Ok guys, heres is my trip report, sorry but its a bit of a beast I know
Day 1 (Sat 12th March)
As most of you know, I was stupid enough to camp on the 11th and 12th March - yes the tent’s condensation was ice by the morning and the grass was frosty on Sunday morning - never again will I camp out in March at -2 degrees. Maybe in the summer though in sensible temperatures. The less said about the camping, the better .
Anyway, I left the Star Caravan and Camping Park at 8.10 for a brisk walk to the Towers. After a freezing night I wrapped up very warm with about 10 layers (Im not overweight, the pics make out im chunky due to wearing so many damm layers!) The sun was shining and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky - a great start to a truly great day. I reached the gates at 8.35 and went straight to the ticket q line where the employees decided it would be fun to open at exactly 9.00.00.00.00 am (u get the idea) even thought hey had been sitting at their offices for 5-10 mins. I bought my annual pass ticket (figured that even if I go 3 three weekends this year it will work out cheaper) and was allowed through the gates at 9.05 with hotel and other annual pass holder along with d_stoneuk. I took a sharp left as soon as a I got through the turnstiles to get my annual pass processed, having been tipped off by the woman at the ticket office that there were only a few blank passes left - not too good for the start of the season hey ??
Got my annual pass processed which was really quick (2 mins) and then headed to FV via the walk through the gardens to get some early ride time on AIR and Nemmie before the meetup began.
In an hour I managed to rack up 7 rides on AIR and 7 on Nemmie, not too bad
I suppose. The best of which was when I used the Air single ride queue (SRQ) (btw, good new u don’t need a blasted ticket this year!) and walked past 10-15 mins of queues to get a seat in the front row straight away! Also the Nemmie waterfalls are back up and running I must add and look great !!!
The Features working as d_stone called it
At 10.55 I walked over to the meetup point to see a familiar clang I recognised from the vids of last years (J, KC, Craig, Crofty…) and walked up clinging to the badge on my welsh shirt, hoping to be recognised !! As I got nearer I hear more ‘who’s that’ and eventually Craig said ‘its Rory’, I nodded and was introduced to the group, sorry to anyone I don’t say hello to, as Bailey, Locker and Williscroft parted after the takeover of AIR.
After my intro and the stick for being welsh, I was told I was late, the cheek, I was 5 mins early actually. More members gradually arrived including ant and Sammie and yes we did manage to see him all the way down there, Kitty !! He arrived to an impressive reception lol !
At about 11.05 we left the meetup spot for Air (10 mins q) which we did a 4/5 takeova I would say and the over to Nemmie, again a 4/5 takeover with kitty and stokey ensuring everyone shouted ‘TTF meetup’ at the top of both hill lifts. The group then headed for Ripsaw (no q) with big J the puff (only joking) sitting out with my darlin Sammie and Crofty took some pics along with kitty.
By the end of Ripsaw, Craig, Paul (deano’s mate) and Crofty conveniently found themselves at Nemesis Nosh and had a beer. The rest of the group decided to go on duel (no q) , a ride I will never get tired of. RMT was our next stop, a 5 min q and we were seated one per car and TTF made up most of the train, some of the friendly insults flyin around were hilarious !!
We exited RMT and decided it was time for a lunch stop . Pizza Hut/KFC here we came !! I used my brand new Annual Pass and got 25% off and its amazing that u have to tell them you get 25% off otherwise they say ‘What an AP, what does that do?’ - what do they teach em during the off season ?? Bugger all.
At this point Stokey tempted J with his Oat cakes and as we all knew he would, J didn’t refuse and went about eating them cold and uncooked, lets just say deano couldn’t believe it. This led to Stokey throwing the remaining cakes at Wayne Burton (WB) and WB then chased Stokey through Katanga Canyon to ME. Lets just say it was slow vs Slower, unfit vs unfitter and stokey didn’t recover all weekend!
After a short 10 min sit down in KC, the group re-assembled and we took a ride on the rapids. (no q) I couldn’t believe it, there was me sitting by Sammie teasing each other about getting soaked cause we wrapped up in our coats to avoid the water and on the other side of the boat was d_stone complaining about there not being enough rapids and how tame the rapids were this season, although he was the only one who got soaked, maybe it was just lucky seating.!!
