Alton Towers

So we did (eventually) get a good nights sleep - but hardly a lie in as breakfast was at 7.45, and we're just rubbish at staying in bed past 7 now. but 7am is good:-)

A nice cooked breakfast - no black pudding though - what is the North coming to?! Then off to Alton Towers. In the rain & the fog & the cold on a Monday morning in the middles of term time/exams. Ideal conditions really - although it doesn't sound it - but it meant that when the gates opened at 9.30m, we were two of maybe two dozen people there, and could go straight on to all the big rides. you know, the ones that had 2 hour waiting times last time we went on a summers Saturday a couple of years ago.

We tried Nemesis first. Fantastic. We sat on the second row, and it was amazing. I was right on the edge & I could almost feel the rocks & trees my feet dangled just millimetres from as we whizzed around at mumble mph. In fact, it was so good, we went back & did it again in the front row! Even better! If you go, brave the front row queue (we had to wait 36 seconds!!!). It's a totally different experience. Gush gush:-)

Then we nipped straight on to Air. Aggie liked this one best, but I thought it came second place. There were still no queues as we wandered over to Hex, which wasn't as good as it could have been imo - i had a much better idea of what to do with it *grin*, then proceeded to another high adrenalin ride, Enterprise, which Aggie remembered from his youth. I think it should have sa=tayed in his memories really - not very much fun. especially as Aggie had a hypo immediately afterwards from all the adrenalin!

Still, one thing there is no shortage of in a theme park is sugar, so a chocolate bar & some doughnuts later, we calmed down on Duel (where Aggie beat me mercilessly, but didn't quite succeed in his aim of getting double my score), and the water rides: The Rapids & the updated Flume (well, we were pretty soaked by then anyway from the rain, so it seemed a good time to get wet).

That covered the majority of the big rides, and the longest queue had been a couple of minutes. Rain is sometimes wonderful:-) After a warming lunch, the park was starting to fill up, so we tried the new Charlie & the Chocolate Factory ride - which did have a good 30 min wait (boo hiss). It is certainly an improvement on the Toyland boat trip that was there before, & Tunnel of Love that preceeded that (wow I'm old!). Then tried to lose our lunch again by going on Oblivion. well cool! Aggies got some pictures & video on his blog if you want to see the vertical drop & hear the screams. It was the only one that made me scream, so i guess it gets the thumbs up for that.

we finished off with a nice wander around the gardens, and I got to go on ripsaw & get completely soaked some more. Again, video on aggies blog. He refused to go on. The water was freezing, but it was a brilliant ride. It's a toss up between that and nemesis for my favourite really.

By then it was nearly 4pm, the rain had (finally) stopped, and the park was getting pretty busy, so we called it a day, and headed home, which meant we got back just in time to see the kids before they went to bed, and to let Nanny A escape before it got too late;-)

It was a great day, although pretty exhausting. So maybe next year we'll go with my suggestion of a relaxing spa/adults only hotel;-)