Alton Towers

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Alton Towers

Location
Address	Alton, Staffordshire, ST10 4DB, England
Phone numbers	08705 20 40 60 local
Website	www.altontowers.com
Owner	The Tussauds Group
Opened	Pre 1980
Operating season	March to November
Area	500 acres
Rides	33 attractions in total 8 roller coasters 3 water rides

Alton Towers is one of the United Kingdom's most famous theme parks. It is based north of the village of Alton in Staffordshire, on the site of a semi-ruined gothic country house of the same name. The park attracted 2.5 million visitors in 2005. ^[1]Also on site are two hotels, which are the Alton Towers hotel, and the Splash Landings hotel in which the Cariba Creek indoor/outdoor waterpark is located.

Contents 1 Modern theme park 1.1 Towers Street 1.2 Merrie England 1.3 Katanga Canyon 1.4 Gloomy Wood 1.5 Forbidden Valley 1.6 Ug Land 1.7 Cred Street 1.8 The Towers 1.9 X-Sector 1.10 Adventure Land 1.11 Storybook Land 1.12 Old MacDonald's Farmyard 2 Past rides 3 Future 4 Hotels 5 Alleged paranormal activity 6 History of the gardens 7 Controversy 8 Facts and figures 9 Trivia 10 References 11 External links

[edit] Modern theme park

Alton Towers was opened as a theme park in 1980. It was purchased by The Tussauds Group in 1990. In 2005, Alton Towers was bought by the investment group Dubai International Capital (DIC) when it purchased Tussauds for £800million.^[2] The Tussauds Group was bought by Merlin Entertainments in March 2007 for over £1billion from DIC, placing Alton Towers under their control.^[3]

Today it is notable for its extreme rides, including:

• Nemesis, Europe's first inverted roller coaster, a roller coaster in which people hang with their legs dangling down (or up depending on orientation) from the floorless ride cars.
• Oblivion, the world's first vertical drop roller coaster.
• Corkscrew a ride with two inversions which many riders find uncomfortable due to the rough track. This is the oldest roller coaster at the site, built in 1980.
• Air, is a flying roller coaster, the world's first flying coaster, in which riders find themselves suspended horizontally facing down, as though flying.
• Rita - Queen of Speed, which can take riders to 100 km/h in approximately 2.5 seconds. It was opened on 1 April 2005.

The park is split into many themed areas. The Skyride is a cable car system which visitors can use to travel between the Forbidden Valley, Ug Land and Towers Street areas. The areas in clockwise order:

[edit] Towers Street

Towers Street is the first area that visitors to the park encounter. Themed as a town street, it leads to views of the gardens and the Towers ruins. The street contains several shops, including the Towers Trading Co., which sells official park merchandise. The first Skyride station is located nearby.

[edit] Merrie England

An area themed around medieval England. Rides include a traditional spinning Tea Cup ride and The Flume, a log flume themed around bathtime, with riders sitting in bath tubs. The Flume is sponsored by Cussons Imperial Leather. The area contains several gaming sideshows at which prizes can be won, several food outlets and the Courtyard Tavern (the park's only pub). This area includes a currently unused 3D Cinema, a McDonald's and a Goalstriker soccer-simulator.

[edit] Katanga Canyon

Themed as an adventure area. Rides include the Runaway Mine Train (a powered roller coaster) and the Congo River Rapids. Both are well-established rides in the park and whose ride tracks share a tunnel. The area has Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut restaurants with a shared indoor seating area. There is a shop located at the exits of the two rides called 'Katanga Cargo', hosting 'ancient' tribal themed merchandise.

[edit] Gloomy Wood

The Gloomy Wood is a small, ghosts-and-monsters themed area containing the ride Duel: The Haunted House Strikes Back!. The ride was originally a non-interactive ride named The Haunted House, but was upgraded in 2003 with laser-based plastic guns to shoot LED lights scattered around the rooms and monsters, with each players score displayed on a digital display in the ride car to encourage competitive play. In 2007 it has been officially revealed that there will be a Haunted Hallow outdoor walk-through added, linking from Merrie England to Gloomy Wood, using animatronic tombstones and vaults.^[4]

[edit] Forbidden Valley

Themed around a post-apocalyptic landscape, with large rocks and rusty pieces of metal and machinery scattering the area. One of the major rides is Nemesis, an inverted roller coaster based around a monster. At the end of the valley is an "oasis", with calmer colours and plants, where the ride Air, a Bolliger & Mabillard flying coaster, is located. Also in the area are the Ripsaw and The Blade thrill rides. This area contains a Skyride station.