Furthermore, much to mine and Sammies pleasure, the waterfalls were not on, but d_stone was livid! Lol. Got to give it to you d_stone, you not one to say ‘lest not get wet’, but rather ‘where the features, I want to get soaked!’
After the rapids we walked as a group to ME where 1/3 went to Tavern (u can guess who) 1/3 went on flume and the sensible 1/3 left over kept dry and waited at the loggie entrance. Again, the ride was walk on and the TTF members were the only riders in about 15 bath-boats, the previous boats being empty. This gives an idea of how quiet the park was - dead. At this point I had a lovely pic with Sammie, shame that Ant snapped us both off guard
What a shocking pic
We re-assembled in the tavern and had the biggest laugh of the day, Crofty’s driving licence to which I don’t think Stokey recovered from for 5 mins - he was truly wetting himself !! With kitty in the background, the jokes over stokey !!
There wasn’t much progress and im sure Kaycee and Paul would have been happy in the tavern all day so something had to be done! Myself and Kitty led the way and we went over towards SW. We joined the q (SRQ is not what was the hotel guest line) and queued for the longest q of the day - 15 mins. I sat in a car next to Sammie with kitty, much to stokey’s amusement with him on the back of the car. The on-ride picture was terrible. All you could see was Sammie’s hair everywhere! You need a bobble next meetup girl! Then ova to the Beastie for a full takeova with us all screamin !!
Next was the slow walk down to Oblivion where we met with Martin rules - what a great guy, one of my best mates on the forum and in the flesh he didn’t disappoint! We did a takeover twice, bar 2 seats on each occasion, boy was kitty’s face white when he saw oblivion and he did not ride, nor did the croftymeister who was filming and Sammie on the 2nd ride. The q again was only about 2 mins, with us only having to wait for the next train to board, then we were on.
After Oblivion, we walked Hex, to take a ride which was entertaining, again no queue apart from waiting to enter the video room, must say though, once you’ve been on once, for me Hex loses is magic. Next stop was RITA, no, not to ride it unfortunately, but to see it testing. All I can say is roll on April, she looks fab and is yet another different dimension to the range of AT coasters.
Rita testing 1
Rita testing 2
Rita testing 3
Rita testing 4
I then experienced the much talked about Toyland Tours was the first time. Oh deer !! Its shocking when you have been on ‘it’s a small world’ in disney. Anyway, we qued about 1 minute and I was on a boat with nightsin2dreams who’s really cool, great guy, d_stone, Wayne, my lovely Sammie, Ant, J, Martin, Liam2063 and dave (I thinks its david186). Half way through we were getting a bit bored, so Ant decided to snatch J’s toy bear and chuck Paws (his name) into the water !! J panicked, but did get him back at the end and Paws is now the official TTF Meetup mascot.
We then took the Skyride back over to FV, hoping to see a launch of Rita, but we missed it by about 30 secs !! Typical. Once in Forbidden Valley and time being about 4.30, we made the most of small Air and Nemmie queues and persuaded Martin, the big puftar onto Nemmie for the first time, there was no escaping mine and Sammie’s grasp !! Once on he loved it and we qued for the front row, telling him it was even better (me, him, Sammie and stokey on front row) and it was fab with waterfalls on, although me and stokey did get splashed in the eyes from the blood river after the vertical loop.
As a group we headed for AIR and did a complete takeova barring 7 seats and the front row, which was really fun, telling the ride op ‘17 please’ was quiet funny’. Myself, Martin, Stokey and Sammie then headed for final Nemmie ride at 4.50 before we all parted ways, but guess what it broke down (lol) and after a 10 min wait for empty trains being testing, the op told us there would be no more rides on Nemmie, but to make up for it, they would re-open AIR especially for the 35 or so of us in the Nemmie q at the time.
Off we marched to AIR, where the 4 of us waited for the back row (second train) and got the last train for the day !! It was so cool how they re-opened the ride just for us and to have the last ride, great!
