It was friend-of-minor_furie's birthday, so we took him to Alton Towers for the day. Family_Furie needed to renew their annual passes anyway, and FOMF got in free as SSIL_Furie's helper.
So all good generally. We'll start out at about 8:30, as the Towers has been rammed all week. Saturday was the busiest day all season, so I don't want to sit in traffic in Alton village, then traffic to get into the car park, then wait a half hour for the monorail, then an hour to get the AP tickets.
It didn't start well with everyone refusing to get up in the morning. So knowing (at 8:00 a.m.) that an 8:30 leave would not happen, I opted for the bed option too to try and ditch my headache. I left Madame_F to get everything read, which she claimed could be done by 9:30.
So, I get up about 10:00 and we've left by 10:45 when Madame_F finished getting everything ready (I still don't think she understands why I have to get up so early to leave for AT :lol: ).
Traffic is busy from Uttoxeter, this isn't a good sign. We crawl into AT, and I ditch family_furie at the drop off point. That way they can queue while I... queue.
The car park is rammed. South car park is completely full, and I'm in the last wave of cars in the North car park before they overflow into the car parks behind the hotels (I don't know if they actually had to use that or not.
As I'm almost at the main entrance here anyway, I did the walk instead of taking the monorail.
This let me take a couple of shots of air and Nemesis - so you actually get coaster photos in one of my trip reports! Hurrah!
air coming off the pre-drop
Nemesis coming off the pre-drop
I get into the park in about ten mins and meet up with Family_furie in the AP office. I take Maxi-Minor_Furie off to Duel while the rest sort out disabled bands for SSIL_F and FOMF. I have to say it's a real cheat, but SSIL_F is becoming more and more unsteady on her feet, and the tunnel vision is getting worse. So queuing is actually starting to become dangerous for her.
However, I have the joys of visiting the shark. This is something we always have to do, even though MMF isn't actually that interested any more.
Shark
I don't know if I've taken a photo of the new Gondolas yet?
I'm not sure why people think they are such a problem, I really like them.
Down Haunted Hollow:
I really like this now. It's a great shortcut, but it looks really nice now the plants are well bedded in and the trees are grown over.
It's good to have a shortcut because we always have to go on:
20 times!
I just sit and close my eyes now and have a five minute snooze
Moose
The monorail broke down for a bit. The driver saw us pointing and waved and mugged at us a bit. He seemed quite a nice bloke. I didn't want to take a photo of him in case he got in trouble for being happy and driving the monorail
Borked
Well into lunchtime by now, so we headed to Mutiny Bay for a delicious kebab!
Yum indeed
Minor_Furie wanted a Mexican. The service was dreadful and the food barely edible. He should have had the fajitas which are always good quality. The staff are still poor though. Twenty minutes to serve six people!!! At Great Adventure there was one poor bloke and he did twice that many (he was serving food, drink and taking cash) in half that time. The Mexican had three people on! It's always been bad in here which is why I try to avoid it.
Stuff happened next. Everyone else ran off to Rita and to eat pie and mash. I took MMF to eat ice cream and go on the Driving school.
Ice Cream
Driving School
Big Wobbly Mushroom (now there's a thought to keep you awake at night)
We left Cloud Cuckoo Land (I avoided Charlie) and I tried to get some shots of the new construction (see the construction topic).
I found a secret gate:
FOMF doesn't like the Skyride:
I think the left sign is warning you about watching "The Ring" on your iPod???
I actually went on Blade for a change (MMF likes it):
Then we watched people getting soaked on Ripsaw which made MMF giggle.
Headed back to Katanga Canyon then, stopping off for a bounce on the way:
Banana was won:
I say won, obviously you only get it if you lose, so it's a banana was lost?
Everyone else went on RMT and Rapids while I pram watched. Everyone had fun, then it was time to go home. It was 5:00 and poor MMF had fallen over:
Poorly leg
I wanted to get out and beat the queues out, so off we went.
Well, I went with MMF while the rest stayed to play on the teacups and Spinball, I met them at the pickup point.
Alton is pretty lush sometimes!
Daisy Train home - until next time Alton
That's about it really. Lots of traffic coming away due to it being a race day at Uttoxeter.
Had a lovely day anyway, the park was absolutely heaving, but we still managed to do everything everyone wanted. My personal ride count:
Duel x 2
Ugswinger x 1
Blade x 1
Hurrah!
