Our final visit for the 2022 season was, of course, to the Alton Towers Fireworks Spectacular!
I was very excited for this display as I’d read that it was a celebration of the big 7 coasters and though they did a similar thing last year, I really enjoyed it!
The show starts off, a little prematurely I might add, with a drone display. The lights go out all across the park and just before 7pm when the fireworks where due to start, the drones began and I wasn’t ready for them!
Misty night for the Firworks!
The drone preshow was good, though leaned into the demonstration of what drones can do, rather than a display that matched up with the theme of the fireworks. for example they drew out a version of the Towers, and a rollercoaster and moving train and such, but not specific ride logos or links to anything else from the park.
They also showed a 3D cube and spiral which was great to see, it really was, but it felt like they were showing off the drones as apposed to using them to further the fireworks story.
As for the fireworks, they were much longer than Legoland’s, clocking in at around 30 minutes. They were well choreographed and timed to the music great, as Legoland’s were.
As I mentioned earlier they were a celebration of the big 7 coasters, Nemesis, Th13teen, Rita, Galactica, Oblivion, Wicker Man and The Smiler.
Each segment had its own theme to it, such as Nemesis being a bit harder and more serious, where The Smilers was upbeat and a little silly.
The star of the show was actually Oblivion as it played music that fit on with Oblivions theme and the show was just spectacular to see, especially the laser and lights.
I feel that Nemesis was done alright but could have been so much better. They also did Nemesis first and I feel it should have gone last, you know saving the best until last and all that.
I didn’t really like Rita’s section as it felt a bit out of place. I know Rita I’d supposed to be a drag racer and even had an opening featuring drag queens but I didn’t really enjoy the music featured here.
Rita should be classic 80s rock, big and bombastic, but they went with Abba and Kylie Minogue. They were remixed versions too. Shame really but it can’t all be perfect!
It was also nice to see Galactica get a mention and a decent segment too. Very predictable space themed tracks though, which leads me onto the the lack of each attractions own themes or voice lines. Rita has the ‘You must escape’ and Oblivion has ‘Don’t look down’, Galactica and The Smiler both have excellent scores and none of these were utilised which in my own opinion, was a missed opportunity.
The show finished with a quite emotional part paying homage to the Towers themselves and the music and fireworks used were very well done. The climax was of course set to In the Hall of the Mountain King as usual and I felt the final barrage of fireworks was a bit of let down. I love it when the sky is filled with lights and colour, and the finale here didn’t really do that unfortunately!
Though I’ve been critical and I might sound a little negative, it was still arguably the second best display I’ve ever seen. 2021s display was so good that I think it’ll take some topping!
Once the fireworks had finished we headed off towards Nemesis as this would be our final ride of the beast until 2024.
I feel like we missed out massively as we went on Saturday the 5th but Sunday the 6th had so much more going on around Forbidden Valley. I wish I could have been there to see that but what will be will be!
Our final ride on Nemesis was great, the queue wasn’t anything like as long as the 75 minutes advertised and the only negative was that the camera didn’t flash for our ride so we missed out on our final on ride photo. There was a lot of mist around the park after the fireworks so I assume that was causing the sensors to go amiss! The mist also caused my DSLR to fog up and meant that most of the photos I took ended up looking terrible so apologies for the image quality!
I’ve written a dedicated blog for the sending off of Nemesis 1.0 and I’m also working on a video for it too, I’ll link it here when it’s done, but you can watch the fireworks here!
We had another great day at Alton Towers and though our season is now over, I’ve got loads of stuff still to talk about to keep me busy until March next year!
Now that all the individual blogs have been written, I’d like to summarise our holiday and get any last bits out that I may have forgotten!
Though each park did a great job of their own respective Halloween events, the standout one for me was Fantasy Island’s Fear Island event. This is followed closely by Thorpe Parks Fright Nights, Chessington’s Howl’o’ween, Legoland’s Brick or Treat and then Scarefest coming in last.
Scarefest was the weaker offering purely because it just didn’t feel like it had the weight that 15 years should carry. I think if it had just been any other year then it would have probably beaten Howl’o’ween and Brick or Treat, as Darkest Depths is now my favourite scare maze of all the ones I’ve done.
It’s not to say Scarefest was bad as it most certainly wasn’t, it was just lacking something is all!
Though Paultons Park didn’t put any scare mazes or any scare zones or such, they decorated their park beautifully and it’s well worth a visit on a lovely autumnal day to see it all.
If I had to rank all the scare mazes/zones we did this holiday, I’d say it goes as follows:
Darkest Depths
Villa Voodoo
Blood Bunker
Scream Asylum
The Crows of Mawkin Meadow
The Invitation
Vile Villagers
Deaths Door
Terminal
None of the scare mazes or zones we did were bad by any stretch but some were executed much better than others were. The audio only experiences were good but have a lot of scope for improvement, as did Deaths Door. I like to see them changed and adapted for next year and build in the foundations put in place this year.
There wasn’t much I could say needed changing at Fantasy Island, except perhaps that they stay open a bit later for dark rides. I’ll touch on this topic in my Alton Towers Fireworks blog!
