Matt N

Hi guys. I have exciting news; it appears that Alton Towers is holding a consultation about building an “indoor attraction” on the former site of the Alton Mouse, within Coaster Corner (the area behind World of David Walliams): Those “in the know” apparently think that this is to be the next Secret Weapon. I’ve got to say, I think this is brilliant news! A new indoor attraction will definitely add some variety to Alton Towers’ lineup, which should hopefully allay recent concerns about the park lacking filler rides! With this being in/near TWODW, I doubt that it’ll be anything too thrilling, but I think the park needs more middle-ground things with a more universal appeal at present, so I don’t think that really matters myself. My personal hunch is that this will be a dark ride or some form of indoor family coaster, but I could be wrong there. What are your thoughts? The consultation is on 19th September. Also, just as a note for the moderators, I made a separate topic for this because it’s not confirmed that this is anything to do with SW9 despite the rumours, so I thought I’d better be safe rather than sorry. If you’d rather this be in with the SW9 discussion, though, I apologise.

Legoland have applied for a “certificate of lawfulness” to determine whether the installation of a duelling roller coaster on the site of Raft Racers is lawful: https://publicaccess.rbwm.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=RH6D7GNIMSS00&activeTab=summary It would appear that the park is planning to install duelling family boomerang-style coasters on the site of Raft Racers. Interestingly, the track design and airgate design in the plans greatly resembles a Zierer Force coaster as opposed to Vekoma’s typical Family Boomerang design, suggesting that there’s a chance that Zierer could be the manufacturer rather than Vekoma. Merlin have worked with Zierer quite a bit in the past when it comes to coasters in Legoland parks, so I wouldn’t be overly surprised if it was a Zierer. I actually think this will be a really good addition to the park! It suits the demographic well, in my opinion, and the duelling factor should ensure that the capacity is fairly decent!

Hi guys. With the recent announcement that Duel at Alton Towers is closing on 6th September, and the ever snowballing rumours about it being rethemed, a lot of discussion has taken place recently about Merlin and dark rides. And rightly or wrongly, Merlin appears to have somewhat of a poor reputation among enthusiasts when it comes to dark rides; most of the ground-up dark rides and dark ride rethemes they’ve done have not been particularly well received at all. So with that in mind, I’d be keen to know; of all the dark ride projects Merlin have undertaken, which is your favourite? I’m including both ground-up dark rides and rethemes here. Personally, I don’t think Merlin’s poor reputation with dark rides is entirely deserved. Yes, some of their dark ride projects haven’t gone down brilliantly, but all of the Merlin-created dark rides I’ve personally done have actually been pretty decently executed attractions for what they are, in my view. Although I must preface that I’m somewhat more tolerant of screens than most enthusiasts… But if I were to pick a favourite, I’d probably go for Flight of the Sky Lion at Legoland Windsor. It was a tough choice between Sky Lion and Ninjago in the same park, as I thought that both were excellent, and definitely two of my favourite UK dark rides, but I think Sky Lion just clinches it because Ninjago, while very fun, can get a touch tiring for the arms… in terms of Sky Lion, though, I think it comes together as a very nice experience! The smells are really good, the film is great, and it just overall has a really nice, feel good vibe! But what is your favourite Merlin-created dark ride or dark ride retheme? And do you feel that Merlin’s reputation on dark rides is deserved?

Are you talking about the low turn by the helicopter? I quite consistently greyed out there last year. Is the ride getting more intense with age, I wonder?

It would appear that Thorpe Park is trialling a single rider queue on Saw The Ride: Brilliant news; I look forward to trying this out on my solo Thorpe visit on 10th September! The one on Smiler works very well indeed, so let’s hope the one on Saw is the same!

PortAventura has announced the construction of a €5m solar farm that will provide a third of the park’s power supply: https://inews.co.uk/news/world/portaventura-solar-powered-theme-park-tourism-energy-crisis-1820391 This has already won planning permission, and it will be up and running by Christmas 2022. Isn’t this a good idea for sustainability? It should also help the resort be less impacted by the energy crisis, which is never a bad thing!

To be honest, I'm not sure. I'm unsure whether the Haunted House in its exact 1992 form would hold up as a new attraction in 2023; I know that the ride was successful in 1992, but we've seen 30 years of technological advancement since then and I do wonder if the original props in the way they were originally done would seem a bit dated in 2023. I'd much rather they do something new and original myself.

The Smiler graphics were only ever on the back row, but for whatever reason, they went and never returned after the crash. The illusions on the seat backs in front were replaced with clearer safety signage, but I'm not quite sure why the Smiler graphics went...

