Is Alton Still Going To Be No.1 In 5 Years Time?

[JoshC.]

Did you go on Corkscrew during its last few years of operation

I did, and had no problem with it.Am I one of the few people who didn't find Corkscrew's 'roughness' an issue? Yeah. it was rough but I found that to be no issue, and actually made the ride more... interesting. I wouldn't say more enjoyable, but definitely added to my experience. But Corkscrew's removal will have no affect on AT's number one status.

[D4n]

It depends what row you sat on, really, if you're towards the front of the train it was rough but in a kind of good way. By the time you reached the back of the train, after getting some good air-time on the first hill, the ride just turned into pure pain. If they had kept it, they would have had to get the new trains (as seen at Flamingo Land), for the ride to have remained worthwhile.

[Whiteknuckle]

If they had kept it, they would have had to get the new trains (as seen at Flamingo Land), for the ride to have remained worthwhile.

I thought the trains on Flamingoland's version were the original trains, as they are exactly the same as the original ones on Altons version.Am I right in thinking that these pointed nose trains, AKA Flamingoland were supplied by Arrow? I went on some Arrow loopers in the States and the trains were identical.Anyway, back on topic,I think Alton does have a good future, but I would like to see a straight foward traditional rollercoaster, without all the gimmicks and the hype and one that works, because as we know a lot of the newer coasters at Alton do get glitches and stop working for a time. A good terrain hugging speed monster in the Valley please

[Mark9]

Anyway, back on topic,I think Alton does have a good future, but I would like to see a straight foward traditional rollercoaster, without all the gimmicks and the hype and one that works, because as we know a lot of the newer coasters at Alton do get glitches and stop working for a time. A good terrain hugging speed monster in the Valley please

This. The reason Alton is the the current number one is because the park has a character, a charm of its own that came purely by accident. It's so fondly seen in the public eye because it dared to be different with Corkscrew and continued this success with Thunder Looper, Nemesis, Oblivion, Air, Rita and Thirteen.I would love to see Alton go for a traditional, no gimmicks coaster.. but they never have so why break tradition now?

[Jake C]

I would love to see Alton go for a traditional, no gimmicks coaster.. but they never have so why break tradition now?

Rita

[Mark9]

First launching rollercoaster in the uk. It was very unique when it opened in 2005.

[Deleted Users]

I'd like the next coaster to be a woodie but that just won't happen with AT relying on surveys. A B&M Floorless could be marketed as a UK first and actually allow for a good layout ala Nemesis.

[Jake C]

First launching rollercoaster in the uk. It was very unique when it opened in 2005.

I could correct you agian but I dont want to sound like a smart ass . (Thunder Looper) sorry about that couldnt resist.Jake

[Mark9]

I could correct you agian but I dont want to sound like a smart ass . (Thunder Looper) sorry about that couldnt resist.Jake

Haha. You have a fair point. However, as Thunder Looper hadn't been in the Uk for 9 years and Rita uses a somewhat more technical launching system, I now standy by my last comment

[pluk]

I'd like the next coaster to be a woodie but that just won't happen with AT relying on surveys. A B&M Floorless could be marketed as a UK first and actually allow for a good layout ala Nemesis.

Yes! This country needs a modern woodie, and AT is the place for it. Stick a loop in it and what have you got? A worlds only attraction (although not first), an obvious hole in the worlds first/only stats that needs filling. But it does not have to have a gimmick like that, if whatever they build is done well enough it will sell itself. Not sure about a floorless though, I've never ridden one on that's really blown my socks off.

[James6]

Genuinely don't see the point in a Floorless when we have an Invert, very similar but better experience on the invert.

[Tom]

' A worlds only attraction (although not first)'I think that's what he means, Son Of Beast was the first, but as the loop was removed now it will be the only wooden coaster with a loop?But yeah I'm not really bothered about what they install, agree with Ian that anything with a decent throughput is good with me!

[thorpeparkjack]

If all we care about rides is the throughput then something is seriously wrong! I agree throughput is an important consideration, but surely the ride experience is more important for god sake!

[Deleted Users]

Genuinely don't see the point in a Floorless when we have an Invert, very similar but better experience on the invert.

