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Our Day at Alton Towers

September 5th, 2008

A couple of weeks ago, I reported on the latest offering for visitors to Alton Towers which resulted in the team from Play and Stay being invited up to the resort for a day of fun and laughter (for free, of course). My co-worker and understudy, Jonathan “Big D” Dudley, has just posted his review of the DVD on our blog for you all to read. I, however, am going to report on the events that unfolded on that fateful day, September 2, 2008.

Spinball Whizzer
It all began at 4:00 in the morning when my alarm went off, thus telling me it was time to get up out of my bed. Whilst the darkness and beating rain outside was trying to stop me from leaving said bed, the thought of going to Alton Towers for the day won over.

Armed with a cup of hot tea, the company’s Ford Galaxy and free entry to the park, I set off on my travels to pick up the rest of the team.

By 5:00 am, everyone was onboard and almost awake, so we headed for the M20 and the lovely prospect of a four hour drive to the Midlands.

After a long drive (made ever so much longer by Nathan’s request to listen to the Today Show on Radio 4), we arrived at Alton with no McMuffins in our bellies. It would appear that the M1 is no place for McDonalds.

Oblivion
The first ride we went on was Spinball Whizzer. Although when I say “we”, I actually mean “everyone except me.” I am indeed a chicken and have a real fear of theme park rides. (See entry entitled Family Fun at LEGOLAND Windsor for a little history.) The rest of the team seemed to thoroughly enjoy the ride and Jonathan realised at this point that he really shouldn’t have bothered straightening his hair this morning.

From there, we headed over to X Sector. Of course, there was absolutely no chance I was going on anything here – I was content to take pictures of everything around me. Oblivion did get rave reviews from all who braved it whereas the general consensus of Enterprise was “AAAAARRRGHHHHHH I’m going to fall out!!!!!”

I was allowed to escape a few rides without getting too much stick and I unfortunately used my quota in this section alone. It’s ok, Hex was next. Any of you who have previously ridden Hex will probably agree that this is one confusing ride. After watching a few films on TVs dotted around the various dark rooms and corridors, we were all led into a chamber with two rows of seats facing each other, separated by a cursed branch in the middle. What happened next just didn’t add up. It felt like we were spun all the way around, yet my camera never left my lap. Anyone got any ideas what actually happens in there? Answers on a postcard please…
Riat Queen of Speed

Next up was UG Land; home of Rita and Corkscrew. I chickened out of Rita to much ripping from my comrades and opted to test my wits against the Corkscrew instead. Quite why, I’m not sure. Rita is new, doesn’t involve any massive drops or loops and is relatively safe. Corkscrew on the other hand is old, rickety, and downright horrible. I was stupid enough to sit on the wrong side and felt like I was about to smack my head on the uprights every five seconds. If nothing else, Corkscrew did get the nerves out of me and enabled me to actually start enjoying the rest of the park.
Corkscrew

After a leisurely stroll through the Gardens, we ended up in the Forbidden Valley. I had heard that Air was pretty tame, so I was well up for ride. Some unfortunate soul didn’t agree though and chundered at the end of the ride, just before we were allowed off. Air is definitely exhilarating and thoroughly enjoyable. The best part of the ride is easily when you rotate round so that you are facing the sky. I actually wanted to go again, but our priority passes were only good for one turn each.
Alton Towers Gardens

Next up was Nemesis, the ride I had waited all day for. When I went to Thorpe Park last year, it was easily the best ride there, and this one was supposed to be even faster. After a short wait and an obnoxious employee who didn’t really want to give us priority, we made it on. And WOW, what a ride. Nemesis is still the best around. I’m hoping that one day, when all my hard work as a copywriter pays off, I might actually be able to open my own theme park full of various Nemesis rides. Or even just one really long one that lasts about 10 minutes. Or maybe even both.
Air

Onwards and upwards, we headed round to the the delights of Duel where the ever smug understudy got a high score, almost doubling my own effort. If the Zombie Holocaust that is (apparently) only a matter of years away actually happens, Jonathan is so on my team.

The last ride of the day was the Runaway Mine Train. This is my chance to shine and actually remove my hands from the safety bar for more than one second. The crew operating the ride were great. Ever smiling and chatty, I honestly believe they made the ride what it is.
Nemesis

With Priority Ride Passes in your hand, two things happen:
1) You feel extremely important when you stroll to the front of the queue and
2) You get through the park in a very short amount of time.