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but... you know Nathan Graveson, who teased that he was working on SW9, and who I talked about above? Well, I've been informed that Nathan Graveson is likely to be a troll who tricked people into thinking they were an Intamin designer. If you search "Nathan Graveson Intamin" into Google, the first thing to come up is the profile of a CoasterForce Forum member named Intamin Forever: https://coasterforce.com/forums/members/intamin-forever.47106/about This is relevant because indexed in the search result was an indicator that their forum signature used to say "Nathan Graveson"... The only other vaguely relevant thing to appear was my TowersStreet post talking about them... Also, it was later discovered that VelociCoaster's layout was designed by Keith McVeen, a Universal Creative employee, rather than anyone named Nathan Graveson: [MEDIA=twitter]1335395925158744068[/MEDIA] From having asked on CF (I genuinely believed this person to be genuine), they apparently have somewhat of a reputation on there for telling tall tales, and it would appear that this was one of those. Because another CFer who knows Merlin employees said that their employee friend checked the Merlin employee database... and no one called Nathan Graveson works for Merlin. Sorry to mislead, folks... it appears my lie detector was broken. I do sincerely apologise...

In fairness, I’m not sure that it was only you who predicted Project Amazon would be themed to Jumanji; most people in the know at Chessington seemed to point that way. If you are correct, I’ll be the first to stand up and admit that I was wrong, but I don’t see it. Personally, I’m not sure we’ll be seeing a full-on “revival” of the Haunted House, and I honestly hope we don’t. I’m not sure that the average guest would really understand the appeal of bringing back the Haunted House (and I’m not so sure that too many below the age of about 30 will have any strong memory of it seeing as it closed in 2002), and I fear that enthusiasts would be very critical of such a “revival” not being identical in every way to the 1992 ride. It inevitably would differ from the 1992 original in various ways due to the world having changed and technology having advanced since 1992, and this would naturally make things different, which I feel would displease the very die-hard fans that such a “revival” would be aimed at. My view is that it wouldn’t be the same ride no matter how hard the park marketed it as a “revival” of the HH, hence I fear that the die-hard fans that such a nostalgia move would be aimed at wouldn’t be very pleased and you’d be left with a ride that was ultimately pleasing few. My prediction, and hope, is that we see something that leans on the basic concept of HH, and pays homage to it in some subtle ways, but is ultimately a completely new ride experience with its own identity. While the HH clearly succeeded in 1992, I’m not sure that an identical ride designed in 2023 would, because society has changed and the props and sets in there are arguably beginning to show their age somewhat. The concept still has a lot of potential, in my opinion, but I don’t think implementing it in the exact same way as it was implemented in 1992 would be the best execution of it for a modern audience.

Hi guys. It's been 4 years since Alton Towers' 8th Secret Weapon, Wicker Man, opened, so I thought SW9 deserved its own speculation thread! I made this thread, however, because we've now had confirmation as good as any that SW9 is well and truly in the pipeline; Nathan Graveson, a designer who worked for Intamin and designed the likes of VelociCoaster, Toutatis and the Parque Warner Madrid launch coaster, has announced that he is now a project director for Merlin Magic Making, and has stated SW9 to be one of MMM's upcoming projects. He said the following, and the bolded explicitly references SW9: "I also have a massive announcement. Since my recent departure from Intamin as a thrill coaster designer, I have recently been hired by Merlin Magic Making and have officially been made the project director and designer for Alton Towers, Thorpe Park and the Legoland parks. This means I have now moved from just coaster layout design, to full coaster and theming design, which will test my artist qualifications I got at University, all them years ago. When I worked for Intamin I was actually allowed to do some area design as well, so you will see that at Parc Asterix for Toutatis, which I designed the theming for and looking back, I worked closely with Universal Orlando on the Velocicoaster project. I can officially say that the final project that I did for Intamin was the new Batman coaster at Parque Warner Madrid, which I can tell you is the best layout I have done for a coaster, which I look forward for you all to see and ride. So, look out in the future as us at Merlin Magic Making are going to be developing some incredible attractions, Alton Towers' Secret Weapon 9, Thorpe Park's Project Exodus, Chessington' "World of Jumanji", and the various Legoland Projects coming. So I say thank you for the amazing reception to my coaster designs at Intamin and I look forward to your reactions to our future attractions!" Source: https://towersstreet.com/talk/threads/chessington-world-of-adventures-resort.97/page-293#post-374226 So what do we think SW9 might be, then? I'm not really sure myself. I personally reckon it could be some sort of Intamin Blitz Coaster or similar, but I'm not sure whether that's just me saying what I want rather than what I think will happen. Whatever happens, though, I don't think it'll be your typical ride; both Chessington and Thorpe's recent new coaster announcements have certainly been pretty crazy, out-there choices, so I don't see why Alton's wouldn't be the same! But what do you guys think SW9 might be? I'd be really keen to know!

