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Major Ride Closures 2016

If the park are given a decent investment amount for 2017 I imagine they will add a new flume ride, which will appeal to family's.

They could create a whole new themed family area up by Charlie and on the old coaster corner with a new dark ride to replace Charlie, a custom Vekoma suspended family coaster, and a couple of family flats. However that's unlikely to ever happen any time soon.
 
Oatcakedodger said:
What rides are 100% closing, have Merlin/AT actually confirmed any will be ?
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Pretty certain ripsaw is going, seen as though all the fountains and supports have been seen on the car park, and the gondola has been seen on a trailer outside the park.

Hex is almost definite too, as towers (seemingly accidentally) wrote that it would be closed on their website for a few hours.
 
Martin said:
They definitely need to invest in that family market. Of those rides that Rob listed, only three have been build this side of 2000 (and only two by Merlin), and two of those are coasters, one of which was a replacement for another family coaster anyway.
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Which in turn was marketed the wrong way for a family coaster. As good as Th13teen is a family coaster, the theme is just far too dark for families willing to ride it, so I guess most people don't look at it as a family ride thanks to its infamous marketing as well.

Martin said:
But I'm not sure how they're going to go about it. I wouldn't say no to another major 1.2-1.3m coaster, but I'm not sure the park really needs it, at least not more than something fitting between RMT and Spinball, something along the lines of Pegasus at EP maybe, but is that something the park would be willing to build?. If the new dark ride at Thorpe is a success it's likely they'll try to repeat that at Alton, it's pretty realistic to imagine them adding a major dark ride in the near future, but unfortunately the problems they've had with N:ST has probably put them off smaller dark rides. And we all know Merlin for whatever reason aren't fans of traditional flats either.
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Towers currently have 9 coasters. Of these, 5 of them have a 1.4M height limit, 2 are 1.2M, and 2 are 0.9M. So I think another coaster along the lines of 0.9-1.2M wouldn't go amiss. Either that or a new dark ride would be brilliant I think.
 
Coaster wise I think the park is fine to survive on that front for a while. What they need next ideally is a Flume replacement and a new dark ride in the chocolate factory warehouse.

Sadly the park has been such a mess for years there are a million things they could do/invest in next, so god knows what will actually happen over the next few years. Wiser investments need to be made (unlikely given we're getting VR slapped on a coaster this year for example) and themes need to be executed to a higher standard.
 
Why the hell would they close Hex?! It's the best dark ride on park, if not the UK! Gonna miss riding it if it does close.
 
Could this mean it is a possibility it could open then? I can't see why they'd go to all that trouble removing it only to have to break the news again.
 
I think the rumour was that Hex along with Sub Terra would be SBNO next season rather than removed entirely.

The main reason for Hex being closed I would imagine is because it is one of the most expensive rides to run due to the amount of staff required, aswell as the issue with the vault not parking.
 
Rob said:
Spinball, Rapids, Duel, RMT, Thirteen, Blade, Twirling Toadstool, Marauders Mayhem, Enterprise and for those who like getting drenched, Battle Galleons.

So 10 rides. The almost shocking thing from that list is the lack of dark rides, not helped by the closures of Hex and Charlie. Some of the best family theme park around the world, including Disney and EP, are full of dark rides that guests of all ages can enjoy.

:)
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I won't go on Battle Galleons for obvious reasons :)

She has been on Spinball, Enterprise and Thirteen but she seems to have lost her bottle a bit and says she doesn't want to go on them when we go back in April (or maybe not now). Although I am hoping to change her mind. She went on Spin Ball last year and enjoyed it then went on Thirteen and the going backwards scared her lol. In her little head she has joined them up as being two rides she doesn't want to go on now, forgetting she loved Spinball. Enterprise makes us both feel a bit sick :)

So we are down to seven rides maybe...

She loved the Flume, Driving School and Hex.

Will see what happens when the park reopens but thinking we might be best trying a different park. We went to Blackpool in October and February and she could go on so many more rides.
 
My brother is like that, he'd enjoy lots of the rides at towers, but wont go on, (or has been on them but wont again). My parents bribe him with a towers football or something. Still cant get him on hex though.
 
Indeed, Alton Towers have now confirmed in their latest blog post that The Flume is being retired, as TowersStreet exclusively reported back in November!. Also confirms that Ripsaw has been removed, for the few doubters out there!

A replacement for The Flume in 2017 is essential in my eyes.

Rather amusing that Towers haven't yet bothered to link to their own blog post with this news in it. And they've still not fully confirmed their 2016 line-up which they said they would be doing in January.

:)
 
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