Plans for the new CBeebies coaster are online. Replacing Postman Pat...

 

 

Very basic layout, not much taller than Octonauts. Which begs the question...why the need for a maintenance building?

13 hours ago, JoshC. said:

Very basic layout, not much taller than Octonauts. Which begs the question...why?

 

Could've ended the post there.

 

It feels very pointless currently. 

Sounds good to me. It felt like postman Pat had really dropped off over the last few years.

 

Not particularly bothered by this either way but I'm sure the target audience will love it. 

If it comes in without a min height restriction (obviously accompanied) then it'll fill a niche.

 

Min 0.9m restriction and it doesn't really add anything. At least not in that area. If they were throwing it up by Dark Forest/Walliams World or Forbidden Valley then it could be an useful addition. 

It does seem strange.  I understand that Postman Pat is dead in the water (hopefully not literally, and he’s enjoying his retirement) - but this is an odd replacement 

Toxicator is looking good. Fountains also present!

Also confirmed to be opening on opening day too.

 

This will no doubt be a very welcome return of a flat ride.
 

Skyride has also been shown on video by the park recently to have a lot of the gondolas on the layout, and testing. No mention of an opening date for that yet, but hopefully it’s also going to be working on opening day. Either way it’s encouraging to see movement there finally.

 

In other news apparently Blade has been removed and the pit now sits empty.  Again a positive bit of news there in some ways, to see that it’s been removed and not left in situ.

 

I wonder if any work has happened on the Monorail after spending all last season on much reduced capacity?

 

I feel quite apprehensive for Towers going in to their new season with all the budget cuts still unfolding. Hopefully this is a better year for the park despite the cuts, and the reliability improves.

I think they stand a good chance of turning things around this year. Nemesis is still fresh, they have the new topspin, new Cebebies ride, Skyride and Hex will be running again. I know some events have been dropped, but if they can consistently keep the rides running throughout the year and finish with a strong Scarefest and fireworks, hopefully it should be better. I know there’s more to improve, but by simply having the rides open again I’m hopeful that this will at least be the baseline that can be built upon, as they didn’t even have many of the rides open last year…

I'm quite lucky that I rarely have to get Monorail these days, but the one time I did last year was painful. And that was at 3pm on a Scarefest!

 

Might go on this if the queues are short. If.

I eagerly await the reports of a 2+hr queue on opening day, reviews of it being the greatest addition ever, before then settling into the line up as a filler ride which gets lost on the map in a couple of years because it's not a roller coaster.

41 minutes ago, JoshC. said:

settling into the line up as a filler ride which gets lost on the map in a couple of years because it's not a roller coaster.

That’s exactly what towers needs though to be fair. More of that.

Oh 100%! Great to have, and sorely needed. 

https://shop.altontowers.com/collections/auction-today

 

Towers are auctioning off 5 off the wheel covers from original Nemesis, which have each been signed by John Wardley.

 

Starting price was £500, going price seems to be levelling out between £750-£1000

SRQs confirmed to be returning on Galactica and Oblivion for the start of the season, and on Toxicator.
 

Not sure how well this will work on Toxicator as I can only imagine it having 1 or 2 max per cycle? 
 

This means they’ve gone from 1 to 6 SRQs in less than a year which is great to see. 

That’s really good!  Although I agree a bit odd for Toxicator.

 

Skyride, Congo and Hex will open in April.

I can understand Congo to be honest given the costs involved. Rapids are becoming seasonal now really aren’t they and I think that’s it.

Shame about Skyride, but I suppose if it’s running over that can’t be helped - communication about the opening is a good step as well.

Hex however - wtf is going on? It only opened for 25 minutes all season last year, so what on earth could be the issue now?

Congo opening in April isn't the end of the world, but not great.

 

Its a bit different to Thorpe, its in a central location so it doesn't look the best being closed. Its also more of a family park to a thrill focused park so I imagine it gets more riders, and Towers are in dire need of more filler rides so any ride closed isn't ideal. Under 1.4m have already lost Blade and Flavios this year... 

 

Skyride and Hex being closed is pretty poor though. Wonder if Hex is just maintenance being stretched or there has been further issues? A bit worrying if so... 