Both factors are great and made the day that much better. We started at 11.30 and finished just before 17:00 but then we did miss out all the water rides and the extremely inviting Squirrel Nutty Ride. All that was left to do was go back, grab a shower, and then head down to the bar to discuss the day’s events.
Duel

We were staying at the Alton Towers Hotel which was absolutely amazing and the perfect end to the day. It is only moments away from the park via monorail and comes complete with a bar, a restaurant and Stacey the singer. Splash Landings was also great, but the entertainment was a little too young for my liking. This is where the real difference comes in to play: Alton Towers Hotel is the better choice for couples and families with older children whilst Splash Landings is definitely more for the kids.

The only thing left to say is that the buffet breakfast rocked and that apparently, I am eight years younger at Alton Towers. Thanks Giovanna.

For more great pictures of our day at Alton Towers, check out Play and Stay on Facebook.

YourDay At Alton Towers – Like Big Brother, But Good.

September 4th, 2008

Evolution is a funny old thing; as the world changes, so do the things in it. Eons ago, whales were in fact a type of shore-dwelling canine and we were chattering monkeys who had not yet invented pants, toothbrushes or cheesestrings. Needless to say, times were hard but evolution stepped in and steadily improved things. This is essentially what is going on at Alton Towers.

For as long as I can remember a trip to a theme park usually involved buying several photos of me on an assortment of rides. No doubt many of you have similar pictures in your homes, on your fridges and even on your keyrings. These pictures have remained very similar for over 20 years, but now that’s all about to change thanks to YourDay.

YourDay are offering personalised DVDs of your theme park adventure. By wearing a RFID wristband (RFID = radio-frequency identification, for those of you who care) you can be filmed on eight of Alton Towers’ most popular rides. This footage is spliced together and for a modest price you can take home a DVD of you looking windswept and excited for your friends and family to enjoy. A clever little system I’m sure you’ll agree, but just how good is it?

From a financial point of view it’s a bit of a bargain. You can get all eight of the featured rides on your DVD (providing your wristband got detected on them) for under twenty quid. If you were to buy the photo from each of these rides you’d be looking at over forty quid so that’s a noteworthy saving. Initially I was not convinced you would actually watch your DVD once you got it home. When I returned from my Alton Towers escapades I was proven wrong within the hour. After my girlfriend demanded to see it so she could see a little bit of dribble escape my mouth me looking dignified and thoroughly attractive on Rita: Queen of Speed, the DVD was rapidly passed to my flatmate and his girlfriend.

I think this is really going to be the defining feature of YourDay: you don’t actually watch it yourself. It will probably be mainly used by friends and family to laugh at the silly faces you make when zooming around Spinball Whizzer at a frankly ridiculous pace. As I type this the DVD is doing the rounds at the office, people seem to genuinely enjoy the footage, a victory for YourDay in my opinion.

I’ve written a fair amount about “the footage” and I’m sure you are wondering just what you get for your money. The DVD I received at the end of the day was around 10-15 minutes long. It contained enough footage of me to keep my friends and family chuckling and engrossed and had some very well spliced in stock footage to give the impression we were being filmed by a proper film crew rather than robo-cameras. Truth be told, you only appear on screen for a few minutes of the total running time but that is more than enough for all but the most desperate former reality TV contestants.

If you are truly desperate for maximum on-screen time, I would suggest you ride The Flume, Congo River Rapids, Nemesis, Air, Rita: Queen of Speed, Corkscrew, Oblivion, and Spinball Whizzer.  Wear something garish so you stand out and wave or pout at any camera you see. The DVD of all eight of Yourday’s filmable rides will set you back just under twenty pounds and lasts approximately 20 minutes but rest assured, your friends will thank you.

Overall I would say that a YourDay DVD is a fun and affordable memento of a day at Alton Towers but it’s not a replacement for a good photo. It is best used in conjunction with one or two photos from your favourite rides. The fact the price changes depending on how many rides you choose to add to it is a nice feature. You can choose to take home a DVD of only your favourite ride, the one where your hair looked best, you weren’t green and nobody was sick on or near you. It’s a bit of a shame you can only record your last visit to any ride but that really is the only negative thing I have to say about the whole system.

