Alton Towers' Galactica VR coaster/Rollercoaster Restaurant
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stanford911
Mega Poster
Re: Alton Towers' Galactica VR coaster/Rollercoaster Restaur
I had a friend go today and said the same thing after three rides. First one was ok but the headset felt too heavy on his face; second was really out of focus and images that pass on the VR just disappeared instead of naturally passing them and on the third his headset cut out and spent the whole ride in blackness as soon as the train left the station.
I'm planning on heading up within the month, I'd like to try it but I've seen so much bad press lately its really off-putting and I doubt i'm the only one, which won't help AT in any way if more people have the same thoughts with it being mandatory. I'll see what the queue is like and spend most of the day with Nemesis, Thi3teen and trying the Smiler for the first time.
jonny9403 said:
I had a friend go today and said the same thing after three rides. First one was ok but the headset felt too heavy on his face; second was really out of focus and images that pass on the VR just disappeared instead of naturally passing them and on the third his headset cut out and spent the whole ride in blackness as soon as the train left the station.
I'm planning on heading up within the month, I'd like to try it but I've seen so much bad press lately its really off-putting and I doubt i'm the only one, which won't help AT in any way if more people have the same thoughts with it being mandatory. I'll see what the queue is like and spend most of the day with Nemesis, Thi3teen and trying the Smiler for the first time.
SaiyanHajime
CF Legend
Re: Alton Towers' Galactica VR coaster/Rollercoaster Restaur
I am enjoying how all my predictions are true a little too much.
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I am enjoying how all my predictions are true a little too much.
Sent from my MotoG3 using Tapatalk
NeoXIII
Best Newcomer 2016
Re: Alton Towers' Galactica VR coaster/Rollercoaster Restaur
(First every trip report incoming, I do apologize if it's not a 100% like an actual report or in the wrong topic. That, and it's also my own personal experience I had
)
Been to the Towers yesterday to check out what the VR stuff is all about.
There are some things wrong with Galactica, but also quite a lot of positive aspects about the experience I had. Didn't make it down to the Forbidden Valley until 11:30 due to light showers up until then and the queue time being on the 40 minutes mark. Got in afterwards quite quickly and within 10 minutes. Managed to ride a total of four times this Saturday, which isn't too bad.
Here's a run down of the bad and good things about my experience I had:
The Good:
- The entire ride feels nothing like Air anymore.
Air was always nice, but I never went on it more than once whenever I'm at AT. It was an amazing cred for sure,
but personally nothing I need to ride over and over again (especially with Nemesis just right next to it).
With Galactica however, the entire ride changed into something completely different. By adding a story, it feels more like a thought-out theme expansion rather than adding something trendy for the sake of it.
- The VR experience is the best I've ever had so far.
I remember trying on a VR headset 4 years ago when it was still really new and just for insiders. I was amazed by the technology, but at the same time I wasn't able to wear the headset longer than a minute because I got too dizzy. Locomotion effect hit me quite hard back then. But since the video and audio feed is synced to the ride's flow, the locomotion effect is little to none now. Unless you were twisting your head quite to the left or right, you were fully inside the range of the video feed. Even looking back was possible, which is quite a nice feature.
- Preparing for take off and arrival.
I've heard a lot of people who went on Galatica first that the staff had problems with getting everyone ready before and after the ride, but now it seems like they've got a rhythm going. It was relatively fast and waiting for the other instructors wasn't too bad either.
- The staff does like working for Galactica.
Bit of a weird one, but every staff member I've seen was really enthusiastic about the ride and helped whenever they can. I actually had a problem with my vision at some point and told the staff afterwards. They noted it down and gave me an exit pass which I can use for my next visit, neat. They've also asked everyone if there was any problems during their ride, so they could improve it later on.
The Bad:
- Galactica might be still a One-Trick Pony.
As I mentioned above, I only went on Air once per visit since it didn't had a huge appeal to me. With the VR added ontop it gives the ride a complete new experience, however I could imagine that after a while it doesn't feel that amazing anymore. Especially if people cannot get used to the headset and the visuals. I also quite got used to the motion, so much that I forgot I was on a rollercoaster in the first place. Not sure if that is a good or bad thing though.
- VR and technical hiccups.
While the error I had during one of my rides didn't bother me that much, I occasionally heard people sitting next to me that their visions were too blurry or the screens went black at some point. I've noticed there is a very specific point in the track where the audio gets cut off every time you pass it, which is a bit annoying. Due to all the shaking and moving around the vision gets blurry as well.
