Alton Towers

Wednesday Sophie and I took Luis Fern and Tia to Alton Towers. We went as a birthday treat to Fern. We went on Wednesday as Fern was still 3 until Friday so she was free (bonus). Soph and I had free adult tickets from a paper so it worked out a really cheap day to what it could of been. It was an early start for us all the alarm went off at 6 but will all the excitement the kids were raring to go. We left the house at around 06:45 and set off. Traffic wasn't to bad well at least not compared to my directions I managed to miss a turning and send us 30 miles out of the way. With that and a petrol stop then another short break we got to the park about 10:20. Straight to monorail that takes you to the park entrance. Kids love it so far. So enter the park grab the map and let the kids plan the day. First place we head for is of course Cbeebies land. Greeted by a lovely lady who welcomes us and we head in. Soph and gang head straight for the tree top tour ride and I hold the buggy and coats. Being a weekday in term time and a rainy day there are barely any queues which is brilliant. So we do a few more rides in the area and then we go to Justin's pie making factory. I have to say that it is just absolutely brilliant. Nevermind it being in a young kids section of a theme park they should have these everywhere for adults. There are hundreds of soft sponge balls and loads of air cannons and various drop sections and traps that fire the balls. I could of stayed in there all day. Did a few more rides then went to the big fun showtime area and watched a performance of Mike the Knight. Who would of guessed it it's Mike's birthday so Fern found that amazing and an absolute highlight at the end she got a photo with Mike and Evie and told him it was her birthday party there so got an extra hug. We went from there to Tree Fu Tom's training area which they again loved and ran around with huge smiles on there faces for a little while. After this we made our way to mutiny bay to get some lunch and find the water rides. I had printed of some vouchers from the Alton towers website but managed to leave them in the car. Kicked myself a few times and thought oh well never mind. As I was in the queue the lady in front of me saw I had a family there and gave me the same voucher I had printed out as she had taken 2 with her as a precaution. What a result! So I got the lunch found a table and saw an army of ducks ready to attack any food dropped or left for the smallest amount of time. Never seen ducks act quite like it. So after escaping the ducks and finishing lunch we made or way to the water rapids. We all laughed until it hurt it was fantastic. I again bring it back to the fact that there was no queue making the day so much better. The queue barriers seemed to go for miles so getting stuck at the end would of been so difficult for the kids. Any way as there were no queues we were able to stay on the ride and go round twice which was awesome. It was a great ride. We had a walk around the area then moved to cloud cuckoo land area. As we got there Soph pointed out the hex ride so I decided to take the 2 oldest kids on that and Soph and Fern went to wobble world. The hex ride was great have a creepy story of an old legend then make your way so seats. A lap bar comes down and get swung backwards and forwards. At the time I genuinely thought you went completely upside and were only held by one lap bar. It was until I looked it up that I found out it was all an illusion. I am a total sucker ha ha. I don't think I'll ruin it for the kids though. The kids did some of the other rides that they wanted to go on before making our our way to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ride. Very cool ride and loved that the characters to me at least seemed to be based on the Quentin Blake drawings. It was a bit much for Fern with all the noise and darkness and at the end there was a simulator of the glass elevator. So 4 out of 5 of us enjoyed the ride. Last stop was the cable cars back to Cbeebies land for one last look around them it was time to leave. I would highly recommend buying one of there unlimited refil cups to keep the tea/coffee/hot chocolate flowing. It was a great help especially when the rain started hammering done. All in all a really real great family day out that I would recommend to everyone. Stuff for all ages to do and most importantly a birthday Fern won't forget for a long time.

10/10/10

It seems crazy that 4 years ago today my beautiful, intelligent wonderful daughter was born. How and where she was born is perhaps a story for another day. She is of course (as all parents think of there own) perfect. Believe me she has been and can be very hardwork but she is so worth it. I still now call her hurricane Fern and all of you that have had the pleasure to meet her can see why and most agree. But hurricane we wouldn't change you for the world. Happy birthday Fernie