I strongly suggest that if you’re going to Alton Towers any time soon grab a YourDay wristband. You’ll barely notice you’re wearing it and there is no obligation to buy anything.  Preview the video they make for you at the end of the day and see for yourself. It’s the biggest thing to happen to theme park photography since they started photoshopping extra water into flume pictures.

Wizarding World of Harry Potter Update.

August 26th, 2008

As anyone who has read this blog or spoken to me for over 25 seconds will know, I am very excited about the upcoming Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park. My excitement has now reached a level which forces me to obsessively scour the internet for any news on what is clearly going to be the single happiest, funnest and potteriest place on earth. Today’s fevered clicking has actually uncovered some legitimate news which may be of interest to the general public rather than just me.

Firstly, Universal’s Flying Unicorn coaster is now hidden behind construction walls. Apparently this kid-friendly coaster is being redesigned to fit in with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Considering unicorns in the “potterverse” don’t fly I should imagine that the ride will become a hippogriff or thestral theme coaster. As the coaster is aimed at children a hippogriff seems the more likely choice, thestrals are a bit scary after all.

Elsewhere, Hogwarts itself seems to be well underway. A gargantuan framework has been constructed and speculation is rife as to what will be housed inside. Rumours have been fuelled by patents recently filed in the US. They describe a very exciting interactive dark ride which uses RFID technology to allow guests to cast spells with specially designed wands. These spells will apparently effect the outcome of the ride, very very exciting stuff (and pleasingly similar to my predictions made months ago). Although these patents have been filed that does not necessarily mean that Universal intend to use them, they could well be a red herring but this is doubtful as there is little evidence of any other conflicting patents being filed. Chances are, in my humble opinion, that the interactive RFID wand ride will go ahead, and that is most certainly good news.

Other similar attractions, such as Magiquest in South Carolina allow guests to purchase and customise their wands. This allows guests to have a perfect souvenir of their day and the wands interact with various objects outside of the attraction, a nice touch that I doubt Universal will have failed to notice. The potential for a highly interactive Hogwarts environment is the best news I have heard since they invented crustless bread. The Various applications of the RFID wand are equally awesome. Fans of this blog will have no doubt heard about Alton Towers Resort’s use of RFID bracelets to track and film guests in their park allowing them to create customised movies of guests days out. I would not be surprised if Universal had similar intentions, after all they could have simply used IR or Bluetooth® in the wands design. The use of RFID suggests (to me) something far more impressive than simple point and click interaction.

The RFID wands are not the only exciting new technology being used in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Kuka, the designers of the robotic arms behind Islands of Adventure’s breathtaking The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man simulator have apparently granted exclusivity on the use of their newest and most sophisticated arm to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. This is exciting enough in itself, the Kuka arms really are the Rolls Royce’s of the robotic arm industry. Having personally ridden the Spider-Man simulator several times myself, I can honestly say it is the best simulator I have ever ridden and I’ve been on more than my fair share. We are talking about technology far more advanced than those overpriced space-shuttle simulators you get at upmarket games arcades. Kuka’s arms produce a totally immersive, believable experience when combined with the correct visuals. This impressive technology has been the subject of a great deal of online chatter. Some have suggested that it will be used to create a simulation of Mr. Weasley’s flying Ford Anglia. Others have suggested that it will be used in combination with released and hastily retracted designs for a flying bench type ride which takes guests to a variety of locations from the second novel including the Basilisk’s Lair, Aragog the Acromantula’s nest and the Forbidden Forest.

Needless to say I’m ridiculously excited about the opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Not only will it be a theme park based on my favourite series of books ever, it will also use cutting edge technology thus catering for both my love of all things Potter and my technolust. Patents for a “punch-through waterfall” and “transforming scenery” have only served to further inflame my childlike excitement. See you at the front of the queue sometime in late ’09.

Ahoy There Me Hearties, I Spys Mutiny Ahead!

August 11th, 2008

My RSS feeds and Google Reader is literally awash with news on Mutiny Bay at Alton Towers Resort right now, so I thought it would be rude not to jump on the bandwagon and supply you with a little snippet of information on the area.

This swashbuckling land of pirates is the newest area of Alton Towers and offers guests a wealth of cut throat action and a jolly good soaking to boot. Keeping in tune with the resort’s quest to be the top destination for the whole family, Mutiny Bay offers more light hearted rides than the vicious Oblivion and crazy Corkscrew.