Overall this holiday went a whole lot smoother than our summer excursion did! We had great service from The Annex, Ramada at Cobham and Stargazing Pods at Alton Towers and all in all it didn’t cost a fortune to do it all. I’m more than happy to share an itemised breakdown for anyone who’s interested!
I can’t wait for next year’s Halloween events to roll around as I hope to be doing something similar to this next year too!
Our next visit was to Alton Towers, stopping on site in one of their Star Gazing Pods for 2 days and nights. We wanted two days to make sure we get the most out of Scarefest as well as ride the great selection of rides!
I’ll do a separate little review of the Star Gazing Pods and facilities, so let jump into day 1 of Scarefest!
Day 1 – The Rides
We decided that one day would be ride focused, while the other we’d do more of the Scarefest side of things.
So our first stop was Galactica, purely because we were allowed to use the hotel entrance which takes us straight to Galactica and Nemesis.
Galactica had a late opening, which seems to be a common thing as we’ve had to wait a bit longer every time we’ve made Galactica our first ride of the day!
There wasn’t much to say about our ride here, the queue wasn’t quite as long as it usually is as it skipped out all the top section and the area did have the great soundtrack playing which was something at least! I hope they give this ride some attention during the closed season as it’ll be all alone next year when Nemesis closes.
Speaking of Nemesis, we headed there for our first of a few rides on this Towers staple. I believe both Rita and Nemesis are the only two rides we have ridden at every visit to Alton Towers so far!
Anyway, Nemesis was running very well and you wouldn’t think it was going for a retrack next year with how smoothly it was running over our two day visit. Even our night ride was excellent with no head banging at all!
Once we’d done in Forbidden Valley we headed up towards Gloomy Wood to see what was happening with Dual.
We were both well aware that Dual was closed but had seen photos that the area had had a little work done in line with the attractions closure. They have put boards up around the area that have been vandalised by the supposed possessed spirits of the haunted house. This has been done very tastefully and is a great way to theme an attraction that isn’t currently operating.
It is such a missed opportunity for them to have not run the ride through Scarefest and feature it in a scare attraction of sorts. One where the attraction features actors throughout the ride that makes it feel like the haunted house really has been possessed by someone new and it makes it much more dangerous and scary because of this!
Even just keeping Dual open as we remember it would have been better than closing the attraction in my eyes, but for all I know, there could have been something desperately wrong with the ride systems that made it unsafe for visitors. Until next year Dual!
After we’d finished up in Gloomy Wood, we moved onto Katanga Canyon for a ride on Runaway Mine Train and Congo River Rapids.
Runaway Mine train is another favourite of ours at the park, though it can sometimes be uncomfortable when both of us are crammed into one of the cars! The ride operator is always interacting with the trains as they fly through the station, and it seems to have an unofficial system in place that the more noise you make as you enter the station, the more chance you have of going around again, which is fun!
Congo River Rapids isn’t something we both go mad for but is still a fun time nonetheless! It could do with having the waterfalls working during hotter weather though as it does feel lacking when compared with American rapids rides!
Once we’d done with Katanga Canyon we headed around to Wicker Man for our first ride of the visit. Though the queue is always long on Wicker Man, it doesn’t always feel long. This is thanks, in part, to the ride being so photogenic and there is always something going on in the ride area. There’s a lot of energy around Wicker Man, thanks to the decent throughput of trains and Big Bob doing his thing too.
Photo from our night ride later on!
Once we’d had a look around the Wicker Man shop, we headed over to X-Sector for rides on Oblivion and The Smiler. The queue for Smiler was about 45 minutes, but interestingly, so was Oblivions’. Much like Nemesis, Oblivion rarely gets long queues whenever I’ve been but recently there does seem to be batching issues with Oblivion. For one thing the station only uses one loading platform out of the possible two, and the seats on the left side of the train are still not being filled. The camera that photos the whole train before its descent is working again though!
Next stop was Hex, a ride I’d been looking forward to getting back on for ages. This is one of my favourite flat rides here in the UK, and it has had a few issues all season. It wasn’t running the best, especially when compared with Haunted House Monster Party from the day before, but still a great time!
World of David Walliams next and Gangsta Granny. A short queue here and the area is back up and running as it was before the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. I’m glad they haven’t made any changes to the ride or surrounding areas as I don’t feel anything here is offensive or upsetting.
As the park slowly started to get dark, we headed to Spinball Whizzer and then into CBeebies land for rides on Postman Pat’s Parcel Post and Octonauts. All of these are good fun rides, the latter two purely for the photos you can take!
By the time we’d finished on Octonauts, the park was definitely dark so we headed back to Wicker Man for a night ride. We did one last year after the fireworks but unfortunately the camera didn’t take our photo so we missed out on that, thankfully it got us this time around!
Our final two rides were a great backrow ride on Rita and a mid-train on Th13teen. I was looking forward to Th13teen so much after last years ride, but it was somewhat ruined this year by the addition of lighting out in the forest.
Last year, as the train went over the initial lift hill, it was pitch black, then you were blinded by the camera flash and it made the ride a worth while dark ride, but with the additional lighting provided, it took away that element and somewhat dampened the experience.
Day 2 – Scarefest
Day two started with quite bad weather which worked out in our favour as we could do all the Scarefest things and stay dry with our umbrellas and not worry about getting stuck in queues.
