• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

[202X] Project Horizon (SW9?): Planning Approved

  1. Theme: The coaster will have a theme based on a sci-fi adventure. It will take riders on a journey through a futuristic world, with unexpected twists and turns at every corner. The ride will be immersive, with riders feeling as though they are part of the adventure.
  2. Queue and Pre-Show: To create excitement before the ride, the queue area will be designed to look like a futuristic spaceship. Guests will walk through the spaceship and be greeted by animatronic robots, holograms, and special effects. The pre-show will set the stage for the adventure, with a story about a mission to save the world from an alien invasion.
  3. Ride Experience: The coaster will be an indoor steel roller coaster with multiple inversions, high-speed drops, and twists. The coaster will be designed to make use of the indoor space, with tight turns and sudden drops to create a sense of disorientation. The ride will also feature special effects, including lighting, sound, and projection effects to enhance the experience. The coaster will have a launch system that will propel the train from a standing start to high speeds in just a few seconds, adding to the excitement.
  4. Finale: The finale of the ride will feature a simulated battle with the alien invasion. The coaster will travel through a scene with special effects, including laser lights, smoke, and sound effects. The coaster will end with a final drop that will simulate a crash landing back to Earth.
  5. Exit: To continue the theme, the exit area will be designed to look like a mission control room. Guests will be able to see a summary of their ride experience and take photos with props and sets from the ride.
 
I think many people are looking into the project name for a clue. To examine the evidence:

1. Exodus and Genesis bare no resemblance to their respective ride themes.

2. It doesn’t take a genius to work out the project names are alphabetical from their conception- A, B, C, D, Exodus, F, Genesis, Horizon,

This is in line with the fact on numerous occasions we’ve been told Thorpe have been planning a new coaster since 2019.
 
George W said:
My only question is, if this is sw9 why is it called project horizon? Or have any secret projects had different names in the early stages in the past?
Click to expand...
Anything to do with planning permission? I wouldn’t get peoples hopes up calling it SW9 for it to be canned.

Perhaps now it’s been green lighted it could be transitioning to SW9?
 
George W said:
My only question is, if this is sw9 why is it called project horizon? Or have any secret projects had different names in the early stages in the past?
Click to expand...
Concepts become big ideas, become projects, become weapons...
In the style of the Bee Gees, or more recently Boyzone...
"Its only words."
 
Ally said:
  1. Theme: The coaster will have a theme based on a sci-fi adventure. It will take riders on a journey through a futuristic world, with unexpected twists and turns at every corner. The ride will be immersive, with riders feeling as though they are part of the adventure.
  2. Queue and Pre-Show: To create excitement before the ride, the queue area will be designed to look like a futuristic spaceship. Guests will walk through the spaceship and be greeted by animatronic robots, holograms, and special effects. The pre-show will set the stage for the adventure, with a story about a mission to save the world from an alien invasion.
  3. Ride Experience: The coaster will be an indoor steel roller coaster with multiple inversions, high-speed drops, and twists. The coaster will be designed to make use of the indoor space, with tight turns and sudden drops to create a sense of disorientation. The ride will also feature special effects, including lighting, sound, and projection effects to enhance the experience. The coaster will have a launch system that will propel the train from a standing start to high speeds in just a few seconds, adding to the excitement.
  4. Finale: The finale of the ride will feature a simulated battle with the alien invasion. The coaster will travel through a scene with special effects, including laser lights, smoke, and sound effects. The coaster will end with a final drop that will simulate a crash landing back to Earth.
  5. Exit: To continue the theme, the exit area will be designed to look like a mission control room. Guests will be able to see a summary of their ride experience and take photos with props and sets from the ride.
Click to expand...
Please contextualise this kind of post (is it your opinion, something you've heard etc) - otherwise someone is going to inevitably come along and take it as fact! 🥲
 
kydog1299 said:
I think many people are looking into the project name for a clue. To examine the evidence:

1. Exodus and Genesis bare no resemblance to their respective ride themes.

2. It doesn’t take a genius to work out the project names are alphabetical from their conception- A, B, C, D, Exodus, F, Genesis, Horizon,

This is in line with the fact on numerous occasions we’ve been told Thorpe have been planning a new coaster since 2019.
Click to expand...
I think it’s actually named Horizon due to the coaster being themed around the great British Post Office scandal
 
Out of interest, what sort of thrill level are people expecting from Project Horizon? Are we expecting the Big 7 to become the Big 8 when it opens, or do we reckon it will be more of a family coaster to bridge the gap between RMT and the 1.2m rides?

Personally, I don’t think we’ll be seeing anything too thrilling here in spite of the fact that Project Horizon is allegedly SW9. The building is only 20m high, it’s not a massive building as far as enclosed coasters go, and it doesn’t sound like the park are digging down an awful lot either based on the environmental reports. With this in mind, I’m expecting more of a family coaster from Project Horizon myself.

Based on the building size and things we know, I’m personally thinking that this could be a dark ride/coaster hybrid (think something along the lines of Revenge of the Mummy/Gringotts), which I also think would lend itself more to a family or family thrill coaster than an out and out thrill coaster. I also feel that a ride like this with more universal appeal would fill the current gaps in Alton Towers’ ride lineup more than a regular thrill coaster in a shed would.

Another thing that potentially backs up my personal suspicion that this may not be an overly thrilling ride is that based on the imagery we currently have, the exterior styling of the building does not appear to lend itself to the dark theme that would typically be expected on an Alton Towers/Merlin thrill coaster. While I know that doesn’t necessarily imply anything about the target demographic of the ride (Galactica exists, after all, and there are plenty of Merlin family rides with darker themes such as The Curse at Alton Manor), could a slightly lighter choice of theme for this ride infer that thrillseekers aren’t necessarily its sole demographic?