Sorry to reply to a 2 month old post, but I think the illusions and Smiler graphics on the back of the trains were removed in favour of clearer safety signage following the crash. The back of the seat in front where the illusions were is certainly where the safety signage now sits, and I seem to remember that changing after the crash.

In an interesting development, John Burton (creative lead for Resort Theme Parks) posted this on Twitter yesterday: Could this be a further hint towards the ride returning to its roots somewhat?

I’ve found a theory on Twitter from JAMMY that could possibly explain why John Wardley is “impressed” with the capacity of the new coaster while also keeping to what we know about it only having one train and excluding any theories about 2 trains and fancy station setups: Basically, JAMMY’s suggestion is back to back winged seating similar to what the Vekoma Invertigo has. This would double the capacity per train from 24 to 48, and would result in 4 riders per row per side rather than 2. It would also suit a shuttle coaster; as I said above, this has been done before on the Vekoma Invertigo models. In theory, this would effectively double the theoretical capacity from 720pph to 1,440pph, but it should be noted that the park time would be roughly twice as long (2 minutes rather than 1 minute) with a 48-rider train compared to a 24-rider train. However, this would still boost the capacity to 960pph, or a 48 rider train every 3 minutes, which is fairly decent.

On a random note, I was thinking about the capacity of this ride, and Wardley’s comments about how B&M “solved the capacity problem”, and I was trying to work out how they would be able to run 2 trains on this ride with the train configuration and station setup specified. Wing Coaster trains, due to airgates being required on both sides, would not work with the typical turntable or sliding station solutions used to enhance capacity on other types of shuttle coaster. Then, I had an idea. There is apparently a big empty space being left below the station track. If there was to be a new loading solution on this ride that allows for it to accommodate 2 trains, I wondered if the space below the station could be for some sort of stacked station affair. Think something a bit like the Big One’s vertical transfer track, but with station platforms on the top and bottom levels. Here’s a video of the Big One’s transfer track, to show you what I mean: Hopefully this system would go a bit faster than that, but the basic principle would be the same. My thought was: The station building could be on 3 levels. On the ground floor, you could have Station 1. On the middle floor, you’d have the launch track. On the top floor, you could have Station 2. In terms of how this would work in practice: Train 2 would load and unload in Station 2 while Train 1 negotiates the circuit. Retractable floors would be raised to allow for riders and operators to get to and from the train safely. When Train 2 is ready to dispatch and Train 1 has completed the circuit, the retractable floors would lower and Train 2 would lower onto the launch track. As Train 2 is lowered onto the circuit, Train 1 would be lowered into Station 1 on the ground floor to load and unload as Train 2 negotiates the circuit. Repeat process, while alternating between Train 2 and Train 1, many times. That’s my idea, anyway. I’m not sure how feasible it would be, but I think it would be a possible way to get around the pitfalls of wing coaster seating for the regular solutions like turntables and sliding station tracks. It also wouldn’t require any additional ground space compared to a regular station. In terms of how you’d get people up to the top station; my thought was that it could operate a bit like a flying theatre does, where guests are split into different groups to go to different levels. 2 groups (Station 1 right & left) could stay on the ground, while other groups (Station 2 right & left) could go upstairs. What do you guys think of my idea? For clarity, I’m not saying that this ride will run 2 trains. I could be adding 2 and 2 and getting 121 here. But there is evidence suggesting that it might run 2 trains. The ride has a maintenance shed, which is not normally something that’s present on coasters that only run 1 train. Surely you could just use the ride station to do maintenance on the train in this scenario, as the ride wouldn’t be operating if its only train was down for maintenance? Wardley also made rather intriguing comments about B&M having “solved the shuttle coaster capacity problem” for this ride. Given that the 720pph capacity with a 24-rider train being thrown around for the ride on 1 train would be a lower theoretical than that of the common-as-anything Vekoma Boomerang (760pph with a 28-rider train), I find this comment rather baffling if the ride will only run one train.

I got the £17m from the article that @Mattgwise posted above. The press release also stated £17m.

