Hi, So here is my report from my stay!
Sunday we arrived late, Thanks to Everton-99 for the tickets so we could "bounceback" Saw Michelle, Danny and LOTL and headed to Squirrel Nutty with Danny but it had unfortunately closed for the night
So headed to Oblivion, then to Th13teen, Nemesis and Air, then RMT as the last ride of the night and we went around twice (as in 4 times around the track) We stopped off at a pub near Derby (on the A50) called The Water Bridge for something to eat - highly recommended and about 15 mins from Alton Towers (heading out through the village)
Monday - due to the abysmal weather the queues were pretty short, except for The Smiler which was to be expected. We ate at The Burger Kitchen in Cloud Cuckoo Land and naturally did CATCF and Ice Age while we were there before hopping to Forbidden Valley. Rode The Smiler twice and really didn't see that much improvement since I last went (Rode 2nd and 3rd row) In the dark was pretty cool but not worth the huge queue and not worth the £10 fasttrack. Did Carnival of Screams around 1pm and enjoyed it. We had a random lady in our group who was in front of me (I was the back of our group) Lots of clowns, generally suitable for anyone unless you suffer majorly with claustrophobia as there was one bit to crouch through and one where the roof was against your shoulders. My favourite part of this was the room after Mr Spot (who randomly chatted to me) where I was well and truly disorientated. We hit Zombies Scarezone around 8pm and though it was OK as a filler attraction, there were a lot of missed scare opportunities.
Tuesday - Queues were ridiculous so I cashed in the 20 fasttracks (4 FT each for 5 people) We went for 8 (one for each of my group) for oblivion, 7 for Th13teen and 5 for sonic spinball. We used the sonic one first - and waited around 40 minutes to get on the ride (which was almost as long as the sonic main queueline anyway) due to poor queue management and letting more main queue on than fasttrack, they didn't even nominate one car for fasttrack people and the rest to be filled up with other riders. Then we jumped a 70 minute queue for Oblivion where I attempted to get a picture of the 8 of us taking over a row, which failed as my friend's face was blocked out of the picture by his girlfriend! - I got the picture later on but with just 7 of us! We then hit Woodcutters for food, having previously avoided it due to the price and the fact it was always stupidly busy. We went and queued around 15-20 minutes for a table (not bad saying there were 8 of us) and ordered. The food arrived quickly after ordering and tasted delicious - it came highly recommended from team members, and boy am I glad I gave it a shot, there'll be no other choice from now on.
From there we (7 of us) did the mazes, our time slot was 16:45 so we got there around 16:40. The only downside to the 40 mins of your queue time rule is people were showing up from 16:15 slot to do the mazes so there was a fair wait for Sanctuary in the rain. Other than the same video on loop (which I must have seen at least 10 times during the queue) the maze was pretty good. I jumped at odd parts but on the whole was pretty much ok. I even got picked on by the Dr Kelman for having a Smiler hoody on! My favourite bit was probably the ward.
We then came out and did Terror of the Towers and though the story itself didn't seem to follow - perhaps random intermissions of the video would be better in odd rooms with light controls. I didn't get a sense of Vampires or random beings. This did make me jump a couple of times in the curtained bit. The best bit by far was the strobe maze at the end.
We then hit Zombies again for the members of our group who hadn't been in previously, with much hilarity as a zombie chased a group of teenagers out of the zone and past the queue, swiftly followed by army personnel who told the zombie to get back in! We did various other rides before heading home - via The Blacksmiths (pub up through Alton Village and on the corner as you come out of that road junction)
Total ride count from Scarefest
Nemesis 4, Air 4, Oblivion 7, RMT 3, The Smiler 2, Sub Terra 1, Charlie 1, Ice Age 1, Rita 3, CoS 1, Th13teen 3, Zombies 2, Sonic Spinball 1, Duel 1, Sanctuary 1, ToTT 1
Total Ride count this year
Saw 8, Colossus 6, Tidal Wave 2, Stealth 6 (I think), Inferno 4, Swarm 8, Loggers Leap 2, Depth Charge 4, Rapids 4, Storm Surge 2, Rush 3, Vortex 1, Zodiac 1, Detonator 6, Quantum 1, Samurai 3, X 1, Vampire 3, Zufari 1, Dragons Fury 2, Ramses Revenge 1, Tomb Blaster 1, Bubbleworks 1, Rattlesnake 1, Air 6, Nemesis 19, Oblivion 16, Rita 9, Th13teen 11, Hex 4, Sub Terra 5, Runaway Mine Train 6, The Smiler 7, Rapids 1, Ice Age 2, Charlie & The Chocolate Factory 2, Duel 3, maurauders mayhem 1, Carnival of Screams 1, Zombies Scarezone 2, Sonic Spinball 1, The Sanctuary 1, Terror of the Towers: What Lies Within 1.
Hopefully still have Fireworks to attend!