The first thing we saw was an impromptu performance from the Alton Ancestors, a group of dancers dresses to look like ghosts of the residents of Alton Towers, very vintage in design and completely monochrome in colour. These were very good, and throughout the day, you’d catch them performing in different areas of the park, no matter how wet it got, true dedication to the job!
Our next Scarefest activity was trying out The Invitation. Similar in concept to Thorpe Parks Terminal but executed a bit better.
The concept here is that you’ve been invited to visit a burial chamber and unbeknownst to you, it’ll be your final resting place. The chamber has incarcerated vampires living in the vault that are separated from the world of the living by a cage and they come out to visit you during your stay.
The audio lets you know that you’re not alone here and has the voices of the other guests played out to make it seem like you’re still a group. The vampire then talks to different members of the group, tasting their blood, insulting bad blood and trying to persuade you to open the cage.
As the story progresses tensions rise as the vampire gets more and more persuasive until someone does eventually let them out! The scene comes to an end when he comes close to you and supposedly bites you, causing so much blood to spurt out that you and others around you get sprayed, and you do actually get sprayed with water by the operators, which was a nice touch.
The audio quality is excellent and the voice actor for the vampire did a phenomenal job with his part!
There are a couple of issues though. Firstly it ends so abruptly, the vampires depart in bat form very quickly and there’s no really jump scare at the end. I was bracing myself for the lights to flick on and there to actually be someone in the room with you, but it never came to be.
Secondly, and this might not affect everyone, but I was in the second pod from the end by the exit door, I knew this as I’d seen where I was sat in relation to Tracy who was first in. Now when the vampire escapes the cage, he walks around and you can pin point exactly where he is in relation to you and multiple times did he seem to be talking to someone I knew didn’t exist.
He’d be facing directly opposite you, then to the left, then to the right, and then further right again. If I’m the second in line, that means he’s visited the person directly across from me, the one to the left and one to the right of them, so there isn’t anyone else left to visit to the right of the person across from me, yet he did.
a quick mock up of the vampire scene that breaks immersion. The cage is in the centre and the numbers represent which guest the vampire sees.
It might only be a daft thing but it broke the immersion for me in quite a big way and it’s a shame as the sound effects and voice acting were top notch, just let down by my positioning in the room I guess!
I don’t know how they could fix that apart from making it so certain seats hear slightly different audio to others that lines up with the room layout.
This was much better than terminal though as the physical effects were much better and the audio of better quality. Both are a great start to the idea of having an actor less Scare maze which I like the idea of as I’m still not quite sure how to react when I’m in a Scare maze!
There’s still a lot of room for improvement for these audio based experiences, but for a first time outing, I enjoyed them and I hope they elaborate next year.
Once we’d finished on the Invitation, we moved onto a scare maze I was really looking forward to, Darkest Depths.
When we came on 2020, it was billed as a Scare maze for kids, so we skipped it, but if nothing has changed since the 2020 version, then I wish we’d done it sooner!
This is a very detailed and well crafted story about a band of pirates that set off to find treasure but were attacked on their way by a monstrous kraken that pulled the ship down to the darkest depths of the sea.
Apart from the initial bar scene, the experience plays out in the same fashion as the kraken attack scene from Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man’s Chest where the Black Pearl is taken to Davy Jones Locker.
That’s all I’ll say if you haven’t experienced it, I don’t want to ruin too much as I thought it was well worth experiencing it before knowing what was going on beforehand.
Once we’d finished in Darkest Depths, we headed back to the lawns to sit and watch the entertainment on the stage. We watched The Ancestors again (which was pretty much the same show as they perform out and about in the park), Sin Bin ImmortHELL, Phil’s Halloween Dance Party and A Vintage Halloween.
The stage shows were good, though a lot were repeated from what we saw of the 2020 version, but they were still entertaining nonetheless. Sin Bin didn’t always hit the mark as some of the performers weren’t the best at singing, but it was made up for by others in the group.
A Vintage Halloween and Phil’s Halloween Dance Party were very similar, but I didn’t mind it so much as the music was decent enough, but there was a lack of atmosphere as there was only a handful of people around us watching. That’s unfortunately the price you pay by going midweek to one of these events, you’ll get smaller queues for the rides, but also less people to enjoy the event with too.
Scarefest was good, but not great this time around. The event was advertised as the 15th anniversary of Scarefest and besides the logo and pin badges showing this, there wasn’t anything that would suggest otherwise!
When Thorpe Parks Fright Nights turned 20, they introduced Legacy, a way to show the rich history of the different events that have been run throughout the years and the whole event seemed so lively and like a celebration of 20 years. There was a lack of this at Scarefest for me.
I didn’t really see many roaming actors, and the line-up of scare mazes was nearly the same as 2020 and 2021 which is a missed opportunity as I’d have loved to see The Sanctuary come back, or even Nemesis Sub Terra! Both of these are something I’ve missed out on and would love to experience them during a 1 off celebration of the events history!
Overall we enjoyed Scarefest, but it wasn’t as good as it should have been in my opinion! The Invitation was good and Darkest Depths was great, but much like the stage shows, it was a lot of things we’ve already seen or had access to. Hopefully next year will see the audio based scare experiences improved and possibly a brand new maze and the return of scare zones?
