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Optimised solo visit

G

guinness

TS Member
Hey all, after almost 15 years I am returning to Towers by myself. I booked midweek in May and have been keeping an eye on the queuetimes website to see crowd attendence and queuing times. I was wondering whether anyone here has any recommendations that would optimise my day there e.g. any ride to start the day with, what time a certain rides queue is the shortest etc.

Since my last visit there, Towers have built Thirteen, Smiler and Wickerman and these are the main reason I'm returning. I also see that these rides typically have waiting times of 30> mins. Would it be better to get at least one of these done ASAP? I also heard X sector is dead in the mornings so could get there and get Smiler and Oblivion out the way.

I also want to ride Nemmy and Curse but I'm not too worried about these as their throughputs seem to around 25 and 5 mins respectively.

Any and all suggestions welcome.
 
There'll be plenty of responses to this with more detail than mine, but if you are going to the park for particular rides, get on them relatively early on is my advice. And then optimise your trip beyond that first goal.

There's nothing worse than a ride going down for the rest of the day and you missing your chance until the next visit.
 
Ryan said:
There'll be plenty of responses to this with more detail than mine, but if you are going to the park for particular rides, get on them relatively early on is my advice. And then optimise your trip beyond that first goal.

There's nothing worse than a ride going down for the rest of the day and you missing your chance until the next visit.
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Great point. I was a little worried to see Curse was down for the entirety of last weekend. I suppose I just have to see how lucky I am on the day.
 
rob666 said:
I suggest starting with one of the few rides that are actually open, and take it from there.
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To reiterate this point, don’t put all your eggs in one basket early on and get let down by a late opening of a coaster. If I’m on the park early enough I like to wander about the gardens before anybody else, it’s so tranquil. From there I can make my way to whatever is open in the valley or dark forest. Quite the walk for some I appreciate that, but it is a glorious start to the day.
 
The Smiler has a single rider queue so you don’t really have to worry too much about that one when you are on a solo visit as it won’t be a such priority for you to hit it at the start of the day. I’d be more inclined to get myself in to the Wicker Man queue for opening.
 
Connor98 said:
To reiterate this point, don’t put all your eggs in one basket early on and get let down by a late opening of a coaster. If I’m on the park early enough I like to wander about the gardens before anybody else, it’s so tranquil. From there I can make my way to whatever is open in the valley or dark forest. Quite the walk for some I appreciate that, but it is a glorious start to the day.
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Brilliant point! Depending on my time of arrival I'd really like the sound of that. Forgot to say in OP that the gardens were another area I wanted to explore.

As far as I was aware the park opened at 10. Does it open earlier and the rides open at 10?
 
guinness said:
Brilliant point! Depending on my time of arrival I'd really like the sound of that. Forgot to say in OP that the gardens were another area I wanted to explore.

As far as I was aware the park opened at 10. Does it open earlier and the rides open at 10?
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It does, I think it’s around 9am for the gates and rides are supposed to open at 10 am but currently it seems they are struggling with that one 😂
 
I did my first ever solo visit last week and whilst I’m by no means a solo visitor expert, I’d recommend starting in Dark Forest. I arrived at the area around 0930 and was on the first Rita train just before 10am. I then did Thirteen, and then Rita again, all within 15 minutes of the rides opening.

I had a really bad experience with the Smiler’s single rider queue which was partly down to the ride going down as I made it into the station so they could add a 3rd train, but even without this delay the queue management was just awful. I felt sorry for the single employee running around trying to juggle 3 merge points on his own.

This aside, I managed 7 rides on my own and a sit down lunch all by 2:30pm on a busy Easter holiday Monday.

I queued about 60 minutes for Nemesis on my own which I really didn’t mind because I wanted to experience the queue line and entire experience.

And I really enjoyed time by myself, doing what I want, when I wanted.
 
guinness said:
Hey all, after almost 15 years I am returning to Towers by myself. I booked midweek in May and have been keeping an eye on the queuetimes website to see crowd attendence and queuing times. I was wondering whether anyone here has any recommendations that would optimise my day there e.g. any ride to start the day with, what time a certain rides queue is the shortest etc.

Since my last visit there, Towers have built Thirteen, Smiler and Wickerman and these are the main reason I'm returning. I also see that these rides typically have waiting times of 30> mins. Would it be better to get at least one of these done ASAP? I also heard X sector is dead in the mornings so could get there and get Smiler and Oblivion out the way.

I also want to ride Nemmy and Curse but I'm not too worried about these as their throughputs seem to around 25 and 5 mins respectively.