On another note; now the Jumanji tie in is in the public eye and I’ve had a fair amount of time to process this investment, I have some definite thoughts about it. I’ll look at this from a balanced viewpoint and express what I feel are some positives and negatives. Positives Investment in Chessington is never a bad thing. And £17m is huge for Chessington; I wouldn’t mind betting that that is equal to, if not more than, the overall new attraction CAPEX at Chessington over the last 5-10 years. ZUFARI cost less than £10m (I seem to remember £8m being quoted as a figure) as did Gruffalo (not sure on this, but I remember £3m coming from somewhere) and Croc Drop (£2.5m), and I’m struggling to think of anything else major that’s happened at Chessington in the last 10 years other than those 3. With that in mind, a £17m investment is big news for Chessington! I know that inflation likely makes £17m worth slightly less than it would have been in the past, but nonetheless, it’s very big money in Chessington terms! This will provide a new major attraction to help disperse crowds a bit more. While people argue that Alton Towers lacks filler, I’d argue that Chessington has the opposite problem; they are very saturated with filler and lack major e-tickets, and rides that would be considered filler in other theme parks currently masquerade as major rides at Chessington for this reason. This should go some way towards improving the balance, and helping the park ease its alleged queue problems. This is not replacing anything, this is adding capacity to the park, and quite significant capacity at that. The coaster has an alleged capacity of 720pph, and the flat rides will allegedly be capable of 600pph each, so this land will add an overall theoretical capacity of 1,920pph to the park. That’s not an insignificant number by any means, and should hopefully go some way towards easing the overcrowding burden at Chessington. Building upon my previous point, I’m glad for the inclusion of supporting flat rides. These should help ease the burden on the major coaster and ensure that the park continues to have a wide variety of things to do. Whatever you think of B&M in the current climate of the industry, a park building one is undeniably a pretty big status symbol. And when that park is Chessington, which I would never have pegged as getting a B&M in a million years, it’s hard for me not to be excited! Putting aside the specifics, this is a B&M at Chessington; what an exciting prospect! Delving more into the ride itself; Wing Coasters a great ride type, and I definitely think this could have a lot of potential to be a good ride. Whilst I’m not expecting Swarm, it could function well as more of a starting thrill coaster for the park, and it looks as though it will add a really good ride for the older children and thrillseekers coming to the park, which it could be argued that Chessington currently doesn’t have many of. I think Jumanji is a very strong choice of IP. The last film came out in 2019, there is another film in development, and the franchise as a whole has made £2billion; it’s very much still in the public conscious. Heck, I seem to remember hearing that the last film alone made more at the box office than all of the Saw films put together, and Thorpe Park has made a great success out of Saw The Ride for the last 13 years! I also think that this IP fits Chessington very well; even if the tie-in does go down like a lead balloon in the years to come (I don’t think it will, but you need to consider the possibility), the land could be quite easily retooled into a generic jungle land that would suit Chessington’s brand identity and demographic down to the ground. I have great faith that this IP tie-in is a fantastic decision by Merlin that should do very well! The theming of this area looks phenomenal; the 55ft Tiger Shrine will surely be very impressive, and the planning application showed some other really nice touches as well! Negatives I do wonder whether the 720pph capacity of the coaster was what Chessington needed. The park has well documented capacity struggles, and this will be a major attraction themed to a big ticket IP, so it will inevitably get high demand. Will a 720pph theoretical throughput be enough to handle that demand? The supporting flats could help with this, in fairness, but I reckon the coaster, as the headline attraction of the area, will receive the bulk of the demand. If I were to cast a slightly more critical eye upon the coaster layout, I’d argue that it doesn’t appear to play to the strengths of the Wing Coaster ride type very much. The things I feel that Swarm (the only Wing Coaster I’ve done) does well, such as the awesome sense of speed, the great near misses, and the awesome floaty inversions don’t appear to be channeled here very much. I’m open to surprises and very willing to be proven wrong, but that’s my current thought. As much as I love B&M and am very excited to see Chessington working with them, part of me is slightly sceptical as to whether they were the right fit for the park and this particular project. Reviews of rides like Dæmonen at Tivoli Gardens suggest that compact, small scale rides like this one are not B&M’s forte, particularly when big trains like the Wing Coaster trains are used. I do wonder if another manufacturer and ride type could have provided something more worthwhile for Chessington with greater versatility, wider appeal (I imagine another manufacturer could have made the height restriction lower than 1.4m) and slightly more “bang for buck”. I’m very willing to be proven wrong, but that’s just my current thought. Questions I Have In spite of my negative above about capacity, I do wonder if Chessington is hiding something here that will make the coaster higher capacity than it appears to be at first glance. Merlin have hidden things from planning applications before (remember Smiler’s missing 6 inversions?), and not everything said in past planning applications has ended up true (What happened to Wicker Man’s “silent magnetic lift system”? That lift hill has to be one of the loudest I’ve ever stood by…), so it wouldn’t necessarily be unheard of. The ride has a maintenance shed, which coasters running only 1 train don’t normally have. One of the key pillars of B&M’s design ethos is high capacity, and I’d be surprised to see them betray that. John Wardley recently stated in a TowersTimes Q&A that he was impressed with how B&M had “solved the shuttle coaster capacity problem” with Chessington’s ride, which I feel is an interesting comment to make when this ride, which is being pegged at 720pph with a 24-rider train, has lower capacity than the regular Vekoma Boomerang (760pph with a 28-rider train) and the Vekoma Giant Inverted Boomerang (870pph with a 32-rider train), two fairly commonplace shuttle coaster types. Given that Wardley has not shied away from criticising sub par capacity on rides in the past, I found his comment intriguing. Could B&M have invented some genius technology that allows the ride to run 2 trains? I also wonder whether a lower height restriction may be in store. I’ve heard rumblings that this ride will be a “Family Wing Coaster” rather than a regular Wing Coaster, which could suggest that different seating and a lower height restriction could potentially be in store. Some Legolands are also building Family Wing Coasters, and I’d be very surprised if Lego permitted anything with a 1.4m height restriction to be built in their parks. But on the whole, I think this is a really positive step for Chessington, and I look forward to seeing what it’s like! P.S. I know I contradict myself a fair few times, but I should say that I am in two minds about certain aspects of this investment, so some contradiction is inevitable!

