Wicker Man - General Discussion

Tue Dec 06, 2016 8:03 am

Hopefully it is, the loss of RMT and CRR for a season would be huge for the family market. I can't see them closing the whole area all seson but maybe they will do late openings or early closings for Katanga Canyon on selected dates to allow construction vehicles to access the SW8 site.

Tue Dec 06, 2016 8:42 am

MakoMania wrote:Hopefully it is, the loss of RMT and CRR for a season would be huge for the family market.

Why would blocking that path mean the loss of those rides may I ask? There are other ways to reach Katanga Canyon via Haunted Hollow and other path ways leading from Mutiny Bay, not to mention the skyride. In terms of work traffic you have to remember that the park isn't open 24/7 7 days a week and so I doubt that they'd want to close the area on operating days when they have plenty (including 2017/18 closed season) of time throughout the year with no guests.

Tue Dec 06, 2016 9:33 am

Owen wrote:
MakoMania wrote:Hopefully it is, the loss of RMT and CRR for a season would be huge for the family market.
Why would blocking that path mean the loss of those rides may I ask? There are other ways to reach Katanga Canyon via Haunted Hollow and other path ways leading from Mutiny Bay, not to mention the skyride. In terms of work traffic you have to remember that the park isn't open 24/7 7 days a week and so I doubt that they'd want to close the area on operating days when they have plenty (including 2017/18 closed season) of time throughout the year with no guests.

Yes I agree with that, it's just the main pathway to Katanga Canyon is via Mutiny Bay and it was mentioned that areas of the park may need to be temorarily closed at a talk earlier this year.

Tue Dec 06, 2016 10:16 am

I imagine that would be pre-planned for off peak days if it was absolutely necessarily to close the area, and I would expect that during days where family numbers are high (Easter half term for example) the area would be open for guests.

I am sure that they have a good schedule with minimal impact in place so I wouldn't worry too much

Tue Dec 06, 2016 2:01 pm

SW8 budget cuts, new ride layout.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7f4_1480622396" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Edit] This post is a joke and not constructive or adding to the discussion but thought I'd share regardless.

Tue Dec 06, 2016 2:47 pm

Andy Mc wrote:SW8 budget cuts, new ride layout.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7f4_1480622396" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Edit] This post is a joke and not constructive or adding to the discussion but thought I'd share regardless.

I particularly like the low greenhouse emission lift hill, is it technically a launch?

ThemeCrafter264 · Tue Dec 06, 2016 4:33 pm

To continue with yesterday post, I spoke to my friend again about sw8 and I do have some new information. Before I begin, I just want to say that his aunt was the former head of marketing at Alton towers (or a similar high up position). From what he said to me today, it will have a similar scariness and a 1.3m height restriction. The fire element is not the main unique feature and there could be something underground. I couldn't really get any more information out of him today but there is always tomorrow!

Tue Dec 06, 2016 4:53 pm

Something underground on a coaster that doesn't travel underground :-k

Again you say former, whereas the current marketing Director has been in the job for a fair few years now and likely before SW8 marketing teams would have even been assembled :-s

Tue Dec 06, 2016 5:05 pm

I'd highly doubt a GCI would have a 1.3m height restriction. Can't say for sure though.

Tue Dec 06, 2016 5:09 pm

MakoMania wrote:I'd highly doubt a GCI would have a 1.3m height restriction. Can't say for sure though.

This is true, GCI often make their attractions 1.2m (for much larger attractions as well). This may be due to the themes within the ride (similar to Ghost Train) although I wouldn't think any restriction would have been put in place as the ride is yet to arrive on site :-k

Of course your friend may be correct, although based on my previous comments and what MakoMania has said - I'd suggest taking what your friend says very lightly

Tue Dec 06, 2016 5:12 pm

If I'm being honest Theme Park Crafter, I'm not sure if this is a game of Chinese Whispers not gonna lie! So I am really going to take this as a pinch of salt, but I do like the sound of fire...

But, nethertheless I'm really hoping that SW8 isn't going to be TH13TEEN v2.0. I mean if the fire bit is true, I mean it could be spectacualr, but look at the Telsa Coil, or the effects in Saw: The Ride, or the fireball on THE SWARM as well as the mist on inferno; the effects are not very reliable, and quite often down, the telsa coil especially. So on opening day it'll look amazing but on a rainy sunday in september, I'll put money on its broken!

Also Merlin, if you are reading this, please, please, please dont over hype it!

Tue Dec 06, 2016 5:55 pm

I believe they'll keep the height restriction 1.2m - honestly raising it just means more people can't ride and therefore it narrows down the target market. Wodan, a much bigger ride with (by the looks of things) a more intense layout is 1.2m, so I expect this ride will have that as the height restriction. I doubt the themes would cause them to raise the height restriction, but possibly adding a "not suitable for under 10s" or something on the ride notice board is definitely possible.

