Alton Towers’ first day of the season. March 19th 2022. The first time since I started this blog that I’ve had the pleasure of visiting a theme park with more than just Tracy! For this very special visit, I was joined by longtime friends Tami, of The Tami Journal and Pedro, who I went to school with.
Upon arrival we were all surprised by how many people had arrived for gate opening. We got there for about 9:20am, but I’d heard others have been waiting since 8:30!
Despite the volume of people at the turnstiles, we were in in no time at all, bags checked and tickets scanned.
Normally we would head straight to Wickerman but when we got there we were told that the ride was running behind and wouldn’t be open for 10am. So instead we headed off to Dark Forest for rides on Th13teen and Rita.
Th13teen
As the morning was bright and dry, we went to Th13teen first. This meant we dodged a long queue later and also guaranteed us a ride should the weather have turned (as Th13teen no longer runs when it’s wet at all).
The first thing to note is the new (to me at least) bag holding area. This is now done before you enter the station and make getting on and off the trains so much easier as people aren’t crossing each other to get their bags.
It was also great to hear genuine surprise from Pedro as I’d kept him in the dark about the surprise element on purpose. One of the best rides I’ve had on Th13teen and a great opener for our season at Towers.
Rita
Next was Rita as the queue was yet to really form. Another shock for Pedro who wasn’t quite ready for the launch and jarring first turn. Tami’s first ride without greying out too apparently!
The ride ran really well despite it being so early in the day and was giving great airtime moments at its higher peaks and into the brake run. I really like Rita!
Gangsta granny: The Ride
Next we headed into the World of David Walliams for a ride on Gangsta Granny, which hasn’t changed since last year, though I did notice yet another fart joke which is always appreciated! We all enjoyed the ride, and had a great laugh in the queue with the photography, theming elements and the actors who were keeping the crowds entertained.
Oblivion
Next we headed to one of the parks biggest attractions, Oblivion. Operations were good, trains being dispatched with little delay and virtually no stacking on the brake runs outside. Coupled with the limited exposure to the rides soundtrack, we had a decent ride here.
The Smiler
Once we’d braved Oblivion, we headed to a very anticipated ride, The Smiler. Pedro had shown a keen interest in riding, Tami was game and even Tracy joined us for another ride, despite proclaiming ‘never again’ after the last ride!
The queue was quite lengthy as always but we were kept moving and we ended up waiting for about an hour and a half for a go on this Infinity Coaster.
I personally felt this was one of the weaker rides I’ve had here, as there were a few more noticable rougher patches than I remember, but it didn’t take away from Tami and Pedros experience of the ride. I believe Pedro went as far as to say it’s his favourite ride at the park!
Dinner
Once we’d completed the correctional process, we headed off to Burger Kitchen for something to eat. I’ve yet to have a bad meal there, prices were decent, especially when compared with Burger King, though there isn’t quite as much choice as their could be. Vegetarian and vegan options did seem a bit limited as we had special dietary requirements this time around, but we managed just fine.
Galactica
Our next stop was Galactica. We were going to use the Skyride to get over to Forbidden Valley but the queue was huge so we walked it (you can see a timelapse here!)
The queue for Galactica was advertised at 70 minutes, which is the longest I’ve ever seen it and despite this, we ended up waiting over and hour and half for the UK’s first Flying Coaster. Operations were incredibly slow, running two trains on 1 side of the dual loading station, and some of the cars weren’t fully operational so couldn’t take guests at all.
This is so sad to see. The ride is good and we all thoroughly enjoyed it when we did eventually get on, but the lack of attention the ride has had in the off season is almost criminal, at least in my opinion!
There were no speakers playing that great Imascore soundtrack in the queue, all the theming elements show a lack of maintenance and the station only runs 1 side now.
I do worry that Galactica won’t be able to support Forbidden Valley when Nemesis goes down next season for its full retrack. Hopefully they’ll at least try and patch up some of the issues, or close the whole area down and give Galactica a little attention, or put it out to pastures. Such a shame as we all said the ride is so gentle and smooth, yet thrilling enough so it isn’t boring.
Duel
After Galactica, I did suggest Nemesis, but the queue was closed, so we instead went for a ride on Duel. Which also had a queue. Only 10 minutes, but a queue nonetheless! Only the second time I’ve ever queued to ride Duel.
Congratulations to Pedro too who, on his first ride, beat my score fair and square, so well done Pedro! Tami gave up halfway around and just took in the theming, which I should do one day as I’m fairly certain I’ve missed loads of little details! Tracy did great too, setting one of her best score here too!
We all enjoyed Duel, and this year is its 30th year of operation, so I’d love to see them celebrate it a little when Scarefest comes around later this year!
Postman Pat’s Parcel Post
To round out the day, we headed into Cbeebies Land for a couple of rides, the first being Postman Pat’s Parcel Post. This is a nice sit down, that takes you through a series of static scenes from the childrens TV show Postman Pat, with mild interaction elements from the ride vehicle. It features a camera too which I’ll talk about later on!
Octonauts
Our final ride of the day was on Octonauts, the parks smallest rollercoaster. This ride features a camera and a large whale that sprays water in the air, and on both times around, managed to spray us on the trains! The photos say it all here!
Ride Photos
As mentioned earlier about on ride photos, this was the first time that I’ve used Alton Towers brand new photo system, iMagic.
The first thing I should say is the system is currently flawed. You need a QR code to start your iMagic day which isn’t a big issue, but mobile signal around the park was dire, at least for me (on O2). So you get off a ride, head to the photo booth to see your photo and input the code into the iMagic webpage and it should find your photos. More often than not I’d get an error saying it couldn’t find a photo with that code however.
We tried it on Tami’s phone and got a bit more success, but by the time we’d come to Galactica, we’d given up trying and had been writing the codes down through the day and went to guest services.
I can’t fault guest services at all, they added all our photos through the day to our pass, and we then bought it for £20, we got all our digital photos from the whole day.
I look forward to seeing iMagic developed as its a very good idea, and I love the idea of digipasses myself (I held a merlin annual digipass before they discontinued it and I loved that.) Hopefully they’ll have it working much better in time for Festival of Thrills at the end of April!
To summarize then, we all had a great day at Alton Towers for their opening day. We got on plenty of rides despite the park being sold out, got plenty of photos with iMagic, found that Tami and Pedro are both somewhat thrillseekers and had a great time together. Having others there also meant Tracy didn’t go insane when I kept waffling theme park trivia….!
It would have been nice to get on Nemesis, Hex and Wickerman, but Wickerman had 2 hour queues all day due to technical difficulties which would have taken up too much of the day, and Hex was closed. Loved every minute of the day though and I can’t wait to be back for Festival of Thrills!
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