There are three new rides (Battle Galleons, Marauder’s Mayhem and Heave Ho!) and a fantastic new show, Pirates of Mutiny Bay.

With so much to see and do at Alton Towers these days, you really need to make use of the fantastic accommodation available. Alton Towers Hotel and Splash Landings offer the best access to the park, but there are a wealth of hotels near Alton Towers if you’d prefer to leave the park behind at the end of your day.

That’s me for now, i’ll fill you in and supply some new pictures within the next month. We’re off to Alton Towers very shortly….

Alton Towers Offer Movies to Park Visitors

August 7th, 2008

It was only yesterday that I was reporting on the news that Alton Towers were releasing various artwork in the style of a certain Mr Warhol, and yet here I am again unveiling the theme park’s latest franchise: DVDs.

‘YourDay’ is a DVD of… well, your day at the resort. The DVD captures you on various rides around the park and captures the expression on your face as you plunge to your peril on the likes of Oblivion and Nemesis.

Visitors are given an RFID bracelet to wear as they go round the park which tracks them as they walk from ride to ride. The bracelet then registers when they go on one of the major rides and films them.

At the end of the day, visitors hand over their bracelets in exchange for a comprehensive DVD of their day at Alton Towers. Sounds cool huh?

The best thing is that you don’t even have to hand over any cash until you have actually sampled the footage, so customers who fear buying something that doesn’t show them doing anything at all can rest assured that they won’t be wasting money.

Alton Towers are currently the only theme park offering a service like this, but if it proves a success, I’m sure the rest of the parks will follow suit.

I haven’t personally sampled this technology yet, but I am secretly hoping the bosses are reading this and want to send me on an educational trip to Alton Towers Resort VERY SOON. As soon as I have, I will surely update you on how I get on.

Smile, You’re on Camera

August 7th, 2008

The Alton Towers Resort has long been the UK’s number one theme park offering families the ultimate theme park break, but did you know that Alton Towers Resort has branched out into the world of art?

That’s right, Alton Towers Resort are celebrating 80 years of Andy Warhol with the release of eight pictures in the artists cool pop-art style.

“But what has Alton Towers got to do with Warhol?” I hear you ask. Well, the answer is, not that much. But it did give them the chance to make some very interesting (if at times slightly garish) looking pictures, made up entirely of ride images.

The images are the ones that you pay a fiver for when you get off the ride which depict you with either a) a horrified grimace or b) a gleeful smile, depending on how hardcore you are. They have then made a collage from these images and made some really fantastic images of legendary icons throughout the last 80 years.

Britney Spears, Madonna, Jackie O and Liz Taylor are just a handful of stars who have had their faces replaced with ride images and it is claimed that Jonathan Ross, Chris Evans and McFly are actually hidden within the depths of the artwork (magnifying glasses at the ready please folks).

If you have been to Alton Towers Resort lately, there’ s every chance that you too might be lurking within the depths of the images. Drag them to your desktop and zoom in on the images for a better look and who knows, you might be famous too!


Marilyn Monroe


Audrey Hepburn


Britney Spears


Jackie Onasis


Kylie Minogue


Madonna


Liza Minnelli


Liz Taylor

Family Fun at LEGOLAND Windsor

July 7th, 2008

So they say that LEGOLAND is aimed at children aged between three and 12 years old. I am 26 years old and quite clearly out of the targeted age range but I still loved it. But then I feel that I should let you in on a little secret: Roller coasters terrify me. One of my earliest memories was climbing out of a carriage after being on Disney World’s most extreme ride at the time, Space Mountain in floods of tears. The hysteric kind. That’s right, I absolutely hated it and I was damned if I was ever going on another one.

Fast forward ten years and here I am on a school business studies trip to Disneyland Paris. And here is Space Mountain, staring at me and my friends, egging us on and mocking my terror. Of course, at the age of 15, you have to go with the flow and do what everyone else is doing. If not, you face complete mockery and possible disowning from your piers. So I embarked, and soon realised as we began ascending the first lift hill, that I still wasn’t cured of my fear of rides. Needless to say, I chose the constant ripping that I got from my colleagues instead of going back on Space Mountain.

