Well, I'm no longer tired, and Ian has shamed me into posting more then.
Fortunately, I only have to do one day
So, Alton. I managed to ditch Madame_Furie and Maxi-Minor_furie which meant I arrived within five minutes of Ian calling to say "where are you?"
The reply would usually be a lie of "we've just left Stafford", meaning "we may leave in the next half an hour"
So, to the shock of everyone milling around the car park, I arrived with Minor_Furie, SSIL_Furie and Nicky before the first monorail left the station for the park.
Was great seeing everyone after a break away from it all. Monorail staff managed to squeeze us all into one train and we were off.
Coming around the top of Towers Street, the Corkscrews look fantastic. It does get you a bit excited I have to admit. The thousands of excited goons packed against the closed gates wasn't so enthusing though, neither was the rain which had started (and started dripping on my through a broken skylight in the monorail (I thought these had been recently refurbed? :roll: )
We rushed out and gathered at the end of the monorail station to look at the Corkscrews. Everyone was very careful to hide their goonistic natures and didn't take photos of the plaque and stuff (if people did it, they made sure nobody saw).
We joined the end of the mass of hordes of people chomping at the bit to get on Th13teen, happy in the knowledge we were going to be avoiding it.
There was a slight mumble as the gates went up, and the crowds surged through. We ambled towards the meet-up point, and watched the great unwashed (with this rain, that wouldn't last long) flying towards the new land and ride. It was brilliant to put them in order of geekery by the "shortcuts" they took. A few more intelligent people took a spin on Sonic first though, got that queue out of the way early.
We waited for some M&M faff (getting an umbrella and cap I think to ward off the heavenly downpour) and then we had news that everyone for the early meet was here, or had gooned off to 13. Skyride looked closed, so I asked a member of staff when it was due to be open. She said she was new and didn't know and was apologetic about it. Amazingly, she came back to me about five minutes later. She'd been and asked to find out and told me it was still testing and would open "around 10". Too late for us, but I appreciated the effort she'd made.
So off we headed (using the geek shortcut
) to Forbidden Valley and some ERT on Nemesis.
Bit of shame it was broken then
It was testing still, but the guy on the queue entrance was passing people down to air which had opened instead. It's not quite the same, but it was good that they had one of the rides operating. Vadge bag ladied with me and we stood and got wet and cold - then played around with a collection of water proofing to pass the time and stop the dirge.
One thing that was nice was a couple of staff members coming over to me and Vadge to find out if we were okay, and to make sure we knew Nemesis wasn't running. The reason it's nice is because it was
very wet at that point. They were pleasant, and came out of their way to talk to us. They were on their way somewhere and it meant them getting wetter and being out longer. No staff rushing along to get into the warmth here - it's staff like this that makes Alton better (though they're not all like that - see soon).
air seemed to be having a few problems (I was shocked
), so it was quite a while before the group came back from it. We'd planned to try and grab another ride or too, but it was close to the second meet up time and Nemesis was still closed. So we headed back to the entrance. Not the most auspicious start to the day, with just one ride when we'd hoped to get a bit of a whore on Nemesis and maybe RMT in too.
Skyride still closed and no idea of time to open, so we had to walk/hobble back to the entrance. There was already a decent number of people milling around - not much waiting to be done other than for those heading back after gooning it up on 13.
Introductions were made and sweets shared out, lots of people chatting and getting back into the swing of things. It's great to see such a friendly kind of get together. We wandered off to 13, despite having warning messages proclaiming four hour queues. We knew the day was likely to have a massive queue for 13, so we had to go and take a look.
I brought up the read after going back for Vadges walking stick - she amazingly had forgotten all about it and was rushing off - amazing after the amount of moaning about the walk from FV
:lol:
I rushed ahead with Minor_Furie here to get in a toilet break. I can't manage four hours on my ageing bladder. We all got to the entrance for 13 and the staff were trying to persuade everyone to leave and do something else "the ride queue is over two hours". I wouldn't say they were obnoxious, but they were certainly a little irate about us still joining the queue - though Stone Cold being loud at them probably didn't improve their temperament. So we queued outside the entrance and a couple of people minced out for a wee break (there could have been a little better bladder planning there AJ/Marc
). While we waited for the wee ones to return, we witnessed the birth of a couple of fresh bins - which we cheered about. I think by that point a few people in the queue with us were a little bemused.
