We were up at 7am in the Alton Towers Hotel and falling in with the doors at Breakfast, which was a fantastic help-yourself spread of everything nice you can imagine, starting with warm rolls and pastries:
fruit and yoghurt
Then it was off for the Rides! We did 15 on the first day and 23 on the second, from the gentle (Carousel with up-and-down-Horses) to the scary (Nemesis and Oblivion).
Here Jay is on the Twirling Toadstool and I'm there too somewhere, though since I found it terrifying I kept my eyes tight shut the whole time 
A pleasant sojourn along a woodland canal in a bathtub, ending up with a bit of a splash:
We didn't have time to walk through the gardens, which are huge and very beautiful:
The ruined Towers:
Evening:
This was taken from our hotel window which overlooked the lake: I am pleased with it as the Zoom function on the camera brought this pavilion really close and kept it sharp:
I love the unintentional effect on this one, caused by the flash too close to the leaves, but i think it's pretty:
I turned off the flash and I like the effect without it in this picture, taken one moment later than the previous, with those pretty reflections:
It looks wonderful.
Do they allow grown up people to go on the carousel horsey things.
Good Thinking to get up at the crack of dawn, you don't want to waste a holiday sleeping do you.
Grown-Up people can go on eveyrthing no questions asked - and they do!
We did the Squirrel Nutty ride round the treetops, the Riverbank Boat Ride through glads of very strange farmyard animals (press the button on your boat to make the correct oink or baa sound), we even did the big friendly Tractor Ride (we had Shakey this year - last year's one, Huffy, has been promoted and taken out of service to help Father Christmas!)
Truly a Merry-and-Furby paradise (we never wanted to grow up did we)
Mr Merry and Jay on the horses (our umpteenth ride)
It all looks wonderful! Did you leave or did they have to force you out the gate? I think they'd find me a year later in those gardens.
I'd go for all the gentle rides as it happens. Part of the magic would be the memory of simpler times that would bring back. 
Nice pics Merry. I liked the dusk scene so I took the liberty of tweaking it a little. I pulled the brightness right back to get some colour back into the sky, although I couldn't overdo this as it would create colour banding. Maybe your original would have greater latitude. Then I boosted colour saturation, and used the 'Levels' function to pull up the dark areas. Then a touch of sharpening to finish.
Wow! That's lovely, Eccs 
a BIG improvement.
Looks absolutely beautiful, Merry and I love your photos! I would have returned a stone heavier tempted by those delightful pastries! 
What makes you think I didn't! They were so small and so warm and crisp they just slipped down and the pile was much depleted after I finally waddled skipped out of the dining-room. I had no shame and even brought two home