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Galactica: General Discussion

TedTheHuman said:
Really, who actually cares about a ride type (or gimmick in that case) being the first in the world? It's just a crap argument for people who like to have stupid fights about which of their parks is better.
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I think it worked well for oblivion and air, as that it was a completely new experience, but world's first ride fully dedicated to VR? Anyone can buy a vr headset, just because it's on a coaster doesn't mean that it means as much as the world's first vertical drop. They're really scraping the bottom of the barrel with these claims now, I just hope they don't go down the same marketing route with sw8, even if we know they will.
 
I'm short sighted (around 2.50, and I found the logo at the start as you use the focus wheel was quite pixelated, I could see it properly, but the adjusting didn't do much either way for me, just made it look more watery so I went back to the normal setting. I'm not sure how to explain it, and I could see the parts after the lift very clearly, it was just waiting for the ride to start in the station and on the lift when you feel really high and look down, the bottom isn't that clear. Is the galactica logo at the start just generally bad quality? It wasn't bad quality, but it wasn't HD.
 
Leah said:
I think it worked well for oblivion and air, as that it was a completely new experience, but world's first ride fully dedicated to VR? Anyone can buy a vr headset, just because it's on a coaster doesn't mean that it means as much as the world's first vertical drop. They're really scraping the bottom of the barrel with these claims now, I just hope they don't go down the same marketing route with sw8, even if we know they will.
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It did work for Oblivion because it was a completely new experience, and it was truly the first dive coaster ever built (not vertical drop, but that's another debate :p). Nothing like it really existed besides it's clone in China until Sheikra and Griffon were built, and a lot of people say those two are considered to be better. I love Oblivion, and it's world's first claim meant something in 1998, but in 2016, it feels meaningless now that better dive coasters exist.

Air however, I don't even recall being dubbed as a "world's first", and it's not even the first flying coaster. What I do recall was Stealth at California's Great America was dubbed as the "world's first" flying coaster and that opened 2 years before Air did. Even then, the flying coaster at Granada in Manchester opened in 1997 and that was the first flying coaster ever built.

I agree about the VR thing though. I've been interested in it for years and whilst I do want to try out Galactica's, there is just no desire for me to travel up to Towers and try it. As you say, it'll become a lot more available in the next few years thanks to companies like Samsung and Sony making them available to buy the headsets. That's not a dig against Towers specifically since Six Flags do it as well, but the former has such a bad habit for marketing things as "world's firsts"

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Liseberg built Helix because they wanted a world class ride, they succeeded. It's not a world's first, but loads of people outside Sweden are going there just to ride because it looks amazing. Towers, please do the same.
 
So after going on galactica for the first time today my opinion is that although I love the concept and I loved the vr there was definitely a lot of room for improvement.
The headset was really uncomfortable and dug into my forehead and was causing some discomfort by the end of the ride.
As most had said the lift hill section was pretty good but the rest was kinda rushed, I feel they shouldn't had tried to cram as much into the one video and made it so there was multiple journeys in which u had an option to travel to when boarding.
This would make it more rerideable and could have been created in more detail.
The whole loading process was a faff and could easily be made a lot smoother imo. I really don't see the need of a staff member there just to take the headset out of the pouch and pass it to me I'm more than capable of doing that myself it's not rocket science is it??


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TedTheHuman said:
Air however, I don't even recall being dubbed as a "world's first", and it's not even the first flying coaster. What I do recall was Stealth at California's Great America was dubbed as the "world's first" flying coaster and that opened 2 years before Air did. Even then, the flying coaster at Granada in Manchester opened in 1997 and that was the first flying coaster ever built.
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I'm sure it was marketed as "the first of its kind", not flying coaster, but how you are put into flying position. at least it's a true claim in comparison to today's "world firsts".

