Alton Towers Discussion Thread

[RCT3Bross]

^^ That was actually the plan. I was planning to go between the 15th and wanted to fly back on the 20th of July. Any way to skip the original queue-line's?

[JAMMYD778]

^ You can always buy Fastrack tickets to skip the queue however I personally feel they are overpriced and too much of a farce. Also, last year there were incidents whereby fastrack was oversold during July school trips resulting in hour long fastrack queues. My best advice would to bevisit as early as possible in July as the majority of schools visit later in July.

 

If you feel like buying fastrack then go ahead but just be wary of the above situation. Aside from that, just enjoy your visit.

 

EDIT - Also remember that the school groups don't tend to arrive until 11:00 and tend to leave around 16:00. In that case, try and get to the theme park for opening at 10:00 or ERT at 9:00, and stay until the park closes. This should give you an extra hour or two when the school groups won't be around.

[RCT3Bross]

^ The 15th is the earliest that I can do. It will only be later on in July that I can go. Any chance that there are single rider line's?

[jammy2by4]

Any way to skip the original queue-line's?

 

There are Fastrack tickets, like already mentioned, but there is also Single Rider queue lines. They are not always fast and you will be sat with someone else but there will always be one or two seats free.

[snoflake15]

I always enjoy a few late rides on Nemesis after the crowds have gone.

[RCT3Bross]

Found this on the Towers2go Facebook page. They said to release the full poster of it tonight. Guess this is a hint towards the trains.

Weird design I must say.

 

Apparently Burger King left the park this year and is replaced by Burgers Kitchen. Found this also worthy of letting you guys know.

[StealthFan]

^Burger Kitchen has replaced the Burger Kings at both Alton Towers and Chessington. Alton Towers will have 3 Burger Kitchens. One by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, one in Mutiny Bay and one in Forbidden Valley.

[RCT3Bross]

Kinda have some news here:

Here is the promised better shot of the poster and do my eyes tell me lies or are those Lap bars?

Also From Towerstimes Facebook a sneak peak of the Inoculum of Joy (spider).

 

This is getting interesting.

[Anything]

Those faux hydraulic arms look great. The full thing should be a great theming object.

[jammy2by4]

Alton Towers posted this on their Twitter page a few hours ago:

I believe this is the supporting for the lift hill(s)

[RCT3Bross]

Look to the left support guy's that one looks for a inversion. On Towerstime they believed to have seen a Snake Dive on top of the first drop. Also with the Barrel roll/corkscrew inside that makes already 12 believed Inversions and then there are some more believed Inversions like a Inline twist/barrel roll between the cobra roll and the brakes. Believed now there are 14 inversions in total. What do you think about 14 inversions on the Smiler?

[AstroDan]

An inversion after one of the lifts has been rumoured for some time, adding weight to the argument that the rides layout differs from original concepts released.

[RCT3Bross]

^ That Inversion may now have been confirmed with that support. Also a picture from the air occurred from Tatenhill Aviation LtD. Strangely there seems to be some normal track in that tunnel. Two options left, No Washing machine element or Washing Machine element is later on in the tunnel.

Getting interesting over there looking forward to see how this turns out.

[AstroDan]

The censored box on TowersTimes photo's is not censoring anything. There is no washing machine element!

 

[JayTricky]

The censored box on TowersTimes photo's is not censoring anything. There is no washing machine element!

 

 

Agreed, and thank god there isn't.

 

Everything is pointing towards a launch now.

[Wes]

Hilarious.

[SharkTums]

Do they have April Fools Day in the UK? This is shaping up perfect for it!

[JayTricky]

Do they have April Fools Day in the UK? This is shaping up perfect for it!

 

We do have April Fools Day... I think that was the day TH13TEEN's secret element was revealed.

 

[donkeyman18]

Do they have April Fools Day in the UK? This is shaping up perfect for it!

 

We do have April Fools Day... I think that was the day TH13TEEN's secret element was revealed.

