My school took us to "Alton Towers" which is a British theme park, for the day. I had never gone before but the people who had were planning out routes on the bus. The actual theme park is pretty good: the rides and stuff is all spread out so it's not crowded but also really easy to get lost.
Speaking of which...
I was in a group of 5 (you had to be in a group of 3 or more to walk around) and I needed the toilet but the rest of the group kept walking the opposite direction as it was guided by my friend. They were very sympathetic and whenever I asked if we could go down another road so I could pee they would say, word for word: "L, that's your problem." So I ditched my original group and eventually got lost. The place was massive and I didn't have a map on me, so I called the emergency number and had to drag one of the teachers from a queue for a ride to come find me. Luckily only the chill teachers came on the trip so he didn't seem to care. I was regrouped with one of my friends that I didn't know that well, and his friends who I sorta knew but not really.
Oh and I ate oatcakes with margarine on for lunch (because oatcakes is pretty much compressed porridge: it tastes of literally nothing).
In my new group of 7 people (including me) 3 had this "fastpass thing" because of sensory overloads in large crowds or something. It worked for 1 ride which was the minecart train that explained my anxiety in a nutshell: you think it's fine, it speeds up and turns, it slows down, it speeds up, it goes into a tunnel where the rafts from the water ride are along side you, it slows down and then it repeats itself. Aparently that isn't even the most intense ride there is; "the smiler" is a literal corkscrew with a 3 hour wait in line. Me and my friend Nico went into the gift shop after and bought a pick n mix tub together and I spent half of my money on this Minecraft poster that was £6 (everything is expensive there). I mean it looks cool but it keeps falling off my wall despite me using industrial tape. After we left the shop 2 girls asked us to go find 2 people that were missing from out group.
Long story short: we got distracted at this haunted house and I lost a bet so i had to slap one of my friends in the face (sorry @Yuosyo.) Then we got separated from the rest of the group and it was just Nico and I. Without fastpasses. :(
In total I went on 4 rides:
- Minecart train one
- raft thing on a river
- haunted house where you shoot ghosts and other rider's eyes
- the cable cars
- this traumatising rocking ship called "the blade" where the people at the very edge were pretty much horizontal at some points (I was at the edge because there wasn't any free spaces left and it literally felt like someone was pulling my heart out with tweezers. I'm surprised I didn't get a heart attack.) And he called me a pussy after, which I mean fair
There was an event with the Teletubbies in Cebebbies land* at 14:30 and I wanted to go see it. Plus it was near the entrance where the meet up point at 15:00 was. Problem was I didn't have the map app on my phone because it's too old, Nico forgot his phone at home, nobody prints maps anymore and we both had no idea where we were going so we ended going 'round in loops for about an hour before asking 2 staff members for directions. Just imagine you're a shop owner and 2 teenagers, one in a hoodie and yoga trousers, and the other looking like he came straight out of 2005 m MySpace, asking for directions to an attraction designed for 4 year olds. I'm impressed they both kept such a straight face.
We eventually found the place with 15 minuets to spare. We couldn't go on any of the rides though because the waiting time would be too long, but for proof here's a picture I took to prove that I went:
We met up at 15:00 and at that exact moment it started bucketing it down with rain. I didn't have my coat with me and there wasn't that much shelter so if you didn't have a umbrella with you then you were screwed. We got into the coach and idk what happened after that as I was asleep.
So yea that's the time I went to Alton Towers on a school trip. 10/10 would recommend
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*Cebebbies is a TV channel aimed at nursery school/preschool children and is a version of the well known BBC.
Also here's a picture of the blade (I swear it goes higher then this):
Imagine the drop from the top of that yellow thing going very fast while some other roller coaster is zooming by with people screaming left and right. Thanks a lot Nico I owe you one.