TedTheHuman said:
feels meaningless now that better dive coasters exist.
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It's the same with all "world's firsts" or world records. Outside of enthusiast groups, who could actually say what coasters at towers were the first of their kind? It would have worked for oblivion in 1998, but today it makes no difference to the ride, but at least it's still (IMO) a world class ride. I'm yet to experience galactica, but from what I've seen I can tell that it's a gimmick that will wear thin very fast.
(Also, although oblivion may be the least complex dive machine, I think it still looks better than the other ones just because of how much tension it creates when it stops and how it looks when the mist is on)
 
Leah said:
It's the same with all "world's firsts" or world records. Outside of enthusiast groups, who could actually say what coasters at towers were the first of their kind? It would have worked for oblivion in 1998, but today it makes no difference to the ride, but at least it's still (IMO) a world class ride. I'm yet to experience galactica, but from what I've seen I can tell that it's a gimmick that will wear thin very fast.
(Also, although oblivion may be the least complex dive machine, I think it still looks better than the other ones just because of how much tension it creates when it stops and how it looks when the mist is on)
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I think the only people who'd know would be those who saw the advert for it back in 1998. However, is it a world class ride? Oh hell yes! It's quite incredible how they've managed to build a hole that deep for the drop and it still amazes even 8 years after I've ridden it and about 13 after I first heard about it. The theme is brilliant as well, but the world's first doesn't have much to do with it being a great coaster Same with something like Batman at SFGAm, it's not a great coaster because it's the first B&M invert, it's a great coaster because of how intense it is.

For Galactica. As others have said, I can't see it lasting because of the loading problems. But hey who knows?
 
I for sure noticed a HUGE reduction in screaming passengers while there for 2 days the other week. It was eerie actually.

Oblivion blows my head off every single time I get on it. Must be verging in 100 times over the years now! That woosh is mind blowing, doesn't matter how many times I've done it! Was good to see the fine water spray jets turned on this year too, although when we rode it first thing in the morning it was like a slap in the face - so cold!
 
I'm not a big fan of Air,

Today I experienced Galatica for the first time.

Wow! Amazing!

My first ride of it I manage to get to focus the headset perfectly, it was a little lose on my head, so I had to hold it in place during the ride.

My second go, I could not get the headset to focus well. I made sure I had it on very tight this time, but I found the vibrations from the movement of the ride shook it and mad the images in the head set all blurry, so I had to hold it still.

Would I like to see VR available on all the other rollercoasters? My answer would be no!

I'm not sure if I would still love to see VR on Galatica by the end of the season once the novelty wears off?

SAM_0996_zpsqv2oa0tc.jpg
 
Myself and @Kelpie have been rewatching the Battlestar Galactica reboot over the last few weeks, for the first time since it originally aired. (I'd forgotten how epic it is, highly recomend it if you've not seen it). I can't help but think "Galactica" is a missed oppertunity for an IP. I mean, a BSG coaster? That couldn't possibly go wrong, right?
;)
 
Getting a cylon in the works, they are worse than gremlins :D

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ThemeParkCrafter said:
Queuing wise, after the photo, is it better to go via the right hand side rather than go on the bridge to the left side?
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It depends how much you can see. If the bridge starts to have people on it I'd go to the right hand side as unless there are technical delays it's usually quicker than Q-ing across the bridge
 
Not a lot of choice today about which side to go...
the right hand station was closed for 2 hours as the ride was "short staffed",
and one station had to be closed so staff could take their lunch.
A sign of things to come on off peak days.
Sort it out Merlin,
not rocket science (pun intended).
The queue from the photo point was 55 minutes,
absolute crawling pace, twenty minutes stuck on the bridge,
fully empty carriages going round,
and about one third of the seats empty on the "occupied" trains,
by the time I got off the ride the queue was double what I had suffered,
so you could say it was the best part of 2 hours.
The queueboard said 40 minutes,
no way on this planet (or any other) was the queue as little as that.
If I had known how long the queue was going to be I wouldn't have bothered.
Overall,
didn't really rate it.

Bring back Air.
Every other main ride was walk on or less than five minutes all day.
I bet half the punters on the park were in the Galactica queue!
 
In finding you are much better riding it in the afternoon. In the morning it's on one station and we queued a good 20 minutes from halfway across the bridge, it moved painfully slow.

In the afternoon at about 4pm it had two stations and was walk on on both sides.

Apparently they have had a lot of issues with staff not turning up/off sick so they can't open the second station until staff have had their breaks, then there are enough staff in the afternoon for both sides. All 20 staff members that is.


After doing it a few times I have decided I don't like it and prefer Air. Today I just took my headset off straight away and enjoyed the ride much more than Galactica.
 
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