New Alton Towers ride for 2012 - my opinion

ScarySquirrel said:
That sounds utterly crap!

On queue times, this is why I visit places on a weekday. I went to Thorpe Park last week on Thursday and the longest we had to queue for any ride, including the new one, was about 5 minutes. In fact we went on the new one multiple times, and it was awesome.
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Really? That's promising! Do you think it'll be similar this Friday? :)
 
Nitefly said:
Really? That's promising! Do you think it'll be similar this Friday? :)
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I'm not sure, but it's not a school holiday, so you should be fine. I don't know whether it'll be busier on a Friday because, well, it's Friday, but fingers crossed you'll be fine :)

If you get a chance, on Swarm, sit on the outside of the right hand bit. There's a turn which goes over some water and if you're in this seat you're really close to the ground, it was brilliant :)
 
Ste59w said:
*Warning post contains spoilers*

Had the pleasure of visiting Alton Towers on opening day yesterday. I would advise anyone thinking of visiting specifically for this new ride to read on.

Expecting it to be quite busy as usual, but wasn't too bad. The queue times were about 45 mins for the big rides and 2 hours for the new ride, Nemesis Sub-Terra.

They have introduced a new queue system where you can join a different queue if you are prepared to ride as a single and split from your group and it saves a lot of time.

Anyway onto the new one - It's not a ride first of all, it's a walk on 'experience'. Apparently in the normal queue there are TV monitor's explaining the back story, in my queue however i didn't have any of these so a slight oversight. I do know the story though from watching trailers etc and its based on the original nemesis TV advert where they find the 'Nemesis' underground.

There are 'actors' positioned at the entrance in full combat gear, shouting orders at people in the queues. One of them, stared at me for 15 mins without moving or saying a word, until his 'commanding officer' gave him orders to move on.....and annoy someone else.

I get inside and am positioned on a grey spot on the floor with 12 others waiting for a lift. I'm standing next to 2 of my friends who joined the single rider queue as well...lol. (20 min queue, compared to 2 hours).

We all enter the lift and are taken down a couple of floors, LED lights in the lift door and a bit of a rumble give the impression the lift is moving. Themeing is all very good thus far. The doors open and we move into an underground chasm which again is themed to perfection. We are lead by the 'actors' into a chamber with an egg positioned in the centre of it - all looks good. We are seated on wet seats, obviously clueing us up to the fact that water will be involved.

The lights dim at this point and the monitors in front of us start beeping and on the screen a heartbeat is shown slowly rising. It reaches 100 on the monitor and the lights go out. The seats we are on drop vertically down. If you've been on Hex its probably about 1/3 of that stationary drop. It's nothing. The lights stay off and water is randomly squirted at you.

The seats slowly rise up to reveal the egg has hatched!!!!

The lights once again go off, only this time nothing happens at all. They come back on and the actors all rush us to the lift!

We enter the lift and are taken up what seems like 10-15 floors, a slight rumble on the floor again gives the impression of movement and it does feel like a lift.

The door opens, no actors are waiting to move us into the next chamber as i was expecting, but the 'experience' was infact over.

The best way to describe this would be it was ok until the point where you're saying 'oh thats it'. I left really disappointed as they had the chance to do so much more with it.

The sad thing is it is billed as a scary attraction and has even been given a 12 rating! - the only people i can imagine being remotely scared on this are young children and they cant even go on it.

Basically queuing 2 hours for this will ruin your day at Alton towers.
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i will never go to alton towers again. what a rip off. we went last year and we got to go on 4 rides all day. so annoying that people can buy fast track (we got there at about 10:30 and they were sold out!) so you just get loads of people buying to go infront of you.

waste of cash.
 
ScarySquirrel said:
I'm not sure, but it's not a school holiday, so you should be fine. I don't know whether it'll be busier on a Friday because, well, it's Friday, but fingers crossed you'll be fine :)

If you get a chance, on Swarm, sit on the outside of the right hand bit. There's a turn which goes over some water and if you're in this seat you're really close to the ground, it was brilliant :)
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Will do :)

ScarySquirrel said:
Just a warning, make sure you have a 2 for 1 voucher. For two of us, plus the car park, even WITH a voucher it was £42 or something like that!!!
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Vouchers have been acquired! :)

When the queues are long, it's worth paying £6 to skip to the front. Otherwise you are working for minimum wage :o
 
POB said:
Its all about getting there early, and picking a day when it won't be busy.

