2026: General Discussion

[Nerdsticks]

I think some of the comments about Burton are maybe a little harsh.

I personally wouldn't have quipped about Burton as much if they didn't parade him around like the next Wardley, or if he didn't call himself the Rollercoaster King.

 

[Squiggs]

I think one thing to remember is that the work produced by John Burton for Merlin is effectively the first few years of his career, whilst the work John Wardley did for Tussauds was the final 25 years or so of his career.

It is therefore a loss for Merlin, as they are losing John Burton just as he's getting into his stride and learning his trade. What they've lost is the calibre of work he'd be producing in 10 or 20 years, once he'd learnt all the tricks of the trade and how to navigate the Merlin corporate structure to get the best bang for a buck.

And this is the fundamental problem that Merlin has, their staffing model only supports people at the start of their career, but with seemingly no way to retain employees towards the end of their career, when in many cases they will be producing their best work.

It is effectively a manifestation of the same issue that seems to be occurring in the park's tech services. It takes significantly more junior employees to replace the institutional knowlege of a well established member of staff.

 

[Euro Theme Park Archive]

John Wardley's role with Alton Towers was always as a park development director. There was also a creative director from 1994 onwards, who would manage the overall creative vision for the guest experience at all Tussauds' theme parks, though the ideas for the themes would be agreed with John Wardley and the marketing team.

Each park also had its own creative manager / art director. New ride projects would also have a lead designer actually doing the creative design work.

So even back then there was no single person doing the entire ride experience and park design, but less so now. As far as I know, the creative lead role at Merlin is largely in coming up with themes and ideas in agreement with marketing, and then managing the creative aspects while the various teams make the ride.

John Wardley has mentioned he's been friends with John Burton since he was a teenager so I expect he was a big personal supporter of him hence the name drop in his book etc. 10 years seems to be a normal stint for creative leads at Merlin, no point speculating about someone's personal circumstances really.

 

[Dan19F1]

Was Towers always scheduled to be open on Wednesday and Thursday next week? I thought I remember seeing 4 days of closures after today until the next Alton After Dark next Friday?

 

[Thameslink Rail]

I'm wondering if they should have capped numbers for opening day and encouraged some guests to book for today. It would have made opening day a bit easier and reduced the complaints from vloggers (love them or hate them). Today nothing's above 45 minutes and Nemesis is walk on so perhaps the park's problem is not so much capacity but uneven demand?

 

[Benzin]

Lots of people will be doing family related stuff given its Mothers Day.

 

[Secret Weapon]

And ofc Hyperia, it's lack of theming by design and short length was thanks to Nick Varney than Burton so you begin to question if he really did half the stuff he did or was made as a face for the company to take credit or be the punching bag if the final product was poor.

According to his 2024 Guardian interview, the winged Hyperia theme came about because a Merlin executive had suggested “Angel of the South” as a name; they couldn’t use that for legal reasons, and so – after weeks of Google searches (and abandoning the negative ‘Icarus’ alternative name) – he and a colleague settled on the ‘Hyperia’ name instead*.

Beyond that, I’m not sure what John Burton’s actual input into the ride was, as many of the key decisions were apparently made by others – for instance: Nick Varney said that he wanted it to be a record-breaking height; IMAscore made the music; the layout was designed by Mack (I think); and Thorpe Park had suggested in their “Brand History” YouTube series that they didn’t want another horror or scary themed ride (although I’m not sure if this was a conclusion they had reached before or after the new name had already been decided).

(*The name is a clever play on words, although I found the ‘wing’ concept a little unusual, given that the ride is neither a flying coaster nor a wing coaster)

My guess is that John Burton was chosen for the role in part because he was a relatively safe pair of hands (and was friends with JW), and had a media-friendly face / persona; one of his predecessors - Ben Dowson - had created some very dark themes (Saw, The Swarm, and The Smiler), which Merlin were probably moving away from after the accident in 2015 (and also due to the children’s rides / nostalgia that they began focusing on), and another of his predecessors – Bradley Wynne – had specialised in immersive indoor experiences (Sub-Terra, Ghost Train, the pre-shows on Wicker Man and Zufari, and escape rooms at Sarner), whereas JB was probably more traditional in his approach.

Unfortunately as it stands Mr Burton leaves behind virtually no public legacy in the UK theme park industry. I doubt we’ll ever see a figure as influential as Mr Wardley again, someone with the vision, creativity and most importantly the freedom to leave their mark. Certainly as long as Merlin are in charge.

In fairness to John Burton (and Bradley Wynne, Ben Dowson, et al), John Wardley was in a very unique position that is unlikely to ever arise again, as he not only had much more control over the rides than they did (e.g. layout and ride type as well as simply theming***), but he also benefited from being in charge when B&M were releasing their revolutionary new coaster designs, and Tussauds / Merlin were rapidly expanding the ride offerings at their parks**** (first Chessington and Alton Towers, and then Porta Ventura and Thorpe Park).

By the time that he retired circa 2013, most of the rides required by Merlin had already been built; in fact, this may have contributed towards his decision to retire, as he was essentially no longer required by then anyway. He also said in his first book that The Smiler was built because Merlin couldn’t think of a new ride concept, which shows that John Burton et al probably had their work cut out for them to make the same type of impact that he did, and – again – may have contributed towards JW’s decision to retire.

(***I say this because I remember John Burton saying that he was told to create a name and theme for Toxicator, but the decision to build a new top-spin ride had already been made by an executive and thus was not necessarily his choice)

(****The closest parallel to this situation today would be the new Universal GB park, although even this isn’t a perfect comparison as many of the rides and concepts will probably simply be copies of rides abroad, rather than brand new creations)

John Wardley has mentioned he's been friends with John Burton since he was a teenager so I expect he was a big personal supporter of him hence the name drop in his book etc.

