Spaceboat

A legend in its own right, the Spaceboat is one of the longest operating attractions to have appeared at the park, whilst at the same time spending less then one season actually at Alton Towers, making it the park’s shortest lived attraction.

It premiered at the park after the start of the 1983, opening in a previously unused corner of the Ingestre Centre, where the entrance waterfall for Katanga Canyon now sits. Due to its late opening date it didn’t make it onto the 1983 park map and, as it was removed at the end of the season, it never seems to have appeared in any of the park’s publicity material.

It was replaced by the Octopus for the 1984 season and is widely believed to have been the first victim of the park’s infamous “tree height rule”, despite the fact it actually received retrospective planning permission.

These days it is a very well traveled attraction. After setting sale from the Towers, the Spaceboat weighed anchor at both Dreamland Margate and Pleasure Island, before making its way to Loudoun Castle. Since the start of 2011 the Spaceboat can now be found at Lightwater Valley as the Black Pearl and will hopefully be thrilling guests for many more years to come.