The John Wardley Interview - Questions

[Nightfall]

Q: Of all the rides you’ve worked on which of them would you consider yourself to have had a major influence on the design?

I am asking this question because several rides such as Dragon Khan famously reference you as part of the design team. Unlike the Secret Weapons your exactly influence on these rides seems uncertain. Is it a case like with Saw: The Rides station that your involvement was specific to a certain part of the attraction.

[Rollercoaster5000]

More questions.
-If the Flume were to be replaced what would your thoughts on a replacement be? Could you see a new water ride being added or a coaster?.

-If you were given free reign to come up with a ride for the Black Hole tent what ride would you like to go in to the tent and which theme could you come up with? Would you choose to pull the tent down completely and replace it with a state of the art ride building?

-Do you believe think that a woodie can be added to any park in the UK at some point?

-What are your thoughts on Charlie and the chocolate factory at Alton Towers?

- Who came up with the freefall concept on Thirteen? Did the entire team contribute towards the idea?

- What are your thoughts on the Dark Forest, do you think the area has been pulled off well and the theming is sufficient or do you think more work/effort could have gone into the area?

[Nathan]

Are there any particular parks in the world you are yet to visit but would like to?

[dmmosh1]

Have you ever been on a ride that people have rearly liked and you thought it was rearly bad or over rated ?

Do you think that drayton manor opening a hotel is a bad direction for them to go in or could it be good for them ?

What was the last theme park in the UK you went to that wasnt merlin owned ?

Is there any thing about the theme/ammusment park industry from the past that you miss ?

could you persuade alton towers to put later bus's on for the scarefest and the fireworks and open charlie, hex and maybe duel for the xmas season ?

do you think that the internet community is to harsh and critical ?

thanks

[DiogoJ42]

[quote=""dmmosh1""]do you think that the internet community is to harsh and critical ?[/quote]

That's quite an interesting one actually... Although I'm pretty sure he'll say "yes" :P

I'm seriously tempted to ask "John, have you seen Blithering Lodge, and what do you think?" :no:

[Blaze]

[quote=""dmmosh1""]Have you ever been on a ride that people have rearly liked and you thought it was rearly bad or over rated ?[/quote]
I'd like this, and ther inverse, do you really like something that most people dislike?

[[Archive]]

could you persuade alton towers to put later bus's on for the scarefest and the fireworks and open charlie, hex and maybe duel for the xmas season ?

John Wardley is ride consultant for Merlin Entertainments. He does not have any say in how Alton Towers runs their rides at all. He is simply called in to help with new ride developments.

[Ritadz]

[quote=""Tom Green""][quote=""Ritadz""]That's the coaster section's top speed, the freefall drop's speed is 67 MPH.[/quote]

That's actually incorrect. I embarrassingly reported it as such on my website earlier this week before the error was pointed out to me.

Well, assuming the drop is complete free fall (not a resisted or accelerated drop), and is around 20 feet, then it's dropping speed is going to be no greater than 25-30mph.[/quote]

It is an accelerated drop, you can feel it is when your on it, the hydraulics power it, and make it drop at 67mph.

[Islander]

[quote=""Ritadz""]
It is an accelerated drop, you can feel it is when your on it, the hydraulics power it, and make it drop at 67mph.[/quote]
'Fraid you're definitely wrong there - we were specifically told on the Thirteen evening that it's not at all accelerated. For the drop, the hydraulics are simply vented into a storage vessel of sorts - essentially a valve is opened, allowing the fluid to be forced out.

Definitely just freefall (well, resisted for a lot of it thanks to the braking), and definitely nowhere near 67mph.

[Ritadz]

Really, could have sworn it felt like Detonator style acceleration. And i'd just read a few times on a few different sites that the mechanism/drop was 67mph.

[Vik]

Erm, back on topic chaps. .

[Pennywise]

Errr...


- How involved were you with THORPE PARK's SAW: The Ride?
- Is a Woody even a possibility for SW7?
- When are we likely to see something in the Black Hole tent?



No doubt at least one of those has been asked before, but I'm not trudging through this entire thread looking.

[Blaze]

Now that rollercoasters have reached the lilit of what humans can physically endure, where do you envisage the future of the ride type?

[Spike]

It's quite pathetic the amount of people who are basically throwing this opportunity back in the faces of the TTF Team and John by asking stupid, inane questions. The guys giving you his time to answer the same questions he's probably been asked a million times and a large number of you are basically being idiots. Sad and disrespectful really.

[AdamJ]

[quote=""Spike""]It's quite pathetic the amount of people who are basically throwing this opportunity back in the faces of the TTF Team and John by asking stupid, inane questions. The guys giving you his time to answer the same questions he's probably been asked a million times and a large number of you are basically being idiots. Sad and disrespectful really. [/quote]
Sorry but I completely agree. I mean come on guys, ask some serious questions for once, and not stupid childish ones. Nobody cares what he ate for his tea. John's a busy man, wouldn't be surprised if he was reading this topic and was disgusted at the amount of spam questions.

[Nemair]

[quote=""El Patricko""]The theme music played at theme parks has always inspired me and added to the day greatly, my question is, how does the park go about creating a new piece of music for a new ride? is it an internal affair or do they have competing artists?
[/quote]

The park usually contacts a number of composers and usually requires them to pitch to the park. This usually involves the company or composer to show what they can do, for how much and include a small snippet of the potential music. The chosen composer then would get a full brief sometimes with reference music. The composer most likely uses a computer to create the music, with the odd exception (hex, mutiny bay etc).

[Magrathea]

Of all the rides which you were involved in that Tussauds/Merlin were forced to retheme/remove, which do you miss most?

[Badgy]

My question if not been asked before:

Do you consider that the building restrictions place on Alton Towers can actually help rather than hinder the creation of a more immersive and better ride experience? Whilst obviously considerably more expensive, Nemesis on a flat piece of concrete would not be anything like the coaster it remains to this day. Maybe to a lesser extent Oblivion without the tunnel too.

Badgy.

[moog666]

How often do you read forums like ours when developing a new ride and what impact if any do they make on the decisions that are made?

[Gloomy Dude]

John...

What are your top 10 favourite roller coasters worldwide (including rides you've worked on, of course)?

Feel free to elaborate on your choices, but I understand that you're probably a busy kind of gent