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Alton Towers: People - It has none - 1/11/09

Martyn H

Hyper Poster
Title copied (nearly) from Neal's facebook status :p

Alton Towers times

I woke up at 06:15 along with Peter, half an hour later than anticipated. Thankfully we were both ready for 06:40, which allowed me to wake up Ciall for his 5 minutes to get ready. We then set off for Derby to pick up Neal, arrived in Derby stupidly early, leading to a half an hour wait for Neal. Eventually he arrived and by 08:45 we were on our way from Derby to Alton. Little Rot and Peter got us to Alton by about 09:15, which included an epic little road.

On arrival, it was raining quite heavily and we also noticed how empty the car park was. We took the strawberry monorail to the entrance and again it looked rather quiet. Fun times appeared to be ahead. Ciall was moaning (how unusual :roll:) about needing the toilet, so we stopped and had toilet talking times. We then walked outside into the rain and queued up. Wet queue times happened, made better with Neal's blue balloon that lasted a few seconds before I lost it :(

We were let into the park; probably about 20 minutes early, which meant we could walk up to Nemesis before opening. So naturally we walked towards Rita because we thought it would have the biggest queue throughout the day. Waited under the tyre for opening, due to excessive rain and at 10:00 we were finally walking down the queue. All 4 of us decided to do front row. Me and Peter went up first, followed by Neal and Ciall. It was fair to say we got quite wet on Rita, so we wandered off to something dry: Hex. Walked straight on, it was fairly boring: however, at least it was nice, dry and got for conversations.

After Hex we made our way to Burger King. We all got some chips except Neal, who stole a few of mine and Peter's chips. After finishing the chips, we exited BK, into a dry Alton Towers with a rather large amount of ketchup and some cream (which ended up all over the floor :oops: ) Ciall then told us his love for Charlie, so we were forced on that, walk-on again and as rubbish as usual.

Then we moved down slowly to Oblivion, doing it twice (both walk on) and both good fun. After Oblivion, we stopped off at the information building, so Ciall, Peter and myself could buy the maze tickets for later. Single rider Spinball times were now to be had, Ciall walked straight on, and we were all off in about 5 minutes. While we were in the area, I decided we would be doing Beastie. The others reluctantly agreed to join me, I got back row and had an enjoyable ride.

A leisurely stroll to Mutiny Bay via some random scarecrow benches in Towers street was to be had. The Flume was next, I decided to sit out, as I was drying out and did not want to become wetter than I was already. Well the walked straight on and I walked with them as far as I could down the exit path, then they disappeared up the lift hill and down the drop. A rather long pause of boat movement then happened. And the next thing I know is people are being evacuated from the ride. After a while, Neal, Peter and Ciall walk off with some priority passes, and I find out a tree fell on the track/water/whatever.

Haunted Hollow walking times were next. We went to Will's sex noise grave and used some of the priority passes on Duel: Live. Walked on, and found it rather boring actually, I prefer it normally. We then walked up to Forbidden Valley. We queued up together first, waited about 5 minutes and then went into the front row queue, waited about 5 trains worth of people and then got on. Was fun. So we then did single rider another 4 times. Though on my 5th ride on Nemmie, the other 3 were already off and decided to walk off to Air without telling me:evil: Fortunately I saw them passing under Air while I was on the brake run, so after the train stacked for a while and finally made it to the station and let us off, I ran towards Air and saw them walking into the single rider entrance. I ended up right behind them luckily, so that plan failed. Did Air, front row and as awful as it normally decides to be unfortunately. Lunch times then occurred.

Lunch had been consumed and back down the park we went. Stopping off at the mine train on the way, with a random 10 minute or so shower, which got us wet.

Then it was time for Terror of the Towers, queued about 20 minutes for it. Very well themed inside inside, not really the type of scares that scare me however. Very enjoyable still and one of the actors spoke to me after I told that I like coasters. Was mildly amusing. After coming out of the tunnel of piss, we made our way down to X-Sector to do Oblivion. We stopped off at Enterprise and Submission on our way, we then did Oblivion again. Fun times.

We walked back up to Ug Land to do some SW6 spying, but on the way we got distracted by a rather large actor costumed man thing. So we played with him for a bit and then walked over to Ug Land. Very quickly looked at SW6, before talking to the creature thingys of which name I cannot spell. We took some pictures of them, and I accidentally licked one of their fingers, it got angry at me then and made it's rather awesome noise. Seeing as we were in the area, we decided to single rider Rita, a nice quick 5 minute or so queue and we were on. And off, was better than usual to be honest and it gave some nice views of SW6.

Then Neal informed us of Trick or Treat doors, and we decided to do them. After a few minutes, me, Peter and Neal abandoned Ciall in the queue, so he could do it himself. We went to get some chocolate and Ciall queue, waiting for his go. Eventually he got to the front and we were hoping for a particular question to be asked, but that never happened :( Neal took a video of Ciall's ordeal, which was nice :p

It was now nearing 17:00 and we were right outside Hex, so we queued up for Hex: Live. We were eventually let in and we were in the first group. It was quite hilarious actually, and should definitely be kept, and as Neal was saying it should be permanent, as it greatly improves the pre-show. Now since the scarefest Hex exit comes out in Cloud Cuckoo land, we wandered over the Peugeot driving school to the Theatre and went in that for some reason. When in there we got talking to a ride/theatre op about Alton, and other nerdy things. Then the show started and was alright, quite random. And seeing as we hadn't done Twirling toadstool since it had moved, we did that. Was a good laugh and Neal caught a Ciall.

