Wicker Man - General Discussion

General discussion regarding the UK's No.1 Theme Park. Talk about anything and everything Alton Towers here.
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Jack
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I wouldn't let the wooden coasters at Blackpool put you off, wooden coasters have become a lot smoother over 70+ years ;) The manufacturers that I personally feel would do this (slightly less so for the Gravity Group) are seen to be very smooth and ride like a steel coaster :)
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Luviico
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This is such an exciting development! I love the prospect of a woodie (whether it be an original or hybrid) as I've never been on one myself and it would add something totally different to the current lineup of rides. Especially with the Smiler there is hardly any air time and we can't really say that any of the other coasters have a great deal either so despite the general consensus on woodies I could see the GP really going for it! Who wouldn't fancy dipping and diving across the valley? And I like the tunnel aspect too! All going well I can see SW8 being (possibly) one of the best additions to park yet!
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Ryan.B
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I reckon it will be an airtime machine considering not many coasters at Alton provide a lot of Airtime. Station where the small food outlets are in Forbidden Valley with a lift hill and two over banks around where Ripsaw, Fish and Chips and Blade are now with an Overbank to the left by fish and chips, airtime hill to where Blade is and then pass underneath the lift hill, dropping into the valley.i reckon it will be RMC due to the fact they never used to reply about RMC to the UK questions, then they announced they are fully booked for the next 3-5 years, and a couple of months ago someone asked whether they would be an RMC coming to the UK, and they admitted they were in talks to bring an RMC to the UK in the next three years, presuming they mean 2017/2018 opening, I think it will be an RMC coaster because they said they are fully booked for the next few years, then admitted they are in talks with a UK park for an RMC in the next couple of years, so they are talking to a UK park about a coaster in 2017/2018, yet they are saying they a fully booked, I think one of the parks that booked it is Alton Towers as they are the only likely candidates as other parks wouldn't be able to afford RMC coasters, Thorpe have a major 2016 ride, and I doubt Chessington would be able to add one, so I think the fact Alton may be getting an RMC if planning permission goes ahead, I think they sneakily revealed it with hinting around the time Alton posted an SW8 picture.

There are rumours John Wardley is involved, he himself said something about preparations for SW8 being well underway in an interview somewhere, and as he said, A Coaster Enthusiast never fully retires, look at Megafobia, he helped design that and it is arguably the best wooden coaster in the UK, and that was at a small park, imagine what he could do with the space and budget Alton have, he has said he will never give up on a wooden coaster coming to Alton Towers, and he is retired, but he will probably have a say in this as it's his passion, and after all these years of wanting to build one, it turns out the next major coaster could be a wooden coaster, after he retired, I'm sure he will play a big part in this as he does it not because it's his work, it's his passion and he said he will never give up, and he won't until it's built! I'm thinking RMC
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Hazard
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As someone who isn't quite up to speed with the knowledge you guys clearly have could anyone put a rough picture or something as to how big and how this coaster may turn out?

People say cross valley and I am assuming we are talking the area behind Blade and to the side of the cable cars where you can kind of walk through to the other side of the park?

Again I may sound silly and it may be obvious but would be great for someone to share some knowledge on this and estimate what this could actually be? At least area wise?
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Ryan.B
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I have a feeling it will have around 7 airtime hills and a couple of Helixes, maybe a zero G stall as well, area wise, this development is huge, almost as big as the whole of Katanga Canyon/Rapids 2.5x the space taken by nemesis and 3x the space taken by the smiler, so it could be the longest RMC with one lift, I'd say around 1200-2000M is possible in a 17000 m2 space, if compact and low lying, this could be longer than the big one although we can't be sure of layout yet. The Pre Show building interests me, this might be one of the best themed wooden coasters if the put the effort into it, remember the ideas for an air retheme to do with fighting the Nemesis Creature, this could be themed around a Phalanx Operation, and you get briefed in th pre show building on fighting the Nemesis Creature. Just an idea, I'm sure John Wardley will get involved, he wouldn't say about his dreams for a wooden coaster and retire if he wasn't somehow involved, surely it's his passion and look at Megafobia, that's not exactly the tallest wooden coaster but it's my favourite, these things don't need to be tall, even with small hills, if it keeps the pace it will provide airtime, any ideas when we may be able to see the plans?
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seanyboyuk
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going back to the submitted plans the grid reference given in the plans is behind the cable car ride in the valley area :)
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Fishfingerish
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In maths today my teacher was talking about his friend who apparently works in development at the Towers, and apparently he said they were prepping plans to remove Nemesis for 'a new ride'.

