Rush
Giga Poster
As usual with my trip reports, this one is VERY long. So read on at your own peril.
Yesterday I took my second trip to the Towers this year, bit of a record seeing as I didn’t visit at all last year. This was my fourth visit to the Towers but I still get that buzz of excitement before visiting and I was very much looking forward to it.
I awoke at the ungodly hour of 4am but decided to stay in bed until quarter to five. I got dropped off at Reading station with my friend, Tush. About three minutes before the train was due to leave, the train decided to pull in at Platform 7 instead of Platform 4, which required running down the entire length of the platform, up some stairs, across the tracks, down some more stairs and back across the length of the platform. Thankfully we made it in plenty of time and grabbed ourselves some table seats.
The train journey to Stoke was just under 3 hours so we had plenty of time to kill. I almost completed my “Angry Birds” game but got stuck on a particularly frustrating level. In the end I gave up. The majority of the journey was spent listening to music, taking the piss out of Tush’s ethnicity and reading some Physics magazine. I sort of understood the bit about black holes until it started talking about some wave things in which I gave up reading. Embarrassingly, both Tush and ended up wearing similar shirts. (Of course, it was entirely his fault.)
Our train got stuck behind a slow train from Oxford to Birmingham, so we ended up pulling into New Street 17 minutes late where we met Rach. The remaining 45 minutes of the journey passed by a bit quicker as we moaned about school/college, public transport and the party Rach didn’t want to go to that evening. On the way, I decided to randomly take a picture of this lovely place called Wolverhampton. I didn’t like it at all.
Eventually we arrived at Stoke a bit late and got on to the sardine bus for a further hour journey to the main entrance. The bus journey was unremarkable to say the least. It was also completely packed so luckily the bus driver decided to take us the short way there and we finally arrived at the Towers a little before opening, 4 ½ hours after I left my house.
Naturally, every trip to Alton has to have a snazzy photo of the “Corkscrew” entrance. I won’t be the first not to.
There was some ticket and toilet faff before we headed over to the Skyride which would take us to Forbidden Valley. Rach tried her best to avoid the camera lens. She failed.
Upon disembarking the Skyride we headed straight for Air knowing it would get packed later on in the day and because I wasn’t able to ride it on opening day. We pretty much walked straight into the station and into the front row queue. About two trains from the front our station broke down. Bloody typical. There was a bit of a problem with the locking system for one of the rows which involved sending in a guy with a very curvy stick to probe a bit around there. (Giggity) Anyway, everyone got off and they sent it round empty. People got on, train put in flying position, ride breaks again. Bollocks. This time they got the people in that row off and sent the rest of the train round fine. The ride dispatcher then blocked off Row 5 by positioning herself in between the railings in a type of pole-dancer-esque way. Bit disturbing to be honest.
RAWR! Rach-monster says “Om nom nom, tiny people.”
During that minor fiasco I took a couple of cheeky shots of Air by positioning the camera underneath the railings. They came out quite well actually, although I reckon Dave would disagree.
Finally we got a ride on Air and I can safely say that I really like the ride. In my opinion it’s Britain’s most underrated coaster. It’s not particularly fast or intense but I personally feel like I’m flying on it, which was the main purpose of the ride. It’s a shame that on every other row apart from the front you mainly just get a view of peoples’ feet.
After Air there was some crisp faff and we headed over to Nemesis which already had a queue time of 30 minutes. We made the first of many mistakes and decided to come back later where it should be quiet during lunch. We took the Skyride over to the Dark Forest. The view really is stunning, it’s just a shame the window cleaner appears to be on strike.
RANDOM PAGODA THING.
Thi-3-teen had a queue of 70 minutes. There was no way I was going to queue that long again for that pile of crap. Rita’s queue was spilling out the entrance although the cattlepens hadn’t been opened yet. Rach estimated about 40 minutes. The Single Rider queues also looked hideous. Our second mistake was deciding not to go for it, something we’d regret a bit later.
We made a decision to have some early lunch. I had some chips, Tush got something from Burger King and Rach had an overpriced sandwich. Sadly, my 26 miniature brownies I bought from Asda the day before had merged into one and Rach and Tush were far too polite to take any.
We made a decision therefore to head to Nemesis’s 30 minute queue and do some of the filler rides on the way there. This was our 3rd mistake. The rapids had a ridiculous queue. It was a walk-on, but the queueline went on for an eternity. I wasn’t expecting to get wet and Rach assured me the waterfalls didn’t get you soaked. She lied. I ended up getting pretty wet from them. Tush spent most of the ride trying to move around the boat to avoid getting wet and ended up setting off the “Please Remain Seated” announcement which we took the piss out of for most the way round.
