Galactica Ride Review

Last Friday, we ride Galactica for the first time. If you are unaware, Galactica is the world's first rollercoaster that's fully dedicated to VR (Virtual Reality). We queued nearly 2 hours for the ride so we highly recommend buying FastTracks for the ride if you're visiting on a day that may be busy.

The first obvious change to the ride is all the new theming in and around the ride. The old Air rocks have been repainted a darker colour and a giant space portal has been erected around the coaster's second drop. Sound effects, lights and smoke are used on the portal to make the experience more realistic. A great soundtrack has been created be IMAscore who made the ITHOTMK ending for last year's Fireworks Spectacular and the iconic music for The Smiler

While queueing for Galactica, you pass under a few screens showing 'boarding gate' names and where your flight will take you. There are also speakers dotted around the queue playing the amazing music while you wait. Just before you go over the bridge heading to gate 1 (platform 1 on Air), you enter the ride's photo point. Since you are wearing VR headsets during the ride, there was no point in keeping the on-ride photo so it has now been replaced by a building where it takes a photo of your face and photoshops you into an astronaut like the one below

When you enter the ride station, you will instantly notice that the whole station is now enclosed and new blue lighting has been installed to give the riders the space-y feel they're intending you on having. Several TV's in the station are playing videos on where you will be travelling but also on how to wear and put on the headset. If you wear glasses, don't worry as there is a focus wheel in the headset to adjust the picture to your liking. Also, all of the headsets are cleaned with medical wipes - the same kind used in doctors to clean medical equipment.

The quality of the VR video isn't exactly the best but it really works and gives you the effect that you're about to be sent through space. The only bad points I have about the VR is that I noticed when you reach the top of the lift hill and start tipping over the edge into the first drop, the video playing made it look like we were still climbing the hill for a second or two. When you roll onto your back, the video gets a tad shaky (which was expected to be honest). I didn't really like it at the end of the ride when it kind of abruptly stops and a giant portal flies in front of your face and ends the experience. Other than that, the ride is amazing!

As you exit the ride, signs tell you that there will be new experiences 'coming soon' to other planets but we'll let you know when they are launched and we will probably do a review of those. I see a great opportunity to offer more than one experience. Maybe even make a special Scarefest experience to use during this year's Scarefest event. In the shop, you have the opportunity to buy the headset used on the ride - the Samsung Gear VR Headset. Buying one of these will set you back a costly £85. There are other options available however with a plastic and a cardboard headset available to buy. the plastic model costing £25 and the cardboard version costing only £8 which is what we bought.