Decided to pay Alton Towers a visit last year - as I hadn't been in ages, and was not disappointed! Firstly, if you want to have videos taken of you on certain rides, you need to pick up a wristband BEFORE you start roaming the park. This isn't explained that well at the entrance, and we only came across it after we'd already been on half of the rides, so didn't bother. The big thrill rides are fantastic - my personal favourite is Air - it's thrilling but at the same time you feel much more relaxed than some of the others - and so it's a more enjoyable experience than an adrenaline filled one. Then you've got Oblivion, Nemesis and Rita Queen of Speed - all of which will put your heart in your mouth and then back into your stomach again. Plus your favourites like the log flume and rapids.

One thing I would say is that you should go into the park with a plan on what you're going to cover, how you're going to navigate the park and when you're going to eat. Arrive when the gates open to minimise your queueing time. The longest we had to queue was for Air, and that was around lunchtime - the queue was ovcr an hour long. However, lines were generally a reasonable wait otherwise.