Alton Towers Discussion Thread

[Koolkid]

 

Awesome POV of Thirteen, really does make the coaster section look seriously slow though. Stupid trims

 

ADMIN EDIT: I went ahead and embedded the video so others could view it from the thread.

Edited May 15, 2010 by jedimaster1227

[RollingRunner]

^What a horrible POV. Half of the ride is censored! Well, at least the quality is nice.

[Yamez]

Holy trim brakes batman! Seriously though, that's a LOT of trims.

[Steelinwood]

But the censored part is the best part!

[Koolkid]

Agreed, but to be honest you wouldn't see a lot anyway.

 

 

It's not my POV by the way, thought I'd make that clear.

 

It's a fantastic ride, but it's unbelievable how much better it'd be without those trims, or even if they weren't so powerful. Would mean that it's not only the back car that gets airtime.

[TPDave]

This may be stupid but, Why does Alton have zoning laws? I know it's the treeline but why would it be that?

 

As far as I know the smart people that bought homes next to the park knowing that it was there started complaining about it, anyone have a better explanation ? My opinion is simple if you don't want to deal with the sights and sounds of an Amusement Park don't buy the house next to one

 

Actually the Ropers were the exception, they moved in before the park became a proper "amusement park". I believe they've moved now, I'm not certain though...

 

Dave

[snoflake15]

Is the "world's first" element really such a big secret that it has to be censored now?

[Richard]

^The entire section is in pitch black darkness anyway, just putting that censored thing over teh top doesn't really cover up anything as the video would be completely black anyway! It's just an effect.

 

The video looks slow but I got loads of air on the hills the restraints are really roomy.

 

EDIT: Uncensored one is online.

 

[matteocrepaldi]

Just came back from the UK.

 

This is my very personal opinion/review of this ride;

 

I think that Thirteen is a nice ride but it’s just too family friendly to be called secret weapon or “The Ultimate Roller Coaster”. Also in my opinion it has a capacity way too low for a park like Alton Towers and to make it even worse they didn’t let people in the last car which was translated into an average wait of 2 hours. Me and my friends rode it only once using the single rider line which was working pretty well.

The theming is really nice although I didn’t quite well understand the story around this ride.

As the ride itself it has a nice first drop and a little pop of airtime in the first hill followed by more hills and changes in direction taken at a speed too low to give any airtime. At this point you get to another lift hill that leads to the dark and secret part of the ride which includes a first part where you find yourself in complete darkness with creepy sound effects. Then there’s the free fall which is very short but very unexpected. At the end of the drop, for a very short time you can realize that the train is surrounded by creepy hooded figures before starting to go backwards. This final part is made by a couple of quick transitions and a big helix that leads to the switch back and to the end of the ride.

I really wish I could ride it more times but the line was crazy and we made the mistake of not getting there as the first ride of the day.

 

Overall is a good, very smooth and enjoyable ride but it’s far from being comparable with the other secret weapons.

[Koolkid]

About the capacity, you must be joking! The ride has been having a few issues but is regularly getting 1200-1400 and when it's all running well, expected to top even that. Capacity is definitely not an issue, reliability at the moment yes, but not capacity.

 

I do agree a little about the family friendly nature of the ride, but even with this thrill seekers are still amazed by the drop and then final section. The reason for the back car being left empty is simply that there is currently a weight issue. Considering how badly the ride was running for a while, by leaving a car empty, this seems to have been sorted, temporarily at least. There isn't really a story attached to the ride as explained by one of its designers John Wardley in a podcast. It's basically just the forest taking over the area and the ride and that things are not right, hence the Thirteen name and whole bad luck concept.

 

To be honest I think this closed season the ride will improve, reduce the trims so more airtime, that will improve the ride. In fact it's reported that at the moment when the park is closed their replacing the magnetic trims with mechanical ones.

 

I honestly love the ride but agree that at the moment the outdoor section is a little tame. Like I say, hopefully when the ride's issues are fixed, this can be addressed.

[Yamez]

Out of curiosity, why would replacing magnetic trims with mechanical ones make any difference? It's going to slow the ride down either way, so what would be the difference...?

 

I'd think the magnetic ones would reduce wear and tear.

[Koolkid]

Magnetic ones will have the same affect whatever.

 

Mechanical ones are adjustable depending on speed or weight of the train and it's possible that they are less strong in there trimming, one would hope

 

You are right however that magnetic ones have less wear and tear.

[sibbi89]

Helle everyone, sry for my bad english. I have a question, i planned this summer a vacation at london. How far away is alton towers from london? And need you 2 days ore is 1 enough? Thx for answers

Edited June 7, 2010 by robbalvey

[themeparkman25]

Deleted by author

Edited January 20, 2011 by themeparkman25

[robbalvey]

It's about 151 miles. Here's the directions:

 

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=London,+United+Kingdom&daddr=Alton+Towers+Resort,+Alton,+Staffordshire+ST10+4DB,+United+Kingdom+(Alton+Towers+Resort)&geocode=FXjUEQMd5BL-_yl13iGvC6DYRzGZKtXdWjqWUg%3BFYiJKAMdbS7j_yHn87AAs6N7tw&hl=en&mra=pe&mrcr=0&sll=52.254282,-1.132818&sspn=2.256352,4.916382&ie=UTF8&ll=52.24462,-1.016235&spn=2.256865,4.916382&t=h&z=8

 

It depends on what you want to do at the park. If you want to ride every coaster, multiple times, the flat rides, the dark rides, etc, and maybe even do the water park, you may want to spend two days. I would also recommend getting the FastTrack tickets for your visit.

