Well what can i say: Fantasic, amazing, brilliant!

An amazing well themed ride.

The queue today was longer than i had expected. We queued about an hour for it and each minute was worthwhile.

The video at the start is fantastic. Amazing Willy Wonka animation and he's got such a personality he was almost real. Loved the bit where he showed the rules and Charlies entrance was excellent.

The boats were amazing although the seats were very uncomfortable. The themeing was beyond this world and i loved the Umpa Loompa's. The first room containing Augustus Gloop was so brilliant. Violet was funny and the room was again amazingly themed. I didn't really see the point in the jucing room but it was still fantastic.The mirror maze was very confusing and the short video of Veruca had me in hysterics. I though the boat ride was too short though and i was dissapointed when i had to get off.

After this we watched adverts for Willy Wonka's gum, ice cream and a shaver!
We had to watch this video about 3 times to build up the right amount of people for the elevator.We went into a room and we were told to stand on spots. We then were told to remeber the colour of our spots so we knew where to stand in the elevator.

When we walked in we tried to fing our spots. But the lights were not working so i stood towards the right hand side. The elevator was okay, but i felt there was too much happening at one time. It was amazing and felt like you were really racing round the factory. A bad point in the lifts was that 2 Willy Wonka speeches were being told at the same time so we didn't hear nothing about the different rooms when we were in the lifts which let me down abit.

After the ride i felt magical and excited.
Well done Alton Towers!

7/10

Truely fantastical.

The initial themed facade really grabs you. The use of 2D and 3D, and the use of painted on shadows makes it so effective and eye-catching.

When you enter you see fantastic pictures of factory scenery painted on the walls, and you know the themeing is going to be just amazing, You enter a pre-show room and watch a very good animated welcome show featuring Willy Wonka and Charlie. Very nice introduction, and done better than I thought it would've been!

After this, you go through the boats, which will the general sceney and lighting effects look vadient and magnificent. You sit on the benchs (very uncomfortable) and begin your journey. The scenes are fantastic. Whilst there are no animatronics, you have a speaker designated to your boat to give you a personal tour, and see the models of the children in all sorts of michieve! The scene I liked the most was the mirror scene, I was gazing around so much I almost missed the distant animation of Veruca Salt! Amazing scene, and concludes the boat ride with it's strobe lights. Amazing, surreal and very effective, if a little "much" and overwhelming.

Next you go to, as Ollie said, another screen showing hilarious Willy Wonka adverts untill the right amount of guests arrive, which is when you are introduced to Mike Tevea. This couldn've been done better, I think that if you didn't know the strory you'd be slightly puzzled, and it just kind of "happens". Also, the speakers weren't loud enough and the theme tune could still be heard over it.

Nevertheless, the next show is quite good and the colour idea is quite a good way to go about things. However, the lights didn't really work with us and therefore the whole effect and atmosphere was lost due to many faults.

The lifts were good but have been overhyped by the park. At first it really does feel like your moving down, and zooming through the factory is fun and very overwhelming (in a good way), but the roof of the lifts wasn't done very well and spoils the whole 3D effect badly. Sounds troubles were had on this park, when our speaker voiced the pre-show instead of the lift commentary, which TBH killed the ride completely. And going through the lifts was extremely disappointing. Instead of awe-stricking images of Alton Towers from above, you get awful animations of blands fields and clouds. Not a good way to end a great ride, even if the full effect of the lifts is good.

So, is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory a hit?

I'd say so! 8/10. The greatest themeing of Alton Towers to date, but with just one effect not working or being faulty, the experience will be compromised a lot.

Hex beater? Undecided .

Have I been on a different ride here?!
I waited patiently with my wife and 2 kids(8 & 6 years old) for 2 hours and 17 minutes to enter this, "Magical experience", but hey it would be worth it.wouldn't it?
The initial intro video set the scene with Wonka as the host, then into the boats, I expected something a little more fanciful than the ones that arrived, looking as if straight off of the boating lake, minus oars. But hey no problem. Just make sure you don't do as we did, all adults on one side of the things means that you're sat at 45 degrees to the water, to such a degree that we couldn't get up the unboarding ramp, needing the attendants' feet to push us along.
But back to the ride, it's dark, where has the £4/£8 million pounds (depending where you get your info) gone?
No play on the chocolate river, it was too dark to tell what colour it was. No visions of oompa lumpas singing or dancing, not that we saw, but again it was very dark in there. No room of inventions.
Here's what we did see, half a dozen very basic moving models of: 1 Augustus gloop replete with tube and angry Mum, 1 bouncing blueberry shaped figure and a couple of rotating multi coloured spheres in the, "juicing room". An area of mirrors, for what purpose? and a video screen showing Veruca and the squirrels. It was ALL too very dark. Strobe lighting appeared infront of us down a tunnel promising some excitement, but no, off the boat and into a room with a video that's already played half way through showing Mike TVs plight, then onto the glass elevator.
The movement was great but the images projected onto the 4 walls and ceiling, when moving fast were nothing more than smeary blurs, don't look into the corners, the images don't meet up. This is supposed military technology?
The hype far exceeded the reality I'm afraid.
No magic, no excitement, no fun!