A little more history: In 2007, I started as a copywriter for Holiday Extras and one of their sister companies, Play and Stay. This means I have to have a certain amount of knowledge about what I am writing about and inevitably, after six months my first educational came up. It was only Thorpe Park, the home of the UK’s most extreme roller coasters… “Oh great,” I thought (Well, it’s not exactly what I thought, but I shouldn’t really be swearing whilst writing for work).

Luckily, my companion on the trip was a lovely man, who never once poked fun at me for being scared and was ever so understanding when I told him I didn’t want to go on the Slammer…. pause… NOT! (Have any of you ever met James Carson? He’s the man that was on Graham Norton’s show with the “McBeautiful” chat-up line. His ambition is to go on Channel 4′s Shipwrecked and he is obsessed with munging.) He completely destroyed me and practically forced me to go on every single ride that was likely to leave a brown stain in my underpants. Starting with Stealth, then Colossus, then Rush… Tidal Wave, Slammer, colossus again, X: No Way Out, Nemesis and finally back on Stealth one last time. I have to admit though, as much as I disliked the man for doing this to me, he did cure me of my fears, and enabled me to make the trip to LEGOLAND for my stepson’s fourth birthday. (Oh and did I forget to mention the look on his face after getting off of Nemesis? “That one made me feel a little sick” he quietly whispered in my ear. What a picture.)

But anyway, history lesson over, this blog is about my trip to LEGOLAND Windsor, not about my good friend, Carson. We have a replacement now, anyway. We call him Carson 2.0 and he is much more jovial and forgiving. And he likes Poetry.

So we left home at 8 o’ clock in the morning, hoping to beat the rush hour traffic and get to the park for its opening time of 10 o’ clock. For his birthday, Stan got a Sportacus outfit (The main guy from Lazy Town) complete with hugely annoying sound effects which he insisted on pressing all the way out of town and along the first part of the M20. After a brief stop at our local services to fill up and buy some travel sweets, we continued to make our way along the M20 with the music turned up a little louder than Sportacus in the back.

In between bouts of Lazy Town sound effects, we managed to squeeze in a game of ‘I Spy’ which involved Stanley giving the answer away every time (“I Spy with my little eye, something beginning with car”). We arrived at the park five minutes before it opened and the weather wasn’t looking great for the day. We had already been through a few showers on the way up (“I Spy with my little eye, something beginning with rain”) so we loaded the buggy up with jackets, cagouls and spare shoes just in case. Of course, it turns out that the weather was glorious all day and I actually ended up getting burnt in places.

Joanna is six months pregnant and as a result, was unable to go on many of the rides. This didn’t dampen her day though, she had a great time snapping us on the rides and making various films on her phone. I think the longest we had to queue was half an hour to get on Pirate Falls, so she wasn’t left alone for too long.

One of the best things about many of the rides is the entertainment along the way. There are work stations with literally hundreds of blocks of DUPLO to play with. We had great fun making the world’s longest skateboard ramp while waiting in line for Boating School and The Dragon is decorated with LEGO models of witches and wizards set in the heart of a medieval castle backdrop. These activities and pieces of eye candy are essential when aiming your theme park at the younger audience.

On board the Orient Expedition

Queues are long and boring places to be, and to be completely honest, you spend way more time waiting to go on the ride than you actually spend riding the damn thing. Two things I did notice whilst queuing was 1) how well behaved our little boy was, and b) how grumpy parents get when they are forced to stand in an orderly queue for more than five minutes. So many times, I caught poor kids being threatened with “we’re never coming back” and/or “we’ll be leaving in a minute if you keep that up!” Maybe the creators of LEGOLAND should take note, and provide the adults with something to do while they queue – this way, there would be a lot less arguments and bad tempers.

The rides themselves were absolutely fantastic, if a little too light heart hearted for the more experienced theme park go-er. The Dragon was great fun; the first part (where you slowly navigate through the castle’s tunnels) was a little bit scary for Stan with its flashing lights and loud sound effects but as soon as we got outside and the ride began in earnest, he absolutely loved it. His description to Joanna straight afterwards went something along the lines of “mummy, mummy, we went on a ride up a big hill then down a big hill and round a corner and it went vrrrrooommmmmmm!!!” before looking round at me and saying “can we do it again?” Haha, it was quality, and to be honest, a relief that he enjoyed it so much.

