Well I certainly never expected to queue 4 and a half hours for Nemesis, but that is what happened on Saturday morning. I think it turns out that we got to the back of the queue at pretty much the worst possible time, but oh well, just one of those things!
Now for some of my thoughts of Nemesis Reborn, aka Nemmy Reebs:
Positive
- Forbidden Valley as a whole is looking brilliant. From the new entrance portal to the additional theming, the reworked and new buildings to Nemesis itself. It's all fantastic and very cohesive. I was worried it might all be a tad X-Sector but it's not
- The big helicopter up near Sub-Terra is great! Very impressive looking, the aerial photos we saw previously do not do it justice at all
- The eye. Need I say any more?
- Nemesis itself was riding pretty well, there is a bit of a rattle but hopefully this is due to wheels/wheel assemblies more than anything else. It certainly felt like riding Nemesis, the forces were there
- I didn't get to see it at night due as I bailed to the hotels due to the weather, but from the photos and videos I have seen it looked pretty spectacular
- I love that some of the effects, such as the gun, smoke by the eye and bus go off when the train passed
- The inside of the station has been improved drastically, and Towers kept this very under wraps, so that was a lovely surprise
Negative
- The gun in the queue is clearly a fairly last minute addition as it really has been done on the cheap and it's not going to last long before it rots away. Really at odds with the rest of the theming which is high quality
- No waterfalls, but from what I could see I think these will be back in time
- The new soundtrack is great, but not quite as atmospheric as the original. Bits of it sounded similar to the Alty Mans soundtrack to me. Not a negative per say, more of an observation
- Bit of the queue do still look messy, but I am sure this will get sorted in the coming weeks. It would not have been a priority, understandably so
- Fencing. Lots of horrible black fencing. Not a fan of the fencing style they went for, and the tops of the "spikes" can actually be quite sharp
Overall, Alton Towers have done an incredible job with this project. It has given Nemesis a complete new lease of life and Forbidden Valley is better than ever before. I'm hopeful for a Galactica re-theme next year along with the new flat to round off the area. If this is the new standard to expect going forward, then I am excited!