Attraction Source Forum

Was on site today, Wicker Man was running extremely well today, even for a mid week day the queues were extremely low. 

Entered the queue today at 3:50 to get a last ride in, unfortunately the ride ceased operation around 4:10 due to technical difficulties. When the ride was stopped, the chain lift had also stopped implying something more than a temporary delay compared to normal. By 4:25 we were evacuated out of the queue and give priority passes. First ever queue evacuation for me but obviously something more than a simple fix was needed, hopefully it is running ok tomorrow and over the weekend.

DeadJack5 wrote:Was on site today, Wicker Man was running extremely well today, even for a mid week day the queues were extremely low. 

Entered the queue today at 3:50 to get a last ride in, unfortunately the ride ceased operation around 4:10 due to technical difficulties. When the ride was stopped, the chain lift had also stopped implying something more than a temporary delay compared to normal. By 4:25 we were evacuated out of the queue and give priority passes. First ever queue evacuation for me but obviously something more than a simple fix was needed, hopefully it is running ok tomorrow and over the weekend.

Shame it went down at the end of the day. Was running well today.

I did notice a couple of long waits on the brake run. Definitely caused by restraint issues on the train that was loading. I saw a couple of larger park guests doing the dreaded walk of shame today because the restraints wouldn't go down.  Later on I saw one of them also having to disembark Oblivion for the same problem

I got on it today, was working well apart from the big fire effects when you go through the ride, which was a shame. Preshow was as good as ever though.

I went on Thursday and I am here today, ridden it 3 times. All three times my restraint only had to click once and the train went, however when I first went on it a couple weeks back it needed two clicks. So hopefully more people will be able to ride on this comfortably/at all!!

Peperami is continuing their partnership with Alton Towers and Wicker Man with this screamer of a video!

What is the point in that video? It's litterally just a ride POV with a jumpscare of pepporoni halfway up the lift hill. 

Marketing

As posted on TowersTimes Facebook, the resort are trialling a "lunch pass" system in Wicker Man's queue - part way through the queueline, a host can let guests out via a side gate where they will then re-enter upon their return. The scheme will be trialling for a week, with the possibility of it being extended to other coasters across the park, if successful.

Is it an upcharge, or free? 

Robert.W wrote:Is it an upcharge, or free? 

There's no charge as far as I'm aware.

Hmmm. The more I think about this, the more I don't think it is going to work. 45 mins isn't that much time when the park is the size that it is. You'd basically be limited to the F&B options in Mutiny Bay (which aren't the worst in the park, at least). And then the extra staff this will use – why couldn't they be doing something more useful... if they could be used to improve the park operations overall, then maybe this lunch pass thing wouldn't even be needed as the queues wouldn't be so long all the time...

Reliability is god awful on WM now, i can understand that its a new coaster and there will be teething problems, but this is fairly basic technology compared to what there is now out there (flying coasters, 4d coasters etc.) I queued up in the fastrack line twice in the space of an hour, it broke down both times. Both times the lift chain stopped, im not sure if the chain is the issue, but its a possibility

ThemeParkEwan wrote:Reliability is god awful on WM now, i can understand that its a new coaster and there will be teething problems, but this is fairly basic technology compared to what there is now out there (flying coasters, 4d coasters etc.) I queued up in the fastrack line twice in the space of an hour, it broke down both times. Both were started by the lift chain stopping, im not sure if the chain is the issue, but its a possibility

Oh god, more problems. Thought they'd sorted these issue ages ago. I don't think it'll be the chain lift that's the problem, I imagine they have to stop it if there is an issue with some part of the ride.

I believe the longest period of downtime today was due to a guest illness, as an ambulance and medical staff were on site for a considerable length of time.

The ride was also running three trains today, so it’s possible that the hosts were being too efficient with dispatching and causing the ride to shut down, as was commonplace during Wicker Man’s first couple of weeks.

It does seem as though they are on the way to solving the restraint issues though. Neither the train I was on, or the one before it, needed any seats checking, which is something I’ve not seen yet.

On a side note, the Peperami campaign extends to the queue time boards around the park.

Nice to hear that the restraint issue is getting resolved, but I still have never seen a GCI with so much downtime.

Maybe they should use the extra host to open a closed bag room on one of the other coasters, instead of for this silly idea.

Exactly. I can't help but feel that this whole "lunch pass" thing is just a marketing exercise to make people think that Merlin are prioritising guest experience, when in actual fact, more investment into the general operation of the park would mean this silly system wouldn't be needed anyway...

I will be honest here, I like the idea. It'd be even better if they were still staffing baggage on The Smiler and 13 however the concept is quite nice. If it works in reality is yet to be seen however.

I’d much rather this member of staff being used for a single rider queue on any of the coasters

AltonOperator wrote:I’d much rather this member of staff being used for a single rider queue on any of the coasters

This is such a ridiculous comment.
Most of the single rider lines at AT never even had an extra member of staff to operate them. It was just another queue that you entered, and a ride host would open the gate when there was a spare seat.
AFAIK They were removed because people abused them so much. As a user of the Ride Access Pass, I've seen this firsthand on rides like Dragon's Fury where the RAP queue is right by the single riders, so often you'll see full families of 4+ in the SRQ when they really should be queueing normally, sometimes they even let them all on the same car which is ridiculous. People see it as a free fastrack.