I loved it to bits and think its one of Altons Best attractions. I will admit the first time i came off it i though "Hhmmmm great but not amaized" then i rode it again later in the day when things were running alot better and i loved it

This time we had sound on out boat meaning we had a story to actualy follow and more light effects were switched on giving a great appearence.

The use of stobe lighting is also great as it gives a great effect and finished off your boat ride just nicely. I must just say at this point that every ride staff i saw had a huge smile on their faces making it even more enjoyable. The onto the next to little videos which i found quite funny although i did seem to be the only one that did Then for the grand fanarly, wow i wasnt exspecting that from the lifts and was amaized how it felt like you was moving for realy and not just vibrating etc.

Overall i think its a great addition to the park and if i loved it so much at the age of 16 im shure kids will be in dreamland. Things can only get better with it aswell as they iron the problems out

Charlie Review

Pre-ride thoughts: Looks great, another Hex?, seems quality, i am very excited, factory looks great, i hope its brilliant.

Made on a visit on Monday, 3rd April 2006. Joined queue: 4.55pm. Park business: Average (15-20 on most coasters)

The queue line is going to be no way big enough during peak days this season. Granted, whilst it may reduce popularity over the coming years, for now it is inadequate. Still, never mind. We were in queue for 15 minutes (5.10pm) and an announcement said they were having a delay and to keep your arms and legs inside the boats. Bearing in mind we were outisde in the queue. Incidentally, the building looked great. We found that request strange, but basically - it was down. We waited and 15 minutes later (5.25pm) it said it was working again. We entered the building at approx. 5.40pm. Upon entering, we were greeted with a pleasant site! The video with Wonka introducing the ride, along with the paintings on the wall were great and most people seemed to pay attention. Following this, there was a slightly drab walk to the station where we entered the boats in the lightly themed station. It was very dark.

The boat began it's journey, and I am going to start the truth now. I did not think I would find myself typing this after all the developments of the past 9 months, and bearing in mind in mind the rides big budget. I wanted to love it. I wanted it to be great. The boat ride was nothing of the sort. There was very little to look at, patches with nothing at all. Very little moved, you were looking around for things that just weren't there. The sound on the boat wasn't very good if you were sat at the back, like me. I was thinking 'no, it isn't meant to be like this, i am meant to love this ride'. The Mirror Maze seemed to be a cop-out to avoid theming properly, and the strobes just didn't work - as they began before the boat was properly in the tunnel and you were getting out just as it got going! I was hoping for better from the next section. The next room, with Mike TeaVee was poor. Yes, the animated graphic was good, but there was no other theming. I was getting really dissapointed by this point - maybe the elevator would be better?

So, into the room with the coloured spots, which kind of worked, and kind of didn't - but anyway. There was a lack of theming in the dispatch room for the elevator. Into the elevator. On entering, I thought it felt great. The door closed and we were off. Now I don't know what I was expecting, but it just didn't move a great deal. It juddered and jolted a bit here and there, but I didn't know where to look and a lot of it was just random as a result. I was expecting a better finale too - the elevator crahsed down with relative lack of force. To give the ride credit, it will probably satisfy the children, but then the handrails are awfully high for the smallest! The elevator was clearly a quality piece of kit, but it didn't feel world first or anything like that. Futuroscope do better I am afraid. Leaving the elevator down a drab corridor and back out into the open. I was dumbstruck. That was Charlie & the Chocolate Factory: a new multi-million pound ride at Alton Towers.