[edit] Ug Land

Ug Land is a prehistoric/neanderthal themed area containing two of the park's major roller coasters. These are Rita - Queen of Speed (notable for its drag racing theme clashes with the areas prehistoric theme)^[5] and Corkscrew, which was shipped to the park in the late 1970s, making it their oldest roller coaster. It also features Ug Swinger, a traditional 'waveswinger' ride. There is also a range of food outlets and shops. This area contains a 'Skyride' station.

[edit] Cred Street

Cred Street is aimed at the younger audience of Alton Towers, and is themed with bright colours. There is a wide selection of bouncy castles and ball pits in the Cred Street playground.. There are four rides in Cred Street especially suitable for younger children; Frog Hopper, Bouncing Bugs, Cred Street Carousel and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory : The Ride. Added in 2006; The Peugeot Driving School, for under 10's, opened to guests on 17 July 2006.^[6]. The area includes a McDonald's as well as a café and sweet shop. The final Skyride station in Ug Land is located at the area's edge.

[edit] The Towers

The Towers ruins are from what the park derives its name, and has sometimes featured a spooky maze during the Halloween period. Added for the 2000 season was the ride Hex - the Legend of the Towers within the ruins itself, an indoor swing ride which made use of the history of the Towers. The story for the ride is based on one of Staffordshire’s great legends about a chained oak.

There is currently a £1.1million project in place to restore the oldest parts of the castle. It is currently unknown how the completed renovations will be used.

[edit] X-Sector

Previously called Fantasy World. A futuristically-themed area, X-Sector contains the innovative Oblivion ride, a roller coaster in which riders are said to experience a 90 degree drop (although the steepest angle the ride reaches is 87 degrees). The extra-wide roller coaster cars are held hanging over the edge for a few seconds before dropping downwards under gravity into a large hole amid mist, and then re-emerging into a heavily banked turn leading back into the station. The area features a Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut outlet, and a Goalstriker soccer-simulation installation close by. Also in the area are the Enterprise and Submission thrill rides.

[edit] Adventure Land

Adventure Land is aimed at visitors between the ages of five and ten, and consists mainly of climbing frames, slides, swings and similar equipment. There are two rides: Beastie, a small, child-friendly roller coaster, and Spinball Whizzer, a Maurer Söhne pinball-themed spinning roller coaster. The area also contains a food outlet.

[edit] Storybook Land

Storybook Land is aimed at the youngest visitors, and is themed around fairy tales and other children's stories. It contains Squirrel Nutty's Ride, a track-based ride which includes story-telling elements, and an ice show.

[edit] Old MacDonald's Farmyard

Themed around a traditional farm, this area contains a small petting zoo as well as a few rides for younger visitors, which include Doodle Doo Derby, a farm-themed carousel, and Riverbank Eye Spy, a recently re-themed boat ride. In 2003, the old barn that used to hold the farm animals before the Foot and Mouth crisis of 2001, was converted to a play barn called 'Ribena Berry Bish Bash', that contains thousands of small foam balls that are propelled, raised, thrown, dropped and shot.

[edit] Past rides

Many roller coasters have been replaced since the original opening.

The attraction that caused the biggest controversy was a single-loop roller coaster called Thunder Looper, manufactured by Schwarzkopf, which was constructed in 1990 but lasted for only 6 years. It was removed mainly due to height restrictions placed on the park and spiralling maintenance costs.^[7] Thunder Looper stood in the area Thunder Valley, which is now Forbidden Valley.

The Black Hole featured a spiral lift and was contained entirely within a permanent tent structure that made some sections of the ride completely dark. This ride was closed in March 2005^[5] and has been sold to an undisclosed theme park in Brazil. The sale was attributed to rising maintenance costs and new health and safety requirements requiring evacuation stairs on the spiral lift that could not be accommodated within the tent structure. Brazil has no such requirements. This ride was located in the X-Sector area.