Our final stop is Fantasy Island for their Fear Island event!
Remember remember the 5th of November, our last ride of Nemesis 1.0. The ride is set to close on the 6/11/22 for a retrack, encompassing everything between the top of the lift hill right up to the final brake run.
I’m a relatively recent first time rider of Nemesis, riding it first in June of 2019. I remember buying a fast past card that got me onto Nemesis, Oblivion, The Smiler and Galactica as Tracy wasn’t quite up to the bigger rides so it made sense to fast pass them to save queueing for rides she didn’t want to try.
I’ve enjoyed almost every single ride I’ve had of Nemesis, with only 1 being a standout rough ride which was Scarefest 2020 in the dark. It rode really badly and I ended up with a bit of a sore ear afterwards, but I still kept riding it after that.
Fast forward to the start of 2022, and despite not riding it during opening weekend or Festival of Thrills, we’ve certainly made up for lost time over the last few months!
Oktoberfest, Scarefest and even last night’s ride have all been excellent. Quite comfortable and no head banging at all allowing you to fully enjoy the full force of the ride!
I don’t feel like I share the same sentiment as the rest of the enthusiast community as I didn’t feel sad that last night was my last ride of Nemesis or even that it was going away. Instead I enjoyed it just like any other ride we’d had on it and look forward to seeing how it changes, if it changes at all, in 2024 when it’ll be due to reopen.
I’ve heard that they’ll be filling in the boxy spine of the track with sand for sound dampening which will take away the iconic roar the ride currently makes as it hurtles around the layout. This is a shame as the roar is as much a part of Nemesis as the monster themed station, the rusted coloured track and the trains themselves.
As for when 2024 comes around, what would I like to see?
I’d love to see the trains be adapted to have Lapbars in someway. I don’t know if B&M can manage that, whether they’ve got some trains already or they’d need to develop new ones, but it would certainly improve the ride!
The station could do with a bit of a tidy up and the theming elements improved upon too. Some of the fake track used in the station is starting to come apart, revealing that it’s made of wood and definitely needs some attention!
Finally I’d love to hear a new score that encompasses parts of the old one. Imascore do a lot of work with Merlin for their attractions and I’d love for them to be drafted in to give Nemesis a sound that’ll hopefully fill the void that the roar will be leaving!
I love that Alton Towers have made the decision to retrack Nemesis and not simply let it run into the ground or be taken down completely. It shows that the understand the value that Nemesis has in the enthusiast community as well as wider public appeal too. Nemesis is as British rollercoaster icon, just as The Big One is, so it having the full retrack treatment is a wonderful thing.
For context, not that many rollercoasters are seen to be worth the investment to be retracked in their entirety so a full retrack instead of a new attraction is pretty big news!
Nemesis means a lot to a lot of enthusiasts. For some it will be the best ride in the world, to others its the ride that started their thrill seeking career. Some will dislike the ride or have no attachment to it and some argue that Nemesis Inferno is better!
Whatever your opinion of Nemesis, lets all come together today to say farewell to John Wardley’s magnum opus, Europe’s first inverted coaster, one of the rides of the year of the UK rollercoaster and of course the worlds most intense ride experience!
This year, we thought it would be a good idea to have a week away visiting various parks for their Halloween events. We were impressed with Alton Towers Scarefest in 2020 and last year’s Fright Nights at Thorpe Park, so it makes sense to have a tour of the big parks!
The parks we’ve decided on are Paultons Park, Chessington, Thorpe Park, Legoland, Alton Towers and Fantasy Island. The Merlin parks are a given as we’re annual pass holders, but Paultons Park at Halloween, as well as Fantasy Island’s Fear Island event will be new to us.
That’s before we try out both parks new attractions, with Farmyard Flier at Paultons and The Guardian and Harrington Flint’s Island Adventure at Fantasy Island!
We’ll be stopping at The Annex In Totton for our first two nights, Ramada at Cobham services for the next two and finally we’re stopping on site at Alton Towers in their Stargazing Pods for the last two.
I’m not sure we’ll get around all the scare mazes on offer this year, especially with there being a few repeats, but there are a couple of other things to look forward to! The Scare Zones are returning and look to be good this year, as well as Farm Yard Flier at Paultons and the two new rides at Fantasy Island.
One of the other things I’m really looking forward to is Millennium Darkness at Fantasy Island. This will be a ride on Millennium, but blindfolded! I’m quite looking forward to this unique experience of what was my very first inverting coaster!
I’ll be writing up blogs for each of the parks and comparing it to other visits we’ve had, and tips I notice, as well as a good sprinkling of my opinion on things!
Last year we visited Alton Towers for their Oktoberfest event and thoroughly enjoyed it (you can read about it here), so it was a certainty that we’d visit this year!
I’ll go into the actual event elements as I run through how our day went, but first we visited Oblivion!
Oblivion
We usually head into the park and queue for Wicker Man first as we get there early enough to be nearer the front, however we ended up losing a bit of time on the monorail so instead went to Oblivion for our first ride of the day.
