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The World of David Walliams: General Discussion

Jb85 said:
Has the buyout been completed yet? Hoping the budget situation will change. This judges would have been put in place before the buyout anyway.

Can I ask where did the £2m budget source come from? It does seem low.
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The change in ownership from shareholders to private won’t show huge changes for a while as the management of Merlin group is still the same.
 
The sale only went through in the last couple of months. Merlin is a big company with 100’s of attractions, it’s going to take a while for new strategies to be decided upon and implemented across the divisions. As we know rides can take years to develop so changes aren’t going to happen that quickly.
 
Matt N said:
I thought it was supposedly a medium year under Merlin's 4-year cycle? Or have they changed it again?

Out of interest, how are people managing to get these photos? Were they taken during the Christmas event or something?

In terms of my thoughts, the fact that Frog Hopper has moved makes me optimistic about the 4D cinema reopening in some form; they could very well have just left it there if they had no plans of reopening the cinema. I must admit, the lack of work on Driving School is rather interesting; maybe the theme they're applying won't take too long to implement?
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Don’t quote me on this, but I think Merlin changed the cycles to include 2 low years at ATR now.

So Wicker Man (2018) HIGH
The Dungeons (2019) LOW
David Walliams (2020) LOW
2021 potentially MEDIUM
2022 potentially HIGH, depending on if they maintain their 4 year cycle or move back to a 5 year gap as they did with The Smiler and Wicker Man, but I’m pretty certain that gap only occurred due to The Smiler incident.
 
Jb85 said:
that really depends doesn’t it - The new owners would be the ones setting budgets now
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No the management of Merlin will be. The owners the company but won’t get heavily involved in the detail of running it, just the direction they want it to go in and the profit (or lack of) they expect.
 
The rumoured ride system looks fun, and there's an opportunity to do something both cost-effective and true to the book, what with the illustrated style. However, I can't see how this will work in that space and with that budget.
 
I think for me the ride system is interesting in its motion versatility. It is however incredibly short. I agree with Dan that the budget is the concern, if this is a motion platform rolling past 2D pictures and a TV screen for 40 seconds then we have issues. If it’s a bit more stop-start with some nice theming it’s could be ok.

Do wonder if trying to get the “area” going this season is an error if the budgets are so low, appreciate they got the ride system on the cheap as it was intended for midways but they needed to focus on one ride if the money was that tight.
 
jon81uk said:
No the management of Merlin will be. The owners the company but won’t get heavily involved in the detail of running it, just the direction they want it to go in and the profit (or lack of) they expect.
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yes but ultimately the new owners well set out a plan to Merlin. This may be increase spend on rides , larger budgets, lower budgets or a stay as you see approach.

there will be change because of this - it’s not clear at this early stage what that is
 
Dave said:
Do wonder if trying to get the “area” going this season is an error if the budgets are so low, appreciate they got the ride system on the cheap as it was intended for midways but they needed to focus on one ride if the money was that tight.
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Totally agree!

This is being banded about online as the 'Headline attraction' I'm not sure if that is the parks intention but I think it could go against them.
The IP is actually a really good one with LOTS of scope. Walliams is still releasing books every year and is very popular. I think this should be a big budget area and if the budget doesn't allow this year then it should be saved until the budget allows for at least one high budget indoor ride (behind the theatre and then this as a secondary attraction.

My fear is that people will see 'Walliams Land' and turn up and see a half arsed re-theme and a low budget dark ride and they just wont bother next year.
 
Confirmation that CCL is going in its entirety.



The early press release for David Walliams seemed to suggest that the ride would be ‘centred around the existing Cloud Cuckoo Land’, they seem to have changed this idea between then and now. Maybe they have added a bit more to the budget to help retheme the area slightly. Or probably not.
 
Part of me is surprised Frog Hopper and Gallopers are getting rethemed to be honest, I at least though they'd maybe bring in some smaller new support attractions instead of just a retheme? Then again, the other part of me expects no less.
 
AT86 said:
Confirmation that CCL is going in its entirety.



