Alton Towers!

On Wednesday, I lost my roller-coaster virginity! Myself, OH and a group of friends made it to Alton Towers and despite my horrific travel sickness and general nerves, I was eager to try out some rides.

As pretty much all of the kids have gone back to school, the place was surprisingly quiet...well, not empty but it was hardly heaving, it was pretty nice, as was the weather! I've sat through 9 weeks of solid rain in my hometown, this day was my whole summer holiday rolled into 6 glorious hours of fun.

We decided to break ourselves in gently with the Runaway Mine Cart. I'm the only one who's truly scared of rides but I want to go to Disney World so badly that OH wouldn't take me unless I went on some rides here. First ride was a doddle, and very fun for such a small coaster.
Then there was the Congo River Rapids. I don't like boats either. These things aren't on tracks or held down in any way, which made me seriously nervous...so why did I go on it twice!? Got soaked, and we tried to pose for a funny picture with the map in the middle.

After we'd gotten that over with, we headed over to Air, the only large ride I was excited to go on. But there was apparently a 45 minute wait, so I was dragged, kicking and screaming over to Nemesis. The thing looks horrible. Not to mention sounds horrible...the roar of the coaster as it flies over your head when you're in the queue was almost enough to bring me to tears. I didn't know whether to have a panic attack or cry...

Luckily I did neither. I got on that coaster, and despite having my eyes closed for the majority of the ride, I did it. That was my first true roller coaster ride, and whilst it was a little too intense for me, it was my first 4 g's at 50mph, and set me up for everything else.

After conquering Nemesis, we headed back to Air. The waiting time still said 45 minutes, but we were on within about 20. It was the best.
I couldn't believe how comfy the seat was, and how comfortable I was with being held face down about a meter off the ground before it took off. I really felt like I was flying! Any ounce of fear in me was long gone, and I even managed to keep my eyes open the whole way around, even flying upside down was a breeze. I will definately ride that one again. I didn't even notice the 3.5G's at 46mph.

After a very short lunch, we headed over to Rita: Queen of Speed. I thought "meh, it'll be a blast" ...I was unpleasantly surprised. I'd misread somewhere that Rita goes at 48mph...not true. Her true speed is closer to 60mph, with a G-Force of 4.7. It was just a little too much for me, and I decided not to try her again.

Between coasters, we sampled the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ride, and Duel: The Haunted House Strikes Back, which I thought was hilarious. The music in there was fantastic and the bad quality of some of the figures in there made it all the creepier!

I think Hex came up next. Again, I was aprehensive because I knew it was a 'pirate ship' type ride, but the theme intrigued me so I had to try it out just once. The backstory and the location really added to the atmosphere, and once we got on the ride and that room started spinning, I didn't know where to look! The room itself is beautiful, and I was so impressed by the way they got my head to spin! Wouldn't be doing it again, but it was great just to see what it was all about.

Another ride I wasn't at first keen on was Thirteen, that new one...I kept seeing the ads for it and worrying that it'd have some sick twist that made it even more terrifying than any other ride in the park, but it was so much fun!
I'd researched it enough to pretty much know everything that happens, but actually riding the thing was great! That first drop is amazing! I'm surprised we only had lap bars it was that steep! The drop in the 'shed' was also unexpectedly further than I'd anticipated, but I couldn't stop laughing the whole time. Definately a fun one for someone new to rollercoasters!

As the day went on, OH and I sat out on Oblivion. We agreed it wasn't much of a rollercoaster, more of a 'thrill' ride, which we're not into. I was here to ride coasters and I could barely handle the speed of Rita horizontally, let alone a vertical drop at a similar speed. Our friends went on it though, and reported that the car tipping over the edge isn't the worst bit - it's the drop. After that it's fine, but there's nothing else to it, so not that great then.

The day was wearing on, and OH and I wanted to get at least one more fun coaster in before our time was up, so we headed over to the Sonic Spinball, previously known as Spinball Whizzer. OH was convincing me it was a kiddie ride, but in the queue, we could see it was something more than that.

Once we were on it, we could see why people were screaming with delight! Very intense for such a small coaster, but so much fun! At the first climb though, OH got a mouthful of flies - I somehow avoided it! But yeah, Sonic Spinball was definately good fun! It is reported online that the ride's sponsorship with Sega will end in 2013 and the ride may be moved somewhere else and rethemed after that. I think regardless of theme, it's a great ride.

After that, we realised the park would be closing soon so the majority of the group quickly headed back for one last go on Rita. I never got my second go on Air unfortunately, and I am still rather gutted I didn't come home with a prized plushie...I will get a Shadow the Hedgehog one of these days >3<

Anyway, that is my recollection of the super-awesome trip to Alton Towers that got me over my fear of rollercoasters! DisneyWorld Florida - Here I come!!!