Oblivion's future

[RobHand]

I don't think oblivion should be re-themed to fit in with the smiler (ignoring the recent incident, which my thoughts are with the families effected). Personally I like every roller coaster to have its own individual theme, like it has it's own story. I feel it creates a wider variety of content and makes the riders interact with each scenario.
The original "si-fi" theme builds up a great nervousness upon the rider as they are entering the "unknown", and the theme emphasises the drop (being the main element of the ride).
Where as I think the theming of the smiler tries to hard to play with the riders mind, rather than the actual roller coaster it's self.

Oblivion will always be a Alton Towers classic to me, and I don't see them changing it or being removed anytime soon

[Morgano]

If anything it's queue line and station needs some work. It's looking terribly old. The section under the station where the drink and snack machines are is seriously rusting. It's brand is fine, it just needs some love.


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[homer22422]

The entrance of the ride is quite hard to find as it is tucked into a corner. Why don't they just make the entrance look a lot nicer

[Jevaaaans]

I think maybe some Queueline refresh work is needed, as stated above, it's looking very old and out of care!

I don't see it going anywhere soon, but if interest starts to drop seriously a floorless redesign could bring people back. Would need serious station changes for that though

[leammiles]

I think that they should move the queueline around so you dont queue the whole way.

Its been a long time since I've seen anyone queue the whole spiral. During quieter times, they should open the stairs that go up, or create a shortcut.

As for the ride, I think they should maybe put a tunnel over the exit of the tunnel, just to extend the darkness ever so slightly. As soon as you enter the tunnel, you can see the light at the end of it. If they extend the tunnel to end at the brake run, it would make the experience that little bit scarier.

I also like the idea of putting a funnel over the hole with water flowing into the tunnel to make it look like you are entering a water ride

[Jamster42]

It would be nice if merlin were inspired by their other oblivion and revamped the que to make it a little more modern. Out of all the rides oblivion feels the most dated to me and could do with improvements especially when it's compared to the smiler next-door. A lick of paint in the que and station with a little bit of theming could work wonders for the ride and increase its life span.

[Morgano]

Of all the rides, nemesis and oblivion are suffering the most. Nemesis gets away with the queue and paint but the ride cars are in awful condition, a lot of the seat material is torn etc... And paint worn off. Air on the other hand looks really good still. It's restraints, paint, queue and station are holding up much better (except the tunnel). Oblivion unfortunately is considerably noticeable. "The worlds most advanced ride" as stated by the queue video is rusting left, right and centre, the ride seats are worn and torn and paint missing. The station is peeling and wood showing under the cladding. The whole thing requires some serious attention. The track itself having been painted looks pretty good but that's it.


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[Mike!!!]

I think it's a good idea to retheme Oblivion's queue but not to remove the ride.

[Tryst]

They could really do with opening the shorter queue lines for 'blivy on quiet days. It's quite a work going all the way around the normal queue line when there's no queue!

[Aidan Lowe]

Go into fast track / single rider queue after going through the entrance and just duck under the railings if its a super quiet day. If the host at the entrance won't allow it then they are heartless.

[SJW]

They could really do with opening the shorter queue lines for 'blivy on quiet days. It's quite a work going all the way around the normal queue line when there's no queue!

Compared to the effort associated with walking round the rest of the park, I don't usually mind!

[gddevey1012]

I would really lite to see a total re-theme and the ride re-trained with Floorless cars but im not sure how easy the conversions would be tbh

[theparklifekid]

i think of 2 things.
1. back row backwards
2. floorless

[Dom]

I don't feel that floor less will make any difference to the ride. I honestly don't think we will see any drastic changes to the rides. We say see more sponsorship but I think that will be it.

[tallicay2k]

Sick and tired of hearing about floorless and backwards cars. Be realistic people.

More paint work and tending to the rust yes but that's all for oblivion.

[TheBeast]

I'd have to agree... Despite backwards being a pretty interesting idea for Blivvy its not really practical and/or doable. I'm with Dom on the idea of floorless... You aren'tlooking at the floor of the carriage, you are looking at the actual floor!

I think that they could have a play around with the theming a bit to fit it into the Smiler. They won't, but I think it would be quite interesting if they did tbbh

[RobertPHolt]

I'd like to see a floorless modification to Oblivion, but I severely doubt it'll ever happen. Personally, I haven't seen a great deal wrong with the queue line other than looking dated, though it definitely needs to be shortened. I think Alton have overestimated just how busy Oblivion gets with this one.

[xylyx]

Yeah I dont think floorless would make much difference and backwards seats would only dilute the experience. People go back to it for the rush of the drop and being forced to see where you're going, to think about it, not be sure when it's going to happen, that second of doubt about the whole venture...Being held in place looking at the sky wouldn't really be the same.

To me the only meaningful thing they could do to improve blivvy is extend it: make a full ride after the tunnel like just about every other dive coaster built since. It's impractical and would probably cause no end of problems to do that so as long as they keep it well maintained and running I'll be happy to ride Oblivion as is.

[Sawboss]

The queue struck me as being way too long my first visit, it just seemed to keep going and going.. I thought I was on the same level just walking round in circles. Can't say I noticed it being rusty but a lick of paint never hurts.

Floorless carriage sounds like a bit of a gimmick. Anyway Oblivion is easily still the scariest ride at AT for first time visitors.