Alton Towers
As part of the Merlin Pass, we get free admission to Alton Towers. Me and Troy have gold passes, and the kids have silver. There are over 40 rides and attractions and a hotel where you can book short breaks and make use of the water parks. There are black out dates for the passes (apart from platinum) meaning we check the availability calendar to make sure we can all go on that date.
On our most recent trip (21st March) all 5 of us went. We always make a picnic and take it with us because we have fussy eaters. We set off about 8:30am to reach the park as it opened. We got on the monorail, and it dropped us right at the front of the park.
A perk of being a Merlin passholder is we get discount off food and drinks on site. We had previously bought refillable cups for the Coke refill machines, so we took them to the kiosk and renewed them bringing them to £9.10 each with the discount. We got our first drinks at the refill station by there.
We headed left from Tower Street towards our first ride, Wicker Man. Layton had not really done many rollercoasters before, so had a little anxiety about the ride. It was only 15-minute wait. We convinced him it wasn’t too bad of a ride, and he agreed to go on provided he could sit by me.
The preshow is quite creepy, but fascinating at the same time. It explained the backstory and then we were getting in our seats. Layton had hold of my hand firmly, but that didn’t prepare me for the absolute hilariousness of Layton on the way round. I forgot it goes quite quickly, I was crying so hard, he was screaming his head off, knuckles white. Once we got off, he asked if we could go again.
We then walked to Forbidden Valley as the skyride was closed. This was early season so not everything was up and running. We refilled our cups again.
The girls immediately wanted to go on Nemesis Reborn. Layton decided that ride was not for him at this time, so we stayed off while Troy, Rubi and Ellia got in the que. They waited about 20 mins to get on. We watched them go round. Next was Galactica, however, the ride was down once they had finished with Nemesis. We refilled our cups again.
We made our way back through the park and over to the Dark Forest, we ate some of our food while walking. Time for Th13teen. The que for this was about 35 minutes. We ate some snacks while queuing. We get to the front of the que and the gentleman and child next to us asked if anyone wanted to fill the 1 seat available as they were waiting for 2 seats. Rubi opted for this as she was going to be sat on her own anyway. She ended up with a group of 3 women, which didn’t bother her. We then get it our seats, and I explain to Layton that this ride goes high and has a drop. Again, he’s white knuckled screaming (in a good way) I’m laughing, Troy and Ellia are laughing. We then go into the dark room, I warn Layton ‘here comes the drop’ forgetting there is a little drop, before the big drop. WE ALL SCREAM! He loved it.
We refilled our drinks and walked round to Gangster Granny; this ride is so awesome.
At this point I was flagging a little, they have an onsite costa so got a Latte, Troy waited nearly 40 minutes for 1 drink. The kids went and explored CBeebies land and met Upsy Daisy. Me, Rubi and Ellia wanted to go on Spin ball Whizzer que time was only 20 minutes. We got to the front and Ellia decided she no longer wanted to go on, so left. Me and Rubi absolutely loved it! It looks worse than what it is. We found a refill station and got more drinks
We then made our way round to Oblivion and the Smiler. Que time for the smiler was 75 minutes ad no single riders. Troy and Rubi wanted to go on Oblivion. The Que time was only 20 minutes so off they went. Me, Ellia and Layton sat at the bottom of the ride and watched people drop. Troy said Rubi was sat on the ride and said ‘ah man I don’t want to’ he just told her to close her eyes as it was too late. She enjoyed it even if it did send her a bit squiffy.
We kept an eye on the app for ride times and saw that Galactica and Toxicator were at 20 minutes, so we headed back over. By the time we had walked there Galactica had gone down again. We sat on the grass and ate some food and refilled our drinks. Troy decided he wanted to go on Toxicator so joined the single rider que. This seemed pointless as the ride has 2 rows per side. He was wating for about 20 mins when Galactica opened. Ellia and Layton didn’t want to go on it. Me and Rubi did. The que was about 45 minutes, most of that wait was the test rides to make sure it was operational. Troy saw Nemesis go to a 5-minute wait and ran. We could see Ellia and Layton sat on the picnic benches. While Troy was in the que the ride broke down again. Me and Rubi got on Galactic, it is such an epic ride, probably my favourite at Alton Towers. Troy managed to finally get on Nemesis.
We then decided it was home time as we were all exhausted, we refilled our cups one last time and headed back to the car. We had an amazing day and plan to go back as much as we can.