Alton Towers – It’s Autumn!

My first of FIVE days at my favourite resort this coming autumn; and this one is a two dayer so I’ll cover each day separately.

It’s an overnight hotel stay for this one so I put out a general invite for the spare beds (2 of, as it’s a family room with a double bed and a pair of bunks and I ALWAYS have the double bed!). I didn’t have much luck though as a few of the guys are in the USA so it was just me and Tom. So we decided to have one day together, and then split up and do our own thing for the second day.

Day 1 involved me collecting him at 8 from the Norton Pub carpark and then heading over to the towers. I was booked onto The Wicker Man climb (which will be a separate blog post) but we had a full and exciting day booked in the towers before then, including experiencing the new single rider queues on Th13teen and Spinball.

Thanks to a very clear run over and a premium parking pass (courtesy of my VIP climb experience) we arrived at the park just after 9 and in plenty of time for me to sort out my photo pass (which was now no longer working thanks to my new phone). Time for a quick coffee and then down to X Sector.

Smiler was delayed starting so we got a few rides in on Oblivion (I’ve climbed that!) until Smiler did finally open, and the of course, it would be rude not to… Thrice!

The weather stayed absolutely glorious throughout the day and with the park open till 5 we managed loads of rides. Finally ending on Wicker Man – which was our intended final destination (no pun intended).

Bob looked absolutely resplendent in the golden light.

I was about to be one of The Chosen! I couldn’t wait!

I’ll put the climb into a separate post, but that evening afterwards we headed down to The Rollercoaster Restaurant for Tom’s first time seeing it. It is a great experience, and for once the food was actually really hot and nice. I’ve had hit and miss experiences there so far.

Anyhow, for those of you who subscribe; here’s the full photos after the shock horror free paywall (would that be a free wall, technically?) and to be honest all you have to do is subscribe to see around 75% of my bonus content totally free gratis!).