Went down to Alton yesterday, and was probably my first 'peak' visit there for about 5 years, usually go on term-time week days and stuff, can't normally stand the place when it's busy.
And yep, busiest I've seen it, for, like mentioned, 5 years. Parked by Air and the queue for the monorail was right down into the car-park, so walked.
Credit Crunch bit, no Merlin AP anymore, so queued for 20 minuted to get some tickets. I can't stand the system at all but it was one of those days where you'd get nothing done without Fast-Tracks. Got both Scream and Adventurer.
Got the Adventurer ones, because I was with two cousins, 13 and 15, who do both big and small rides without being embarrassed.
Ran to Rita, and already had a 30 min Queue. It's still average, some new bits of theming under the launch, I haven't noticed before?
Looks gay with no Corkie.
Lots of diggers, construction vans and trenches appearing there by the way.
Next we did Hex, because again, I was with two kids. Love the music, always have.
Used Fast-Track on Oblivion, because now at 11:00 it already had a 1 hour queue, with all trains on. Still waited 10 minutes. Still too short. Still kinda meh.
Enterprise followed, 20 min queue and the abysmal Submission was walk-on - no surprise there!
It was 12 by now so we popped in for some lunch at the surprisingly clean and well-oganised Burger King in Cred Street (Damn you Cuckoo's )
SkyRide over to FV, new cars are a tad bright but still rather lovely compared to the pieces of **** we were forced to sit in for the last 30 years anyway.
Did Nemesis, it was awesome, and I can't believe it's a year since I last saw her, bless. Normal Queue was 100 minutes, same for Air which was still fairly average, but the kids loved it.
Ripsaw was on it's insane soaking cycle, despite over-cast weather. Got ****ing drenched son! Still one of my favourite flat rides tbh, despite what others say.
Did Duel, I failed with Epic proportions and got about 23,000 Next, all I cna say is THANK GOD we had Fast-Track for RMT(30 min Q), Rapids(70 min Q) and the Flume. (100 min Q).
Got rather drenched on the Flume but was gutted to see the rather frightening Yellow duck in the tunnel is either broke again or finally removed. Rapids was still meh, RMT's not a patch on what it was before it decided to crash.
Passed on the Sea Life thingy, as the Queue was out of the door, as was most of the things in Mutiny Bay. So dived across the grass to Spinball and queued an hour and a half behind some yobs who were smoking the whole while.
Still managed to once again get the SkyRide back to FV, and a jolly 'SkyRide Technician' jumped in who was doing his fair share of marketing for the resort in his broad Barnsley accent, I lol'd.
Queued for Nemesis properly this time for what was stated as 2 hours, though turned out to be about 30 minutes. Air's queue was now completely full and right down to where Ripsaw was.
So by now it decided to piss it down and we got ****ing soaked. Legged it right back to MB where we bought some Donuts and headed back to the car, noticing Ride Queues had closed but Spinball still had a good 2 hours to go.
Would have been awful without the Fast-Tracks, despite the fact I think it's a waste of time and money on most days. Really good atmosphere most of the day in the park too, wasn't too many chavs around, alot of families and couples. Very busy, but still enjoyable, distinct lack of any sort of street entertainers, unlike last year though.
Ride Count;
Rita
Oblivion
Hex
Submission (lol)
Enterprise
Burger King: THE RIDE
Nemmie x2
Ripsaw
Air
Duel
RMT
Rapids
Flume
Spinball
And yep, busiest I've seen it, for, like mentioned, 5 years. Parked by Air and the queue for the monorail was right down into the car-park, so walked.
Credit Crunch bit, no Merlin AP anymore, so queued for 20 minuted to get some tickets. I can't stand the system at all but it was one of those days where you'd get nothing done without Fast-Tracks. Got both Scream and Adventurer.
Got the Adventurer ones, because I was with two cousins, 13 and 15, who do both big and small rides without being embarrassed.
Ran to Rita, and already had a 30 min Queue. It's still average, some new bits of theming under the launch, I haven't noticed before?
Looks gay with no Corkie.
Lots of diggers, construction vans and trenches appearing there by the way.Next we did Hex, because again, I was with two kids. Love the music, always have.
Used Fast-Track on Oblivion, because now at 11:00 it already had a 1 hour queue, with all trains on. Still waited 10 minutes. Still too short. Still kinda meh.
Enterprise followed, 20 min queue and the abysmal Submission was walk-on - no surprise there!
It was 12 by now so we popped in for some lunch at the surprisingly clean and well-oganised Burger King in Cred Street (Damn you Cuckoo's
)SkyRide over to FV, new cars are a tad bright but still rather lovely compared to the pieces of **** we were forced to sit in for the last 30 years anyway.
Did Nemesis, it was awesome, and I can't believe it's a year since I last saw her, bless. Normal Queue was 100 minutes, same for Air which was still fairly average, but the kids loved it.
Ripsaw was on it's insane soaking cycle, despite over-cast weather. Got ****ing drenched son! Still one of my favourite flat rides tbh, despite what others say.
Did Duel, I failed with Epic proportions and got about 23,000
Next, all I cna say is THANK GOD we had Fast-Track for RMT(30 min Q), Rapids(70 min Q) and the Flume. (100 min Q).Got rather drenched on the Flume but was gutted to see the rather frightening Yellow duck in the tunnel is either broke again or finally removed.
Rapids was still meh, RMT's not a patch on what it was before it decided to crash.Passed on the Sea Life thingy, as the Queue was out of the door, as was most of the things in Mutiny Bay. So dived across the grass to Spinball and queued an hour and a half behind some yobs who were smoking the whole while.
Still managed to once again get the SkyRide back to FV, and a jolly 'SkyRide Technician' jumped in who was doing his fair share of marketing for the resort in his broad Barnsley accent, I lol'd.
Queued for Nemesis properly this time for what was stated as 2 hours, though turned out to be about 30 minutes. Air's queue was now completely full and right down to where Ripsaw was.
So by now it decided to piss it down and we got ****ing soaked. Legged it right back to MB where we bought some Donuts and headed back to the car, noticing Ride Queues had closed but Spinball still had a good 2 hours to go.
Would have been awful without the Fast-Tracks, despite the fact I think it's a waste of time and money on most days. Really good atmosphere most of the day in the park too, wasn't too many chavs around, alot of families and couples. Very busy, but still enjoyable, distinct lack of any sort of street entertainers, unlike last year though.
Ride Count;
Rita
Oblivion
Hex
Submission (lol)
Enterprise
Burger King: THE RIDE
Nemmie x2
Ripsaw
Air
Duel
RMT
Rapids
Flume
Spinball