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The Log
Flume Although the
modern Alton Towers is famous almost for being a top class theme park,
it is often forgotten that for the vast majority of the estate's life as
a tourist attraction, it traded principally on attracting visitors to
look around the castle ruins and gardens. Rides were considered a very
minor part of the equation, and were restricted to a few old-style
fairground rides. The turning point came in 1980 when then-owner John
Broome decided to install a variety of larger scale rides. The new
Vekoma Corkscrew stole the headlines, which was understandable, but it
would be fair to say that the biggest achievement was the installation
of the new Log Flume on the other side of the park the following year. Why was the
Log Flume a bigger achievement? Well, although the Corkscrew may have
been the biggest and most spectacular thrill ride visitors had ever seen
(how times have changed), but it was only an off-the-shelf coaster,
which simply required the park to clear a patch of concrete, then
assemble the pieces. The Log Flume was the park's first custom designed
ride, weaving its way through the woods, and taking its riders well away
from the crowds into an area of dense woodland. Given that the park
could easily have got away with installing a much smaller twistier
version of the ride, which would have been easier to construct yet just
as well received by the public, the management of the day deserve credit
for trying something ambitious. In its early years, the ride became
almost as much a part of the park's identity as the Corkscrew, with the
image of the final drop bottoming out just above a picturesque lake
becoming famous, partly thanks to the fact that it is the only part of
the ride clearly visible to spectators. Since then, a
lot has changed. Alton Towers has gone from operating as a stately home
that just happens to have a few rides, to a serious theme park that just
happens to have a stately home. Log Flumes have become a standard
amusement park ride, to the point where visitors are likely to be
shocked to visit a park and find that there isn't some sort of flume on
offer. Rides like Drayton Manor's Storm Force 10 have heightened
visitors' expectations, while rides like American Adventure's Nightmare
Niagara or Thorpe Park's Tidal Wave dampen the impact of the Alton
ride's once-amazing height. How can the Log Flume compete in the more
competitive theme park market of the twenty-first century? The entrance
to the Log Flume can be difficult to find for the first time visitor.
Logically, the ride should have been incorporated into the Katanga
Canyon area, which was created in 1992. Instead, the entrance is hidden
away in Merrie England, although no effort is made to explain why a Log
Flume should be doing there. In its early days, the queue was a nasty
cattle-pen affair, but this has been replaced with a long meandering
path which heads around the edge of the lake, and directly underneath
the crest of the final drop, before turning back towards the station.
The only down side to the queue is that there are no shortcut gates, and
even when the ride is a walk-on, you still have to walk the full length
of the path. One highly unusual feature of the queue is the large
notices scattered along the path, asking water-related general knowledge
questions, almost as if the park is acknowledging how bored you'll be by
the time you reach them. This isn't a bad idea, and I'm surprised not to
see the feature on other rides around the park. The station is
more the type you'd associate with a rapids ride than a Log Flume, using
a moving circular platform, covered by an ornate roof, probably in a
desperate bid to fit the Merrie England theme. Although this system may
be outdated, it does look far more spectacular than the old sheds most
other flumes use for their stations. On busy days, the fact that so many
boats are in the station at once means that the staff are able to match
up group numbers to ensure that boats go out with a full load of 5
riders, which helps keep the queue moving. This isn't always a good
thing, and its worth making sure you don't queue too close to what I
shall politely call "undesirable" visitors, as there's always
a chance that you'll be forced to ride with them. The first
section of the ride takes you down a rather odd cul-de-sac, which seems
to be there solely to make the ride visible from the nearby path, and
the original queue line, in fact nostalgia-buffs will be able to spot
the supports which once held plastic screens to stop riders from leaning
out of the boat and splashing the queue. Once this is out of the way, we
come to the first lift. This has a slightly intimidating look to it,
since it is pretty huge, and neither riders nor spectators can see what
comes next. Up and up and up you go, what could be waiting on the other
side? A huge Oblivion-style drop maybe? Brace yourself, here it comes,
it's ... a quite pathetic teeny-weeny little drop, bottoming out well
above the ground. This is actually a nice enough way to start the ride,
but the fact that riders are led to think there is something much more
spectacular on its way does make it a big anti climax. It is also used
as a simple enough way of getting the track to a height which allows it
to gradually slope down to the base of the second lift, which is a long
long way away. With the first
drop out of the way, you find yourself in the woods. The big plus point
of this is that it is the only ride at Alton Towers where you are taken
well away from the crowds and the noise of the park itself. Although the
pathway leading from Katanga Canyon comes closer than you realise, this
is really the park's only way of sitting on a major ride and just
relaxing. Here, it also becomes obvious that this is one of the very few
where the park has made no effort to create a theme - at no point does
anyone pretend that you are doing anything other than going on a fairly
gentle boat trip through the woods. The ride takes
the shape of an elongated figure-of-8, and as you approach the
crossover, a tunnel takes you under the second lift. Amusingly, the
entrance to the tunnel is an archway that appears to be cut into a
rubber curtain. It is a strange quirk of the human mind that, in this