Stan at the wheel

After a bite to eat and a tasty ice cream, we decided to tackle The Dragon’s sidekick, Dragon’s Apprentice. This one went round the short track twice and the little man proudly pronounced that he was “going to scream REALLY LOUD” on this ride. We then navigated round to LEGO City and took part in the Digger Challenge, Boating School, and the fairly tame Orient Expedition. Boating School was great fun. We let him take control of the steering as we happily smashed, crashed and splashed our way around the short track. (Apologies to anyone who we bumped on our way round).

Joanna took him on the slower rides, the carousel and the Digger Challenge. I had, after all, played the proud father figure all day and thought that maybe she was missing out on the fun. So the two of them happily played on the smaller rides while I took the time to check out some shops and grab a ridiculously expensive drink or two.

It’s at this point that I feel Ishould pipe up about the price of the place. We did get our tickets for free (I have just written the copy for the LEGOLAND Holidays redesign) but the cost of food and drink once inside is ludicrous. I definitely recommend packing a picnic and taking advantage of the many grassy areas. We must have paid out more than £40 on drinks and snacks and we didn’t even sit down in a restaurant to eat.

One of the last rides we went on that day was the Dino Dipper. The gentleman who operated this ride (Mike, I think it said on his name tag) was the most cheerful chappy I had met all day and did a fantastic job of getting the crowd going. Was this because it was nearly home time and he knew he was nearly at the end of his shift? No – I genuinely believe this guy loves his job. Shouts of “Do you wanna go faster?” and “have you had enough yet?” came echoing out of the small arena and literally pulled the crowds in. If you are going down to LEGOLAND any time soon, check him out, he really did make the ride that much better.


So the park closed at six, and hoards of people headed towards the park exit. Luckily, the cafe and shops were still open long enough to grab a bite to eat and get a couple of souvenirs from the day’s events. We ended up leaving the park at gone seven and we headed back home to the not-so-sunny Folkestone and the pikey seagulls that live on the roof opposite our house. After obtaining his driving license at Learner Drivers, Stanley proudly declared that he was driving us home and that I was to spend the journey in the boot. If only. He was actually asleep within 5 minutes of leaving the park allowing Mummy and Papa a peaceful journey home with no Sportacus sound effects. Job done.

Would I go again? Definitely. Would I recommend it to friends? Oh yes. Even if I didn’t do this for a job? Even more so. LEGOLAND was great fun and there was so much to see and do there. We didn’t even make it to Land of the Vikings, and we briskly walked through Miniland without stopping to show Stan what Amsterdam looked like. I would definitely recommend getting a two day pass and staying overnight and maybe even hiring a Q-Bot. I think it would take two days just get around and enjoy the full majesty of the park. Everything, and I mean everything is superbly sculpted in the LEGO style and offers something for all ages. My wife and I may be 26 years old, but we got just as much out of LEGOLAND as our four year old boy.

Next up I’m on the hunt for some free Alton Towers tickets, although I will settle for Drayton Manor and Thomas Land. Watch this space…

Haunted Theme Parks – True or False?

April 2nd, 2008

A permanent fixture at all theme and amusement parks is the haunted house. From the largest of multi zone theme parks to the smallest of travelling fairs each is bound to have a haunted house, or some kind of paranormal theme ride. There seems to be something about the extraordinary and unexplained that is intrinsically scary, and its only when we can see that light at the end of the tunnel that that terror becomes an afterthought. Ghosts and the paranormal seem to have a particular influence over people in the UK and the USA. A quick look at Google trends shows the UK leading the way in search volume for the term ‘ghosts’.

Theme parks cashing in on this obsession is quite obvious in the UK, I don’t think you’ll need much of a helping hand to think of any. Vampire at Chessington, X at Thorpe, and the regular Halloween events at Alton Towers are all good examples. While the reason that these rides are popular as ‘scare’ rides is obvious what intrigues me is the people that seem to start to really believe in the paranormal and claim to have had strange experiences while at theme parks. I dug around in Google and YouTube for a bit and found some fairly interesting material. Soldier on if you dare…

