Friday 20th July is a date we had been looking forward to. I personally had been praying for good weather for weeks now as it is our trip to Alton Towers and we’d been planning it for months. The day arrived and it was lovely and the weekend forecast was great – my praying worked then!
We all made our own way there, ready to meet in the bar of our hotel in the evening. This gave us the chance to meet other families and catch up with those we may not have seen for a while. We all met in the bar and I gave out welcome letters, car stickers, theme park tickets and water park tickets for those who purchased these separately. It was a good night and we all enjoyed chatting to one another which was the aim of the trip. Although we could not all sit together, as our group was large, the children enjoyed playing together and most families sat in groups with others.
One family who stayed commented “having the opportunity to stay over has meant that we have been able to meet other families in a similar situation to ours and has given both us as parents the chance to talk about how we cope but has given our kids the chance to mix with children in the same situation as they are often a bit outcast.”
Saturday was an early start. As we were staying at the hotel we could get in the park early. It was nice to see the families at breakfast and then we split up for the day at the theme park. I left the day visitors tickets at the hotel reception and headed off for the park. I wasn’t looking forward to our first ride “Oblivion” as I’d woken up that morning with a headache and didn’t want it to get worse. However, we all loved the ride and my headache was gone! Well now it was time to hit all the other big rides for the big kids and some of the smaller ones for the little children.
A few of us decided to meet for lunch so we said whoever arrives first should try to get seats for the 14 of us. When we got to the meeting place a few other families wanted to join us so then we moved even more benches together to fit us all in. Talk about taking over the place, you could see people looking. After the lunch and show I asked the characters to come and have pictures taken with our group and they obliged.
The day was one of the few hot days that we were lucky enough to get this summer which meant that there was no need to worry about the children becoming cold after riding the Log Flume and Rapids, which turned out to be a very popular choice. Youngster Grace Cartwright, aged 7, was so excited about her first ever trip to Alton Tower as it was the first time she has ever been tall enough to go on many of the roller coasters – much to her Granddad’s delight who got to ride with her. When asked what kind of day she was having Grace replied “Awesome, can you ask Val if we can come again when I am a bit bigger”.
Now back to the park for round two. While there we bumped into a few of our day visitors and we all had a fabulous day, shame it closed at 6pm. Those that purchased water park tickets said they greatly enjoyed it too, so much to do and so many rides to go on. As the day drew to an end there are always ones who just want one more quick go and for Jason and Michael Casey and Aaron and Thomas Mawdsley–Welsh that ride would be “Sonic” – a roller coaster with a difference as not only do you get the trills of a regular coaster you also get to be spun around at the same time – not for the faint hearted.
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