There wasn’t much to say here as the ride was running decently well, shuttles were being dispatched regularly. The only thing to note was that each shuttle had its right hand most seats blocked off. I’m not sure why the outer seats were unavailable but I’ve read that it’s been that way for a while. Possibly a safety issue?
We watched the Smiler go round a bit, checked out the Just Chicken restaurant incase it sold chicken nuggets but since it was closed, we couldn’t see the full menu!
We also found out that the Coca Cola Freestyle system the park has been operating since 2020 were out of use in their entirety. We were told by two separate employees that there were no refillable drink options at all which was a little disappointing but not the end of the world!
We did find out later in the day though a sign in Forbidden Valley that said we could purchase and reuse the blue Merlin ones, but I doubt this would have worked either. A little confusion here and it could have been a little better advertised, whether it be on the website or at the park entrance, just so we knew in advance!
Rita
Next was Rita as the queue was short. Same ride as it’s always been! I enjoy it, but I understand some people’s issues with the ride and its elements. We would have ridden Th13teen at this point too but it was closed, likely due to their being a light morning dew, but there could have been other issues too!
We didn’t really bother with Roller Disco. The music it plays is excellent but the attraction is quite lacking, just a one and done for me!
Nemesis
Our next stop was the Skyride as it takes you from Dark Forest to Forbidden Valley and our next stop, Nemesis!
I am quite proud of this one!
I wanted to get a couple of rides in on this classic staple as it’ll be unavailable next year due to the retrack work taking place. The ride was just as thrilling as ever and wasn’t too shaky either! I’ve ridden Nemesis Inferno a lot since I last went on the original so it was much easier to compare and contrast the two again. Nemesis is still top!
Wicker Man
Another Skyride trip back to Towers Street now, something I don’t believe I’ve ever actually done and then onto Wicker Man.
I’ve got plans to go into great detail about my feelings towards Wicker Man, as well as the other UK wooden roller coasters so I’ll be brief here. The more I ride Wicker Man, the more I enjoy it! I’ve even decided that I think Megafobia, though a good ride, isn’t actually as good as Wicker Man is. More on that coming soon though!
We did have a bit longer than usual to wait as there was a very minor breakdown whilst queueing but it only added about 15 minutes or so on. Someone apparently dropped something onto the track, not sure if that’s true or not but it was quite quick to resume the ritual!
Oktoberfest part 1
Once we’d had our ride on Wicker Man, we headed down to the lawns for some dinner and to sample the Oktoberfest delights. We ended up having chicken and chips from a vendor and a pint of Spaten beer. The chicken and chips were alright, nothing spectacular but filled a hole. As for Spaten beer? I really enjoy it!
I’m far from a beer connoisseur but needless to say, I don’t often enjoy lager, but Spaten is quite tasty and isn’t as gassy as others are! I enjoyed it last year and once again this year too.
While we ate our dinner, there was one of the 8 different shows on, which happened to be The Oktoberfest Sing – Along show followed by the LUNAFALL Party Band. The Sing Along was excellent, enjoyable to watch and felt really in keeping with Oktoberfest! LUNAFALL weren’t really my thing personally. They didn’t really fit and weren’t quite as exciting as some of the other acts that we saw. They weren’t bad at all, just not as good as others!
As for the lawns, they were covered in long tables so there was plenty of space for everyone to sit, as well as various different food and drink stalls, selling a lot of Oktoberfest staples such as German sausages, pretzels, marshmallows for toasting, the afformentioned chicken and chips and of course, beer!
Later on we’ll revisit the lawns after the rides closed at 7pm, but for now, we finished our food and headed into Katanga Canyon
Katanga Canyon
After dinner we had a wander into Katanga Canyon and went for a ride on Congo River Rapids. We’d usually get on the Runaway Mine Train, but queues were 45 minutes for a lot of the day and we felt there were better uses of our time here.
As for Congo River Rapids, it’s certainly better than Rumba Rapids at Thorpe Park, and arguably on par with Adventure Cove River Rapids at Drayton Manor. Though Drayton’s attraction is much better themed, Alton’s feels a little bit more, well, rapid. The UK really needs a decent rapids ride, one that can get you wet in summer and is enjoyable but drier in the winter.
Duel and Nemesis again
Since we didn’t have a go on the Runaway Mine Train, we headed off back towards Nemesis via Duel. We knew in advance that Duel was closed as it’s due to undertake extensive work to change the attraction and improve it, but we wanted to see the site just the same.
It’s nice to see that they haven’t just closed the ride and left it at that. Instead they’ve put up some posters about the ride area saying the property has been repossessed. This is quite clever as it’s both repossession, as in taken back by the bank, or repossessed as in new ghosts and ghouls have moved in…Could that allude to a Ghostbusters theme in future? I personally hope not, but we’ll have to see what the future holds!
After visiting Duel, we carried on to Forbidden Valley for another ride on Nemesis as mentioned earlier! Another great ride here, operations were even better as we hardly waited this time around.
Galactica
Next up was a lucky ride on Galactica. We’d arrived by the entrance to see what the queue time would be and found it was closed, with a queue of around 40 odd people, so we waited and said that if after 15 minutes we hadn’t heard anything then we’d move on.
