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The Retrosquad: General Discussion

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Themeparksandy1981 said:
Did you think the Retro squad rides would have worked better if they were flat rides that use to be at the park?
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Possibly for some folk, but I imagine the age demographic for many of the riders (particularly on things like Spin Jam) is such that they wouldn't remember Turbo Star, Tri-Star, Spider, Space Boat etc. Even Dynamo has been gone for 20 years at this point.
 
Rick said:
Possibly for some folk, but I imagine the age demographic for many of the riders (particularly on things like Spin Jam) is such that they wouldn't remember Turbo Star, Tri-Star, Spider, Space Boat etc. Even Dynamo has been gone for 20 years at this point.
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Astro Dancer… now there is something I can relate to. They re-themed that twice, they don’t even theme flat rides once these days.
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
Did you think the Retro squad rides would have worked better if they were flat rides that use to be at the park?
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I think it’s the presentation of the rides that is a big part of why people aren’t fond of them, they really stick out and and the music is annoying. I think if they had just created a separate semi-themed Retro Zone with several rides in it together it might have been better received, but it’s still a problem that a couple of the rides haven’t been so great.

However I do find it funny that they didn’t bring back a Huss Breakdance as part of the Retro Squad seeing as the park had one (Dynamo/Dino Dance) some years back. They could have bought one back, got Twirling Toadstool out of storage, and put it alongside a couple of other well chosen Retro Squad rides and given them a classic Hall Of The Mountain King soundtrack.
 
WillPS said:
It spent two thirds of its life at the park unthemed (and another year of the remaining third the ride was in storage).
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It kind of fitted the Fantasy area of the park and even when it relocated to festival park it looked even better as nothing in that area was themed and it was renamed and painted as the dino dancer for Ug land and then Dynamo In Forbidden valley.
The Tussaud’s really did care about there flats and now all that’s left is the blade which is older than me.
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
It kind of fitted the Fantasy area of the park and even when it relocated to festival park it looked even better as nothing in that area was themed and it was renamed and painted as the dino dancer for Ug land and then Dynamo In Forbidden valley.
The Tussaud’s really did care about there flats and now all that’s left is the blade which is older than me.
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It wasn't themed until 1999.
 
Funk’n’Fly is definitely on a longer cycle this year I’ve noticed. I was on it for about 4/5 minutes. Also whatever was done to it over winter seems to have made it much more reliable. It was down or went down on all my visits last year, but seems to have been fine so far this year, apart from normal spells of downtime that most rides have. I wonder if it’ll manage to keep its good reliability, or if it’ll just become dead again later in the year.
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
Did you think the Retro squad rides would have worked better if they were flat rides that use to be at the park?
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The thing is, they worked absolutely fine for what should have been their purpose - stop gap for one year, a maximum of two, whislt permanent rides were drafted in to replace them.

I just hope that they install a permanent flat for next year, if they did then combined with Sub Terra you’d have replaced 2 of the flat rides, you could then probably lose the retro squad rides (with the exception of Flavio’s which is fine,) and deal with the slightly reduced capacity until they add one more ride in a year or so.
 
My personal belief is that they’ll likely install several permanent flat rides next year. The management clearly know of the capacity issues hence the retrosquad existing.

This year they’re spending a lot on capex - Curse, SubTerra and Nemesis. They likely have a certain budget per financial year.

Being able to open some new rides alongside Nemesis reopening next year makes it much more marketable.
 
Jb85 said:
I'd I have thought that would have started by now .....clearly 2025 opening date if it goes ahead.
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They've got a whole bunch of conditions from the planning application approval to meet first. The archaeological survey of the area isn't set to start until next month.
 
After watching Shawn’s vlog with Alton Towers MD today to me it didn’t sound like the Retro squad was going to be leaving the park at the end of the season as she did say many guests have commented on how much they love the flat rides and then spoke about the future investments already planned for the park.
 
Had my arm twisted and rode Twistatron yesterday.

Won’t be doing it again. Long loading times, ride experience is one of the most uncomfortable experiences I have ever had on a flat ride. It made submission feel like sleeping on an expensive mattress. It’s not intense, there’s no force on it. The aesthetics of the whole ride area is awful too.

I was holding off out of respect to Enterprise, I will be sending my feedback to Alton Towers in the hope they reconsider bringing something like this back again.
 
Blackhole_Sun said:
Had my arm twisted and rode Twistatron yesterday.

Won’t be doing it again. Long loading times, ride experience is one of the most uncomfortable experiences I have ever had on a flat ride. It made submission feel like sleeping on an expensive mattress. It’s not intense, there’s no force on it. The aesthetics of the whole ride area is awful too.

I was holding off out of respect to Enterprise, I will be sending my feedback to Alton Towers in the hope they reconsider bringing something like this back again.
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Twistatron is a pretty poor ride. You say 'long loading times'; did you measure the throughput?
 
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