It's got the stage where I think Alton needs a solid coaster just so not everything in the park is a flipping gimmick. It's a bit hard to judge the general experience of an invert to the general experience of a floorless when there are both stronger and weaker examples of each.

[pluk]

' A worlds only attraction (although not first)'I think that's what he means, Son Of Beast was the first, but as the loop was removed now it will be the only wooden coaster with a loop?

That's exactly what I mean!!The thing with woodies in this country is they are all so old (except the Welsh one in the arse end of nowhere). The modern ones I've riden elsewhere are something else. GhostRider is comfortably in my top 5, Terminator not far behind, and I'm reliably informed there are even better ones out there. Something on that scale would be a modern icon for the park.

[Sheepie]

The development at Alton Towers have made it clear that they like to do something different when building major attractions. You can call them gimmicks but then you could call anything that's not your conventional sit-down coaster a gimmick. I know I would personally Alton spent their money into creating a complete experience but I know that's not going to happen, and they'll continue to throw money at new technology and to be different from the rest.That's all well and good, but it saddens me to think that something that should be a creative experience is being done for the sake of being different and controlled by marketing. The thing what's upset me with Oblivion is that the queueing is an integral part of the experience of this ride in the same way Expedition Everest's queue is paired with the coaster. One without the other is not a complete experience. With the queue plastered with adverts, I feel as though part of the attraction has been perverted.Alton is number 1 in this country but like Chessington, it relies on its older secret weapons to carry the park. Alton is fortunate to have the rich history and beauty otherwise I wouldn't be so sure of its position within the UK.

[Mark9]

If all we care about rides is the throughput then something is seriously wrong! I agree throughput is an important consideration, but surely the ride experience is more important for god sake!

Dragons Fury is a fantastic ride, absolutely brilliant and fun and the best spinning rollercoaster.But I rarely ride it becuase it's queue is ridicuously long because of its throughput. I will ride Everest over and over and over because it has an awesome experience coupled with a throughput that would make most Merlin rides faint. Throughput is important but obviously not the most important thing.Agreeing with what Sheepie said, at one point Nemesis was a gimmick and look how that turned out. Same with Oblivion and Air. Back in those days, Tussauds were so focused on the ride being a complete experience. Should have known once we saw that Air tunnel that things weren't the same anymore. What I would love is for a ride to have a gimmick that the ride doesn't focus all its attention on. Because, for instance with Thirteen, that drop is everything to the park and the rest of the ride is half baked and a bit meh.

[AstroDan]

I think it will be safe to say that the 2013 development at Alton will be their biggest since Air. I just hope the package is complete, unlike Air.It will have a gimmick, the rumours flowing around could make for something truly special. But I don't hold my breath these days... I hope they suprise us all!

[Knightknuckle]

Alton Towers will always be the best Theme Park 'Theme' being the key word here, its far more beautiful then Thorpe Park or Chessington and has lots of relaxing areas and magical gardens etc... but Thorpe Park has become the best for rides at least thrill rides and rollercoasters anyway, Alton Towers probably still has more variation of rides more rides for family and kids etc but in terms of pure adrenaline Thorpe Park has already overtaken AT and I cant see that changing for many years to come to be honest, plus TP still has alot of expansion room with the infilling of the lakes whereas AT is virtually out of space now!

[Benin]

Parks should not be solely judged on how intense their rides are... If that were the case, Disney would not be the best parks in the world...And Thorpe will eventually run out of room, there's only so much infilling that can be done by the park, and of course Towers has the bigger issue of having planning permission issues as well...It's all about experience with parks, and Towers provides a much more complete experience that no other park in the UK can compete with...

[Mark9]

Alton Towers will always be the best Theme Park 'Theme' being the key word here, its far more beautiful then Thorpe Park or Chessington and has lots of relaxing areas and magical gardens etc... but Thorpe Park has become the best for rides at least thrill rides and rollercoasters anyway, Alton Towers probably still has more variation of rides more rides for family and kids etc but in terms of pure adrenaline Thorpe Park has already overtaken AT and I cant see that changing for many years to come to be honest, plus TP still has alot of expansion room with the infilling of the lakes whereas AT is virtually out of space now!

Thats fine with me actually. Thorpe can continue down the blind avenue of constant thrill attractions whilst Alton can at least try and innovate with family friendly rides.