We were literally in queue for all of 2 minutes when the gates were reopened and we headed down the queue line for a ride on this B&M Flying coaster.
The ride itself was the standard Galactica, no real sense of urgency as the train navigated the run, though I did get quite a bit of force from the ‘on your back’ section which wasn’t the most pleasant, but I put that down to having ridden Nemesis literally right before.
Th13teen & David Walliams World
After Galactica, we got on the Skyride and went over to see what Th13eens queue was doing and found a 15 minute queue so headed in.
Like Wicker Man, I’m finding the more I ride Th13teen, the more I like it. It’s not the most thrilling, and it was very over hyped before its release, but I think its marketing misdeeds have long been forgotten, leaving a great family ride.
We then headed into The World of David Walliams to see what was going on here. We’d expected a few changes here with the passing of her majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Though not much had changed, the area did seem a little eerie. There were no guards entertaining folk and Raj was absent from the shop too. There was a barrier around the photo opportunity where you could pretend to be the Queen, but other than that the area was untouched.
Gangsta Granny was running the same as before with no scenes altered or omitted, and though I count myself as joining in on the mourning of The Queens passing, I feel that not changing the attraction is the right thing to do. Just my personal opinion and not meant to offend of course!
Spinball Whizzer
After we’d finished on Gangsta Granny, time was starting to run short with rides closing at 7pm. We had the choice of another ride on Rita, or go for a spin on Spinball Whizzer, and opted for the latter.
The queue was showing as 45 minutes, but felt more like 30. The queue lines are now completely void of the pinball games and the area is starting to feel a little forgotten in the grand scheme of things, however the score still plays at least!
Our ride was one of the better ones in memory, giving a good amount of spin without going too far and making either of us dizzy! Plenty of force in the helixes and a genuinely good laugh here! A great way to finish our rides for the day.
Oktoberfest part 2
Once rides had closed, we headed back down to the lawns to watch some more of the Oktoberfest entertainment. By the time we got sat down, The Lebhaft Tanzen (translates to lively dancing) show was already in full swing. Featuring a stage full of dancers dressed in Bavarian costumes dancing along to plenty of Oktoberfest themed music, the show was another great one!
The real stars of the show though were definitely The Oompah Party Band who played Oompah versions of club classic tracks, such as Alice Deejay, Vengaboys and some of Rihanna’s tracks too.
The crowd were having a great time, the band were really hyping everyone up, and if health and safety had allowed it, I’m sure the tables would have been full of revellers too!
One of the really great things about this event, and something from last years too, is that despite the alcohol theme to Oktoberfest, there wasn’t any nastiness or folk going a little too far with things. I’m sure security would have stepped in should it have occurred, and I did see a small group approached by security but I didn’t see anything come of it so I gather it was a little telling off!
It would be nice to see the event have an ‘after hours’ part that is purely for adults where it gets a little bit more lively but the lack of this doesn’t take away from the event. It is marketed as a family friendly festival anyway so I wouldn’t like to see any changes that might effect this!
Summary
We’ve so far done Festival of Thrills, and Thorpe Parks’ Mardi Gras and Carnival events, and though all have been good, Oktoberfest was a step above the others!
I think I’d like to see how Thorpe Park do their event next year to see if Alton Towers simply do it better, or whether Thorpe Parks one differs in any way.
The whole day was great from start to finish, the rides were running well and the festivities seemed to get better as the day went on! I hope that we get a similar sort of atmosphere at Scarefest, which is our next visit to Alton Towers, before the highly anticipated Fireworks event! Looking forward to more excellent events at Towers this year!
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).
The section park referred to as Coaster Corner
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!
As mentioned in a previous blog, I’d like to break down the various Vekoma Madhouse attractions that the UK has, compare and contrast their ride mechanics and themes and finally rank them. It won’t be that hard though as there are only 3 currently in the UK.
Firstly I haven’t ridden Impossible at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, and its not manufactured by Vekoma so I won’t be including this attraction here!
Like so many others, the first Madhouse I rode was Hex – The Legend of the Towers at Alton Towers. I went in knowing what was going to happen and spoiled it a little for myself (a feat I wouldn’t do when trying Derren Browns Ghost Train). Even though I knew how the ride worked, I was still impressed with the attraction and the feeling it gives you.
The walkthrough and show portion of Hex is brilliant, showcasing the Earl of Shrewsbury’s story and the chained oak legend. It could do with a little modernising as it does feel the oldest out of the 3 when directly compared, but it does its job perfectly well!
Next is Haunted House Monster Party at Legoland Windsor. This rides preshow is probably the weakest of the 3 attractions as it is just a video that plays in a large room with lights and sounds. It’s still good but not quite as good as The Haunting or Hex’s preshow.
The actual Madhouse portion itself is top notch. The room and seats sync up very well giving you that weird sensation of movement without it looking like you’re moving and the whole story of this being a party trick is very silly and bombastic and fun! Definitely memorable!
Finally there’s The Haunting at Drayton Manor. This ride features a well themed show building like the other two, and similar to Hex has different rooms leading up to the Madhouse.
