Welcome to Alton Towers Discovered, one of the web’s best guides to Britain’s Number 1 Theme Park, Alton Towers. Alton Towers Discovered hopes to bring you the latest news and updates along with some great ride reviews, competitions and photos.
Main Park News – 1st November
Alton Towers has now closed after a very successful 2004 season. The park will reopen after the closed season on the 12th March – hopefully to the arrival of RITA – more news to follow.
03/01/04 – RITA Track Update
Alton Towers Discovered has a new update of RITA pictures. These pictures can be found bellow and a new RITA page a construction archive gallery will be added to the site soon.
18/01/04 – Official Announcements
Its has been confirmed by Alton Towers that ‘Rita – The Queen of Speed’ will be the official name of Alton Towers’ latest rollercoaster, opening in the early part of the 2005 season. Sad news that the Blackhole will not feature in the 2005 ride line up has also been confirmed. Although the ride is in operation for the Winter Weekends over the ‘off season’, the ride has required extreme maintenance work over the past few years and the need for new evacuation routes have been discussed as reasons for removal.
21/11/04 – RITA – New coaster for 2005! – And construction pics
Alton Towers will be home to ‘RITA’ in 2005 – A brand new launched coaster in UG Land – the home of Corkscrew. The ride will launch riders, sitting in 4 seater cars from 0 to 100kph in 2.8 seconds using a hydraulic launch from the station. The ride will be built and manufactured by Intamin. It is believed that the ride will be launched from the station, accelerating up a steep track to it’s highest point (18m) and then speed around a ‘figure of 8 track’, flying through curved twists and helixes at high speed. There is no doubt that although the ride will be relatively short, it will be a high intensity ride at high intensity speeds. The ride has been codenamed ‘RITA’, but after Alton Towers displayed advertisements using the name ‘RITA’ – this could be the final name. The pictures below shows just how close ‘Rita’ will be to Corkscrew, maybe signalling a close end for the 25 year old ‘head banger’!
Construction pictures (13th October – Credit to AJ Cole)
Construction pictures (25th October – Credit to A.Baggott www.towerstimes.co.uk )
Visit the official website www.riderita.com
1/11/04 – Alton Towers closes after successful 2004 season
Alton Towers theme park has now closed after a very successful 2004 season for the 2004/05 off season. The park will reopen 12th March – hopefully to the arrival of RITA – Alton Tower’s brand new launched rollercoaster. An Alton Towers Discovered 2004 season review will be available soon.
7/08/04 – Earlier late-season closure times
Alton Towers have announced through their official website that the theme park will close even earlier during the late-season (Aug-Oct) this year, the new ride closure times being 4pm/5pm/5.30pm, depending on the time of year compared to the earlier summer closures of up to 7.30pm and last year’s closing times of up to 6-6.30pm. This is obviously disappointing, but remember as long as you begin to queue for a ride before the closure time, the ride keep operating until everyone in the queue has got their ride. The queue closes, not the ride!
4/08/04 – Spinball Whizzer website launched!
Today, Alton Towers and Tussauds have officially opened the fantastic new Spinball Whizzer website, hoping to promote the ride and park even more during the late season, giving the website users a chance to win a £10 voucher to the park while playing on the online pinball game. Visit www.spinballwhizzer.com
1/08/04 – Skyride closed for the rest of the 2004 season
The skyride is out of operation for the rest of the season, visitors will have to use the cross valley pathways and the disabled with have to go through Gloomy Wood to get to Forbidden Valley and through The Towers to get to UG Land because the steep steps on the pathways are dangerous and not suitable for wheelchairs. It is unclear why the skyride is shut, but we believe the reason to be because a recent major breakdown, resulting in somewhere of the region of a ₤2.5m repair and the rumours about Cred Street’s future as ‘Jazz Land’.
6/05/04 – Spinball has re-opened
It has been confirmed that Spinball Whizzer has reopened and was in operation today. After vigorous safety testing over the past week and a failed test yesterday, Alton Towers, Tussauds and Maurer Soehne have announced that Alton Tower’s latest rollercoaster Spinball Whizzer is safe for the public to enjoy. The ride reopened and was in full operation today.
