Attraction Source Forum

If there is a topic on this I do apologize but I haven't seen one.

Nemesis Sub-Terra is now at the end of it's second season at the park and in my view it is having a dwindling amount of people in the queue. I understand lot's of people can ride the attraction at once however it still seems very low. In my personal opinion it is not a 'Must Do' at Alton Towers and I was wondering about its future. Will it be like Saw Horror Maze and only return at Scarefest? What do you think?

I think it will stay, it has had a really mixed opinion on it some people love it some people dislike or are in between. Because it has  a drop tower inside I don't think that just using the scare maze or only using the drop tower for scare fest would be the ideal situation because the ride is then effectively wasted. I think the ride is good and it has been thought through well, but I wouldn't mind if it was removed for another attraction (if that new attraction was good). However I do not think that Nemesis-sub terra will be removed I think it will stay for at least another two years.   

Last time I went it had a half an hour queue.

I decided to have a look at the Ride Times today for Nemesis Sub-Terra. It is a bank holiday weekend so it should be really busy and to be honest the queue was very quiet. With it being like this and them having to pay for actors etc... who knows what will happen... and it has not been at the park long to get these queue times is rare...

Personally I found Sub-Terra to be the low point of my recent visit to the park. Yes the drop was ok, but other than that it just felt like a poor version of the old Alien ride at Disney. I suspect rides have to be in place for a certain length of time in order to make them pay off, however I can see it being replaced or re-themed in some way sooner rather than later.

I think it's a brilliant ride and found it scary yet hilarious

Yeah I should point out that when I last went was last year

Considering the queues are relatively small, Alton may decide to increase the ride time to create more suspense, add more effects and give an overall more enjoyable and worthy attraction. This although would increase ride time, the ride may also become more popular as it would give a more fulfilling ride as at the moment it feels to short. I can see the scaremaze at the end of the attraction soon not having actors except for at scare fest if the popularity continues to fall.

I was there for smilers opening weekend and it was a walk on

Well, tbh, if. It were moved to the DF with a better back story it could get more, or maybe remove the horror maze I mean corridor as that puts certain people off...

Re-theme within 3 years I reckon.
Nemesis the ride staying for at least another 50 years (think Big Dipper-pleasure beach type lasting). It's a staple for AT.

I think they hyped it up enough that it got queues during 2012, but now everyone's done it once, most don't bother again this year

Ilovecoasters wrote: I think they hyped it up enough that it got queues during 2012, but now everyone's done it once, most don't bother again this year

A little bit like the Saw Maze, you know what's coming.

I've always thought that his ride could merge the DF and FV together with relocation and re theming...

I would place it somewhere around here--



Basically the story is that the phallanx were to busy fighting nemesis that they didn't notice something much worse behinds them, and eventually it took over and pulled there base into the DF

Now. The TV's in the queue would have static on the with flickers of the phallanx logo and the TH13TEEN girl, baggage is similar to TH13TEEN's. now instead of the 'big muscly men' saw before, there is a skinny, man with a ripped phallanx uniform on which tells you to watch the TV's at his 'home made' video. It tells you how it attacked ect...
Now if you look closely on the walls the will be dead guards pinned to the metal via roots. When you get into the lift its old and 'creaky' meaning the light flickers and the is a slight thump heard as it goes down.

The cave is coved with roots and dead guards.

Now where the egg was held is now covered with roots and the tesla coils? Are now n snapped and bent. The ride is pretty similar except the when you get to the top the TH13TEEN girl says 'ill give you a 30 second chance...for fun....

The end lift is the same but with you hearing the girl screaming 'I want you to stay!' You then exit the ride with loud bands on the walls making you jump.

It's name, TH13TEEN:Undergrowth

The ride swallows riders a times though. It was bid as a bigger attraction than it was. But it does very well as a filler attraction to ease queues on bigger attractions.

Like Lee said, Sub-Terra is a good attraction that can be used to eat up some time between coasters.

I rode it for the first time last week and I was very impressed. The ride sequence is very good and had me screaming like a girl the first time, and after the adrenaline of the ride chamber the effect of the scare maze was intensified to the point where I was actually relieved when I exited the ride.

The one thing I feel that really works in its favour is the explanation of the back story. The queue line videos and pre-lift video do a fantastic job of setting the stage so everyone can understand the whole premise behind the ride, and I think that both Thirteen and The Smiler would have benefited more with a backstory explanation.

In short I think Sub-Terra is a good attraction for the park and should be left alone for a while.

Perhaps they could add multiple ride settings to help increase re-ride ability? Similar to how tower of terror has multiple ride patterns. However obviously this would be with the use of different effects at different times as I beleive the way the drop mechanism works, it cannot do small pre drops or fast lifts upwards.


First setting - The current setting

Second setting - Underground earthquake causes the floor in observation chamber to collapse revealing the egg cave which are starting to hatch from the quake. Multiple effects below then the benches are wrenched back up to the top to find the main egg is cracked and the monster is loose in the room. Elevators and scare maze as usual

Third setting - Main egg cracks early in the ride sequence, followed by alot of effects in the main chamber before eventually dropping after being dragged down from the monster where the effects really pick up and you are attacked by multiple monsters from the other eggs below

There obviously could be more ride settings where they follow a similar pattern/story however with effects at slightly different timings to give the unexpected every time. The ride cycles could either be picked at random or just cycle through 1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3 etc

Ok I am talking from a point of view where unless the queue time is less than 30 minutes I dont bother, so am not really a fan. I think that sub terra fell victim to Alton Towers advertising hype, being made out to be utterly terrifying when...no its not. OK the addition of the scare maze helped, and I do like the whole nemesis background story re boot, but other than those two things...its not that great. They need alot of work on it! Something in the egg lair when you drop maybe? Saw something about a big eye opening and other effects, though not sure how they could do that so all four sides appreciated the effect.

There is nothing wrong with Sub Terra IMO.

For guests who only visit once a year or even less, they will all love it. It does tick many boxes, but not all. Some people are too scared to go on, others say it is rubbish. But if you are looking at a diverse day out rather than coaster followed by coaster, this does give you the variety.

I agree I won't queue more than 30 mins, in all honesty 15 would be my limit unless I was with somebody who has never been on before.

The only thing it lacks for me is the re-ride appeal. I have been to Alton a good 10 times this year and only done it once. We often walk past it, we would rather do Duel. But that is out personal view.

Due to the large numbers of staff which are required to operate the attraction, I do wonder how long it will be at the park or when the cut backs will set in to reduce costs ore or if the operating days get cut to only busy weekend/holidays.

And of course there is that of the re ride. Good point re staff though and cut backs, thats a possibility. With you on Duel love that ride, but sadly sub terra just didn't catch me from the go. In my opinion it had a lot of potential and fell short, hence why I do blame the over hype it had.