• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Ride Availability/Operations 2022-24

Relife said:
Can we just accept that Thirteen has been a really poor investment for the park. We really need to move away from the worlds first nonsense and get back to just building good coasters without fancy gimics.
Click to expand...

Alton Towers may not even exist anymore without making its name on worlds first rides.

Sadly the modern regime seem incapable of maintaining the park whilst their international competitors have taken the prototype mantle and run with it.

I wouldn't say Thirteen has been a poor investment in the sense that it remains a very popular attraction 15 years later but WickerMan was arguably their best addition since Nemesis and so is a far better role model for future rides imo.
 
Relife said:
Can we just accept that Thirteen has been a really poor investment for the park. We really need to move away from the worlds first nonsense and get back to just building good coasters without fancy gimics.
Click to expand...

I would be inclined to disagree.
- It remains a consistently popular ride
- Fills a gap between the smaller and bigger rides/height limits
- If I remember rightly it opening season saw the highest number of guests ever
 
jmc said:
I would be inclined to disagree.
- It remains a consistently popular ride
- Fills a gap between the smaller and bigger rides/height limits
- If I remember rightly it opening season saw the highest number of guests ever
Click to expand...
Being a good coaster should be a bare minimum given the cost to build it. I agree with all those points however it's reliability or lack of, means it's a poor investment. A couple of years back it couldn't make it up the loft hill when it rains which quite frankly is absurd.
 
Is it popular because it’s a genuinely good ride or is it popular because it’s one of only two 1.2m height restriction coasters in the park?

I don’t think it’s terrible by any stretch but when you’re above 1.2 but not yet 1.4, too old for CBeebies Land and RMT doesn’t do it for you anymore your options are limited.
 
BigShadowtinytree said:
Is it popular because it’s a genuinely good ride or is it popular because it’s one of only two 1.2m height restriction coasters in the park?

I don’t think it’s terrible by any stretch but when you’re above 1.2 but not yet 1.4, too old for CBeebies Land and RMT doesn’t do it for you anymore your options are limited.
Click to expand...

I think it’s popular, I think sometimes enthusiasts conflate their opinion of a ride as being universal. Air/ Galactica has always had a bit of a mediocre response from enthusiasts but If I mention I’m off to Alton Towers to non-geeks nearly everyone mentions how much they love “the superman like coaster”.
 
I think it's a good family-thrill ride that bridges the gap between RMT and the more intense thrill rides. The outdoor section lets it down a bit, but it's a decent enough ride.

Lack of reliability as a reason for removal you could apply to any ride at any point in history. At the moment, Alton Towers needs more rides, not less.
 
A lot of non-children really like Thirteen too, myself included. I also don’t notice it being any more unreliable than any other coaster on the park, I think they more or less all had spells of two/three days in a row where they didn’t operate this season.
 
Dave said:
I think it’s popular, I think sometimes enthusiasts conflate their opinion of a ride as being universal. Air/ Galactica has always had a bit of a mediocre response from enthusiasts but If I mention I’m off to Alton Towers to non-geeks nearly everyone mentions how much they love “the superman like coaster”.
Click to expand...

I use my family as the non enthusiast barometer and both my wife and son love Thirteen and Wickerman (as do I).

When he’s 1.4m I’m confident both their order of preference will be:

1 Galactica
2 Nemesis
3 Oblivion
4 Rita




87 Smiler
 
Relife said:
Being a good coaster should be a bare minimum given the cost to build it. I agree with all those points however it's reliability or lack of, means it's a poor investment. A couple of years back it couldn't make it up the loft hill when it rains which quite frankly is absurd.
Click to expand...
It's a decent family ride no one can argue that, however they'll now never get planning there for a proper coaster like the Corkscrew which is a shame because it was more of a thrill than Thirteen is.
Thirteen and Smiler are the two rides I'm not bothered about at AT I'll never do the Smiler more than once a visit if at all these days.
 
There's still Run Alton Towers to come that everyone will turn up to even though they're not running or watching anyone else run.
 
They changed something last year meaning they closed off one of the lanes on the entrance drives. Apparently caused massive traffic. I was running the 5k the previous year and it was absolutely fine without that lane closure. Arrived very late last year as a spectator. Probably made worse by people cottoning onto the fact that there were hardly queues for rides the previous year so then the average enthusiast just turned up for another day of theme-parking. Just ruined everyone's day who was associated with the actual running part of the day.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top