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Towers Loving Care

Liseburg is a good example. Nice small park, then young CEO with a vision transformed it into a leading park and investing into world class rides so I think it possible but would need commitment
 
andeyhart said:
And you're being waaaaaaay too harsh on Oblivion, as both a ride and its theming. To say it doesn't generate interest amongst guests anymore is just factually wrong.
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Just a simple observation really. Given the rides that have been built since, and will continue with SW8 (even though at this stage I'm not keen on it), Oblivion will continue to decline in popularity due to the fact it's simply too short, and it's novetly trick of "vertical drop" becomes less interesting with age.

You cannot deny that it will be the first of all the current coasters in the park to be removed at some point.

Yes Nemesis is wonderful, and it will outlive Oblivion for sure.
 
PeteB said:
You cannot deny that it will be the first of all the current coasters in the park to be removed at some point.
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Including Spinball & Rita?

I'm willing to bet Oblivion gets more people joining it's queue line per hour than Rita does. It's a throughput machine when double loading, and when single loading it has a similar throughput to Rita and usually has a fairly decent queue.
 
MakoMania said:
Including Spinball & Rita?

I'm willing to bet Oblivion gets more people joining it's queue line per hour than Rita does. It's a throughput machine when double loading, and when single loading it has a similar throughput to Rita and usually has a fairly decent queue.
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I'm not a massive fan of either ride but I can totally respect how Spinall & Rita are far more valuable rides to the average guest on a day out than Oblivion would be.

Spinball is a huge problem. It's a cheapo ride, it's in the wrong place, it was poorly planned, has poor throughput. Despite that, everyone loves it. It's a great family ride.

Rita is similar, and lets be honest - it's a total eyesore, it lacks a decent theme, has poor throughput, but go ask anyone which ride they would rather do IF queuing was not an issue. Lets say both rides are walk on, wanna do Oblivion or Rita instead? Most would choose Rita.
 
Oblivion may be one trick pony and arguably dated, but it still has a place in Towers.

  • It's a B&M (typically renowned for high quality and long life durations)
  • It's a park classic, built in the tail end of the magic Pearson days and John Wardley.
  • It's the highest throughout coaster in UK (theoretically 1900 PPH),
  • The ride still dominates X-Sector along with The Smiler
Whilst the ride may get removed in the future (heaven-forbid through bankruptcy of Merlin's tyranny ways), I can't see it happening for a while and should any coasters be hitting the chopping block in the near'ish future, it'll probably be Spinball and Rita.
 
PeteB said:
Spinall & Rita are far more valuable rides to the average guest on a day out than Oblivion would be.

Lets say both rides are walk on, wanna do Oblivion or Rita instead? Most would choose Rita.
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Really? I don't think so. Everyone knows what Oblivion is, it's iconic. Say to someone, "you know Oblivion at Alton Towers", they'll likely know what you're on about. You say, "you know Rita at Alton Towers" most don't have a clue. Oblivion is still a staple attraction of Alton Towers, hence why it's regularly used in promotional materials whereas Rita almost never is. It just gives the illusion of being a quieter ride sometimes due to its great throughput (more than double Spinball's, almost double Rita's), lack of downtime and overly long queue line.
 
Spinball and Rita will be on the 'TO GO' list as Rita has a poor throughput, always breaks down (Typical Intamin) and there are more energy efficient launch coasters out there. Spinball would at least of been relocated by 2019 as the council demand Spinball to be out the area due to the fact it's blocking views of the Towers.

On a different note does anyone think there will be be any new soundtracks this year? As we got 3 new soundtracks for Towers Street, Mutiny Bay and Spinball Whizzer as part of the TLC program and the old Towers Street music, Fireworks 2015 music got reused in other areas of the park. If there is new audio I would like some audio in the skyride stations as the skyride has no audio currently and just feels ambient at the moment.
 
