Before I begin lets get a few things out of the way:
Was this the best Alton Towers trip I have had? Yes.
Was this the best TTSP event so far? Yes.
Was this the best weekend I have had in my life? most definitely, yes.
The day started brilliantly, got to the conference centre and spoke to people as usual, everyone being massively friendly as usual. After we had all signed into the event we gathered round for the talk with the tech team about the Smiler and general maintenance around the park. This was actually more interesting than I had expected and was full of more information than you would expect! it was great seeing some of the parts of the ride being passed around (such as one of the oh-so-reliable guide wheels for the lift chain and one of the spare wheels for the ride). After this, the group photo happened and we moved on to the monorail.
after getting into the park we moved straight through to X-Sector where we got our ERT on the Smiler, this was brilliant to be able to get so many rides on it than you normally could in a day within a small space of time! (I believe I got 6 or 7 rides in this time, but who cares about numbers when you are having fun? :P) Once the ERT ended, we headed to Oblivion for a quick ride before a walk through the towers and where me and a few others split off into a small group to do some other rides through to the ERT on Rita.
Rita ERT was just as amazing as the Smilers, also made special by the op who was quite humorous with the PA system and turning off the launch audio. One thing me and a couple of others actually picked up on is that there was definitely a difference between the force of the launch compared to usual, in our ERT it felt a lot more forceful than it normally did and I can't help but remember the fact the launch doesn't run as powerfully as it did at opening due to maintenance issues, so the fact that the launch felt more powerful was definitely quite interesting and fun! after running around like madmen to get as many rides in as possible before the time was up, I got off my last ride and watched/sung happy birthday where the final train was launched as it finished, which was quite amusing :lol
Having finished the day on park, we headed back to the park via monorail and I spent about an hour at the social before having to leave to head back to the travelodge. The end of an incredible day at Alton Towers
Day 2 and the weather REALLY didn't want to be kind to us, I got to the entrance plaza before 9 to meet with a couple of people and it really was lashing it down! but even this couldn't stop another amazing day on park. The whole day was like the one before, an amazing time was had yet again before meeting up with some more TTers later in the day (just after Fresh Fish and Chips decided it wanted to do crispy fish and chips above anything else :P) and got a few last rides in before leaving the park. As I said before, just reading this does NOT do justice to how much I enjoyed this event and I have nothing but praise for Alton Towers and The TTSP team for making these events so special.
Bring on Southern Weekender and many bigger, brighter things in the future of TTSP events!
