Farley Flavors

Currently in the middle of a two-week USA coaster tour and I definitely chose the right day to go to Dollywood! We told the guy in charge that we were visiting from Scotland and probably wouldn't be able to return for at least a couple of years (which is true) and he very kindly allowed us into the station without tickets. The ride operator then let us queue for the front row. The ride's awesome!

According to Google maps, Thorpe Park is a 2.9 mile drive from my house.

Thanks again folks. So my revised plan is to hit Goliath, Superman, Vertical Velocity and Whizzer as early as possible then scope out the one-train ops and leave Raging Bull until after 1500 when hopefully the crowds will be lighter (and it's running better).

Okay, thanks for the info. I guess I should aim to hit Goliath, Superman and Raging Bull as early as possible. Anyone know which coasters are likely to have one-train ops?

With this in mind I figured I might have to splash out on a Flash Pass on my visit in a few weeks' time. Except...I'm going on Thursday 19th May and the online store doesn't offer Flash Pass for that date, or indeed any other date in May when the park closes at 1700. What gives? Do they really not sell Flash Passes on a day when the park is only open for 6.5 hours?

Nice! I'm planning to be there in May. I'm pretty sure the UK will count as "out-of-state". What type of proof of residency should I bring?

There's no shuttle bus to the park. It stopped running a couple of years back. As I already mentioned, if booking in advance you can get a return to Stoke for £18. This includes hourly departures from Euston from 0746. You can check the fares and timetables at http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/.

Alton Towers is a real bitch to get to on public transport. The bus services from either Stoke-on-Trent or Uttoxeter railway stations are seriously infrequent (there's only four per day from Uttoxeter) so unless you plan your journey meticulously you'd be looking at taxi journeys. The train journey needn't be as expensive as Dar suggests. By booking in advance on the right trains you can get a return from London Euston (reachable on the tube from Heathrow in an hour) to Stoke-on-Trent for as little as £18. A return journey in one day might just be possible. Have you booked your flight to Heathrow yet? If so, what time does it arrive? Are you staying in London for a while before you go to the continent or are you flying straight out after Alton Towers?

Most pleasant surprise was probably riding the Wild Mouse at Blackpool Pleasure Beach for the first time many years back. It looks so tame and innocent from the line. I was blown away by how insane it was! Of course, the same park has an unpleasant surprise too - how piss-poor The Big One is.

I thought those were from electrical work this offseason (I think either HWFan mentioned this or I must have the wrong park..) These are the tremors I'm talking about, not earthquakes. Tremors In which case you should have said "I will gladly take giant moles over freaking Graboids"

I did a field test by asking people I know, and at least in Minnesota, it's just called hockey UNLESS you are playing some other variation of it (floor, field, roller). To me, it's exactly the same. Unnecessarily adding a word. You're both wrong. "Hockey" is always played on a field. There's no such term as "field hockey"

Who the hell told you that?! For me it's the second best coaster in the park (after The Beast).

HI guys, Would you say it is doable to ride all of the above at least once in a single weekday, late May-early June? Cheers, Sam With a Flash Pass? Yes. Without one? Possibly. I went on a weekday last March, arriving before the gates opened, and the significant lines were: X2 45m Tatsu 55m Goliath (front row) 65m Full Throttle 75m (we didn't get on this until about an hour after the park closed) The lines for Viper, Green Lantern, Drop of Doom, Riddler's Revenge, Superman and Ninja were all minimal. Apocalypse and Scream were walk-ons so we rode both twice. Twisted Colossus wasn't operating. I'm assuming similar crowd levels to late March in late May/early June though, dunno if that's the case.

I'm guessing you haven't watched Blackfish then.