Squirrel Nutty
High above the wonderful Storybook Land and kind of a bit above the edge bit of Old MacDonald's Farm, is every enthusiast's dream ride, Squirrel Nutty, on which you actually don't even have to pedal yourself along. Fantastic!
It breaks several records such as the highest ride within either Storybook Land or Old MacDonald's Farm ever, fastest ride within either Storybook Land or Old McDonald's Farm ever, most squirrel orientated ride within either Storybook Land or Old McDonald's Farm ever and the only ride at Alton Towers that involves trees. Apart from Hex. And maybe sort of Th13teen. The Log Flume used to be too. There may be others.
The Ride Experience
After being warned not to bang your head, you climb into your acorn, banging your head, then the acorn slides along the track. Is the acorn being pushed by the squirrel? This is unclear as we have no pre-show to explain the story of the ride, which is almost certainly the only bad thing about the whole experience.
You then go through a tunnel in a tree, which happens to have an ornamental window in it for some reason as well as hay lying around and then leave the tree tunnel with no change to your ride experience whatsoever. Apart from a draught.
On occasion, the ride cars differ in track space between one another, always normally creating an amusing spectacle for everyone in the area because either the cars are going too slow or a ride op got very bored. This mini incident may be caused by a small number of aged 15+ enthusiasts who together may create a particular heaviness, making the cars go slower than they're meant to.
Excitement on this ride hits its peak if you get to 'race a tractor', making Squirrel Nutty the closest we get to a racing coaster in the park (the fact that it's not a coaster is obviously outweighed by the fact the car racing themed ride doesn't actually race anything. The excitement on the ride hits another peak whenever the track goes down ever so slightly (as seen in the photo above) and does a few baby bunny hops towards the end; these were put in by the park just to make the little kiddies believe they were now on a 'fast paced' roller coaster instead of a serene, up-in-the-air squirrel themed ride.
The Ride Reaction
A census poll was taken during the ride's opening season by families with children under the age of 12. Opinions were:
- WOW. I had never raced a tractor before. My life has changed forever.
- I don't know what I liked better. The secret tree inversion or the little bunny hops!
- Heheh. Squirrel like nuts.
- Top hat FTFW... Wait, what's Squirrel Nutty?
