Me and my cousin (The Grape Wizard) went to Alton Towers today for the opening day and it was a great day! It was an average busy day, not really busy but not exactly empty. The new things seemed very good, which I will go into more detail later.
We turned up at around 10 and went through the gates with our annual passes, and grabbed our new 2009 maps! We strolled down Towers Street and reached the queue board, which said Rita had already pulled a 15 minute queue. So, we headed off to Forbidden Valley to find Nemesis quite empty. We took two early rides on it and it was brilliant as always.
Air seemed to pulling big queues already at this time, so staying in Forbidden Valley, we went on Blade. Oh my god. I have never been on it when it has gone so high, it went really high compared to normal.
Then we walked down to Gloomy Wood and took our ride on Duel. The new blasters were still quite stiff and annoying, but it was a fun ride, and I hit my biggest score ever of 71100, which I was really happy about!
Next up, we went back down to Katanga Canyon, and went on the Runaway Mine Train. I have never sat near the front, but we did today and it was quite jerky and bumpy compared to normal. Plus, the ride op stopped it after one circuit, then realised what she had done and sent it around again. For doing this we got an extra ride as she had done it wrong resulting in three circuits.
Staying in Katanga Canyon, the rapids had just opened so we thought we would go on it and it was fun as usual. We got a bit wet but nothing major. Also, the new pizza/pasta place in Katanga Canyon looks great, but is more aimed at big groups and families I think, as it is a proper restaurant buffet, and you have to queue for a table. It looks pretty neat compared to the old Pizza Hut/KFC though.
Next up was new for 2009, Sharkbait Reef! After passing it earlier in the morning on the way to Forbidden Valley, it looked great from the outside, and inside it is even better. The themeing is brilliant and there is a lot of detail to the place. It is bigger than expected as from the outside it doesn't look that big, but there are a lot of things to look at and the tunnel bit is especially good.
Next was the Flume, with hardly any queue we decided to take a ride. We both sat at the back and the splash from the first and second drops didn't reach us at all. But the last drop pretty much soaked us, and both taps sprayed us aswell. Not fun.
After that we hit a bit of a standstill as all the big rides seemed to have big queues. So after walking around the park checking all the rides, we decided we might aswell have dinner. So I think we hopped on the cable cars, well we did at least once in the day, to Forbidden Valley. The new cable cars do look very good in my opinion, and quite smart inside, and are way better than the old ones.
We headed to Burger King in Forbidden Valley, and ordered our meal as normal. However, the people who were serving us obviously had no idea that you have to actually give people their food after they have ordered it. They gave me my drink, then served other people, and then realised that they hadn't given me or my cousin our orders. Then they had to ask us again what our order was to give it us. Idiots.
After, we headed over to Oblivion greeted with a queue of around 45 minutes. Realising that everything else had around about the same length queue, we decided to join. After the lengthy queue, we got on the ride, and I was allocated the far left, front row seat, my favourite seat on Oblivion. Hands up, it was amazing as always.
Down to Spinball Whizzer we went next, and we joined the queue, the same length as Oblivion. About five minutes into the queue, it started to rain, and the magical announcement of only three people are allowed in one car because of the weather came. Having been to Alton a lot of times and realising that when it rains and they have to run with only three in a car, they let single riders on every single car with two people. So, remembering this, we left the normal queue and entered the single rider queue, and were on in about five to ten minutes. It was a fun ride as normal and very enjoyable.
By this time, we had done everything we wanted to do except Rita, which had the biggest queue of all. So, we headed back over to Forbidden Valley where we decided to ride Nemesis again. It looked like it had around a 40 minute queue but everything else had around the same length queue so we went in. It also broke down for around five minutes increasing the queue time which wasn't so enjoyable. Air looked broken down for most of the afternoon while we were in Forbidden Valley as we never saw a train go around the track while we were in the Nemesis queue. Our third ride on Nemesis was as brilliant as the first two, and was made even better as we went front row!
Both hungry, we then headed to Burger King again, where my cousin got some chips and I got a BK fusions ice cream. But there again, the same woman who had forgot to give us our food earlier was there and when I asked for a strawberry cheesecake BK fusions ice cream, she gave me a chocolate fudge cake one. Idiot. Again.
Ice cream pot in hand, even if it was the wrong one, we went over to Ugland to take our ride on Rita and see what was going on around the place with the SW6 site. Rita had quite a big queue as normal but the ride was very enjoyable. There is a big banner saying "Yet Another Fantabulous Alton Towers Resort Development COMING 2010" on the fencing around the site, and at the moment all that remains of corkscrew is the ORP store and the control bit of the station. There are a couple of diggers on site but that's about it really.
So, with about half an hour left, we wanted a ride where we could re-ride a few times and have a good whoring session. With virtually no queue, Oblivion was the answer to our prayers, and we got there visited by hardly anyone on it at all. All in all we went on it four times at the end of the day, would have been more but it broke down for a few minutes where we were stuck on the brake run. We got a train to ourselves twice out of the four aswell!
I can't remember at which point we did it, but we took a stroll through the new Cloud Cuckoo Land aswell. I hadn't been up that part of the park for a while but it looks really good, I really like it.
So, overall it was a great opening day, despite a few breakdowns. A really good day at Alton had by both of us.
Ride count:
Nemesis x3 (1 Front Row)
Blade x1
Duel x1
RMT x1 (3 Circuits)
Rapids x1
Sharkbait Reef x1
Flume x1
Oblivion x5 (4 Front Rows)
Spinball x1
Rita x1
Pictures coming later when my PC wants to upload them.