[eee]

Alton Towers has become nothing but a let down. We used to love it but after visiting Thorpe you have to say, yawn. Its a day of long walks, long waits and boring rides. I don't see what the attraction for families is because if you want green space and such like you don't need to spend a fortune to go to your local park.The rides are not a patch on Thorpe and no, disney doesn't have uber thrill rides but it is genuinely well themed and not just the design its the shows and parades too, all tied into well known films, where are they for my 7 yr old in Alton Towers? Even Halloween has become dull at AT. Add into the mix that unless you arrive an hour before the doors open, no easy thing considering the winding slow b-roads miles away from motorways, it will take about an hour to get into the park. At which point you could quickly stomp to sonic spinball and wait an hour for a fairly average ride. After that you will be lucky to do 3 more rides after being fleeced for food and drink. Oh and if its cold dont expect to find somewhere warm and dry to eat, however, do expect to sit outside surrounded by rubbish and have the wind cool your, already slightly iffy ,food cold.Only the very lucky or the peculiar breed of sycophantic fanboy types have anything good to say about AT recently. Just google it, trip advisor it etc It's a total let down for the majority of visitors. Me and my beloved were staunch and loyal AT fans and we only tried Thorpe because we fancied a weekend away, man what an eyeopener it was. Now we only miss air and hex and despite the uniqueness of air we both agree its hardly a scarefest. And as for hex, it's a nice sitdown and a nice warm up for our halloween vists. However, I think our halloween this year will be down at thorpe. 7 years of halloween visits, its a tradition and as sad as it is we know we will only be disappointed at AT. Recently went to BPP with the school I work at and despite my inherent dislike of blackpool I had to concede the school were right to move away from AT and take the kids to BPP, it was much better VFM and in 6 hours the kids could do pretty much everything. Take them to AT and they complain for days about only getting on 2 or 3 rides.Alton Towers needs a rethink and soon.

[Benin]

I've arrived at Alton plenty of times for 10 and I've never had any trouble entering the park with no hour long wait... Indeed, if you GET to the park an hour early (9 compared to 10 open) and have no AP, you will actually be waiting the hour...Indoor food outlets are hard to come by, but, Woodcutters, Cuckoo BK, KFC, Towers Family Restaurant and Pizza Pasta all exist and Woodcutters for me is one of the best improvements at the park in recent years... Elsewhere I've not ever had much problem with food at the park, even at Courtyard BBQ...Why would anyone do Spinball first is quite beyond me... Of course most people tend towards it because it is the first thing you say (something Towers failed on when placing it), but anyone with sense heads towards either Thirteen, Oblivion or Nemesis first... Indeed, going to the Valley first allows several quick rides in amazing succession...Long walks a problem? Skyride? I'm also one who prefers a nice gap between rides, as it's just as boring doing ride after ride after ride as it can be for people having to walk 10 minutes to another one...Whilst Thorpe has a lot more thrill rides than Towers, it lacks a distinct atmosphere and niceness... I don't feel rushed or cramped at Towers (unless it involves Rita's or Spinball's queue) and that is actually one of the most important aspects to a good day for me... Plus, there's a LOT more for a 7 year old to do at Towers than Thorpe... Unless Bench - the Ride is better at Thorpe these days?Evidently, if you're only doing 4 rides before lunch, you need to rethink your route around the park, as the last time I went to the park and entered at 10 I managed to get on Thirteen, Rita, Air, Nemesis, Charlie, Duel, Mine Train, Rapids and Flume before lunch... There's a definite trick with a route on Alton, and walking from Forbidden Valley back towards the entrance hits this very well...And the day I pay attention to some comments on let's say Facebook, (for example, look at some of the posts on the LC12 video), is the day I lose my sanity...

