Koolkid

Alton Towers is pretty awesome with a Monorail ride through the park to the entrance. I think that's a pretty brilliant/magical start and end to a day out.

Thirteen at Alton Towers

1. Nemesis 2. Duelling Dragons 3. Nemesis Inferno 4. Montu (Found it slow, forceless and way over-trimmed) 5. SLC's

^^ Can I just say that was fantastic! Thanks for typing up such a detailed report on it. Hopefully something similar is run in a few years at a time I'll be able to make it. In the Thirteen Queue I got talking to one of the people at the Boot Camp and she had a similar opinion of how amazing it was. Really nice person Anyway thanks again!

^^ The Rita trains have been improved and look a lot better, they are sort of old a rusty, the queue is the same, there is new audio though, the one which is played when the train is launched is much improved.

I rode it today and thought it was amazing, in the queue buiding there is one of those electrical things which emits sparks, wasn't operational though. The ride in general was awesome though with some great airtime in the park, would also get airtime in the front but the trims do stop that and are the only bad thing I have to say about the ride. The music is great and in the queue the girl counts to 13 but screams when she gets there etc. Station is well themed. The roller coaster part of the ride isn't as intense as it's made out to be but the "Secret" section is and really does make you jump with "things" closing around you. Apparently this part still hasn't be perfected yet and is still not running with anywhere near the number of effects it has. The ride does have 5 trains and has a really quick moving queue, as well as a single rider line which is great. I counted and even with 3 trains, dispatches were like 30/40 seconds apart. Honestly loved the ride.

^^ 1200 Same as Corkscrew's

Apparently it's A LOT better than the video makes out I'm just gonna wait till I ride it

Oh wicked Do you know what rides you'll be working on yet ?

Definitely Intamin for me, I like rides which are different/unique and don't do the same thing. A few of the B&M's I rode in America were very samey and even though I hadn't, I felt I could have ridden them before. There are some awesome B&M's though, such as Nemesis, Incredible Hulk, Duelling Dragons, Oblivion. I do just prefer Intamin. To be honest though I am sure if we had a GCI or GG coaster over here they would be up there too as they all look pretty epic Pinfari's also rock my socks

Just seen one of these blipverts and wow, for something that lasts a few seconds it really does build the ride up and it looks even more scary and strange than I was expecting. Seriously it is really quite scary. I thought the press release about the advert being to scary to be released was just for marketing, but after this it wouldn't surprise me if that was actually true.

See, everyone complains about Gwazi, but last year I rode both sides 2 or 3 times and whilst yes it was bumpy, it wasn't rough or painful in the slightest. In fact those rides were some of my funnest roller coaster experiences

Alton Towers also installed a Splash Battle a couple of years ago, and whilst it is a decent ride, I don't even think it appeals to its target audience. Even in the height of summer during an occasionally warm day in England, the ride had a 5 minute queue maximum when everything else is packed. For some reason it just doesn't seem to be a popular ride type for park goers. Just my opinion though.

I personally love the Harry Potter Books and Films, I remember seeing the first and straight away thinking of the oppurtunity to create an awesome theme park attraction, and I hope this is it

No that's great, thanks very much. It would explain it as I remember hearing it sometimes last year and that would mean that I wouldn't always hear it. So yeah, thanks And I do also remember the dreaded days of around 2005... Thank goodness the park has got back on track since then.

Thanks for this I love seeing TR's from years ago and looking at the changes the park has made since then. R.I.P. Black Hole

I must say guys, I'm not looking for huge "THANKS SO SO MUCH" but I have gone to the trouble to write a trip report, and not even had any feedback whatsoever, when other people have done trip reports and got pages. If my TR sucks, tell me and I can improve...

Had a good day at the Towers to start my 2010 season! One thing, has the park lost ITHOTMK? Because I swear I haven't heard it on my past few visits, It needs to return as it is a vital part of the Alton Towers magic! Anyway, during the journey the snow just kept getting heavier and heavier not creating a lot of hope for most of the rides being open. We arrived a bit later than expected but everything was closed apart from Duel and Hex. Rode Hex first, and yes, whilst the projector slanted across the wall did look unprofessional, it did the job while the other is repaired. The rest of the ride was brilliant, maybe not quite up to the standard usually set, but still great. Theme Park theatre really is done at its best at some moments. The audio in the vault was hear-able, although it sounded as if the main speaker had blown or was switched off as the one which was playing was of poor quality. Headed down through the park and decided to take a ride on Duel, and I must say I had some of the best rides I've ever had on Duel today ( apart from Duel: Live of course) Audio was brilliant and loud, most effects were working, I much prefer the speed throughout the house this year ( not that its changed much), overall I had a great ride and got a new high score for me of 47,000 Headed down into Forbidden Valley now , and to my surprise, Air was operational! However the crew really were poor at the getting the trains through and the queue moved extremely slowly taking 45 minutes, definately ride hosts in training today. It also followed the usual trend of breaking down, which has happened every time I've ridden Air. Nemesis by now had opened, from the Air queue I could see it testing and it looked terribly slow compared to usual, was barely making it over the loop, and barely back into the break run, by the time I got onto it though it was back to normal, and Nemesis on one train, with a longer queue took less time and moved quicker than Air on 2 and a much shorter queue! By about 12:30 or 1 , everything was open and to compensate, the park extended opening till 4:30 Next was Sonic Spinball, and whilst the paint job looks great, stickers with bubbles under don't. Spinball Whizzer was certainly looking tired last year and something needed to be done, but really, some of the changes made are dreadful. Such as the new logo being stuck 3 times on the ceiling bumpers in the station. I expect better from Merlin, but it's only for a few years Anyway next, moved into X-Sector to ride Oblivion, the 2 shuttles with new restraint's look fantastic and ultra sleek. The area still however looks very run down and needs serious work. Also Oblivion was walk-on even with Air and Nemesis at least 40 minutes each. Had a couple more rides on Duel and Nemesis etc and that about rounded off my day. One breakdown on Air which is to be expected and even that was less than 5 minutes. The park however doesn't look to have had much work whatsoever over the closed season and I look forward to seeing the needed freshening up which will be needed if Alton's 30th year is going to be as good as it could be. Edit: Sorry about my image size. Overall Ride Count- Air- 1 Nemesis- 2 (1 of course at the front ) Oblivion- 1 Duel- 2 Sonic Spinball- 1 Hex- 1

^^ I knew the tallest parts of Rita were painted that colour but it looked to me as if more of the track was painted that colour than before, and also the shade of brown on the further away track seemed to be different to the shade on the track around the brake run/ station/launch. I'm probably mistaken however

Is it me, or can we see the new colour scheme for Rita in the background ?

http://live.towersnerd.com/ Here is a live report on Alton Towers February Half Term Event, So far there is a look at the re-themed Sonic Spinball. Its not my site by the way, just thought you guys would like to have a look.

I wouldn't really call that an "endurance" test Although then again on either of the other B&M's at the park, I doubt that would be physically safe for an hour... Also a shame you can only apply if your 18!

Ah 12/20 for me, but 25/25 for the Alton Towers quiz

Ah thanks very much, I do actually already have Picasa, but how do you resize a picture using it ? Sorry, I'm a bit of a novice :S

I have pictures of a few of the UK ones needed, but whats the best way to make them the required smaller size?