John Wardley said at the end of his second book that he had a great rapport with John Burton, and that he was glad / relieved when John Burton got given the role (implying that they already knew each other, but the decision to promote JB was made by somebody else).

Wardley was clearly on a higher level to the pretenders who have followed, and as pointed out above, it's said that he had to come in at the last minute and save Wicker Man from a bad coaster layout.

I’m not quite sure what the story was with Wicker Man*****, but my understanding is that a Merlin executive (Mark Fisher) mistakenly thought that John Wardley was already involved with the project, and suggested that he review the designs when he realised that he wasn’t.

I’m not sure if this is because Mark Fisher had already seen the designs and was worried, or simply because he trusted John Wardley’s instincts and thought there’d be no harm in him double-checking them.

John Wardley said in his second book that he reprofiled the first drop to make it steeper, but he was unable to make any further modifications to the layout as it was too far along by that point (2016).

(*****In his book, he said that the conversation with Mark Fisher was a phone call, but he said in a YouTube Q&A that it was a discussion held over lunch)

John Burton intial design for Wickerman was going to mostly be the turn with no banking on all the turns so its speed would of been lost he is not a coaster designer

I’ve never heard this before; do you have a source for this?

 

[Euro Theme Park Archive]

In the 90s, John Wardley used to draft ride layouts as part of his role as park development director, because it was helpful to pitch feasible, bespoke coaster layouts (in pre No Limits days) to Tussauds and approach manufacturers with them. Manufacturers would then work up the final 'engineered' layout and design.

The last time coaster designs happened that way at Alton Towers was Nemesis or possibly Air (Oblivion was a simple layout provided by B&M). These days manufacturers will handle it all themselves, with the various park development, creative and marketing teams advising what they want from the ride.

 

[Eidderf]

I do think it says something about the park that our expectations seem to be so low that it's basically seen as a good thing that they didn't sink to significantly worse levels than the previous years opening. Like the fact that no one expects the opening to be good but that it doesn't actively get worse is something of an achievement says something about the state of the park.

Merlin is a giant company who are actively building and opening entirely new Legolands in other countries, a Peppa pig theme in America. This isn't some small family run business who are trying their best to make things work.

They run Alton Towers the way they do because they know the can just about get away with it by the general public and that those who have fond memories of how the park used to be will try to keep a positive outlook on it because it has been a lovely place at points past.

This idea that Merlin secretly wants to pump millions into Alton Towers but it being held back by this and that though is misplaced, they don't, they want to get by on doing as little as then can for as long as they can until it has a visible effect on their profits. Sorry don't mean to be negative, it is frustrating seeming how things are going though.

The fact that Efteling runs their rides through the night with no one on them in the winter seasons to make sure they are open and available the next day for their guests and Merlin can't even bother to make sure their Skyride (which is pretty vital to a lot of people with disabilities) is functioning after months of being closed again says something.

 

[Squiggs]

The last time coaster designs happened that way at Alton Towers was Nemesis or possibly Air (Oblivion was a simple layout provided by B&M).

I'm pretty certain this was the case with Air. John Wardley was still drafting alternative layouts as late as 2000.

 

[Benjsh]

Mothers day coupled with the fact the weather isnt quite as good either which may have put a few off from committing to Sunday and going yesterday instead.

I do think opening day has become a sort of event though and must do thing even though its notoriously underwhelming operations wise.

 

[Bowser]

I do think it says something about the park that our expectations seem to be so low that it's basically seen as a good thing that they didn't sink to significantly worse levels than the previous years opening. Like the fact that no one expects the opening to be good but that it doesn't actively get worse is something of an achievement says something about the state of the park.

Merlin is a giant company who are actively building and opening entirely new Legolands in other countries, a Peppa pig theme in America. This isn't some small family run business who are trying their best to make things work.

They run Alton Towers the way they do because they know the can just about get away with it by the general public and that those who have fond memories of how the park used to be will try to keep a positive outlook on it because it has been a lovely place at points past.

This idea that Merlin secretly wants to pump millions into Alton Towers but it being held back by this and that though is misplaced, they don't, they want to get by on doing as little as then can for as long as they can until it has a visible effect on their profits. Sorry don't mean to be negative, it is frustrating seeming how things are going though.

The fact that Efteling runs their rides through the night with no one on them in the winter seasons to make sure they are open and available the next day for their guests and Merlin can't even bother to make sure their Skyride (which is pretty vital to a lot of people with disabilities) is functioning after months of being closed again says something.

The joy of living in a country under the stranglehold of a single company running the top 4 theme parks.

 

[Martin]

I do think opening day has become a sort of event though and must do thing even though its notoriously underwhelming operations wise.

Always was a bit of an event to be fair. Even outside of nerd circles and even when there's been nothing new. One of the signs of winter being over

 

[Poisson]

I am surprised they don't start on a Thursday or something, try and spread the crowds. Give them some breathing space, if you will.

 

[Mick]

Today looks to have been much quieter and much smoother. I suspect the next super busy days will be in a few weeks with the Easter holidays, and hopefully they’ll be a lot more up to speed by then.

 

[Matt N]

I am surprised they don't start on a Thursday or something, try and spread the crowds. Give them some breathing space, if you will.

I do often think this.

If opening day is a bit of a gamble, why not start on a weekday when the park is likely to be less crowded and resultantly cope better? Starting on a weekend almost seems to invite the inevitable bad press when things aren’t 100% up to scratch.