The Haunting has probably the best preshow section of the 3, and features 3 rooms with screens and projections, as well as jump scares and motion to boot. However it is let down incredibly by its ride section. I’ve ridden it a couple of times and noticed the walls and seats aren’t quite in sync and the effects are nice, but lacking too. On our last visit the final section of the crypt opening didn’t actually do anything which is a shame as the preshow is so good!
It’s also worth noting that The Haunting is a smaller scale attraction than the other two, and though I can’t find figures, I would guess that The Haunting has roughly half the capacity of the other two, which can both manage 70+ guests each.
I think Hex is my favourite of the 3 as it’s consistent in its approach. The preshow is excellent and so is the ride element. I like the story behind it too and it uses the Towers really well.
Next I’d put Haunted House Monster Party as its ride element is really good fun, possibly the most fun of all 3, but its preshow does let it down a bit. The show building looks great too!
Finally there’s The Haunting. The ride section really does let The Haunting down massively and if it were given an overhaul and made into a larger capacity attraction with improved effects in the crypt, it would probably take the top spot!
I don’t know whether I’d put Vekoma Madhouses or Huss Top Spin rides at the top of my non rollercoaster attractions list, but the UKs Madhouses certainly make it a difficult decision! It doesn’t really help that we have no more Top Spins left in the UK, which is a shame! Maybe Talocan will make it easier to decide?
New for 2022 is Festival of Thrills, where Alton Towers pays homage to their big 7 roller coasters by inviting acts to perform on stages around the resort.
Stages were setup in X-Sector, Dark Forest, Mutiny Bay and Forbidden Valley, and hosted a varied range of talent, from 80s rock, to acoustic folk music.
The big 7 all got an act dedicated to them, with Wickerman getting 2 different acts to itself. Oblivion, Smiler, Nemesis, Rita, Th13teen and even Galactica got their own act with a style that fit the ride theme. For example, Rita got 80s rock anthems played by GLOW, Wickerman got Folk music played by Mia and The Moon as well as The Rituals and Nemesis was represented by LUNAFALL who played punk rock tracks.
We didn’t manage to hear the acts in Forbidden Valley unfortunately as we were in the wrong place at the wrong time for that, but we did hear The Rituals, a bit of Mia and the Moon, GLOW, Gothic Strings (who represented Th13teen), Hyperhaus (The Smiler) and DJ Sidor (Oblivion).
Out of all the acts, GLOW were my favourite. They were really into it, they played some great tracks and kept referencing Rita between tracks too. Next would have to be Hyperhaus as they were putting on a stellar performance too, and my third would go to Gothic Strings. I love Symphonic tracks, especially when it’s modernised and given flair.
I didn’t really think much to either of Wickerman’s acts. They could play their instruments well, but The Rituals didn’t sound very folk at all, and Mia and the Moon didn’t fit the theme too well either, at least in my opinion!
Wickerman did have one of the better non musical performances with a lad doing tricks with fire though. He was entertaining and knew what he was doing and a pleasure to watch too!
I didn’t see any other stage get this kind of treatment, though each stage also had actors backing up the bands by getting the crowds involved. Rita gets a special mention here as their Roller Derby was fun to watch, as well as the Smilers insane party goers.
Outside the Festival we had a ride on most of the big 7, but missed out on The Smiler and Oblivion due to high winds on the day. To keep it brief, Wickerman was riding very well this time around. It’s starting to feel more and more like a proper wooden coaster should, untamed and savage.
Nemesis gave a great ride too and so did Galactica which was back up to both stations being used once again. The Galactica area still looks very forgotten but the ride does seem to be getting back to full operational level again though!
Both Rita and Th13teen gave pleasant rides, though Rita was suffering a lot of mechanical failures, and we ended up waiting about 30 minutes on the platform for our ride. No such issues with Th13teen, the trim brakes on the first drop seemed a bit more enthusiastic than previous rides though!
We also had our first ride on Spinjam, the parks newest addition to the Retro squad, and so far, the most intense. The ride is a Tivoli Extreme model, and it certainly lives up to its namesake!
Alton Towers do seem to keep these Retro Squad rides running a little slower than they would otherwise be running on the fair circuit, but it suits me down to a T! They give you enough of a taste of how intense they can be without going to far and making you feel ill, at least, thats my take!
Overall, Festival of Thrills was an excellent new addition to the parks calendar and I do hope it returns next year with more acts and maybe later opening hours?!
Here’s a big park to tackle with this blog series. Alton Towers.
For me, the park doesn’t really do many things wrong, it has some of the UKs premier attractions such as Nemesis and The Smiler. It’s also been a testing ground for many worlds first attractions such as Air, Oblivion and Th13teen and I’ve personally had some of the best days out here.
That being said, there is still room for improvement. As the park has added new attractions and rethemed areas, it’s caused a few issues here and there with existing rides.
– THE MAJOR CHANGES –
Rita and the Dark Forest
The first big change that really needs addressing is Th13teen and Rita. Poor old Rita gets a lot of flak for its ride duration and theme. When it first opened in 2005 in the Ug Land part of the park, it didn’t really fit, and with the opening of Th13teen and Ug Land becoming Dark Forest, its theme was altered to fit the area.
I actually like the idea that Rita was once a drag racing machine that is now abandoned and used to escape the forest, but I know that not everyone agrees.
