Alton Towers - Wicker Man

Soldato
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The best wooden coaster I've been on was Stampida in Spain - literally so fast and shaky that a few goes resulted in a headache (and a lost phone). Sounds awful but you literally felt like the whole thing was out of control for 50% of the ride.

Amazing rollercoaster, it is very fast and very out of control. I went on it years ago and have not been on one quite like it since. Dragon Khan was also an amazing ride back then
 
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Pretty sure id rather be on a metal coaster. Things are rarley made from wood anymore for a reason

Must ride types will have a small number of incidents. Remember the Smiler is a metal coaster.

That said, you are more likely to die getting to a theme park than dying on one of their rides.

Same goes with flying. You're more likely to die getting to the airport than your plane doing a 9/11 or an MH-370.
 
Man of Honour
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Amazing rollercoaster, it is very fast and very out of control. I went on it years ago and have not been on one quite like it since. Dragon Khan was also an amazing ride back then
Have been on those - both good! DK is very 90s now with its endless loops. Shambala however is an absolute BEAST. Best ride I’ve ever been on including Orlando parks and Busch Gardens.

I mean, just look at it (blue) next to Dragon Khan (red)!!!! :eek:

9JlPCvD.jpg
 
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Pretty sure id rather be on a metal coaster. Things are rarley made from wood anymore for a reason

The reason, I assume, is that wood is too weak to make things out of now? That’s a short sighted comment. Of course all the stuff made of wood would fail all the time until the invention of steel :rolleyes:
 
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Went towers for the 1st time for nearly 8 years in November and was instantly reminded why I never bothered going 2 hour queung times and after an hour of queung on 2 rides was told the ride was broken down that was nemesis and smiler

End up coming away thinking towers is over rated how peopl want to spend over 50 quid just to be able go on a few rides and spend 90% of their day queung is beyond me
 
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Old school Wooden coasters are great fun. Might drive up there this year then, not been since 2006.

Agreed with the poster above me though.
 
Soldato
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Went towers for the 1st time for nearly 8 years in November and was instantly reminded why I never bothered going 2 hour queung times and after an hour of queung on 2 rides was told the ride was broken down that was nemesis and smiler

End up coming away thinking towers is over rated how peopl want to spend over 50 quid just to be able go on a few rides and spend 90% of their day queung is beyond me

Its going back about 3 years ago now, but I barely queued when I went.

The child pass/swap system was (maybe still is )open to major abuse and if you managed to get your hands on a couple of them (easy as walking into guest services) and you had a few different colored pens with you, you never queued.

They may have changed this loophole now though if the child swap system is different to what I have mentioned.
 
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Anyone see the link to the Season Pass? £55 per person for the year. Excludes some dates but looks good if you only go there a few times during the year.
https://www.altontowers.com/tickets/season-pass/

It's good if you live in Stoke-on-Trent like you do as you live close by. But bit further south it's pointless, I'll end up going once that's it, considering last time I went was 2006 as well.
 
Soldato
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It's good if you live in Stoke-on-Trent like you do as you live close by. But bit further south it's pointless, I'll end up going once that's it, considering last time I went was 2006 as well.

When I lived in the UK I was a Merlin annual pass holder for a number of years.

We are very much a theme park family though and we used to go every other weekend to one of the parks (we lived in Hertfordshire).

Alton Towers was a bit of a ride, but we normally went there and back in a day, and if I got too tired with the drive, we crashed out at a Premier Inn for the night.

Over a year and including Summer Holidays etc we probably went around 30 to 40 individual times.

It was well worth it for us.
 
Soldato
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In response to Jono.

The height and the speed. It's like oblivion but on steroids. I was terrified from that first drop the first 2 times going on it. Even more so than Oblivion. Since we had fast passes we were able to go on multiple times. Once the confidence kicked in and I let my hands go at the top. It was like flying. Amazing ride really.
 
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