On A Rollercoaster
Sep. 23rd, 2013 11:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
danieldwilliamQuite literally on rollercoasters.
As part of my regularly scheduled programme of being a parent I took Bluebird to Alton Towers this weekend and had a fantastic time.
She and I met up on Friday evening in Bristol and made our way to Stoke-on-Trent by train. This took a while as we had one of those journeys where the hourly service from X to Y arrived five minutes after the hourly service from Y to Z left but we were in good spirit and had plenty to talk about so the time passed well. We arrived at Stoke at eleven.
We stayed in a hotel right opposite Stoke railway station, jolly handy given when we arrived. The hotel had decidedly seen better days and some of those days might have been in the 19th century but it was comfortable, cheap and convenient and not a Premier Inn.
Saturday saw BB and I head off by bus to Alton Towers. We took the early bus, keen to make the most of our day out, and ended up sharing with about 50 Alton Towers staff. We arrived at about 8.20. The park opens at 9 so we had a bit of hanging around to do. We filled the unforgiving minute with a phone call to my mum to wish her a happy birthday. Then bought tickets, fast passes and an all you can eat pass. All worthwhile.
Onwards to the park.
BB and I headed off to the Nemesis. At ten o’clock the queues were pretty non-existent so we piled straight on to the Nemesis and got seats at the front.
As we were getting on I recognised my sister and brother in law getting off. Turns out they were up for a weekend at Alton Towers too.
Nemesis dangles you from an overhead structure.
WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And then
WHOOOOOOSSHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
General Alarums and noises off.
WHOOOHOOOO!!!!!!!
I made the mistake of taking my glasses not contacts, so after the first go on Nemesis I had to leave them in my pocket. Rollercoasters when the motion blur is increased by general blur blur are a much more benign experience once you convince yourself that the machinery is perfectly safe and in any event there is nothing you can do about it now.
Sis and BIL met us from our ride and we went over to AIR. AIR dangles you from an overhead structure and then tilts you forward so you are parallel to the ground. Mostly. It’s like flying. If you went flying wearing a too tight corset.
WHOOOSH!!
WooHHOOO!
Alarums.
By lunch time we’d been on most of the big rollercoasters and so far without using our fast passes. So after lunch when the park was full we could whip round most of them again.
After lunch we went on the brand new rollercoaster the Smiler. During the morning the queues for this had topped two hours. When we went they were still more than an hour. Sis and BIL had a fast pass for this but BB and I didn’t so we decided to go Single Rider. This cut our wait down to about half an hour. Which I think is about my tolerance for waiting in a queue.
The Smiler has 14 loops in it. The most in any roller coaster in the world.
WHOOOOHOOOO!!!!
WaaHeheyHEEOOO!!!
Alarums.
By the time I’d come off the Smiler my adrenalin system had pretty much packed up and my hind brain had begun to believe that hurtling through the air at 50 miles an hour was both normal and safe. The experience of riding a rollercoaster once you are familiar and immune to it is very nice. At the end of the day BB and I managed to fit in a couple of goes each on Nemesis and Air back to back. I found myself rolling around the sky in the early evening sunshine and feeling very fine indeed.
This was my first trip to Alton Towers and I enjoyed it greatly. I’ve not been to many theme parks. I took BB to Legoland when she was six but that’s more aimed at small people. When I was ten we stopped off at Disney in LA on the way to Australia. A few summers ago we went to Disney in Orlando as part of our US trip with BB but that’s it. I really enjoyed Alton Towers and will definitely go again. It’s a great day out.
Back to Stoke for perhaps the worst curry buffet I’ve ever had but so surreal was the experienced and in such good humour that it may be one of the most enjoyable meals I’ve ever had.
The next day BB and I slept in and then pottered off back to Bristol via lunch at Nandos in Birmingham and a little bit of shopping at the Bullring.
As part of my regularly scheduled programme of being a parent I took Bluebird to Alton Towers this weekend and had a fantastic time.
She and I met up on Friday evening in Bristol and made our way to Stoke-on-Trent by train. This took a while as we had one of those journeys where the hourly service from X to Y arrived five minutes after the hourly service from Y to Z left but we were in good spirit and had plenty to talk about so the time passed well. We arrived at Stoke at eleven.
We stayed in a hotel right opposite Stoke railway station, jolly handy given when we arrived. The hotel had decidedly seen better days and some of those days might have been in the 19th century but it was comfortable, cheap and convenient and not a Premier Inn.
Saturday saw BB and I head off by bus to Alton Towers. We took the early bus, keen to make the most of our day out, and ended up sharing with about 50 Alton Towers staff. We arrived at about 8.20. The park opens at 9 so we had a bit of hanging around to do. We filled the unforgiving minute with a phone call to my mum to wish her a happy birthday. Then bought tickets, fast passes and an all you can eat pass. All worthwhile.
Onwards to the park.
BB and I headed off to the Nemesis. At ten o’clock the queues were pretty non-existent so we piled straight on to the Nemesis and got seats at the front.
As we were getting on I recognised my sister and brother in law getting off. Turns out they were up for a weekend at Alton Towers too.
Nemesis dangles you from an overhead structure.
WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And then
WHOOOOOOSSHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
General Alarums and noises off.
WHOOOHOOOO!!!!!!!
I made the mistake of taking my glasses not contacts, so after the first go on Nemesis I had to leave them in my pocket. Rollercoasters when the motion blur is increased by general blur blur are a much more benign experience once you convince yourself that the machinery is perfectly safe and in any event there is nothing you can do about it now.
Sis and BIL met us from our ride and we went over to AIR. AIR dangles you from an overhead structure and then tilts you forward so you are parallel to the ground. Mostly. It’s like flying. If you went flying wearing a too tight corset.
WHOOOSH!!
WooHHOOO!
Alarums.
By lunch time we’d been on most of the big rollercoasters and so far without using our fast passes. So after lunch when the park was full we could whip round most of them again.
After lunch we went on the brand new rollercoaster the Smiler. During the morning the queues for this had topped two hours. When we went they were still more than an hour. Sis and BIL had a fast pass for this but BB and I didn’t so we decided to go Single Rider. This cut our wait down to about half an hour. Which I think is about my tolerance for waiting in a queue.
The Smiler has 14 loops in it. The most in any roller coaster in the world.
WHOOOOHOOOO!!!!
WaaHeheyHEEOOO!!!
Alarums.
By the time I’d come off the Smiler my adrenalin system had pretty much packed up and my hind brain had begun to believe that hurtling through the air at 50 miles an hour was both normal and safe. The experience of riding a rollercoaster once you are familiar and immune to it is very nice. At the end of the day BB and I managed to fit in a couple of goes each on Nemesis and Air back to back. I found myself rolling around the sky in the early evening sunshine and feeling very fine indeed.
This was my first trip to Alton Towers and I enjoyed it greatly. I’ve not been to many theme parks. I took BB to Legoland when she was six but that’s more aimed at small people. When I was ten we stopped off at Disney in LA on the way to Australia. A few summers ago we went to Disney in Orlando as part of our US trip with BB but that’s it. I really enjoyed Alton Towers and will definitely go again. It’s a great day out.
Back to Stoke for perhaps the worst curry buffet I’ve ever had but so surreal was the experienced and in such good humour that it may be one of the most enjoyable meals I’ve ever had.
The next day BB and I slept in and then pottered off back to Bristol via lunch at Nandos in Birmingham and a little bit of shopping at the Bullring.
