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Galactica: General Discussion

There were several seats out of use last weekend, the staff were clearly trying to track this and send troops of 3 to rows with 3 available seats, probably reducing the number of single riders getting on compared with all seats being in use.

SRQ will surely only get worse when it goes back to 3 trains. If some rows have 3 seats and others 4 it's impossible to fill all the seats from a SRQ that only serves one side, no matter how cleverly they try to batch. At least with 1 station open SRQ users have a chance to get on each train they send out.
 
I remember manging that SRQ back when it was Air, and it was a miserable task.

When on two stations you had the crafts coming into the station in random order, and you had seats out of order on random rows, different per craft, which you then had to keep track of in your head, while also dealing with other crap like batching groups together and answering guest questions. The seats out of use don't even look obviously out of use when you scan down the train.

I'm not convinced it could be done properly.
 
Alsty said:
I remember manging that SRQ back when it was Air, and it was a miserable task.

When on two stations you had the crafts coming into the station in random order, and you had seats out of order on random rows, different per craft, which you then had to keep track of in your head, while also dealing with other crap like batching groups together and answering guest questions. The seats out of use don't even look obviously out of use when you scan down the train.

I'm not convinced it could be done properly.
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Surely they should make the out of use seats stand out in order to help you guys assign groups and fill gaps with single riders efficiently. A simple brightly coloured piece of tape, tied on ribbon, piece of equipment with an "out of order" type notice that affixes to the seats in question would help so much!
 
I have two quick notes following my visit on the 29th April 2025 (apologies if these have already been mentioned before):-

1) It looks like the letter 'A' has finally been re-added to the end of the Galactica sign on the station building, so it no longer says 'Galactic'! (see first photo below). I don't think this had been done on opening day, which surprised me, given that AT had had several months to attach it. You can't quite tell from the photograph, but it seems to be a slightly different colour (whiter) from the preceding letters.

2) It looks like the single-rider queue has been removed from Galactica (see signage in second photo below), although the official AT website still says that it is active; I asked one of the employees on the day, though, and she confirmed that it doesn't "currently" have an SRQ; my guess is that it was removed (for now) due to people using it to queue-jump? I used it on the 21st March 2025 and was surprised that single-riders were simply merged with riders from the main queue, with no checking or separation between them inside the station building.
 

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Secret Weapon said:
2) It looks like the single-rider queue has been removed from Galactica (see signage in second photo below), although the official AT website still says that it is active; I asked one of the employees on the day, though, and she confirmed that it doesn't "currently" have an SRQ; my guess is that it was removed (for now) due to people using it to queue-jump? I used it on the 21st March 2025 and was surprised that single-riders were simply merged with riders from the main queue, with no checking or separation between them inside the station building.
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that is differnt than when I went, they send them down the old RAP queue (the queue that is outside the right station) and it was completely separated just split at the merge (like 13)
at the time it was single station on the left side, so they fenced of the right station with temporary barriers and had a staff at the SRQ to transfer the number of SRQ to the other station.
was it single station I would not be surprised if they close it during single station (it looks as though the sign can be swung over to combined SRQ and fast track) as it was a big pain to run SRQ from the left station essentially requiring an extra staff just to focus on single rides and it was a bit weird
 
How do I get my dad on Galactica. He's old and I came into this passion at the later years of his life. It's all he could manage in terms of intensity.

Would like him to experience it before he bows out.
 
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spotweld said:
How do I get my dad on Galactica. He's old and I came into this passion at the later years of his life. It's all he could manage in terms of intensity.

Would like him to experience it before he bows out.
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I take my Dad to Alton Towers sometimes but I would never, ever push him to go on a ride he didn't feel comfortable doing. I thought he might like Wickerman as we used to love Big Thunder Mountain at DLP but he watched it for a while and decided it wasn't for him.

Not everyone gets as much out of riding coasters as we do and things do get harder as you get older - your proprioception and speed perception change so riding a coaster will feel more extreme at 70 than it did at 35. So I'd just concentrate on doing things at the park he will really enjoy. When I go with my dad now we do the rapids, Hex, Curse, RMT and even things like Battle Galleons which I never normally bother with! So it's a different day out but still a fun one.
 