Another really annoying thing was the photo booth, or rather the photo collection point. It took a solid minute or even longer for your picture to be on the screen, sometimes the scanners wouldn't work at all.
VR is now mandatory.
Something that upset a lot of people was the fact that you had to wear the headset unless you have medical conditions. AT confirmed back in January that the VR part would be optional to all riders, but recently they withdrawn that statement recently and now everyone has to ride it with the headset on. Reason for that (I assume) is probably that they couldn't call it "World's First Fully Dedicated VR Rollercoaster" otherwise. That's one cred off the ride in the dark list for Halloween and Fireworks unfortunately.
- Alton Towers tries to be a show-off.
The biggest thing that I really disliked about the ride was how much they've tried to put into it. You're visiting three different destinations during your flight, and there's just too much you're missing out. I've been on the cred four times during my visit, and on the fourth time I finally managed to fully enjoy the ride because I wasn't a) over-excited to ride something new b) overstimulated with the amount of stuff being shown.
Final conclusion:
I really like Galatica, but I think my enthusiastic feeling for the ride came from the over-stimulation and expectations I had on my first go. I went in straight afterwards, which then did make my head a bit dizzy. I do recommend to ride it at least twice (with enough of a break in between) to fully appreciate the ride and experience. My hope for the future is that AT is going to tweak the ride as they progress through the season, and that more videos will be available, especially for special occasions such as Fireworks and Halloween. Also hoping the staff keeps on being that enthusiastic, it really added a lot to the entire experience!
(First every trip report incoming, I do apologize if it's not a 100% like an actual report or in the wrong topic. That, and it's also my own personal experience I had
)Been to the Towers yesterday to check out what the VR stuff is all about.
There are some things wrong with Galactica, but also quite a lot of positive aspects about the experience I had. Didn't make it down to the Forbidden Valley until 11:30 due to light showers up until then and the queue time being on the 40 minutes mark. Got in afterwards quite quickly and within 10 minutes. Managed to ride a total of four times this Saturday, which isn't too bad.
Here's a run down of the bad and good things about my experience I had:
The Good:
- The entire ride feels nothing like Air anymore.
Air was always nice, but I never went on it more than once whenever I'm at AT. It was an amazing cred for sure,
but personally nothing I need to ride over and over again (especially with Nemesis just right next to it).
With Galactica however, the entire ride changed into something completely different. By adding a story, it feels more like a thought-out theme expansion rather than adding something trendy for the sake of it.
- The VR experience is the best I've ever had so far.
I remember trying on a VR headset 4 years ago when it was still really new and just for insiders. I was amazed by the technology, but at the same time I wasn't able to wear the headset longer than a minute because I got too dizzy. Locomotion effect hit me quite hard back then. But since the video and audio feed is synced to the ride's flow, the locomotion effect is little to none now. Unless you were twisting your head quite to the left or right, you were fully inside the range of the video feed. Even looking back was possible, which is quite a nice feature.
- Preparing for take off and arrival.
I've heard a lot of people who went on Galatica first that the staff had problems with getting everyone ready before and after the ride, but now it seems like they've got a rhythm going. It was relatively fast and waiting for the other instructors wasn't too bad either.
- The staff does like working for Galactica.
Bit of a weird one, but every staff member I've seen was really enthusiastic about the ride and helped whenever they can. I actually had a problem with my vision at some point and told the staff afterwards. They noted it down and gave me an exit pass which I can use for my next visit, neat. They've also asked everyone if there was any problems during their ride, so they could improve it later on.
The Bad:
- Galactica might be still a One-Trick Pony.
As I mentioned above, I only went on Air once per visit since it didn't had a huge appeal to me. With the VR added ontop it gives the ride a complete new experience, however I could imagine that after a while it doesn't feel that amazing anymore. Especially if people cannot get used to the headset and the visuals. I also quite got used to the motion, so much that I forgot I was on a rollercoaster in the first place. Not sure if that is a good or bad thing though.
- VR and technical hiccups.
While the error I had during one of my rides didn't bother me that much, I occasionally heard people sitting next to me that their visions were too blurry or the screens went black at some point. I've noticed there is a very specific point in the track where the audio gets cut off every time you pass it, which is a bit annoying. Due to all the shaking and moving around the vision gets blurry as well.