Out of interest, what was the problem with Vampire that meant it needed refurbishment? I’d assume that it hadn’t hit the end of its life or anything given that it was only 10 years old when it shut, so it does seem odd to me that it was revamped so early on in its life.

I’d assume that one received similar treatment. However, you can’t be too sure seeing as Pirate Falls is a Zamperla (rather than a Mack like the other 3) and also a fair bit newer than the 3 Resort Theme Park log flumes.

DIC stands for Dubai International Capital. They owned Tussauds between 2005 and 2007. I thought they did make changes to Scorpion Express? I could be completely wrong here, but I thought they gave it individual lap bars like Flying Fish has when they refurbished it? I could be misremembering there, though… I haven’t been to Chessington since 2014. Perhaps Scorpion Express simply didn’t need a technical overhaul? Dragon Falls was refurbished because it had to have lots of new H&S stuff added post-Smiler, if I’m remembering correctly. I seem to remember hearing that all the Merlin flumes required new H&S stuff being added post-Smiler, and Dragon Falls was the only one to ultimately get it. Logger’s was supposed to get it, but the money for the refurb went towards DBGT’s 2017 rework at the last minute and the efforts to revive it went somewhat awry after that, and The Flume was deemed too old and knackered to be worth doing this to, hence it was removed and replaced with Wicker Man. I can’t imagine that Scorpion Express as a ride system needed an awful lot doing to it back when the refurb happened. When the Runaway Train closed, it was only 25 years old, and if what I’ve read is correct, it was the decaying theming that was the issue rather than the ride. I can’t imagine it’s been put under a lot of strain compared to something like, say, Nemesis, or even Vampire in the same park, so I’d imagine it’s probably all right ticking over for a fair few more years. Plenty of older powered coasters exist.

Thank you! Yes, that's a strategy we often lean towards; you don't want riding time going to waste! To make things even more efficient, we also take packed lunch to save both money and time queueing at a park food outlet.