I'm not sure how reliable it is, and I'm not sure I believe him but he has been fairly reliable in the past. This may sound like I'm stirring - I promise I'm not, just relaying something.
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Georgie
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Maybe he confused 'replacing' with 'opposite'
1. Helix | 2. Taron | 3. Nemesis | 4. Expedition GeForce | 5. Wodan
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Aidan Lowe
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Yea that isn't accurate as they spent a bit of dough renewing footers and general touch up of Nemesis only this year.
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sw7nutter
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Merlin have clearly cut back budgets so they will want to avoid a high maintenance costs ride. Seeing as wooden coasters are very expensive to maintain I suspect that this will be a hybrid so that they don't have to replace a section of track every year.
An airtime machine would be nice but strikes me as unrealistic. They have to sell this ride and so it needs a unique selling point to the general public. A few airtime hills and a tunnel just doesn't strike me as enough.
As for length of the ride it should be quite decent. It's location allows for a lot of energy to be gained and wooden coasters are normally cheap to make.
I'm not claiming I know anything of what this will be like but you have to remember that logic leads to a closer answer rather than what seems to be random guessing.
Also as a side note a wooden coaster next to a station that spends most of its time on fire. Very brave Merlin.
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dazza4783
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Fishfingerish wrote:In maths today my teacher was talking about his friend who apparently works in development at the Towers, and apparently he said they were prepping plans to remove Nemesis for 'a new ride'.

I'm not sure how reliable it is, and I'm not sure I believe him but he has been fairly reliable in the past. This may sound like I'm stirring - I promise I'm not, just relaying something.
Just imagine, all this time enthusiasts have been nagging them to put in a wooden coaster, and now they take Nemesis out to put one in it's place :yikes:

Obviously it isn't going to happen, Nemesis will be there for a long time to come unless something goes majorly wrong with it.
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NemesisRider
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I think with this it probably won't get an airtime machin. Alton does need one, but as sw7nutter says they don't have much appeal to the general public. However, RMC have made some very good twisty rides with lots of banked turns (EG New Texas Giant) and they've done well in polls and have had a good response.

As for inversion count, I'd guess maybe one or two. I mean, they've just broken the steel coaster inversion record, it would be a bit unnecessary to break the wooden inversion record straight after.

Also, RMC do good looking trains, they could make one at Alton very unique. :)
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Ryan.B
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I wonder what the planned theme is, with a pre show building must be quite decently themed for a wooden coaster
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Nathan_Fisher
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Full woodie or hybrid, SW8 will be a huge hit and providing they theme it right and make a good layout this will be a game changer.
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sw7nutter
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Just because it is made of wood or is a hybrid in no way guarantees it to be a good ride. Intamin launch rides are fantastic but then they built rita... End of the day it comes down to layout and how the trains go through them. Something you can never really tell until you have ridden it. For example in my opinion the smiler should have been a great ride from the plans, but personally i find it lacks force and is a thousand times too painful.
I can tell this is going to be a very long 2 years.
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Jack
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RMC are VERY consistent with their rides, they have never built a ride where people just said "meh" on what they thought of it so I would be pretty confident if RMC that we will be getting something amazing :) Even if it was GCI or GG, they don't really have "bad" rides (apart from maybe Hades 360 for GG) and have been shown to do amazing things themselves :D
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cookiee_munster
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im kind of put off with how a wooden rollercoaster would fit the overall forbidden valley theme.

i can't help but think it'll be another theming mess, like what happened with air. no cohesion.
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Aidan Lowe
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It'll look out of place like Air does in FV as you mentioned but as long as its a decent ride I for one will accept the fact the theme will probably suck. Just [-o< for a well thought out track circuit.
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Stan.H
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What this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8hqTJn6J68 What is your verdict, I personally hate it, it would be uncomfortable, sickly, above tree line, way too expensive, too much like smiler, already got an invert, I could go on!
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Also this ride will need great capacity, or large lines will build up. Also it will be a great addition to the park as it would bring more peeps over to FV.
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