Wicker Man - General Discussion

[Robert.W]

To save it burning a hole in Merlin's pockets, I presume...

[Ladyofthelake]

To save it burning a hole in Merlin's pockets, I presume...

From what I understand the fire being off is NOT a cost saving measure, I've heard a couple of rumours as to why it's having to be left off, however without something more definitive to back those up I'm reluctant to post those rumoured reasons on a public forum as the last thing Towers will want is false information flying around. One thing I do know is that they want the flames back full time as soon as possible.

[Robert.W]

From what I've heard, something to do with the heat having adverse effects on the Wicker Man structure... which might also explain why the flames weren't put back on fully when they did return. If the solution to whatever problem they are having is costly, can we trust Merlin to splash out and fix it? I really hope so..

[Tom170499]

Another fine example of Merlin’s poor design...

[Nickolai]

I understand this might not be down to budgetary reasons from Merlin, but I think the fact that people assume this is the reason, it shows Merlin's reputation at this point in time. However I believe this needs to be fixed sharply because I have heard people in my town 2 hrs away from the park call it the 'new fire ride', so it shows the flames play a big part in the rides presentation.

[Nickolai]

Sorry to double-post here but I was thinking it would be nice if Merlin and IMAScore did something similar for Wicker Man, including all the audio from the different areas.

[Swarm Chris]

I've seen some Twitter comments mentioning that Wicker Man is closed due to them waiting on parts. The Alton Twitter account responses give the indication they're not expecting it open today at all.

Has anyone been at the park and heard this from staff?

[streetmagix]

I just saw that too. This sounds more than just teething issues. Does anyone have any more information? I know Merlin aren't the best for communicating why rides are down but I really think they need to issue a statement with some reasons. Having their new major ride down as the summer holidays start is going to be painful.

[Dan]

According to this Facebook post by TowersStreet, Wicker Man was testing on all three trains at the end of the day today.

Whatever parts they were waiting on must have been delivered and fitted quickly so hopefully it’ll be back up and running soon!

[JC13]

According to ridetimes, wicker man is now back open! http://ridetimes.co.uk/

[Justin]

It also appears that the fire effects don't trigger on every train. If this is true then it is disappointing!

[nemefan08]

Better than no fire at all!

[Justin]

Of course, but it was going off with every train

[Robert.W]

If it's still due to the design flaws that were being talked about on other forums a while back, then there isn't really an awful lot that can be done apart from modifying / rebuilding the Wicker Man structure during the closed season. And I'm sure we're all well aware that that won't happen. It seems having fire every now and again is just as the famous Towers saying goes... better than nothing. 

[Swarm Chris]

Well if there's a significant design flaw that prevents it going off with each train, then they could build that into the attraction. Have the final tunnel do something to signify if you were a suitable sacrifice or not, based on whether the flames triggered for your ride.

A little like how the station for Joris en de Draak at Eftelling, celebrates or jeers each train's arrival based on whether it won or lost the race with the other train.

[huntman40]

I went on the 18th (yesterday) and the fire was working perfectly. The only issue I found with the entire experience was having to queue up to exit. On the day I went, the baggage reclaim was operating really poorly and people leaving the ride were blocking up the exit line. It’s not entirely the fault of operations at AT but the poor design of the exit. 

The baggage reclaim was slow and inefficient, and the lack of separation for riders without baggage caused a bottleneck right back to the station. Great ride but slightly hampered by the exit system.   

[hursty]

Had a few rides on Saturday, still absolutely loving the ride.

A few observations;
Baggage - Still problematic
Preshow - I think they've had to make a change to the projector and there is now a faint projection "box", where the image isn't perfectly black around the edge
Pre-show/Batching - They still haven't quite got the balance of number/timing of people batched through, which means a station queue back into the preshow - with the automatic door swinging at guests
Batching - Batcher was not making use of odd number of guests. Witnessed a single rider move bay to join other single rider, to free up a row. They were shouted to return to their original bay, and when they didn't hear, they went and fetched him back to his row. Seems silly to not be maximising throughput.
Fire - was only working on the far-side shoulder
Lift hill - was surging/undulating on the first section of the lift hill, definitely felt as if the lift was struggling.

[Dan]

Lift hill - was surging/undulating on the first section of the lift hill, definitely felt as if the lift was struggling.

I noticed that, or something similar, during my last visit at the end of May.

It was as though the chain was speeding up and slowing down every few seconds, which was causing it to really bash against the guide trough. Pretty much everyone in the queue noticed it, and a few were commenting that ‘surely it shouldn’t do that’.

It wasn’t something I’d ever seen it do before, but as I’m not overly familiar with how GCI’s design their lift systems (Wicker Man is only the second I’ve ridden after Gwazi), I’m not sure if it’s normal.

[Swarm Chris]

Hmm, well it did have a few days downtime where it was rumoured they had to get parts in for a repair. The change in gradient of the hill is probably not a design GCI have used before, so I suppose there are possibilities of issues because of that.

[Justin]

Here is the lift hill chain that Dan was referring to.