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Wicker Man - General Discussion - Part Two

The problem is (for me), I had booked a days holiday (which is now technically too late to cancel on our holiday system) many weeks ago to visit the Towers after opening day. I dont want to be a first rider anymore, I simply dont care about that, but I wanted to visit the park on a historically quiet day in the parks calendar. This is my only visit to Alton Towers this year, so as you can imagine, I dont want to visit on a packed opening weekend and therefore wanted to maximise my park visit.

I fully understand about the opening weekend weather and even Monday and Tuesday with the Wicker Man only opening yesterday afternoon. But, the weather is going to be fine tomorrow and Friday for opening a woodie, so when I read about deleted tweets from Towers saying its not going to open and team members / others on here saying that it may (or may not) open for a couple of hours, it makes me think that I will be wasting a days holiday (which as I mentioned is now technically too late for me to cancel).

I was already facing a park closing at 4pm with staggered openings. So when messaging Alton Towers, I find they cannot advise, but suggest that the ride will officially open on the 24th. I dont care about that, I want help about the visit I have had planned for weeks and they simple cannot (or will not) help me. In fact they care so little that they close the chat window down on me !!!! :(

I fully agree wih Graeme and others who have said if the ride is ready, open it. As I mentioned Nemesis was open for a full week before the official opening.

It almost feels as though Alton dont want my money. its frustrating thats what it is... Frustrating, especially when the weather is going to be ok.
 
I think people read way too much into tweets, I can understand a lot of your points but they are never ever going to guarantee a ride will be open regardless of whether it’s the new headline or the 24 year old beast. Th13teen operated fantastically in its first weekend then barely opened midweek following due to tech issues, the week after opening is historically one of the worst time for a rides availability (will avoid going into bathtub curve theory for faults during the lifetime of a machine).

I would expect wickerman to open Thursday and Friday and for the majority of the day unless there is a technical reason not to do so.
 
You do have to be realistic unfortunately this week. They're just not going to guarantee anything about Wicker Man opening at certain times, except for the opening ceremony on Saturday. However, I would be very surprised if it didn't open at some point on Thursday though. Don't expect it to be first thing though. They'll wait until the temperature rises a bit and then do a good amount of testing which could take quite a while. Can see it opening some time around or after mid-day for a few hours. It's just a gamble people will have to take unfortunately if they are only visiting for Wicker Man. It's far from ideal, but I doubt anyone will get a concrete answer telling them that the ride will be open at any point before Saturday. That's just the reality at the moment.
 
It is in their financial interests to open it as fully as soon as possible. I don't subscribe to the idea that they are trying to keep numbers down. Thousands of people will be ready and willing to ride on Thursday and Friday. It makes no business sense to operate it any differently than what they would have done had it opened as planned on Saturday.
 
My issue is the fact that when I had my lunch Towers had twittered that WM would be shut on Friday...and I spent all afternoon swearing at old ladies as I did their gardens.
I just can't afford the swearboxes, they are not tax deductible.
Merlin should pay.
Always love new ride openings...
This just makes my geriatric boys outing all the more thrilling.
 
The TV Advert to be shown tomorrow at 6.30pm. Presumably on ITV according to their latest YouTube video

Edit: it's on Facebook at that time
 
It will probably be shown during Emmerdale or something like that between 7 and half past, prime time when most people will be watching.
 
Wait, we're discussing the physical act of going to the park with the risk of not actually riding this coaster and trying to play that down as unimportant, whilst simultaneously discussing whether an advert, that we're likely to watch many times over by accident anyway, will be played for the first time during Emmerdale Farm or not!?
 
I hope those Rollercoaster Tycoon screams won't be in the final advert! I guess it fits the theme though, build a ride and sacrifice your guests/peeps.
 
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