Nemesis: Sub-Terra Discussion (**contains spoilers**)

[starbugger1303]

I'd love for them to re design the Sub Terra website, into a Phalanx official website or something along the lines of it...

:P

[Instant Mix]

I'm watching some SubTerra videos..
My god. I hope the people shouting are ride staff and not actors because holy crap , that is hilariously bad. Guess i'm going to have to hand in my CV and show them how the hell to act.

[starbugger1303]

I'm watching some SubTerra videos..
My god. I hope the people shouting are ride staff and not actors because holy crap , that is hilariously bad. Guess i'm going to have to hand in my CV and show them how the hell to act.

Yeah they are just normal ride staff.

[nemesisrocks!]

Went on sub terra today for the first time!
Enjoyed it to be quite honest:')
Although, it didn't go dark when th eg is meant to hatch:(
Instead a red light stayed on and you saw the panel turn from the full egg to the hatched

[Coaster_Dude]

Instead a red light stayed on and you saw the panel turn from the full egg to the hatched

This is starting to sound like a pretty major issue, the park seems to have put a lot of effort into improving the ride but seeing this effect in operation sounds like it will completely kill any atmosphere they might have managed to build up.

[Dean]

I been on Terry a good few times and never seen such thing...

It must be a random error which sometimes happens

[b2311e]

I think one of the biggest failures of this though is the knowledge of Joe Public. If you look away from the screens for even 5 seconds, you'll probably have no idea what's going on. Despite knowing the story from reading on here first, I still found it to be a bit 'hmm' at times, and not quite flowing.

I think there is a slight issue with staff, and I think they should be given more guidelines. Some of them do seem a bit power-happy, shouting if you blink or whatever, not knowing where to draw the line (e.g. Shouting at us to hurry up, when the door wasn't even open).
Possibly the single most confusing part is the rows/ranks 1,2,3,4 thing at the start. Listen carefully- They tell you to all face the front. They then stand at the back and point "this is 1" etc, nobody can see them, they've told us to face the front! Also, if you don't watch the TV screen carefully, you miss out the vital information the two groups are supposed to stay separated in the lift and then flow into the seats, but it always ends up in a mess of people "Where do I sit?" "Can I sit by him?", whilst the sound drowns out their cries with "DO NOT TOUCH THE BARS" (although they seem to close before it says that anyway sometimes).

Little things, make a massive difference.


And won't somebody please make the baggage hold bigger, when you get off, a million people wait for 2 people to try and dish everything back out from the smallest window ever

[mike.dutton]

I wonder what BPB are going to do for entrance staff now that Alton have recruited them all for Sub-Terra!! Seriously the problem with Sub-Terra is it's re-ridability. I finally got on it last weekend and most of the comments I heard from the public were very negative. This is reflected in the queue times - very high in the morning and progressively lower in the afternoon. This is a one trick pony and quite simply does not hold the interest of the average visitor once they have experienced it. Personally I would only queue for this if the queue time is less than 10-15 minutes. Compare this to the likes of decent flat rides like Samurai and Rush - they always have long queues without the staffing requirements of NST.

In fairness I was very impressed with the efforts the staff were putting in with this attraction.

[Big Dave]

The idea of the ride is great, cannot fault it, but its one of those rides that needs everything to work perfectly from the ride overall sequence, right down to one light not switching off when it should.

Hex is the same. You need pretty much every effect to work spot on in order to create the atmosphere, if something fairly small goes wrong, it completely ruins the atmosphere and ultimately ruins the ride. One thing on Hex that use to annoy the hell out of me is when they load disabled guests and the entire batching area becomes bathed in sunshine. Not really good when the ride is suppose to be dark and scary.

[DannyNewbro]

^ When I went on Hex in the Easter holidays it seemed that the pre-show, where you watch a video on a big screen.. The screen wasn't even on and we were stood in pitch black with only the audio working...

[Crofty]

I finally got to Ride Sub-Terra yesterday and my honest opinion is that it's not bad! *SHOCK*   

I Rode Extremis for the first time this week too and after that and the reviews of Sub-Terra I was expecting the worst but to be fair to them, they have pulled off something quite good for something thats so basic.
Like Hex, the ride you have really depends on the people you are in there with and this is why the marketing hasn't really worked too well IMO.
Look at Hex, which is what i would compare it too in terms of ride style, story and general excitement. You don't hear many people coming off HEX complaining that it was S**T. Heres The Advert. I think if sub-terra wasn't bigged up so much to be this massively scary experience then people wouldn't be so disappointed. HEX doesn't give much away, you could be, and I have in the past mistaken it for a museum/walkthrough type attraction. and then your treated to this fantastic ride at the end. Sub-Terra should be the same.

I think the military uniforms should be dropped and replaced with a more scientific style.


This guy from independence day should be the role model for the queue line staff, scientists who have been researching for years and are really proud to be able to showcase this egg. Military staff should be at the end of the ride.

All in all though, much better than I imagined and it's worthy of a ride if the queue is short. Much like Hex.

[Vik]

Just to confirm, the strobes were working today.    Makes for a much better experience when it comes to the 'Evacuation'.  Again, general consensus from Joe Public seemed very psoitive.

