?????Black Hole, Last Goodbye????? Event

A Hole Lot of Goodbyes??????


Alton Towers ?????? 5/3/04. ??????Black Hole, Last Goodbye?????? Event.



The Black Hole, is a classic staple of Alton Towers?????? line up of rides, and has been for nearly twenty years ?????? like the Corkscrew, the Black Hole, with faint memories of chattering ??????space heads?????? and astro fields, and what not.

Believe it or not, the Black Hole is a mere coaster ?????? albeit, now a rather old and tired one, which as we were reminded throughout the entire day, is ??????at the end of it??????s working life??????. Re-discovering their love for the enthusiast, as well as their new found passion for the word ??????resort?????? and fixing things that probably should have been fixed along time ago, Alton hosted the emotionally titled ??????Black Hole, Last Goodbye?????? event ?????? a final celebration of the highly banked few decades the ride has given it??????s adoring public.

Forty English pounds, was the price Alton were charging for the chance to die hards to wave goodbye to the coaster. Allowing guests the intriguing (though seemingly not as unusual lately) opportunity to ride with the maintenance lights on and off, socialise, ride Oblivion and other selected attractions and enjoy a presentation about the ride.

As per usual, I made my way to the ??????Alton Towers Resort?????? with Dan (everybody??????s favourite ATA Forums moderator)?????? ah yes, I must stress at this point, this will be a multi forum based trip, as I bumped into and spent time with people from most corners of the theme park based web?????? thing. So, if there are any jokes or comments you don??????t understand, put it down to that.

The train journey was pretty uneventful, still having to take a bus from Crewe to Stoke, as Central Trains continue their ??????ongoing?????? maintenance. If the government ever moan that people don??????t make good use of public transport, and that ticket sales are down, they should probably remember it??????s because it??????s actually quite rare you get your ticket checked at all. Seemingly, the bus was paid for by the good people at Central Trains, as Mr. Driver couldn??????t give a flying fish who got on or off. This was a proper Shearings holiday pensioner machine, complete with the smell of old people, footrests and little bars to help you get up.

Paul, handily positioned at Stoke University, took me and Dan to the park. What a relief! Upon leaving the station, I saw an unfortunate couple enter the taxi of the crazy, bitter driver who had driven me to the park a few weeks previous. With more good fortune, Paul had taken ??????The Greatest Hits of Britney??????, and made a cute little mix tape, which featured amongst other things, a trance remix of ??????Hall of the Mountain King??????. The staff and V.I.P car parks at the Towers were practically full, meaning these winter weekends for hotel guests do smashing business for the park.

Greeted at the gate by the lovely Rachael from the PR department, and he who is now everyone??????s favourite park manager, James Paulding, we were given our ticket to the meal, and entered our names for the raffle. Venturing towards X-Sector, playing host to more visitors than it has done for the past few seasons, we queued for Oblivion for fifteen minutes or so. The ride was under control of some new and occasionally frightened looking trainees!, who had the policy of forcing the restraint down as far as mechanically possible, meaning air time was in short supply. The extra thrill of Oblivion came today from the fact, it was absolutely biting cold, and falling faster than snow is just plain strange, and mildly painful.

After exiting, we bumped into Alex Scrooge McTaparek and The Ancient Mariner, who as I expected, was cloaked in a flowing grey gown and hood, to hide his real identity. Dang it. Continuing the Rideas moderators extravaganza, we bumped into Chris Simon and friends. I??????ve seen various photos of Chris over the years, always struck by his beard ?????? seeing it in person confirmed it was a truly class piece of facial hair.

As if seeing Chris?????? sublime beard wasn??????t exciting enough, we wandered past Spinball were the ??????score counter?????? above the entrance was working (even if the ride wasn??????t), all the park advertising media is up and looks great, and then past the gloriously chirpy, fresh looking ??????Bookworm?????? in Storybook Land. Regrettably, the Beastie had the longest queue in the park ?????? oh well. Old Macdonald??????s Farm is a cracking little area, and in my opinion the best themed in the whole park (although Ribena Berry Bish Bash could be said to ruin it all). The Doodle Doo Derby was as strange and pointless as the last time we rode it, it??????s slow revolving platform and plastic farm animals would probably fail to excite the most hardened Eastbourne resident. It also seems cruel that the only animals left on the farm, who weren??????t mercilessly shot dead, are sat on again and again, daily by over excited guests.

As other folks retired to the Corner Coffee caf??????, I made my way back to Oblivion, to meet Lewis Cox. Arriving five minutes early, I saw him chuckling away with various Rideas folk and as planned we rode Oblivion, still in a bitter cold. Approaching the precipice of the drop, I noticed my restraint had been inked on with ??????Ron 4 Kylie 4EVA!!!?????? or something like that. Wow, you learn something new every day.