8th August 2022: Alton Towers Day 2 We had our second day at the park today! Staying in the hotel naturally gave us an advantage, and I had a particular advantage this morning as I headed in alone at about 9:15, therefore I had plenty of time to get to my first ride of the day. That hotel entrance remained a phenomenal secret weapon as it had been the previous day: If you’ve read many of my Alton Towers trip reports before, you’ll know that a common strategy of mine when greeted with a pre-opening Alton Towers is to start in Dark Forest and ride Rita first thing. It’s at the back of the park, but also has low capacity and often holds a substantial queue later on, so getting it done early eliminates a substantial amount of waiting. I attempted to implement this strategy once again, but sadly, Rita was experiencing difficulties, and I was informed by the ride host that it would be opening late: With this in mind, I instead decided to get in a pre-opening queue nearby: This queue was for… Thirteen Thirteen’s pre-opening queue appeared quite long, but I thought I might as well join it seeing as I was in Dark Forest and it was the only other ride I could start on in that area. Thankfully, this queue was not nearly as long as it initially appeared, only taking around 15 minutes. So, how was Thirteen? Well, I was seated in row 4, and it was really good fun just as it had been yesterday; in fact, it seemed a bit more fun today, with a little bit more airtime in the outdoor section: After Thirteen, I retried the other coaster in the area… Rita Rita was on an advertised 10 minute queue, so I decided to give it a ride while in the area. Rita was the only one of the big 7 I hadn’t ridden yesterday, so I was looking forward to giving it a go. So, how was the ride? Well, it was pretty good fun; perhaps controversially, I do really enjoy Rita! I was seated in the back row today, and while it had a little bit of a rattle, this was certainly not a deal breaker, and the ride sensations themselves seemed awesome today; the airtime over the first twisted hill was unbelievable, and the pacing was absolutely turbocharged throughout! Overall, Rita was good fun today, and I’m definitely glad I gave it a ride: After Rita, we headed over to another coaster elsewhere that had a short queue… Oblivion Oblivion had an advertised queue time of 0 minutes, and we thought that this was an opportunity far too good to pass up! As promised, the queue was very short indeed, and strong operations on 2 stations meant that we were on the ride in very little time at all! So, how was the ride? Well, I thought it was absolutely cracking; the speed was exceptional, the ride was smooth, and a loose OTSR made for some excellent airtime! I do love Oblivion, and today’s ride was very fun indeed: After Oblivion, I split off from my parents and tried the other coaster in the area… The Smiler Even though The Smiler was on an advertised 100 minute queue and I’m not its biggest fan, I decided to give it a go for one reason; that single rider queue! I know I’ve talked about it a lot lately, but the SRQ really is a game changer on this ride, and I’m far more tempted to give Smiler a go if I can get on it in very little time. I must say that “how much queueing time can I shave off by using Smiler’s SRQ?” is becoming an increasingly fun game, and it was one that very much worked in my favour today, as I only waited around 15 minutes in spite of the 100 minute advertised queue time! So, how was the ride? Well, I’ll afraid to say it wasn’t that pleasant for me at all; I was seated in row 3, and I’m afraid it seemed to give me an incredibly thorough bashing today compared to yesterday’s ride. I came off with an incredibly sore neck and a definite headache: After Smiler, we headed towards the lakeside. Me and my mum had drinks and ice cream while my dad attempted to get a hole in one on the £1000 golf challenge… he sadly couldn’t win £1000 on this occasion. After that, we initially headed to Wicker Man, but the queue time had risen to 80 minutes by the time we got there, so this plan was quickly foiled. We instead decided to head over and ride… Galactica Galactica was on only a 20 minute advertised queue, so we thought we’d have a ride. I’m not sure the queue even took that long, to be honest; it was very quick, which is a definite bonus! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 5, and it was actually quite similar to yesterday’s; not my favourite ride on park, but smooth and actually not too bad at all, all things considered: After Galactica, we decided to try the other coaster in the area… Nemesis Nemesis was on an advertised 30 minute queue time, so we decided to give it a ride. The queue was stretching a fair amount into the extensions, so I did wonder if this was a bit understated, and it did ultimately take about 45 minutes. But how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 5, and it was pretty good, although it seemed a little bit rougher than it did yesterday: After Nemesis, we headed back to a ride we’d tried to do earlier… Wicker Man Wicker Man was on an advertised 45 minute queue time, so we decided to take advantage of the substantial drop compared to earlier. I initially thought that this was somewhat overstated, as it only took us 30 minutes to reach the baggage hold and the waiting area for the pre-show, but the advertised time turned out to be fairly accurate, as it somehow took us 15 minutes to get through the pre-show area and queue through the station. Anyway, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 6, and it was phenomenal; fast, airtime-filled, and overall very fun and rerideable! As I said yesterday, Wicker Man always delivers for me, and is definitely a coaster that I like an awful lot more than I think I probably should: After Wicker Man, we had time for one final ride… Runaway Mine Train Runaway Mine Train was on an advertised 30 minute queue, and we hadn’t ridden it yet this trip, so we decided to have a go on it. The queue initially didn’t look too long, but looks were a bit deceiving here, as I later ascertained that the entire queue was open, and it ended up taking 45 minutes. Anyway; how was the ride? Well, we were seated in row 16, and it was good fun; even though it’s on the less intense end of the spectrum, RMT is a good bit of light hearted fun that never fails to put a smile on my face! It’s a definite guilty pleasure of mine; the intensity of that helix into the tunnel never fails to surprise me: After our ride on Runaway Mine Train, it was past 3pm, so we thought it was a good time to head back home. So, that concludes our 2 day trip to Alton Towers! I had a great time; even though my last visit was a mere 2 months ago, I do always enjoy a trip there, and it was great to get back on some of my favourites! It was also nice to stay in the Alton Towers Hotel again; I do always enjoy it there! Thanks for reading! I’m not sure where I’ll be reporting from next, but I know that a new trip report from me shouldn’t be too far away!

I can’t imagine a Mack Powered Coaster with Scorpion Express’ layout would be at all expensive to replace and maintain parts on, in fairness. Even if it did need replacing, I imagine they could give it the Nemesis treatment and replace the whole lot for very little (possibly even less than £1m?). But we don’t know that it is being removed currently by any means. The current closure could just be due to some slightly lengthier maintenance work following whatever happened the other day.

