Alton Towers Discussion Thread

[andyuk200523]

Well, if AT's website is accurate, then Spinball isn't part of the ERT this year. This year, it includes Oblivion, Rita, Nemesis, Hex, Runaway Mine Train, Heave Ho, Marauder's Mayhem and Shark Reef. Assuming that I'll skip the last three, and RMT as well (although I may catch a ride later), what's the best plan?

 

I actually want to get a ride on Hex this visit, since I missed it last time. Is it still getting long queues during the day on a moderate day, or has it died down? With the length of the whole show, should I skip it anyways for ERT, in favor of more rides on Rita and Nemesis? Also, I'm going to want a ride or two on Oblivion, but would it take me too far out of the way on the way to Rita (or Hex)? I'm a big fan of Nemesis, though. I'm wondering if it would be worth getting a bunch of rides on it (and Air) during and right after ERT, and just cough up the money for a fasttrack or two on Thirteen (which comes with a Rita FT too), if the queues are too long. It might be worth getting a few extra rides in while I'm over there, rather than spending all that time running over to Thirteen.

 

I'm most likely going on Tuesday, July 12, unless I'd be better off on Monday because of expected bad weather. Speaking of which, what is AT's policy on rain? Do they run the coasters in rain, if there isn't lightning? Also, they're closing at 5:30 PM that day, which seems quite early. Any idea why? Also, I'm not afraid to pay for Fasttrack, if it ends up being worth it and the queues are too long. I probably wouldn't shell out the money for the unlimited one, and may not do the ultimate one either (unless queues are really bad all around the park!), but I'd do the Scream and Dark Forest ones. Also, I'd really like to check out the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ride. Are the queues usually long enough to buy the Adventurer fasttrack? I'd also use it on the Mine Train, but might skip the flume and rapids (how wet are they?)

 

Also, which rides currently have single rider queues? On my last visit, I completely forgot about the one on AIR (despite being warned about it by Justin from the ECC!) until just before we left on the second day! I managed to take advantage of it only once! Luckily, we had two real ERT sessions on it, although I did get stuck on if for quite a while!

 

Thanks for any help.

 

 

Nemesis Queue never gets beyone 20-30 minutes on a weekday (in my experience (counting well over 400 rides on Nemesis now )

Air Queue still is terrible, I tried out Single Rider last year on Air and it didn't make the slightest of differences, I wonder if the staff just didn't know how to operate it!

 

Hex on the other hand, I have never watched the in queue video since probably 2005.....queue is pretty much walk straight into Pre-Show 1 normally! So I would skip Hex for ERT, anytime of the day would be good.

 

I would at least try and get some Rita launches in during ERT, then you are nice and close to jump in the queue for Th13teen when it opens, so personally would still do X-Sector/Dark Forest during ERT then you can spend the day enjoying Forbidden Valley/Katanga areas.

 

As for Rain.....I have ridden Oblivion in a Hail Storm, so their Rain policy is quite heavily better than in the US.

 

If the park is closing at 5:30, I would suggest you would be looking at an attendance of up to 8,000 which is a dead day for Alton, have a great time!

 

Glad to see another ECC member on here, are you going on the Sweden Trip, I can't wait for it! 1st June!!!

[AstroDan]

You can't really just waltz between Nemesis and Rita during ERT - they are miles apart and the Skyride does not open until 10am.

 

My pathway on visits so far this season has been:

 

Enter Park (9am)

Oblivion (walk on)

Rita (walk on) - maybe 2 or 3 rides if you have time.

 

Then in queue for Th13teen at 9:45am ready for it to open.

 

Following Th13teen, ride Hex which has no queue and then Skyride over to Forbidden Valley for Air followed by Nemesis.

 

Using the above method, I would expect you to have done all the above by 11am.

 

Also - a note - Th13teen is still attracting queues of up to 50 minutes in the mornings at the moment, but after around 2-3pm, it tends to go very short. So I would ride it in the morning at opening time and then leave it for a re-ride till later in the day (if you even want a re-ride!). Throughputs on it are very good, though (1,400pph ish).

 

[David H]

If the park is closing at 5:30, I would suggest you would be looking at an attendance of up to 8,000 which is a dead day for Alton, have a great time!

 

Any idea why they close at 5:30 on a few selected days, but at 6PM on others? There doesn't even seem to be any rhyme or reason to it, unless they are basing it on school bookings? For instance, the week before I'm going, they're open until 6 PM on every day except Friday, which is usually a later day for parks in the US. But on the week I'm going, it's open until 5:30 on Monday, Tuesday and Friday, but stays open until 6 PM on Wednesday and Thursday. And why is the waterpark open until 6 PM every day those weeks, except on Fridays when it's open until 7 PM?