So while looking through YouTube I stumbled across a TV program filmed at Alton Towers a while back, ‘Most Haunted – Alton Towers’. The program is part of a series that travels to supposedly haunted locations around the UK and attempts to prove or disprove the claims. The focus of this program is on the Towers themselves at Alton Towers. There have been several claims of ghost sightings and photographs at the Towers over the years and the aim of the program was to try and find out if there was anything behind these rumours. They set about the task in typical fashion, playing up rumours and trying to build the suspense. The program ends with the team spending the night in the Towers. Of course, the footage is all blurred and filmed in near pitch black with night vision. With night vision on everyone just looks wide eyed and terrified the whole time. Personally I didn’t see anything paranormal at all in the program. One of the presenters was allegedly injured during filming but as you couldn’t see anything happen at all I remain extremely skeptical. The program is well put together but really is just the equivalent of a film for providing proof of paranormal activity. What interests me really are the people that really believe this stuff. And of course the best place to find them is online.

A quick Google search found me this gem – Alton Towers Ghost

Alton Towers Ghost

Alton Towers Ghost

This photo interests me as the guy claims;

“I noticed something near the steps, so I zoomed in and immediately saw what appears to be a little boy and i was completely taken aback. Then after looking at the picture more closely, I noticed a very tall man standing next to the little boy.”

I don’t know if its just me but I really can’t see anything in that photo that even closely resembles a person. Just seem to be a rather blotchy photo to me. In typical ghost photo fashion he later says in his blurb;

“Granted, the quality of the picture is very poor as it was taken on my camera phone, and the lighting inside the castle is very poor…”

This almost seems to disqualify the photo before you’ve even seen it, as if to say ‘if you can’t see it it’s just because the quality was bad on the day. It’s there, honest, just a bad photo!” This kind of disclaimer statement seems almost unanimously apparent on all ghost photos that I found. To me it seems that any sighting of a ghost is more in the beholder’s mind that anything. It’s like the people that claim to see the face of Christ in a piece of toast. They want to see it so badly that they make it appear to themselves, despite the lack of real evidence.

Another article I read was about an abandoned theme park at Lake Shawnee in Topeka, Kansas in the USA. The page begins with ridiculous and irrelevant claims of strange things happening, such as;
“Carrillion bells playing, an owl standing in the roadway in broad daylight which took off over my head, the smell of smoke with no fires around, rustlings in the brush behind me as I walked along and a feeling of being watched.”

Quite how any of these things is evidence of the paranormal is beyond me. The rest of the thread seems to be populated by people either making claims to have seen ghosts, or local people rubbishing the idea. You can read it for yourself here.
Apologies for this week’s post turning into a bit of a rant, but I think I have a fairly interesting topic for discussion. I have admittedly gone into looking for paranormal evidence with a distinctly skeptical viewpoint but really what other viewpoint is there to have? Unless these people come back with some real evidence I for one will continue to disbelieve all of it. Perhaps some of you have had a paranormal experience and want to share it? We’re always open for debate here at Play and Stay so let us know!

Big Savings! Play and Stay Special Offers for May

April 30th, 2007

Take a look at our special offers bursting out from the Play and Stay treasure chest this Spring. First of all there’s the brilliant Thorpe Park and Chessington World of Adventures double offer – get park entrance tickets to both parks and hotel stay from just £199 for a family of four! If that wasn’t enough then we’re also giving vouchers for kids to eat free at Chessington. You can get a voucher redeemable for 2 child’s meals up to the value of £2.49 per child with every adult meal purchased.

Then there’s our spectacular savings to be had at LEGOLAND® Windsor, where kids can go free! You can now get a LEGOLAND Windsor break from just £94 for a family of four if you book before the 31st May. This fantastic special offer includes 2 day theme park entrance, an overnight hotel stay and breakfast – all from just £94 for a family of 2 adults and 2 children. Compared to normal gate prices kids do go completely free!

Also be sure to check out our Spring sale of Tussaud’s theme parks. In May we’ll be cutting our prices even further by offering £10 savings for families of four at Alton Towers, Chessington and Thorpe Park. Head to Play and Stay for more details and incredible savings!

Colossus at Thorpe Park

This guy can’t believe how good our offers are!

Disneyland Resort Paris vs. UK Theme Parks: Theming and Thrills

February 28th, 2007

It might seem like a slightly unfair contest, with Disneyland® Resort Paris competing against around 30 UK theme parks, but the question is – do any of them come close?

