How does thirteen at alton towers work

Thirteen was officially announced in December At the time, Alton Towers claimed it would be "the scariest ride in the UK". The park also claimed that due to the nature of the roller coaster, only guests between 16 and 55 years old would be allowed to ride. Riders are arranged 2 across in 2 rows for a total of 20 riders per train. Navigation Main page Random page Help Style guide. Portals World records Roller coasters Coaster types Ride types.

Wiki tools Upload file Special pages. Page Discussion View View source History. Click here to watch the on-ride POV. In an interview shortly after the ride's opening, John Wardley, Ride Consultant for Merlin Entertainments, spoke about the development of Thirteen. The initial idea for the secret element originated from a previous rollercoaster plan that he designed for Alton Towers, in which a piece of track tilted back and forth during the ride.

The ride, if it had been built, would have been similar to Winjas Fear and Force at Phantasialand, Germany, and therefore not a world's first ride. The plan never came to fruition, but the idea of moving track was kept and later developed into the world's first freefall dropping track element for Thirteen.

After the aging Corkscrew roller coaster was removed, a large site lay empty in what was then the Ug Land section of the park. John Wardley and others worked to create the idea for a new roller coaster that would fill this area.

It would travel around the perimeter of the site and enter a dark, indoor show building for the secret element to take place. The type of coaster trains and track used for the ride was decided to be a type of Intamin family coaster for their lightweight trains, as this would reduce strain on the hydraulics that work the freefall drop.

The Alton Towers marketing team, led by Morwenna Angove, made an effort to keep the project secret so that the surprise feature would not be revealed until the ride was opened.

In , concept art showing possible themes for the new ride were leaked online but only appeared briefly after they were deleted at Alton Towers' command. In a press statement that was released several months after construction started, the ride was named a 'psychoaster' and was said to create a level of psychological fear. Various phrases and slogans were used to promote the ride. In August, a banner was erected next to the construction site on 8 October reading: "Ride into the Unknown".

Alton Towers released a new marketing campaign later inviting readers to "Ride the Demon of the Dark Forest" and "Surrender in March ". However, neither of these campaigns expressly revealed the name of the new ride. The attraction's name was officially announced as Thirteen on 11 December through a press release. The ride's main slogan was used after: "If you go down to the woods today, you'd better not go alone. During the park's Scarefest, hooded wraiths were seen roaming around the Ug Land area in the build-up to the new ride.

Warning signs were put up explaining their appearance was linked to "next year's new ride". The resort has also used viral marketing through social-networking websites to promote the ride. Alton Towers released many online and television teaser videos in the run up to the opening of the ride. These included a video of a truck supposedly delivering the "secret weapon", and three promotional blipverts which featured a possessed girl walking in a forest.

The full adverts were released before opening day, with a pre-watershed and post-watershed version. As guests arrive at the exterior of the crypt, they are presented with the ability to deposit all bags and loose articles in exchange for a keyring, which can be exchanged back after the adventure.

After ascending up a flight of stairs, passing under a ladder whilst doing so, guests find themselves within the ancient building. As the lights flicker dimly, the walls are revealed to have plenty of written messages scrawled onto them, informing guests they should not go down to the woods alone. Whilst awaiting in the queue for TH13TEEN , you will hear the eerie voice of a little girl counting upwards from one to thirteen.

Upon finally reaching thirteen, a large Tesla coil will power up before your eyes, certain to give one or two guests an unexpected scare! After passing through the airgates and finally onto the ride train, riders are told to pull down their lap bars. After being safely checked by a member of staff, the ride trains are quickly dispatched and your journey to unearth what lies within the crypt begins. After a quickly paced degree left turn, the train climbs 20 metres 60ft up to the tree tops of the Dark Forest.

Upon reaching the top, riders will barely have any time to admire the view as they are quickly plummeted down into the woodland below. Smile for the camera, as the on ride photo point awaits you at the bottom of the drop. After banking right into a degree helix, riders are taken up and down multiple times across the woodland floor and into the air, narrowly missing the branches of the trees all around the track.

After a sweeping, shallow S shaped hill, the train drops you back down to the woodland floor for one last time before ascending a second lift hill.

Suddenly riders appear to be back where they started at the ruins, albeit this time ascending into a previously hidden entrance. As the train enters this newly discovered portion of the building, riders are hit with a musky smell before the train comes to a sudden stop at at a dead end. As the door behind you closes, the green lights illuminating the room suddenly go out.

The track, train and riders then freefall downwards by a small amount of distance, accompanied by a blast of air and the sounds of the cracking wood floor.