So all in all? 5/10. It was not the finised article. The boat ride was boring, poorly themed and had huge blank areas. There wasn't enough to look at. They relied to much on animation, The elevator did well, but i just didn't know where to look and it didn't really move enough. I expected more, and as you will see from the Charlie thread here on the forums, I have been very positive about the ride all along. I am gutted to have left this way, and I have to be honest: I just think that they ran out of money and couldn't afford to finish it off with some extra paint and theming, a few animatronics. They would have gone down very well. It could have been SO much better. It's trying to be Disney - but they haven't made it. I was really sorry to be like that towards the ride, but it was just poor.

Speaking to my friends, the all found the same. Some said it was very dissapointing - some said the boat ride was poor, but the elevators good. All in all - the boat ride IS poor, the elevators are the highlight, but don't expect anything out of this world.

Very dissapointed. 5/10. I wanted to love it. And i did not.

I thought the ride was brilliant.

I think the front of the building looks really good. The music outside adds a good atomosphere also the pink bins in the queue line look really good I like the way they have Willy Wonka's initals on them. I thought the queue line was a bit small even Squirrel Nutty's queue is bigger then this queue line and hardly many people go on that.

I liked the queue inside the building I thought the pre-show video was good. I like the 3D look it looks like Willy Wonka is going to come out of the screen. Although I did find it a bit annoying that it repeated about 6 times while your waiting it should be more spaced out it should play after every minute.

The boat ride was very good. I like the pink boats they look better then the old toyland tours boats. The first day I went on the ride there was no audio on our boat but the second day I went on there was and it made the ride much more enjoyable. The chocolate room was really good very well decorated and so much to look at. I liked the waterfall part where the light flashes it looks very good. The mirror maze confused me a bit then I didn't understand what was happening to Veruca Salt I thought that it was a bit confusing. I think the station looks really good with all the flashing lights makes it look like your going really fast. Also I thought the music in the ride was really good added good atmosphere to the ride and gave people something to listen to.

I thought the tv-room was really good very well themed. I also liked the way everything was organised well when getting into the lift and there was clear instructions so everyone could follow them so there wasnt a big mad rush. I thought the lift was brilliant was very fun. They looked very good inside and I noticed how excited the children were when they were waiting for it to start. I loved the effects although I wish the lift would of lasted longer. I think the exit is very strange coming out of a fire door but other then that I thought the ride was brilliant .

I give the ride 8/10 and I think it is a great rides for families to experience .

Definately a ride of two halves. The exterior looks fantastic as you are waiting in the queue (which is incredibly short considering this is a new ride), however this isnt the case as the shutters open and you are greeted with a black coridoor and an almost invisible step down.
Then comes the pre-show video, which we missed being first on at the start of the day and not really caring what it had tosay, but the 3D look was very good, and I wouldnt mind watching that while waiting to board.
Walking through a few more black corridors brings you to the station and boarding the boats, which gives you first hand experience of how a tramp sleeps, looking at the themeing of the station gives you a glimmer of hope, this ride might actually be good.
The first room continues this, with good theming, and good use of a waterfall (wish it would start up again as you go under it though). However next up is the epeleptic fit room, oh sorry mirror maze, then the speed tunnel, which is ruined by the station bars coming towards you at 1mph ruining the illusion entirely.
The organisation of the TV room was very good, though we were first on for the day and the queues werent massive, in a large crowd this would be very useful.
The second part of the ride is the lifts, which were the main reason me and my mates were on (good job we werent expecting much from the boat ride!) and this really is fantastic. We were lucky enough to go on with all the walls (including ceiling) up and running and it really was effective. Being in a group of 4 meant I was stuck with a father and daughter infront of my mates for the majority of the ride, and this section was the first time I heard the girl say "This is fun" and it was clear to see the Dad was enjoying this part of the ride.
Leaving the lifts and your back with the black corridoors, why these are here are beyond me, surely a bit of theming such as photos of Willy Wonka or Posters advertising the Wonka Bar painted on them would improve this. Not too sure about coming out of a fire door either

Overall I give the ride 3/10-All 3 points being picked up by the lift. The boat-ride is appauling bad and if this is the finished article then AT have let the customer down big-time IMO. The lift is good but a little short, making the agonisingly slow boat-ride seem longer when thinking back.

We were looking forward to this new ride. However, it started bad and got worse. The queue seemed to be regularly halted by intermittent technical problems on the ride. The first video is interesting enough on the first viewing, but when you're stuck listening to it for 15 minutes then it really gets on your nerves.

The boat ride is forgettable in the extreme. There's nothing there! Little or no animation and a totally pointless hall of mirrors. It's a waste of 5 minutes.

