Alton Towers, past, present & future, including SW7

[pitchnoir]

Just found this over at towerstimes and thought you all would like a ganders!!!

The event kicked off with talks given by Sales and Marketing Director Morwenna Angove and later by John Wardley. As well as talking about past and current attractions such as Nemesis and Th13teen, the park also touched on what we're likely to see in future. We've listed a lowdown of the main points which were discussed:

Th13teen

The planning of Th13teen was extremely complex as the ride and it's foundations needed to carefully negotiate trees and their roots around the ride's footprint.
The ride's drop was fully built and tested under complete secrecy in Budapest. A video was also shown showing senior team members from Alton Towers testing the drop before it was dismantled and shipped to the UK.
The ride was always intended to be a family ride, with no aim to create a ride solely for the thrill market.
The ride's recent issues with lifthill stoppages was confirmed to be due to the varying weights of the trains, resulting in the trim brakes being installed.
Th13teen's current capacity is hitting 1440 people per hour.
And finally, putting to bed recent rumours since the ride opened, the park has confirmed that no further effects are to be added to the vault.
Cross Valley Wooden Coaster

Some readers may remember the plans for a cross valley wooden coaster. These were submitted but later withdrawn by the park. There were various rumours circulating about what had happened to the plans.
From a marketing perspective, a wooden coaster was determined to be unsuitable for the park. Surveys have shown that a large number of people perceive these rides to seem unsafe, therefore any wooden coaster at the park is considered to be highly unlikely.
Should the ride have been built, it would have had the highest drops of a wooden coaster anywhere in the world.
The park are always looking at the possibility of utilising the valley, even with a steel coaster. However, planning problems would be a major issue.
Future Attractions

Initial planning for SW7 is set to kick off in three weeks time, with an aim for the attraction opening in 2013 or most likely 2014.
2011 will be a year where Alton Towers will concentrate on Families, however there was no confirmation on what new attractions (if any) this would involve.
The park are looking at the possibility of an attraction in the Black Hole tend in 2012. If this is not possible, then any additions would be unlikely until after SW7.
It was also confirmed that contrary to recent rumours circulating, Nemesis is currently at no risk of leaving the park any time soon.
Attendees of the event are also being given behind the scenes guided tours of Hex behind the scenes, and later of Th13teen

news link:http://www.towerstimes.co.uk/news/s...ion=showfull&id=1276974620&archive=&template=
Site link: http://www.towerstimes.co.uk/

 

[Martyn B]

So if they dont get a ride to go in the Black Hole tent, we wont see any new rides for at least 4 years? :roll:

I was really hoping for a re-furb of X-Sector! That doesn't seem likely now.

2011 will be a year where Alton Towers will concentrate on Families

So just like 2010, 2009, 2008.....

 

[Ben]

From a marketing perspective, a wooden coaster was determined to be unsuitable for the park. Surveys have shown that a large number of people perceive these rides to seem unsafe, therefore any wooden coaster at the park is considered to be highly unlikely.

Bollocks. That's absolute bollocks.

Quote:
2011 will be a year where Alton Towers will concentrate on Families


So just like 2010, 2009, 2008.....

Oh joy. *falls asleep*

So, basically, Alton's going to go pretty **** over the next few years? "Concentrate on families" generally means improve bugger all, but, they'll keep coming back because it's Alton.

I hate Merlin, I really do. X Sector NEEDS ****ing sorting.

 

[Danzibarr]

They confirmed that 2014's coaster will have a 1.4 restriction.

Morwenna said that the Black Hole tent was on her 2012 possibilities list.

Next year's development will be "very family", but 2012's will be Thrill/Family thrill.


John also showed a few initial various layout options for Thirteen, some of which were much more exciting, but obviously due to planning, tree routes and cost they arrived at the final design.

Oh, and the Tesla Coil works now!

 

[Dave]

This was written by Towers Times, right now if I scrape out the hype then not much to go on.

 

[Danzibarr]

This was written by Towers Times, right now if I scrape out the hype then not much to go on.

I was there, and (for once?) what they've said is a good representation of what Morwenna and John were saying last night. I'll post some more detailed stuff after my BBQ!

