I think its going to be a Flat ride, it has to be something that can be installed quickly and easily, and does not require planning permission or very little.

I know the Legoland's new attraction has opened mid season, but what ever new ride Towers has planned, I would expect it to open at the start of season.

It will be interesting to watch out if any planning permissions get submitted, as that could give us a hint as what is to come.

Fingers crossed what ever it is, it is themed to match the area it goes in, and is not just a generic ride.

Ian

I think blade needs to be moved to mutiny bay and a half pipe coaster should take its place there or a big disco coaster.

I think we can expect a major flat ride in Dark Forest - robot arms from the original concept art anyone? Plus a young/family ride. Hopefully a new kiddie coaster or at least a few new kiddie flats in Cloud Cuckoo Land and Adventure Land.

"haydn!" wrote:

I think we can expect a major flat ride in Dark Forest - robot arms from the original concept art anyone?

I don't like the sounds of a Robot Arm: they are unreliable, take up lots of money and space and rarely run on a good cycle... wait a minute, I think I just described Merlin #-o

On a serious note, I don't want robot arms, as I have stated a few times before they have terrible throughputs (on their own that is) and the experience just doesn't appeal to me, and I don't understand how it does to others. Please just give us a well themed flat for the Black Hole tent/Katanga Canyon!

Robo Arms seem like a great option to me - themed as writhing tree roots as shown in the original dark forest plan would be amazing. Thry may have a poor throughput but if they get four of five of them it could be better..and expensive you say? I hear Weston-super-Mare pier has them, if an attraction at a seaside town can afford them I think Alton Towers can.

:)

Surely buying 4 or 5 would total up to quite a bit, and then you're forgetting running 5 of them would cost a lot, plus theming that would be needed for 5 of them. I just don't see the point when you can get just as good a ride that holds 40 people in one go.

"SIMR" wrote:

I just don't see the point when you can get just as good a ride that holds 40 people in one go.

Like...?

They could potentially enhance the area so much, particularly in terms of theming and they would be a real crowd soaker for Thirteen and Rita even if they have a poor capacity people will want to ride them as they are so unique.

:)

If they had 4 or 5 arms, in a few years it would end up like Submission and just operating one arm, with the rest all rather pointless!

What about, having the inside of the black hole tent pitch black with a few stars...

and obviously a massive projector playing Nyan cat all day and night.



In all seriousness, I haven't really thought about 2012, I take it the black hole tent is still in the running for something magical?

I'm starting to doubt it...

I'm really not a fan of the whole Robotic Arm idea. Whilst visually they look awesome- I totally have a vision of them being arranged in a circle around a dramatic centre-piece (calling it a tree sounded pathetic, but yeah... a tree) and the arms act as the roots and branches of the tree...

Back to reality though, let's look at the operational aspects to this. For argument's sake, lets say each robotic arm held four people. Using the suggestions above of 5 robotic arms, that equates to 20 guests per ride cycle.

Now, the more arms you have, the more complicated the loading procedures get for the attraction. If we say, on a realistic basis, that it takes five minutes to load, complete it's ride cycle, unload and then load again, then that's about 12 ride cycles each hour. That would give us an hourly throughput of 240 people.

For a park like Alton, those kinds of throughputs just aren't acceptable; they should really be aiming for throughputs closer to the 1000 mark on their attractions, and of course, over that on their major ones.

Even if you had 10 robotic arms, if you use the same figures as above, that's still only an hourly throughput of 480 people. For reference; Rameses Revenge gets around that per hour.

What I'm trying to say is, it'd be an operations nightmare! :P

I would imagine with 5 arms you would also need 5 sets of staff to load the ride, I dont know how complicated they are, but maybe one person could operate the ride, but you would certainly need a few people to load/unload the ride, open gates, etc. It just sounds like alot of hard work.

