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Did Th13teen live up to the hype and your expectations?

Did the ride live up to all the marketing hype? No is the short version. They're trying to sell a family coaster as the next big thing and it really isn't.

That said, I went in expecting a family coaster, similar to Mine Train Ulven at Bakken, complete with a creepy theme and some decent effects. In that vein, did it succeed? In my opinion, yes, but not as well as it could have.

The ride itself has some nice moments of floater airtime and is nice and smooth. The drop was a let down on the morning of the 20th as the second drop didn't seem to free-fall very far before it slowed down and gently settled in to place. By the time the afternoon rolled around the drop seemed to be more intense, making for a much improved ride experience.

The trim on the first drop really spoils the ride, though. The whole drop just feels weird, as the train doesn't gain speed as quickly as you'd expect. They'd have been better off with a slightly smaller hill and drop without the trim.

Theme wise, everything looks pretty good, although once again Merlin haven't bothered to theme the building from all angles. Take a look back at the station as you're going up the lift hill and you'll see tin shed.

As for the effects inside the building, there's not a lot to them. A real wasted opportunity, in my mind. It wouldn't take much to make the scene effective either - just hold the train for about 10 seconds or so and mess with people's minds a little bit. Kill the lights, have a few creepy whispering sounds or hisses from the wraiths, preferably from multiple directions to distract and/or confuse people, maybe blast the train with air or something. Just enough to have people wondering what's happening, and then catch them off guard with the drop. The Hex octagon room is a good example of what they should have been aiming for.

So, in short, a nice attempt by Merlin, but not quite good enough. They could quite easily raise the coaster from OK to good by making a few improvements, but they've certainly missed the opportunity to make the ride great, at least without spending considerably more on an already expensive attraction.

One to re-ride if it has a small queue I think. Oh well, at least it should help keep the queues down for Rita.
 
I wish people would stop going on about how the drop "improved" later on in the afternoon.

No, it didn't. On your first ride you experienced an emergency stop. The problem is that that particular train was filled with CFers, who are now creating the impression that the drop somehow gets better as the day goes on. The "improved" drop in the afternoon was the completely normal drop, which was exactly the same as the the fully-working drop in the morning.
 
If Gavin's post is directed at me then you've misinterpreted my comments - my comments specifically refer to the two rides I had at the CF Live on March 20th.

The first time, the coaster did the first, smaller drop. It then dropped part of the way down the second drop before gently settling in to place. Note that this was before the ride broke down - when the ride E-stopped, the train I was on was sat on the final break run before the station, whilst the train behind us stopped on the switch track at the end of the ride. The first time I rode, the drop was poor - quite possibly not operating correctly, but poor nevertheless.

In the afternoon, the drop seemed sharper, as opposed to slowly lowering into place. I suspect that's how the ride is supposed to be, and if that's the case, it's a pretty good drop. In that sense, the ride was better for us when we re-rode in the afternoon. If the indoor drop performs as it did that particular morning, it's exceedingly poor. If it performs like it did later that afternoon, it gets a thumbs up from me.
 
^ Yep that's the day. It was quite obviously not operating properly, which should be obvious if it was stopped immediately after and you were left sitting on the break run.

Sorry if it seems like I'm having a go at you, but a lot of people, who were obviously also on your train, have said the same thing and it's misleading. The drop malfunctioned/was stopped. It's totally not the same thing as suggesting that it rides better later in the day.
 
Not sure if anyone knows about this yet but it has been down for the past two days, there seems to be a serious problem as, as far as I am aware, an Intamin engineer has been flown over to try and resolve the issue.
 
Well it's not good for Alton whatever it is, they are advising people to rearrange when they go on their website, if they want to ride Th13teen. Let's hope it's fixed quick for everyone's sake. At least it could mean less people there tomorrow. :)
 
Lasted longer than many expected to be down...

Before Thursday it had 57 minutes downtime from Saturday... Which is an improvement amongst the recent stuff...
 
From comments on the Alton Facebook page and Alton fansites, there seems to be quite a lot of people very unhappy about Th13teen being closed. Apparently, several of the other coasters were down for considerable amounts of time so it hasn't been a good two days for them, with a lot of moaning about the way that staff handled it aswell.
 
Brookes said:
From comments on the Alton Facebook page and Alton fansites, there seems to be quite a lot of people very unhappy about Th13teen being closed. Apparently, several of the other coasters were down for considerable amounts of time so it hasn't been a good two days for them, with a lot of moaning about the way that staff handled it aswell.
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Of course people are gonna be unhappy... That's the most obvious statement ever...

Problem is with staff most of the time they only know what's happening with their ride, other rides in other areas are none of their business and no doubt people working on Air/Nemesis were asked by people if Thirteen would reopen... And if TLs don't know, then the staff won't know and so on...