situation, the majority of people are powerless to stop themselves
putting up their hand, and whacking it. Anyone with a cruel sense of
humour will take great delight in seeing people attempt this, only to
find that the "curtain" is as solid as a rock, and hearing
their cries of pain echo around the pitch black tunnel. For several
years, the boat would emerge into an area inhabited by large model
dinosaurs, which were moved here when the construction of the Black Hole
meant the demolition of their old walk-through enclosure (similar to
that found at Drayton Manor today). Authentically,
these have now all died out and the area is now left just as nature
intended. As the boat plods its way through the back "loop" of
the figure-8, there isn't a lot to do except relax and enjoy the peace
and quiet. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but again it may seem
anti-climatic to first time riders. In the last few years, Tussaud’s
has become very keen on the idea that rides should be surrounded with
walkways which go under, over, and around the rides. Although this is
great for spectators, it can occasionally give riders the claustrophobic
feeling of a zoo animal, there to stared at by others. When this feeling
strikes, its good to know that there’s one ride in the park that you
can enjoy in privacy. Eventually,
the boat winds its way around to the second lift. At the peak sits the
entrance to another tunnel, which means that the short drop is taken in
total darkness. Again, the drop is nothing to get too excited about, and
you are unlikely to get particularly wet beyond a bit of spray bouncing
back from the walls. The following section is particularly odd, as the
boat continues in total darkness for a considerable time, still in total
darkness. This has not always been the case, as during the reign of the
dinosaurs, the tunnel was home to pleasant subtly lit scene of smaller
models gathered around a pool. Although the "stage" for this
scene remains, it sits invisible to all but the most observant of
riders. Whatever you may be expecting in terms of special effects or
theming fails to show up, and as the end of the tunnel looms, you can't
help feeling that the opportunity for something spectacular has been
wasted. The tunnel
delivers you straight to the foot of the final lift. During the climb, reality slowly dawns, as you return to the
hustle and bustle of the park. At the top, it is amusing to note the
platform, a relic from the days when a member of staff would hand you a
ticket, which you would hand in at the exit to order your on-ride photo.
It hardly seems credible today that ride photos would have to be
ordered, unseen, by handing in your ticket, and then filling in an
address form so that your picture could be posted to you a few days
later. Even more incredibly, this system was considered very hi-tech at
the time, simply because it used an automatic camera - compare this to
the system used on Blackpool Pleasure Beach's Log Flume, where an
employee would be stationed on a platform in the middle of the lake and
take every picture manually with a bog-standard hand held camera! The drop forms
a nice way of delivering you from the isolation of the woods into the
wide-open space of the lake, and is entertaining enough in its own
right. Unfortunately, there's no sign of a really spectacular splash
down, which yet again gives it a sense of anti-climax. With a full (and
therefore heavy) boat, you are likely to get a reasonable soaking,
"reasonable" being defined as letting you know you've been on
a water ride, but not drenching you to the point walking away from the
ride becomes uncomfortable. As you head back to the station, large
ripples are transmitted along the trough by other boats hitting the
water behind you, which causes an amusing effect, as the boat suddenly
rises into the air, to the surprise of the unprepared riders.
Annoyingly, the observation platform is fenced off from the ride exit,
meaning that groups of riders and non-riders have quite a bit of lateral
thinking to do in order to be re-united. I wouldn't use
the word "bad" to describe the ride, but it does have a couple
of major flaws over and above the little annoyances already mentioned. Firstly,
if you ride in a full boat, the weight pushes the boat down and forces
it to run on its wheels along the bottom of the trough. This alone takes
away a huge amount of the fun of riding. While passengers on a light
boat enjoy the pleasant floating sensation that the ride is meant to
deliver, larger groups are left with a sensation more akin to clattering
down a badly maintained railway. Secondly, the splashdowns are all disappointing. Anyone who
has witnessed such rides as American Adventure's Nightmare Niagara, or
Drayton Manor's now-removed Log Flume will remember the huge,
spectacular walls of water thrown up every time a boat hit the bottom of
the drops. On Alton's version there is precious little to get excited
about, as the water just seems to fumble around, throwing up little more
than a near-invisible cloud of mist which isn't particularly exciting
either for riders or spectators. Although I
always enjoy the ride, I can't help noticing that the phrase I've had to
use most often in this review is "anti-climax". The biggest problem with the ride is simply that it doesn't
fit in with the modern Alton Towers. When the Log Flume opened, visitors
came to look at the park's amazing landscape, and riding the Log Flume
fitted in with that idea. Nowadays, people queue up expecting a
fully-fledged theme park ride, which it simply doesn’t deliver. If you
think of it as a ride to get away from the loud, brash Alton Towers of
today, and go back to the quaint Alton Towers of twenty years ago, the
ride is perfect. No-one’s
pretending that the ride is a world-beater, and I’m sure we can all
think of several more thrilling flume rides, but the Alton Towers Log
Flume has an identity and a charm all of its own, and if you are looking
for a peaceful ride which can be enjoyed with relative privacy, then the
Log Flume is not bad.
Briefly... Here is our bullet point review of this attraction, highlighting everything that is great about it, and everything that is sadly bad. Good points:
Bad points:
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