On Friday 22nd June 2018 myself and my classmates from Stratford College went to Alton Towers (located in Staffordshire England) to celebrate our graduation from the media production course.
Alton Towers theme park has over 50 rides! The Rides that I went on were: Rita, Galactica, Th13teen, The Smiler, Blade, Oblivion, and Enterprise.
The biggest highlight for me was having enough courage to go on the upside down rides (Galactia, The Smiler and Enterprise). I have never been on any upside down rides in my life and I was always scared to go on one. However, thanks to the encouragement of my classmates as well as persuading myself to just do it I finally went on several upside down rides.
To sum it up, I felt a lot of adrenaline when on the upside down roller coasters and felt happy that I had conquered my fear. My advice to anyone who is worried about going on an upside down ride is to put your worries aside and have enough courage to just get on with it as well as stop doubting yourself. Your approach to upside down roller coasters will change a lot and you will have more confidence to try something new once you have conquered a certain fear!
Below, you will also see my overall thoughts about the rides I went on at Alton Towers too!
The Smiler
The Smiler (opened on 31st May 2013) is one of the world’s first 14 loop rollercoaster and goes at a speed of 85km/hr.
When I went on the ride, there was a long waiting que but it was well worth the wait! This ride is fast and has a lot of loops that will make your body feel weird when coming off this ride.
Overall, I really enjoyed this ride and it’s one of my favourites. Once you are on this ride, the start of it will go fast, you will go through a loop once you reach the end of the tunnel. Your car will then approach a blockbraker that will make you go slowly up, the rest of the ride is swift and has different loops that you will experience (heartline and dive loop).
Galactica
Galactica (previously known as Air which opened on 16th March 2002 and eventually being rebranded on 24th March 2016) is a space themed inverted ride that combines VR (Virtual Reality) to create a new experience for people.
However, when I went onto this ride there were no vr headsets placed onto people. Their might have been a technical problem that caused the staff members to not use the vr headsets. Never the less, I still really enjoyed this ride. Like the Smiler it is very fast and has different loops too.
This ride was memorable for me and became one of my favourites because it was my first ever upside down roller coaster that I went on and made me change my approach to upside down roller coasters. Moreover, I gained a lot of confidence to try other rides at the park.
Oblivion
Oblivion (opened on 14th March 1998) is a vertical 180 degree drop roller coaster and makes riders experience a g force of 4.5.
This ride is terrifying! You are shown three brief videos of an actor called Renny Krupinski who plays a mysterious man who warns of the effects you will experience when on Oblivion.
When you car reaches the drop point it will stop for five seconds to give you a view of the drop. Your car will then drop into a dark tunnel and everything else will go fast.
In my opinion, this ride is one of favourites but is also scary too. The best/worst part of the ride is when you reach the drop point you will ask yourself why you decided to go on this ride as the view of the drop is horrifying. However, once the drop is over the rest of the ride is not so bad.
My Final Thoughts
Overall, I really enjoyed my time at Alton Towers and I would highly recommend to go to the park as it is a great day that will create a lot of memories for you!
I conquered my fear of going on roller coasters, changed my approach to roller coasters and gained a lot of confidence to try something new that will help me when I have new challenges to overcome in the future.
Finally, I really enjoyed spending time with my classmates one last time and I am grateful for everything they have done for me and for them for the past two years during my time on the media production course at Stratford Upon Avon College.
Below, you will see a collection of photos I took on the day when I was at the park.
Sammy Productions 