 

[jokerman]

From a marketing perspective, a wooden coaster was determined to be unsuitable for the park. Surveys have shown that a large number of people perceive these rides to seem unsafe, therefore any wooden coaster at the park is considered to be highly unlikely.

Bollocks. That's absolute bollocks.

Why is it bollocks?

There are very few of these rides in the country, and the ones that get the most press are the old ones at blackpool, which are only in the news when they derail.

Maybe the people you talk to about these things are intellectual and understand that they are safe, but a lot of people out there see them in a different way.

 

[Waffleman]

I was also there last night and I'd just like to say that, consdering the whole event was free, as an apology for cancelling the original "Thirteen Weekend" the night more than exceeded my expectations. There was some very interesting Information from John and Morwenna and, if anyone who was part of the night taking place is readig this, I'd like to comment on what an excellent night it was.

Contrary to the article above, they stated that a family RIDE would be built next year, and they also said that usingthe black hole tent for the 2012 attraction was a POSSIBILTY, which means that if they can't/don't get a ride in the tent they'll still get one, but I'll go into more detail on that later.

With regards to the woody, once a question about the cross valley woody was mentioned John said that he would set this straight. He starts by mentioning that both him and Morwenna would love a woody (him for the fact that woodies can be very exhillarating, and Morwenna for the marketting aspect, as it would be the tallest wooden rollercoaster [drop] in the world) but the big boys at Merlin with their Market research didn't like it. However, John then went on to say how both himself and morwenna would keep trying very very hard to get one.

SW7 will be a 1.4 ride, and will open in 2013/2014, planning starts in 3 weeks so there was little more information on that.

As previously stated, 2011 will host a family ride and 2012 will bring a family thrill ride to the park (possibly in the black hole tent).

Something which John mentioned when A small group of us were talking to him personally about Harry Potter is that he is going to ride it "as soon as I can get there", he also said that Kuka (sp?) have been trying to sell the Robocoaster to a Merlin park but John is discouraged by the capacity, but his mind may change once he's ridden it.

Alot of other things were talked about during the night, but these were the main points of interest regarding the future of the park.

Oh! Just a little side-note Morwenna said that as long as she is working for Alton Towers no licensed themes/charcters will be used (Saw:The Ride, etc).

 

[marc]

Ben same views as you, they have been working more for families for the past god knows how many years.

I love the fact that no more effects will be added to 13, just goes to show that so many people were talking so much crap when they said it was meant to have this and that and that it was not finished.

Did anyone ask them why they went for that advertising with 13? and that the story is not told anywhere and no one has a clue what the ride is about?

Thanks for all the updates guys.

Merlin will not want a woodie as they cost more to maintain.

 

[Waffleman]

^Unfortunately not. However, as for the theme, judging from everything else that was said, it seems that they wanted familes to feel like they bad accomplished something when they rode it, hence the intimidating theme.

 

[Nemesis Inferno]

Did no-one think to at least patronise Morwenna about her stupid PR stunts?

On the other hand, can we really be suprised that Towers, a FAMILY park will be adding FAMILY attractions?

With Towers, they CANNOT and SHOULD NOT just plonk down 'big' attractions, what happened the last time they did that? We got Rita...

Do we want another Rita? Yes 2013 is a few years away but hey, maybe they'll fix up the park in the meantime...

Next year most likely will be a support attraction for Dark Forest anyways...

 

[marc]

No one is saying just plonk in rides.

But for the past god knows how many years its been family rides, as someone who likes thrill rides I was hoping for a thrill ride before 2013 that is all. Is that a bad thing?

As Furie has said a number of times the problem with Alton is the family attractions are spread out all over the place so no matter what they do they are never going to make it totally family friendly.

The park needs to cater for everyone and 13 year old rides no longer do this, they are not enough for people like me to drive 4 hours for.

Yes I am being selfish but I have had enough of this family park rubbish, USA parks and other parks we went to in Denmark and Germnay make our parks look stupid.

I am also shocked no one asked about the PR stunt but I suppose no one wanted to upset anyone.

 

[Danzibarr]

1. Did anyone ask them why they went for that advertising with 13?
2.and that the story is not told anywhere and no one has a clue what the ride is about?
.

1. In the Q&A, somebody did ask why they chose campaigns such as having to be 16 to ride which contradicts with their family ride aim, to which Morwenna said that she had to to get press coverage, and that as a marketeer, these are the techniques that work.

