Brilliant day at Alton Towers

[fizz13]

Just having a few minutes before i am off to bed but just wanted to share the brilliant day we had at Alton towers. took a friend with me so I had backup with the kids and my oldest DD who is now tall enough to ride everything could go on all the coasters. Bought 2 fastrack tickets for Air, nemesis and oblivion which were £8 each, so sent cara and friend in first using fastrack then used the parentswap card so i could ride with her too without waiting in line again or the added expense of a third fastrack. Highly recommended way to get more done if there are two adults in your party with smaller ones. got in at 9:30am as have annual passes and heres the list of everything we rode by 6pm: (where x2 means that we used parent swap)

Charlie and the chocolate factory
Twirling toadstool
Galloping carrouseul
Driving School
Hex
Rita x2
Oblivion x2
Spinball Whizzer x2
The Beastie
Squirrel Nutty Ride
Old mcdonalds tractor ride
Doodle doo Derby
Battle galleons
The skyride
Nemesis x2
Air x2
Duel
Congo River rapids
Runaway Mine Train

So it just goes to show how much you can get done when you set your mind to it and that there is time to the coasters and the small rides for smaller ones. Anyone who is planning to do battle galleons in the near future, be warned you will get totally soaked! you are firing water cannons at the people on the sides and other boats but they will get you too. We were all soaked from top to toe, very very funny cara was awesome and showed no fear at all with the coasters that were all new to her today, so happy for her that she finally grew enough to be able to do it all and charlie who is 5 giggled his way through the rapids, the runaway train and so many more. We honestly had a fantastic day out, the best one in a long time. and they did so well considering we got up at 5:45am this morning to get there for park opening, we are just under a 3 hour drive away, and they crawled into bed about 10:30pm
and i have learned that next week i am hitting the gym as my fitness level is shocking and i may die on my feet in august at wdwi am aching all over and my feet would really like a massage right now!
oh yes i also caught the sun quite nicely today on my face and chest, even though it seemed cloudy most of the day, thankfully not burnt or sore. Sorry if i have bored anyone ranting on about our fab day but it was great having a brill family day that i had to share. get yourselves to Alton towers pronto, you will be glad you did.
I am off to crawl into my bed...

 

[wicket2005]

Glad you all had a good day at Alton. Never been myself but my lads have and both have very much enjoyed it. Sounds like you got all the rides done which is pretty good going in the school holidays, I would have thought.

 

[natalielongstaff]

Sounds fab Hun, have you got any pics to share ?

 

[wilma-bride]

Sounds like a great day Claire - we had a brilliant day at Alton Towers last summer (was it really that long ago, Nat - I feel a second visit coming on )

Air is a fantastic ride, probably one of my favourites ever

 

[natalielongstaff]

Sounds like a great day Claire - we had a brilliant day at Alton Towers last summer (was it really that long ago, Nat - I feel a second visit coming on )

Air is a fantastic ride, probably one of my favourites ever

Well ive got my tesco tickets so just name the day !

Air is my fave rollercoaster ( so far)

 

[mandymouse]

It sounds like you had a great day Claire

 

[joolz1910]

We went last year and had a great time. If Claire has tempted anyone else to go, there are some great ticket bargains to be had on eBay. We got our tickets on there last year for £6 per person! It's the Sun free ticket promotion.

 

[Pinky166]

Sounds fab Claire.

 

[natalielongstaff]

We went last year and had a great time. If Claire has tempted anyone else to go, there are some great ticket bargains to be had on eBay. We got our tickets on there last year for £6 per person! It's the Sun free ticket promotion.

they are being advertised at the bottom of the thread

 

[jen_uk]

Sounds like a fab day, you are far braver than I am

 

[joolz1910]

they are being advertised at the bottom of the thread

eBay doesn't miss a trick, does it?

 

[wicket2005]

My son said the only bad thing about Air (he went last week) was the man in front of him had a whoppy big verruca on his foot which is what he could see. Urgh!

 

[Minniespal]

Sounds like a fantastic day Claire

 

[phgannon]

What a fantastic way to spend the day! A terrific treat for the kids too over half term.

I'm glad you had such a good day and managed to pack so much in. It's also so nice when the younger kids get to the stage when their fear levels drop and they get braver on the "bigger" rides. Maybe "relief" is another word for it!

We went to Alton for the first time on an impulse on the day of my 40th birthday and had a blast. We only decided to go the night before but I'm so glad we did. Luckily for us Alton is a bit closer - it's about 40 minutes away.

We have been back again since and we stayed the night so we could do the theme park and the water park (which is excellent) but I would hesitate in staying there again! I complained to the manager the next morning about the noise from the entertainment that went on past 11pm and we have 2 kids aged 10 & 5. We got a large sum of money knocked off the bill and a letter of apology with an offer for some reduced nights.

If anyone does want to stay at Alton put in a request for a quiet room!

Patrick

 

[Danauk]

Glad you had a fab day, I agree Alton Towers is a great day out. We have had annual passes for the past 10 years so go quite a lot and usually stay in one of the hotels for a night each year too (although I never have had a problem with noise in either of them.)

 

[florida sun]

So glad you had a lovely day, We love Alton Towers

 

[phgannon]

We have had annual passes for the past 10 years so go quite a lot and usually stay in one of the hotels for a night each year too (although I never have had a problem with noise in either of them.)

I'm so glad that you haven't had a problem with noise in the hotels because when it happened to us it was horrible. There's no other word to describe it.

It was a "magic show" that lasted an hour and was on twice in the same evening that was the culprit. The PA was just unbrearably loud!!

The second show finished really late and, whilst we hadn't gone to bed early, we were hoping to get up early to make the most of our second day and do the waterpark in the morning, have lunch and then visit theme park again in the afternoon. We'd already visiting the theme park on the first day but we hadn't done all the rides on our hit list because we were going to return to the park on day 2.

Anyway, the disruption from the noise put a stop to that plan. We only managed to do the waterpark after breakfast before giving it up as bad job because we were all so tired.

My point to the hotel's manager the next morning was why, if this is a family hotel and targets families with young kids and gives early access to the theme park as a benefit for hotel guests, do they have noisy entertainment that finishes so late?!

I guess you're thinking by now (if you've read this far!) that we were just unlucky with our room allocation/location. Well, we were staying in the "Chocolate Suite" which is their most expensive and "best" room. The door didn't even fit the frame properly. The door might as well not been there.

This episode completely ruined the weekend which was a birthday treat for our 10 year old DS.

Alton Towers Hotel - once bitten, twice shy.

Patrick

 

[wideeyes]

sounds fun