Alton Tower's new coaster to make people sign a waiver????

Okay, I found this on Fark.com just now.

http://tinyurl.com/ycmfpbc

I knew some coasters were intense, but accroding to this, AT's ging to have the following restrictions in order to ride this thing:

- No more than ONE ride PER DAY (Boo!), over concerns about mental health. Most of us here have questionable mental health as it is.

- You have to sign a legal waiver.

- You must be older than 16 & younger than 55 to ride it.

Even better is the name, the "Phsycoaster."

Is this for real or is it a bit of hype on AT's part? Is it finally coming to the pint were we need to sign waviers to ride coasters like you would for sky diving and jet ski rentals? Is our whole hobby (and way of life for some) in danger due to the effin' lawyers and stupid people? Would this fly in the USA & Canada?

Could the "one ride" policy be in place to increase capacity?

Or could this be an elaborate marketing scheme by Alton Towers, the company that hyped Nemesis as an UFO crash/monster invasion. I think that is the most likely answer.

I read on Screamscape that the coaster will have a section of track that drops. Pretty cool!

It'd have to be marketing hype. How would they know what any individual is capable of handling? When I was under 16, I wasn't scared of any horror movies, for example. The scarier, the better.

Maybe the one ride per day rule, if enforced, is actually to help with keeping the line from getting too long.

^And how would they enforce the one-rule ride? Handstamp: wash it off, Wristband: tear or cut it off.

Age verification: YEAH RIGHT, like they are going to check ID's like at a nightclub.

This is all PR and marketing hype.

Well, they could give out one ticket per 16-55 year-old person at the front gate for the ride, and if you don't have a ticket, you don't get to ride. lol

It's all so silly. They are trying too hard, if you ask me.

Seems Alton Towers forgot Paula's rule: underpromise and overdeliver.

I thought their rule was the same as every other amusement industry hype machine: to overpromise and underdeliver.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Alton is getting loads of publicity for this, just like their marketing department usually does with new rides. I'm not sure Alton cares about Paula's rule, nor should they.

Well, we're talking about it, aren't we? I suppose it's serving it's purpose well.

Dibs on the fake ID stand out in the parking lot!

It's an extreme marketing scheme. Non of that stuff is real.

They had me at "have to sign a legal waver."

Yes, they're going to make thousands of people sign legal wavers each year before they ride it. Come on.

I'm having trouble finding any info on it. Not even RCDB has an "unknown" entry on it.

Besides, don't coasters have to be within certain saftey guidelines, such as max g-force and duration of forces?

Another possiblity is that At could be afraid of a SOB-like lawsuit.

Man, Alton is doing a good job of getting people talking about SW6 (Secret Weapon 6). I haven't checked construction pictures in a while, has it gone vertical yet?

Gone veritcal? Track work is done. 95% of the ride is outdoors. Pics are readily available on the internets.

Like I said, I haven't bothered checking the ride in a while. lol Since like...the beginning of the summer.

I think it should be mentioned that the name of the ride is not Psycocoaster. That's a name given for the kind of coaster that it is, given by the park, I believe. The name of the ride is Thirteen.

I haven't decided if I like the name or not yet. The theme of the ride is kind of cool though.

I gotta give the ride name a big "meh." The ride itself looks good.

Here are a few pictures.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/altontowersresort/

I just peeked at a couple of those photos. You know what got my attention first?

It has a pinch-wheel lift. What is this thing, a super-sized Marienkäfer?

(I know I built more than a few of those in RCT, but this is a little different, I hope!)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

(edit: Added link)

^Not only that, it has the z shaped crossbars of those too.

Well if thats the case, I bet Disney is watching this one, because if Alton can turn a tame ride into something scary Disney might try something similar in the future.