Then on to the lift, but another video to watch first. As we walked in part-way through it, I've no idea what it was about. The lift moves about, "bounces" up some stairs, then "explodes" through the roof. Not that we really noticed. It's poor, although still better than the boat ride.

Whatever they spent on this new ride, it was 99% wasted. Don't bother - it's rubbish. There was so much they could have done with this ride, but they haven't. If you see anyone in the long queue outside, tell them to move on.

A trip down a chocolate river. . . literally!

After looking forward to the attraction for several months I was bitterly disappointed when I came out the exit with a face looking bewildered .

It's a good attraction for a younger audience (4-12), but wasn't this supposed to be a 'family' attraction - something for the children and adults in the group.

I used to enjoy Toyland Tours even if it was the Hippo at the end with wobbly boobs that made me smile. But Toyland had that Disney esque' it's a small world feel, with so much going on there was never a blank wall in site.

However now we go through a boat ride struggling to find a focal point as there is little going on, and a lift with too much going on that there is no focal point again. The ride is out balanced and is a real shame that it doesn't pull together to make this a magical journey through wonka's factory!

I find it difficult to rave about the new attraction to guests, but I don't want to lie in my job. So as I would say to those :

"Charlie & the Chocolate Factory is aimed at a younger audience, those who are over 12 may not enjoy the ride experience as much and may prefer to try our other attractions"

After the previous year's excitement over Rita - Queen of Speed, the announcement that 2006 would bring Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The Ride to Alton Towers was a welcomed one. With a huge budget available, this looked certain to be a first class family attraction to finally breathe some long-overdue life back into Cred Street.

With a hugely successful film version in it's shadow and looking mighty impressive as you approach it, this ride has a lot to live up to. Sadly, it doesn't. Whilst the use of film works on a ride like Hex, the screens on the indoor cattle pen upon entering the ride give the impression of being an afterthought and do little to build up any pre-ride excitement.

Once settled into the uncomfortable boats, I found myself looking at the water trying to work out if it had been made to look like chocolate. I'm guessing it had, but it was far too dark to really notice. The ride started and for a moment, things look good. The swirling pool of chocolate, complete with smells and animated Augustus Gloop are reminiscent of what a dark ride should be - animated, impressive and fun. It's all downhill from here though, and each scene progressively becomes less and less imaginative.

The penny finally drops that it just hasn't been thought through properly. Long, black, empty areas and a mirror maze that is anything but amazing. The nut room then consists of a screen playing, yawn, another video. Thankfully, the nasty seats stopped me from falling asleep and up ahead some fast flashing lights appear, threatening a bit of excitement. Just as they get close, it transpires that this is the point where the boat ride stops, and the chance to liven the ride up with this effect has been missed.

Oh well. Off to one of the lifts now. I'm sure lift doors slide, rather than swing, but we'll forget that. As the virtual journey starts, it can't be denied that the animations are truly fanstatic and there's so much going on, you simply don't know where to look. It's every bit as good as the standard motion simulators you find at the likes of Brighton Pier, but that's about as far as it goes. Nice as the animations are, you can't help but feel that some kind of nod to the fact you're at Alton Towers would have made a lot of difference - a Dahl inspired animated view of the park from above perhaps? Not here.

The customised staff uniforms are a nice touch and the idea for the ride was good, but it just lacks atmosphere and most of all - fun. Though not in the same league of awfulness as the revamped Bubbleworks, there's a certain similarity in the lack of understanding on the part of the designers as to just what it is that makes a ride like this special. It really is a terribly sad missed opportunity. Hell, even a couple of thousand pounds worth of animated squirrels would have improved things. This is a park that had the benefit of John Wardley's wisdom and understanding of how to make a ride special for a number of years. If he'd been involved, you just know that the same ride would have been first class, for the same amount of money. Why have Tussauds not learnt from this? Answers on a postcard please.

Before anyone throws me the 'but it's meant for children, it's only a family ride' line, please remember that so are, for example, Duel and the Runaway Mine Train - both of which surpass Charlie on every level and can be enjoyed by anyone.

In short; brilliant idea, awful boat ride, good lift.

5/10

Went on Charlie for the first time this Saturday with a neutral starting point as there was mixed reviews.