[edit] Future

After years of speculation from enthusiasts and several failed attempts, the park is attempting to install a wooden coaster. They have released an official statement:

“

We are pleased to confirm that we are currently working towards a planning application for a medium sized, family orientated, wooden rollercoaster, potentially for the 2008 season. However, we are still in the early stages of this process with much work to do to ensure that the plan is appropriate to the site and deliverable to our guests. The scale of the planned ride is much smaller than that debated in 2002/2003, and it will sit on the area formerly occupied by The Beast and The Mouse. If it goes ahead, it will provide a valuable additional experience that will further enhance Alton Towers’ reputation as the home of original and unique attractions.

”

Alton Towers' January 2007 staff newsletter announced plans for the 2007 season, including a new outdoor play area named 'The Dung Heap' (as it will be located in the 'Old MacDonald's Farmyard' area of the park); two new eating outlets, one located in Forbidden Valley and one near Ug Land on the site of the 'Hogs Head Bar' which will be removed; and a new walk through attraction that shall be named 'Haunted Hollow'. Rumours about a possible Towers Street re-theme for 2007 have also been spiralling around enthusiast forums however there has been no hard evidence to indicate that this could happen.^{[citation needed]}

Project Dolphin is Alton Towers' plan to change with the public's needs for extreme entertainment. This could involve moving into completely different realms of entertainment, from adventure golf to ice climbing which are both listed by the Towers as possibilities, along with many more. With DIC rumoured to be investing around £48 million in the park next year, guests can possibly expect to see vast improvements.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Hotels

Two hotels are on the site, The Splash Landings Hotel and the Alton Towers Hotel. The Splash Landings hotel is a combination hotel and water park. The water park, Cariba Creek, is also open to the public.^[8]

A new addition to the Hotels for the 2007 season is an 18 hole Adventure Golf course. This is to be named "Extraordinary Golf". The first 9 holes of the course are scheduled to open on April 2nd. The second half of the course are to be completed for May.^{[citation needed]} The course is to be heavily themed around areas and attractions in the main theme park, and when the sun sets, theatrical lighting will bring added "sparkle" to the attraction.

[edit] Alleged paranormal activity

Alton Towers is known for its history and the local area has many ghost stories and legends. The legend of the ride Hex is based on the local legend of the chained oak tree. There have been numerous purported sightings of orbs and reports of cold spots in several of the park's queues and within the Towers ruins themselves. Alton Towers is regarded by many ghost-hunters as being one of the most haunted locations in Britain and companies such as Fright Nights run ghost tours and overnight ghost hunts of the Towers themselves. An episode of Most Haunted, which was filmed at the Towers ruins and aired on 30 January 2007, showed apparent paranormal activity including stones being thrown at one of the presenters from an unknown source.

[edit] History of the gardens

As an example of the mixed style of Humphry Repton's gardens, Alton Towers' garden was begun, circa 1814 by the eccentric 15th Earl of Shrewsbury, of whom J. C. Loudon (who was consulted on design features of which there were many) relates that he consulted every artist, only to avoid 'whatever an artist might recommend'.^{[citation needed]}

Alton Towers grew into a collection of gardens: a Swiss Cottage, a Stonehenge, a Dutch garden, a Pagoda Fountain, said to be based on the To Ho pagoda in Canton, Lysicrates' Choragic Monument from Athens (a feature in English gardens since the 1760s), domed glasshouses (originally gilded), even a fairly large Matterhorn as a backing to one of England's earliest Alpine gardens.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Controversy

• The theme park received some press for its proposal to tag guests with RFID wristbands in order that they be tracked and filmed by cameras as they move around the park. Although it is intended to be optional and used for providing personalised video of a visitors day, the media reacted to the privacy implications and Big Brother scenario.^[9]

• A marketing strategy encouraging workers to call in absent in order to visit the theme park was heavily criticised by business groups.^[10]

• Relations with the local community were harmed when Alton Towers significantly reduced the amount of free tickets it provides to local residents as compensation for the heavy traffic the theme park attracts to the small local village roads.^[11]

• Due to a court battle with two local residents, Suzanne and Stephen Roper (Chairman of Churchill China ), Alton Towers is having problems with its end-of-season fireworks display, which is a very popular event with customers and an important date on the season calendar. However, the towers is attempting to keep them running. The court battle ended in October 2005 leaving Alton Towers with permission to stage three of the five firework and laser displays. The park now has a noise abatement order in place meaning that it cannot exceed 40 decibels to their nearby neighbours.^[12]

• Another court battle with local residents resulted in a court injunction which prevents Alton Towers from building any rides above tree height. The local residents argued that the park should not be visible above the surrounding woodland as it spoils the landscape.^{[citation needed]} At first it was thought that this would mean Alton Towers would no longer be able to build extreme roller coasters. This has proved not to be the case as the theme park has overcome this problem by building new rides either in man-made ravines in the case of Nemesis or partially underground as in the case of Oblivion.

