Coaster Kingdom
http://www.ukrollercoasters.co.uk
Submission (Alton Towers)
Alton
Towers deserve credit and kudos for many things. The medley of rides at the park
seems to be spot on with a nice variety of family water rides, large
white-knuckle roller coasters and the de rigueur spin rides.
It
is the spin ride that perhaps the park is most keen on installing. With each
simple glorified fairground attraction that opens, it is delivered in a blitz of
marketing that may even over-shadow even Valhalla. This means that the public
are quite happy to queue for half-an-hour for an insipid version of what can be
found at a half-decent fair.
That
is quite a harsh outlook, perhaps, and what spin rides are good at in theme
parks is to offer a stark contrast to the sprawling undulations of a roller
coaster, filling in a plot that may otherwise be another souvenir shop and at
least being a small investment for the park, as opposed to large rides with no
investment between.
Although
the theming in the X Sector is about as descriptive and explicit as the name, it
is one of the most impressive areas in that once you’re in the centre of it, a
simple 360-degree revolution will impress – not only do you follow the course
of Oblivion, but there is always something going on – a shuttle from Oblivion
plunging deep under the ground, the Enterprise skimming the final turn-around of
Oblivion, or the newest addition, Submission.
When
moving, the ride appears to be far more discouraging and menacing than when it
does parked, when it appears to be no more than a puffed up Sky Flyer.
Like
everything else in the X Sector, the flat-black colour scheme remains, this time
with electric-blue highlights. Built around the black vertical structure
of the ride is a latticework star formation reaching the height of the ride.
On
the supporting arms of the ride mirrors catch the sunlight, and on the
counterweights high above long spikes protrude from the side making Submission
look like some large-scale space age weaponry.
When
the ride moves, each arm moves in the opposite direction and the gondola turns
in the opposite direction to the arm. With the peaks of the star structure and
the spiked blades on the end of the arms, the ride is most certainly a crowd
puller and demands your attention.
With
the black and silver structure gleaming with vivid radiance in the sunlight, the
blue accents and spot-lamps underneath finish the ride off with a fantastic
pseudo-space-age theme, yet retaining the sense of anomaly that the whole of the
X Sector seems to portray.
The
queue for the ride takes place in the former queue for the Energiser splitting
towards the end for each gondola. The queue weaves under the final brake-run of
Oblivion, which is strange as Oblivions’ conclusion is almost as high as
Submission itself.
There
are six rows of four on each of the gondola arranged in the opposite way to a
Pirate Ship, whereby there are three rows on each side of the gondola facing the
outside edges. There are two gondolas, so mathematicians among us will grasp
that the ride seats a respectable 48 people.
Once
everyone is sat comfortably, the black over-head restraints will lower. Once
they’re down, what can only be described as a robust spatula will come down
from the front in the manner of a lap-bar and press tightly down on the
over-head restraint.
Once
the flap guarding the gap between the gondola and platform has raised, the ride
starts. As the arm lifts the gondola, the gondola severely dips towards the
ground leaving half the riders staring at the close-hand ground and the other
side staring skywards.
It
only takes a few swings before you see the spike on the end of the opposing arm
fly past at close quarters, the track of Oblivion and then the neighbouring
gondola as you and them are now fully inverted.
Without
even pausing, you gyrate back towards the ground and just as you think you’re
going to hit, you’re pulled back skywards in a frenzy of rotations. Without
stopping, relentlessly you head back towards terra firma, and on the journey
back to the sky, you slow before pausing for what seems an eternity.
As
you feel the blood rush to your head and the contents of your pockets slither to
a near predictable demise 35-foot below, the ride edges itself back into a
downward fling, over again before slowing to a crawl and up-righting itself once
again.
The
ride so far seems to have had a rather subdued response both in feedback via
websites and also from when people get off the ride. Watch Samurai, and people
will come off grinning like Cheshire Cats, even after queuing for three-quarters
of an hour. People already seem to be rather nonchalant with the thrills
Submission claims to offer.
Despite
you having anything up to two rows of seats in front, nobody at Chance Rides has
even made an effort to tier the seats towards the centre. This means, if
you’re not in the front seat, you’ll be able to see nothing but the seat
back in front.
Worst
of all, the ride is a bore – not repetitive – a bore. You could happily play
a game of stone/paper/scissors on it or have a conversation – it isn’t as if
people are screaming loudly.
The
ride is hardly fast, which isn’t always a bad thing, just look at Flying
Circus. However, it fails to exert high amounts of G-force on you, you don’t
feel weightless at any point, and it is never at any point disorientating.
Fine,
this could be the fault of the park running the ride on a low-fat setting. I
don’t see how it could ever provoke excitement, though, due to an audacious
lack of visuals and anything that could be mistaken as an out of the ordinary
‘force’ of any type.
The
front seat is better. Under the ride is a trench, so you get very, very close to
the ground at some speed (relatively speaking). So, the front seat is passable
– that leaves the ride as a 16-seater – not the high capacity 48 riders per
ride I harked about earlier.
1/5 Marcus Sheen