After a while as staff you do get tired of hearing the same question every minute as well if your ride is down...
 
I went to Alton Towers yesterday and the place was in a state! I've never seen the park run so ****ing badly before, it's gaining on par with Thorpe. As said above Th13teen was closed all day, yet there was a large crowd of people standing outside of it waiting for the ride to open for several hours; the staff did say it has a "technical problem" and they're working on it quickly, but they could've at least told everyone to just come back later. I did see them testing the trains a few times, they just kept on stopping at the top of lift hill, not sure it was for testing purposes or there was a hitch with the whole lift.

Asides from Th13teen, countless other rides were constantly breaking down, Rita being one of them (big surprise?). Oblivion was walk-on, which made everyones day, but all we heard was constant complaints from disappointed guests coming for Th13teen; they did give us a 2 for 1 voucher book as we exited the park. It was a very bad day for Alton Towers, the only notable ride which run 100% perfectly was Hex.

Hopefully this is the worst of it, it better be running nicely through Easter holidays otherwise there'll be some major problems.
 
thi3teen

Outdoor section very poor and the indoor section is just not a big enough drop. shame because the idea of it is fantastic. alton towers say its "redefining the definition of fear". afraid not good family ride thats it im afraid.

wabbit42 said:
After hearing people's reviews are now looking forward to riding this!
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:(
 
Kebab said:
I went to Alton Towers yesterday and the place was in a state! I've never seen the park run so <img> badly before, it's gaining on par with Thorpe. As said above Th13teen was closed all day, yet there was a large crowd of people standing outside of it waiting for the ride to open for several hours; the staff did say it has a "technical problem" and they're working on it quickly, but they could've at least told everyone to just come back later. I did see them testing the trains a few times, they just kept on stopping at the top of lift hill, not sure it was for testing purposes or there was a hitch with the whole lift.

Asides from Th13teen, countless other rides were constantly breaking down, Rita being one of them (big surprise?). Oblivion was walk-on, which made everyones day, but all we heard was constant complaints from disappointed guests coming for Th13teen; they did give us a 2 for 1 voucher book as we exited the park. It was a very bad day for Alton Towers, the only notable ride which run 100% perfectly was Hex.
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Well thats not like Alton at all! Alton is the only park I go to with confidence that most, if not every ride will be open. The only rides to have ever been closed on my visits are Ripsaw and the Sky Ride. I'm not saying I'm lucky, or trying to brag, but that is just how Alton is.

Thorpe on the other hand....
 
I used to go to uni. just up the road from Thorpe and know that a lot of the students work there part time. If my lot were anything to go by it's no wonder the rides never run properly - still it did mean getting to hang around late at closing time, getting the last staff rides - ahh happy days.

The horror stories about bits constantly dropping off of detonator were also slightly disconcerting!
 
Rode it twice again today in rows 1 and 4. Front row is still pretty awesome on the inside drop in my view and I still love it. Got quite a lot of airtime in the outside aswell due to a fairly loose restraint. It was down a bit in the morning but seemed to be running smoothly for the rest of the day. There is also more additions in the queue as they've put in some model people in certain places with vines wrapped around them.
 
Brookes said:
Rode it twice again today in rows 1 and 4. Front row is still pretty awesome on the inside drop in my view and I still love it. Got quite a lot of airtime in the outside aswell due to a fairly loose restraint. It was down a bit in the morning but seemed to be running smoothly for the rest of the day. There is also more additions in the queue as they've put in some model people in certain places with vines wrapped around them.
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...and some broken bits of stone (with Roman numerals on); also they seem to have thrown a load of branches on the floor around the track (none of this was there on Tuesday). Someone also said about the part waiting to go back into the station just having assembly point signs? I might be wrong, but it's all gravestones there.


Over all I quite enjoyed 13, quite a bit of airtime and the drop is both different and fun. It's certainly not a bad coaster. I think most peoples problem with it is they're expecting a thrill coaster along the same lines as Nemesis, which it just isn't. Maybe people should pay less attention to the marketing.
 
Its when your on the coaster at the final launch part when you are waiting for the track to change.

If you read what most people say no one expected to be a thrill coaster apart from Alton :) and thats the problem people have.
 
marc said:
Its when your on the coaster at the final launch part when you are waiting for the track to change.

If you read what most people say no one expected to be a thrill coaster apart from Alton :) and thats the problem people have.
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Final launch part? Just after going backwards?

Yea it does seem to be the case on here; I was thinking more generally.

After saying that though haunted houses are advertised the scariest ride ever; but they're definitely aimed at families too.
 
Most haunted houses are cheesy though, so instead of scary, it makes us laugh.
 
Yes after the backwards section whilst you are waiting to go forwards again, its like the ride is over and they gave up with the theming.
 
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