Any and all suggestions welcome.
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Youve made a great start haha going in may school time is the best in my experience nice weather no queues everyone is at school. Gets absolutely rammed in June/July once the older years have finished gcses and other exams, have had experience when I went to thorpe myself park was at like 98% capacity or something mental like that.

However the old reliable ride order usually follows

Get there before opening (9-9:30ish)

Go to Forbibben Valley or dark forest
Ride nemesis and Galactica if you chose forbidden valley
Ride Rita and 13 if you chose Dark Forest
As nemesis reborn has opened for 2024 I'd highly suggest starting in Dark Forest first as the queues could be massive for it. You are going in a school day tho so see what they're like!

After that go down to the other area you didnt do
Then its off to X Sector
Ride on Oblivion as it usually is walk on or around 20 mins max
Ride The Smiler (as you're by yourself USE THE SINGLE RIDER QUEUE!!)

Finish up on the Wickerman and Spinball whizzer as these rides are close to the park, they get big queues during the morning.

I have done this technique in August and did extremely well managed like 15 rides or something lol
If any rides are closed when the park opens just avoid it and go to the closest one on the list.
 
Numaticjoe said:
Youve made a great start haha going in may school time is the best in my experience nice weather no queues everyone is at school. Gets absolutely rammed in June/July once the older years have finished gcses and other exams, have had experience when I went to thorpe myself park was at like 98% capacity or something mental like that.

However the old reliable ride order usually follows

Get there before opening (9-9:30ish)

Go to Forbibben Valley or dark forest
Ride nemesis and Galactica if you chose forbidden valley
Ride Rita and 13 if you chose Dark Forest
As nemesis reborn has opened for 2024 I'd highly suggest starting in Dark Forest first as the queues could be massive for it. You are going in a school day tho so see what they're like!

After that go down to the other area you didnt do
Then its off to X Sector
Ride on Oblivion as it usually is walk on or around 20 mins max
Ride The Smiler (as you're by yourself USE THE SINGLE RIDER QUEUE!!)

Finish up on the Wickerman and Spinball whizzer as these rides are close to the park, they get big queues during the morning.

I have done this technique in August and did extremely well managed like 15 rides or something lol
If any rides are closed when the park opens just avoid it and go to the closest one on the list.
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Interesting I did hear that X sector was the place to start but with Smiler having a single rider queue and Oblivion's queue never looking to pass half an hour. Could leave it for later. The 3 rides I've noticed to have the longest queues are Thirteen, Wickerman and Air. I've done Air already but do the other 2 rides have pre shows that cause the longer wait?
 
guinness said:
Interesting I did hear that X sector was the place to start but with Smiler having a single rider queue and Oblivion's queue never looking to pass half an hour. Could leave it for later. The 3 rides I've noticed to have the longest queues are Thirteen, Wickerman and Air. I've done Air already but do the other 2 rides have pre shows that cause the longer wait?
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Thirteen is just low capacity, but Wicker Man isn't far from the park entrance so is busiest around the start and end of the day.
 
Also, is it typical that at least one big won't be open on a weekday? Today it was the Smiler and I observed that one or two rides won't open midweek. (Although Curse wasn't open all weekend)
 
guinness said:
Interesting I did hear that X sector was the place to start but with Smiler having a single rider queue and Oblivion's queue never looking to pass half an hour. Could leave it for later. The 3 rides I've noticed to have the longest queues are Thirteen, Wickerman and Air. I've done Air already but do the other 2 rides have pre shows that cause the longer wait?
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It may work for you to start in X sector, I'm not sure haha the way I said was what I managed to do and that was in August! You'll defo complete both of those rides regardless. Oblivion only ever spikes up if it re opens from a closure, as for 13 I do skip it as it isn't really my thing but it dosen't have a pre show. Wickerman does but you can skip straight past it it is another reason why queues are so large I do reckon tho lol. As for Air (Galactica) it just takes forever to load people up as sometimes the train has to go from sitting to flying a few times before they can dispatch it. It also seems to be very unreliable often closing lots for long periods
 
I think you probably need to start your day in Dark Forest, queues for Rita and Thirteen this season have been miserably bad. Which one you do first will probably depend on which opens first, but if you have a choice I'd jump on Rita before the queue ramps up as chances are it won't come down all day especially if it's on 1 train ops.

Smiler SRQ can be mixed, on busy days it often isn't much quicker than main queue and now it uses bag check it's harder to judge the queue length from outside.

Nemesis and Galactica (when it opens!) should be fine any time on an off-peak day.

Wicker Man or Smiler should be your last ride of the day as the queues move faster after ride close.
 
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