Another really annoying thing was the photo booth, or rather the photo collection point. It took a solid minute or even longer for your picture to be on the screen, sometimes the scanners wouldn't work at all.
VR is now mandatory.
Something that upset a lot of people was the fact that you had to wear the headset unless you have medical conditions. AT confirmed back in January that the VR part would be optional to all riders, but recently they withdrawn that statement recently and now everyone has to ride it with the headset on. Reason for that (I assume) is probably that they couldn't call it "World's First Fully Dedicated VR Rollercoaster" otherwise. That's one cred off the ride in the dark list for Halloween and Fireworks unfortunately.
- Alton Towers tries to be a show-off.
The biggest thing that I really disliked about the ride was how much they've tried to put into it. You're visiting three different destinations during your flight, and there's just too much you're missing out. I've been on the cred four times during my visit, and on the fourth time I finally managed to fully enjoy the ride because I wasn't a) over-excited to ride something new b) overstimulated with the amount of stuff being shown.
Final conclusion:
I really like Galatica, but I think my enthusiastic feeling for the ride came from the over-stimulation and expectations I had on my first go. I went in straight afterwards, which then did make my head a bit dizzy. I do recommend to ride it at least twice (with enough of a break in between) to fully appreciate the ride and experience. My hope for the future is that AT is going to tweak the ride as they progress through the season, and that more videos will be available, especially for special occasions such as Fireworks and Halloween. Also hoping the staff keeps on being that enthusiastic, it really added a lot to the entire experience!
zazobo
Hyper Poster
Re: Alton Towers' Galactica VR coaster/Rollercoaster Restaur
Proper crap. My bf has major motion sickness- totally fine on air normally but any type of VR will make him mega vom.
We'll have to come up with some ridiculous health problem so that we can actually still ride it together.. FaceallergictoVR-itis.. Lame.
Proper crap. My bf has major motion sickness- totally fine on air normally but any type of VR will make him mega vom.
We'll have to come up with some ridiculous health problem so that we can actually still ride it together.. FaceallergictoVR-itis.. Lame.
owentaylor121
Giga Poster
Re: Alton Towers' Galactica VR coaster/Rollercoaster Restaur
The way the VR is synced up to the ride shouldn't make your 'bf' mega vom at all as it matched with the way you move.zazobo said:
SaiyanHajime
CF Legend
Re: Alton Towers' Galactica VR coaster/Rollercoaster Restaur
I get sick in a car, mind you. Coasters are mostly fine. Mostly.
Frankly "I did it before and it made me sick, air never used to" should be an adequate "health problem".
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3D glasses make me feel sick. Pressure on nose related.NeoXIII said:
I get sick in a car, mind you. Coasters are mostly fine. Mostly.
Frankly "I did it before and it made me sick, air never used to" should be an adequate "health problem".
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Chris Brown
Mr CoasterForce 2016
Re: Alton Towers' Galactica VR coaster/Rollercoaster Restaur
Bloke in the second row has moved his headset to ride it normally. Alton cant really do much about this so i think we'll see a fair few people doing this whilst the VR is 'compulsory'
Bloke in the second row has moved his headset to ride it normally. Alton cant really do much about this so i think we'll see a fair few people doing this whilst the VR is 'compulsory'
witchfinder
Giga Poster
Re: Alton Towers' Galactica VR coaster/Rollercoaster Restaur
Virtually every pic I've seen of the ride in action has had empty seats. Given that you have no clue what's going on in the real world when you're on it, you'd think they'd want to fill every seat to keep the capacity as high as possible.
I'm going tomorrow so I'll experience it first-hand. I'm certainly curious to rey it but not expecting a lot.
Virtually every pic I've seen of the ride in action has had empty seats. Given that you have no clue what's going on in the real world when you're on it, you'd think they'd want to fill every seat to keep the capacity as high as possible.
I'm going tomorrow so I'll experience it first-hand. I'm certainly curious to rey it but not expecting a lot.
witchfinder
Giga Poster
Re: Alton Towers' Galactica VR coaster/Rollercoaster Restaur
Well, I rode Galactica yesterday and here's what I think...
Firstly the queueing wasn't half as bad as I thought it was going to be. We rode it once in the morning when they were only using one station and again in the afternoon when they were using both, and on both occasions the waiting time was way less than advertised. There is a bit of waiting on the brake run when the ride has finished but the loading and unloading seems to be relatively good - I assume they've improved it since the first days of opening.
