Wicker Man - General Discussion

[Justin]

The best way will be down past Towers Trading (left hand side of Towers Street), inbetween Battle Gallons and Courtyard and around. The other way is through Mutiny Bay but it may be blocked off. You also have rides to contend with.

[Dan]

It seems Wicker Man’s reliability gremlins have struck again today, as the ride has not yet opened. The queue line and ride area audio has been turned off, and while the ride was testing this morning, this too has stopped.

I really hope Towers and/or GCI manage to fix the issue that seems to be plaguing the ride at the moment, as its inconsistent operation is somewhat dampening the initial hype surrounding the ride.

[MakoMania]

Indeed, the hype is vanishing quickly.

[Michelle]

I don't think it's quite so drastic as that, all the non enthusiasts on my Facebook are super excited to ride and probably won't visit for a while when hopefully all the teething problems will be sorted. I think it's important not to overstate the drama on this, the ride is great and Alton are trying to get it sorted, while enthusiasts may be a bit frustrated most of the GP will get over it or barely even notice as they aren't monitoring it every day. I'm optimistic they'll get it sorted soon enough.

[Dan]

I don't think it's quite so drastic as that, all the non enthusiasts on my Facebook are super excited to ride and probably won't visit for a while when hopefully all the teething problems will be sorted. I think it's important not to overstate the drama on this, the ride is great and Alton are trying to get it sorted, while enthusiasts may be a bit frustrated most of the GP will get over it or barely even notice as they aren't monitoring it every day. I'm optimistic they'll get it sorted soon enough.

Oh I agree

I’m still really hyped to ride it, I’m just a little nervous about my visit on Thursday as I just want it to be open :lol

[MakoMania]

I mean, of course there is still some excitement, but headlines like this aren't great:

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/m ... f-14454217

More of an enthusiast thing, but with the park in such poor shape this year, it's making it really hard for me to be excited about Wicker Man, which is a shame as it's a good attraction.

[Morgan]

The ride has reopened according to ride times, with a 2hr queue.

[Robert.W]

Which ride are we talking about here? riderimes.co.uk still says that Wicker Man and Nemesis are not available, same also for Congo River Rapids and Heave Ho..

[Morgan]

Was Wicker Man, must've closed again!

[Robert.W]

Ahh, it's back open now, queues at 90 mins..

[lewis97]

It would seem that the Rollercoaster Restaurant is now home to a miniature model of Wicker Man, which was apparently created as part of Merlin's internal approval process as per this tweet.

[Justin]

I'll have to take a look at that, later this week!

[ponder]

I'm struggling to understand why a GCI woody with a fairly straight forward lay-out is having so many technical issues. You can understand it with new tech (like with Air), but it seems a bit baffling that they're having so many issues with this.

[DeadJack5]

I'm struggling to understand why a GCI woody with a fairly straight forward lay-out is having so many technical issues. You can understand it with new tech (like with Air), but it seems a bit baffling that they're having so many issues with this.

Apparently it is overshooting, every time it does this the system is tripped and has to restart again. This is why they are sending around empty trains so often because they need to reset the system. I maybe be wrong but this is what I've been told by staff.

[Nickolai]

Hopefully we don't get trims.........

[Jack]

For it to need trims it'd need to be overshooting the brake run, and luckily it isn't doing that

[Phild94]

What exactly is it overshooting? The lift hill? Surely some trim brakes before it wouldn’t impede the ride top much

[Dan]

What exactly is it overshooting? The lift hill? Surely some trim brakes before it wouldn’t impede the ride top much

It’s rumoured to be overshooting the station and parking incorrectly. This would cause the ride to shut down as the control unit would think two trains are occupying the same block.

[Phild94]

What exactly is it overshooting? The lift hill? Surely some trim brakes before it wouldn’t impede the ride top much

It’s rumoured to be overshooting the station and parking incorrectly. This would cause the ride to shut down as the control unit would think two trains are occupying the same block.

That’s odd, surely it would only be pushed into the station at a set speed. Unless of course it is that the brakes are not holding it adequately... either way this isn’t the sort of mistaken an experienced manufacturer should be making

[ATI]

If this is the case, I think it's a first for GCI. Maybe this also ties into the fact the layout was only designed to utilise 2 trains, but the park opted for 3.