We moved onto Duel next which was also a walk-on. I quite like Duel but it may be for the incredibly catchy music and that the ride is a bit of fun. I only got 22,000 but the scores from everyone on our carriage didn’t do so well. After Duel we headed over to Forbidden Valley.
When we got to Nemesis we were horrified to read it was now 60 minutes. I was a bit sceptical but we queued anyway as Tush didn’t want to miss it. I was convinced the queue wasn’t 60 minutes until I realised how many SinTrack people were being let on. Frankly it was ridiculous the amount of SinTrack Alton were selling, it really pissed me off a bit especially as the dispatcher only let a few people from the main queue per SinTrack-mob. During the queue as well it decided to rain. A lot. In minutes it had turned from blue sky to torrential rain. It then stopped almost as quickly as it started and just in time for me to get my coat out my bag.
In the end, the queue was about 50 minutes, which for me was still way too long to queue for Nemesis, especially seeing as I don’t really like it. I’ve got to be honest, it was probably my best ride on Nemesis to date in terms of intensity and pacing and the Zero-G and helix are okay...
BUT...
I still think the ride is horrifically average in that it provides no sense of fun whatsoever and that it’s still rough as ****. I bashed my ear at least four times throughout the ride and overall left the ride feeling very “meh” but a little dizzy. Likewise, Rach disapproved of the ride. Tush said that he loved the first half but didn’t like the ending at all. (Although the fact that Rach and I spent a lot of queue saying it’s not very good might have had an influence.)
At this point we were really whoring the Skyride as we took it over to Dark Forest again. Thi-3-teen and Rita still had ridiculous queues so we agreed to head over to X-Sector for the best ride in the park...
...ENTERPRISE!!!
Okay, I jest, we’re really here for Oblivion. It too had a rather ugly queue but we stuck it out anyway and it turned out to be around 40 minutes. Sadly, after that epic wait we ended up on back row but that didn’t bother us because the ride is ****-ING AWESOME in every single aspect!
Don’t...
Look...
Down!
Although I don’t crap myself anymore on the ride, it still makes me feel a bit anxious, an effect which very few coasters have on me which makes the ride that bit more exhilarating. It also still produces the best airtime in the country (that I’ve been on) and continues to give me that rush of adrenaline. Outstanding ride!
Rach and Tush show their excitement for their favourite Alton ride.
Rach wanted a Thi-3-teen necklace so we headed back in that direction again. Thi-3-teen’s queue was now 50 minutes and Rita’s was at least 90 with Single Rider queues not looking great either. It was decided at this point we should give Hex a go seeing as I hadn’t been on it before and I’d heard good things about it. The queue was about 10 minutes long and moved very quickly due to Hex’s huge capacity. Sadly, it seemed the projector in the second scene wasn’t working and due to some people being idiots I missed a lot of the story. Thanks to Rach telling me the story I sort of knew what was going on. “The Octagon Room” was next and I don’t know if all the effects were working or not but it didn’t feel like much was happening.
The actual ride in the Vault was weird and slightly dis-orientating. That’s all I can really describe it as. The whole ride was a bit of a disappointment in that I didn’t feel any enjoyment from the ride although the theming and story (once I understood it) was pretty decent. I’d like to try it again with the projector working and with not so annoying people. Overall though, I was unimpressed.
We didn’t have too long left in the park at this point so we went to look at Rita and Thi-3-teen’s queues for one last time. Thi-3-teen was closed and Rita still had a hideous queue so it looked like we weren’t going to be riding them.
There was no point heading over to Forbidden Valley as none of us wanted to go on Nemesis again and Air would have undoubtedly had a ridiculous queue length so we headed back to X-Sector for some more Oblivion goodness.
The queue was a bit shorter this time, only 25 minutes however due to someone getting their camera out on the lift hill they stopped it for another 5 minutes. This time we got front row and the ride was fantastic as usual.
We had about 25 minutes left until we were due to get the bus, we decided not to risk another go on Oblivion and Rach wanted to look in the Tower Trading shop. In the meantime, I randomly had some photos with a few of my idols which are far too scary to post. :wink:
Goon photo by entrance.
We made it back to the bus for our journey back to the Stoke station. Thanks to Alton’s brilliant bus timings, we were at Stoke for 50 minutes waiting for our train. The whole day had taken its toll on Tush a bit.
Eventually the train arrived and after much faffing about which compartment to go in (One didn’t have any good seats, there was a balloon in one and one was too cold) we ended up in the “quiet” compartment. There wasn’t much to say about the train journey so I leave you with this picture of a lovely sunset over somewhere which isn’t Wolverhampton.
Overall, I had an excellent day. We didn’t get on many rides but that doesn’t bother me at all as it was mainly about the company and just having a fun day which mattered. Sorry about the length of the report. (I’m not great at long reports.) Hope you enjoyed reading about it anyway.
