Intro
Monday’s trip to Alton Towers started sub-optimally, leaving Manchester at 8am we arrived at approximate 9.50am. After parking, we joined the relatively short queue (just outside the station) for the monorail to the main entrance. Monorail operations were incredibly slow, we finally entered the park at 10.40am. The park was only open from 10am to 4pm, so we had to maximise ride time, losing nearly an hour at the start of the day was not great.
When we came off the monorail there were two big queues to enter the park, however, I think it was a British thing of seeing and joining a queue. (These queues were for bag checks). I walked briskly around the queues to the turnstiles and walked straight in.
Our plan of attack was to go to Smiler first then rotate counterclockwise around the park, however, once we were in, we checked queue times and decided it would be better/quicker to go ride Wickerman instead as it was only showing a 15min queue.
The Rides (in order)
Wickerman – A new wooden coaster, what a fantastic ride immediately goes to the top spot as my favourite rollercoaster. The ride features an awesome (and scary) pre-show, then you move onto the station to ride. The ride itself is fast, it doesn’t look fast when you watch it in the queue line, but it flies around the track at speed. Theming is awesome, operations were awesome, and (after Blackpool) it is clear that a wooden coaster can be fun without being overly rough.
After Wickerman we decided to cut across the park to smiler, walked around the lake (via tower street) only to be stopped just before CBBC land to be told the route is closed. If we wanted to get to X-Sector we had to go back around the lake the other way. Slightly annoying, more time wasted. We got to X-Sector and Smiler was closed due to technical issues.
Oblivion – A favourite of mine at Alton Towers, with a minimum queue time of 5 mins, we were quickly on the ride. Again, operations can’t be faulted, it was a quietish day, but they were running 4 trains! I think we spent longer waiting to be unloaded from the ride than we did queuing or riding it!
Smiler was still down, it was 11.45 at this point so we decided to grab a quick bite to eat before lunch rush, and hopefully afterwards Smiler will be operational again.
Yes, I had a donut chicken burger, it works honestly. Food at Alton Towers was not really on par with Blackpool. It was more expensive, for “less”, the DCB was very nice, with fries, and drink, £10 (rounded up). I had to go wash my hands afterwards 🙂
Our luck changed, at this point, as we just finished eating, Smiler re-opened, and we were right next to it!
Smiler – I did not go on this ride, it’s a great ride for sure, but I know my limits. The queue time was ridiculously short, my friends pretty much walked straight on which is unheard off, except for being in the right place at the right time. 🙂
HEX – I like Hex, got a chance to play with night mode on my phone camera to capture the queue line (it’s normally much darker than this). It was fun as we seemed to end up with people who have never rode it before, so they had no idea what was about to happen.
Thirteen – It’s been years since I’ve ridden 13 last, it’s a good rollercoaster but that is not the most impressive bit about the ride. Over the years, trees/bushes have grown around the queue line, you literarily cannot see the coaster anymore from the queue line at all. That is so impressive, queue up to an old building, eventually get on a rollercoaster. Thus, I don’t have a photo as I couldn’t see it!!
We choose to skip Rita, 40-minute queue time, really isn’t worth the 30 seconds of ride. Instead, we headed to Forbidden Valley for Nemesis and Galactica? (Air)
Nemesis – Classic ride, due to be re-tracked next year (take note Blackpool pleasure beach), ok, I didn’t go on it. But it’s Nemesis, once it’s retracked I’ll be back in the queue… Good news was it had zero queue time (all day).
Galactica -Again I skipped this one; I’ve done it before not really a fan of ride / harness. I think if I was staying onsite, or nearer to the park I would have happily gone on this (and Nemesis) but after BPB I know my limits. Instead, I had an Iced-Americano.
At this point we started repeat rides, headed to Wickerman for two goes on that (10min queues), then back over to x-sector to nab rides on Smiler (for my friends) and Oblivion (for me).
Positives
Once in the park ride operations was excellent, resulting in very short queue times. Theming was switched on for all the rides which again on a Monday towards the end of season was unexpected. The weather was great (for the time of year) we got so lucky with that.
Not So Positives
Monorail operations at the start (and end) of the day were terrible; it felt like they were running maybe one or two trains. Food quality was good, but price wasn’t, also charging nearly £3 for a 500ml bottle of coke is excessive (BPB was at least 50p cheaper). The park opening hours were short, 10am to 4pm, just 6 hours to get rides done.
Sidenote – There were an awful lot of school aged children at the park; it was a weekday during term time this seems wrong. These were not school trips (there were clearly a couple of those I saw) but parents choosing to take their children out of school for a day at the theme park.
Summary
With such a short-day Alton Towers just need to sort out Monorail to get people in the park. I think the park could do with a 2nd entrance; at the carpark/monorail side (near forbidden valley). The rides were fantastic; the short park opening hours not so great, this is why we skipped a lot of the other rides. Can’t wait to return to see the new ride they are currently planning and the re-tracked Nemesis.
Top Tip
Install the Alton Towers App on your phone, to get live queue line times.