Alton Towers - Thirteen

[gouldy]

Saw POV and offride footage with people on the ride this morning on the tv, so chances are, it's pretty close.

One thing I will say though: this ride looks LAME.

yyyup, that indeed it does.

i quite like saw: the ride. i think that first little drop is alot of fun.

i think we'll see some footage of it soon but not a pov

[gouldy]

I saw POV footage this morning, Gaz. I was downstairs watching SkySports News eating my breakfast and I heard my missus shouting "DAAAAAAAANIEL!!!" so I went upsatirs and she was watching GMTV, on which they were doing a piece about Th13teen. It showed the presenter woman type thing on the ride, from:

a mounted camera looking at back at her face,
a camera offride watching the train going round the course,
AND.... a mounted POV camera, albeit only for short periods but the footage from that camera will exist in it's entirety somewhere!

EDIT: Found it.



Look at it.... LAME!

I saw one spot of air, maybe two. Transition's look slow, first turn looks tame. Verticle drop looks boring, backward's section is way too slow. Basically a pumped up kiddie coaster. Runaway Mine Train looks more intense, oh dear Alton, oh dear.

[gouldy]

yeah, I think this confirms that we should be concentrating on the REAL exciting event that is happening at Alton Towers for this season....

Spinball Whizzer now has blue supports instead of teal ones! [:O] Absolutely amazing!! [/sarcasm]

Sarcastic that may have been, but at this point it seems more interesting than Th13teen .

Yep. Apparently it makes the noise as if Sonic is collecting rings! love me thats awesome.
Thorpe Park ftw at the moment, Alton dont have a clue anymore. Purple corkscrew will look good at entrance though.

yep, premiere fail for Alton. This ride does look boring except those airtime hills. And wheres are the theming?

Obviously not finished yet, but they best get a move on, the sites an absolute mess!

[gouldy]

If it ay open on Sunday, heads will roll!... until Wednesday, when I'm going again.

Such a keen bean Daniel! I would join you if i could mate, love Cornwall.

[Mikey]

Well damn, that sucker advances fast! (Guess someone forgot to read feed motor theory, particularly the section on traction in damp or wet conditons) Ride looks lame, drop part had no thematic elements, nothing popped out along the track,(unless it was cut out for TV). If they didn't use the backwards segment for anything other then returning the train to transfer then it was a waste of a ride. Also, did anyone else get the feeling that the ride was not running in automatic or was that just me.

Just my 2 cents, I will now answer my own question.

Yay! It works! (kinda)

First dropping track section, really? I thought Winjas already had that feature.

[Mikey]

Well technically any ride with a maintenance spur and a new hire mechanic with an itchy button finger can have a drop section of track just like 13.

[gouldy]

Originally posted by Mikey

no thematic elements, nothing popped out along the track,(unless it was cut out for TV).

Yeah, there is cinematics and lighting effects with smoke and stuff, I'm lead to believe. Just not switched on (read not working) when they filmed that.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Should have built an El Loco instead.

The video looks really dissappointing, I'm hoping that the building site and the theming will all look a bit better by the time its opened.

There also seemed to be a distinct lack of airtime too.

Can only wait and see.
They can theme a coaster to absolute amazing standard's so im sure they will nail that, but yeah alton_, the only appeal was the couple of air hill's and transitions but didnt really navigate them with enough speed. Drop section was never going to be that special, public will love it though...

Posted in the post a pic of yourself thread by accident, meant for here:

Seems like they marketed it (and themed it?) to the wrong audience. For the hype it got, it looks quite lame. As a family coaster, it looks pretty awesome. It seems like they're trying to make a family ride into a high profile attraction, which isn't going to turn out well.

I personally wouldn't mind something like this at any of my home parks.......as long as they marketed it for what it really is.

[gouldy]

^ give me a ride at Alton Towers (apart from Nemesis) that isn't a family ride. Seriously, this is what they would regard as a thrilling/scary attraction. They even refer to Air and Rita as such... it's awful really

But yeah, what I'm saying is, this is no different to a ride like Air which is portrayed as being a thrilling coaster, when this couldn't be further from the truth.

I think Nem, Air, Oblivion, and Rita are all pretty high profile, even if they aren't good or thrilling or whatever. They're still "big" rides even if not physically. A flyer or dive machine is always going to be a big draw for parks, whereas something like a minetrain might not.

This is more of a minetrain I think....more in the group of Spinball (and rides like Italian Job and whatnot). The problem is that they're trying to bill it among rides like Nem, Air, etc and it really doesn't seem like it fits into that grouping to me. It's more like a minetrain sized Roller Skater.

[Dirk_Ermen]

Originally posted by nannerdw

First dropping track section, really? I thought Winjas already had that feature.

Winjas has more of short drop caused by a tilt. This is the first with an actual dropping track to a lower level.

Seen the video too and the ride looks like everyone said: Kiddy coaster with only one awesome element and that's the drop track.

Wont have the impact that they hoped, and will be forgotten about, one trick pony really, couldn't see myself re-riding it like i have Nemesis over the years.

Why are you guys disappointed by this? It actually looks really good.

You guys are worse than the people who expected the Dark Knight to be like the Rockin' Roller Coaster.

We saw the plans really early, then construction, and now you're dissapointed by the video? really?

I had my hopes up for something mega-lite-ish for the bit up to the drop track. It just doesn't look that good atm. Looks like there was a bit too much cost control on the track part imo.

The drop itself looks far better on the central news report, where it's filmed from a camera off ride. It just "disappears" through the floor on that one.

When I rule the roost at alton towers, I'm gonna have a custom mega-lite that ducks and dives out of trenches and tunnels. And it'll be love amazing. And cost half of what SW6 did.