To remedy this I’d either take Rita out entirely and sell it onto another park or move it somewhere else in the park so another more fitting ride can occupy its space. As for what I’d put there, I’m not 100% sure!
One idea I’d like to see is an Rocky Mountain Construction (RMC) Raptor coaster, similar in concept to Rita but executed in a much better manor. The ride would be racing away from the creeping vines and roots as Rita once did, but since Raptors are capable of tighter turns, this would lead to a much better experience. The ride would be custom built and heavily themed to really bring the Dark Forest to life!
Failing the RMC, then maybe a really good quality interactive dark ride. Something like Gangsta Granny but with interactive shooting elements and more special effects.
Dark Forest could also do with a permanent supporting ride in place of the current Retro Squad offering. Something like a Chance Rides UniCoaster or even a new type of log flume/water ride to absorb guests.
Galactica
The second issue with Alton Towers is Galactica. Similarly to the issue Rita faces, Galactica doesn’t really fit its area. When it was unveiled in 2002 as Air, the world’s first ‘true’ flying coaster, it didn’t fit with Nemesis in the Forbidden Valley section of the park.
While Ripsaw and The Blade, were both themed to look intimidating and threatening and Nemesis themed to a dangerous monster, Air was themed to be more tranquil and quiet and almost an escape from the terror surrounding you. In 2016 it was updated and transformed into Galactica, with a space flight theme. This still didn’t work and personally, I think this is the biggest mistheming issue that Alton Towers has, more so than Rita.
At least with Rita, the ride is trying to fit in with it being used as an escape vehicle! Air/Galactica hasn’t ever fit in properly with Nemesis or its supporting rides.
So what would I do? I’d certainly not scrap Galactica as I think it would do great in another park, such as Drayton Manor, Flamingoland or Oakwood. In its place I’d put another beast of a ride. Maybe a floorless rollercoaster, another flying coaster, or even a B&M Wing coaster. Name it Vindicator or something similar and have it up to the rider to decide if its themed to attack the Nemesis monster, or to aid it in its destruction!
– THE MINOR CHANGES –
Mutiny Bay and Wickerman
So we’ve tackled Rita and Galactica, next is Mutiny Bay. This area is perfectly fine for the most part but it could be improved so much to fit Wickerman in. All they’d need to do is loosen the pirate theming a little, add a lot more wood and a few fire torches and make it more of a cultist village. Wickerman would fit right in then!
Katanga Canyon
Katanga Canyon is also fine, though I’d give Runaway Mine Train a little attention. I’d turn the tunnel into a properly themed mine, and spruce up Congo River Rapids so the water elements work and maybe add new interactions along the way!
Duel and Gloomy Wood
Working our way around to Duel and Gloomy Wood. I don’t know if Duel could be moved to Dark Forest and rethemed to the dark ride I previously mentioned, or kept here and given a full refurbishment.
Assuming the latter, I’d look at slowing the cars down during most of the ride, overhauling most of the scenes so there is more to look at and shoot. Next I’d give it small coaster elements like a section where the guns aren’t used and the car travels much faster around twists and turns and down hills and such. Really amp up the haunted house strikes back as I do like the idea that the house is actively out to get you and you’re fighting your way through. Air blasts and water jets would be excellent additions in my opinion!
X-Sector
X-Sector is almost perfect. Assuming Enterprise is running and The Smiler and Oblivion are doing their thing then little needs changing here. However, Enterprise is regularly down and suffering quite badly with its age now, so maybe it’s time it was replaced with a newer permanent ride.
For its replacement, I’d go with a Zamperla Gryphon. It has a similar style to Enterprise but offers something different at the same time. Still giving single rider experiences and looking great to boot, but also having good throughput and theming flexibility.
I feel that when Mixtape was in the area that it fit right in (aside its colour scheme). So I’d love to see a permanent version of one of these installed where it initially stood (and Spinjam now occupies). Either that, or one of Zamperla’s Blendez models. These look just right in my mind for X-Sector, and probably aren’t as intense as they look too!
The rest
CBeebees land, Gloomy Wood, Towers Street, World of David Walliams, The Towers and gardens are all absolutely fine as they are. I wouldn’t change anything here. I’d change out Spinball Whizzer for a Mack Spinner, in the same vein as Storm Chaser at Paultons Park, but a little bit more intense.
The Hotels and waterpark are also great, little changes if any needed here too. Extraordinary Golf could use a freshen up, though I’ve heard that they’re in the process of doing so for its 15th anniversary this year.
Finally there’s the car park, monorail and entrance. I think the monorail windows need clearing so you can see the park properly as you travel from the car park to the main entrance.
A new purpose built entrance should be made at the Galactica gate for car park users and hotel guests, with a speedy lane used for hotel guests to keep that special element included in overnight stays.
There was a lot to write about here. Alton Towers is a fantastic park as it currently stands and I’m more than happy to visit with its current ride line up and themes, but I’d love to see it taken to the next level. These are all purely hypothetical ideas that I’ve had, and the probably isn’t anyway an RMC Raptor could be used to replace Rita, or Duel having a huge overhaul, but it’s fun to discuss nonetheless!
Leave any comments down below, start a discussion, lets see what else Alton Towers could do!
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