 

[Mechanic]

I don't get why the straight section of track was blocked out of previous images. Their big secret was "absolutely nothing"... Really? Seriously, I don't get why they'd try to keep "nothing" a secret. Am I missing something here?

[RCT3Bross]

^ It's called looking for attention. It could be that Alton Towers is just promoting the ride like this. Also this picture isn't really great after you took a better look at it. It seriously shows nothing but a messy steel maze and it could be that the Secret Element is there but we can't see it. I must say I really like that this ride has secrets yet to be revealed but it kinda gets to my head now. I want some sort of idea what we can expect now, literally nothing is sure except some stats (Like inversions are missing) and the build track which we saw completely. Heard the Game will not be released till after Mid term so between 25th till 28th. Just something I picked up, and hope is true since it provides at least the outside lay-out.

[BudtheWeiser]

1) When we originally reported the rumor of The Smiler as going for the inversion record, we stated that if that was the case, we believed that the most likely way to do that, based on the evidence of the plans, was using a trick track element.

2) TT as a whole, did not invent the "washing machine" element... I did. I did it as an example, a possible solution to the engineering required to invert a stationary train multiple times, due to the number of people that were having difficulty understanding how it would work. It was meant to resemble a trommel tunnel, in the way in which it worked. but that was not important, the engineering aspect is all I was trying to demonstrate. If you wish to comment further on it's workings or theories, I will happily discuss it in the speculation thread, so long as it remains a friendly discussion, and doesn't revert to the "slagging" I see directed in my/our general direction on various other forums (genuinely not singling out anyone in particular)

3) TT is following the wishes/direction of Towers management, in the areas it is choosing to cover up. We have not at any time stated that this is where such a device is likely to go. In fact, we haven't commented at all on it, and still won't, until we are told we can.

4) The choice to cover areas of our images, was an agreement made, due to Towers management informing us that they were considering the possibilty of going to great expense to erect tent's, to prevent us from "reporting their secret element" (which BTW is another reason we came to the trick track conclusion all those months ago). We agreed to work with Towers to prevent them having to incur further costs, purely because of us. And that is why parts of the images are being covered.

5) We do not know if the areas we are being asked to cover, are indeed meant to be a secret. We may well be getting tested by towers to see if they can trust us. Regardless, we will play along with what they ask, and hope that, our new positive working relationship with Towers continues to provide good quality info for our members. The most recent example being the merchandise exclusive we brought you in the last couple of weeks.

I hope that clears a few things up for you all.

 

From one of the admins at Towerstimes the plot thickens

[Rollercoasters4Life]

As we have seen from the recently released photo by Alton Towers that the support on the left is in an inverted position (As I've illustrated below):

 

 

Now there has been speculation for some time about an inverting drop which with the above support looks like it may happen. I then went back to The Smiler game app photos and this image looks very much like an inverting drop to me:

 

(Original image)

 

(My attempt at blowing it up a little)

 

As you can see, the train is coming out of a banking drop. Now the banking is correct with that support as you would roll right (clockwise) down the drop (you can also see the 'conversion zone' (bottom of second lift hill - black and yellow rectangles) to the bottom right of the image which can be seen in this photo:

 

 

So it is in the right place. Now before anyone says I can't see *insert element* on the game images that is because you unlock more as you go along. This has been sat in front of us for weeks and only now does it become clear. An inverting drop? Looking likely!

[A.J.]

This whole debacle with the "secret element" is just a trap set by Alton Towers to build up hype for the ride, and it seems as though a metric ton of enthusiasts have walked right into it. I've never seen so many photographs of the exact same construction...

[AstroDan]

There are now new supports/track being installed on the ride, so hopefully there'll be some development in what is to be seen.

 

The washing machine rumour was ridiculed on many forums. I even talked about it with some guys who work at the park, who also said it sounded stupid.

 

Alton Towers never mentioned ANYTHING about a secret element. In fact, Alton Towers have been pretty quiet on the specifics of the ride and remain so.

 

This is a looping coaster, with lots of them! That's about it!