There’s quite a bit of buzz happening at the moment surrounding Alton Towers. Firstly there’s the closure of Duel, which officially happened on the 6th of September and I’ll go into later. Then there’s a consultation being held on the 19th of September with regards to a new attraction going in beside the Alton Towers Dungeon in an old area referred to as Coaster Corner. Finally there’s a lot of speculation and hype about Secret Weapon 9 (SW9).
Now it could certainly be suggested that both SW9 and the new attraction are one and the same, but I’d like to think that we’re looking at getting 2 brand new attractions as well as Duel getting some attention too!
I have absolutely no idea what either attraction will be, or even whether there will be two different ones or simply that this new area will hold SW9 solely, but at this stage it’s great fun to speculate!
Personally I’d love to see a Mack Extreme Spinning coaster put in. We know that the new attraction in Coaster Corner is going to be indoors and it would be both unique and a UK first if they decided to put an extreme spinner indoors!
That being my personal opinion and heavily biased purely because I’d like to ride one of these great attractions, but when putting my sensible head on, I think Merlin will go for something else.
There’s a lot of talk about S&S’ new Axis coaster, and it is known that there has been one purchased by a European park, though no details have emerged as to who, or even what country the park resides. It’s very reasonable to think that Merlin would be the ones to buy a new type of coaster to aid with marketing it, a feat that they’ve done with Air/Galactica, Oblivion and Th13teen primarily!
I can’t see them putting an Axis coaster indoors though as that would takeaway from the ride advertising itself. The whole premise of the axis coaster is to show off how the seats can move and tilt around independently to the track so I think that hiding that away would be a mistep.
There is the possibility that, should there be two new attractions coming, that this Axis coaster could be SW9 and be built in a completely different area of the park too. If that’s the case, where is SW9 going and what else could be put indoors?
I still think that the car park by Galactica is an excellent place for a new secret weapon and since the vast majority of guests will be able to see it when parking the car or travelling by monorail, it makes perfect sense!
Back to Coaster Corner, and there’s potential that the new area could be a pavillion of sorts and doesn’t house a coaster at all and instead houses brand new, permanent flat rides that the park desperately needs. That, or a really good dark ride? Those are my thoughts on these exciting developments!
As for Duel, I said I’d mention it again earlier and I feel like I should say something for this truly excellent ride. Though I haven’t been able to enjoy it for as long as a lot of the enthusiast community, I’ve had more than enough rides to say that I really enjoyed every minute of the attraction!
Though I do prefer Tomb Blaster at Chessington, purely for its theme alone, I think Duel was a great ride and fit Alton Towers beautifully thanks to its aesthetics. I hope that when it comes to the work being done on the ride that they update the ride systems, but keep the old premise in tact. I for one love the interactive dark ride elements and would prefer it to keep those, but with added interaction, animatronics and effects.
I don’t think they should attach an IP to the ride either. I’ve seen that Merlin have access to the Ghostbusters IP but I feel like it takes away from an attraction myself. That opinion may change when Jumanji opens at Chessington, and contrary to what I just said, Saw the Ride works great with its IP. So if they do end up making a Ghostbusters attraction, please do it right and change my mind!
Otherwise it’s a little bit of a sad day that Duel has closed, but the future does at least look bright for this classic Alton Towers staple!
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