Middle of summer at a weekend = don't go.
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This.

We went a few years ago on a bank holiday Monday and it was forecast to rain (never happened) so it was dead.
 
Thanks for the warning!

Not what I expected at all, and really won't waste my day queuing up for it. As other people have said, the queue length all depends when you go. You've got to time it right!

One of my school boy errors... Going when it was a school day in Wales, but a non-school day for those in England! 1 to 2 hour queues! :(
 
Some of my old work colleagues and I go every year. You wouldn't believe how seriously the planing goes...... Anyway, never in school holidays, never on a weekend, never close to a bank holiday, always very beginning or end of summer.

Record for us to beat is 27 rides in one day.
 
Bossk128 said:
Some of my old work colleagues and I go every year. You wouldn't believe how seriously the planing goes...... Anyway, never in school holidays, never on a weekend, never close to a bank holiday, always very beginning or end of summer.

Record for us to beat is 27 rides in one day.
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Yeah this. A mid-week day for me, late Sep / early Oct while the weather is still warm. If your companion is forced to go in summer hols or weekend though (e.g. my sister is a teacher), then a fast pass is worth every penny. Never pay at the door, as their new on-the-door price is £42 this year. Always do a 2-for-1 (Tesco, Sainsbury's etc), or use their web site at the very most.
 
Yeah i really would suggest goin when it isn't that busy. It's a completely different experience.

We had to go on the weekend due to work etc, but to be honest it was still pretty good with the 'single rider queue'.

I dont know if thats a new thing for 2012, but literally 2 hours for original Nemesis in the normal queue and 5 people total in the single rider queue which pretty much was a straight walk on - we even got to sit together 3/4 times and the one time I ended up on the front row, much to the displeasure of those that queued in the normal line. We went on Nemesis 4 times in a row, Oblivion 5 times with a straight walk on each time. Rita was also pretty similar story, 1 hour normal queue and about 10 mins in single rider., but wasn't as good as its only 2 per row. It really does work wonders for rides with like 4-5 seats per row though.

But yeah as for new ride, stay well clear unless u can walk on it and see how crap it is for yourself. Only reason i posted is cause I know a lot of people like going for new alton towers rides and are generally not disappointed by queuing for a long time to get on it.
 
Just arrived back from Alton Towers, queues where no longer than 15 minutes for any ride.

Sub Terra is a complete waste of time! :eek:
 
Going to be heading there on Monday for the one year anniversary with the lady so will check it out I guess. Can get two for one tickets on Rocky bars apparently so will head to the shop after work and pick some up.
 
Thanks for th heads up. Think i will go on Rita a couple of times instead.

Nemesis is still the best ride at Alton towers and it opened in 1994! First time I went on it I was 12 I think (1996), epic experience

They should get this ride -
 
Guest2 said:
Thanks for th heads up. Think i will go on Rita a couple of times instead.

Nemesis is still the best ride at Alton towers and it opened in 1994! First time I went on it I was 12 I think (1996), epic experience

They should get this ride -
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I think Alton had a ride like that in the 1980s, called Magic Carpet.

Nemmy's my fave too btw.
 
Thanks for the heads up. Went to Thorpe Park at the weekend, very impressed by The Swarm (new this year).

My favourite at Alton Towers has to be Air, especially in the front row. Best to do the superman pose as you go round.
 
I personally wouldn't bother with Alton Towers again.

Last time I went, which was a few years back, we went on a weekday, start of the season and the kids were all in school. It was still so busy that we only got to go on five rides in the entire day, as we spent so much time queuing.

Thorpe Park doesn't seem to have quite as long waits in comparison.
 
Rides at Alton towers are nothing on things like Jaws, Jurassic park or even older rides like Back to the future.

Compare this -

or this -

to anything at alton towers!

Damn, Americans know how to do rides properly
 
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