If he has fat old ankles like mine, give him the challenge of getting to the pagoda fountain pond without using any steps, so he can soak his old joints in the water.

But it does make them a bugger to light.

Boom, and boom.
 
Sorry if this is a stupid question / has already been discussed, but has anyone else noticed some of Galactica's Track appears to have been cleaned / jetwashed?

It seemed much more 'air' blue the other day compared to the grimy teal it has looked in recent years, although this section could have always looked like this (tbf the rails still do have that grimy colour but the box section just looked so blue compared to usual this visit)

Photo attached below

IMG_3638.jpeg
 
Jb85 said:
Don’t think so - maybe just rained really hard.

Needs a repaint really - but same could be said of most the coasters.

Not quite sure why the ride gets so much hate, still think it’s a very unique relaxing ride
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I would say only thing Galactica or could of done with but hasn't got is a Pretzel loop that would add a key intense moment. That would of elevated the ride even more having done Tatsu and Manta they are in another league in comparison to Galactica though Galactica still a great ride.
 
I’m glad Galactica doesn’t have a pretzel loop. I’m not the world’s biggest fan of flying coasters in general, but Galactica is a lot more fun than Manta for me because it focuses on nice, flowy manoeuvres rather than wildly intense elements. The ride type works best when you keep it flowy, in my view.
 
Having not been on any of the 1.4m attractions at AT (except OG Nemesis) Galactica is the one I’m looking forward to the most.

Big fan of flying coasters and especially if the focus isn’t on intensity. Hopefully it’s still there by the time my son is tall enough!

Though I suspect it’ll be preemptively spoilt if we do FLY at Phantasialand first.
 
Mykeprime said:
AIR had a whole pleasant futuristic vibe that I miss. Galactica lost that a bit.
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I’ll admit I’m continually stumped as to why people miss the Air theming so much.

Air pretty much had no tangible theming, and it still didn’t fit into Forbidden Valley at all. For all its flaws as a project, Galactica at least had a go at adding some sense of theme to the ride. It was admittedly a bit half-hearted, but they at least gave theming a go with Galactica; for my money, that’s something.

And now the VR has gone, I don’t see how Galactica differs all that much from 2002-2015 Air aside from enhanced theming, what with the portal and all. Each to their own, but I can’t think of a lot that Galactica didn’t improve compared to Air, VR rubbish aside. Galactica doesn’t fit into Forbidden Valley, but Air never did either, so I don’t see how Galactica has made that any worse.

With that said, I do think the Galactica theme has itself maybe had its day now. It’s looking a bit worse for wear compared to some other parts of the park, and now the rest of Forbidden Valley is looking better than ever, I do think Galactica feels even more out of step.
 
Matt N said:
I’ll admit I’m continually stumped as to why people miss the Air theming so much.

Air pretty much had no tangible theming, and it still didn’t fit into Forbidden Valley at all. For all its flaws as a project, Galactica at least had a go at adding some sense of theme to the ride. It was admittedly a bit half-hearted, but they at least gave theming a go with Galactica; for my money, that’s something.

And now the VR has gone, I don’t see how Galactica differs all that much from 2002-2015 Air aside from enhanced theming, what with the portal and all. Each to their own, but I can’t think of a lot that Galactica didn’t improve compared to Air, VR rubbish aside. Galactica doesn’t fit into Forbidden Valley, but Air never did either, so I don’t see how Galactica has made that any worse.

With that said, I do think the Galactica theme has itself maybe had its day now. It’s looking a bit worse for wear compared to some other parts of the park, and now the rest of Forbidden Valley is looking better than ever, I do think Galactica feels even more out of step.
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Other than the portal what theming elements add to the experiance?
There is a queue line photo point no longer used. plywood enclosure over the bridge that is falling apart.

Its not so much that Air had better theming, its just that the whole thing felt more cohesive. Whereas now we have some space elements that just don't make sense without the VR.
 
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