Take a look at the yanks! (Alton Towers (Staffordshire))

Member Name: steveny

Product:	Alton Towers (Staffordshire)
Date:	09/04/02 (164 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good fun, lots of rides

Disadvantages: waiting times are long, food is expensive

Okay first off I'm not a regular visitor to this park I've been on average once every year since I was 5. I most recently went last monday, April 1st.

We arrived around 10:30 and it was already packed. The weather wasn't brilliant but was bearable. First problem was we had tokens that allowed us in 2 for 1 and this they did not accept as they claimed that it wasn't valid on bank holidays, okay they could have made this clearer before we went in a group of 8. Also my girlfriends little bro and couple of mates came who are all 14 but child prices are only up to 12 which is another con. anyways it cost us £23 each and it's hardly worth the money. The queing systme was crap they have this new virtual queing where you go and get a ticket that tells you to come back between certain times and then you'll not have to wait longer than 20 minutes sounds excellent in theory and the americans do it well in DisneyWorld, so you expect the brits to do it just as well, do they hell! The virtual tickets for the new ride Air where sold out at around 11:30am and the average que time for to get on without a virtual ticket was 170 minutes as stated on the electronic boards around the complex. We went at 1pm to get a virtual ticket for nemesis and this told us to come back between 4:20pm and 5:20pm to ride which is ridiculous if you ask me!

Anyways we waited for other rides e.g. Ripsaw a very exciting non-rollercoaster ride that hangs you upside down and then lowers you into jets of water, Oblivion the Uk's first vertical drop rollercoaster excellent ride but over far to quickly!, enterprise like a cheap fairground ride that spins you upside down in spaceship as you balls are crushed by whoever is sat between my legs I'm just lucky my g/f is so skinny!, then there were the rapids which is always fun but got us very wet and left us soggy all day, the runaway mine train tame rollercoaster but good for kids or to warm up! We went on a few ot
hers but they aren't really worth mentioning except Nemesis which is probably the best ride there. It has lots of loops and drops and goes really fast but lasts a significant amount of time to justify the queing and ultimately leaves you with a faster heartbeat than you started.

The thing about Alton towers is that it attracts huge amounts of people everyday and could really do more to make them able to get on all the rides in the one day without having to run around like a headless chicken with stupid virtual tickets. When I visited Disneyworld in florida we never waited for more than 30 minutes for any ride and there was entertainment whilst waiting which made it a bit better. They try this at obvlivion butr the TV's they have are usually brokien or repeat the same clip 10 times in the duration it takes to get on!

Definetly got lots of potential but should hire an american to devise a good system for the Q's.

also just a final point, another attack a Multi national corporation, Macdonalds has outlets in the complex but put upto £1 on all their meals just because they have a captive audience, thats just shameful exploitation accepted by the theme park!!!

prices for everything once inside are extortionate except a family bucket of chicken from KFC which is the same price as normal!

steven

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