[CoasterCrazyChris]

Like Th13teen, Sub-Terra appears to be another ride which can neither be classified as a thrill ride or a family ride.

[Dormiens-Dave]

Just to confirm, the strobes were working today.    Makes for a much better experience when it comes to the 'Evacuation'.  Again, general consensus from Joe Public seemed very psoitive.

I do wonder if the strobes make a big impact because when i went last week the strobes where not working and i would say Joe Public was 55% positive 45% negative which although better than opening was no where near what i would want on a new ride.

Yet when ever anyone mentions peoples reactions with the strobes on it seems much better.

[James]

Sub-Terra is certainly in-between being a family and thrill ride. The experience itself could be deemed as 'thrill' (in the respect that it's built up as a scarier alternative to Hex) although the ride itself could be deemed as family thrill, even perhaps thrill. I found the drop myself to be more forceful than Th13teen's drop.

I can't fit it into either market if I'm honest. I believe much like Th13teen Alton Towers have taken a big gamble to throw it in as a thrill ride, although unlike Th13teen I would say Sub-Terra has generally been marketed well up until the 2012 season started. The downfall to marketing has been the BBFC stunt and marketing around the resort stating "psychologically and physically thrilling experience" - which doesn't sound too bad on paper but does sound awfully cheesy on park. Would be nice if they removed these ridiculous statements. Let the product hype itself, don't throw bold statements to guests which could be taken one way or the other. "Your worst nightmare underground" sufficed enough. It sounds exciting yet not over the top, if only they kept with this formula.

[SIMR]

"Your worst nightmare underground" sufficed enough. It sounds exciting yet not over the top, if only they kept with this formula.

You see, I think that was bad marketing. To me, the word "nightmare" is unique to every person; therefore, when the gp hear the phrase "Your worst nightmare underground", they immediately conjure up something they are most scared e.g. in their nightmares, and low and behold, when they realise the ride is a drop in the dark, they're underwhelmed. I think perhaps they should be more careful when using "your", whereby they only use it when they are certain the ride will be thrilling (SW7).

Keeping it simple would work better, something that doesn't let people go off on their own fantasies. Keeping the original tagline like "Discover what lies beneath" could work, or perhaps "Experience Nemesis, face-to-face". Either way, it's nice that the park still seem to be adding and tweaking effects, it shows they do care and provides a bright outlook for SW7.

[Dormiens-Dave]

Alton Towers is the only theme park that tries to tell people how they should feel on a ride in the marketing. Sure you should hint at the type of ride experience but you can do that with the style of advert and posters (much like Nemesis, Hex, Oblivion and Air) without actually shouting "YOU WILL BE SCARED" at guests.

By telling people what they should feel the guest will rate the ride against that criteria, if you hype the ride up in other ways (like they did with the phalanx twitter account and the rather good advert) and let guests go on the ride with a fairly open mind they will assess their experience on its own merits.

It failed with Th13teen, it failed with Sub-Terra, for god sake they can't make the same mistake with SW7!

[James]

"Your worst nightmare underground" sufficed enough. It sounds exciting yet not over the top, if only they kept with this formula.

You see, I think that was bad marketing. To me, the word "nightmare" is unique to every person; therefore, when the gp hear the phrase "Your worst nightmare underground", they immediately conjure up something they are most scared e.g. in their nightmares, and low and behold, when they realise the ride is a drop in the dark, they're underwhelmed. I think perhaps they should be more careful when using "your", whereby they only use it when they are certain the ride will be thrilling (SW7).

True, that could be enough to sway my opinion too in fact. I suppose 'nightmare' isn't that much of a 'scary' word to me, mainly due to the fact it's a word that does not evoke such emotions. Although I can see how to another person the word nightmare could mean something different.

Dave is pretty much spot on with how marketing can entice guests into the park but not tell them to have a particular emotion or reaction to a ride.
Oblivion: Don't Look Down
Nemesis: Sit Back, It's Fright Time
Air: Prepare for Air, Assume the Position
Hex: A ride that ends on the other side (original tagline for marketing)

Arguably Th13teen almost went the same way with: If you go down to the woods today you'd better not go alone - However the rest of the marketing ruined this and we were left with 'The Ultimate Roller coaster'. They've been able to market rides well in the past and are very capable of doing so in future. Alton Towers need to realise that they have the biggest name in the UK, that alone should be selling them, all they need to do is use clever marketing techniques to not tell the customer what they should do, but to entice them to come back for a newer and more exciting ride/attraction. 

[Jordan]

It seems almost-criminal that this could happen for the marketing of two rides in a row. Were lessons not learned the first time?

The only thing I can think of, is perhaps the team responsible for the marketing of the attraction is performance-measured only by gate figures for this year, and the people responsible for how well the new attraction is received is a different team in management entirely? That would explain why the marketing team would come up with such ridiculous statements like 'psychologically thrilling experience', as their priority is to get people through the gates, whilst not having to think about the bigger picture.

[Coaster_Dude]

Surely Oblivion's marketing was almost entirely based on saying how fear inducing the ride was? The only difference being that the ride itself was actually very intimidating. I suppose that's the one difference between Oblivion and Sub-Terra's marketing, Oblivion focussed on your emotions building up to the drop, whereas Sub-Terra focusses on how you should feel during the ride, rather than beforehand.