The night before the huge opening day, a VIP preview was hosted by the vice president of Alton Towers, Bianca Sammut. As we entered, we were met by a group of three scientists who were handing out cocktails and juices inside a relatively large room with smoke machines and heavy green lighting. Two Phalanx guards ,the notorious keepers of the Nemesis creature, stood side by side, preventing anyone from entering the main room as they finished setting up. When they parted and let everyone through, we were met with a small staircase leading into a huge conference room with a buffet, bar, seating and a huge screen showing the extraction of the Nemesis creature's saliva.
Once all the VIP guests had eaten, a presentation was held, telling you about Toxicator and the history of Alton Towers - 45 years old this year! After, a surprising alarm rang out, all the actors shouted and told everyone there was a malfunction. Then, we were briefed and taken down to the park to witness Toxicator first hand.
Onto the ride itself, the queue’s theming is generally quite bland. There’s four entrances, sign-posted with signs hanging from a large overhead bar: main entrance, ride access x two and a single rider queue. Other than that, there is not a lot of props, just an overhanging wet zone, making the line a tad boring and empty (apart from the other guests).
Hopping to the good side, the ride is absolutely amazing. Water fountains spray extravagantly in the air, the ride’s unique soundtrack blasts from huge speakers and the screams and laughter ring out across the area. The amount of time you had on the ride per go was around 1 minute and 30 seconds. It may not sound worth it for the 2 hour wait time. But trust me, it is.
The actual seating for the ride is green whilst the harnesses are black. Riders are taken high up into the air and then spun around frantically. At the time, my dad was screaming his actual face off and shouting “NEVER AGAIN WILL YOU DO THIS TO ME HARRY!” Anyways, after that, I took my mum on the ride who, surprisingly, enjoyed it.
The exit to the ride was quite nice. A huge tube with a large screen on it showed the Toxicator logo off to the entire park and green ooze seeped down the black walls. We sat down for around half an hour conversing about who would go on next, which was really boring by the way, because it seemed that no one in my family wanted to go back on. So we had a packet of cheese and onion crisps from a lovely Nemesis-themed cafe and my wonderful mother decided to end the argument and went on. Turns out you need twenty people to ride it and everyone else had gone to bed even though the park was open until 10. So we did the same. Until next time, Toxicator!