On to the ride itself, and, well... I thought it was rubbish. The beginning is pretty good where you're launching into space (AKA going up the lift hill) but after that it was a mess for me. When the ride inverted from fly to lie my goggles almost fell off, so I spent the rest of the ride trying to keep them on and adjust the focus (which was never right for me) which completely took away the immersive experience. There's too much crammed into a minute-long ride as it takes you to three different planets, and when I got to the 'ice world' there was a large chunk of black to my left, possibly due to the goggles coming off but I still would expect to see a full 360 degrees view.
The ride is also quite noisy and juddery at times so that really counteracts what is going in within the VR environment.
So yeah, not impressed at all. The good news is, the second time around I easily took the goggles off as I went up the lift hill, just pushing them down so they were around my neck, and enjoyed the ride as Air, although it seems a lot slower without the goggles on!
My wife used the excuse of suffering with migraines to allow her to ride without the goggles and had no argument from the staff, so if you're looking for an excuse, that one works.
A final note - on our second ride I looked at the headset afterwards and inside it was grim - dirt, crumbs, bits of skin etc. Hopefully they are cleaning them properly at the end of each day but by late afternoon they look nasty! :cry:
Well, I rode Galactica yesterday and here's what I think...
Firstly the queueing wasn't half as bad as I thought it was going to be. We rode it once in the morning when they were only using one station and again in the afternoon when they were using both, and on both occasions the waiting time was way less than advertised. There is a bit of waiting on the brake run when the ride has finished but the loading and unloading seems to be relatively good - I assume they've improved it since the first days of opening.
On to the ride itself, and, well... I thought it was rubbish. The beginning is pretty good where you're launching into space (AKA going up the lift hill) but after that it was a mess for me. When the ride inverted from fly to lie my goggles almost fell off, so I spent the rest of the ride trying to keep them on and adjust the focus (which was never right for me) which completely took away the immersive experience. There's too much crammed into a minute-long ride as it takes you to three different planets, and when I got to the 'ice world' there was a large chunk of black to my left, possibly due to the goggles coming off but I still would expect to see a full 360 degrees view.
The ride is also quite noisy and juddery at times so that really counteracts what is going in within the VR environment.
So yeah, not impressed at all. The good news is, the second time around I easily took the goggles off as I went up the lift hill, just pushing them down so they were around my neck, and enjoyed the ride as Air, although it seems a lot slower without the goggles on!
My wife used the excuse of suffering with migraines to allow her to ride without the goggles and had no argument from the staff, so if you're looking for an excuse, that one works.
A final note - on our second ride I looked at the headset afterwards and inside it was grim - dirt, crumbs, bits of skin etc. Hopefully they are cleaning them properly at the end of each day but by late afternoon they look nasty! :cry:
SaiyanHajime
CF Legend
Re: Alton Towers' Galactica VR coaster/Rollercoaster Restaur
Probably flakes of dehydrated vomit.
Sent from my MotoG3 using Tapatalk
Probably flakes of dehydrated vomit.
Sent from my MotoG3 using Tapatalk
dj-fireball999
Mega Poster
Re: Alton Towers' Galactica VR coaster/Rollercoaster Restaur
Here’s my take on Galactica, after riding it yesterday:
The retheme is okay. Leek signs seem to have been busy and the addition of LED par-cans is a nice touch. The TV screens feel very “Space Mountain” in basically every way. And in true Merlin fashion, some LED lighting strips are already knackered.
The new on ride photo system is abysmal. Effectively “stick your face in a glass dome and stare at a 22” LED Samsung screen for a bit, whilst we take a picture and poorly impose it on someone else’s body". Not only does it look crap, but it seems awful for throughput as well. Though I have a feeling that they added it to try and slow down boarding since it takes so bloody long to dispatch a train now.
Which leads me on to my next problem. Air didn’t have the greatest dispatch times/procedure to begin with, but adding VR has made it awful. It just takes far too long and there’s a lot of faffing around in the station. You sit down, pull your harness down, undo the bag containing the VR headset, adjust the size to fit your head, adjust the focus, have your harness checked, get put into “flying mode”, the ride throws up a locking pin fault, you go back into the regular seating position, repeat a couple of times and then get dispatched. Even on returning to the station, it’s a faff. You can’t put your headset away because it needs to be cleaned, and you can’t even leave your seat once your harness has been released because a host needs to smear the sweaty, makeup plastered headset with a dirty rag and put it into the little Velcro bag before you can get off.
