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Trip Report - Loopathon 2009 - Alton Towers & Drayton Manor
Club members started arriving early at Alton Towers in readiness for the start of the Loopathon trip. Instead of the walk from the car park to the entrance we were treated to a monorail ride. Having arrived and got our RCCGB wristband we entered the park and headed over to X-Sector to Oblivion for our first ERS of the day. We all had a few goes on here before heading over to Ug Land to Rita for a combined ERS with the hotel guests. We could
see the construction of the new coaster taking place where the Corkscrew used to stand. This is due to open early next year. After a couple of goes on Rita members split up into their groups and headed off to explore different parts of the park. Unfortunately the cable cars were not running due to another station fire, this time the Ug Land station so it was off on foot to Forbidden Valley for a ride on the old girl, Nemesis. We explored more of the park before heading over to lunch. The club had use of the hospitality suite for the day and enjoyed their lunch there. The merchandise team were handing out raffle tickets as one lucky member could win the cost of their club shopping! After the lunch the draw took place and Nev handed the cash to the winners daughter.
After the draw we got the club's first timers together for a group photo before heading into our groups to explore the rest of the park. We went over to Hex, joined the queue only for a power-cut just before entering the ride. It was quite funny as the battery backup tannoy assured riders they weren't stuck upside down! The ride was evacuated and we all had to endure the rain! It turned out the whole park suffered the power failure which lasted about half an hour.
We waited in the area until the power was restored and eventually got on hex. We then headed to X-Sector and rode Submission before heading back to Forbidden Valley for a go on Air & Ripsaw. After the riding it was back to the hospitality suite while the park emptied and we were led over to Nemesis for our ERS on our favourite Alton Towers coaster, Nemesis. We started our ERS during daylight and ended it with some dark rides! We were then escorted back to the entrance where the park had laid on the monorail for the short journey back to the car park. Then it was off to our B&B's, some of us stayed in Alton and some of us moved down to Tamworth.
Day 2 of Loopathon started when we met up at 9AM for tea and coffee at Drayton Manor. It was good to see more members on their first club trip so their photo was taken. We were issued with our tickets and then headed into the park for our first ERS in glorious sunshine on Apocalypse. This was followed by a takeover on Maelstrom when we took over 3 rides. Then some of us headed over to the stand-up coaster Shockwave. Everyone enjoyed a group lunch which has become a club favourite with some
After lunch Colin Bryan, the park's owner took us through the last 12 months of Drayton Manor which has bucked the trend and had positive attendances through this difficult economic time. We tried to persuade him to put in a woodie and be the first park in England to do so in many years. He the posed for a photo with Nev and pointed to the logo on his shirt, "got wood?". It was back into the park to enjoy the rest of their rides, The Buffalo Coaster, Troublesome Trucks Runaway Coaster, The Rapids and more. Some members visited their Zoo and got a ride back into the park on Thomas!
members very eager in being first in the queue! After riding and the public had left it was our last ERS of the day, the last ERS of the season on G Force. This was enjoyed by everyone and although the clouds were black we had a rain free day. The ERS was followed by us gathering in a large circle and having fun attempting the Hokey Cokey. Nev then invited some of the new members into the centre of the circle. They didn't know what was coming, you guessed it, GROUP HUG!! and that was it, another great trip over, and another season over. Some members are meeting up in Las Vegas next month, for the rest of us we await the first club trip of 2010 to Alton Towers to celebrate the opening of their new ride.Below are some of the pictures from the trip. There are 60 in total, and if you use the slideshow feature, you will see all of them that are not thumbnailed below!
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| Oblivion ERS | Rita combined ERS with the hotel guests | Nemesis | A member is about to get their shopping paid | Members in the hospitality suite |
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| Members on their first club trip | Submission | Ripsaw | Nemesis ERS | Nemesis ERS |
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| Members on their first club trip | Apocalypse ERS | Apocalypse ERS | Maelstrom Takeover | Maelstrom Takeover |
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| Shockwave | Shockwave | G Force ERS | G Force ERS | End of Season Hokey Cokey |