Oh and finally here’s an ORP from Oblivion.
Yesterday I took my second trip to the Towers this year, bit of a record seeing as I didn’t visit at all last year. This was my fourth visit to the Towers but I still get that buzz of excitement before visiting and I was very much looking forward to it.
I awoke at the ungodly hour of 4am but decided to stay in bed until quarter to five. I got dropped off at Reading station with my friend, Tush. About three minutes before the train was due to leave, the train decided to pull in at Platform 7 instead of Platform 4, which required running down the entire length of the platform, up some stairs, across the tracks, down some more stairs and back across the length of the platform. Thankfully we made it in plenty of time and grabbed ourselves some table seats.
The train journey to Stoke was just under 3 hours so we had plenty of time to kill. I almost completed my “Angry Birds” game but got stuck on a particularly frustrating level. In the end I gave up. The majority of the journey was spent listening to music, taking the piss out of Tush’s ethnicity and reading some Physics magazine. I sort of understood the bit about black holes until it started talking about some wave things in which I gave up reading. Embarrassingly, both Tush and ended up wearing similar shirts. (Of course, it was entirely his fault.)
Our train got stuck behind a slow train from Oxford to Birmingham, so we ended up pulling into New Street 17 minutes late where we met Rach. The remaining 45 minutes of the journey passed by a bit quicker as we moaned about school/college, public transport and the party Rach didn’t want to go to that evening. On the way, I decided to randomly take a picture of this lovely place called Wolverhampton. I didn’t like it at all.
Eventually we arrived at Stoke a bit late and got on to the sardine bus for a further hour journey to the main entrance. The bus journey was unremarkable to say the least. It was also completely packed so luckily the bus driver decided to take us the short way there and we finally arrived at the Towers a little before opening, 4 ½ hours after I left my house.
Naturally, every trip to Alton has to have a snazzy photo of the “Corkscrew” entrance. I won’t be the first not to.
There was some ticket and toilet faff before we headed over to the Skyride which would take us to Forbidden Valley. Rach tried her best to avoid the camera lens. She failed.
Upon disembarking the Skyride we headed straight for Air knowing it would get packed later on in the day and because I wasn’t able to ride it on opening day. We pretty much walked straight into the station and into the front row queue. About two trains from the front our station broke down. Bloody typical. There was a bit of a problem with the locking system for one of the rows which involved sending in a guy with a very curvy stick to probe a bit around there. (Giggity) Anyway, everyone got off and they sent it round empty. People got on, train put in flying position, ride breaks again. Bollocks. This time they got the people in that row off and sent the rest of the train round fine. The ride dispatcher then blocked off Row 5 by positioning herself in between the railings in a type of pole-dancer-esque way. Bit disturbing to be honest.
RAWR! Rach-monster says “Om nom nom, tiny people.”
During that minor fiasco I took a couple of cheeky shots of Air by positioning the camera underneath the railings. They came out quite well actually, although I reckon Dave would disagree.
Finally we got a ride on Air and I can safely say that I really like the ride. In my opinion it’s Britain’s most underrated coaster. It’s not particularly fast or intense but I personally feel like I’m flying on it, which was the main purpose of the ride. It’s a shame that on every other row apart from the front you mainly just get a view of peoples’ feet.
After Air there was some crisp faff and we headed over to Nemesis which already had a queue time of 30 minutes. We made the first of many mistakes and decided to come back later where it should be quiet during lunch. We took the Skyride over to the Dark Forest. The view really is stunning, it’s just a shame the window cleaner appears to be on strike.
RANDOM PAGODA THING.
Thi-3-teen had a queue of 70 minutes. There was no way I was going to queue that long again for that pile of crap. Rita’s queue was spilling out the entrance although the cattlepens hadn’t been opened yet. Rach estimated about 40 minutes. The Single Rider queues also looked hideous. Our second mistake was deciding not to go for it, something we’d regret a bit later.
We made a decision to have some early lunch. I had some chips, Tush got something from Burger King and Rach had an overpriced sandwich. Sadly, my 26 miniature brownies I bought from Asda the day before had merged into one and Rach and Tush were far too polite to take any.
We made a decision therefore to head to Nemesis’s 30 minute queue and do some of the filler rides on the way there. This was our 3rd mistake. The rapids had a ridiculous queue. It was a walk-on, but the queueline went on for an eternity. I wasn’t expecting to get wet and Rach assured me the waterfalls didn’t get you soaked. She lied. I ended up getting pretty wet from them. Tush spent most of the ride trying to move around the boat to avoid getting wet and ended up setting off the “Please Remain Seated” announcement which we took the piss out of for most the way round.
We moved onto Duel next which was also a walk-on. I quite like Duel but it may be for the incredibly catchy music and that the ride is a bit of fun. I only got 22,000 but the scores from everyone on our carriage didn’t do so well. After Duel we headed over to Forbidden Valley.