Tue Dec 06, 2016 6:37 pm

As we are still so early on in the project it is highly unlikely that any form of detailed information will be available at this stage so as others have said, I'd be very wary of anyone saying they know more than has been publicly released either via the planning site or the Resort. As we have seen from several previous developments, there are always several people who claim to 'know things' when in fact they are simply speculating as much as we are. It's not unusual for people to say they know people to make it sound like their 'information' is more accurate so just be careful with anything you hear.

Getting back to the main discussion: As things stand, and looking at the plans we have so far, I would expect a 1.2m limit which would be in line with other wooden coasters of a similar scale. Towers and other Merlin parks typically use 1.2m or 1.4m limits for their major coasters so it would be highly unusual for them to deviate from this.

As for the fencing across the Mutiny Bay/Katanga Canyon Pathway, I would have thought that this is currently in place for the closed season and will be removed for opening day of the 2017 season. As Owen said, if they do need to close the path for access then this will most likely be planned for off-peak days to minimise the impact on guests. One thing we have to remember is that this is the first major coaster where the site is completely surrounded by the operational theme park - there is no access road boarding the construction site which presents a unique challenge for the Resort to overcome. All aspects of how to access the site would have been carefully planned to reduce the impact on the operations of the theme park.

Tue Dec 06, 2016 7:01 pm

Stan.H wrote:If I'm being honest Theme Park Crafter, I'm not sure if this is a game of Chinese Whispers not gonna lie! So I am really going to take this as a pinch of salt, but I do like the sound of fire...

But, nethertheless I'm really hoping that SW8 isn't going to be TH13TEEN v2.0. I mean if the fire bit is true, I mean it could be spectacualr, but look at the Telsa Coil, or the effects in Saw: The Ride, or the fireball on THE SWARM as well as the mist on inferno; the effects are not very reliable, and quite often down, the telsa coil especially. So on opening day it'll look amazing but on a rainy sunday in september, I'll put money on its broken!

Also Merlin, if you are reading this, please, please, please dont over hype it!

Or - Merlin if you're reading this, please fix all the above mentioned effects on your existing rides.

Tue Dec 06, 2016 7:04 pm

I personally haven't seen any effects broken at Thorpe this season (minus on a certain new attraction) :lol
Although that's a discussion for Thorpe park topics!

It seems that the general public have began to gain interest in the project, with a few people asking about the attraction on Twitter. Alton Towers seem to have responded with a pretty generic "Keep your ear to the ground!", and although it may related to the SW8 banners I wouldn't look into this too much

Tue Dec 06, 2016 9:54 pm

xylyx wrote:If they call it Runaway Mine Train 2 Electric Boogaloo I will go every single day for the entire season. Especially if the centerpiece is a giant dancing robot with an afro that watches you as you speed around the track, and does the finger snap and point as you pull into the station

Yeah the themes are always hard to call and you have the same problem as with cryptic films and magic shows: you start reading everything as a clue, then you're putty in their hands lol.

If they call it that they could say "choo chop electric boogaloo" hahaha

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Tue Dec 06, 2016 10:07 pm

From what I've seen, one of the paths which isn't currently open to the public will be opened up. I've drawn up a rather bad diagram but it should give a general idea for possible construction entrances.

Wed Dec 07, 2016 2:10 pm

Ryan.B wrote:From what I've seen, one of the paths which isn't currently open to the public will be opened up. I've drawn up a rather bad diagram but it should give a general idea for possible construction entrances.

But this footpath you show is behind the constructed fence. By quite some distance as the only way currently to get to this path is a good 5 metres behind. As much as I find it difficult for them to close of this walkway for the season. I dont believe after the construction of this fence that they will use the old Aqua land path as its behind the newly built fence

Wed Dec 07, 2016 4:40 pm

The plans did seem to show some work on it or something. Not sure what for but it was on them.

Wed Dec 07, 2016 9:06 pm

Owen wrote:Personally I think a mining theme is too safe for Merlin. One thing I adore about Merlin is their way of being brave and unique with their themes. If we look at previous themes a mining theme just seems a bit bland.

TH13TEEN - A family coaster with the theme of a forest taking over a pre-historic town
The Swarm - Machincal flying aliens plucking people from the ground and taking them around a destroyed landscape
The Smiler - A happiness machine devoloped after various forms of brutal human testing occurred
Ghost Train - A tube train which is attacked by monsters due to a hideous gas that is changing people

To me a mining theme seems a bit generic. Of course they could always put a spin on it and make it something different, but I personally think something more magical is needed in order to bring back the Alton Towers magic that's sorely lacking at the moment

There not going to put the altonville theming to waste now are they, it was too good of quality for them to store it and reuse it. I think it will be a mine theme however i was hoping it would fit into mutiny bay as that area is really well themed for the park but it lacks an attraction to make the area busy. I was hoping for a voyage style theme and the SW would be levitating track or something indoors with screens around it.