 

Also, does Spinball have a single rider line? When should I squeeze that in? Or just suck up the wait and endure it for one time? And how bad to the queues for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory get? Again, I'm not opposed to getting Fast Track, if I need it, although I might avoid the whole park one, unless it ends up super busy with school groups. Unfortunately, Spinball only seems to be part of the whole park one.

 

Or maybe after 13, before the monorail to Air and Nemesis? Or would the queue for Spinball already be long by that time? Should I throw in Hex while I'm near it for the Skyride, or would the queue for it be so short during the day that I'm better off getting over to Air ASAP?

 

Glad to see another ECC member on here, are you going on the Sweden Trip, I can't wait for it! 1st June!!!

 

Well, I think I might have to renew my ECC membership, since it may have expired a few months ago. In fact, I should do that ASAP! I did the joint ECC/ACE trip to Japan in 2006, as well as the Italy trip in 2009, the week before the ACE trip to Spain. I'm actually doing the ACE trip to Scandinavia, which is the same time as the ECC Germany trip. (too bad they didn't plan them a couple of days apart, or I might have done both!) So. obviously, I won't be doing the ECC Sweden trip. I wanted to get in the rest of Scandinavia, too.

 

In fact, the Alton trip is actually just before the ACE Scandi trip. I was originally just doing a quick couple of days in London on the way, mainly for sightseeing and clubbing -- and the Doctor Who exhibition! -- and maybe a day at Thorpe and Legoland. But I decided to move it up a couple of days and make it a 4.5 day pre-trip, adding in Alton Towers and another day of sightseeing. (Which I'll need, if I get the Merlin UK pass, since I'll hit up Madame Tussauds, the Eye, the Dungeon, Sea Life, etc.)

 

And thanks for the advice, Andy and Dan!

[andyuk200523]

Any idea why they close at 5:30 on a few selected days, but at 6PM on others?

 

Alton (same goes for Thorpe) work out their opening hours and whether it is a Peak or Non Peak day with the amount of Presold tickets online, so if it is a 5:30 closing, it will be a very quiet day, 6pm closing, slightly busier, 7pm, busy day etc....

 

Also, does Spinball have a single rider line? When should I squeeze that in? Or just suck up the wait and endure it for one time?

 

Spinball had a Single rider queue last year, not sure about this year, although the signage looked very permanent, it does work pretty well too from what I have heard, you could possibly do this before you head over to Nemesis/Etc.

 

And how bad to the queues for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory get?

 

I have never queued for it

 

Should I throw in Hex while I'm near it for the Skyride, or would the queue for it be so short during the day that I'm better off getting over to Air ASAP?

 

It all depends if you don't mind doing the park sort of back to front blah blah, if you aren't bothered about going back and forth across the park, I would leave Hex until after the coasters, there will not be a big queue for it at any time of the day, so head over to Forbidden Valley and get Air in quickly after ERT & Th13teen, then go to Air before Nemesis.

 

Have a great time!

[snoflake15]

^^ Even if Spinball still has a single riders queue I wouldn't use it. We tried it a few years ago and it took as long as the normal queue.

 

On our last visit last year I just missed Spinball out. That and the Flume seem to have the longest queues in the park. I would rather ride the bigger coasters anyway.

[David H]

^^ Even if Spinball still has a single riders queue I wouldn't use it. We tried it a few years ago and it took as long as the normal queue.

 

On our last visit last year I just missed Spinball out. That and the Flume seem to have the longest queues in the park. I would rather ride the bigger coasters anyway.

 

The problem is that I want to get at least one ride on it, since it's it's new for me. I'm sure one ride will be fine on it.

 

Any idea how bad the lines for it will be less than an hour into the day? Would it be worth trying to get over there after 13, and before the skyride to Air? Or should I just sacrifice that as my one long wait of the day in favor of getting over to Air quicker and hopefully getting a couple of rides on that and Nemesis before the crowds get there. I'll have 8 hours there, after all, so I can probably afford one long queue, even if I'd rather avoid it.

 

It's just a shame that it's not part of the ERT this year. It's odd that they chose their higher throughput rides (Oblivion, Rita and Nemesis) all over the park for ERT. Maybe they're hoping to sell more fastrack tickets that way? It's also a shame that the only way to get a Fastrack for Spinball is with the Ultimate or Platinum fastrack. I'd totally buy one of the smaller packages if it including Spinball. But 42 pounds is a bit much if I'm only going to need it for a few rides, especially with the shorter day.