Very dark times were now upon us, so we set ourselves a challenge to do all the coasters at day and night. We had already done all of the coasters by day, so it was night riding times. Rita was first, but we had toilet times quickly beforehand, got on quickly. All 4 of us got paired up together, so I went with Neal, much to his dis-approval :p And Ciall went with Peter. We then had a look in the Rita shop, Peter bought a drink (how exciting :roll:) Oblivion was next in the dark. It actually had a queue though :( Took less than 10 minutes, but it was still a queue, we stuck it out anyway :lol: Was a good fun ride, especially since the lift hill had a great view of the moon. It started to rain during the ride which was funny, because it only lasted the duration of the ride. So we weren't too wet :)

We headed back down towards Spinball now, we did single rider and I literally walked on the ride. I didn't stop at all, it was made of win. We all got on, in 4 trains, which was quite handy. Then it was Beastie times, I chose to sit as close to the front as possible, and it absolutely flew round. It was stunningly good, with some great fun times.

The scarecrows sitting on the benches at the end of towers street were passed again, only this time they had mysteriously moved and they were sitting on different benches, which was quite freaky :wink: We headed towards the Runaway train through a rather awesomely lit Katanga Canyon. Neal, Ciall and Peter did the rapid because they wanted to get wet, I sat out again because I was nice and dry. Meanwhile I was looking at the lovely RMT/Rapids shop and I found a gun thing that said "The harder you pump, the faster it shoots" or similar. Childish times are fun. The others arrived back, but this time they did not get evacuated, so I was pleased. We did RMT next and we played choo choo with the ride op, Neal found this to be almost like getting her number :p 'Twas funny.

We then buggered off up to Forbidden Valley via a random walk in, walk out in Haunted Hollow. 3 rides of Nemmie were to be had next, first being a front row all together, then all together in other random seats. Good fun apart from one ride op who was very annoying and put all of his weight down to staple us in, and it hurt. After this we quickly popped off to Air after this, another boring ride on Air, but I like shouting at it. We had a quick stop off on Ripsaw, which was on the worst cycle known to man (it didn't flip once) and it was very poor. Two more goes were needed on Nemmie, great fun especially back row right, which gave me a stunningly good ride this time.

After coming off our 10th ride on Nemmie, we decided on Blade for random shouting at each other times. Empty boat was good (minus the one randomer in the middle of the boat :lol:) so we each sat in one corner of the boat, and played the shouting game. Shouting phrases included: "WE BLAME" followed by the "THE GERMANS", "Rachel" followed by "Adedeji" among others. A quick walk over to Nemmie for the last ride (2 in my case) andit was the end of the rides, but me, Peter and Ciall had the other 2 mazes left to do.

Once again I was the last to ride Nemmie and the others had run off. However, this time I had not seen the others and it was dark, which meant searching for others times. It lasted about 10 minutes before I found the others. They appeared to be playing the ignore Martyn game, I did not like this game. So when we had finished the walk back to the hotel, I joined in with this game.

The time slowly crept by, and by 10, Peter was sent to find me. He found me, and we walked off to the Boiler house. Neal decided to walk off the get "acquainted" with Little Rot :? We did Boiler House, was good fun and what was in there was all very good, however it needed to be longer. And we spoke to two men outside of it and gave them our opinions.

Field of 1000 Screams was next, and funnily enough one of the men asking for our opinions walked into the queue behind us, saying he used to work on the mazes, we found out how much was spent on two of the mazes and what some of the future plans for the mazes were. Apparently Terror of the Towers had £100,000 spent on it, yet Boiler house only had £10,000 spent on it, which is why it wasn't as big. Also according to this man, next year Field of 1000 Screams will not be coming back, and Boiler House will be placed there, so it has more room and can be bigger. So Ollie, that was probably for you. Anyway we queued quite a while for Field of 1000 Screams, but we eventually got on, and it was good fun. But it could have had more actors in the first part, possibly not coming out and trying to scare, but just running around the edges making rustling noises.

Then it was finally time for home times. Did not want, but had to accept it :( I had a relentless shot thing and we dropped Neal off in Derby and Ciall in MK and me also in MK. I got back a about 1:30am and was tired, and I still am. Want more Alton times.

Ride Count:
Nemesis x 12
Oblivion x 4
Rita x 3
Spinball x 2
Beastie x 2
Runaway Mine train x 2
Air x 2
Hex x 1
Hex: Live x 1
Duel: live x 1
Ripsaw x 1
Blade x 1
Charlie x 1
Submission x 1
Enterprise x 1
Twirling Toadstool x 1
Cloud Cuckoo Land Theatre x 1
Monorail x 1
Flume x 1 (For the other 3)
Rapids x 1 (For the other 3)

Mazes
Terror of the Towers x 1
Boiler House x 1
Field of 1000 Screams x 1
 
Lack of Hex:Live report...