PeteB said:
Just a simple observation really. Given the rides that have been built since, and will continue with SW8 (even though at this stage I'm not keen on it), Oblivion will continue to decline in popularity due to the fact it's simply too short, and it's novetly trick of "vertical drop" becomes less interesting with age.

You cannot deny that it will be the first of all the current coasters in the park to be removed at some point.

Yes Nemesis is wonderful, and it will outlive Oblivion for sure.
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Oblivion is still popular, since they moved to mostly single shuttle loading this last season it has regularly had 30 to 40 minute queues. It is a throughput machine when running at full pelt.

It will also be an arse of a coaster to remove because of the tunnel and little else could go there, so unless it becomes expensive to run i doubt very much they would bother to remove it.
 
In a strange way, I reckon the coasters are fairly safe. Merlin are rather thick it seems and coasters = good. Flats, Ents, Theming = bad.
 
MakoMania said:
It just gives the illusion of being a quieter ride sometimes due to its great throughput (more than double Spinball's, almost double Rita's), lack of downtime and overly long queue line.
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I'm not sure what Oblivion can max out at these days, but it's certainly not the 1800 or whatever it was back in the day. Since they stop the dual occupation of the lift etc, things are seemingly much slower. They should have stuck to their guns with the mandatory locker rule.
 
Bert2theSpark said:
Spinball and Rita will be on the 'TO GO' list as Rita has a poor throughput, always breaks down (Typical Intamin) and there are more energy efficient launch coasters out there. Spinball would at least of been relocated by 2019 as the council demand Spinball to be out the area due to the fact it's blocking views of the Towers.

On a different note does anyone think there will be be any new soundtracks this year? As we got 3 new soundtracks for Towers Street, Mutiny Bay and Spinball Whizzer as part of the TLC program and the old Towers Street music, Fireworks 2015 music got reused in other areas of the park. If there is new audio I would like some audio in the skyride stations as the skyride has no audio currently and just feels ambient at the moment.
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I would guess the sky ride won't open in 2017 due to SW8 construction. Whether it needs to close is of course a different matter but it would give them a good excuse.
 
AT86 said:
I would guess the sky ride won't open in 2017 due to SW8 construction. Whether it needs to close is of course a different matter but it would give them a good excuse.
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So cynical :) I hope you havn't been influenced by this website ;) I stand to be surprised by what they do with the skyride next season. A partial service from Dark Forest to Nemesis wouldn't be a surprise, but they probably don't know themselves yet.
 
If you think one of the main reasons to remove a ride is to replace it with something else (ignoring Submission, Ripsaw et al), I can't see what would easily fit into the Oblivion site if it were removed.
 
I think that Oblivion is and will always be Iconic. But It does need a serious update. I can't see it surviving more than another 10 years
 
BarryZola said:
So cynical :) I hope you havn't been influenced by this website ;) I stand to be surprised by what they do with the skyride next season. A partial service from Dark Forest to Nemesis wouldn't be a surprise, but they probably don't know themselves yet.
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How can they terminate at FV? Or do they just send empty pods past SW8 and pray no debris hit them before they return to load at the other side of FV
 
Poisson said:
How can they terminate at FV? Or do they just send empty pods past SW8 and pray no debris hit them before they return to load at the other side of FV
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I suppose they could get shorter cable to go between FV & CCL but that's highly unlikely as it's both technically complex and expensive.
 
They would need to rebuild the mechanism within FV station, to stop gondolas crossing by sw8. Also they would loose connection to the storage and service area for the gondolas
 
Or some clever lift gear for building SW8 that doesn't enter the Skyride envelope
 
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Tibble said:
I think that Oblivion is and will always be Iconic. But It does need a serious update. I can't see it surviving more than another 10 years
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Backwards. It's the only way. Falling backwards into that hole would be phenomenal.

That said, a whole new generation discovers Oblivion when they hit the right age or visit the park for the first time. If I watch my favourite film a billion times, I won't enjoy it as much - but that doesn't make it any less of a great film. Same with coasters, especially B&M rides where the ride experience of today is almost the same as the day they were built
 
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