So, I took the other half for a surprise visit to AT on the 15 & 16 May, with a night in the Enchanted Village.
Enchanted Village: 9/10.
Signed in at 9am (check in after 3pm) and was greeted very well, with great directions to the Tree Top Quest.
Checked in fully around 5:30ish, got a little lodge opposite the Crooked Spoon which was great (as we decided to walk from the AT Entrance, all the way to the Enchanted Village Via the car for the bags - didn't want much more waking!!). First signs of the room were great, however there was a beer glass left on our front porch (on a bench). My guess was that it was the neighbours and had put it there after the room had been cleaned - so no fault of the staff.
Got in to a nice clean, well laid out and presented room, the other half loved it! Very quirky and nice - only 1 point I would pick up on. The floor could have done with a touch better cleaning, either a hoover or a mop? (Unsure what they would do on the floor) - we both picked up that it was a touch dirty after walking around for a bit.
However - everything else was perfect, and a great stay. Breakfast was also nice in the morning with a large choice between continental and full English. 9/10
Tree Top Quest 8/10.
Greeted well again and were the first guests, arrived at 8:45 so had to wait a touch before they were ready for us! This was really good, however I was petrified (no centre of balance due to my height, the other half loved it and flew through) however I was a bit uneasy going at the start! (seems a lot higher up once you're up there)! - Also the 2nd obstacle was probably the hardest! (Along with the long rope bridge which got a bit swingy in the middle!) By no means did we fly through, and I took it quite slow due to my nature to not trust a rope from me falling 25/30ft, however we still completed it in about 30mins. The website says an hour including introduction, which i suppose would be about right if you were part of a larger group. I would give it a 10, however I would like to see a few more Zip lines, plus a little something else in the for the price - just to make it a bit longer. However, we both thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it!
Alton Towers:
Sunday: Biggest queues were 35-40mins for Galactica, Smiler peaked about 25mins throughout the day. Our longest queue was Spinball when it stopped whilst we were queuing (probably 3rd ride of day!), apart from this was perfect.
Galactica was decent, however my headset broke on the first ride (got a free fast pass, however we didn't require this over the 2 days.....)
Monday: We had to leave around 3pm on this day, which I was a little worried about on during the weeks heading upto it, incase I felt I wanted to stay longer. However its safe to say, come 12:00 we were quite bored of riding on rides, we even went for a walk through the gardens on both days! We had an hour to kill eventually, but I suppose its probably becuse the rides were dead. Literally walked onto the smiler a few times on Monday.
Over the 2 days:
Oblivion: 8
Smiler: 6
Rita: 2
Thirteen: 3
Galactica: 4
Nemesis: 4
Spinball: 5
Duel: 1
We probably went on a few things a little more to be fair (more rides) however I can't think how many times we rode things. Also, have blisters on my feet as she was adamant not to use the Skyride - but to be fair it wasn't needed since we had extra time on our hands to stroll through the park on nice days!
Roller Coaster Restaurant: Already left a review on this on the forum in Alton Towers Resort General, but 7/10.
Overall experience was great, my favorite part however was knowing I would be staying over in the Enchanted village, and vising the bar and staying in the little lodge on Sunday evening. Very nice stay, and felt welcome.
Couldn't really go back now to AT for another year, did it 3 times last year I believe, twice the year before that, and 2 days on a row this year - nothing really thrills me much more but I think I have just overdone it! Can't complain about the weather or the queues! Just wish AT had a few flat rides where possible (since Ripsaw and Submission have both gone) - just to break things up a little!