Disneyland Resort Paris is one of Europe’s top tourist destinations, with many of people on the internet touting it as ‘the number one’ (although how you arrive at such a conclusion is quite mind boggling to me – I don’t think it can really be compared to Ancient ruins in Athens or Rome for example). It consistently has over 12 million visitors a year, from many European countries, and its close proximity to Britain means British people make up a decent proportion of these. Meanwhile, if you think that Britain’s top theme park, Alton Towers , handles 2.5 million visitors per year, it is clear that Disneyland Resort Paris is quite a behemoth, and one that is very close to home. It’s not difficult to see how Disneyland Resort Paris can attract so many British people if we consider the travel options: the resort is only a 3 hour train journey from London, and it can often take a similar amount of time to reach British theme parks. For me, it would take around 5 hours by train to reach Alton Towers!

Disneyland Magic

Marketing, and worldwide fame, obviously account for much of Disneyland Resort Paris’ popularity. The opportunity for families to take their children to a theme park where they can meet some of the world’s most famous cartoon characters, and visit scenes from their favourite films, puts the magic in the Disneyland experience. The scenery is truly fantastic, and an obvious reason why the park was given an initial budget of $2.6 billion. Creating a whole ‘mountain’ for the course of one ride, in the case of Big thunder Mountain , or building a huge Cinderella’s Castle as a centre piece for the park (which actually doesn’t have all that much in it), is the clear evidence of the immensity of the Disney project, and something to which few British theme parks can compete.

Disneyland and Thrill Rides

It has often been noted that Disneyland Resort Paris has little for thrill seekers. This was true at its opening back in 1992 (when I was fortunate to be amongst the park’s first guests at seven years old), and Big thunder Mountain was subject to massive queues. Now though there are two further roller coasters at the Disneyland Park with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril and Space Mountain: Mission 2. Both of these feature inversions, although the verdict seems to be out on them on most internet forums. Other than these two there has also been the addition of the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster at Walt Disney Studios Park, bringing the resort’s repertoire of thrilling roller coasters up to four – not bad, especially as the number of roller coasters with inversions matches ‘Britain’s most thrilling park’, Thorpe Park.

Other than that collection of roller coasters, however, Disneyland Resort Paris has little else in the way of thrills. Star Tours is a fun and family orientated flight simulator, again with brilliant theming. But what else is there to satisfy adrenalin junkies? Not a lot, as I’m sure you’ll discover if you go.

The British Competition

Alton Towers, Thorpe park and Drayton Manor all have a repertoire of intense thrill rides that easily surpass Disneyland Resort Paris. Not only that, but some of them are also placed within excellent scenery. Nemesis has to be one of the most impressive looking roller coasters in the world, with the track running around an alien creature that has come from underground, surrounded by rivers of blood. Even the sparse settings of Oblivion, fitting in with other ‘futuristic’ rides within the X-Sector area, seem to feel right.

Chessington World of Adventures has often won fans through the fine surroundings of the Vampire or the ancient buildings within the Forbidden Kingdom, and such an approach is very favourable with younger visitors, as Disneyland Resort Paris so well knows. However, it is difficult for all British theme parks to follow this route. Restrictions of budget and space make it difficult for anything but flagship rides to be placed in a fitting setting that is very good on the eye. Disney, in this respect is the magnum opus of European, and indeed worldwide, theme parks.

Conclusion

What are the conclusion to this blog then? Simply, Disneyland Resort Paris has a great diversity of rides, with decent roller coasters and family rides, but its theming is an incredibly important factor of the rides. For a young child, the imagination really can run free at this massive theme park, and this explains why it is such a popular family small break destination. Certain British theme parks do have good ride theming, but it can’t really been compared to Disneyland; have a look at Pirates of the Caribbean, for instance, then see which British rides come close (Valhalla at Pleasure Beach is pretty good, but it doesn’t feature animatronics). Disneyland does falter when it comes up against the best thrill rides in the the UK, and it has nothing like a Rameses Revenge or a Samurai. I’m not saying you should choose one theme park over the other, because they all have their benefits, and budget and traveling distance are two of the most important factors in selecting a theme park break. But if you ever want to make the trip onto the continent to Disneyland Resort Paris then don’t go specifically for thrills (you’ll find much better at home) but go for the reason that children will truly be amazed by the scenery and that it’s an almost perfect place for family magic.

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