The Park
Alton Towers is probably the U.K.'s leading theme park, and comes under the media spotlight often, for both praising and criticism. I visited the park last summer, on what the park classed to be a mediocre crowd day, despite this, after speaking to one of the staff, I learned that the park was still expecting over 20 000 people to pass through it's gates! To make the most of my day, I pre booked my ticket, allowing me to enter the park 45 mins early, when only the Oblivion and Nemesis are open. As with all things, there was a catch, the transport systems weren't working, so you have to make the long hike to the two main attractions, which are separated by about a mile and a half walk across a valley!. Due to this, I would recommend that you choose to ride just one of the rides in this 45mins, and ride it as many times as you can bare. On my visit, I made the mistake of not doing this, resulting in me and my friend walking for about 15mins trying to reach the oblivion after riding the nemesis 5 times, and when we arrived there, the park had fully opened and the main crowds were flooding towards the ride, the queue not being helped by a "technical fault". Alton Towers is one of the few, if not the only, theme park to operate a system called "Virtual Queuing", where by you take a ticket for a busy ride, and come back when it is your time, thus leaving you free to discover the less popular attractions. However, Alton Towers only operates this system on what they call "Busy Days", remembering that the day I went was classed as a mediocre day. The transport systems within the park are v.good, there are cable cars with three stations around the park. The only downside to these cable cars is that they have speakers in them through which the tedious Alton Towers tune is played constantly, creating a somewhat torture chamber effect (see below for link to the "music"). Also there is a monorail to take you from the main car park to the park entrance, which saves valuable time and energy, both of which you will most likely find yourself short of at the end.
The Rides
Nemesis
The nemesis is the roller coaster which the park was originally based around, but don't be fooled by it's seemingly unapparent age. The train itself is made up of blocks of seats that are four seats wide. Your legs dangly freely form the train, adding to the excitement of the coaster. The front seat is the best place to sit, as you can see what is coming up, on the other seats, you can only see the back of the seat in front of you, however this does not stop them taking a photo of you to make you part with even more cash. Beware, to sit in this front seat you have to wait in a separate queue, adding immensely to your queuing time. When you depart the station, you are pulled up a reasonably high hill, and the dropped into an intense G-Force void. The ride claims to put you through the same G-Force as a NASA astronaught at take off, but somehow I think that this is slightly exaggerated, as I found the ride to be not so intense as it was made to sound. The ride goes through several corkscrews and an "interesting" loop, as well as a high G curve. All in all, I would say that the Nemesis has stood the test of time well, and is a very good roller coaster, which if you do visit the park, then it is probably a must.
Oblivion
This ride is one of Alton Tower's more recent additions, a roller coaster on which you stand up and are plummeted into a giant hole in the ground. If that doesn't sound too impressive to you, then that it because it really isn't. the ride only has the one feature; that drop, then that is it, no other twists or turns or anything, a bit of a let down after anything up to two hours wait. the only good excitement building part of the ride is when you are halted halfway over the top of the drop, and you hear the famous words "don't look down" To sum the ride up, I would say that it has potential to be a good ride, but it seems to me as if the designers rushed it or ran out of money (unlikely for Alton Towers, as the day that I was there they would have taken around £400 000 on ticket sales alone!).
The Ripsaw
This ride is, in my opinion a surprisingly good one. At first viewing, it looks ultra intense, but once you have built up the courage to ride it, you soon find out that it is anything but. The only pitfall is that it wouldn't be a good idea to ride it on colder days, as, depending on your ride operator you are most likely to get soaked through to the skin. And believe me I really do mean soaked, even in the sun I took two hours to dry out to a more comfortably condition. However, this soaking can be, as in my case a welcome refreshing experience on hot summers days. another good point about this ride is that it has a very large capacity, making the queues pass quickly, on my visit I never had to queue for more than 20 mins for this ride.