Queue times were fun. Lots of being silly and mucking around - I could have killed Minor_Furie though when he catapulted a chocolate éclair and it rebounded and hit some random member of the GP
The rest of the GP seemed alternately amused/bemused by the bed time stories, balloon battles and Breakaways. SSIL_Furie getting scared by the balloon bursting was epic :lol:
It's odd, the two hours passed like it was just an hour - which is was! The line moved fantastically fast and we were on the ride in 70 minutes after joining the queue. So on opening day they had the full queue line capacity shifting through in just 70 minutes - amazing.
I've given the ride reviews elsewhere, but it was amusing getting off and having Stone Cold loudly dismissing the ride in front of John Wardley - along with others (though obviously not as loudly).
I thought it was great to watch him over seeing the opening of the ride. A few CFers had spotted him though, and asked him for an interview (I don't know who it was, but thank you).
As I stood by the photo booth chatting, there was a scream from Vadge which heralded the "call to Wardley". He'd agreed to do an interview for us, and people wanting to meet him flocked to the side of the disabled entrance. Mark was called to do the interview. Brilliant stuff, and it was really good of him to offer to do it - especially on opening day.
A very buzzing, excited bunch left Dark Forest then to head to X-Sector for Oblivion before lunch. Of course via a wee break and tunnel of wee. Lots of discussions abound about the new ride and area. Again, I think most people have discussed them elsewhere.
I bag ladied again, this time with Will and Karen (and her gaggle of hormones) and the heavens once more opened. Fortunately, we'd got a table under an awning to store the bags, but I still got dripped on.
Oblivion had a minor break down, but it was back in 20 minutes - I think this was the longest queue all day after 13?
Lunch was called and most people headed somewhere out of the rain, I chose Mutiny Bay Courtyard and picked up with the Family_Furie to deposit SSIL_Furie to get some spacker band action.
Meetup at Nemesis was pretty faff free and the ride was running... Well! Most people seemed to really enjoy it, I looked after the Haribo - NOM!
A mince to Duel next to try and dry out a bit and a chance for some to grab a coffee. We were still missing Vadge and Ploddish and Mattie were faffing a bit - so they missed the group photo (They were four, we'd have missed five if we'd waited as Karen et al were heading off in a rush). Sop sorry about that, it was the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few
Mine Train next and we caught up with Benin, general agreement to avoid the Rapids and it was off to Hex. I hung around the fountain waiting and had a quick chat with people, Ewen was there at this point. I do like the chance to just hang about and have a chat, and Alton Towers is a great place to do it, I just like the pleasant atmosphere, it's pretty chilled.
Rita was next on the agenda with a ten minute queue or so. A few had gone on Rita rather than Hex, but that was fine, I knew Tom (Rush) and Rach had other stuff to do, and Fraser was trying to fit lots in on his first visit. So a little bit of a split, but it was all good I think. Fraser and his sis grabbed another go on Rita (I think) while everyone else went for the ten minute queue for... 13!
For Alton, that's pretty much it then. Spinball maybe - but it was around 4:30 I think by now and that means Nemesis walk on. Some wee break faff and we headed off to Forbidden Valley to end the day whoring Nemesis. We amiably hung around the Nemesis exit while the group single ridered Nemmy or buggered off to get a ride on air. Before you know it, it's 5:30 and time to go home.
Everyone even at this time (frozen and wet to the core) was still in high spirits - amazing considering the time some people had been up to make this Live.
Brilliant day, with such a great bunch of people just hanging out, having fun. The split meet and decision not to rush to 13 I think worked - it gave us the chance to be friends, rather than goons and it set the whole day up. Sad I missed more of the queue times, but such is life
Many thanks to everyone for making it such an excellent day - these things don't work unless people are positive, agreeable and friendly - an organiser doesn't make the day go smoothly, the people there do that! So thanks everyone.
Also, massive thanks to Vadge for running what sounds like a superb day at Drayton too - pity I missed it
Hope that's okay for you Ian?
