ride on oblivion. Ironically, our longest queue of the trip was on Congo River Rapids which was nice but no substitute for the Flume. For our last ride of the trip, we decided to end with galactica without vr, making it our fifth ride on galactica of the trip. On the way back, we were stuck on the cable car for 10 minutes and received two free fast tracks each, but really needed to go (the drive home was long and looming) so gave them to passers by out of the kindness of our hearts xD.
It's a shame that you can't see the skyline as you leave as there is no skyline, but it was still a great trip. I will return in 2017
Sorry for writing so much, i got a bit carried away
Does anyone have any tips on better ways to do the towers next time, as i feel like i could've done it better? Also is duel any good (i havent done it but am intrigued)?
No idea why I'm posting this so late but meh
Anyway I generally only go to Alton for two days, about once a year. I would love to go more, but I live three hours away, and I visit thorpe a lot due to the annual passes and tickets being cheap, which isn't too true at alton.
Here goes
We drove up on Sunday night so we could get two full days, and crashed at a relative's place in Birmingham (about an hour away from the park)
Left at around 9 in the morning, but with parking and monorail queue, wasn't in the park until about eleven
As always, I headed straight for oblivion, as there's no better way to wake yourself up, especially when the queue's only 10 minutes
The smiler queue was too long, and i had no intention to do enterprise again, so we headed out of the x-sector to elsewhere
Dark forest is imo quite inconveniently placed to the other two coaster areas, but it's easy enough to get to from x-sector, so we headed there and went on thirteen which had a 20-30 minute queue, and which I had only experienced once before. It's definitely the tamest of the big rides there, but is pretty smooth and the backwards section is fun. I prefer it to rita anyway, which I went on next. Rita had about the same queue time, but I found it to be rougher than the last time I'd been on it. That hill which is the highest point on the ride has always hurt my head, but overall the whole ride was less enjoyable. At the moment (it changes a lot) my favourite ride at thorpe is stealth, and the launch on rita and the whole ride is just less enjoyable, but it's still fun.
What I'd been anticipating the most for the trip was galactica, as i'd never done a vr coaster before, but i can say i don't feel the need to again. I waited around forty minutes, and was very disappointed. The vr was low quality, the headset fell off my face, the tunnel over the bridge leaving to the left station made me claustrophobic, and it murdered a brilliant ride. However, I did bag a free fast track, so that was good. After a bit of a rest, I decided to go on Nemesis. When I was younger and less experienced with roller coasters (on my first visit to the park), I found Nemesis actually too intense. Bear in mind before this I'd done Chessington and Air, but that was it. However, this time it was brilliant, which was very good news.
After the long-ish walk to the x-sector, I used my fast track from galactica to get a virtually queue-less ride on the smiler, which as always, was great and much smoother than it looks (i also bought a ride photo).By this time, it was nearing the end of the day, so we got the cablecar to forbidden valley and went on nemesis again. It's astonishing how nemesis is the most famous coaster at the park and probably the best, yet still has the shortest queues.
We finished the day on rita, hoping to get on thirteen again, but were minutes too late. Rita was a bit better than earlier though. I bought a nemesis tshirt and a thirteen hoodie, and we waited in the car for a bit, until the time was right for us to make our way to the rollercoaster restaurant for an eight o clock booking. The food was very good, and I loved the experience, although it was a little pricey, however it was indeed everything I'd hoped for. We then drove to our (classy) premier inn for some well earned rest.
Desperate to get all of the ERT, we woke up at 7 and left the hotel at around 730 or 8, and got to the park before it opened, which was great (I also met theme park worldwide, which was cool). Obviously, when the gates opened we ran straight for oblivion, and managed to get two rides in, both walk-on. We were planning on joining the smiler queue early, but it was somehow already long, so we walked to spinball whizzer. I'd never done this, but I had done Dragon's Fury so I knew what to expect. It was surprisingly intense - I'd say more so than thirteen. We wanted to try galactica again with the vr, so started the confusing journey to forbidden valley. Foolishly, we went the dark forest route, before realising the cable car was closed, so walked through the gardens, which was nice but wasted some precious ride time.
When we (eventually) got there, the queue for galactica was only about 20 minutes, so we went in, but the vr gave me yet another bad experience. I was disappointed but hadn't lost all hope, so explained, got a fast track and queued again, only to find it was just as bad. This time I got another fast track and saved it for later (I think I might've slightly exploited this system). We used the fast track from the first ride to ride without vr, which was familiar and wonderful, then had another go on nemesis and walked to the x sector. We used the fast track on the smiler which was really good, then had lunch outside and realised the queue was now 20 minutes so went again, and then had another ride on oblivion. Ironically, our longest queue of the trip was on Congo River Rapids which was nice but no substitute for the Flume. For our last ride of the trip, we decided to end with galactica without vr, making it our fifth ride on galactica of the trip. On the way back, we were stuck on the cable car for 10 minutes and received two free fast tracks each, but really needed to go (the drive home was long and looming) so gave them to passers by out of the kindness of our hearts xD.
It's a shame that you can't see the skyline as you leave as there is no skyline, but it was still a great trip. I will return in 2017
Sorry for writing so much, i got a bit carried away
Does anyone have any tips on better ways to do the towers next time, as i feel like i could've done it better? Also is duel any good (i havent done it but am intrigued)?