25/3/04 – Spinball Whizzer Closed
Spinball Whizzer has been closed over the Easter break and remains shut because Alton Towers and Maurer Soehne believe the ride maybe unsafe. The closure followed an incident on Dragon’s Fury – also a Spinning rollercoaster made by Maurer Soehne at Chessington World of adventures where it is believed that the safety steps may have collapsed and the ride was experiencing difficulty throughout the opening weekend.
Maurer Soehne ride technicians have been at Alton Towers throughout the past week and the ride’s safety ladders have been in scaffolding. It is unknown when the ride will reopen. See the scaffolding here
27/03/04 – Spinball Whizzer opens – New Rollercoaster for the 2004 season.
The new 2004 season sees Alton Towers open a Maurer Soehne spinning rollercoaster in Adventureland. The spinning coaster will is themed around a giant pinball machine, with the metallic silver trains acting as the balls. ‘Spinball Whizzer’ will is a custom designed coaster with specially developed four-person cars which will spin guests around determined by the weight and number of riders. Find out more here
27/03/04 – Alton Towers opens for 2004 season
Alton Towers has opened for the 2004 season and we have seen the introduction of both Spinball Whizzer – a new spinning coaster and The Flume – the new log flume revamp.
19/2/2004 – The end for dynamo?
During the half term fun week, Dynamo has recently been ripped down to the ground. The ride was removed last weekend and all that remains at present is the old operator’s cabin. Will this be the end of the road for Dynamo, will it reappear elsewhere in the park, will it be sold ? It is rumored that a tethered balloon might replace dynamo’s place, being a pay per ride attraction. More news will follow soon.
RIP Dynamo 2004. Thanks to SkuM001 and Yeah 7 for the pics.
1/02/2004 – Spinball Whizzer Test Run
Spinball Whizzer has undertaken vigorous testing over the past 2 days and all the cars were on the track early yesterday, but the Spinning mechanism had been locked, we will have to wait and see the cars in ‘real’ action. The ride is looking great and theming will commence soon. Construction Pics
6/01/2004 – Spinball Whizzer Cars arrive
The Spinball Whizzer Cars have finally arrived at Alton Towers. The track is nearly complete and some theming has already started. The Spinball Whizzer gallery has been updated here and I have also updated the picture of the car here – Thanks to the guys at Xtreme Velocity for the picture.
2/01/2004 – 2004 Season Prices
Alton Towers have released the price tariffs for one day single tickets.
(Adults are 12 and over, Children are under 12)
| Off Peak | Children – ₤17.00 | Adults – ₤20.00 |
| Standard | Children – ₤21.00 | Adults – ₤25.00 |
| Peak | Children – ₤21.50 | Adults – ₤26.50 |
16/12/2003 – AquaKarts
Alton Towers have submitted planning permission for the erection of an AquaKarts docking stage to go on the lake next to the Swans. The AquaKarts ride will be the equivalent of go karts on water! – a new experience for guests at Alton Towers. It is not confirmed whether this will be an inclusive attraction or pay per ride.
28/11/03 – ‘Bathtime with attitude!’ – Log Flume Revamp for 2004
The 2004 season will see the Log Flume re-emerge from it’s old decaying state to ‘Bathtime with attitude’ sponsored by Cussons’ Imperial Leather. It is not confirmed that any track will be replaced but Bathtime with attitude will see new bath tub boats instead of the logs, new paint job, showers, taps, rubber ducks and the power shower within the boats to make sure you definitely get wet next year!
22/11/03 – Spinball Whizzer – New Rollercoaster for the 2004 season.
2004 will see Alton Towers open a Maurer Soehne spinning rollercoaster in Adventureland. The spinning coaster will be themed as a giant pinball machine, with the metallic silver trains acting as the balls. ‘Spinball Whizzer’ will be a custom designed coaster with specially developed four-person cars which will spin guests around determined by the weight and number of riders. Find out more here