All about Alton Towers.

[baratron]

Alton Towers was, of course, brilliant. Not that I was doubting it would be :) Going up midweek, away from school holidays, was definitely the thing to do. It helped that the weather was awful. The longest we queued for any ride was 20 minutes for the Black Hole, and that was when it was actually raining (it's one of the few indoor rides at AT).

We went on Nemesis and Oblivion, the two biggest rollercoasters, three times each. Both of those are rides that I have queued for over an hour for before - I remember standing in a queue for Nemesis for 75 minutes. This time, as the park was so empty, we queued for 10 minutes the first time, and walked straight on the second. Amazing. As were the rides. Nemesis is a very fast hanging coaster, with several loops and inversions - it's exhilarating rather than frightening. Oblivion is the UK's first vertical drop rollercoaster - terrifying just before the drop, when the carriage is tilted down and hung there for a few seconds so that you can see how far you have to fall, but utterly thrilling afterwards. These are the kind of rides that work better than any mind-expanding drug for making me feel alive.

We also did the Black Hole and Runaway Train three times, because they're both really good fun. I would have been happy to do each of them several more times (I want a Black Hole in my garden!), but there was plenty of other things to see. We went on the Boneshaker and Corkscrew twice - and Hex, the Log Flume, Congo River Rapids and Haunted House once. I did like the Haunted House - it's probably the scariest ghost train that I've ever been in. We've never bothered with it before, because it's just not worth wasting time queuing there when you could be queuing for one of the big rides, but it's definitely worth going in if there aren't any queues. We didn't bother with Ripsaw or the Blade because they're identical to rides at Chessington (the Rameses Revenge and Black Buccaneer), and neither of us fancied the Enterprise, which is a "spin 'em and puke" ride. The only thing we missed that I really wanted to do was Submission, this year's new ride. This is similar to a pirate ship, but rather than just swinging up and back, you go all the way over, and are held at the top for about 10 seconds. Richard just didn't fancy that.

So Alton Towers was great and the b&b was lovely, and we've decided we are never going there again at a weekend, only ever midweek, and preferably away from school holidays. It's just not fun spending an hour queuing for everything and only getting to go on six or seven rides in a whole day. We had lots of time to walk around and eat properly and enjoy being there. We also saw a model of the new rollercoaster that's being built at the moment - Air - and peered in through windows in the fence surrounding it. It looks absolutely fantastic! It's another hanging coaster, but rather than sitting upright, you are leaning down at an angle - basically, as if you were flying. Wow! I have to go on it as soon as possible.

The only downer was various problems with public transport. I was going to rant about these, but I'm not sure I can be bothered now. Why waste valuable energy in a rant about something I can't fix, when I could be using it to write something interesting?

Comments

[lovingboth]

I thought you liked "spin 'em and puke" rather than the 'coasters...

Ghod it's been years since I got to go to Alton Towers (envy, envy) partly because the few times we've been near enough, it's been the sort of day when you just know the queues are going to be stupid and I never could be having with queues like that.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Rollercoasters are actually my favourite type of ride. Unfortunately, the two theme parks that I can get to easily are both quite poorly-equipped in the coaster department, which is probably why you haven't heard me mention them much before. Thorpe Park only has the Sea Snake (or something), which is a powered runaway train type thing that just goes round and round in circles, and X: No Way Out, which really is a nausea-inducing ride, and Chessington just has Rattlesnake this year, as Vampire's been closed for refurbishment.

I like rollercoasters in general - some types more than others, but I'm far too tired to look up the terms on a rollercoaster geek site! I know for certain that I love hanging and inverted coasters - these are the ones like the Vampire and Nemesis, though I can't remember which type is hanging and which is inverted. I very much enjoyed the wooden coasters that I rode in Canada, and also the one standing-up coaster that I've tried, but I don't really have enough experience of those to know whether that's a general thing or just specific to those particular rides. And I love wild mouse coasters - the ones where each car is separated and carries only 4 people, like the Rattlesnake.

The only ones I don't particularly like are ones with lots of loops and corkscrews. One of the problems I have with these is that on some rides my ears get banged against the restraints, and a second problem is that quite a few designers haven't taken into account the female anatomy very well. So there are rides that are impossible for me to ride without a good sports bra, and other rides where my breasts get squashed by the restraints. Lovely!

[narenek.livejournal.com]

When I last went to Alton Towers (erm some two years ago now), I was singularly unimpressed with the oblivion. Technically impressive, but a bit of a one hit wonder (one big drop/rush and that's it).

I much prefered the Nemesis which had a variety of spectacular bits which combined for a much more exciting overall ride.

The black hole wasn't overly impressive, but I (and the others I went with) found the haunted house really dull. We nearly bought the photo they tried to sell us at the end of the ride because our bored expressions were so amusing.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

The thing about the Black Hole is that I really liked the theming. Usually, theming on rides is just something stuck in to sell merchandise and amuse people for 5 minutes while they're standing in the queue, but the Black Hole's theming is fantastic. Considering that it's just a Jumbo Jet in an enclosure, it's much more impressive than you'd expect.

As you go up the initial spiral, music plays that gives you the impression of soaring, while the laser display in the ceiling makes you feel... well, it was vaguely transcendental for me. Then the rush of the first drop through darkness, and you turn into a beautiful room of pinpoint lights.