nemesis1978

So just been on olympia looping for the first time and my God it did not disappoint. It seemed to go on forever and the forces are unreal... I can also just commend the team who run it... never have I seen a more efficient group of people run 3 trains on such a short track. If you are in London get down and ride this beautiful classic beast.

^ You are correct there is only one way to get to and from Swarm. I have never had a problem with it during my visits (and these visits have been on some of the busiest days) and traffic tends to flow well. I went to the preview day yesterday and was pleasantly surprised, the staff where all very friendly and chatty, operations where good with most of the coasters being more than one train operation. The park was a lot quieter than I expected but I think this was due to Thorpe limiting numbers. The atmosphere was a lot more family orientated than I have experienced before. Ride Count Swarm 6, Stealth 6, Saw 3, Collosus 1 (why you would do any more than this is beyond me), Nemsis Inferno 2, Flying Fish 1, Loggers Leap 2 and Rush 1 All in all a very enjoyable day and makes the price of the annual pass worth it. I think the preview events Thorpe puts on are awesome and wish Alton would do the same!

I have been hoping for a map overhaul from Thorpe for a while now. I could not bare the chaos of the old map, however, I am disappointed that they seem to have forgotten the other rides they have in the park it's all coaster, coaster, coaster . I will make a personal judgement today when I go to the Annual Pass preview day, hopefully it wont be as bad in the hand.

The Swarm backwards..., 1 word.... Underwhelming

Whilst I agree this can happen on coasters I really do feel Alton have had an absolute nightmare with this coaster. The Smiler is an £18 million pound ride and after all the problems they have had with it I really do think Gerstlauer need to provide answers. Altons PR team are not helping the situation either. I really want to make the 400 mile round trip to Alton this year but think I will wait till scare fest before spending the amount of money I will to get there.

Definitely Nemesis for me the last wing over and then slamming into the breaks full speed and wondering what has just happened feeling dizzy!!!!

^ I agree very well done. I am looking forward to seeing how this one pans out. The Alton and Merlin marketing team haven't put a foot wrong for me at the moment. The Smiler seems to me to be the 'psychocoaster' Th13teen was marketed as.

So it looks like The Smilers viral marketing campaign has finally started..... this video has appeared on youtube. It is an interview with 'Miles Cedars' the author of 'Smile Always' give it a watch... also the two 'students' in the video have twitter accounts and Some people are questioning if it is official, however, IMO the timing is right and it seems to well put toogether to be fan made. Great start to a viral marketing campaign by the towers. Thanks to Towers Street for posting the above information on Facebook.

www.coasterforce.com/news/park-news/1898-take-sanctuary-at-alton-towers-scarefest New scaremaze for the towers it seems. The Boiler House to be replaced by The Sancutary....... all it seems linked in to SW7 !! plus new photos of the SW7 site www.coasterforce.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=30089&start=1526 Alton do love their holes !!!

I have 2.5 weeks in america... we have booked flights from manchester to new york.... new york to ohio... ohio to orlando then the train to miami!!! my quest is to do coney island, cedar point, orlando theme parks then relax in miami!! does anyone have any advice about this trip ?? we are doing the last week in august to the middle of the 2nd week of sept. Any advice on tickets etc would be welcome soooooooooooooo excited thanks xx

no doubt alton towers for scarefest although am looking forward to my mate getting back tomorrow to book my first trip to the USA next week !!!!

alton towers tomorrow with a couple of rides on nemesis in the dark will close my season

sorry but regardless of his life the man was a legend i was privileged enough to see him live on both his bad and dangerous tours he was a true entertainer and an amazing songwriter am absolutley gutted. he was a hero of mine regardless of all the accusations and i hope he rests in peace if he is truely dead x x

Travelled down to alton yesterday for the first time this year. It was a weekend so knew the park would be busy and queues would be long. We had a 2 for 1 voucher so decided to get the fastrack scream ticket also which in the end turned out to be a godsend. So how did the day go ?? Got to the park @ 9:15 and already a big but efficiently moving queue for the monorail. The overhaul of the monorail was long overdue and I am glad they have done it well. We had the pirate on the way into the park and he had lots of people laughing. Equally the bumblebee voiceover we had on the way back to the car park was equally amusing. Upon getting to the park we got our tickets in no time at all and into the park we went. First ride was headed to was spinball whizzer unfortunately it was temporarily down. So off we went to oblivion queued for about 20 mins. Our cart came into the station and what happens ??!!? .......... what happens.... we are sorry oblivion is experiencing difficulties however we hope to have the ride open shortly!!! this became a recurring theme through out the morning and seemed to chase us through the park. Oblivion got up and running about 15 mins later and I have to say was worth it alone just to be sat next to a scottish girl we had been talking to in the queue. They had travelled down overnight and before the ride she was soooo scared, thorughout she was hysterical and her on ride photo hilairous. God know s what she made of Nemesis !!! Rita was next however was down so we got the skyride across to forbidden valley and used our fastracks for nemesis whos queue was already at 60 mins. Queued for the front seat and literally just as we would have been the next train the whole station went down!! a car was halfway in the station and a car halfway on the lift hill. Nothing was working at all was literally as if somone had pulled the plug. Now depending on which member of staff you spoke to either the whole park went down or half of it and this lasted about an hour. I felt sorry for the guys on the trains also the skyrides as they where not moving at all with people in them giving eveyrone the thumbs down signal. I would have though a park would have back up generators?? We waited for a while and where given 2 priority passes as we had fastrack ticket after about 20-30 mins they managed to clear the riders from each of the trains and we where all told to leave the station. I would love to know what happened but by the time we walked through o Mutiny Bay the log flume, battle galleons etc wherel all working as was Rita and Ugland so who knows happened but their where lots of unhappy people about. The staff where fantastic and did everything to appease people, the closing time of the park was also put back from 6pm till 7pm!! The day from here onwards got better and we pretty much got everything else done that we wanted to depspite the average q time being 60 minutes with oblivion and rita reaching 90 at some points. A good day was had depsite the glitch and as previously said i cant praise the staff we encountered enough in how they dealt with the problems and our queries, especially the nemesis crew who where constantly talking, not only, to ourselves in the bays but the guys on the trains as well to keep everything calm and us all informed as to what was going on. Also for Alton in general for putting the closing time back an hour and thank god for fastrack and priority passes. Ride Count Oblivion x 2 Nemesis x 2 Air x 2 Battle Galleons (love this ride) Log Flume Rita Enterprise Unfortunatley no pics due to my camera being rubbish and dying on me. Thanks

nice report only just seen it!! I went to AT myself for the first time in 3 years last week and had a fantastic day - longest we waited was 15 mins, everything running to full capacity, Nemmie 2 trains, Air 3 Trains, Rita 2 trains etc etc. Staff all very helpful and place looked spotless. Was my first time on rita and spinball whizzer - I have to say spinball is THE funniest coaster I have ever been on and a great addition to the park!!! As for rita heard good and bad things about her but i loved her !!espec front row rides are fantastic. Managed to do everything at least twice including the rides ya don't normally do. Only bad thing i could say about the day is the state of x sector. Oblivion needs a new paint job and badly!! I remember the first time i went into that area and it looked ace tis now a shadow of its former self - although oblivion still rocks!!