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Emerald Park (Formerly Tayto Park), Dublin: General Discussion

The flume plans have been publically available since last august, it's nothing special as flumes go

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In fact it's a clone of this ride from 1984


Theming will make or break this ride for me, it should do well regardless as we don't have anything else to compare it to in Ireland. It may deviate from the plans as Ray has used the term "super flume" in an interview which seems quite specific.

More information about the coaster and some other stuff from an earlier article:
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Official Tayto Park News!

Short Version:
- 5.7 million euro Viking themed log flume to open next Easter
- 17.5 million euro will be spent on a new major roller coaster in 3 years time. Described as 'sensational'.
- Plans for accommodation in the future.

http://www.newstalk.com/How-big-could-Tayto-Park-be

With populations of 5 million and 9.5 million people, Norway and Sweden are home to 3 and 4 successful theme parks respectively but until relatively recently Ireland didn't have any, that has before Tayto Park opened its doors in 2010.

That year represented a bottoming-out of Ireland's economic crisis - but that didn't deter Ray Coyle, the former potato farmer who built a potato crisp manufacturing empire here with the Tayto, King and Hunkey Dorey brands from investing heavily in a new landmark tourist attraction.

He told Newstalk that he didn't see this as a high-risk venture - he just saw a big gap in the Irish market that needed to be filled.

To date more than €50m has been put into the business which is due to attract 800,000 visitors this year - and Mr Coyle expects it to continue on its upward trajectory:

"I feel that developing the park with new and exciting rides and more marketing and more support from our visitors, we can get to about 1.4m or 1.5m people by 2022," he told Breakfast Business.

Having recovered from throat cancer, and being in this mid-60s, Mr Coyle says that he has no intentions of selling the business - he notes that successful theme parks tend to have very long shelve lives.

The company has begun work on a new €5.7m water ride, and it is investing €17.5m in a second major rollercoaster to accompany the wooden Cuchulainn ride.

Its overall goal is to continue to invest in major attractions and to draw more domestic and foreign visitors to the Meath destination - with the possible future development of a hotel or lodges on the site.


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Certainly sounds like a promising future!
Interesting to hear of plans for a new major coaster in 3 years time.
I'm surprised at how much they're spending and am intrigued by what that kind of money could buy.
Only yesterday I was reading an interview with Michael Mack who was talking about how they spoke with Tayto Park when building Europa's Ireland themed area. He mentioned they were in talks to maybe supply them with a ride in the near future.
Ray Coyle, Tayto's owner also said last year after CuChulainn opened he was visiting Liseberg to ride Helix as he was interested in getting a steel coaster similar to it.
Now it is obviously way too early to be speculating but could it be a Mack coaster??

Personally I think it would be too good to be true but who knows?
Anyway sticking with current projects. They must be doing something more with the flume than the original plans for that price or is it maybe just well themed? Look forward to finding out more.
 
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Ooh this new coaster sounds exciting, €17.5 million is a large amount for such a park and could build something very good. The aritcle posted previously does suggest that they would ideally like to build an RMC although a growing relationship with the Macks could lead to a Mack also. Either would be incredible!

A second coaster would certainly make me think seriously about traveling over to visit.

:)
 
It's not often you get parks like this, I guess it's a big bonus that the tayto company has a lot of financial support. I'm interested to see the theming on this log flume!
 
Nine hurt as stairs collapse at 'House of Horrors' in Ireland's Tayto Park
http://news.sky.com/story/nine-hurt...se-of-horrors-in-irelands-tayto-park-10629305

On the news this morning of an accident at Tayto Park, some stairs have collapsed 9 people injured. Let's hope it's nothing to serious because bad press would not help at this crucial development stage in the parks future. Hope everyone involved is ok.
 
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thumb_tayto_park_flume_construction.png

Screenshot from a YouTube vlog (Channel: Chris Franklin).

