stretchy

OK my thoughts from someone who has rode this. I was there on the opening day for this coaster. Third row, third car of the day. I was also there 2 days later and am also British. What is the ride like? That depends. I have ridden it 4 times over 2 days and got extremely different experiences. As smooth as a B&M and really fun Rough with some vibration, still fun though Extremely Rough and unpleasant to ride, on par with Saw About the same as ride 2 Visually it is possibly one of the most enjoyable coasters to queue up for. I have been to the majority of the large US parks and a couple of the European parks and don't remember a coaster being having this much interaction with the queue. There seems to be a car permanently flying somewhere around you and they are so close you feel you can reach out and hi-five the people on the ride. Does it beat Nemesis? Not in my eyes but it is one hell of a good ride and fun when running smoothly. Is it innovative? Well Gerstlauer engineers have said that this is a prototype. Gerstlauer engineers have also said that it isn't a Euro-fighter. But to be honest I feel this is more an evolutionary take on the Euro-fighter than a revolutionary take on it. Gimmicks - Unfortunately in the UK at the moment, the Gimmick rules. Shows such as "Britain's got talent" and "The only way is Essex" lead popular TV (something that I personally detest). UK theme parks along with most other UK entertainment has spent the past 15 or so years stuck in this search for the next Gimmick. My main problem with Oblivion is that it is a Gimmick, a one trick pony. Same with Rita and 13. But the thing is, out of these Gimmicks, come better newer rides. Oblivion was a prototype Dive machine. Air was a prototype Flier. These prototypes have to be imagined and created somewhere and whilst I admit, the rides that followed them were better, faster, taller, more extreme rides and whilst I may not personally think that they are the best rides, I respect Air and Oblivion and 13 for being prototypes. Is it 2 rides stuck together. Rob said this in semi jest, but this has been brought up before, which is why people responded with the pre-discussed conclusions. When getting to the 2nd lift hill adds to the experience and is a welcome breather and actually adds to the cohesiveness of the ride. It doesn't feel to me, when riding, that it is 2 coasters joined together, it feels intended and the breather arrives at the correct time. Unlike Nemesis where you feel that the ride doesn't really start till you leave the lift hill, with this, both lift hills actually feel part of the ride, probably because they are reasonably quick and silent. Whilst Alton say the duelling is purely coincidental, I am sure the designer (JW) knew what he was doing with it, he did say a couple of times that he always wanted to do some kind of Duelling Coaster, and visually it is wonderful. I don't think it matters how fast or slow they despatch, somewhere along the track it seems to duel, and that looks more designed to me than accidental. All in all I feel that this is a good ride for Alton, and at last a ride that isn't over in a few seconds, but actually feels like a meaty ride. All of the loops are real loops with good G's and feel part of the ride, I am always disappointed with the end barrel rolls on rides like Colossus, they feel tacked on just to get the loop count up. A comment on the bickering that has been going on. I personally felt quite offended by it all. The odd thing is that because half of the argument has obviously been removed, it reads that the only person who is being rude, nasty and xenophobic is Rob as only his reactions are shown, the rest seem to have been moderated out leaving a one sided and quite offensive rant, I am sure as a moderator you should rise above bickering and argument and not have to resort to what feels like name calling.

I would say that the beyond vertical drop will be inside and be similar to the first indoor drop on saw, as we havent seen any of the inside track layouts. Also Gertslauer were spotted on park near the end of last season, (but so were B&M - So I think there were 2 competing designs for SW7 and this was the winning design. ) One of the interesting points is there are 3 theming boxes on the design. One of them not even in the coaster area, but closer to Oblivion. The colours and textures are all tech/industrial, and we had the rise of machine artwork that was discussed before 13 was decided on. With that in mind I can see the whole of X sector being attacked by alien robots. My reasoning for this is a concept piece of art that was done for Oblivion. The ride was going to be based on Journey To The Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne Now none of Joules Verne books are based around industrial machines like the mood boards, But H.G.Wells isn't that far from the same theme, so maybe were going to see it based on War Of The Worlds?

I am so worried that this will be as rough as saw is. That would totally ruin the ride. By the way, I would put money on it that they will put a name to the interlocking cobra roll and batwing. At a guess I recon they will call it a Staffordshire knot.

Dont have any photos, but the link below takes you to a blow by blow account of Alton Towers' ScareFest mazes, I wrote last week. Hope you dont mind the link, but they're too long to repost. http://towersnerd.com/community/index.php?/topic/1281-towers-nerd-trip-25-feedback/