Tag Archive for 'alton-towers'
Not content with controlling a large portion of Staffordshire’s tourist dollars, Alton Towers are now looking to control the weather too. Apparently they’re looking at a technique originally developed in Communist Russia that aims to prevent it raining.
Rain-seeding involves firing silver iodide into clouds in a bid to make them empty over an unimportant area (Stafford? ;-)).
In addition to Russia, China is a big fan of the process and are due to use it to ensure a dry and pollution free Olympic Games in Beijing next summer.
However, I doubt residents of Stoke-on-Trent will be so excited when their town gets turned into Soak-on-Trent.
Over the weekend I journeyed up to Staffordshire to watch Alton Towers’ fireworks display on Saturday with Tom. It turned out to be a fantastic unofficial unplanned meet-up: we bumped into Tom B just after we got into the car park, then saw half the ECC before meeting Paul O in the Valley for a couple of quick rides on Nemesis (where we found James L). Yep, it was that kind of see-everyone-you’ve-ever-met-or-heard-about kind of day. All that was before we went to the Tavern and said hello to Chris S and most of the Rideas team.
The park was extremely busy throughout the day, with queuetimes getting ridiculous by the end of the morning (Nemesis & Air 120+mins, Rita 160!). Luckily James had been able to get us reservations at Cariba Creek, so we had a break away from the mayhem. Thanks must go to James who guided us around - without my glasses on I couldn’t read any of the signs so would probably still be trying to find the way out!
We were back on park by late afternoon in time for the fireworks. Following all the noise problems Alton have been facing, there was a real possibility up until only a couple of weeks ago that the event may not have gone ahead, and it was definitely “toned down” compared to previous years.
The show, with the cheesey title “Rocket All Over the World”, featured the return of Dr Pop Rocket using Rita to visit several countries. While on the outside the show seemed to be an over-the-top marketing vehicle for the coaster, peeling away the layers revealed something else going on.
Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now featured in the warm-up music, which gave a clue to what the display was really about. Similar to last year, at the supposed end of the show a message came up on the screen: “Do you want some more?”, then “Are you sure?”. This year though, this was followed by “Keep the noise down!!”. The theme from Live and Let Die was accompanied by lights, lasers, flames and a couple of ground-shaking fireworks. So much for the noise order, and a great way to stick a couple of fingers up in the direction of you know who.
After the show finished they played Elton John’s Rocket Man (not quite as bleak as This Train Don’t Stop There Anymore but I think we get the point). And I think it’s gonna be a long long time before Alton can pull off another full on fireworks display, but what a way to go out!
Rounding off the evening, we managed to squeeze in dark rides on Nemesis, Air and Rita.
If Alton somehow manage to find a solution to the fireworks problem and put on a display next year, I’ve got a few suggestions for alternative Elton John numbers to replace Rocket Man: Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting), Someone Saved My Life Tonight, I’m Still Standing, Can You Feel The Love Tonight? or of course The Bitch Is Back. Good night, Mr & Mrs R: don’t have nightmares.
I’ve just finished getting together my photos from the ECC Airpocalypse Weekend.
The whole weekend was superb - a great opportunity to ride some world-class rides, meet some new people and say hello to all the familiar faces.
After a hiccup at the gate down the woodland walk (someone forgot the key) which meant we missed most of our ERS on Nemesis, Alton Towers went all-out to make it up and treated us very well on Saturday.
We had a nice lunch in the hospitality marquee, which also featured a chance to see the BBC Inside Out documentary which has been made about a few of the club members this year. It was also announced that, to say sorry for the morning, Alton were giving us a half hour ERS on Spinball Whizzer at the end of the day.
Disaster almost struck when Rita - our real evening ERS coaster - went down towards the end of the day. Alton’s team did everything possible to ensure it was back up and running for us, and even let us into the machine room to see the behind-the-scenes mechanics of the ride. It turned out that, not only were we the first group to privately ride Rita, but we were also the first people to ever ride her in the dark.
To top off the day, Alton even laid on a couple of shuttle buses to return us back to the car park, saving us that long plod back on foot.
Sunday was the day I’d been dreading - it played host to the morning ERS on Drayton Manor’s Apocalypse. I’m no big fan of drop towers let alone 180ft ones, so this was going to be a challenge.
Thankfully, everybody made it easy for me, telling me that I didn’t have to ride it if I didn’t want to.
Over coffee, it was announced that there would be a special “Apocalypse Virgin’s Ride” as the first ride of the day. B*&@#�ds - I’m never gonna forgive you.
Somehow, I was gently persuaded (read: physical manhandled) into riding not just the sit-down, but also the stand-up side. Fellow Apocalypse-virgin-compadre Richard SC and I decided that we might as well complete the set (mad? us?) and rode the “terrifying” stand-up floorless side too - we even got Richard B to join us. Stand-up proved way scarier.
Lunch was outstanding: a full three-course meal including a full Sunday roast. Park MD Colin Bryan was on hand to give us an update on the park and answer questions.
Our evening ERS was on G-Force, Drayton’s new coaster for 2005. It’s a great little coaster which does a lot in its compact size, but it has an annoying problem with its restraints: they get progressively tighter throughout the ride, leaving it difficult to breathe by the end (or maybe that was just all the running around the queueline and up the stairs for an hour!)
Another brilliant ECC trip - can’t wait for Yorkshire in two weeks!
I spent a spectacular couple of days at Alton Towers and Drayton Manor with the ECC last weekend. Photos and trip reports should be online sometime over the next few days.
In the meantime, I’d like to say that if you see any pictures with a person looking like me in them - its not me, especially if they’re doing something very silly!
Update: Photos and some trip remarks now online
A few weeks ago Thorpe generated huge speculation when they added an extra week of opening on the Opening Times page on their website, changing the end of the season from October 31st to November 6th.
A little while later the extra week disappeared, leaving the final Fright Nite as the last day of the season. Understandably, people thought the extra week had either been a mistake or something to do with the Alton court case (potentially Thorpe could have been an alternative fireworks venue).
Something very odd is going on, because now the extra week is back. No mention of anything special happening that week, and with Alton announcing their Fireworks event was going ahead yesterday, I’m baffled. According to their websites, Alton and Chessington are both closing on October 30th.
What’s going on? Somebody uploading the wrong web page, or something more interesting??
Alton Towers Almanac is reporting the news that many people have been eagerly awaiting (well, I have anyway): details of Alton’s end of season events.
The park will be holding their annual fireworks display over three nights at the end of October, but their Halloween events will be taking a year off.
This announcement comes on the back of news that their long running court battle against the Ropers has been adjourned until mid-October.
Whether or not they’ll be back next year, at least this year’s fireworks are now going ahead. Guess this means another trip up to Staffordshire… ![[:D]](images/smile/smile4.gif)