The Corporate Hospitality tent was the venue of the meal and presentation, and we were offered orange juice, or white and red wine ?????? as much as we wanted, in fact. Everyone I was with opted for the juice though, and so did I. I sat by the Mariner, Chris Simon and Lewis, and listened to them excitedly recount tales of Germany, where I worked out the theme park based conversation formulae, that everything leads back to Europa Park in someway or another.

The setting was great, and you could easily mix and match between tables, and Alton had put out a good deal of PR material for us to look at while we waited to be served, as well as little bread thingies, which were sort of like Soreen and Italian tomato bread. The roast dinner was nice, the seafood was complex (particularly the king prawn) but the best dish of the meal was the divine chocolate cake, and unlimited strawberries. My only real criticism was as usual at a carvery sort of thing, their was a great deal of food I could have eaten that went to waste. I was determined to get Lewis to give away the surprise ending of Parc Asterix??????s Transdemonium dark ride, and after much pestering he did. Sounds great, must visit Asterix soon.

Terry Dunn, head of engineering and a very smartly attired chap, when I??????d expected a grease monkey, gave us a talk on the ride, it??????s mechanics, it??????s strange German handbook, and the reasons that it was closing down, and some history of the ride (which Jet Star was it!?) and the kind opportunity to see various bits and pieces from the ride. The most surprising fact, and one that opened my eyes a little, was the revelation that the park??????s crew put EIGHT hours a day into general maintenance. I got the impression the park considered the coaster to be travelling down an avenue of non-improvement.

The winners of the last ride were picked. In retrospect, perhaps it was a daft choice to pair up with Lewis - the comical routine we had to perform to alight the trains, everytime we got to the off-load was ludicrous. Worst, was when sitting at front, I had to sit with my legs crossed, and when it came to sliding the bar forwards, it was pure Laurel and Hardy.

With the lights off, the ??????Galaxy Whizz?????? effect was operating, including the fantastic ??????shhhhhzzzzzzzoooooooooommm pyoom pyoom[:D]?????? noise. Everyone commented on how great it looked ?????? however, in the light, it looks like someone has left a set of tacky Christmas lights dangling from the ceiling. Riding with the lights on, is something I??????m glad I experience during the last day of operation as it totally trashes any psychological effect ?????? the drops were not as big as I??????d envisioned, the helixes tighter and smaller in diameter too.

Soon, we were chucked out, as the last riders and their guests gathered on the final train ?????? with some fanfare, the pounding interior music began and the train was sent off to a melee of cheers and applause.

Exiting into X-Sector was eerie ?????? the area was dead, and that huge ??????tent?????? was now useless for the time being. As all 66 guests left the airlock gate for the last time, I couldn??????t help feel a little upset.

We were offered the opportunity to visit the Black Hole??????s maintenance shed, for a look around, and the opportunity for interesting photos with our head placed through the track, or beside a car etc. Best of all was the area amid the lift hill, offering some unique photo opportunities, and to see all the cars stacked up, still and silent.

In a move of brilliant hospitality, James Paulding offered to take us up to Rita??????s construction gates for a gander at the coaster and surrounding developments. I swear, that metal fence has had more camera lenses poked through it than any other in existence. James and Rachael were really up for hearing everyone??????s ideas for events and new developments ?????? the crowd were really great, not die hard fanboy types ?????? we also had a look at the proposed next area for re-development, Cred Street, which this year the park hope will see some actual guests.


RITA Progress Report!:

Rita, is of course now a nasty green at it??????s two highest points ?????? I??????d be lying if I said it didn??????t effect the appearance, but it does look smaller for some reason, and it??????s nice to see the park are willing to keep locals happy.

I hate to bang on about him, but Mr. Paulding??????s enthusiasm and hope for the park is unmatched. He also managed to divert my eyes from the crockery stall, while talking about getting various bits and bobs in working order and was keen to show off his new Bookworm, for which he re-wrote parts of the script! A few more questions followed, and we were kindly escorted from the park, saying goodbye to the Towers Street music, as it will be changed come this time next week! The shutters came down, I said goodbye to Lewis, and toddled off to Alex??????s car, for a lift to the original hotel.

Dan, Tom and I made our way back to the hotel, were Paul was asleep in a snug chair ?????? we had a drink, and then made our way back to Stoke station, catching another coach, which taken us half way around the world and made an intensely random 20 minute stop at Kidsgrove station, in the pich darkness. I love public transport!

The event was pretty great, actually, and although a degree of optimism still hangs above my head about the park, I feel today was a lovely ?????40 session, of sound re-assurance.


Pictures/Videos can be viewed at the following sites:


http://img196.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img196& ... 0027eb.jpg

http://photobucket.com/albums/v220/neil_321/

http://www.rideas.co.uk/features/blackhole/index.html

http://www.cwoadatabase.co.uk/blackhole/



Yours,
dragon2000[8D]

By the way thankyou for this report. I read this when you first posted it but never replied. Thanks for this LONG LONG LONG report. [:D]

Oh yeah I got a site somewhere with loads of pics

http://www.freewebs.com/atblackhole/