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2025: General Discussion

Ash said:
The attraction in the UK has ran for 38 years generally without issue. I would assume it has duty/standby power supplies and we know has a back up generator in case of emergency.
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Sadly Ash society has changed in those 38 years and not for the better. In the past if the cable car stopped for a few minutes, people would just wait patiently, admiring the views. Now, people will reach for their phones, film the person in the corner having a panic attack after being stopped for 3 minutes, film others having heat stroke while the temperature inside rises half a degree, with others panicking they don't have enough water to see them through their ordeal and they are at risk of dying from dehydration. Said video is then uploaded and seen by millions within a few minutes and ultimately, the Daily Mail writes one of their shock, horror headlines about the park. Within a minutes a non-event 38 years ago is now national news, the Smiler incident is brought back out of the cupboard and the park gets bad press.

We also have to take into account the one idiot in a million who will do something stupid while being filmed in the hope of getting millions of views and making some money from it, such as swimming with the shark in Battle Galleons, or jumping into the Rapids for a swim which then forces the park to go OTT with the warning signs, fences etc to stop such one idiots from being able to do so. Personally i'm amazed they are not making people wear life jackets on the rapids so we have to be grateful of that (for the moment at least). Common sense and general awareness have also sadly declined in those 38 years, such as knowing to wait behind the yellow line when the monorail approaches without the need for a physical barrier to stop you.

If the sky ride is already being closed in May when its low 20s then obviously there is no hope of it running in the summer months - which begs the question why bother refurbishing it?
 
GaryH said:
Sadly Ash society has changed in those 38 years and not for the better. In the past if the cable car stopped for a few minutes, people would just wait patiently, admiring the views. Now, people will reach for their phones, film the person in the corner having a panic attack after being stopped for 3 minutes, film others having heat stroke while the temperature inside rises half a degree, with others panicking they don't have enough water to see them through their ordeal and they are at risk of dying from dehydration. Said video is then uploaded and seen by millions within a few minutes and ultimately, the Daily Mail writes one of their shock, horror headlines about the park. Within a minutes a non-event 38 years ago is now national news, the Smiler incident is brought back out of the cupboard and the park gets bad press.

We also have to take into account the one idiot in a million who will do something stupid while being filmed in the hope of getting millions of views and making some money from it, such as swimming with the shark in Battle Galleons, or jumping into the Rapids for a swim which then forces the park to go OTT with the warning signs, fences etc to stop such one idiots from being able to do so. Personally i'm amazed they are not making people wear life jackets on the rapids so we have to be grateful of that (for the moment at least). Common sense and general awareness have also sadly declined in those 38 years, such as knowing to wait behind the yellow line when the monorail approaches without the need for a physical barrier to stop you.

If the sky ride is already being closed in May when its low 20s then obviously there is no hope of it running in the summer months - which begs the question why bother refurbishing it?
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To be fair it can still run early in the day and is very useful
 
Ash said:
I’m merely pointing out, in my opinion, given what I know. It seems an extreme measure to take. Much like with the myriad of other changes in the park post 2015 (absurdly high fences in odd places, warning signs on everything, monorail loading procedure, bizarre flaps added to nemesis station, rapids waterfall watcher, oblivion loading procedure etc etc)
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Out of interest, what changed with Oblivion loading procedures since the incident?
 
I think its important to remember, people dont act, follow rules or behave like they did 30 years ago. I dread to think what chaos would be caused having the tik tok generation, stuck on the Skyride, in intense heat. It's more trouble than its worth, better to close the thing.

Skyride has back up generators and back up electrical systems incase of a power failure yes. But the crucial bit that seems to get ignored again and again on here, as I and others have said many times, the generators are completely useless if the cause of the breakdown is due to a gondola jamming up the system, one of the major causes of breakdowns on the Skyride historically. The best generators in the world are totally useless, if the cable is physically jammed.

I can totally see why Alton close the attraction here, its not ideal, but totally understandable.
 
It does make a massive difference. I went on in April and it felt so flat, so kudos to them for fixing whatever the issue was! I've heard from a few different people it was issues with the pumps, so wasn't too hopeful! Makes it worth queueing for now!
 
Danscott22 said:
It does make a massive difference. I went on in April and it felt so flat, so kudos to them for fixing whatever the issue was! I've heard from a few different people it was issues with the pumps, so wasn't too hopeful! Makes it worth queueing for now!
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I really would like Congo River Rapids to receive some more theming in particular have some animal animatronics added around the ride since its an africa theme wouldn't it make sense to have. And make the cave properly themed up maybe in the Zufari style. Also do up the station with thatched roof and vines and greenery.

All this would improve the ride in my opinion and add to what is already a great area of the park
 
Skyscraper said:
Towers' ride availability page has been updated to show that Postman Pat will close on June 3rd, and Get Set Go will close the same date but reopen in early July.


From: https://www.facebook.com/towerstimes/posts/pfbid02dnsnBaEZToau8yqnCBNroNeLdnf4wZ1aWJcuXLysoG3cGqAD3XVpK9ecwRavoQ8el
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Still not sure with this project normally I would be happy with a new coaster but I am not on board with this coaster especially at the expense at another ride I think it would have been better received if it went elsewhere in the park
 
Danscott22 said:
Goodbye Pat 😢

I actually think it's a mistake personally, I think a retheme to whatever the new coaster is going to be (probably Bluey if we're being honest) would've been a much better idea.
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I am curious how they will remove Postman Pat that will tell us if its remaining in the park and being relocated to elsewhere in the park.
 
I think it could be a good move depending on their future plans,

octonaughts is currently the only CBeebies rollercoaster and it isn't that good (in terms of theming and queueing experience, I haven't ridden it, but I have walked past and it doesn't look too enjoyable to queue for) this new rollercoaster plan looks like it will have more themeing and have a better queue layout

in addition octonaughts currently is blocking the only real expansion for cbeebies (adventure land)

and octonaughts is very exposed with only one train (I am not sure if the new version of the ride will have multiple trains (could be using an elevator like tornado springs) as the old design had a maitanence bay with a clear method for a switch track) that could lead to unreliability and limited opperating windows (I understand that the trains can take a while to perform maitanence on)

if it was me I would be looking at eventually relocating the octonaughts rollercoaster and expand CBeebies land into adventure land (and the hospitality suite) once spinball has reached end of life, octonaughts is a basic and general enough ride I would imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to relocate (either to another place with in AT or another park)

that is what my plan would be, although there is no reason they couldn't use the octonaughts rollercoaster sight for a better themed (and queueing / throughput) ride

if they are just adding this ride and leaving the rest of CBeebies then I don't think it is that wise of a decision
 
I get that I’m not the target demographic, but I still feel that the CBeebies coaster is a very odd choice.

A new coaster is rarely a bad thing, but I’m increasingly unsure what this coaster will actually offer that Octonauts doesn’t already offer for the area. If it were significantly smaller like Duplo Dino, it would offer something new, and if it were a bit larger like, say, a Vekoma Family Boomerang, it would offer something new… but it’s not really either, based off of what we know.

I’m sure it’ll be fun for the demographic, but it’s coming at the cost of a non-coaster and I’m not really sure what value it will actually add when Octonauts already exists.
 
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