JSMarsden

Boldikus, I THINK the reasoning is with the location of Alton towers and their building restrictions. They can't build above tree height, which is why a lot of the rides are dug into the ground etc. If you look at Rita (or see pictures), the highest parts of the track are painted black, the same with the lift hill on 'Air', my understanding is due to these parts of the rides being at the maximum height they can built at, thus paint them black so they are slightly harder to see through the tree line. (Whereas, if they were bright orange or white, they would become more visible, and may face some form of fines/break building regs)

Well, Went: Weather was amazing, about 15-18 Deg, Sunshine most of the day (little cloud for an hour or so. Coaster count: Nemesis x 5 Smiler x3 Oblivion x2 Rita x2 Thirteen Ripsaw Subterror Duel Rapids x3 Log flume x2 Spinball x2 Hex As soon as we got there (9.30) we headed for the Smiler, and had to wait another 15minutes for that section to open. Queued up for Smiler for 10minutes, then worked our way around the park, checking the ride times website to track queue times. Got to Rita and Smiler had hit 50minutes within the first hour. Typical.... well, once we got around to Nemesis, Smiler was at 10minutes.... And is stayed this way all day!! Every single ride, we simply walked to the front (Bar smiler for 10minutes each time, and Air, which we didnt bother queueing again for)

(May have been said...) Queue line on the smiler....Just where the shop is... annoys me how there is a gap in the barrier, so when people wish to go to the shop, about 30 people jump right innn front of them, rather than waiting 30 seconds and still being pretty much in the same position in the queue!!

Hi, Pretty new on here but have been on other forums too! But I went to AT 3 times last year , and previously to that, I hadn't been to the park in about 5 years, so it was quite a shock to go 3 times in the same year! Each time I went, we went straight for the smiler first. The way I see it, is if you enter the park at lets say, 9.30-10am, then you have another 30 minutes till the rides open, meaning no matter where you go, there is a guaranteed 30 minutes queue (even if you're at the front...) So,we arrived for 9.30, and headed straight for the smiler. Yes, from there on there is about 45minutes to wait, until the thing has finished testing and allows people on, but then after that (if your lucky) there is only about another 20minutes waiting. It sounds a lot, but the 45 minutes is free time anyway, where nothing could be done (apart from driving in the car if you're a late arriver!!). So I simply use that time, for the ride which will have the biggest queue, giving me the rest of the day to enjoy the other rides, and returning to it before park closure Loved the smiler, and its on par with nemesis! The benefits Nemesis has at the moment is the shorter queue times, and its still the 1st/second best ride in the park, although I just love the amount of time you get on the smiler! I'm off again on Wednesday (15th), hoping for some half decent weather and short queue times! Does anyone know how busy it will be? (Im expecting quite short queues, with it being in term time, middle of the week, etc etc.. but thats just me hoping to have an empty park, which never happens!!!) JS