• On July 20, 2006 an accident involving the Runaway Mine Train occurred near the tunnel area of the ride. The train separated into two, with the two sections colliding after the first section rolled back (or "valleyed"). Three people were taken to hospital while another 26 were treated for minor injuries.^[13] RMT will now be closed until 2007.

• The park was subject to media coverage over its decision to slaughter its livestock from the Old McDonald's Farmyard area due to the Foot and Mouth disease outbreak in 2001^[14]. The slaughter was deemed necessary as the park would have been unable to open to the public if the animals remained, and livestock movement restrictions prevented them from being removed from the theme park itself. The RSPCA criticised the action, saying other options should have been examined.^[15]

• Alton Towers announced a special "Islam Day", in which a group of Muslims had reportedly booked the complex for an entire day in which they would perform prayers and other Muslim related activities.^[16] This was attacked by critics as an example of political correctness.^[17] The same day was booked for holding a wedding celebration prior to the "Islam Day" for a non-Muslim couple, along with their 60 invited guests. The couple learned nine weeks before the day that an "Islam Day" was taking place at the same time. The couple and their guests were allowed to attend the same day, provided they respected the Muslim rules: alcohol, smoking and music were banned and only halal food was served.^[18] The day, however, was subsequently cancelled due to a lack of interest.

• In October 2006, 15 out of 19 fast food outlets, and an independently run Kentucky Fried Chicken failed local council health inspections.^[19]

[edit] Facts and figures

• The Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ride cost approx. £4.5million (with another £3.5million spent on licensing the book's storyline).
• Receives 2.5 million visitors per year^[20].
• The monorail is from Expo 86 which was held in Vancouver, British Columbia.
• The theme park is home to several "world's firsts": vertical drop roller coaster, Oblivion, as well as Nemesis, Europe's first inverted rollercoaster, and Air, the world's first B&M flying rollercoaster.
• The park was featured as a downloadable add-on to Chris Sawyer's RollerCoaster Tycoon.
• The music In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg has become widely associated with the park thanks to its use in Alton Towers marketing campaigns. It is often also heard playing on loudspeakers at the park entrance.

[edit] Trivia

• Was the Number 1 UK attraction in 1999.^[21]

• After being criticised in an alternative visitor attractions book in May 2005, which praised attractions such as Gnome Magic, Alton Towers bosses offered free entry to over 1000 people who arrived carrying a Gnome. Staff attempted to re-home approximately 200 gnomes left behind by visitors. ^[22]

• Holds the world record for the most naked people (32) on a roller coaster.^[23]

• Alton Towers was the first UK theme park to stage annual "Gay-Days". Once a year the park invites gay and lesbian couples to attend a special over 18s day at the park, where alcohol is provided. This event has been so successful that Thorpe Park, another Tussauds owned park, hosted its own similar event last year.^[24]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Flickr photos tagged Alton Towers - thousands of photographs of the amusement park, house and gardens
• Alton Towers History - an archive of the towers history.
• Roller Coaster Database Alton Towers entry
• Reviews and features of past and current Halloween events at Alton Towers

Roller coasters at Alton Towers
Air - Beastie - Black Hole - Corkscrew - Nemesis - Oblivion - Rita: Queen of Speed - Runaway Mine Train - Spinball Whizzer

UK Theme Parks:

Tussauds Theme Parks:

Alton Towers | Chessington | Thorpe Park

Other Selected Theme Parks:

Blackgang Chine | Blackpool Pleasure Beach | Drayton Manor | Dreamland Margate Flamingo Land | Lightwater Valley | Loudoun Castle | Oakwood | Robin Hill

Coordinates: 52°58′43″N, 1°52′52″W