Photo TR: Alton Towers February Half Term Event!

[Koolkid]

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

[Koolkid]

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...

[Groteslurf]

^ You should be a bit more patient. I for example, haven't been online since you posted your TR so only read it just now.

 

Nice pictures and TR. Great that AT manages to run everything in that kind of weather.

[piers]

What is ITHOTMK?

[Troll]

^ It's 'In The Hall Of The Mountain King' - the music AT used to use on all it's adverts

 

 

Andrew

[AltonTowersNerd]

Hall of the Mountain King, thats what HOTMK stands for in its initals. Its used for the Alton Towers theme tune.

[NF2]

Hey guys, First Post

 

I consider my self a bit of an AT fanboy (not to defensive levels though), and as said above, ITHOTMK is the music Alton Towers used on Towers Street (the Entrance Plaza), the Skyride and all of their commercials during the 90's. Around about 2005-ish, new management came in and decided to completely change the parks brand image from its "Where the Magic Never Ends" branding which lasted from 1992-2002. The magic branding held on for a few more seasons, but when 2005 and Rita came around, the branding totally changed to something they considered more "edgy" and "modern", to the derision of most enthusiasts!

 

Come 2008, we get a new logo and promotional style, and on the 2008 commercials ITHOTMK made a return, with the park following suit not long after. Its incorporated into the current Towers Street score (not very subtly), but is alot less prominent than it was in old 1994 soundtrack. Still its nice to have it back and it certainly beats hearing random pop music like in 2005! Hope that answers your question about where ITHOTMK went, and sorry if this was a tad mundane and overly long for a first post, I need to train myself not to talk like i'm still on TTF

[Koolkid]

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.

[cfc]

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...

 

Remember: "Patience is a virtue." It's bad form to bump your thread to beg for posts. End of lecture.

 

Thanks for the snowy look at my favorite UK theme park. I haven't been there since 2006, but I still consider Nemesis to be the best inverted coaster anywhere.

[andyuk200523]

In Nemesis' defence, it hasn't run all winter, we have had one of the coldest winters in years and it was first thing in the morning with no weight on board, of course it is going to run slower than usual, but give it a few weeks of numerous runs and some heat (hopefully) and it will be flying round the course again......anyone know if they have put all new bearings in the wheels again this year? To really make it fly?

 

Will find out for myself in April