February Half Term 2014

[Ollie]

The park will be opening from February 15th-23rd 2014 for the annual half-term event - Adult tickets are £15 and child tickets are £12 online and Moshi Monsters are returning this year! The ride selection is what you would usually expect (except for the Farm area), with the addition of Nemesis Sub Terra.

Sharkbait Reef by Sea Life
Duel
Ice Age The 4D Experience
Wobble World
Hex
Nemesis Sub-Terra
Air
Blade
Sonic Spinball
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Marauder's Mayhem
Frog Hopper
Nemesis
Runaway Mine Train
Heave Ho!
Gallopers Carousel

Confirmed here: http://www.altontowers.com/short-breaks/half-term-breaks/#Rides

 

[Andrew]

2 coasters. They could've added Oblivion to the list. Could this mean some extensive work to The Smiler will be carried out which they don't want anyone seeing?

Apart from that, the list is fairly decent. The inclusion of Sub Terra is a welcome addition considering how cold it usually is during the event and an indoor 'thrill ride' is what the event has needed.

 

[Alastair]

2 coasters. They could've added Oblivion to the list. Could this mean some extensive work to The Smiler will be carried out which they don't want anyone seeing?

Apart from that, the list is fairly decent. The inclusion of Sub Terra is a welcome addition considering how cold it usually is during the event and an indoor 'thrill ride' is what the event has needed.

Nemesis, Sonic, Air and RMT. That's 4 coasters. Oblivion would be nice, but it wasn't on last season either so it won't be missed too badly.

 

[Andrew]

2 coasters. They could've added Oblivion to the list. Could this mean some extensive work to The Smiler will be carried out which they don't want anyone seeing?

Apart from that, the list is fairly decent. The inclusion of Sub Terra is a welcome addition considering how cold it usually is during the event and an indoor 'thrill ride' is what the event has needed.

Nemesis, Sonic, Air and RMT. That's 4 coasters. Oblivion would be nice, but it wasn't on last season either so it won't be missed too badly.

I meant to say 2 main coasters.

And Oblivion wasn't on the list last year due to The Smiler being built...

 

[Tom]

I guess Sonic Spinball is going to remain as just that next year then, as opposed to a name change or possible move some had been curious about.

 

[James]

If the 2015 rumoured kids roller coaster turns out to be true then that will most likely sit in Adventure Land so that is probably the closest year we'll see anything happen to Spinball (whether that be a re-theme, relocation or removal).

 

[LiamC]

Fairly standard, nothing new or unexpected there I don't think. I'm glad Sub Terra has been added as I feel this was missed very much last season during half term

 

[Benzin]

Sub Terra I think was only not open last year because of the excessive work it needed on the effects...

Good news though... Same with Charlie being open...

 

[josht]

To be honest it isn't a bad line up

 

[Rob]

Glad to see that Sub-Terra has been added to the line up. Not surprised to see the omission of Oblivion but hopefully it can return for Feb Half Term in 2015.

 

[ImUrNemeis]

Seams like a pretty good line up. Shame about Oblivion not opening. I'm hoping this will be down to The Smiler and X-sector works.

 

[Rob]

Just a thought, would it be a good idea to move this thread to AT General now specifically for discussion about this years event? Just discussion seems a tad all over the place at the moment!

 

[Dave]

Just a thought, would it be a good idea to move this thread to AT General now specifically for discussion about this years event? Just discussion seems a tad all over the place at the moment!

Done, should have been moved last weekend...

... *glares at the forum team*

 

[Enk27]

Been on park today (Friday), it has been quite busy and a lot busier than we expected.

Due to the reduced ride offering of the event parts of the area felt like a busy summer day. I've never seen such large queues for marauders and heave-ho.

Nemesis struggled given the one car nature. It took us approx 40 mins to get from the first drop waterfall onto the ride. For some reason the single rider wasn't on in the morning nor was there anyone batching/keeping an eye on batching. This resulted in quite a few 3/4 trains being dispatched which compounded the problem.

By contrast Air was run like a dream and had a 10 minute constantly queue on 2 trains. This of course confused us when compared to the usual main season.

Didn't get on Mine Train as it was just too busy given the make up of the visitors.

The final coaster Spinball seemed to be a little neglected all the way across the park. Whilst it had a usual big queue at the start of the day come 2ish it was a 5-10 min queue which is the best I've seen it.

A little quirk I noticed was that spinball has an "arrow" on the base of the restraints to indicate when bar has been clicked down enough. Not sure how long that has been there but it is quite useful if (like me) you have a larger body frame because I was never sure how far the bar needed to go down (whilst still allowing me to breathe).

All in all a good day but not the multiple re-ride day I was expecting.

 

[djtruefitt]

A little quirk I noticed was that spinball has an "arrow" on the base of the restraints to indicate when bar has been clicked down enough. Not sure how long that has been there but it is quite useful if (like me) you have a larger body frame because I was never sure how far the bar needed to go down (whilst still allowing me to breathe).

All in all a good day but not the multiple re-ride day I was expecting.

As far as i'm aware Sonic has had them for years, maybe from when it opened?

I was on park on Sunday and although in general I had a good day, there simply isn't enough open at Feb half term to spend all day there without getting bored. We took the day rather slow and did pretty much all the rides, and left the park by 3pm. It was fairly busy, but that was mainly areas like CCL and Mutiny Bay due to the young children on park. The Valley seemed rather dead most of the time.

Hopefully next year they will open CBeebies and even Oblivion (or Smiler!).

 

[josht]

Half term has lost its appeal even though it's been a long closed season, it just feels like your done within 3 hours including lunch it's slightly depressing

 

[Rob]

Indeed, there was nowhere near enough open for a full day on park. In the last couple of years we've lost Oblivion and the Farm from the event. Admittedly that has been forced. If the event returns next year (and if it does I think it will be for the final time) I hope at least Oblivion will be opened again. I'd like to think it would have been open this year if it wasn't for all the work taking place on The Smiler.

 

[D4n]

(and if it does I think it will be for the final time)

Genuine question... why is it that you think that? Is it that you anticipate a proper winter season opening or that you think FHT will simply be scrapped?

 

[Alastair]

(and if it does I think it will be for the final time)

Genuine question... why is it that you think that? Is it that you anticipate a proper winter season opening or that you think FHT will simply be scrapped?

I think the former - there's no way they will scrap FHT and not replace it with anything. A proper winter season offering is the only way the park can move forward and grow.

 

[Rob]

Yeah, I think it will be replaced with a proper/bigger winter/Christmas event. However I'm not sure if they'll wait until the rumoured phase 2 of Cbeebies Land in 2015 before doing that. I can't think the park have made much money from FHT this year either, it was pretty dead both days I went.