[eee]

Well benin I'm glad you have a system for AT, as do I. I merely mentioned spinball because for the average person, as in not an AP holder like myself or you, it is the likely the first thing they see and as such after such a long wait to get in it is often the first thing they head for. I've seen it happen and I'm sure you have too. Now I can believe you have arrived at the park for 10 but unless you have a jetpack in your rucksack you didn't get to the gate much before halfpast, though as I don't know you I could give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you run like Ussain Bolt and as such I guess you could make the park gates by 10.05, but you would need a powerbar and a lucozade as you swiped your card through the gate. If, however, you don't posess the athletic speed of mr bolt you will have had to trudge through a million cars or wait in the first queue of the day for the monorail. So for the non-super hero amongst us arriving at the park for 10 means arriving at the gate for about half past. Of course I could always get ripped off a little more by merlin and pay extra to park closer but I'm too tight for that.As you say its always good to arrive for 9 or earlier, but seriously the roads leading to the park mean leaving where we are in manchester at a ridiculously early time, this hardly helps with my mood in the queues. As you say indoor eating is sparse and whilst you point out some options for this unless you want lunch at 10.30am or 3.00pm then you ain't going to get inside them. And in fairness Thorpe isn't much better for food venues inside or out. So now lets say, not being able to sprint as quickly as Ussain Bolt, I get into the park for 10.30 and the park closes at 6. For my route I want to go to 13 first and follow it up with rita, I'll queue for the best part of 2 hours to do these and at 12.30 will be disappointed and starting to get hungry. I know oblivion has a very quick throughput so decide to cheer myself up with the rush that gives me and thereby allowing myself to go to kfc or picnic on the lawns. By 1.15 I'm slightly happier and opt for the lawns and my butties. So in my non superhero world 2 or 3 rides before lunch is the usual. Now at this juncture I must point out that this is on a better day at AT. Lets assume rita was working and I didn't get stuck behind a coach or 7 on the way in and got there for 10. I could of course eat in the queue, assuming no filthy bugger is smoking all over me but I like to sit and eat, I'm old fashioned that way.I'm glad you enjoy the strolls between rides, indeed if AT restricted the number of people allowed in to the park by 50% and the resulting queues were shorter then I too might enjoy the walks however to me they are a boring and torturous part of an inevitable slow slow walk to the front of a ride that may or may not excite me. As for atmosphere, I was in Thorpe yesterday and both me and my beloved commented on the lovely atmosphere. Like a southern european holiday spot my beloved remarked. As I walked through amity I noticed how much space there was and how little jostling about there was. It is not a country park atmosphere clearly but it has a beachy fun atmosphere to it that extends far and wide. It has a kind of fun party feel to it that stays with you all day. Add to this the fact that I can get a locker in the middle of the park to leave my lunch in and that when I was done at 6 I was in my car by ten past and on the m25 by halfpast. Thorpe isn't perfect it suffer from the greed and poor management of merlin like AT and others too but for my money and time I'll take it over AT 9 times out of 10.I don't have facebook so I don't know what people say on there but I do read travel writers and look on travel critic websites like trip advisor and I assure you people are finding AT a real chore.And so I will happily meet someone who thinks I'm wrong and will follow them round- no fast passes-no special car park and no getting there before 10 I would love to be proved wrong because me and my beloved have special memories of AT and we would both like to think we can recapture some of the past fun we had there. however, right now we're both disappointed with it.

[Benin]

When I say getting to the park for 10, I mean at the gates at 10, not the car park... Regardless, I've never experienced problems of queuing aside from when the Monorail decides to pack itself in for whatever reason...From Manchester it SHOULD take about 2 hours odd... Takes me an hour to get from Stoke to Manchester on an average Motorway, then add in another 30 minutes for the A50 and then the country roads, besides, I've left to go to Towers from London at 5am... So 7:30am SHOULD be a piece of cake...And you've also hit Thorpe on a good day if you enjoyed it... I've spent far too many days there with everything broken (I'm sure anyone who went to Saw's opening day can attest), and only once have I enjoyed the atmosphere... Other times it's just bland and quite frankly rubbish...Evidently you need to spend days at the park not at this time of year, where a multitude of school kids turn up and ruin the fun for everyone involved... Indeed, perhaps stay at the hotel and take advantage of the ERT? Or don't do Intamin land first, and stroll (or even Skyride) over to Forbidden Valley where often most people don't turn up until about 11... Towers are also solving the locker issue (something I've never minded since I never use them) but placing them at all major rides...Oh, and try having Thorpe be packed solid... 3 hour queues for Inferno? You say that Towers bores you, at least when busy you can do stuff other than rides and they actually have good queues and throughputs in comparison...