Joined the queue which was about 20 minutes after the post-family-time surge and noticed that paint was already coming off the exterior. Some parts had faded quite noticeably and the paintwork around the 3 lower windows was terribly done. There was also lots of graffiti all over the last window, which completely ruined any effect that was trying to be created. . .

Inside the first room the first thing that I saw was that the walls were still only half finished. The 'print-offs' ended suddenly in the middle of nowhere and there was absolutely no effort made with the ceiling except a few economy Ikea light fixtures. It was evident that the plastic surrounding the picture frames on the right will be ripped off by the this time next year and although the wall had been painted behind the screen where no-one could see the top half of the opposite wall was simply black! As we proceeded through the archway towards the station there were large sections of painted wall hanging off and more bits were falling off even as we walked past!

Got to the station and after seeing more sections of black wall boarded the uncomfortable boat 'benches' before setting sail. Went around the boat ride and in fact I have only realised now that I didn't hear Wonka's voice as we went. Must have been very quiet. The waterfall was a good part, which was next. Then it was past the very disappointing Violet scene, who just went up and down with a black background, before entering several metres of waterway where the was absolutely nothing! No lights, no theming, no sound; just blackness! Anyway continued to a fairly boring mirror 'maze' section before being greeted by a very excited AJ-TN at the offload station. The thing that I particularly noticed from the boat ride that they had only bothered to theme half way towards the ceiling, and it was very noticeable as pipes and all sorts were simply stopping all at the same level at about 2 or 3 metres above the ground with the rest painted black.
Walked right through another unthemed section towards the TV Room. This could have been made much clearer that you were meant to be inside the television by hanging some electrical parts around the room for example. Some other first time riders were confused as to what to do here and pushed open the doors to the lift pre-show before realising. We then walked straight through the empty pre-show room and onto the lift. The lights in the floor had still not been installed but there were some nice flashy lights on the doors. The video and sensation in the lift were probably the best parts of the ride. However I felt that there was nothing really exciting or anything that made anyone go "wow!"
Some of the children who weren't crying at the end did seem to enjoy the ride, but I feel that the entire ride needed to be finished with something very impressive added for it to be very enjoyable for all the family and to be classed as a major ride at the park. You could see effort had been made but not enough money or time had been put in to create something very impressive, which I'm sure must have been the aim.

The only big problem I can see is going to happen is that in a year or two's time, the exterior will need a repaint already and that the pre-show will look very, very old and worn.

I'd give it the same as Marky did.
5/10 and an additional ':|'

Well I was a little disappointed by this ride.
After liking the film very much and being amazed by the book, I was expected a little more than what I got.
The theming was alright, nothing special but okay. The video at the beginning where he told you the rules and the children was great at first, but then as it repeated during the queue wait, it was getting irritating!
The boat ride was boring and slow. I throught it was going to stop, it was that slow. I wasn't sad to get off, but during the wait to get off the boat there was flashing lights that where cool but made your eyes go funny!
The elavator was a little rubbish. I've been on simulators before and it felt much more real. The floor just shook a little and I was disappointed.
I didn't really class it as a ride and was let down but I suppose it IS for young children.

Well, my review .

Before we begin - Opinion = No great shakes. Could have been better. Dissapointed.
6.5/10

As lots of you know, yes I was that Saddo, with Dean who ran to the entrance first thing on opening day and waiting the majority of 4 hours outside the queue, so I could get on the first ride. I did a little better - I got on the first ever press ride - and as I walked through the pre-show, I thought "This is going to be something" and as we go to the station, the theming was so far so good and we boarded the boat. However, as the ride progressed, i felt that it was bare, yes whats there is quite good and some dissapointing, but there were gaping holes, which should have been filled and one area which was blank.

Also the mirror area confused me - perhaps this was included because it is simple and was easier than complexly theming the rest of the ride. I came of thinking 'wow - that was different and pretty good really' - but it was missing something and i was like 'is that it' (in terms of ride - i just think they could have done so much more).

We progressed to the pre elevator, where you are told to step on a colour, although at the time you couldnt even see any coloured buttons, hope this has been sorted which I think it has. Now, the elevator - the best bit, really good in my opinion, wont say too much as others have said what needs to be said and I dont want to spoil much, but yep, its good

I came off thinking 'Yes - Good' but also had that little empty feeling as I was expected something slightly better and very different. I then went and queued for the first ever offical ride!

However, I am led to beleieve queues have been good all season so far, so i suppose its doing its job as a ride and attracting more people towards cred street which used to be dead - toyland tours was so sad.