Future Rides without John Wardley...

Sun Jun 16, 2013 8:43 am

Just wanted to know what you think the new rides at Alton Towers will be like now the best man Alton Towers ever had is retiring... Will they be as good?

Sun Jun 16, 2013 10:40 am

They'll probably be as they are now, as long as they don't randomly tear down rides or re-theme rides and areas.

Sun Jun 16, 2013 12:33 pm

Future rides without John Wardley?....I wouldn't get my hopes up for another nemesis phenomenon or Smiler.
I could be wrong but now that the legend is sitting back keeping himself cool by flapping his money, things will be a little different...but hey what do I know..

Sun Jun 16, 2013 11:43 pm

From what I understand Candy Holland does a lot of the theming, so if your looking at theming, then I'm sure we are ok there. As for the ride layout, I'm sure John has plenty of ideas already on paper they can work on and with RCT3 and No limits, there are plenty of people designing these things.

Mon Jun 17, 2013 9:05 pm

I think it will be the similar as its been the past half a decade
Swarm, Th13teen and The Smiler - according to John Wardley- are mostly the creations of Candy Holland. He just does the track layout and profile although he was "consultant" aswell and I can just see it in my head that they would have run things by him to ask him whether they would work.

Tue Jun 18, 2013 12:15 am

I wonder if TT could get an interview with Candy...

Tue Jun 18, 2013 12:19 am

would be awesome - we hardly hear anything from her.

Tue Jun 18, 2013 11:28 am

I think somewhere John said that he would still get involved to help sometimes, so we haven't lost all hope

Thu Jun 20, 2013 8:06 am

Maseyg123 wrote: I think somewhere John said that he would still get involved to help sometimes, so we haven't lost all hope

Yes, he did :moj

Thu Jun 20, 2013 1:28 pm

TheOutpatient wrote: would be awesome - we hardly hear anything from her.

She was in The Smiler station on opening day (the one they allowed people onto it), didn't see anybody approaching her. Missed opportunity?

Thu Jun 20, 2013 3:23 pm

Chaz wrote:
TheOutpatient wrote: would be awesome - we hardly hear anything from her.
She was in The Smiler station on opening day (the one they allowed people onto it), didn't see anybody approaching her. Missed opportunity?

:yes:

Sun Jul 07, 2013 1:05 am

I think it'll be nice to see what the newbies come up with!

I love John as much as the next guy, in fact a lot more than the 'next guy'! But I think as he has worked with members of the team like Candy and Ben Dowson, they will know johns views on things and understand he will be there! I don't think John will disappear off of the face of the earth- but I think it'll be good to let the young'ens have a go at this designing thing, as I bet they're boiling over with fresh ideas!

Also, it'll be nice to see them get a bit of credit, as John has said himself people tend to think it's all him and it's not!

Wed Jul 10, 2013 3:44 am

The last time John retired (yes he's done it twice now) we got rides and attractions like Duel, Spinball, Rita, Charlie, Dung Heap, Haunted Hollow - all disappointing by epic proportions. Candy and her theming team may be great at what they do, but without the ride underpinning it their efforts are wasted. It's like having gravy without the dinner.

There aren't many people in the industry with a background like John's. It's his experience in all those other disciplines which gave him a unique perspective on how to design his rides and I honestly don't think it's been passed over to the others at Merlin. I see this in the rides such as Saw, Th13teen, Swarm and Smiler, as while I do enjoy them they still haven't been done "the Wardley way" so to speak. He was pretty much just doing track profiles and coming up with the marketing gimmicks (i.e. worlds first). The last true Wardley rides seem to be Hex and Air, as he retired somewhere between 2000 - 2002.