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2018: Wicker Man - General Discussion - SPOILERS! - Part One

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Matt N said:
As an interesting point, Wodan is the only other GCI I am aware of that does not contain seatbelts, and that achieves a theoretical throughput of 1250pph. And Wodan is over 1,000ft longer than this ride. With 3 trains, I reckon Wicker Man could achieve a theoretical of 1300pph, possibly even 1400pph if we're being optimistic. I think it will deal with queues better than The Smiler did myself, but the proof will come on the 17th!
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It won't achieve 1300.

Wodan is 1000' longer but also way taller/faster, so ride duration is similar.

EP are notoriously rapid at dispatches, too. Wicker Man will probably achieve between 1000 and 1100, which would be perfectly respectable.

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If it has a baggage room there's no reason it couldn't match Wodan, loading times would certainly be fast enough it's just a question of how long the longest block is.
 
This might sound controversial but I really don't think the masses will be flocking for Wicker Man.

Not in the way we saw previously for TH13TEEN & The Smiler.

I can't quite put my finger on it - I just don't see massive public appeal to get up and make a visit. Or maybe my opinion is blighted by the dire operational cuts the park once again faces this season!

I do, however, hope I'm proven wrong!

:)
 
WickerManiac said:
This might sound controversial but I really don't think the masses will be flocking for Wicker Man.

Not in the way we saw previously for TH13TEEN & The Smiler.

I can't quite put my finger on it - I just don't see massive public appeal to get up and make a visit.

I do, however, hope I'm proven wrong!

:)
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If that's so it's not wickerman more the rest of what's new this year...

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In seriousness, SRQ and jokes aside, if this capital expenditure doesn't make a return I fear they will accelerate their reapportionment of divisional CAPEX, similar to what was done recently, but an alarmingly increased rate.

This would see a Secret Weapon being built every 10 years or something ridiculous.
 
Don't think the ride has really hit the public eye as much as Smiler or even Thirteen did... Smiler truly was a great exercise in weird PR that got stuck into people's minds...

Colour me intrigued by the lack of seatbelts... Those are always a bit of a burden (especially in big warm coats)...
 
They went 8 years between SW5 and SW6 so I've no issue with another gap provided they still install other new attractions during the gap.

The wickerman sort of completes their coaster line up, suppose a new launch coaster would be nice in the future or an RMC.

Really impressed with all the videos and photos from today, looking forward to opening weekend!
 
Agree with the feeling of this not being as big in the public domain as previous coasters.
But look how that worked out for them with Smiler... a boat load of marketing happened, and seemingly everyone knew about the new record breaking coaster coming, then they had unforeseen issues and the thing didn’t open for months! Disaster...

I don’t think the so-far lack of public interest is nessicerily a bad thing though, it’s avoiding all the opirtunities for Smiler to be brought up, and they seem to have built something genuinely good, which surely is going to draw a larger audience long term?

The public will be going to ride something genuinely good, that people can vouch for, rather than being told “how amazing the ride will be” by “the people who also made that other ride that crashed”

The ride looks absolutely amazing - exactly what we have been crying out for, a fun, upbeat, well themed, unique ride that everyone will enjoy, with no stupid worlds first and no silliness that we usually see...
Not every ride has to be the “best ride in the world”.

It kind of reminds me of Expedition Everest a little bit .... it’s something that’s meant to be enjoyed by everyone.

I just hope it’s as good as people are saying!
It will be interesting to see what people make of it after a few months.
 
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WickerManiac said:
In seriousness, SRQ and jokes aside, if this capital expenditure doesn't make a return I fear they will accelerate their reapportionment of divisional CAPEX, similar to what was done recently, but an alarmingly increased rate.

This would see a Secret Weapon being built every 10 years or something ridiculous.
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Well the concerning thing is, this may well not be the silver bullet they are looking for and it won't be the ride itself that's at fault.

There's a bitter irony in that they've built one of their best ever themed experiences and ticked most of the right boxes, yet it'll be the rest of the park that will drag it down. This rather impressive looking, polished new ride still sits alongside the corpses of shuttered rides and the landscape scars of removed ones in a tatty park that closes at 4PM.
 
On the bright side however, it wouldn’t take that much to bring the park up to scratch, surely?

