Oblivion's future

[Themeparksandy1981]

I said both as Submission is planned to be replaced

[NemesisRider]

Fair enough. But the replacement isn't here yet! :W

[nemefan08]

I think it's staying. I went during May half term and the queue was 40 mins. So it still does get queues

[stealthsmiler]

Funny coz I went then as well and it didn't have a queue at all, even after a delayed opening of about and hour and half.

[Jared]

You guys seem to forget that Oblivion is the highest throughput ride on park...

[stealthsmiler]

But even with high throughput, if it still had a high amount of riders it would have all full trains, which I have seen a lot of trains half full or lower (down to 4 on one train)in peak times. Plus as said before, Oblivion doesn't run at it's highest throughput.

[Ryan.B]

Oblivion and nemesis will be staying nemesis still gets queues and Oblivion is one of the highest throughput rides on park, plus it got repainted/refurbished when The Smiler opened so I think there's around 15-20 years left now. Oblivion won't leave soon unless there's a serious problem which cost too much. Merlin would probably sort out one of there most iconic rides if it had a malfunction anyway.

[Tom]

If a wooden roller coaster can still be going strong after 70+ years, there is no reason that a steel coaster can't last just as long, if not longer. Like John Wardley said at the Q&A, any component can be replaced with reasonable ease should there be a problem with it.

Oblivion is going no where for the foreseeable future.

I think that there is undue negativity towards the ride in this thread for some reason. I can't think of any visit to the park excluding the old Adrenaline Week's where there hasn't been a queue for Oblivion. It's still holding it's own even with The Smiler across from it, it's popular with the GP and really for that reason alone it's future is pretty solid.

[TheBeast]

I agree; Oblivion is one of the three "classic" rides and is very unlikely to be removed. Oblivion serves as a way of drawing the riders of the Smiler away from the queue lines immediately, controlling the lengthy queues inside the long caged area of queue line. Although this may be irrelevant, it is also noticeable that the two vertical sections match each other rather well, serting the tone for this section of the park.
And then of course there is the repaint and refurbishment. Why would Merlin make up a ride thats going to be removed a couple of years down the line? They wouldnt. It is a waste of money, and if anyone likes to avoid loss of profits, its Merlin.
Alton Towers will also be avoiding putting even more work into the X-Sector, making even more congestion into the rather tightly packed space. This would leave two rides left in this section- Smiler and Enterprise. Kbviously, this must be avoided, as there isnt really anything else in that section, discouraging leople to go into that section- defeating the purpose of the 20million pound new rollercoaster.

[Sr88]

Sorry, just going to go back to an earlier point that was raised.

I've made my views on this ride already, but one thing I would like to say, is with everybody saying that people only ride Oblivion after they've got off The Smiler, so what? If it's got a queue then that is enough reason for it to stay. People still want to ride on it.

[TheBeast]

Im not saying that is a bad thing, I think its going to stay, and want it to

[lucozade]

Oblivion is going nowhere.

[Dom]

Oblivion is just awesome and in my opinion, beats the Smiler. I will always go Oblivion, then Smiler, unless with a group of other people. It has not lost the thrill factor and it won't be going anywhere anytime soon.

[dazza4783]

Someone mentioned on TPR that they saw a significant amount of tree removal behind the service road at the back of x-sector where submission was. Probably nothing to do with Oblivion but could be to do with Submission's replacement. Any thoughts, or anyone know what is going on there?

[lucozade]

There was talk a good few years back of a new (coach only) park entrance there. Didn't make sense to me though so I think your submission removal idea is more likely

[awsomelycoolboy]

Yeah, but isn't that where an emergency 'slip' road is? It was next to submission. I remember when I went for Scarefest in 2011 they had to rush someone out in an ambulance because they had a heart attack or something like that.

[thi3teenloverboy14]

As some people have stated Oblivion will not be going any where Alton will probably replace as many parts as they can until they think of something else if they are having problems with the holding chain they could always scrap it and make it so that it doesn't stop just to keep it going instead of closing it all the time.
IMO I think they should put flashing lights in the tunnel with orange floods and then as it comes out they both flash to make it more MOJ like.

[Alton13Nemesis]

Oblivion is better than smiler, it'll never go anywhere unless it has to

[lucozade]

Haha better how? Better made... Yes. Better ride... Hella noooooo

[scw55]

There is no ride like Oblivion in the UK.
Oblivion will be staying.

The closest will be in Italy later this year. (Oblivion's sister)