I made a visit to Alton Towers yesterday, and while I’ve ridden all of the coasters before, there were a few changes of opinion yesterday on the rides I rode!
Rita was a pretty fun ride, although I wouldn’t say I was quite as enamoured with it as I was last September. The launch was still great, and there was still some brilliant airtime and force, as well as very fast pacing, but the rattle seemed a tad stronger than it did last September, and the ride generally didn’t do quite as much for me as it did last year. I also think that the OTSRs do restrict the enjoyment of the airtime moments and twisty layout somewhat; it if had lap bars, Rita would certainly rank higher for me. I still wouldn’t call Rita a remotely painful ride, however; it’s still a far cry from the brutal experiences I remembered from my earlier rides!
7/10
Thirteen is always great fun, and yesterday was no different! It’s a coaster that’s grown on me over the years for sure; I never used to think much to it, but I really enjoy it now! The ride is very smooth and rerideable, the outdoor section offers some nice twisty sections and pops of floater, and the drop track and backwards section are always a laugh!
7/10
Nemesis is a coaster that’s fallen quite a bit in my rankings over the years, but yesterday certainly made it shoot back up a fair amount! I have to say that Nemesis was running very well indeed yesterday; I was seated in row 3, and the ride had just the right amount of force, great pacing and no headbanging whatsoever! Nemesis still isn’t a coaster that I rate quite as highly as most do, but I really enjoyed it yesterday; it was running great!
8/10
Wicker Man is a coaster I’ve grown to absolutely adore over the years; it surprised me so much when I first rode it back in 2018, and it only seems to have gone up the rankings since! Yesterday, I was actually seated in the front row, and despite most people saying that the front row on Wicker Man isn’t particularly great, I still absolutely loved it! Even though I’ll admit it didn’t do quite as much for me as my rides last summer in rows 8 & 9 did, the ride still had amazing pacing, some fantastic pops of airtime, and was relatively smooth and comfortable as wooden coasters go, for the most part, so it still hit all the right notes for me! However, one minor caveat that did make it drop slightly for me compared with last summer is that I think there is a bit of a minor rough patch developing in the final wicker man pass through before the end of the ride; even though it’s only a tiny section of the ride, and the other 99% of it is still very smooth as far as wooden coasters go, I did definitely notice a bit of jolting there that I’ve never noticed before, and that bit did bash me about somewhat, which knocked the ride down a tiny bit for me. However, this minor patch was hardly a deal breaker for me; I still absolutely loved Wicker Man, and I’d still say that it’s definitely my favourite ride at Alton Towers, my favourite wooden coaster, and one of my favourite coasters overall!
9/10
Spinball Whizzer is a coaster I hadn’t actually ridden since 2017 prior to yesterday’s visit, so I was intrigued to see what I thought of it. And you know what, it definitely exceeded expectations! In spite of the fact that I’d previously remembered it being quite rough, it was nothing of the sort today, and it was a pleasantly fun experience on the whole! We got a really good spin, but the spin was so good that it almost made me feel a bit dizzy getting off! On the whole, while I still wouldn’t say that Spinball Whizzer is one of my favourite coasters, as I’ll admit that I’m not the best with spinny rides on the whole, it’s certainly grown on me compared to the last ride I had on it, and I think it’s a really solid, fun family coaster for the park, even if it did make me feel a bit dizzy!
6/10
Oblivion is a coaster that’s really grown on me over time, and it’s one that I really liked on my last ride, but I never expected it to surprise me like it did yesterday! The airtime over the drop was sensational, providing strong and sustained out-of-your-seat thrills for the entire length of the drop! Then, once we hit the bottom, the sensation of speed and intensity was phenomenal! And then the ride ended with a final bonus burst of surprisingly great airtime! On the whole, my ride on Oblivion hit all the right notes for me yesterday, and it was a genuinely changing ride on Oblivion for me, even though it’s a coaster I’ve ridden a lot over the years! While I’d still say that the ride is a bit too short for me to place it as one of my very top coasters, and I’d still say that Wicker Man beats it as my favourite ride at Alton Towers, it certainly shot into the top 10 after yesterday’s ride, coming in only just behind SheiKra, the other B&M Dive Coaster I’ve ridden, at #9! Sensational stuff for a ride that’s over in 10 seconds; on a pound-for-pound basis, Oblivion delivers everything I could ever want it to!
9/10