We turned up at around 10 and went through the gates with our annual passes, and grabbed our new 2009 maps! We strolled down Towers Street and reached the queue board, which said Rita had already pulled a 15 minute queue. So, we headed off to Forbidden Valley to find Nemesis quite empty. We took two early rides on it and it was brilliant as always.
Air seemed to pulling big queues already at this time, so staying in Forbidden Valley, we went on Blade. Oh my god. I have never been on it when it has gone so high, it went really high compared to normal.
Then we walked down to Gloomy Wood and took our ride on Duel. The new blasters were still quite stiff and annoying, but it was a fun ride, and I hit my biggest score ever of 71100, which I was really happy about!
Next up, we went back down to Katanga Canyon, and went on the Runaway Mine Train. I have never sat near the front, but we did today and it was quite jerky and bumpy compared to normal. Plus, the ride op stopped it after one circuit, then realised what she had done and sent it around again. For doing this we got an extra ride as she had done it wrong resulting in three circuits.
Staying in Katanga Canyon, the rapids had just opened so we thought we would go on it and it was fun as usual. We got a bit wet but nothing major. Also, the new pizza/pasta place in Katanga Canyon looks great, but is more aimed at big groups and families I think, as it is a proper restaurant buffet, and you have to queue for a table. It looks pretty neat compared to the old Pizza Hut/KFC though.
Next up was new for 2009, Sharkbait Reef! After passing it earlier in the morning on the way to Forbidden Valley, it looked great from the outside, and inside it is even better. The themeing is brilliant and there is a lot of detail to the place. It is bigger than expected as from the outside it doesn't look that big, but there are a lot of things to look at and the tunnel bit is especially good.
Next was the Flume, with hardly any queue we decided to take a ride. We both sat at the back and the splash from the first and second drops didn't reach us at all. But the last drop pretty much soaked us, and both taps sprayed us aswell. Not fun.
After that we hit a bit of a standstill as all the big rides seemed to have big queues. So after walking around the park checking all the rides, we decided we might aswell have dinner. So I think we hopped on the cable cars, well we did at least once in the day, to Forbidden Valley. The new cable cars do look very good in my opinion, and quite smart inside, and are way better than the old ones.
We headed to Burger King in Forbidden Valley, and ordered our meal as normal. However, the people who were serving us obviously had no idea that you have to actually give people their food after they have ordered it. They gave me my drink, then served other people, and then realised that they hadn't given me or my cousin our orders. Then they had to ask us again what our order was to give it us. Idiots.
After, we headed over to Oblivion greeted with a queue of around 45 minutes. Realising that everything else had around about the same length queue, we decided to join. After the lengthy queue, we got on the ride, and I was allocated the far left, front row seat, my favourite seat on Oblivion. Hands up, it was amazing as always.
Down to Spinball Whizzer we went next, and we joined the queue, the same length as Oblivion. About five minutes into the queue, it started to rain, and the magical announcement of only three people are allowed in one car because of the weather came. Having been to Alton a lot of times and realising that when it rains and they have to run with only three in a car, they let single riders on every single car with two people. So, remembering this, we left the normal queue and entered the single rider queue, and were on in about five to ten minutes. It was a fun ride as normal and very enjoyable.
By this time, we had done everything we wanted to do except Rita, which had the biggest queue of all. So, we headed back over to Forbidden Valley where we decided to ride Nemesis again. It looked like it had around a 40 minute queue but everything else had around the same length queue so we went in. It also broke down for around five minutes increasing the queue time which wasn't so enjoyable. Air looked broken down for most of the afternoon while we were in Forbidden Valley as we never saw a train go around the track while we were in the Nemesis queue. Our third ride on Nemesis was as brilliant as the first two, and was made even better as we went front row!
Both hungry, we then headed to Burger King again, where my cousin got some chips and I got a BK fusions ice cream. But there again, the same woman who had forgot to give us our food earlier was there and when I asked for a strawberry cheesecake BK fusions ice cream, she gave me a chocolate fudge cake one. Idiot. Again.
Ice cream pot in hand, even if it was the wrong one, we went over to Ugland to take our ride on Rita and see what was going on around the place with the SW6 site. Rita had quite a big queue as normal but the ride was very enjoyable. There is a big banner saying "Yet Another Fantabulous Alton Towers Resort Development COMING 2010" on the fencing around the site, and at the moment all that remains of corkscrew is the ORP store and the control bit of the station. There are a couple of diggers on site but that's about it really.
So, with about half an hour left, we wanted a ride where we could re-ride a few times and have a good whoring session. With virtually no queue, Oblivion was the answer to our prayers, and we got there visited by hardly anyone on it at all. All in all we went on it four times at the end of the day, would have been more but it broke down for a few minutes where we were stuck on the brake run. We got a train to ourselves twice out of the four aswell!
I can't remember at which point we did it, but we took a stroll through the new Cloud Cuckoo Land aswell. I hadn't been up that part of the park for a while but it looks really good, I really like it.
So, overall it was a great opening day, despite a few breakdowns. A really good day at Alton had by both of us.
Ride count:
Nemesis x3 (1 Front Row)
Blade x1
Duel x1
RMT x1 (3 Circuits)
Rapids x1
Sharkbait Reef x1
Flume x1
Oblivion x5 (4 Front Rows)
Spinball x1
Rita x1
Pictures coming later when my PC wants to upload them.