2. During the tours we were split into smaller groups, and the question about the story was raised to Morwenna. She said that the idea of the girl was to help people 'buy' the story, and that she is supposed to represent the spirit of Thirteen. Morwenna also said that a lot of people have questioned her about it, and that next year she plans to do more with the story and the girl (to which Shawn Sanbrooke suggested a pre-show "not as big as Hex, but just 30 seconds or something!")

At this point she was asked whether melted down Corkscrew was actually used in the big tree, to which she just laughed and said "Nooo!"

General Thirteen bits and bobs also worth a mention:

- Intamin have recently installed Automated Trim Breaks, which control the amount of breaking depending on the speed of the train. John explained the problem of varying speeds of the trains due to the fact that the trains themselves are so lightweight, meaning that the weight of a loaded train is almost double the weight of an empty train, which obviously makes a huge difference to the speed. Unlike for example a Nemesis train which is so heavy that the weight of riders on it does not much affect the performance.

- More kickers have been added to the second lift, so that if the train stops on there it no longer needs to be emptied and pushed to make it over the top, the kickers can now do it.


Oh and with regards to Alton being a family park, someone asked if this was their intention, leaving Thorpe to be the main thrill park, to which Morwenna concluded that whilst Thorpe is out and out thrill, Alton appeals to a much wider audience, and is still the country's thrill capital, despite what some other parks may say :lol:


I have to agree with the above, it was a fantastic evening, much better than I had expected it to be, and we got free tshirts!

 

[marc]

^Thank you for covering the points I asked about.

 

[Ben]

From a marketing perspective, a wooden coaster was determined to be unsuitable for the park. Surveys have shown that a large number of people perceive these rides to seem unsafe, therefore any wooden coaster at the park is considered to be highly unlikely.

Bollocks. That's absolute bollocks.

Why is it bollocks?

There are very few of these rides in the country, and the ones that get the most press are the old ones at blackpool, which are only in the news when they derail.

Maybe the people you talk to about these things are intellectual and understand that they are safe, but a lot of people out there see them in a different way.

Please. If even the Welsh can figure out they're fine, that's NOT the reason.

 

[Danzibarr]

No problem!

Another interesting thing that came up last night was that Spinball was originally going to have a piece of trick track in a tunnel before the lift hill that would tip you, I presume like in Winjas. - I don't know if everyone already knows this, but there's some trivia for those who don't!

 

[Dave]

Thank god they didn't because it would've been a bit of a wtf moment.

 

[jayjay]

Sounded like a very informative and interesting evening. I was given the opportunity to go, but that opportunity was given with about 3 days notice and I was busy.

I've not got a problem with installing family attractions, since Alton is a family park it makes sense. They really need to do something with the black hole tent. It's been lying there dormant for 6 years. Even if they just ripped it out and replaced it with another ride, that would be better than leaving it there for another few years. Another thrill ride in 2013/14 sounds about right. Keeps up with the "new major ride every 4-5 years" pattern they've got going.

 

[jokerman]

From a marketing perspective, a wooden coaster was determined to be unsuitable for the park. Surveys have shown that a large number of people perceive these rides to seem unsafe, therefore any wooden coaster at the park is considered to be highly unlikely.

Bollocks. That's absolute bollocks.

Why is it bollocks?

There are very few of these rides in the country, and the ones that get the most press are the old ones at blackpool, which are only in the news when they derail.

Maybe the people you talk to about these things are intellectual and understand that they are safe, but a lot of people out there see them in a different way.

Please. If even the Welsh can figure out they're fine, that's NOT the reason.

Yes, but the Welsh have had one built there and will have seen lots of advertising for it. I agree that if one were to be built at Alton, people would soon se the error of their ways and change their views. But people won't change their views until one is built, and Merlin won't build one until people change their views.

 

[Danzibarr]

^ As John said last night, the McNamara family (original oakwood owners) had nobody to have to impress/win over to let them build Mega, whereas Alton has to impress Merlin and thus the largest possible range of customers before they can start thinking about a woodie.

It's a shame, although as has been said, Morwenna and John said how they would keep pushing and pushing for one. .. Does that sound innuendoish?