7th August 2022: Alton Towers Day 1 Hi guys. Today was the first day of my latest 2 day Alton Towers trip, which is always an exciting day, particularly when your break entails a stay in the Alton Towers Hotel! I know it’s only been two months since my last trip to Alton Towers, but I got offered a theme park trip of my choice for my birthday this year by my parents, and as I had a nice time at Alton in June, I thought “why not go back there?”! We left home at about 7:15am this morning and got to the park in good time, arriving through the hotel entrance shortly after the 10am opening time. I’ve got to say, that hotel entrance has become a real secret weapon on my last two Alton Towers trips; it saves a huge amount of time getting into the park, which is always a bonus: After entering the park, we headed to our first ride… Galactica Galactica was on an advertised 0 minute queue, so we decided to take a ride on it. As promised, the queue was very short indeed, which is always a bonus. The operations were also very good, with a throughput of comfortably over 1,000pph being attained on 3 trains and 2 stations; terrific work! So, how was the ride? Well, Galactica isn’t a favourite of mine, as I find the flying position a bit uncomfortable, but I’ve got to say that today’s ride was one of the more fun I’ve had on it in recent times; I was seated in row 4, and it was really smooth, with some fun sensations! All in all, that ride on Galactica was about as good as I could have asked for given that the ride isn’t really one of my favourites: After Galactica, we tried the other Forbidden Valley B&M… Nemesis Nemesis was on an advertised 25 minute queue, and as such, we decided to give it a ride. Ultimately, the queue ended up being more like 45-50 minutes once we joined; it was only stretching up to below the first corkscrew, but dispatches were infrequent, and me and my dad later ascertained that this was because the ride was on 1 train and attaining around 500-600pph. The park decided to add the 2nd train whilst we were in the queue, which added another 10 minutes or so onto our queue time but ultimately sped up the pace of the queue after that. Interestingly, we encountered a rather angry staff member at the Fastrack merge point, who later got moved elsewhere due to them getting overly animated at guests’ behaviour. I’ve never seen that at Towers before… anyway, how was the actual ride? Well, it was good! I was seated in row 5, and it was fairly smooth, well paced and forceful; what’s not to like? As much as I may not hold Nemesis on the same god-like pedestal that most enthusiasts do, today’s ride was very good indeed; it certainly packed a very good punch: After Nemesis, we decided to head for a slightly longer stroll to ride… Wicker Man Wicker Man was on an advertised 50 minute queue, so we decided to have a ride on it. This queue time was very accurate, which is always a plus, and it appeared that the bulb in the pre-show had been fixed since my last visit, meaning that its tricks were obscured from guest view once again; good work, Alton! But how was the ride? Well, it was phenomenal; I was seated in row 8, and it was relentlessly fast, packed with airtime, smooth and overall very fun! That definitely cemented its place as my personal favourite ride on park, my UK #2 and my overall #5; I always feel like I shouldn’t enjoy Wicker Man nearly as much as I do, but it never fails to have me laughing and feeling blown away when I hit the brake run! As blasphemous as this probably sounds, I genuinely get almost as much enjoyment from riding it as I did from riding Wodan at Europa Park back in April! Even though it’s not nearly as impressively specced as Wodan on paper, it’s just so much fun and so rerideable, and even though Wodan does come out on top for me, the gap between the two remains far smaller than I ever expect; there’s really not a whole lot in it for me! Perhaps I just really like GCIs in general?: After Wicker Man, it was getting on for 1pm, so we decided to sit down in the courtyard for a spot of packed lunch before heading to our next ride… Thirteen Thirteen was on an advertised 50 minute queue, so we decided to get in the queue and have a ride. This queue didn’t end up being anywhere near 50 minutes, and operations were good; always a bonus! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in row 2, and it was good fun, with some fun twists and turns in the outdoor section and a cracking indoor section that’s always a laugh; it was lovely and smooth, as well! However, having ridden it both towards the back and towards the front in recent months, I must say that I definitely prefer Thirteen towards the back. That cracking pop of ejector airtime over the first drop is missing in the front, and the outdoor section generally feels a bit more fun in the back. Nevertheless, Thirteen is always a really good, fun ride that puts a smile on my face, and it’s definitely one that’s grown on me over time: After Thirteen, we initially considered Rita, but it had a 75 minute queue, so we went elsewhere… The Smiler In spite of a 60 minute advertised queue, I decided to give Smiler a go. Now you may be wondering “why on earth did you do Smiler when you’re not a huge fan of it and it had the longest queue on park?”