When Galactica opened in 2002 it opened as Air, the world’s first Bolliger and Mabillard flying rollercoaster and Alton Towers’ secret weapon number 5. It features 2 inversions, a top speed of 47mph (75km/h), climbs to 66ft (20m) and is 2760ft (840m) long.
It seems to have been a well loved rollercoaster in its early years as posts I’ve read suggest that Alton Towers saw a great boost to visitors following Air’s opening.
All the way up to 2015 it ran unmodified until it was given a refresh in the 2015 off season, opening up in 2016 as Galactica. The ride had new added theming and VR incorporated into the trains to simulate a flight through space.
Unfortunately the addition of VR caused issues with operations and it meant loading and unloading of trains suffered as each headset needed to be cleaned between dispatches. Eventually the back 3 rows were left with VR, until it was removed entirely in 2019.
This is where I come in. I first rode Galactica in June 2019, narrowly missing its VR days which is a shame as I’d have loved to have experienced this!
I like Galactica, I think it’s a great rollercoaster for people who aren’t quite ready for bigger thrill machines like Nemesis and Oblivion, but want a bit more than Th13teen or the Runaway Mine Train.
It rides very well for being nearly 20 years old, it takes its inversions smoothly and almost carefully in a way and doesn’t give you too much force all at once.
Though the theming is quite sparse, I like the idea that you’re boarding a space flight vehicle to jump through a wormhole into space! I would assume that the lack of theming items is due in part to the addition of VR early in Galacticas reign as you wouldn’t really see it when on ride.
Since I’ve been visiting Alton Towers, it’s always been a ride I try to get one at least once, and I’ve ridden it plenty of times in the short time I’ve been visiting parks. So it’s sad that I feel that Galactica’s days are numbered.
This is just my own observations and nothing is concrete, but Alton Towers will be looking to put a new secret weapon rollercoaster in sometime in the near future, and there aren’t many spaces left!
My reasons for thinking that Galactica will get the chop are that it doesn’t seem to get much, if any merchandise in Towers Trading. I would love a Galactica T-shirt, but they never do them in my size and the range is extremely small, even compared to Rita!
Another reason would be my most recent visit to Oktoberfest, we noticed that the Galactica shop is boarded off completely now, and even in earlier visits, there was no one in the shop, and no one ever mans the photo booth too.
Looking at Alton Towers overall line up, and how each attraction does in terms of queues and popularity, there are only two rides that could end up being removed. Galactica is one and Rita is the other. However, looking at queue times and my own experiences in the park, I don’t think Rita will be going before Galactica does as Rita always has long queues and seems to be somewhat popular with the general public!
Rita also has had new merchandise released this year, which meant I could finally have a T-shirt to fit!
My final reason for Galactica’s potential removal is it’s location and theming. Much like Rita, it doesn’t really fit with the headline attraction of the area it’s in. Rita doesn’t fit with Th13teen and the Dark Forest, Galactica doesn’t fit with Nemesis and Forbidden Valley.
I think Rita will eventually suffer the same fate as Galactica for the same reason just mentioned, but Galactica sits on a good sized plot of land, next to the parks most famous rollercoaster with its own access to the car park and hotel.
Based on all these points, I do think Galacticas days are numbered and hopefully when then time does eventually come for its removal, that another park buys it, refurbishes it and brings it up to its full potential!
To close out this blog, I would like to emphasise that this is purely speculation and in no way confirmed at the time of writing. I don’t want to see Galactica’s removal, but its still fun to speculate as to whats going to happen at Alton Towers in the future!
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