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Wicker Man - General Discussion - Part Two

Matt878787 said:
I’m hoping that when TWoDW opens Wickerman’s queue won’t be as busy first thing in the morning.

With any luck swaths of families will turn right at the bottom of Towers Street.
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The demographic audience for David walliams and wicker man is completely different though. One is a kids area and one is a big roller coaster. The intended audience for Dw is the same as cbeebies and no one in cbeebies would be going on wicker man would they
 
I wouldn’t say they’re completely different, there’s obviously a difference but it’s clear that the coasters 1.2m rider height limit has made Wickerman a popular family coaster. I think that Gangster Granny would appeal that age/height bracket also.
 
Rick said:
Turn right to go to the TWoDW?
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Yeah to get to TWoDW you'd turn right and go past CL, AL and straight across to TWoDW.

Anyway, back on topic. :p
Looking forward to riding WM again in May, and hopefully getting a sunset ride on it as I'm visiting during the first weekend of the Mardi Gras event. :)
 
CBB land is a pre school area. I thought that was obvious. Pre Schoolers cannot read David Walliams books. The age group who would enjoy Walliams World would of course be the kind of kids who would enjoy Wickerman but it won't make a blind bit of difference to Wickermans queue.

Sent from my VOG-L29 using Tapatalk
 
Matt878787 said:
I’m hoping that when TWoDW opens Wickerman’s queue won’t be as busy first thing in the morning.

With any luck swaths of families will turn right at the bottom of Towers Street.
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That could well happen, new ride syndrome and all that.

To be honest i usually wait until early afternoon for Wickerman, when the queue is shown as "20 minutes", it's often only 5-10 minutes, i'll get in a few rides then.
 
Mikw said:
when the queue is shown as "20 minutes", it's often only 5-10 minutes, i'll get in a few rides then.
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The queues are always overstated for most the rides. I joined wicker mans queue when it said 90, it was 60. Joined Rita's queue when it said 80, it was 50. Oblivion was also inaccurate, waited around 35 from the entrance, it said 60
 
Ethan said:
The queues are always overstated for most the rides. I joined wicker mans queue when it said 90, it was 60. Joined Rita's queue when it said 80, it was 50. Oblivion was also inaccurate, waited around 35 from the entrance, it said 60
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was that in 2020? The queue time guesses with social distancing were all over the place. But in normal times I usually found them fairly accurate but depended how many fasttrack users there are slowing the main queue.
 
jon81uk said:
was that in 2020? The queue time guesses with social distancing were all over the place. But in normal times I usually found them fairly accurate but depended how many fasttrack users there are slowing the main queue.
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Yes that was in 2020. I agree the queues were a lot more accurate pre covid without social distancing. I understand it makes it more difficult to estimate but surely after a few months they knew how long the queue is from certain points because I did
 
Is anyone going to be on park tomorrow? If you are, I’d be intrigued to know what Wicker Man feels like after this alleged 7-figure work it’s had done this off-season...

Last summer, I thought it was riding terrifically; it just felt smooth, fast and airtime-filled from start to finish, and I was only in row 8/9 when I did it in July!

Oddly, I don’t think I’ve ever actually done row 12 of Wicker Man; the closest I ever got was row 10 on its initial opening weekend, and all of my rides since have been towards the front/middle of the train (row 9 could be considered close to the back, I guess, but row 8 is closer to the middle than the back). I’ve done row 1, though; even though row 1 always seems to get lambasted by people, I still remember it being really enjoyable in September 2018!
 
Danscott22 said:
Row 12 is fantastic! It really whips round!
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I’ve thought it’s fantastic in every row I’ve done so far (yes, even the front!), so I can’t wait for row 12 if I ever get to experience it!

The only time I’ve ever even gotten close to row 12 was the ride’s opening weekend, when I rode in row 10; the ride seems to have sped up so much since then, so even though it’s the furthest back I’ve ever sat on Wicker Man, and I still thought it was pretty great at the time, I’d actually say that now stands as the weakest ride I’ve ever had on Wicker Man, which says more about the quality of the rides I’ve had more recently than anything!
 
Definitely more of a thrill in the back couple rows, front doesn’t really do it for me that much, yes the views are great but apart from that I find it can feel quite sluggish in sections, but anywhere from row 10 to 12 always delivers. I saw an image the other day in the stoke newspapers online article that looked to show some new retracking on the section just after the second pass through the structure, which I’m sure didn’t happen last season. so I’d imagine other sections have been done also, as that section never seemed to bad to me. I never found the coaster overly rough at all, just had a bit of side to side action in a couple higher stress sections like the first banked corner, which is expected of a woodie.
 
Back row is good fun on WM, front is neither here nor there. At the end of the day, it's a small GCI with nice theming. It has some decent lats and a few pops. Good fun it is - certainly better at its job than a ride like Th13teen and a GCI like Invadr.
 
AstroDan said:
Back row is good fun on WM, front is neither here nor there. At the end of the day, it's a small GCI with nice theming. It has some decent lats and a few pops. Good fun it is - certainly better at its job than a ride like Th13teen and a GCI like Invadr.
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Wicker man is arguably Alton towers best ever investment
 
Ethan said:
Wicker man is arguably Alton towers best ever investment
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The two rides that had the biggest impact on Alton Towers over a long period are Corkscrew and Nemesis.

Of course, Wicker Man was reassuringly well executed and so on - but we'll talk in 20 years and see whether it's still pulling its punches.
 
AstroDan said:
Back row is good fun on WM, front is neither here nor there. At the end of the day, it's a small GCI with nice theming. It has some decent lats and a few pops. Good fun it is - certainly better at its job than a ride like Th13teen and a GCI like Invadr.
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When you say that the ride is “better at its job” than Thirteen and InvadR, are you including the theming in this assessment, or are you referring exclusively to the coaster itself, track and train?

I haven’t ridden InvadR to compare, but I personally prefer Wicker Man to Thirteen by a considerable distance; as much as I really like Thirteen, I think Wicker Man just feels a lot faster, with more (and stronger) airtime, and generally feels a lot more thrilling, while still being pretty smooth, comfortable and rerideable!
Ethan said:
Wicker man is arguably Alton towers best ever investment
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I certainly would be happy to make that argument; it’s my personal favourite ride on park! I know it’s a bit of a controversial choice, but I rate a coaster based on pure fun factor and rerideability as opposed to out and out intensity, and while Wicker Man is not the most intense coaster I’ve ever been on, it’s easily one of the most fun! For me, Wicker Man strikes the perfect intensity balance in that it’s thrilling and intense enough that you get a kick of out it and feel thrilled by it, but it’s not intense enough to inhibit the ride’s fun factor and rerideability!

If anything, I’d argue that Wicker Man perhaps has the widest appeal of any of Alton Towers’ current roller coasters, and that it’s a really strong investment on those grounds alone; it’s thrilling enough that enthusiasts like you and I still rate it really highly, while it’s not so intense that it’s going to put off a less seasoned rider! To a degree, I’d also argue that the ride’s theming opens it up to a wider crowd; I’d argue that people who are interested in heavily themed experiences and special effects will likely be far more interested in Wicker Man than any of Alton Towers’ other coasters!
 
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