Wicker Man - General Discussion

Tue Apr 24, 2018 3:29 pm

Average waiting time from Sunday (which is the day both me and Jack visited) was around 60-90 minutes. The beginning of the day was around 210 minutes due to 1 train operations, later being reduced to 90 minutes whilst on 2 trains. It was around 60 minutes for the majority of the day as a result of good operations and a quieter day.

Tue Apr 24, 2018 7:17 pm

Alton Towers have posted an impressive timelapse video documenting the construction of Wicker Man from start to finish.

[youtube]03qNZRZM0D0[/youtube]

Tue Apr 24, 2018 9:20 pm

It's actually really nice to see everything that we've been watching all last year compacted into one video. The difference from before construction and how it is now is really quite remarkable!

Sat Apr 28, 2018 3:41 pm

TowersStreet are reporting that the fire effects on Wicker Man are now working again!

Swarm Chris · Sat Apr 28, 2018 5:24 pm

Can confirm they were working again, saw them with my own eyes!

They stopped for a little bit around 2:30, but came back to life, pretty much the train after the one I was on... !

Sat Apr 28, 2018 7:49 pm

Were there many restraint re-checks today? Interested to see if they have solved the issues now.

Swarm Chris · Sat Apr 28, 2018 8:06 pm

Didn't see any call outs for full train rechecks, but I did see the control room call out one seat to do some check or adjustment with a metal tool they have on both sides at the back of the station.

Trains weren't operating at a regular intervals. Sometimes a noticeable delay between trains, other times one entering the lift hill as the other entered the brake run. We were stuck in the final tunnel hold right before the station for quite some time, so it's possible they were being held up by rechecks then.

I did notice they appear to be doing manual braking of the train on arrival into the station, as we stopped and started a few times before lining up correctly.

As for general operations, I arrived at 11 and don't remember seeing it go down at any point while in the park. They also had the waiting times pretty much spot on.

Sat Apr 28, 2018 9:08 pm

Aha I was there today. Stay tuned for a review soon but operations were bad on opening with it breaking down before 10:00 and again at around 10:50ish. The flames were working at the start of the day however soon stopped and later in the day it was only out of one shoulder. Dispatches were fast too! I joined at the end of the helix cattlepen, just before you passed under the structure and waited 35 minutes to get to the batch area, when advertised on 60 minutes, so yeah it did feel operations were fast!

Swarm Chris · Sat Apr 28, 2018 9:40 pm

You might have gotten lucky, or I unlucky. Think I queued from about the same pace, took 50 minutes. We were moving fairly steadily at the start, but had slowed greatly by the time we reached the shop.

Sat Apr 28, 2018 11:12 pm

Apart from the erratic fire effects today, and early breakdowns, it's a lot better than it was at the start of the season. Hopefully it's in it's groove now

Sun Apr 29, 2018 8:15 am

TPC wrote:You might have gotten lucky, or I unlucky. Think I queued from about the same pace, took 50 minutes. We were moving fairly steadily at the start, but had slowed greatly by the time we reached the shop.

We joined 20 minutes before ride close and they seemed to want to get it moving as fast as possible, so I guess staff could finish sooner.

Swarm Chris · Sun Apr 29, 2018 9:47 am

Fire is on left side again this morning, but alas the ride is still running test trains and we're not allowed into the main queue system yet. They've just called ride staff to the station, so maybe it'll open by 10.

Edit: They just pressed the wrong button and broadcast station announcements to the surrounding area. Yep, restraint rechecks required on the empty trains.

Edit 2: 10:22 and still not open. Queue so long, it would be a nightmare to get out of now.

Hopefully final edit. Open 10:30

Ride update, restraints still causing problems. The tools at the back release individual carriages. The operators now also check every restraint is fully up before letting guests in.

Sun Apr 29, 2018 2:34 pm

Oh. My. God.

