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Park News - (11/5/09) Another reader confirms hearing that not only will Rita be painted a new color, but also given a new name for the 2010 season to tie somehow into the new SW6 coaster. They also mentioned that we may see some kind of name change for Spinball Wizzer next season as well, though I’m not sure why.
    (11/4/09) As part of a special UK Concert Tour, Pink will be holding a performance at Alton Towers on Sunday, June 27th, 2010, as part of her Funhouse Summer Carnival Tour. Tickets are supposed to go on sale on November 9th.
    (10/30/09) A reader reports hearing that Rita will be painted green for next season, possibly to go along with a new theme due to the location near SW6.
    (10/20/09) A review of Alton Tower’s Scarefest event has been posted to ThemeParkTourist. They also have a few pictures of SW6.

2010 - Sonic Spinball - Confirmed - (1/25/10) In addition to the official logo for Sonic Spinball being found at Kotaku, they report that not only has Sega Europe signed an excluive 3 year deal with Alton Towers for Sonic which will also include Sonic themed rooms at the Alton Towers Hotel.
    (1/8/10) As odd at this sounds, Alton Towers will be rethemeing Spinball Whizzer for the 2010 season. Okay… we’ve heard that several times before, but the odd thing this time is the theme. The ride will be themed to SEGA’s famous videogame character, Sonic the Hedgehog, and be renamed as Sonic’s Spinball. You can even see a picture of the coaster being repainted Sonic Blue here. I’ve got to admit, this may actually be a good new theme for the ride… but can we have a Halo themed ride next?

2010 - Thirteen / SW6 - (2/3/10) A new video showing off a little bit more of Thirteen can be found here, along with information about the Ultimate Fan contest.
    (2/2/10) New pictures of Thirteen’s new coaster train as well as Rita’s refurbishment can be found here. It looks like the creeping vine theme of Thirteen has spread over to Rita now. Unfortunately the new of Thirteen’s train isn’t all that good… other than the fact that we can see it only has a lap bar at least. They also have information on a contest to be one of the first to ride, so check it out.
    (1/31/10) A new construction update of Thirteen at Alton Towers can be seen at Theme Park Review this week, including a fake coaster train made from the snow.
    (12/11/09) Alton Towers has confirmed that their new coaster will be named… THIRTEEN.  Yes… Thirteen… I’ll pause to let that sink in as perhaps the most uninspired ride name of the year. Wait… it gets better… well, no, not really… so get your wading boots because it’s going to get DEEP before it gets any better.
    Opening in March 2010, they’re billing it as the world’s first “Psychoaster”. The story of the ride is based around an ancient burial site that was uncovered in the Dark Forest, where riders will come face to face with the horror that has been unleashed from the ancient crypt. Unfortunately the good details stop there, as they don’t even mention who is making the ride (Intamin) or that the new world’s first technology / surprise will be a section of track that drops to give a freefall sensation, which has all been rumored for some time. 
    Instead the press release claims (start the over-hype machine!), “The new technology will be the first of its kind in the world and will potentially make the ride so frightening that the Resort is considering introducing a controversial age-rating. Only visitors between the ages of 16-55 will be allowed on the ride due to concerns about emotional maturity and physical health. Visitors may also be limited to one ride per day and be required to sign a waiver which assures the Resort of their physical and mental health to avoid any resulting lawsuits.”  Yeah… they went there… sigh…
    First the military style guards to protect the trucks, then the body guard story, and now this. I think someone at Alton needs to tone back the crazy promotional style a bit otherwise riders may come off quite disappointed if the ride doesn’t deliver.
    (11/25/09) It’s a bit silly, but Alton Towers has announced that they have hired a professional bodyguard to protect the secrets of SW6. I’m not sure who this guy is, but somehow I’m not worried that he’s coming to knock on my door. Your secrets will be mine… oh yes…they will be mine…
    (11/16/09) New aerial photos taken of SW6 have been posted here along with a teaser banner covering a large item on the back of a truck.
    (10/23/09) A reader was approached to take a survey about SW6 the other day, and while nothing new was revealed about the attraction itself, they did ask their opinion about several possible names for the coaster, none of which was “Surrender” so it looks like that name really is out. Some of the names they could remember being asked about included: Panic, 13, Thirteen, 666, Mortalis, I.T.U. (Into The Unknown) and The Woodcutter. I’ve got to go with Mortalis myself… as the rest sound kind of lame.
    (10/12/09) A new construction update for “Surrender” has been posted here as well as others at Theme Park Review. The project continuers to be a bit mysterious... even with the name of the coaster. According to one source, Surrender is not going to be the name of the coaster at all, it just may have been a poor bit of text placement in the teaser graphic that made it look a bit too prominent. I guess we’ll know more soon on that issue. I’ve also been given a bit of a info about what is supposed to be the “world’s first” element. According to one rumor, as part of the indoor coaster experience section, at one point the coaster is likely to come to a stop indoors, at which point the section of track it is sitting on may be dropped down to another level, likely into some kind of creepy “crypt” environment. Of course the track really wont be ‘dropped’, think of it more as a controlled plunge experience, much like Disney achieved on the Tower of Terror rides, mixed with a switch-track element.
    If this is true however... some may have issues with the “world’s first” part of it as I know that Mystery Mine at Dollywood has a section of track in the station that drops the cars down into the maintenance area on the floor below. Of course, this isn’t part of the ride experience at all and is done slowly, so if this rumor holds true, this should be a very interesting and unique part of the overall ride experience.
    (10/9/09) Alton Towers has posted the a teaser poster for the new 2010 coaster on their website, along with the tagline, “Ride the Demon of the Dark Forest”. Creepy art for sure, but no details on just what we can expect from this coaster yet.

Future Plans - (7/15/09) I’ve been told that Merlin has drawn up a long term master plan for Alton Towers to show off to the local residents how they would like to develop the park over the next 10 years. Along the way they would like to see the park’s attendance which had peeked out around 2.5 million last year move up to the 2.9 – 3.0 million guest range on a regular basis.
    The best way to do that is though new capital projects, with the general idea being to build 10 new medium to large sized attraction (or replacement attractions) over the next decade, starting with the new coaster opening in 2010. Another hotel is also being considered along with the idea of turning the “southern” car park into a kind of Citywalk style entertainment / retail zone that would link the park up with the hotels. The current overflow lot would then be transformed into a new permanent facility. 
    A map has also been seen that had some areas of the park highlighted as possible locations for future roller coasters. In addition to the current SW6 / 2010 site, it also listed a site in the back where the old Beast and Mouse were in the late 80s as well a a site using some of the current southern carpark. The map also listed Spinball Wizzer as an attraction could be moved or sold to another park in the future. You can read more about this over at Alton Towers Almanac.