For example if visitor numbers shoot up, Extending opening hours is easy enough, yes I know staffing levels will be all wrong, but if they want to do it, they can, even if they just improve it next year onwards.

Also if demand is there, they will NEED to build more restaurants, so that issue gets solved... we could realistically see the new restaurant by Wickerman next year if all goes well.

they’d also need more capacity to soak up queues, so re-opening NST wouldn’t take much. Neither would adding a new flat ride in the next couple of years.

I agree Towers isn’t at its prime to say the least, but after seeing the pictures of Wickerman it looks like a huge leap in the right direction.
They could quite easily have half-arsed this ride and called it a day, but it looks like they haven’t.

Yeah ok, really they should have themed Mutiny Bay as a village, and built the bloody restaurant, but given all that’s happened lately this is a pretty good result.
They’ve just concentrated on making a good ride - unlike what happened with Derren Brown’s bloody Ghost Train... we were told by Merlin that was to be the best thing since sliced bread...

I really do hope things start looking up at Towers soon and the customers come flooding through the gates this year.
 
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As attendance has been mentioned a couple of times now, I would just like to point out that attendance increased last season yet only a few weeks ago we were discussing the potential seasonal operation of the rapids and Forbidden Valley opening at midday. Also, despite this increase in attendance, 4pm closures have returned, the park has more in season closed days than ever before and that no closed rides are reopening.

Although we can of course bask on the positives of a new experience that appears to have exceeded expectations in many regards, Wickerman will not fundamentally change the deep routed problems of the park in which it sits. It may start a small loosening up of the belt in 2019, but we're talking table scraps here rather a new dawn of some golden era.
 
matthewgcole said:
As attendance has been mentioned a couple of times now, I would just like to point out that attendance increased last season yet only a few weeks ago we were discussing the potential seasonal operation of the rapids and Forbidden Valley opening at midday. Also, despite this increase in attendance, 4pm closures have returned, the park has more in season closed days than ever before and that no closed rides are reopening.

Although we can of course bask on the positives of a new experience that appears to have exceeded expectations in many regards, Wickerman will not fundamentally change the deep routed problems of the park in which it sits. It may start a small loosening up of the belt in 2019, but we're talking table scraps here rather a new dawn of some golden era.
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I'm hoping with the closed days, that Towers have looked properly at when attendance was particularly low last season, so hopefully it won't impact the overall attendance of this season. Similarly with the 4pm close times, I'm hoping they will have made predictions that those days will be the quietest days, so guests will still have time to experience a good number of attractions through the day.

I agree, this is certainly not the dawn of a new golden era, but heading on this direction seems positive enough that in the future I can see a new golden era on the horizon — as long as they keep on the right path. I'm just very optimistic though! :)
 
TPW have uploaded a review of Wicker Man (Disclaimer: There are spoilers!):

If you don't want to watch the video, Shawn essentially said:
  • The ride is a fantastic experience. Think Hex I felt it were a roller coaster.
  • The ride itself really surprised him, because it is paced quite well and doesn't feel like it is fizzling out.
  • There are a couple of good moments of airtime.
  • He ranks it as the joint best wooden rollercoaster in Britain alongside Megafobia at Oakwood.
  • There is tons of audio around the area and it sounds great.
  • The ride has lots of little pieces of theming.
  • At the end, he even said "Icon at Blackpool Pleasure Beach has some serious competition". Interesting!
 
Lets not forget that the marketing proper hasn't really kicked in yet. We will no doubt see adverts with on-ride footage and it will get people excited, especially if some of that soundtrack is used alongside. It just needs to be a replica of the Nemesis advert really.
Another great thing Wicker Man will have going for it I assume will be reliability. Thirteen, The Smiler, Rita and Air have/Had all been dogged by reliability issues that have a negative impact. I think with this being a pretty basic system in comparison we will see much better reliability which will result in more positive reviews.

What i'd love now is for the company to start valuing guests properly and getting those repeat visits. I'd like them to invest the same energy into creating a great themed flat ride, A proper flat like Tafocan, not a gimmick like Sub-Terra, Then follow it up with A SW indoor attraction on the old CATCF site.
 
I’m perplexed people declaring its lack of impact before it’s even opened.

The opening date was announced only yesterday, so I imagine we will now be begin to see proper marketing kick in considering they are clearly confident it will be open.

It is clear they have been very keen to avoid the mistakes of the past.


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