 

If you want go to in and just hit every coaster just once, that can easily be done in one day.

 

Hope this helps.

 

--Robb

Edited June 7, 2010 by robbalvey

[sibbi89]

Thanks for the help

[robinschroder]

The park is really in the middle of nowhere - it's far easier to get to Alton Towers if you're driving, but it's really not impossible to get there via public transport.

 

Take a look at Alton Towers' How To Find Us page. You can get buses to the park from surrounding towns / cities Stoke on Trent, Uttoexter, Derby and Nottingham. Out of these, I'd suggest that Stoke is the easiest option in terms of travelling up from London by train.

 

You may find www.thetrainline.com useful for checking train prices - should be pretty easy to see where the cheaper but non-flexible (and reserved seat) tickets are still available. Buy sooner rather than later as there's only a small quota of the cheap tickets before they make you buy a more expensive ticket. As long as you get an early train up in the morning from London, you'll definitely be able to get to the park and get back in the same day - it'll just be a long day with an early start. But it's well worth spending a couple of days there if you have the time - make sure you check out the water park! I recently did the journey from Euston - Stoke and it's only just over an hour and a half. The staff bus from Stoke only takes 45 mins (Bus 15, although there is a bus 14 that takes longer as it stops off at local villages). Check www.traveline.info for bus times - they're not so frequent and you'll need to make sure your train gets you up in time to catch one. When it says 'Alton Towers Farley Gates' as the bus stop on that website, ignore that - the bus goes right to the front of the park.

 

Have fun!

[Koolkid]

If it's your first time and you really want to experience Alton Towers, I'd definitely say you need 2 days, if not more.

 

Also, if you don't want to get the fastrack's (which personally I don't think you need and are really very expensive, but my opinion) there are certainly ways to do the rides to ensure lowest queue times possible and so you get on everything, even at the busiest of times.

 

Have a great trip

[Ed]

During the summer months i'd give yourself two days at the park if you don't plan to go back any time soon. It can get very busy and the park itself is quite large so it takes a while to get from one area to another! I'd also recommend staying at the Alton Towers Hotel/Water Park. You can get some good all inclusive deals for the park, hotel and waterpark.

[Dobba]

The event that was planned to happen before the ride opened took place last night. As well as revealing some big and exciting AT news (2011 being another family based year though no details announced, initial SW7, which is definitely not a woodie, planning beginning in 3 weeks with aims of a 2014 opening and a possible Black Hole replacement coming in 2012) the park revealed a little about the creation, planning and problems TH13TEEN has been having:

 

• The planning of Th13teen was extremely complex as the ride and it's foundations needed to carefully negotiate trees and their roots around the ride's footprint.

• The ride's drop was fully built and tested under complete secrecy in Budapest. A video was also shown showing senior team members from Alton Towers testing the drop before it was dismantled and shipped to the UK.

• The ride was always intended to be a family ride, with no aim to create a ride solely for the thrill market.

• The ride's recent issues with lifthill stoppages was confirmed to be due to the varying weights of the trains, resulting in the trim brakes being installed.

• Th13teen's current capacity is hitting 1440 people per hour.

• And finally, putting to bed recent rumours since the ride opened, the park has confirmed that no further effects are to be added to the vault

 

(Thanks to TowersTimes for the list)

[tiger01]

How big is the Valley??? I saw a print of what looked like a valley on TTs Home Page Map.

I Can't Wait for the new Secret Weapon. They say about scrapping a wooden coaster plan but I think a GCI Would do nicely with big twist and turns. I don't see what they could replace the Black Hole area with. Maybe a Eurofighter but theres lots of them in the UK Now. It would be cool if they created something new like when they did Th13rteen.

[Koolkid]

I was there that night and it was also announced that SW7 so the 2014 coaster will be a solely Thrill coaster.

 

It was a phenomenal evening

 

^ And the valley has 200ft+ height difference

 

Here is a TR with a lot of Photo's from the event

Ride Guide

 

Apologies if linking to another site is not allowed, if so remove immediately, just thought that there are a lot of pictures on that link.

[themeparkman25]

Just out of curiosity, but is there any coasters or rides currently down or expected to be down on any given day?

[Inukaza]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-world/2010/05/14/alton-towers-hands-out-protective-pants-for-th13teen-thrillseekers-to-prevent-accidents-115875-22258143/

 

Staff will be handing out the free pants to visitors before they board the ride.

 

Thrillseekers on Alton Towers' new Th13teen rollercoaster are being given protective pants to stop embarrassing’ accidents on the ride.

 

Theme parks bosses have taken the measure after ride hosts reported several ‘embarrassing’ incidents involving riders on the coaster, which boasts the world’s first free-fall drop.

 

A spokesman for Alton Towers said: “We have had reports of several unfortunate incidents on TH13TEEN involving riders who were not prepared for the most shocking part of the ride.

 

"It contains many surprising elements as it takes riders on an exhilarating journey, so, in response, we have decided to make protective underwear freely available in the hope it will make both riders and our staff feel more secure.”

 

Now this is just ridicules, TPR crew, when you went to alton towers today/yesterday did you see this going on?

Edited June 22, 2010 by larrygator

[larrygator]

^I merged your "news" with our existing Th13teen discussion thread.

Edited June 22, 2010 by larrygator