On-Ride Breakdown Experiences

What rides and attractions do you miss? Share your memories of Alton Towers' extensive past here.
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Capt.Barnacles
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Not a Towers breakdown but I've got stuck on Test Track (the original) at EPCOT twice. Once at the top of the hill climb test where the car stopped (we got to walk down the hill) and again in the cold test chamber. The car stopped there for about 15 minutes, by the time we got moving again the tips of my hair had started to freeze :lol
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Morgan
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Two at Chessington a few weeks back.
First, Tomb Blaster. Got stuck in the room before the station, probably because there was a train in there [emoji14]
Then, got stuck on the Dragon's Fury brakes for 10 mins.

Over at Alton, was about four trains away from air before it went down for 15 mins.
Stan.H
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TTheory wrote:Two at Chessington a few weeks back.
First, Tomb Blaster. Got stuck in the room before the station, probably because there was a train in there [emoji14]
Then, got stuck on the Dragon's Fury brakes for 10 mins.

Over at Alton, was about four trains away from air before it went down for 15 mins.
I've been stuck on Dragon's fury brake run as well.
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Aidan Lowe
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I decided to do Air once before moving over to x-sector and got stuck on the break run for 20 mins yesterday with the most irritating individuals next to me. A group of 3 about mid 20s effing and blinding, general shouting, literally trying to forcefully get out of the restraints rather than just patiently waiting. Plus its not the best ride for a breakdown stuck in that position.
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I got stuck going back to the station on Oblivion in the rain a couple of years ago when I was with my cousins which was a bit unpleasant. Then again, it wasn't as bad as when I got stuck on Slammer at Thorpe Park (also in the rain). It was very late in the day and my best friend at the time started to have a panic attack because she was convinced we would be stuck on it for hours in the dark (we were only about 9)
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Dom
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I haven't actually been stuck on a ride when it's broken down. I've normally been in the queue line. I did get stuck on Slammer at Thorpe Park but that was because no ones restraints would release. Only stuck for 5 minutes, so I guess it can't really be classed as a break down.
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Kleo
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I've got stuck on Two rides at Alton Towers

The first I couldn't really say that I was actually stuck. It was in the queue room of Hex and something went wrong in the other room. I was there for nearly an hour before we were allowed to continue. Everyone had a great sense of humour and strangely was probably one of my best experiences of the ride.

The second on was Duel where we stopped half way round for around 30 minutes. As I got bored I thought it would be funny to play "Don't Fear The Reaper" on my phone. I don't know if they still do but we got a free fast track pass for 1 ride as an apology.
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Thank You NemesisRider for my signature :)
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Ryan.B
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Not counted as breakdowns as such but The train I was on did get stopped on nemesis and oblivion on the same day due to someone filming. They were sorted quite quickly but on Rita someone undid the seatbelt before launch, meaning the whole system had to be reset. On the day after The blade was stopped about 30 seconds in due to someone standing up so the ride op stopped it, we all had a good laugh at them when they were kicked off the ride though :lol Oh and we had a few stoppages around five/ten minutes on duel. Most embarrassing was being at the front of a boat jam on the Rapids, with our boat getting the blame from the other people even though the same people in the boat behind us knocked our boat just before we went up the lift :lol
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daveclarkedaveclarke
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I must be one of the lucky ones, I've so far never been on any ride that has broken down with me on it. I've been in the queue for The smiler when it was opened and having technical difficulties but that's about it.
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Ryan.B
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its actually quite fun having a breakdown for 5-10 minutes, but I've only had an evacuation once, on duel and I found it better than the ride :lol I've heard of quite a few people who've being evac ex on Valhalla which would be amazing, but I really want a stealth rollback, I've not had many major breakdowns on ride but I have had loads of stoppages.
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Tryst
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I got stuck on smiler for 10-15 minutes, right at the end of the ride. Fortunately it was a nice day and the staff were able to evacuate us directly onto the platform using the seat release battery box. The train behind us in the brake run wasn't so lucky and had to wait a lot longer.