The early press release for David Walliams seemed to suggest that the ride would be ‘centred around the existing Cloud Cuckoo Land’, they seem to have changed this idea between then and now. Maybe they have added a bit more to the budget to help retheme the area slightly. Or probably not.
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As far as I'm aware Cloud Cuckoo Land was always going, the early press releases just stated the new ride(s) would go in that area of the park, it didn't mean the land would remain the same.

For me it's so sad to see the Theatre in the image above. When Cloud Cuckoo Land opened the buildings had so much detail and a good selection of rides and shows. Fast forward to the last few years and the buildings were back to being painted in block colours and half of the rides has gone.

Hopefully this new project will bring it back to life.
 
My favourite memories from Cloud Cuckoo Land were probably those from riding CATCF; despite what people say about it, I really miss that ride!

As much as I think TWODW will be a great area that will breathe a new lease of life into CCL, I must admit that I find it quite sad to see CCL go, as even though I would say the area was definitely past its prime by the time it shut, I do rather like the premise of the theme, and I feel like the theme that CCL had could have made a really nice, timeless themed area for young families if it had been expanded upon a little more instead of shelved in favour of David Walliams.


kydog1299 said:
Don’t quote me on this, but I think Merlin changed the cycles to include 2 low years at ATR now.

So Wicker Man (2018) HIGH
The Dungeons (2019) LOW
David Walliams (2020) LOW
2021 potentially MEDIUM
2022 potentially HIGH, depending on if they maintain their 4 year cycle or move back to a 5 year gap as they did with The Smiler and Wicker Man, but I’m pretty certain that gap only occurred due to The Smiler incident.
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Ah right. Thanks for the clarification @kydog1299!
 
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I still don't get why people are expecting anything from this buyout. It's the same people owning, the same running and Merlin still probably want to offload the parks so won't spend much. Can they just get on with it please? As with this, if you get 50p to build a ride, it'll be poor at best.
 
Poisson said:
I still don't get why people are expecting anything from this buyout. It's the same people owning, the same running and Merlin still probably want to offload the parks so won't spend much. Can they just get on with it please? As with this, if you get 50p to build a ride, it'll be poor at best.
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I don’t think they want to offload the theme parks, but everything else you are saying is true, the management and ownership hasn’t really changed, the new owners were the major shareholders anyway. The focus for the Merlin group is Legoland parks and midway attractions, not the resort theme parks and given the owners were owners of Merlin before the merger, not Tussauds I don’t think the resort theme parks will be a priority unless the hotel income significantly drops.
 
Poisson said:
I still don't get why people are expecting anything from this buyout. It's the same people owning, the same running and Merlin still probably want to offload the parks so won't spend much. Can they just get on with it please? As with this, if you get 50p to build a ride, it'll be poor at best.
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I think the reason why people are expecting things from this buyout is because it takes Merlin back into private hands, and a lot of people say that Merlin's downfall was caused by its public floatation. From anecdotal reports on the forum, a lot of people agree that Merlin ownership was more beneficial to the parks before they floated on the stock exchange, and the people doing the buyout are mostly the same owners who controlled the company when it was still private, so a lot of people are hoping that the buyout could see a return to what the company was like in the late 2000s and early 2010s.
 
Dave said:
Do wonder if trying to get the “area” going this season is an error if the budgets are so low, appreciate they got the ride system on the cheap as it was intended for midways but they needed to focus on one ride if the money was that tight.
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I think this is a great analysis. I worry that if the area is not up to scratch it will be written off as sub-par by visitors, negating the marketability of future expansions to it. I would have thought having the ride as a stand alone in CCL this year and expanding by creating a complete area in the future would have been better if budgets do not allow for the full package in a single year.
 
It’s too soon to say what the buyout will do, any change in direction will take time. You can’t turn a behemoth like Merlin quickly. These things are not just a matter of “do this now”, they will need to make sure the finance is structured properly. They may now be in private hands but they still have to persuade banks they are solvent for any investment loans required.

2021 will be a bigger idea of the future
 
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