 

Speaking of Fastrack, where in the park can you buy them? Is it only in the front of the park, or do they sell it in other stores? And how do they run it now? When I was there in 2003, they had Disney-type machines in one location for tickets at a specific time, but the tickets were free. Now that they're charging, I'm assuming you can use the tickets at any time?

 

Again, thanks to everyone for the advice!

[Team Thriller]

I had no problem at all with the single queue with Spinball. They seemed to load two regulars on one side of the car and then took one single rider and put one on the other side of the car, and the line to the regular was about an hour! I was on the ride in about two minutes.

 

^

And what I did which seemed to work fine was go to Forbidden Valley for ERT in the morning, ride Nemesis till your brains fall off, at opening ride Air (10 am), then take the skyride to the Dark Forest and ride Th13teen and Rita before the general public really have time to get there. Oblivion is best during lunch, especially with a KFC right next door to it.

 

--James Flint

[snoflake15]

^^ not sure if they are doing it this year but last year they were selling fast tracks for individual rides at an individual price. Not sure if Spinball was one of them though. One of the AT regulars may be able to help you on that one.

 

If you are keen to ride Spinball you should manage it ok at some point during the day.

[Luke_A]

^

Alton do still sell individual fastracks, they all have different prices though.

I bought one for Spinball when i visited last week and it was £4 for one ride. Most of the other 'big' rides are also from £3-£4 for individual fastracks.

Th13teen and Rita fastracks are £5each or you can get a combined ticket for Rita and Th13teen for £10-which doesn't seem to make too much sense to me as it's the same price as buying one for each.

On the note of ERT, I got 3 rides on Oblivion in the first 20-30 mins of ERT and then 1 on Rita, we then got in the Th13teen queue for opening time. Either that or you could do the Forbidden Valley side of the park and go on Nemesis tonnes of times

[tiger01]

My parents just said that I can go to Alton Towers in two days time as long as I have a shower. DEAL!!!!

[Ace Of Spades]

^Must...resist urge...to ask...why...

[COASTER FREAK 11]

My parents just said that I can go to Alton Towers in two days time as long as I have a shower. DEAL!!!!

 

Ummmmmm, yeah.... I bet if you do that every day you'll get all sorts of benefits!

[BeemerBoy]

My parents just said that I can go to Alton Towers in two days time as long as I have a shower. DEAL!!!!

I think you just set the UK back a century or so.

[Ace Of Spades]

^^&^

[SharkTums]

Oh teenage boy coaster enthusiasts...you never cease to disappoint me.

[tiger01]

Well, I've had a shower now. Just a few questions to ask before I go.

 

1. Is there anything you want to see around the park. (I'll take photos!)

2. Can someone give me directions to that oak outside the park in chains. I know you go down that path by the B&B but is it on that path as you walk down it?

3. Mornig ERT. Is this a good Idea? Oblivionx2 to Rita x(How many rides until 10am) to Th13rteen.

 

Thanks alot!

 

And about that shower thing. sorry if it caused anyone to freak out. I havn't had a shower in about a week. So if I do it again after Alton Towers maybe they'll take me somewhere else!

[Ace Of Spades]

And about that shower thing. sorry if it caused anyone to freak out. I havn't had a shower in about a week. So if I do it again after Alton Towers maybe they'll take me somewhere else!

Dude, you're not helping your case at all here. But, hey, at least it's amusing to read.

[tiger01]

^ It's a joke. I'm really hygienic!

[COASTER FREAK 11]

And about that shower thing. sorry if it caused anyone to freak out. I havn't had a shower in about a week. So if I do it again after Alton Towers maybe they'll take me somewhere else!

 

Do you live in a cave?

 

 

^ It's a joke. I'm really hygienic!

 

LIES!

[tiger01]

You've never met me in person so I don't think you have the right to sum me up for one thing I posted on TPR.

[COASTER FREAK 11]

^ It's a joke.

[larrygator]

1. Is there anything you want to see around the park. (I'll take photos!)

 

I think we all would like to see a picture of you in the log flume station holding a bar of Imperial Leather and a sign that says "I showered today."

[Gerstlauer1]

Lol, lol, and lol.

[tiger01]

Thanks Larry!

[tiger01]

1. Is there anything you want to see around the park. (I'll take photos!)

 

I think we all would like to see a picture of you in the log flume station holding a bar of Imperial Leather and a sign that says "I showered today."

 

...