Shows the Log Flume construction at the end of November 2016.
The only vertical construction it seems was this building parallel to the cinema.
Seems most likely that this will be the station - if that is the case it means they are not using the exact layout from the Planning Permission in August 2015. Might not actually alter the layout with 2 drops greatly but it will be interesting to see what the final layout is.
Or perhaps the building is simply a tunnel for theming purposes or a small dark ride section.

The Flume is to open in April 2017, most likely when the season starts on 7th April.
 
I was there in November too and had a good look at it, it's nothing like the plans that were submitted at all, which I guess is a good thing. BUT, there weren't any drops to be seen anywhere, just a trough.
 
The Viking Voyage - Log Flume Announcement

Tayto Park has revealed a new water adventure ride will be the latest addition to their Co Meath theme park.

The Viking-themed flumeride is already under construction, bosses say, and will be open to the public this summer.

Tayto Park have revealed their newest addition
It’s coined The Viking Voyage at the Park and the founder of Tayto Park reckons it’s “one of a kind”.

Raymond Coyle said: “We are delighted to announce our new and exciting attraction ‘The Viking Voyage at the Park’.

The water ride will be a first for the Meath attraction
“We are dedicated to bringing cutting-edge attractions to Tayto Park and this particular ride is one of a kind. We are very excited to unveil it to the public in the coming months.”

The flumeride will feature a whopping 1.7million litres of water along with an impressive Viking Village.

Families can expect to be wowed by five replica Viking ships and 20 life size Vikings.

And staff have learned to use building methods from the Viking Age to create a really authentic experience, with over 10,000 tonnes of concrete and 500 tonnes of steel gone into the construction of the ride so far.

While no official date has yet been set for the Viking Voyage to kick off, Tayto Park will open again for its seventh season just in time for Easter on April 7.

https://www.thesun.ie/news/677147/t...est-addition-to-meath-theme-park-this-summer/
 
Tayto Park opened for the 2017 season yesterday so I went and had a look at the construction of Viking Voyage. I was extremely impressed by the flume site - I did not really expect it to have so much theming.
The area comprises of a Viking Village next to a large fake mountain which the ride passes through a number of times.

The layout mentioned earlier in the thread from the planning application has not been used.
Viking Voyage will feature 3 drops - one of which is backwards, and the ride will open in June!

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The entrance to the ride is in this Viking Village they are building right next to Cù Chulainn.
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The small covered roof on the left will be the entrance to the ride. On the right will most likely be the on-ride photo selling point as it is identical to the hut used to sell on ride photos for Cu Chulainn.
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The rather impressive mountain with a Viking helmet on it.
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The trough returning to the station after the final drop. There is a points section so boats can be stored in another trough that runs parallel to the station.
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After leaving the station boats will go through a small indoor section in the mountain, then when outside they go up this lifthill under the Viking helmet back into the mountain.
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This corner still needs to be themed. Here the flume will go up a lifthill, go on a turntable and then go backwards down the drop that you can see in the middle of the image. The flume then goes backwards for a bit section where it goes back around into the building under the turntable (the entrance and exit points can be seen next to the drop) - where there is another turntable sending the boats forwards into the mountain where they then go up a lifthill for the final large drop.

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The final drop.
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The turn around to the station after the last drop. I love the attention to landscaping and theming here. They have placed real rocks, soil and planted trees around the area.
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The boats are on site. They comprise of 3 rows each with 2 seats.
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These are the new accurate layout plans.
 
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It looks great so far. It's great to see the level of theming they are going through with Cu Chulainn somewhat lacking beyond the queue. Has anything been added to the center of the ride or is it still just a bit bare?
 
It looks great so far. It's great to see the level of theming they are going through with Cu Chulainn somewhat lacking beyond the queue. Has anything been added to the center of the ride or is it still just a bit bare?
Cu Chulainn is still bare. Hopefully this is something the park will address at some point.
 
When they are finished, I assume the construction crew will be heading to Chessington to rebuild those rocks round Dragon Falls that we were promised a replacement for ... F->%ING YEARS AGO?
 
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