Hey guys,

I just wanted to know if there was a specific ride you go on first when entering the park, I personally, get on the skyride to 13 and rita and then move back to nemmy and air and work back to Obliviona and the smiler when the rush is over (as they are near the entrance)

do you have a ride plan that works for you to avoid queues?

Thanks, Danny

I tend to run to the busiest (The Smiler) at the beginning of the day to try and beat most of the queue. I then work my way round the park in one way. Yesterdsy we went to Rita as X Sector was shut, then after Rita the area opened and went straight to The Smiler then did Blivy twice, walked back to Dark Forest doing Hex on the way passed. Then did Thirteen and then walked through the gardens to Forbidden Valley, then did Ripsaw, Air, Nemesis x2, Nemesis Sub Terra. Then walked back to the main entrance through Gloomy Wood and Katanga Canyon. Then went to Eastern Express (although i wanted Mexican Cantina) for dinner then walked to Sonic, but didn't want to queue 25 mins as the day was almost finished so walked back to The Smiler and got in the queue which was 50 mins.

We normally go to X Sector and make our way to Forbidden Valley coz it's very out of the way, unless we go with young uns and then make our way to Forbidden Valley via all the rides in Mutiny Bay, Katanga Canyon and Gloomy Wood. Then go to X Sector via Dark Forest and CCL. As we go often, we dont feel the need to rush to do the coasters all the time.

What we do is go from the entrance over to Katanga Canyon to ride TRMT
then to Gloomy Wood for Duel
and then Nemesis
do all that backwards again
and after that just whatever we feel like

we seem to have a tradition of oblivion always being the first ride. maybe it is a good wake up ride? Whatever you do plan carefully as you could spend a lot of time walking from one end of the park to the other.

Definately straight to x-sector, not neccesarilary straight on Smiler (depending on queue time) but oblivion. Awesome morning adrenaline rush to get your heart racing. Then over to dark forest then forbidden valley. Then what ever....

What I normally do is head for Nemesis during ERT, do that 3 or 4 times then walk to X-Sector, do Oblivion a few times and then join the queue for The Smiler. Once that's done with I head to Dark Forest to do Rita and Thirteen.

Generally it's about 11 o'clock by this point and the only coaster I have left to do is Air so I head back to FV to do that and Nemmy a few more times, then I just wander round going wherever the mood takes me

0900 - Runaway Mine Train, Duel, Nemesis
1000 - Air, Skyride to Dark Forest, Rita, 13
1100 - Cloud Cuckoo Land
1200 - Early lunch (because we've usually left the house at 5:30! )
1230 - Rapids
1300 - Mutiny Bay inc Flume
1400 - Sonic Spinball
1500 - X Sector

Then whatever after that

Usually do Nemesis and maybe one other during ert. We do the Dark Forest during the morning, and try and get there before queues build up. We had back to air at 1ish, usually when everyone else is having lunch, so the queue isn't that big. We leave X Sector till last, usually the queues have died down.

Interesting, it seems quite alot go straight for X sector

Maybe the 13 and rita queues will be quiet then

Or forbidden valley!

9:00 Dark Forest, although neither rides are open for ERT, it means come 10 you will get straight on them both. This is because Air & Nemsis never get queues like these two.
10:30Then get sky ride to Forbidden Valley and do Air, then Nemesis, then any flats you want to do.
11- Duel then RMT. If the weathers nice do Congo too!
11:30 head to mutiny Bay, The Flume, marauders, battle galleons.
12:00 walk along to X sector. The Smiler's queue is usually at its lowest at around 12-1pm as many are eating lunch. Then do Oblivion and enterprise if you wish.
1pm now you can either head to Sonic and have some lunch in that queue, or go back to dark forest and do the loop over again

The usual plan for me is:

ERT Nemesis
ERT RMT
Oblivion
The Smiler
~lunch~
Charlie
TH13TEEN
Rita
Skyride CCL-FV
Air
Nemesis
Duel
Skyride FV-CCL
Hex
Oblivion
The Smiler

Personally I like riding Oblivion or Rita straight off the mark, as they're two of the best rides to wake you up for the day ahead.

Well with my fiance being the only roller coaster fan thanks to single rider queue and me liking a few quieter rides we manage to get a lot of rides done. Not sure what the plan is this year but probably similar to what we did last year but less darting around thanks to an out of action skyride.

Last year we did dark forest first again - fiance isn't fussed about Rita but will go on thirteen again and maybe me he is trying his best to persuade me.
Then we did cloud cuckoo land - charlie & the twirling toadstools
Then we stupidly took the long way (Thanks to the wind stopping the skyride all day) to forbidden valley. He went on air & nemesis. He won't be going on the latter again , he felt sick last time. But he wants to on sub-terra this year.
Then we went on duel like 3 times in a row - so much fun.
Then we did the mine train , rapids and the flume. Flume & RMT we may have done twice at that time.
Then we had a break for lunch around 1. After that we took a break and had a look at the fishies in sharkbait reef.
We then also did something different to the year before and went on the nutty squirrel ride , first time since i was a kid and now with cbeebies land i am so happy i did that and relived my childhood. Obviously that bit won't happen this time.
We then went to x sector and he went on oblivion twice. This year if i can persuade him which i will he will go on the smiler. We finished x sector around 2.30 last year. Would have been quicker but oblivion had issues on his second go.
Then for the last 2.5 hours we went on RMT , the flume and rapid again. Think we got on duel again but not sure. Also around 4 got went on marauders mayhem.

This year will be similar rides. But my plan is to go to the dark forest first again , then follow a circle. Leaving us not too far from duel , rapid etc rides i love and will no doubt re-ride. So cloud cuckoo land , x sector , mutiny bay. Probably a lunch break then & the sharkbait reef again. Then katanga canyon , gloomy wood , forbidden valley. Then will re-ride my faves rapids etc then if we have time which we will have plenty i'm sure i am happy to pop back to air and oblivion again which he likes then maybe another go on a few others depending on time.

We manage to get on tons of rides and have hours to re-ride and still fit in lunch plus all the walking without feeling rushed. Sky ride should be in action as well helping things be quicker.
This is making me more excited now

Hey Guys,

So i am going to Alton Towers on Saturday and I get to go in at 9am. I was wondering where is it best to start before the park gets too busy. Is it best to go on the smiler and oblivion and rita?

Love,
Bex

If you have Early Ride Time,then take advantage of the rides that are available to you from 9am
The link for ERT is below,if you don't know what's available
http://www.altontowers.com/useful-info/early-ride-time/

I would then suggest you head to Forbidden Valley. As this is usually very quiet first thing in the morning.
Then to Gloomy Wood,if you enjoy Duel. There is never a queue for this ride in my latest experiences.
You can then choose to do either Katanga Canyon if you want to do the wet rides,or bob on over to the Dark Forest,for Rita and Th13teen.
I personally would leave The Smiler until lunch time. Usually the queues are at there lowest during lunch time hours.
If the park closing time is 5pm, as long as you are in any queue for a ride at this time,they usually run until the last person in the queue has ridden.
We usually do this with The Smiler at the end of the day too.
Have a great day Bex

We have a tradition of going to Corner Coffee, then Squirrel Nutty/Get Set Go Treetop then RMT. After that we just go on anything with a short queue