The closing weekend of the season at Alton Towers saw a spectacular finale as the park's fireworks returned to spectacular form...
The closing weekend of the season at Alton Towers saw a spectacular finale as the park's fireworks returned to spectacular form...
For most of us, the UK theme park season officially draws to a close with the Alton Towers Fireworks weekend. This year was no exception, with a trip to watch the show on both Saturday and Sunday night. While Saturday's weather was miserably wet, Sunday's finale was cold but dry which, together with fireworks back on form after the last few years of lacklustre displays, provided a fitting end to the year.
More: Fireworks Spectacular 2019 Event Page
We were at the park early on Saturday, but still found ourselves in our traditional fireworks car park: "F" for fireworks/freezing.
Can you guess which one of us is super-excited, and which one would rather have had a few more hours sleep?
The long lines to get in were testament to Saturday being a complete sell-out
A damp misty view down Towers Street
Towers Trading was doing good business selling a range of fireworks merch
I bought one of the travel cups for coffee at work ...
... and an obligatory Fireworks 2019 pin badge of course!
It's a camera face-off
We went for a trek through a bog for a close up look at the fireworks centrepiece
It was huge
The ducks didn't seem that bothered
Hoardings advertising The World of David Walliams have gone up now that the new land has been officially announced
Near freezing temperatures and rain do not make for good ride availability!
We took a treacherously slippery walk through the Gardens ...
... towards lunch at Rollercoaster Restaurant
Warm and dry inside the pink palace of gravity defying food
I challenge you to a Duel
Sometimes you gotta wait, even to Duel
Fishing for Sharkbait compliments
Disney artists must be so proud of these soft toy depictions
The lights are being tested
Taking shelter from the rain in Hex
More rain sheltering, anonymously in the Cbeebies cafe
This is no time for sleeping ... exciting things are afoot!
Undeterred by the rain, crowds began to gather on the Lawns to wait for the show to begin
Although it eased off just before the show started, it was still too rainy to film the fireworks - I decided to leave that for the next night and just enjoy the show through the raindrops.
We decided to head for the cars straight after the show rather than taking some wet night rides. It took an hour to get out of the car parks, and then we were sent out of the field entrance and down the pitch black single track roads to leave the park, but it still seemed the better option as the rain got heavier and heavier.
We had a lie in and arrived at the park to sunny skies around lunchtime on Sunday
First stop was food at Just Chicken ... I even got a smiley face!
We took a tour of The Dungeon
Myk went a little mad in the Th13teen queueline
The sun began to set of the final day of the 2019 season
Darkest Depths had proved so popular at Scarefest 2019 that the park kept it open for the Fireworks weekend
We took the chance for a final run through, having negotiated 50% off the ticket price
It was time to gather on the Lawns again, and dance the night away waiting for the show to begin
Behind the scenes of love2woexplore filming
Standing in the dark in muddy fields in the cold is what we do for fun
Theme Park James coming to you live from Alton Towers Fireworks
Showtime!
The show featured Sir Algenon and assistant Felicity striving to reinvigorate the five crystals and restore The Power of the Towers
The show was huge and full of colour and spectacle
It felt like Alton Towers Fireworks had really found its feet again after a few dodgy years
As smoke drifted through the air, the season drew to a close
With a long drive ahead of us, we called it a night, and a year.