So all good generally. We'll start out at about 8:30, as the Towers has been rammed all week. Saturday was the busiest day all season, so I don't want to sit in traffic in Alton village, then traffic to get into the car park, then wait a half hour for the monorail, then an hour to get the AP tickets.
It didn't start well with everyone refusing to get up in the morning. So knowing (at 8:00 a.m.) that an 8:30 leave would not happen, I opted for the bed option too to try and ditch my headache. I left Madame_F to get everything read, which she claimed could be done by 9:30.
So, I get up about 10:00 and we've left by 10:45 when Madame_F finished getting everything ready (I still don't think she understands why I have to get up so early to leave for AT :lol: ).
Traffic is busy from Uttoxeter, this isn't a good sign. We crawl into AT, and I ditch family_furie at the drop off point. That way they can queue while I... queue.
The car park is rammed. South car park is completely full, and I'm in the last wave of cars in the North car park before they overflow into the car parks behind the hotels (I don't know if they actually had to use that or not.
As I'm almost at the main entrance here anyway, I did the walk instead of taking the monorail.
This let me take a couple of shots of air and Nemesis - so you actually get coaster photos in one of my trip reports! Hurrah!
air coming off the pre-drop
Nemesis coming off the pre-drop
I get into the park in about ten mins and meet up with Family_furie in the AP office. I take Maxi-Minor_Furie off to Duel while the rest sort out disabled bands for SSIL_F and FOMF. I have to say it's a real cheat, but SSIL_F is becoming more and more unsteady on her feet, and the tunnel vision is getting worse. So queuing is actually starting to become dangerous for her.
However, I have the joys of visiting the shark. This is something we always have to do, even though MMF isn't actually that interested any more.
Shark
I don't know if I've taken a photo of the new Gondolas yet?
I'm not sure why people think they are such a problem, I really like them.
Down Haunted Hollow:
I really like this now. It's a great shortcut, but it looks really nice now the plants are well bedded in and the trees are grown over.
It's good to have a shortcut because we always have to go on:
20 times!
I just sit and close my eyes now and have a five minute snooze
Moose
The monorail broke down for a bit. The driver saw us pointing and waved and mugged at us a bit. He seemed quite a nice bloke
. I didn't want to take a photo of him in case he got in trouble for being happy and driving the monorail
Borked
Well into lunchtime by now, so we headed to Mutiny Bay for a delicious kebab!
Yum indeed
Minor_Furie wanted a Mexican. The service was dreadful and the food barely edible. He should have had the fajitas which are always good quality. The staff are still poor though. Twenty minutes to serve six people!!! At Great Adventure there was one poor bloke and he did twice that many (he was serving food, drink and taking cash) in half that time. The Mexican had three people on! It's always been bad in here which is why I try to avoid it.
Stuff happened next. Everyone else ran off to Rita and to eat pie and mash. I took MMF to eat ice cream and go on the Driving school.
Ice Cream
Driving School
Big Wobbly Mushroom (now there's a thought to keep you awake at night)
We left Cloud Cuckoo Land (I avoided Charlie) and I tried to get some shots of the new construction (see the construction topic).
I found a secret gate:
FOMF doesn't like the Skyride:
I think the left sign is warning you about watching "The Ring" on your iPod???
I actually went on Blade for a change (MMF likes it):
Then we watched people getting soaked on Ripsaw which made MMF giggle.
Headed back to Katanga Canyon then, stopping off for a bounce on the way:
Banana was won:
I say won, obviously you only get it if you lose, so it's a banana was lost?
Everyone else went on RMT and Rapids while I pram watched. Everyone had fun, then it was time to go home. It was 5:00 and poor MMF had fallen over:
Poorly leg
I wanted to get out and beat the queues out, so off we went.
Well, I went with MMF while the rest stayed to play on the teacups and Spinball, I met them at the pickup point.
Alton is pretty lush sometimes!
Daisy Train home - until next time Alton
That's about it really. Lots of traffic coming away due to it being a race day at Uttoxeter.
Had a lovely day anyway, the park was absolutely heaving, but we still managed to do everything everyone wanted. My personal ride count:
Duel x 2
Ugswinger x 1
Blade x 1
Hurrah!
