Mousematt’s trip to Alton Towers

Well the tranquility of the gardens was a great juxtaposition to the noise and bustle of the ride areas. Maybe they need each other.

But my tolerance for thrill rides diminishes as I get older. It’s the corkscrew stuff I dislike the most. I like calm, smooth rides with nice views. Like SDD or 7DMT. BTMRR is fine but it’s very loud.

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I got too old for corkscrew rides when I turned 15 :joy:

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Even at my age (60+), they can’t make one tall enough, fast enough, steep enough, or have enough inversions that I won’t ride. Now I just need to lose enough weight so I can actually ride them again.

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I remember exactly when I stopped enjoying drops. There was a ride at a local amusement park that I used to love. Randomly, one day, I went and the exact same feeling was awful. I have tried many times ever since, but it still haven’t gotten better. One day it will :slight_smile:

I started hurting more after 40. Joint pain.
My DS who will be 20 in August doesn’t enjoy them anymore. He head gets all messed up. I think his is related to allergies and congestion

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I used to be a huge roller coaster junkie (and still am in spirit) but my nausea tolerance has gone down dramatically over the years. Were Nemesis and Air/Galactica running?

Yes, but we didn’t ride them. (See following.)

Slinky needs about 2 more minutes of ride time and it would compete for best ride at WDW

Day 2
Our plan was to have a slightly earlier breakfast so that we could check-out and load up the car before setting off for the park. Although we arrived at the hotel entrance to the park at the same time as yesterday, today there was a line. Nonetheless we ended up at Wicker Man at the same time as yesterday, and we waited in that line for the same amount of time.

From there we headed to Runaway Mine Train (not to be confused with BTMRR which is an altogether superior ride). It was less fun than I remember. Yeah, I’m old now. I’ve made my peace with it.

At this point we had to make a decision about the weather. The forecast had been for rain literally all day. It had started with misty rain, then drizzle and was now regular hide-under-shelter rain. It seemed like there was little hope this was going to change.

We decided to bail. We headed back to the hotel entrance to the park only to discover that it was closed — they only open it to let guests in at park opening. (And perhaps to let them leave at park closing. But not to people who are bailing midway through the day.)

This meant we had to retrace our steps all the way back to where we had been, then proceed to the main entrance, and then walk from there to the hotel. The monorail was not running. This whole procedure took 45 minutes, in varying degrees of rain.

I found out later in the day that Alton Towers has a Rainy Day Policy and that today qualified. We get free return tickets, but for very restricted dates. No use to us.

The drive back was fairly uneventful and we made it home safely. I dropped my friends off at their house and then drove to my own, before driving to Sarah’s to pick up Calvin. He seemed happy to see me and he hasn’t (so far) punished me for leaving him — perhaps because it was only for around 48 hours, rather than the eight nights required for an Orlando trip. We had a lovely walk and even spent an hour or so playing with Sarah’s dog and one of her friend’s new puppy.

Final thoughts
I don’t regret the trip. It got us out of our houses. The days seemed long. We definitely had fun. And who doesn’t love a cooked breakfast (today’s was better than yesterday’s). I even enjoyed the drive — going with friends makes it an adventure in itself. Road trip! Woohoo! (It was about a 250 mile round trip, which to us is a Long Way. I know you people think nothing of driving that distance for dinner.)

I am probably going to spend the next 14 days worrying about whether I got COVID during the trip. I’ve already taken my temperature three times at home (fine, fine and fine).

I don’t feel any great desire to return to Alton Towers any time soon. That’s not an indicator of dissatisfaction. You’ve seen what a beautiful place it is. The rides were fun and we enjoyed ourselves.

But — here it comes — it’s not WDW. It’s not even UOR. It’s not a magical place. It’s not a place that addicts you and has you desperate to come back. Maybe we’ll go again next summer. Maybe we won’t. It’s not something I’ll be dreaming about.

No doubt this is confirmation bias, but it does seem like I am doomed when it comes to rain. I don’t know how many days Alton Towers declares as rainy days, but I managed to be there during one of them. Just like I was at MVMCP on that December day last year when WDW refunded everyone’s tickets because the rain was so heavy and continuous.

The funny thing was that I wasn’t even mad about it. I’m just resigned to it. From mid-March to the end of June — in other words during the entire lockdown period in the UK — the weather was almost consistently glorious. Then during July it has rained almost constantly every day. Of our scheduled 12 park hours, there were only about two when the sun was shining and it wasn’t raining.

We are scheduled to make our next theme park trip in October — to Blackpool Pleasure Beach, home of the Big One — when it was built (in the mid 1990s) it was the world’s tallest and steepest rollercoaster. It remains the UK’s tallest, as well as being (just) over a mile long.

I’ve been coming to Blackpool since the mid-70’s. It’s a classic British seaside resort, probably most famous for its tower —

Which features this rather stunning ballroom —

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That ballroom - wow!

Sounds like you had a nice weekend get away. And Calvin is happy you weren’t gone forever (in dog years). :dog2:

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LOL! Apparently I’ve always been too old for corkscrew rides…

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Nope nope to the nope.

Glad you’re home safe and sound and that Calvin wasn’t mad at you. :). Pictures look awesome! Glad you were able to get out and about with friends.

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Sorry you got rained out. It’s a long time since I’ve been to the Pleasure Beach - probably 20 years. We used to go on day trips to Blackpool pretty regularly when I was a kid, being in Manchester.

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Glad you enjoyed getting away. I’m sorry about the rain. Rain/bad weather is my number one reason I don’t like to plan trips on the north. I seem to have much better luck if I travel south.

Sleeping away from home, having someone else cook meals, talking with friends, and enjoying a few rides is definitely a smart getaway.

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This is a perfect description of the Six Flags franchise. Great rides, mediocre food, limited (and often cheesy) theming, and workers who all seem to be wanting to do anything else except being there. You go for a coaster fix, and that’s about it. Alton Towers at least seems to have beautiful gardens to explore - something that you won’t find at any Six Flags park.

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I was trying to remember the last time DD and I went to Alton Towers and it must have been around 30 years ago, doesn’t time fly! :smile: It rained on that day too and we had our picnic on the bandstand in the gardens.
I have to say that I have got better at heights and rides as I’ve got older, thank goodness :sweat_smile:

Beautiful park.

They really hurt my head with the knocking side to side.

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Agreed. And I don’t really see the point. If you’re just getting whirled around at high speed, you can’t really tell what’s going on. RRR at UOR looks great, but actually riding it is disappointing because it’s so disorienting you don’t really have any sense of where you’re going.

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For the benefit of @missoverexcited and others —

Compare the Big One at Blackpool, which is a thrill ride, but you can see where you’re going and you have a full sense of what’s going on, with Inception at Blackpool, which is mostly a disorienting mess.

Or Oblivion at Alton Towers — surely the world’s purest rollercoaster — compared with RRR.

I know which I prefer.