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Galactica: General Discussion

coastershells said:
I hadn't been to AT since 2005 but recently visited and rode Galactica. I am probably quite a biased rider, as I only queued and rode the VR to stay with my group, having had multiple very poor experiences with VR resulting in hours of motion-sickness.

We rode in early June, and Galactica was up in the top 3 highest queues (although overall it wasn't too busy considering the time of year, I think?) along with smiler and of course Wickerman. We queued around 80 minutes for the ride,which I felt completely disappointed by. The VR itself was poor quality, and the whole ride is calibrated to expect you to hold your head up - a very uncomfortable position to be riding in! Naturally, I felt sick getting off the ride and the whole thing seemed to be a waste of time, certainly not something I would do again but I do have positive memories of Air from my previous visit, hazy as those memories are.

The thing which prompted me to write about it is that the rest of my group came off pleased, they were happy (the wait may have been a little long for them but they would ride again) and I saw many others happy with the ride. When we were queuing there was announcements that the non-VR had a 0 minute wait, which explained our confusion watching the trains pass overhead apparently half-empty!

I personally would love if they could, instead of completely scrapping their investment, spend some money to divide the queues early and possibly add both wait-times, to avoid the disparity between the two modes. With some careful marketing, GalacticAIR could really take off and provide a unique experience for those who want it, whilst keeping a polished classic running for long time fans (and those of us who just can't stomach VR at all!)

anyone agree, or everyone thinks it's already sentenced to death by merlin?
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To quote multiple ride hosts "it's being removed by the end of the season"

Sent from my Swift 2 X using Tapatalk
 
As much as we all hate the VR (I can't stomach it myself anymore), it's still new and different for the GP. It's a different experience if you're not familiar with it.

The main problems with it are the facts that it rarely works properly, has an awful throughput and this whole removal of broken headsets thing has made it a bit of a shambles.
 
Not really, if the staff are announcing that there is no wait for the non-VR rows and people are still not taking up that option then it's probably because they've made a decision to ride with VR,. Maybe if they realised how slow the VR queue is after it's split then they might not come to the same decision - waiting for just 12 seats (or fewer on the left station once RAP has taken a bunch of them and probably with a couple of headsets out of use too) must be pretty tedious.
 
John said:
Not really, if the staff are announcing that there is no wait for the non-VR rows and people are still not taking up that option then it's probably because they've made a decision to ride with VR,. Maybe if they realised how slow the VR queue is after it's split then they might not come to the same decision - waiting for just 12 seats (or fewer on the left station once RAP has taken a bunch of them and probably with a couple of headsets out of use too) must be pretty tedious.
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When I was in the queue I got the impression a lot of people weren't brave enough to walk past the queues - I would have done if the rest of my group weren't desperate, but the people behind us (for example) sort of shuffled around a bit when the announcement went off but stayed in the queue until the official station split still, if that was earlier I think more people would filter to both stations
 
ihaveaspergers said:
To quote multiple ride hosts "it's being removed by the end of the season"

Sent from my Swift 2 X using Tapatalk
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That's a real shame if true, though I guess they can keep the "Galactica" name without the VR. I liked it, though admittedly I'm not that fussed to try it again.

When I visited they were sending out empty rows because so many people waited for the VR. To be fair this was right when it opened at 11, so maybe everyone wanted to try the VR first?

A few people did skip past when they made the announcement though, 45 minwute wait with headset or 20 without.
 
Multiple ride hosts will tell you what they want to, but they will have no real knowledge of senior executive plans...they are not a part of the decision process, and such decisions aren't usually made and shared half way through the season.
Jeez, if I believed what the ride staff at Blackpool tell me as absolute fact, I would have been crowned kingof the forum liars many years ago.
GP seem to like the vr and are queueing for it, I can't see it going sadly.
Split queues seems a much better idea.
 
rob666 said:
Multiple ride hosts will tell you what they want to, but they will have no real knowledge of senior executive plans...they are not a part of the decision process, and such decisions aren't usually made and shared half way through the season.
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The decision to spite Beanoland for Wild Asia was shared halfway through the 2009 season (I was on holiday when they told everyone, so got the ops manager to do my own personal one) before it was officially announced mid August...

It CAN happen, though most of the time as said it's often hearsay and rumours...
 
Last Friday we got over the bridge and found the VR queue all lined up, walked straight down the non VR and got front row. Other people followed us as well much to the confusion of VR queue who probably thought it was the fastrack queue getting straight on :D
 
People like to stand in queues. You sometimes get the entire Nemesis queue just going straight into the front row queue while the rest of the bays run dry because people don't look and don't think about what they're doing... they just follow the person in front.
 
People always want what they can't have, when VR was first introduced, they all wanted air, now that the VR has been reduced, everyone now want the VR, it's a bit like if you have straight hair, you want curly hair and visa versa, if you are tall you want to be shorter and visa versa, if you are large you want to be smaller and visa versa.

There was a company trying to sell a compilation CD for a £1, but wouldn't sell, but when they increased the price of the CD, then they sold out.

People always want what they can't have. Hence why rare items will always go up in value, even if they are completely useless to anyone
 
I've never been a fan of Air, especially with the slow throughput general unreliability and after being stuck for 40 minutes on the break run. I only ever rerode it because it was there and the queue was tiny Even then its wasted too many hours of my time waiting for it to stop having technical difficulties.

My son (12) rode it for the first time, insisted on VR because he's 12 and it was his favourite ride. I have to say, as poorly executed as the vr is I thought it improved the experience. I did try to get him to ride again without vr, but true to form it broke down.

I'm not saying the ride is bad, just a bit underwhelming compared to nemmie and I get what people like about it. If they invested properly in the equipment and made every seat capable of being both it would let everybody get what they want and improve the throughput and the whole experience for everybody.

My partner enjoyed the ride but hated the vr and was basically forced to use it because she wanted to ride with her son That's not what makes a fun family day out for all. If she'd been allowed to ride without the headset I reckon it would've been her favourite ride. Nemmie was too intense for her. Better than nothing though
 
Went on this today without VR. VR queue Massive. Wasn't keen on the restraints especially feeling like I was going to fall out on the first drop. Coaster wasn't as bad as I was expecting.
 
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