Would Hex realistically need winter maintenance though?  It operated for literally, what, 2 weeks? After a full refurb.  Maybe something’s gone wrong. Or they’re struggling with recruiting?

9 hours ago, Inferno said:

Would Hex realistically need winter maintenance though?  It operated for literally, what, 2 weeks? After a full refurb.  Maybe something’s gone wrong. Or they’re struggling with recruiting?

 

It would certainly still receive some sort of work I'd expect. I don't envision them leaving it dormant for a couple of months and then just switching it back on, as that too would cause issues.

 

It could potentially be down to staffing / saving on staff costs. It could also be that there's simply something that's happened.

 

Skyride is potentially more understandable in my view, as even though it's been testing for a while, since it has been closed for so long, it will effectively be a new ride in terms of training, which may just cause add on with getting open. Obviously that should have been accounted for by the park anyway, but just what I see as a possibility 

Did the preview for the ride not get a night time go? If so why not?

 

Also looks like the ride has a bit of a 💩problem.

Edited March 15Mar 15 by Glitch

Opening day at Towers going well it seems. Ride availability as good as ever and Toxicators queue has been evaced as sewage has started to leak out in the tunnel ...

 

 

UPDATE: 

The whole of Forbidden Valley is now being evacuated, meanwhile Oblivion and Rita have been down for over 3 hours...

 

 

It never drains but it pours.

 

 

Will probably be spending most of next weekend in CBeebies.

Update: Nemesis and Sub Terra are available, rest of FV is not.

 

EDIT: The park are saying it's a burst pipe near Toxicator and they do not expect it to re-open today

 

I hope that the drain issue is just an unfortunate coincidence with it being on opening day and not an actual design flaw / problem. If it's the latter, that's a not quick or easy fix.

 

Toxicator had an estimated 2-3 queue at opening too. Multiple gour queue for a top spin. People are crazy.

 

Towers openings are getting a reputation right now and it's not a good one.

 

I feel sorry for the staff. There will be plenty of new staff who are getting a baptism of fire right now. And plenty more experienced ones who will be sighing at the thought of starting the season off roughly.

 

But hey, the only way is up from here!

In a shock twist, Toxicator did manage to reopen.

Toxicator re-opened a while ago apparently, so hopefully things aren't too bad.

 

There must be some defeated people working at Towers to be honest.  It seems that a lot of effort is being put in to things, despite the budget cuts and redundancies, but they're constantly plagued by bad luck and the mess left for them to fix by previous 'leadership'.

 

To be fair they are passengers when it comes to things like the sewage leak... Nobody could have foreseen that. What awful timing though.

Also opening days can often suffer a little from slow operations because of new staff etc.

 

It's worrying... but I'm still hopeful that things will still improve at AT this season.

The staff will become more at ease with operations within a few weeks, and things like Hex and Skyride will re-open shortly which will help in general.

It's weird that these opening day queues are going back to those 90s era lengths. Thirteen's opening day waited 90 minutes with @Mark9. I don't think any major coaster or ride opening since has been that low since.

 

That a Top Spin is getting a peak 140 minute queue is madness. 

Glad they managed to get Toxicator back open in the end. Do feel for the current management and staff as they are clearly trying. Just bad luck and not enough investment from Merlin.

 

From what I've seen online, its running really well and looks great. We just need more of this. I'm really not sure replacing postman pat with another coaster should be the priority right now. Another flat in X Sector and Dark Forest is needed ASAP. 

14 hours ago, Benin said:

It's weird that these opening day queues are going back to those 90s era lengths. Thirteen's opening day waited 90 minutes with @Mark9. I don't think any major coaster or ride opening since has been that low since.

 

That a Top Spin is getting a peak 140 minute queue is madness. 

 

Said Top Spin was the only thing open in Forbidden Valley for ages yesterday morning. I think it would have been immensely popular anyway but the filler ride essentially being the only thing to do in that corner would have made things far worse. 

 

Towers need to get a grip on this and it's shocking that after four years of it, they have still not moved any further forward. There is no point building new rides, refurbishing the old ones to bring in guests if over half the major attractions are closed all the time and the day is just effectively guests desperately trying to find an open ride that will make it through their queuing time.