The VR itself is okay, I guess. The lift hill was good, but the rest was very “meh”. And the “fly-to-lie” inversion basically made it fall off my face, so I was holding onto it for the rest of the ride. It’s kind of pixelated as well, judders a LOT and all of the headsets smell like Rita’s harnesses. Which is far from pleasant. Looking at them after riding, they appeared to have soaked up a lot of sweat/makeup/tears/vomit/hopes and dreams/etc from previous riders. Or myself, I can't really tell. Wasn’t really a fan of how it just went to a blank screen as soon as you hit the brake run as well.
Once you’re in the brake run, waiting 4 days for the next train to be dispatched, most people seem to remove the headsets and have them dangling beneath their faces. I can’t wait for someone to do this and then throw up. Seems like a perfect bucket to catch it all.
All in all, it was okay, not very well thought through and is just a massive gimmick that completely ruins the ride’s capacity.
Here’s my take on Galactica, after riding it yesterday:
The retheme is okay. Leek signs seem to have been busy and the addition of LED par-cans is a nice touch. The TV screens feel very “Space Mountain” in basically every way. And in true Merlin fashion, some LED lighting strips are already knackered.
The new on ride photo system is abysmal. Effectively “stick your face in a glass dome and stare at a 22” LED Samsung screen for a bit, whilst we take a picture and poorly impose it on someone else’s body". Not only does it look crap, but it seems awful for throughput as well. Though I have a feeling that they added it to try and slow down boarding since it takes so bloody long to dispatch a train now.
Which leads me on to my next problem. Air didn’t have the greatest dispatch times/procedure to begin with, but adding VR has made it awful. It just takes far too long and there’s a lot of faffing around in the station. You sit down, pull your harness down, undo the bag containing the VR headset, adjust the size to fit your head, adjust the focus, have your harness checked, get put into “flying mode”, the ride throws up a locking pin fault, you go back into the regular seating position, repeat a couple of times and then get dispatched. Even on returning to the station, it’s a faff. You can’t put your headset away because it needs to be cleaned, and you can’t even leave your seat once your harness has been released because a host needs to smear the sweaty, makeup plastered headset with a dirty rag and put it into the little Velcro bag before you can get off.
The VR itself is okay, I guess. The lift hill was good, but the rest was very “meh”. And the “fly-to-lie” inversion basically made it fall off my face, so I was holding onto it for the rest of the ride. It’s kind of pixelated as well, judders a LOT and all of the headsets smell like Rita’s harnesses. Which is far from pleasant. Looking at them after riding, they appeared to have soaked up a lot of sweat/makeup/tears/vomit/hopes and dreams/etc from previous riders. Or myself, I can't really tell. Wasn’t really a fan of how it just went to a blank screen as soon as you hit the brake run as well.
Once you’re in the brake run, waiting 4 days for the next train to be dispatched, most people seem to remove the headsets and have them dangling beneath their faces. I can’t wait for someone to do this and then throw up. Seems like a perfect bucket to catch it all.
All in all, it was okay, not very well thought through and is just a massive gimmick that completely ruins the ride’s capacity.
Martyn B
CF Legend
Re: Alton Towers' Galactica VR coaster/Rollercoaster Restaur
I actually sort of like what they've done with the station. The lighting, music and screens really make for a good atmosphere. But that's about it for me really.
I just don't think it really works that well. The lift hill seems about right, but as soon as the ride starts, and especially when turning, it just feels.... odd. And it's far too short to pull off the "story" properly.
Also, the batching times are a disgrace. On a day when EVERY coaster had "0" next to their queue times, Galactica had "30". The queue was only upto the bridge, yet it still took an age. What the hell is it going to be like on a busy summers day?!
But worst thing for me, was the reaction of the GP, they were **** ing buzzing over it. Practically wetting themselves over how good they thought it was....
I actually sort of like what they've done with the station. The lighting, music and screens really make for a good atmosphere. But that's about it for me really.
I just don't think it really works that well. The lift hill seems about right, but as soon as the ride starts, and especially when turning, it just feels.... odd. And it's far too short to pull off the "story" properly.
Also, the batching times are a disgrace. On a day when EVERY coaster had "0" next to their queue times, Galactica had "30". The queue was only upto the bridge, yet it still took an age. What the hell is it going to be like on a busy summers day?!
But worst thing for me, was the reaction of the GP, they were **** ing buzzing over it. Practically wetting themselves over how good they thought it was....