Since it's the only thing I'm interested in as it's the new thing... Yet minimal mention... Bad times...
 
Very good times at Alton indeed.

Highlight has to be the flume evac. We came around the corner from the first drop to see about 4 boats already stacking at the bottom of the 2nd lift hill, and eventually we crashed into the back of them. It appeared a branch (probably about 5ft long) had fallen off a tree, landed on the lift hill and jammed a boat in that position. Eventually all of the boats were piled up together and they tried to free the boat by restarting the lift and rocking it. In the end we got evacuated and walked along the catwalk next to the trough, before heading down some steps and along a path which had some unique views of the ride.

Hex:Live was very good. As expected the ride doesn't change at all - it's still the same pre-show and ride experience. However, you now get actors in the pre-shows with you.

I'll put what happens inside Hex in spoilers, even though the attraction has now finished, just incase it turns up next year. :p

When watching the video at the start, there were about 2 masked and hooded figures wandering silently around the back of the group. It was hard to see what exactly they were since it was dark, but when the video ended they started to chase people through into the next area.

When you enter the octagon there were a few of the normal type scary zombie things sitting on the fences and stuff trying to be scary. During the scene, they all start to walk around the people and barge their way through. There was probably 10-15 actors (there seemed to be loads!) running around, scaring and doing normal actor stuff, in your face scares, gnashing and cackling etc. before they chased you all into the vault.

In the vault, the normal ride assistance were replaced by two hooded figures who did not talk. They simple raised their arms and we all copied as the restraints lowered. The ride itself was exactly the same.

It was very good and I would hope they make it a permanent scarefest attraction next year.
 
Missed Hex Live .

It was unbelievably empty yesterday, even less people than last year.

My report is being made now.
 
I was on The Flume when the torrential rain hit around 14:20. On the long bit in the woods. That was evil. And wet.

And yes I will get to writing a report now!
 
Yesterday was: EPIC FUN TIMES!

As empty for most part as Corkscrew Day last year, and bar the rain and wind, was simply an amazing day.

As I was the only one to do ALL of the Scarefest attractions, I will quickly sum them and rate them.

TotT was simply amazing. I'd have happily also paid £6 for that on it's own. Best maze I've ever done. 10/10

Duel: Live was simply awful. Aimed at kids, I know, but very few actors and lack of guns = fail. 4/10

Hex: Live was great! The actors were in great spirit, and if we were on the more actor-filled side, it would have been ever better. 8/10

Trick or Treat Doors were great! The woman in the blonde wig was nom (Neal agrees very muchly) and it's great fun for kids. I was the only 'big' kid, so embarrassment was had. 7/10

Boiler House was rather good, if very short. I think it being £6, it was too short and not as epic as the free TotT. 8.5/10

Field of a 100 Screams was great! Long, actor filled and unique. Well worth the £6. 9/10

And we did Charlie because I hadn't done it in 2 years, and, well, I wanted to see it fail. I was glad it did.

Water rides are fun times, and after Flume, we wanted to test if Peter and Neal were water ride-cursed. They are not :p

And lol at Martyn in TotT 'I like rollercoasters!' to which he got a reply from the actor 'Well duh, you're at Alton Towers!' xD

The guy in the theatre was great! It all started when I said that we had whored Nemmie to death, to which he replied 'Sounds like you're some kind of enthusiasts' to which we lolled. He seemed to know what he was talking about, and he was great.

My first ever proper evac on Flume was: Epic. We were stuck there was about 25 mins, and I got told off 3 times in the space of 15 seconds. 1) for standing up to get a picture of the epic, epic flooding created by flume overflow. 2) for facing the other way to talk to Peter and Neal and 3) for having my camera out :p

I took a few pictures, but they were "as we are walking" pictures, so they didn't come out very well:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=131696&id=731231904&l=c9c760b711

And I did a 3 min video of Flume fail before I was told off, so I will upload that soon when I get round to it.
 
Photo Trip Reports... They're not for everyone :roll: :p
 
^Not many people seem to bother to take photos at Alton Towers probably because they've been loads of times, I never do anymore as we do more or less the same order and it's just the same each time etc, but still want to write a report.

Good report though, great ride count.
 
Blaze was at Alton on Sunday? :?

Who let HIM in?

I shall try and upload some pictures shortly. I have a fair few of the probably unseen by most sections of the Flume. But this day at Alton was almost as fab as the Euro Live it was THAT good! :p
 
Great trip report. What's Hex live like, and yes any improvement on Hex should be kept all year round instead of a seasonal thing. sounds like a great day was had.
 
Here is the quick video I shot on Broken Flume: The Ride before I got told off and told to put my camera away:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2-Zzy322sI[/youtube]

Apologies for some sound and picture quality. My camera is not the best.

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Martyn and Ciall, take me to Alton Towers, my AT cherry needs to be popped and fast.
 
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