The 4 of us and martins mate, Jim, walked casually back to Towers Street where we had agreed to meet rest of group after our special ride of AIR. It was really eyrie because all rides were closed, it was 5.15 and all outlets had closed and we were the only people around until we reached Towers Street, very weird! We re-assembled and at this point Gashead said to me ‘Rory, we have a gift for you’ - I had totally forgotten about my piss for prizes T shirt I had won and proudly put it on !! Thanks Guys, im taking it to JJB next week to get Rory printed on the back and will be wearing it to next meetup. Heres a pic of me wearing it, you cant really make out the writing though, but can see small TTT logo on sleeve !!
Me
We headed for the monorail and at this point me and J said out goodbyes to the group
and the rest took monorail to car park.
I walked half way back to caravan park, when a heard a car horn and a car slow down and stop in front of me. And out jumps kitty with Liam driving. They came to the rescue and I got a lift to campsite !! Many, many thanks to both Liam and Kitty for that.
What a day !!!!!! Awesome
Day 2 (Sun 13th March) - Mini Trip report
I entered the park at 9.03 with my new season pass and headed for guest services to lock away my camping things before meeting Stokey at the entrance, we walked to FV, while talking about Football, football and more football lol.
I thought the park was quiet on Saturday, well Sunday was totally dead, our predictions being about 1100 people on park. At most points of day (excluding ERT which was busiest time of day!!) Nemesis and AIR trains were being sent around the circuits with 5/6 people on board, mad. Our longest queue was SW SRQ of about 4 mins, silly really to think that in summer queues will be up to 180 mins on some of the rides.
We met martin and Jim in FV and went on AIR, Nemmie and Ripsaw numerous times. We then took path to GW to ride Duel, why is Stokey so good ??? Then onto RMT and Rapids (no rides had any q’s btw) and then to AL to ride Spinball. This was the most satisfying part of the day !! We saw the q was bout 30 mins so we used SRQ and we agreed to smile and wave as we went pass the normal queue, lets just say we got some dirty looks !! We were on in no time and the pics were terrible, AT have got to do sumin about the picture quality (brightness) and get the timing of the pics right, most ride’s pictures were pants.
We then went to XS where Oblivion was closed due to icy track overnight and a malfunction on Sat night. We rode enterprise (well me and stokey) and then Submission before going for lunch in Pizza Hut. Having camped, I was starving and two wholes meals to myself !! Fat, your thinking, yep that’s what martin said too.
Next stop was Hex and then Skyride to FV, and then we repeated out round trip. AIR --> Nemmie ….. Until we were at oblivion again and were told it was opening soon, we started a queue and were on the first ride of the day, cool ! Then our round trip took us over to FV again where we decided to sample the SRQ, lets just say its not the best of sign posting !! We got to station and the tight bugger of the ride op, even though only the front row was occupied made us sit one per row !! We have concluded we were the first people to ever use the Nemmie SRQ.
We did a few more circuits round the park and then it was time for us to part !! What a great day with two of my best buddies from the forum, martin and stokey. I am already planning me next meetup with martin as a result of this.
Group pick, left to right, Martin, Jim, Stokey
Q Times
Longest Q - Spinball, day 1 - 20 mins
Shortest Q - Most rides - 0 mins
Good points about weekend
Meeting everyone at last. Its really great to see people that you chat to on forums and furthermore, those who u consider ‘close friends’ who u chat to on msn and to meet them in the flesh is quiet an experience, because everyone is hoping the peeps wont hate them, but everyone got along great! Examples of those who I talk to on msn included nearly everyone who attended!!
The park being absolutely dead so we got to ride everything without queuing, but this did lead to less atmosphere. The oblivion mist working and the great Nemesis fountains back up to scratch – about time, Alton towers!!
Getting annual pass for first time (figured if I go 3 times this year, each time for weekend, it will turn out to be cheaper that 3 separate 2-day tickets). Going back on Sunday with Martin and Stokeywolf, who are my 2 best friends from the forum.