The most amusing stoppage was getting stuck on the lift hill of nemesis briefly while a ride attendant relieved a guest of a handbag she'd managed to smuggle on to the ride.

-T
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MerlinFan
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The first time I ever rode Thirteen it stopped for about 15 minutes on the small hill going up to the indoor part of the ride. Laughing, I said "well it could be worse... it could be raining right now." Cue the heavens opening about a minute later - jinxed it.

The other memorable breakdown was on Duel. We had got to the haunted garden section and the ride stopped for ages. However, the laser score system was still working so my husband continued shooting at stuff and maxed out the score system to 9999. Maybe it's the highest score ever achieved?
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ponder
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The only 'break down' I've ever experienced on-ride at any park was on Spinball at Alton Towers, and that was just because the silly girls on the opposite side of our cart were filming on their phone. I guess I've been fairly lucky. 20 years+ of visiting theme parks around the world and that's my only example!
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Smiffy107
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Just watched this video on youtube where The Flume basically broke down earlier this year, (this was after the smiler acident) (The water stopped running) and their flume car got stuck just at the end of one of the tunnels, its about 12 minutes long and details their desperate cries for help to try and get attention to the fact they are stuck, although unknown to them the park employees were already fully aware they were stuck, but its not very often you see people actually documenting the fact its happened, they even tried ringing the park help desk, it was a good strategy I must admit, anyway in the end they got stuck on the ride for over an hour but AT compensated them all with a large box of donuts, several milkshakes, AND fastpass for all the rides for the rest of the day, pretty nice :P

has anybody else had this type of experience within the park? I'm interested to find out and see what other peoples experiences are of being stuck on one of the rides and what type of compensation he park has given them afterwards, do share your stories :)

Personally I have never experienced anything like the video below, but I've been on Oblivion once or twice where it stopped whilst on the lit hill, which is pretty scary even though thats the safest part of the ride (closest to the station).

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The woman asked 'spare a farthing for a beggar', the earl cruelly dismissed her, and instructed his driver to head back to the towers, scorned the old woman screamed the curse 'FOR EVERY BRANCH OF THE OLD OAK THAT FALLS, A MEMBER OF YOUR FAMILY WILL DIE!'
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N_B
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I hope it's not "famous last words" but that's never happened to me. I wouldn't cope well with being stuck for an hour, those milkshakes would have to be pretty spectacular :lol
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NemesisRider
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Call me pedantic, but they shouldn't have been using a camera on the ride, even if it broke down ;)
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Liam.W
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I know this sounds stupid, but I would love to be evacuated! It looks so fun walking down the lift hill or walking along a brake run. However o wouldn't like to do it on a floorless, floorless dive, inverted or flying coaster!

When I went to DLP earlier this year the buzz lightyear shooting thingy stopped just before the station. A great way to earn extra points! A voiceover came on about 4 times saying something like "system restart" or something like that.
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JonDoesTT
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Smiffy107 wrote: " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The guy filming is so annoying. I'd actually enjoy getting stuck there, if I'm honest. :lol
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Credit to NemesisRider
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RollercoasterRob
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I don't think this was an actual ride breakdown, but in July 2015 whilst riding up the Air lift hill, the coaster suddenly stopped. My brother just turned to me with a terrified look and to make him more scared I replied "oh god" whilst going on to explain that if the train were to roll back to the station and crash we would be the ones most seriously hurt as we were in the back row. :D
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Liam.W
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RollercoasterRob wrote:I don't think this was an actual ride breakdown, but in July 2015 whilst riding up the Air lift hill, the coaster suddenly stopped. My brother just turned to me with a terrified look and to make him more scared I replied "oh god" whilst going on to explain that if the train were to roll back to the station and crash we would be the ones most seriously hurt as we were in the back row. :D
Air sometimes stops on the lift hill due to the next block being occupied, and it isn't a breakdown. (Well obviously it will brake down some times but it will most likely be a quick stop to wait for clear block
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