May I just say, a lot of the above is rubbish :lol:

I have been to Futuroscope, and their attraction "Dancing with Robots". There are 6 Robo Arms, each seating 2 people. The Robo Arms are in 2 sets of 3, going off from 2 "islands". There are two members of staff per set of Robo Arms, plus a member of staff at a split in the queue, which directs you to one of the two islands. So, 5 staff in total. The ride itself lasts around 1 minute, and you can select programme 1, 2 or 3 - depending in your intensity requirements.

I would say you get through 2 cycles every 5 minutes - 48 people in 10 minutes, multiply by 6 and this is just shy of 300 people per hour - not enough for Alton (hence suggestion of either more robo arms, or 4 seaters). I would say for an attraction of this nature, we'd need throughput to be 6-800 at Alton Towers. They are not the worlds best ride, but the attraction at Futuroscope oozes atmosphere, is customizable per ride, and is great fun!

Close Up of the Robo Arm in action at Futuroscope

A look at one if the 2 islands

:D

I would not be surprised if Blade was the one to move and to go to Dark Forest with some kind of woodcutter theme. They don't really need to do anything to attract the crowds to that area, just something to eat a little bit of 13 and Rita's queues

"CoasterCrazyChris""][quote=""SIMR" wrote:

I just don't see the point when you can get just as good a ride that holds 40 people in one go.

Like...?
[/quote]

Top Scans, Breakdance/Booster, Heartbreaker, Disk-O etc.



I like the idea of Blade being moved to Dark Forest and being themed to woodcutting - this would link well to the Woodcutter's restaurant whch could be used in a story as a place where the workers would stop off after a days work at the wood cutting machine (Blade).

How pretentious is that! A restraunt with a story? Jesus Christ.

Anyway, Blade would be too tall for Dark Forest, and take up too much room because of it's shape.

"Blaze" wrote:

How pretentious is that! A restraunt with a story? Jesus Christ.

Anyway, Blade would be too tall for Dark Forest, and take up too much room because of it's shape.

That a bit rude Blaze, disagree all you want but its an oppinion and should be respected as such.

As always its a bit early in the day to guess at the plans for next year... Though i think it may be more substantial than a simple flat... but thats probably just wishful thinking

I'm not saying they can't have that idea, I'm saying that if they did go through with that idea, it would be, in my own opinion, vulgar, pretentious and silly.

As for what is really happening, if the rumour is true they've found a bargain with that second hand Vekoma Whirlwind/Boomerang/whatever it was, then that could go anywhere, and if it was a dark coaster would be more than acceptable.

"Blaze" wrote:

I'm not saying they can't have that idea, I'm saying that if they did go through with that idea, it would be, in my own opinion, vulgar, pretentious and silly.

Maybe that would be the case if a park in the UK were to attempt it, but parks on the continent, Universal and Disney etc are all more than capable of making excellent themed restaurants, so there's no reason why AT couldn't.

This is what I think:

-Blade-is looking very shabby / in need of care at the mo, but I think it's great that Alton didn't theme it as a ship like all the rest so id say they are going a step back placing it in Mutiny Bay.

-Id love to see a coaster go into the Black Hole tent.

-Storybook Land still needs some TLC.

-The Flume, again log flumes seem to be related to pirate's and log's, so for Alton to theme it around Bath Tubs and make it quirky and different just like Dragon Falls, so again I wouldn't want to see that go back a step aswell.

On the resaurant side id like to see a Rainforest Cafe nestled in the corner on the car park side of katanga canyon near the waterfalls.

"siralgenon" wrote:

-The Flume, again log flumes seem to be related to pirate's and log's, so for Alton to theme it around Bath Tubs and make it quirky and different just like Dragon Falls, so again I wouldn't want to see that go back a step aswell.

A few years ago, I'd have agreed. That was when the Flume fitted perfectly with Merrie England. Now we have Mutiny Bay, I'd prefer some consistency and whilst a common theme, there is potential to do it quite well. Battle Galleons is amazingly themed, and Mutiny Bay in general is pretty damn good. A similar makeover on the Flume would be great.