The Grax Domain

14 Oct 2007 Trip to Alton Towers

So my girlfriend, Princess, and I decided to go to Alton Towers this Saturday. It was very last minute, she's a theme park nut and I've never been to Alton Towers before, so all the signs pointed to a fun day out. It was a mixture of highs and lows.

The Highs

• The good rides - Nemesis, Oblivion, and Rita. These rides did to me what rollercoaster rides should do; make me scream like a girl. Air was pretty good, but not as thrilling as the other three.
• The crazy golf - It was a fun couple of hours to waste and Princess managed to win a free game at the end. Not bad for £5 a head
• The garden area - This makes Alton Towers stand out of all the other theme parks. The gardens and the tower itself are quite stunning. Picturesque and make the whole place seem more... authentic and real. It was fun to get lost in it for a while
• One of the queues – There were a couple of people in the Terror of the Tower line that worked at Alton Towers having the afternoon off. It was a couple hours wait and we had a laugh talking about things including some of the stupid things people say to staff members (like “Does the Nemesis ride go upside down”) and some of the ghost hunting they have done. It made the hour wait a lot more bearable. Tip: Always be friendly and chat with the staff, you might get lucky.
• You Day – They started this new feature where they video you riding on selected rides and you can watch it all on DVD. In theory this is cheaper and more fun that getting a photograph. All you need to do is wear a wristband electronic sensor for the day (very Big Brother) and there's no obligation to buy. The pose I did on one of the rides make it worth dong alone.

The Lows

• The crap rides – There were a few lackluster rides that included The Runaway Train and the crappy haunted house with bolted-on laser gun game thingy.
• You Day – The sensor was not picked up on all the rides, we were not allowed to preview the DVD and on one of the ride we were not even on it! They had put some random people on our DVD.
• Terror of the Tower – It was just no scary. The cannibalistic master was not scary. Hell the bill for our dinner was scarier than that fatty. Not worth the 2 hour wait, I could have done a better job at that attraction.
• The dinner - £20 per head?? For a simple buffet meal at the hotel? Are you mad!? We'd been better off going to McDonalds.

Despite the negative it'll be worth going to Alton Towers again properly. With a crowd. And poses on all the rides.

Mind you, isn't it a tad illegal to have video footage of other people without their permission? What with the Data Protection Act and all. I would want people accusing me of anything dodgy or seedy with the footage and stuff.

Posted at: 11:00 AM

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Your Thoughts

MI said on Sunday 21st of October 2007 at 12:52:15 PM

Aw, I love Alton Towers! We should organise theme park trip again soon - you, me, Steve, tom, etc! Remember our Chessington trip? It was LEGENDARY!

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