. Well, dear reader, that is where a secret weapon of mine came into play; the single rider queue! I made use of this for the first time on my last visit to Alton Towers, and it is truly a game changer; it reduces my wait time substantially every time I use it, and today was no different! In spite of a 60 minute advertised queue time, I got on the ride within 5-10 minutes, which I thought was brilliant! So, how was the ride? Well, Smiler isn’t really a favourite of mine, as I find it a bit too rough and intense for my personal liking, and today’s ride was pretty par for the course in this regard. However, it admittedly didn’t seem quite as rough as it did on my last ride; always a bonus, particularly given that I was seated on the back row! I do always feel bad for Smiler, though; it’s a coaster I really want to like, as I think there’s some good bits in there (the layout is admittedly creative, and those two airtime hills are absolutely amazing!), but it never really does it for me due to a combination of it not being the most comfortable ride and the back-to-back inversions almost creating a repetitive motion-type sickness feeling for me akin to that caused by a particularly intense spinning flat ride (I’m not a huge flat ride lover myself). I apologise for this, as I know that most enthusiasts love Smiler, but I cannot lie about my own opinions and experiences: After The Smiler, I met back up with my parents, and we moved on to the other coaster in X-Sector… Oblivion Oblivion was on a mere 15 minute advertised queue time, so we certainly couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a ride! This short advertised queue time certainly held true; it didn’t take us long to get on at all, which was aided by some very good operations. A throughput of over 1,000pph was being attained when I was in the queue, which is phenomenal, in my opinion; well done, team Oblivion! But how was the ride? Well, I’ve got to say that as ever, the other X-Sector coaster is far more up my street; it was particularly excellent today, with an absolutely sublime pop of sustained airtime over the drop and a phenomenal sense of speed in the tunnel. Even though it isn’t the fastest coaster I’ve ridden (that accolade goes to Stealth at 80mph), Oblivion always feels like it could conceivably be the fastest coaster I’ve ridden; that tunnel feels unbelievably fast! Overall, Oblivion was absolutely excellent, and definitely warranted its top 10 placement for me today; it may only have one key element, but it does it so well that it always leaves me grinning: After our ride on Oblivion, we fancied something slightly less thrilling… Congo River Rapids Congo River Rapids was on an advertised 15 minute queue, so we decided to give it a go as a slightly more relaxing ride to break up the coaster rides. The queue initially looked long when we joined, but it moved quickly, so the advertised queue time was actually pretty accurate. The good thing about rapids rides is that they are almost invariably queue munchers; CRR was dispatching a boat roughly every 15 seconds or so, making for a throughput of about 1,800pph if you assume full boats of 8. They also seemed pretty good at filling boats today, so this throughput figure likely wasn’t too far off despite rapids rides’ tendency to often dispatch with boats that are far from full. So, how was the ride? Well, it was all right for a nice sit down; as a way to relax, I can’t really complain about it! However, I do feel that the ride is considerably less exciting than it once was due to the removal of the waterfalls and many of the wave machines; I don’t really have an issue with it not being a huge soaker given our climate, but the opportunities to get even a slight spray on the ride are slim to none these days, and my parents and I both felt somewhat short changed upon getting off. I appreciate that this is out of the park’s hands, so I’m probably being overly harsh, but the ride is definitely less of a priority on our agenda than it once was due to these changes. Still, it was perfectly all right for a relaxing ride in between coasters, and it was nice to get back on it after quite a bit of time without a ride: After our ride on Congo River Rapids, we had a reride on Wicker Man, with a tempting 40 minute queue. I was seated in row 8, and it was just as sublime as our earlier ride, if not more so; it had warmed up superbly from earlier in the day: After this, my parents left the park and left me to my own devices. I went on to ride… Spinball Whizzer Spinball Whizzer was on an advertised 25 minute queue, so I decided to take a ride on it. The queue did end up longer than 25 minutes, taking more like 45-50 minutes, but this can’t really be helped; what can you do? So, how was the ride? Well, Spinball isn’t a ride I overly rate, and today wasn’t really an exception to that rule, I’m afraid; spinning rides aren’t my favourite anyway, as I have quite a low tolerance for spin, and Spinball is quite a jerky ride, so definitely isn’t the most comfortable of experiences. Still, that’s more down to my personal preference than anything overly wrong with Spinball; it solidly fills a family thrill coaster hole in Alton’s lineup, and even if it isn’t my personal favourite, I’m glad I got to ride it: After getting off Spinball Whizzer, I had a reride on Oblivion. The airtime wasn’t quite as strong this time due to me getting a pretty thorough stapling into the restraint, but the ride was still excellent nonetheless: After my reride on Oblivion, I closed out the day with another ride on Wicker Man. I was seated in row 3 this time, and despite being very near the front, the ride was still relentless and brilliantly thrilling and fun like it had been earlier; Wicker Man is a ride that always clicks for me regardless of where I’m sat: After that, I left the park and headed back to the Alton Towers Hotel: So, that was the first day of our trip to Alton Towers! The park was undeniably busy today, but I still got on 11 rides, which I was really chuffed with! I was also chuffed as always with how some of my favourites were riding; Wicker Man was as phenomenal as ever, and still easily my favourite on park, Oblivion seemed particularly awesome today, Thirteen was great fun, Nemesis was good… it was an excellent day all round! Thanks for reading! I’ll post the 2nd part tomorrow once I’ve had my 2nd day in the park!

Sorry if this is a slightly random question, but; out of interest, when the planning application talks about high points on Exodus being painted white a la Stealth, what is the height threshold for something to be considered a "high point" and roughly where (as in, how high up) would the track turn from dark to white? I'll admit I'm not entirely sure what the point of painting the high points white is. Is it to make it blend in more or something?