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2017/18: SW8 Speculation

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The Ultimate isn't a woody. It's a steel coaster.

Woodies can definitely be good, if the layout is good. I kinda see Hyper coasters being their modern steel equivalent - it's all about speed, ups and downs, air time, nice banked curves. Alton could never get a hyper coaster but they could definitely get a woody.



I worry that you're right about a number of things there. They can't scale back the SW budgets though surely? I mean Th13teen upped the SW's from £12m to £15m, Smiler £18m. The next one should be £20m I'd expect.

Although having said that they did pour £20m into The Swarm and regretted it, did they not?

The swarm is a great concept poorly executed. Shame
 
It's an ok theme and an ok ride it just could have been more. I liken it to Thirteen. Still..... Here is hoping for SW8
 
No I like Swarm too, it's pretty decent but not amazing and I can understand why so many people don't care much for it. What I mean't was that because of this, Merlin kinda saw it as a failure or at least not as much of a success as they'd hoped for.

I thought that was one of the reasons why Merlin switched to a 4 year investment cycle because they realised it wasn't sustainable and not bringing them enough returns. Having said that, they're still pouring money into Thorpe with this new Derren Brown VR crapfest. I wish they'd pour similar money into Towers since it IS the better park and a bigger earner.
 
I think the swarm is a great ride, most people on here just seem to want to moan about everything, whatever SW8 is it will be better than the flume which was well past its sell by date.

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actually, I'm quite disappointed that it's being removed. i know it's over 30 years old, but it was one of my personal favorite rides in the park.
 
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The Flume was awful. Even if SW8 is underwhelming (where I think it looks pretty decent, even if not amazing), it's gotta be better than The Flume.
 
I loved the flume, an old classic ride and nostalgia. The only thing that let it down was that it was never looked after. When I first rode it back in 1987, it was considered a white knuckle ride. It was quiet scary to ride, no seat belts, the 2nd drop was in total darkness, this gave the impression that the drop was higher, steeper and faster than it really was. It had plastic dinosaurs amongst the woods with dinosaur roar sound track playing, the inside part had models of cavemen and a sabre-tooth tiger.

Since bigger/faster rollercoasters have been built on the park, we have been very spoilt and guest no longer appreciate how good the flume once was. Where else would you find a newly build ride nowadays which have high drops with no restraints? It's never going to happen again!

SW8 better be worth it

Roy :)
 
As much as I liked the flume (and I did, though unfortunately I didn't get to do it in the last few years :( ) I think it had its time at the park. It was outdated and overshadowed by better rides. even if it was maintained properly, I doubt it would have more than five more years left. It's a shame as it is an important ride to have at a theme park, but hopefully secret weapon 8 will be just as good, or even better.
 
I'm actually cautiously optimistic about SW8. I admit it all looks underwhelming so far but then that impressive SW7 No Limits mock up managed the feat of being both very accurate at ascertaining the overall layout of the ride, whilst making the Smiler look a lot less interesting than it actually turned out to be.

My point being, that even if the initial mockups and all our predictions (based on the very limited information we have at our disposal) are 90% accurate, it could be the 10% that isn't/not known that make or break the ride. For example, launches, inversions, indoor sections, theming, gradients, banking etc will all be unknown.

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As much as I liked the flume (and I did, though unfortunately I didn't get to do it in the last few years :( ) I think it had its time at the park. It was outdated and overshadowed by better rides. even if it was maintained properly, I doubt it would have more than five more years left. It's a shame as it is an important ride to have at a theme park, but hopefully secret weapon 8 will be just as good, or even better.
hopefully in the future they'll put a new, even better water ride in, we'll just have to wait and see........
 
Coaster corner is screaming for something like a log flume, there is a load of space up there.

I do think a woodie would look great on the flume site especially once the wood has patinered/aged.
I hope we get something with air time. A woodie does not have to be huge to be class. White lightning was fun and air time filled for a small ride.
 
I don't know why but I'd quite like to see a Mack Mega Coaster or a better log flume as I never got to go on The Flume
 
It won't be another Flume. The planning already states 'rollercoaster'.

I'm hoping that the height issue is dealt with by way of dipping into deep, thin trenches. It would be great if they could just design a good coaster and then worry about how to lower it into the ground after and I think deep trenches would be the most cost effective method as opposed to wide cut and cover holes (Oblivion) and big pits (Nemesis). Just imagine a woodie dipping in and out of the ground! I think that would be great to ride too and could incorporate near misses.

I would also like the Flume lake to remain. I always loved the frontage to the Flume site and I think it would be a shame to loose it. Its also an ideal setting for pirate theming.
 
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