When we got to Nemesis we were horrified to read it was now 60 minutes. I was a bit sceptical but we queued anyway as Tush didn’t want to miss it. I was convinced the queue wasn’t 60 minutes until I realised how many SinTrack people were being let on. Frankly it was ridiculous the amount of SinTrack Alton were selling, it really pissed me off a bit especially as the dispatcher only let a few people from the main queue per SinTrack-mob. During the queue as well it decided to rain. A lot. In minutes it had turned from blue sky to torrential rain. It then stopped almost as quickly as it started and just in time for me to get my coat out my bag.
In the end, the queue was about 50 minutes, which for me was still way too long to queue for Nemesis, especially seeing as I don’t really like it. I’ve got to be honest, it was probably my best ride on Nemesis to date in terms of intensity and pacing and the Zero-G and helix are okay...
BUT...
I still think the ride is horrifically average in that it provides no sense of fun whatsoever and that it’s still rough as ****. I bashed my ear at least four times throughout the ride and overall left the ride feeling very “meh” but a little dizzy. Likewise, Rach disapproved of the ride. Tush said that he loved the first half but didn’t like the ending at all. (Although the fact that Rach and I spent a lot of queue saying it’s not very good might have had an influence.)
At this point we were really whoring the Skyride as we took it over to Dark Forest again. Thi-3-teen and Rita still had ridiculous queues so we agreed to head over to X-Sector for the best ride in the park...
...ENTERPRISE!!!
Okay, I jest, we’re really here for Oblivion. It too had a rather ugly queue but we stuck it out anyway and it turned out to be around 40 minutes. Sadly, after that epic wait we ended up on back row but that didn’t bother us because the ride is ****-ING AWESOME in every single aspect!
Don’t...
Look...
Down!
Although I don’t crap myself anymore on the ride, it still makes me feel a bit anxious, an effect which very few coasters have on me which makes the ride that bit more exhilarating. It also still produces the best airtime in the country (that I’ve been on) and continues to give me that rush of adrenaline. Outstanding ride!
Rach and Tush show their excitement for their favourite Alton ride.
Rach wanted a Thi-3-teen necklace so we headed back in that direction again. Thi-3-teen’s queue was now 50 minutes and Rita’s was at least 90 with Single Rider queues not looking great either. It was decided at this point we should give Hex a go seeing as I hadn’t been on it before and I’d heard good things about it. The queue was about 10 minutes long and moved very quickly due to Hex’s huge capacity. Sadly, it seemed the projector in the second scene wasn’t working and due to some people being idiots I missed a lot of the story. Thanks to Rach telling me the story I sort of knew what was going on. “The Octagon Room” was next and I don’t know if all the effects were working or not but it didn’t feel like much was happening.
The actual ride in the Vault was weird and slightly dis-orientating. That’s all I can really describe it as. The whole ride was a bit of a disappointment in that I didn’t feel any enjoyment from the ride although the theming and story (once I understood it) was pretty decent. I’d like to try it again with the projector working and with not so annoying people. Overall though, I was unimpressed.
We didn’t have too long left in the park at this point so we went to look at Rita and Thi-3-teen’s queues for one last time. Thi-3-teen was closed and Rita still had a hideous queue so it looked like we weren’t going to be riding them.
There was no point heading over to Forbidden Valley as none of us wanted to go on Nemesis again and Air would have undoubtedly had a ridiculous queue length so we headed back to X-Sector for some more Oblivion goodness.The queue was a bit shorter this time, only 25 minutes however due to someone getting their camera out on the lift hill they stopped it for another 5 minutes. This time we got front row and the ride was fantastic as usual.
We had about 25 minutes left until we were due to get the bus, we decided not to risk another go on Oblivion and Rach wanted to look in the Tower Trading shop. In the meantime, I randomly had some photos with a few of my idols which are far too scary to post. :wink:
Goon photo by entrance.
We made it back to the bus for our journey back to the Stoke station. Thanks to Alton’s brilliant bus timings, we were at Stoke for 50 minutes waiting for our train. The whole day had taken its toll on Tush a bit.
Eventually the train arrived and after much faffing about which compartment to go in (One didn’t have any good seats, there was a balloon in one and one was too cold) we ended up in the “quiet” compartment. There wasn’t much to say about the train journey so I leave you with this picture of a lovely sunset over somewhere which isn’t Wolverhampton.
Overall, I had an excellent day. We didn’t get on many rides but that doesn’t bother me at all as it was mainly about the company and just having a fun day which mattered. Sorry about the length of the report. (I’m not great at long reports.) Hope you enjoyed reading about it anyway.
Oh and finally here’s an ORP from Oblivion.