I don’t personally expect the height restriction/thrill level to be any higher than 1.2m myself, but I absolutely admit that I could be proven wrong. What do you guys think?
 
Matt N said:
Out of interest, what sort of thrill level are people expecting from Project Horizon? Are we expecting the Big 7 to become the Big 8 when it opens, or do we reckon it will be more of a family coaster to bridge the gap between RMT and the 1.2m rides?

Personally, I don’t think we’ll be seeing anything too thrilling here in spite of the fact that Project Horizon is allegedly SW9. The building is only 20m high, it’s not a massive building as far as enclosed coasters go, and it doesn’t sound like the park are digging down an awful lot either based on the environmental reports. With this in mind, I’m expecting more of a family coaster from Project Horizon myself.

Based on the building size and things we know, I’m personally thinking that this could be a dark ride/coaster hybrid (think something along the lines of Revenge of the Mummy/Gringotts), which I also think would lend itself more to a family or family thrill coaster than an out and out thrill coaster. I also feel that a ride like this with more universal appeal would fill the current gaps in Alton Towers’ ride lineup more than a regular thrill coaster in a shed would.

Another thing that potentially backs up my personal suspicion that this may not be an overly thrilling ride is that based on the imagery we currently have, the exterior styling of the building does not appear to lend itself to the dark theme that would typically be expected on an Alton Towers/Merlin thrill coaster. While I know that doesn’t necessarily imply anything about the target demographic of the ride (Galactica exists, after all, and there are plenty of Merlin family rides with darker themes such as The Curse at Alton Manor), could a slightly lighter choice of theme for this ride infer that thrillseekers aren’t necessarily its sole demographic?

I don’t personally expect the height restriction/thrill level to be any higher than 1.2m myself, but I absolutely admit that I could be proven wrong. What do you guys think?
Click to expand...
Personally, I am expecting it to be a family-thrill coaster with a 1.2m restriction similar to TH13TEEN and Wicker Man but am hoping for it to be an extreme 1.4m coaster.
 
On a side note, I have to say that I think we could possibly be getting the most ideal scenario that we could ever have hoped for with regard to the Coaster Corner land.

Prior to Project Horizon being revealed, I had always hoped that the park would try an indoor coaster on that land, but being realistic, I’d always thought that the best I could probably have hoped for on that land was something like a flying theatre as a Phase 2 expansion to The World of David Walliams.

So to see them building a very probable SW9 within a 20m high building that’s the biggest indoor attraction building on park in terms of ground space is almost like a dream come true for me!

You can quibble all you want about whether Alton Towers needs another roller coaster, but I think that an indoor coaster should definitely fill a gap within Alton Towers’ lineup and offer a very different proposition to any of their current roller coasters, and I think that’s definitely something to be celebrated, personally!
 
Matt N said:
On a side note, I have to say that I think we could possibly be getting the most ideal scenario that we could ever have hoped for with regard to the Coaster Corner land.

Prior to Project Horizon being revealed, I had always hoped that the park would try an indoor coaster on that land, but being realistic, I’d always thought that the best I could probably have hoped for on that land was something like a flying theatre as a Phase 2 expansion to The World of David Walliams.

So to see them building a very probable SW9 within a 20m high building that’s the biggest indoor attraction building on park in terms of ground space is almost like a dream come true for me!

You can quibble all you want about whether Alton Towers needs another roller coaster, but I think that an indoor coaster should definitely fill a gap within Alton Towers’ lineup and offer a very different proposition to any of their current roller coasters, and I think that’s definitely something to be celebrated, personally!
Click to expand...
I agree, the coaster line up is solid but I do think an indoor coaster was the gap in the coaster line up that needed plugging, so it just makes sense!
 
The other thing that I think could be really good about Project Horizon is that it will add a major headline attraction to the area of the park behind the Towers Ruins, which I would argue is currently lacking.

Don’t get me wrong, Gangsta Granny is a very fun little ride and The World of David Walliams is a perfectly pleasant and fun family area, but I do feel that the whole area behind the Towers lacks major draws compared to the rest of the park and has done for a number of years now. I don’t deny that planning restrictions are probably a significant factor in that, but rightly or wrongly, no attraction in that part of the park has the allure of one of the major coasters.

Casting CBeebies Land aside for obvious reasons, it’s currently my least regularly explored part of Alton Towers by some distance; I only go past Hex/Dark Forest very occasionally at present. I think Project Horizon could definitely change that and bring a brilliant major draw to that part of the park, so in that regard, I think it’s a hugely positive step!

I’m not sure if any of you agree with me, but I’m going to make a bold statement; I think that Project Horizon represents the most exciting thing to happen in the area behind the Towers Ruins this side of the millennium. I think it could be a real game changer for that part of the park!
 
Due to the area being pretty quiet it would of been nice to see them dark forest theme around that area, certainly would of been more atmospheric
 
Alastair said:
Please contextualise this kind of post (is it your opinion, something you've heard etc) - otherwise someone is going to inevitably come along and take it as fact! 🥲
Click to expand...
Chat GPT! Thought it’d be intriguing to see what it came out with on limited information, but who knows it may have more rationale behind it than anyone else just taking a stab in the dark (pun intended)
 
Ally said:
Chat GPT! Thought it’d be intriguing to see what it came out with on limited information, but who knows it may have more rationale behind it than anyone else just taking a stab in the dark (pun intended)
Click to expand...

I did that a few pages back, except you've put your own themeing thoughts into it.

For me seem likely, but who knows at this stage.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top