When will they get all these problems sorted?? Just as there was some hope, everything seems to go bloody pear shaped again! Fire not working properly. Again... restraints still not working properly... and the ride did not open until 10:30. That's and entire hour after the advertised opening time.

Sun Apr 29, 2018 3:27 pm

I know it’s not ideal, but it’s not as bad as a couple of people are making out. It’s a brand new ride, a brand new coaster system for Towers. It’s only been open a couple of months, of course there’s going to be some problems with it.
If it’s still like this in the summer, then maybe some discussion about things needing to be fixed and improved. Or am I being too nice to Towers?

Sun Apr 29, 2018 3:31 pm

I just fail to see why a coaster, which isn't a worlds first, and doesn't have anything "new" to it, is having so many problems. It's beyond explanation.. just how is it having so many problems? I really do hope that they get things sorted by the summer.

Sun Apr 29, 2018 3:58 pm

Robert.W wrote:I just fail to see why a coaster, which isn't a worlds first, and doesn't have anything "new" to it, is having so many problems. It's beyond explanation.. just how is it having so many problems? I really do hope that they get things sorted by the summer.

Every ride has teething issues, Wicker Man is no different. I presume we all remember the shocking first year The Smiler had? Apart from the inversion record, there was nothing particularly revolutionary about the ride hardware.

I imagine Towers want the restraint issue on Wicker Man sorted as soon as possible. I’m not entirely clued up on what the issue is, but it appears to be a sensor problem and how they are communicating with the ride PLC, and it may be that GCI are required to implement a software fix.

The ride has only been open for just over a month. Let’s give it time to settle in before slating it.

Sun Apr 29, 2018 4:08 pm

Dan wrote:
Robert.W wrote:I just fail to see why a coaster, which isn't a worlds first, and doesn't have anything "new" to it, is having so many problems. It's beyond explanation.. just how is it having so many problems? I really do hope that they get things sorted by the summer.
Every ride has teething issues, Wicker Man is no different. I presume we all remember the shocking first year The Smiler had? Apart from the inversion record, there was nothing particularly revolutionary about the ride hardware.

I imagine Towers want the restraint issue on Wicker Man sorted as soon as possible. I’m not entirely clued up on what the issue is, but it appears to be a sensor problem and how they are communicating with the ride PLC, and it may be that GCI are required to implement a software fix.

The ride has only been open for just over a month. Let’s give it time to settle in before slating it.

I'm afraid I don't remember the issues which The Smiler had as I wasn't an enthusiast back then. :P Although I do understand that rides have teething issues, it just seems like something isn't quite right. Obviously they will want the issues sorted as soon as possible. And I'm definitely not slating the ride. I absolutely adore Wicker Man, it's one of the best coaster experiences I've ever been on. I'm just really concerned about these teething issues. Towers already have enough to deal with this year.

Swarm Chris · Sun Apr 29, 2018 6:39 pm

For a new ride, it's operations have been quite good. Didn't see it go down once it had opened today.

The bigger problem is Alton's reliance on it in the morning when they barely open anything. We were told maybe try something else, but really there wasn't anything else to try. Smiler went to 80 minutes pretty quickly.

Sun Apr 29, 2018 8:43 pm

One thing worth mentioning that hasn't been noted yet, is that when you stack in maintenance with three trains on the system, the final tunnel effects no longer activate until you're in it. The audio still plays in there though. So no more sitting halfway down maintenance watching some stuff happen up ahead with no real excitement.

Sun Apr 29, 2018 9:11 pm

Capt. Barnacles wrote:One thing worth mentioning that hasn't been noted yet, is that when you stack in maintenance with three trains on the system, the final tunnel effects no longer activate until you're in it. The audio still plays in there though. So no more sitting halfway down maintenance watching some stuff happen up ahead with no real excitement.

Yes, noticed that yesterday. I've been on it a few times, and yesterday was the first day the tunnel effect worked at the correct time,

It seems to be running a lot better now. I remember how dodgy the Smiler and Air were in there first years. Wicker Man is better already than they were. And they got better with time.