A photo that leaked on social media yesterday shows that a range of Alton Towers funfair rides will be operating during 2021.
We will not be sharing the photo on here out of respect for Alton Towers but the news spread like wildfire as an image of a Super Trooper funfair ride was spotted in Forbidden Valley.
With a 36 person capacity, the super trooper takes 6 hours to set-up and sees riders spinning around in this medium ranked thrill factor ride.
Nothing too insane but certainly a great little ride nonetheless.
Naturally, the theme park enthusiasts treated the ride like dirt on their shoe as funfairs always seem to be looked down upon by the community.
This is a mindset I absolutely hate.
There is a reason why these rides (more funfair rides are rumoured to be in place) are coming to Alton Towers and it could be any of the following.
Crowd Distribution
Last year saw quite extensive queues throughout the park, however, if you check out our How To Beat the Queues video you should be alright even on one of the busiest days when we went.
The cleaning regimes, social distancing markers and new procedure saw exponentially longer queues.
These funfair rides could simply distribute the crowds and ease up some of the queue lengths from the bigger rides.
Virtual Queue Distraction
With Alton Towers tipped to have a virtual queuing system in place for the 2021 season these funfair rides could simply be added to eat up sometime between rides for those who are virtual queuing.
I personally don’t think the virtual queues will make a difference if they’re associated with the standard lines as no matter what your timeslot is you’re going to be slotted in at the back of a long queue anyways which makes the whole virtual queue idea redundant.
Virtual Queuing only seems to make sense for me when it’s linked to the Fastrack queue lines. That way there is no build-up in the fast track queue line and the time slots will integrate a small number of people through into the normal queue rather than last year which saw a fast track line almost completely emptied before the standard queue line was let in.
Flat Ride Market Research
Now, this doesn’t mean the types of rides that are in place now being added permanently.
Absolutely not.
But if these rides become popular and distribute the crowds nicely then that only justifies to Alton Towers that more permanent flat rides would be beneficial to the park.
In a time where investment is being treated even more carefully now this is a great way to conquer the queuing issue in addition to providing good market research to the rides popularity, their placement and how it affects the areas in which they are located.
There are rumours that X-Sector and Dark Forest are getting a funfair ride also.
The leaked photo clearly shows Forbidden Valley so we already know about that one.
The three most popular areas of the park.
Could this be market research to decide where the next major flat ride at the park should be placed?
Each ride will be assessed and whichever ride performs the best would justify spending in that area.
With queues in Dark Forest being almost twice as big as everywhere else this could be another season to trial that with a funfair ride and see how those queues are affected.
I’m looking forward to riding new rides at Alton Towers.
I don’t care if they’re funfair rides although I do care if they’re blasting out funfair dance tracks and putting on a light show that always seems to look a little cheesy.
It would look so out of place at Alton Towers if they did that all season long.
Oktoberfest would be a great fit for the rides.
If they can incorporate them into their surroundings without the terrible music / light packages then I’m all for it!
Check out our video below for more information.
