Tag: B&M

Blog, Reviews

Nemesis: Inferno or The Original?

Loops&Lapbars

This is a pretty big discussion within the theme park community. Which is better, the original Nemesis, or its newer younger sibling, Nemesis Inferno? In this blog I’ll weigh up the pros and cons of both rides, and see which one I think is better overall!

To start with, anyone who’s seen my other blog pages will know that Nemesis sits at number 3 on my list of top rollercoasters so to spoil the ending, it is the original (for the moment at least!)

So why do I think Nemesis is better than the original, well lets break it down into sections, as I did with my Smiler vs. Stealth post.

Theme and Score

Both rides feature great theming. Nemesis is themed to a monster, with the track being used to hold the destructive beast back. Inferno on the other hand is themed to a volcano and the layout weaves around a jungle.

I like Nemesis’ theme and station building, but in honesty, I actually think I prefer Nemesis Inferno for its theme, station and surrounding area. It’s very pleasant and on a summers afternoon is a lovely place to be

Though Nemesis’ theme is a bit more than just a pretty space, it does look a little tired in places. The waterfall usually doesn’t run anymore and when it does, it doesn’t run red like it used to! I’ve never actually seen it running under the first drop too, but hopefully this will make a return soon!

As many of you’ll probably know now, Nemesis is due for a retrack for its 30th anniversary and in the plans, its been suggested that the theming is being spruced up, so it’ll hopefully see the waterfall return and the station building looking back at its best!

As for score, Nemesis takes this for me. Infernos tropical sounding track is pleasant to listen to and quite eerie in places, but the original Nemesis’ theme just fits much better in my opinion. You can’t talk about soundtrack and not mention the famous Nemesis roar as it hurtles around the helix and into the main pit. It is immense and one of the best features of the ride!

Ride experience

For me, Nemesis is the rougher ride of the two, but also the more intense. That’s not to say that Inferno is a gentle romp through the jungle by any means! There’s very little headbanging on Inferno but it is also the newer of the two rides being built in 2003, 9 years after the original ride.

I’ve had a few rides on the original Nemesis now that are a little unpleasant in places. 1 particular ride at Scarefest in 2020 was really quite bad and did leave me with quite a sore ear afterwards! I’ve never had a ride so bad on Inferno by contrast.

This is a difficult one to pick between. You’ve got a more intense but rougher ride on Nemesis, vs an ever so slightly less intense ride on Nemesis Inferno but with very little headbanging at all.

I think at the moment, I’d pick the original Nemesis for its overall ride experience. If its running on top form its absolutely no question that Nemesis is on top, but at its worse it can leave a sour impression!

Though as mentioned earlier, Nemesis is getting a retrack and hopefully that will alleviate any issues noted previously!

Offride Experience

Both rides are a sight to behold, its so easy to stand around and watch both coasters running their layouts! They’re very photogenic and have great opportunities for some snaps, specifically after the first corkscrew and helix on Nemesis, and the initial loop and interlocking corkscrews on Inferno.

Both queue lines weave under each attractions tracks, though Nemesis’s queue can seem overly long when the extended queue is being used, and takes you right into the woods with little to see unfortunately so it can feel a little lacking. I think Nemesis is the one I’d prefer to stand and watch, but only just! It’s queue line is lacking when compared to Inferno but the noise it makes is sublime.

So Which should take the top spot?

As mentioned earlier, I think that Nemesis is the overall better ride. Dividing these two literally divides the theme park community as so many pick one over the other. Saying Nemesis is better than Inferno though shouldn’t detract from the fact that Nemesis Inferno is in itself a truly excellent ride, a nicely themed area and a nice intense ride too!

Given how intense the ride is, how great the score is and also the roar it makes, I do think that Nemesis is the better of the two, at least currently! Every ride on Inferno makes me like it more and more and assuming it continues to impress, then I will certainly move it up the rankings this season!

Hopefully this year I’ll get a couple more night rides on each too as I’ve only done 1 on each, and Inferno was the better night ride, but I think Nemesis looks nicer at nigh!

Blog, Reviews

The fate of Galactica….?

Loops&Lapbars

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!

An aerial shot of Galactica