Bad points about weekend
Less atmosphere due to less peeps in park. Too many breakdowns, wouldn’t have been able to bear it in Summer when its busy. Ug Land not being open
Ride count
Day 1
AIR - 7
Nemesis - 8
Beastie - 1
Duel - 1
Rapids - 1
RMT - 2
Hex - 1
Oblivion - 2
Ripsaw - 2
Spinball - 1
Day 2
Oblivion - 1
Duel - 2
AIR – 6
Nemesis – 7
Ripsaw – 2
Submission – 1
Enterprise – 1
Congo River Rapids – 1
Hex – 1
Spinball – 3
RMT - 4
Funny moments/comments made
When I was queuing on day 1 at the turnstiles, someone said to the attendant at the gates which way do I go to ride ‘ride rita’ ?? Even better was the fact that there was a huge poster to his left saying ‘RITA, opening 1st April, come back for a tenner’
On day 2 when myself, stokey and martin, proudly qued for Spinball using single rider and we agreed to smile and wave as we went pass the normal queue which was 20 mins long! Hilarious for us, not for them. We walked to the front of the queue and it was only3 or 4 mins before we had all ridden, great stuff !!
Attendees and Reaction
(Paul, deanos buddy and david b/f and dad was also there)
Ant - Great scouser, we had a great a laugh. I have to admit I never expected him to be like he was at all which was a pleasant surprise.
Sammie - She’s one hot babe. We had a lot of laughs and talked about all kinds of things. Sat by her on loads of rides with her screaming and her hair going absolutely everywhere! Spent most of day with Wayne, Sammie, J, Martin and Stokey.
Kitty - Sergeant shortly !!! He’s exactly what he’s like on the forum !!I had a great laugh when I saw his face when we go into XS and he saw oblivion.
Gashead - The west country comedian, I love his accent !! He was great all day and just couldn’t resist a beer when he saw the nearest outlet.
Crofty - Spent most of the day glued to his camera for the meetup DVD, but we did have a good chat about living in Newport is so crap !! Poor Crofty took a lot of stick for his big nose though.
Stokey - The Oatcakes Demon !! Had two full days with ray and he’s such an interesting and funny guy. Insisted on shouting ‘TTF Forum Meetup’ at all spare moments. Spent most of day with Wayne, Sammie, J, Martin and Stokey.
Rory - that’s me
KC - Hard to judge Kaycee on what I experienced, she was very ill all day and would have probs been better wrapped up in bed.
Wayne Burton - Didn’t recognise him at first and still think he looks young for 21. Spent most of day with Wayne, Sammie, J, Martin and Stokey. He spent most of day trying to chat up saz and the other half talking to all the AT staff he knew.
Saz - Great girl, had a quick chat at the beginning of the day at meetup point, but then she whizzed off pretty soon to see her boyfriend.
J - The chubbysaurus who lost his teddy on TT, poor guy !! Nah, hes cool and I was surprised at how tall he was, was expecting to be taller than him. Shame he couldn’t camp over and stay on day 2.
Martinrules - what a great Yorshireman Mart is !! Myself, Stokey and Martin spend entire of Sunday taking the piss out of the 3 different accents within the group (stokeys sig) which was really funny. With Sammie’s help we also converted him to a Nemesis addict! Me and martin are already taking about our next meetup and cant wait to see each other again (well I cant).
Locker - Were introduced, but ashamed we didn’t yet to chat as he rushed off after takeover off AIR.
Bailey - The same really, nice guy though cause we chatted for a bit at the meetup point. Didn’t see the TNT all day though apart form at meetup point.
Liam - Johny Woodgate was on park!! Quiet, but lively guy who was ready for every ride. Had a good chat at lunch time and meetup point and he was very kind to give me lift back to campsite.
Nightsin2dreams- Quiet again, but nice guy and was one of the sensible ones on the rapids to avoid water and wasn’t complaining when we didn’t get soaked !! Had a throughrough laugh when J lost his Toy on TT too.
Williscroft - we didn’t even get to chat, I was just about to go over and introduce myself as Rory after AIR takeover and come and have a chat and you disappeared, shame not see you all day. You probs didn’t even no who I was, I feel so guilty.
David20... - not sure his exact username, but sure did get to know him !! What a dude, did everything to loose his father, but just couldn’t and started radioing from the top of oblivion to let Crofty no which car we were on !!
Dean - Mr Technical - his knowledge of coasters just doesn’t end and we had a great debate about UK coasters in Pizza Hut at lunch time.
D_stone - top guy, although I still cant believe in March he was complaining about not getting wet enough on the rapids, He should have camped with me then he could have got wet.
: because i was with the rets of the TTF bunch for the first Air take over which didnt go as planned lol but then i had to go with me dad to the enterence because he had to go and after that i didnt see the group again 
.. chubbysaurus aye 
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