^ I'm really glad that you're enjoying the reports! And by not posting something negative and sarcastic, people will see what a lovely bunch we are and be clambering to attend in 2014. I'm pretty sure CFers have uploaded their photos Facebook for everybody - expect me and people casually browsing this topic - to see!
Anyway, here's a brief TR.
ALTON TOWERS
The car park was the busiest I've ever seen it so I was expecting a faff filled day, but some well positioned pumpkins later and I was ready for the first day of GF10.
A few of us humoured Serena by doing Squirrel Nutty with her. Gave us a chance to see MUD happening for Cbeebies Land.
After dishing out the first batch of sweets and badges, we headed over to Forbidden valley. We didn't take the skyride because Serena is scared and Darren needed the Mine Train cred. First ride was the Mine Train. The tunnel past the rapids was lit up and bare - The Tunnel of Despair. It looked awful.
Duel was next. Quite uneventful. I still prefer to sit back and enjoy it as a ghost train than shoot at little LEDs.
Then we walked over to the UK's best coaster. That's Nemesis btw.
Air was next. This is where the "pegging" began. Somebody brought pegs along which were discreetly attached to CFers throughout the queue line. Ed went one step further and managed to peg a member of staff's hood. All harmless fun.
I got the usual dirty looks when I asked if anybody wanted to do Blade or Ripsaw, so we got the skyride over to Dark Forest. Ciall and I were stranded with four randoms. I had to bite my lip as they enthusiastically, yet incorrectly, described different rides at the park and Blackpool.
We did Charlie & TCF next. It's still awful but was made more entertaining by Vadge's bouncy boobs in the simulator.
Hex followed. This involved more pegging (I was chuffed to peg Lord Morton). Several CFers narrated the story out loud, which caused a titter amongst other guest. "A member of the Earl's family suddenly...and mysteriously...died!" Love it!
We split for lunch which was a generous 1h 15mins, but this was extended due to the AWFUL service at the pizza/pasta place.
After lunch, we met back at the Dark Forest. The queue for Rita was about 2.5 hrs, Th13teen was about 1.5hrs. I took a poll and Th13teen won so we entered the long queue line. Time was passed in the usual manner - sweets, lols and Chinese whispers; ""Lord Morton smears marmite on his scrotum and gets Ciall to lick it off"...or something to that effect! The pegging game came into it's own during this queue. Other guests started to join in by attaching them to Ciall. This then escalated in pegging other queueing guests. Watching a line of pegged hoods and jackets move through the cattle pens was hilarious. Everybody involved took it as the joke that it was and embraced the peg! Th13teen itself was meh.
We skipped Rita and headed to "X Factor". It was getting dark so the prospect of riding Oblivion and Smiler in the dark was tantalising.
My highlight of the Oblivion queue line was sharing the boob/passport thing that me and Vadge discovered a few years ago. A passport rubbed up and down a boob (apparently) feels fantastic. using Owain's passport, I demonstrated on Jordan and Serena - with their permission obviously, I'm not some kind of boob/passport perv. I tried it on my penis and nipples but it didn't have the same effect. Oblivion was fab in the dark. Oblivion is fab full stop.
We agreed that it would be quicker to ride Smiler using the single rider queue. However, Smiler has suddenly...and mysteriously...died. I took a group photo and asked if people wanted to wait or move on.
We moved on, through the looooooooong, darrrrrrrrrrrk creepy walkthru thing between the Battle galleons and Duel, ending the day with Nemesis in the dark.
I expected the Alton Towers day to be tiring, fafftastic and burdenous. It was all of these but, as always, the mixture of great people, good rides and spontaneous **** that CF does so well made the day enjoyable. I accomplished what I wanted to do. I got on Nemesis and Oblivion in the dark and I walked away with a smile on my face.
I'm not at all gutted that I didn't ride Smiler in the dark, no do I care that it was busy. Despite it being the busiest day of the Live, it also felt the most relaxed.
I was also tres impressed with the amount of awesome costumes many guests were wearing. People really made an effort. i don't think I've seen anything comparable in the UK before. I could quite happily make AT a permanent fixture of GhosterForce. It works!
Oh, and the Towers looked sexy at night.
