Last week I went to Alton Towers Resort for the first time in 27 years and had the most incredible day riding rollercoasters back to back.
While Alton Towers is currently lacking in the flat ride department, it excels when it comes to rollercoasters.
Today, I wanted to share how I would rank each of the 10 rollercoaster at Alton Towers from worst to best…
10 | Octonauts Rollercoaster Adventure
I’m going to be completely honest with you; Octonauts Rollercoaster Adventure was closed the day I visited Alton Towers so I haven’t actually rode this coaster.
However, I imagine it would still be last on my list anyway as it’s a Zamperla Junior Coaster designed for families and so I’m not the target audience!
From off-ride it looks very cute and I’m sure it’s the perfect first coaster for many children. And if it’s open next time I visit Alton Towers, I’m sure I’ll ride it. A credit is a credit after all!
9 | Spinball Whizzer
It feels hard to put Spinball Whizzer second to last in my top 10 list. It’s not a bad coaster at all and I did enjoyed riding it. It’s just out of all the rollercoasters at Alton Towers, it’s hard to rate it higher than 9th.
Although the views from the top of the ride across the park are great, I just kept thinking it would have been so much better if it was in the dark like Crush’s Coaster at Disneyland Paris, which is also a Maurer Spinning Coaster.
8 | Oblivion
I honestly feel a little guilty and like I’m going to be hunted down by fellow theme park enthusiasts for putting this Bolliger & Mabillard classic in 8th place!
Don’t get me wrong, the vertical drop is a fantastic element on a rollercoaster and I genuinely felt terrified as we climbed the lift hill. It’s just that’s all the ride is; a vertical drop and back to the station.
I watched a POV from Baron 1898 at Efteling, a dive coaster from B&M that features 2 inversions, and I really do think they should have included at least one inversion on Oblivion to make the ride worth the wait time.
It’s not a bad ride by any means, it’s just not the best at Alton Towers.
7 | Th13teen
Th13teen is a ride with an interesting background. It replaced the iconic Corkscrew, so it had a lot to live up to for Alton Towers fans, and there was a lot of hype around it’s launch, with one press release saying you’d need to sign a waiver of liability to ride it.
While it’s definitely nowhere near as scary as it was hyped up to be, it’s still a good ride.
I had a front row ride, and as I haven’t watched any POVs before hand, the steepness of the first drop genuinely took me by surprise! So it might not have been scary in the way it was intendent to be, it certainly scared me! The free-fall drop and backwards elements were pretty fun too.
So while I don’t think this ride anything special, it was an enjoyable ride and I would definitely ride it again.
6 | Rita
As I’ve just criticised Oblivion for being too short and for not doing anything exciting after the first element, you might be wondering why I’m putting Rita in 6th place given that this ride is also too short (even shorter than Oblivion) and doesn’t do anything after the launch.
However, I do love a launch coaster which is why I’m personally rating it higher than Oblivion. Also, I was lucky enough to get a front row ride and I think this makes the experience even more thrilling.
Yes, it doesn’t do anything after the launch, but the launch is excellent! It does one thing and it does it well!
The theming of Rita is a bit questionable and as an Formula 1 fan, I think it could really suit a F1 theme. But I won’t get my hopes up for that any time soon.
5 | Runaway Mine Train
You might be shocked to see this family coaster so high in my top 10 list.
Honestly, I’m shocked too! But when I look back on my day at Alton Towers and think about when I was having the most fun it was on Runaway Mine Train.
On it’s own, this Mack Powered Coaster is nothing extraordinary. But the atmosphere on the Runaway Mine Train on the day I rode it was fantastic.
We visited the park on a quite day so we had three laps on the ride (I think you normally get 2) but I could have spent all day on there. Everyone was chanting “Choo Choo” as it flew through the station on each lap with the ride operators cheering us on. And everyone clapped when the ride came to a stop.
I’ve never experienced anything like it before but I want more of this I visit a theme park, please and thank you!
4 | Wicker Man
Wicker Man might not look very intense from the outside, and it’s stats might not seem that impressive, but this rollercoaster is amazing!
It’s so fast and the lateral forces are so intense. I found myself stuck to my partner and unable to lift myself back up because of the force the ride was exerting on my body.
I also love that this rollercoaster has a pre-show; something that is pretty rare to find on a coaster. It just helps to build the suspense and to tell the ride’s story.
Wicker Man proves that a coaster doesn’t need any inversions, a launch or a vertical lift hill to make it an incredible and fun ride.
3 | Nemesis Reborn
I was both terrified and excited for my first ride on Nemesis Reborn. I’d heard from others that it was intense but I wasn’t going to let that put me off.
I ended up getting a front-row ride for my first even ride and as we climbed the lift hill I felt genuinely scared. It was my first time on suspended coaster and I had no idea what it was going to feel like going through the inversions with my legs dangling down, especially the loop!
But it was so, so good! I loved Nemesis so much and didn’t find it anywhere near as intense as I was expecting. It’s such a fast, full on ride, and it made my eyes stream (promise I wasn’t crying!).
The original Nemesis opened the year I was born and it must have been mind-blowing to ride a coaster like this 30 years ago.
I never rode the original version of Nemesis so I can’t comment on how the re-track has affected the ride experience. But the new track looks great and I hope this iconic coaster remains in the park for many years to come.
2 | The Smiler
When I wrote my Alton Towers bucket list post before I visited the resort I didn’t have The Smiler on my list as I wasn’t sure if I wanted to ride it or not.
After the accident in 2015, both my partner and I said we would never ride it. But even before that happened, the idea of 14 inversion made my stomach churn. I like inversions, but as someone who suffers with motion sickness, 14 seemed too much for me.
But on the day of our visit, we talked ourselves into it, and before we knew it, we had joined the queue.
And I’m so glad we decided to ride The Smiler because it was incredible, and I’m rating as my second favourite coaster at Alton Towers.
The ride hits you with the first inversion straight out of the station before you’ve even left the building, and that really sets the tone for the ride. After the first lift hill there’s 6 more inversions, before a vertical lift hill and the remaining 7 inversions.
It’s fast, it’s intense, it’s smooth, it has air time and it has (many) inversions. It’s just fantastic!
My only complaint is the ride operator pushed my restraints down far too much and it felt uncomfortably tight on my legs. But other than that, I’m really proud of myself for riding The Smiler and I look forward to re-riding it in the future.
1 | Galactica
My number one rollercoaster at Alton Towers is…Galactica!
I had a feeling I was going to fall in love with this rollercoaster before I even rode it. There is just something very special about this Bolliger & Mabillard flying coaster, formerly known as Air.
And it did not disappoint. The feeling of flying around the track while lying on your front, then being rolled on to your back to look up at the sky, is just incredible. I have never experienced anything like it before. Going head first into a drop or an inversion is strange but so much fun. One moment I was holding onto the restraints for dear life and the next I had my arms out in front of me, feeling like I was actually flying.
It also feels so different depending on where you are on the train. Our first ride of the day was a back row ride, and our other ride was on the second row, and it felt completely different. The hang you get just after the lift hill when you’re at the front of the train is a feeling that can’t be matched!
I’m just so glad I they removed the VR feature that they introduced in 2016 because it just won’t have been the same. And I probably would have threw up as VR and I are not compatible!
Have you been to Alton Towers? What do you think of my ratings? What’s your number one rollercoaster at Alton Towers?
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