I went to have a proper look at this thing for myself today - and I'm now suitably convinced that this is a promising investment.
It's no secret that Alton overlooked the young family market for far too long, and ending up paying the inevitable price - a mistake that CBeebiesland went a huge way towards righting. As for Beastie - it was well overdue a replacement - not only was it simply too agressive (for want of a better word!) for younger riders, it was also generic and unoriginal, which has never really been Alton's style - in fact, looking back, I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did.
It's getting on for twenty years since the park last had a rollercoaster genuinely suited to a young audience, and so this seems the ideal finishing touch to the [surprisingly] impressively executed CBeebies project, as well as being something to give the kids that went last year another reason to pester their long-suffering parents into a return visit, and from that perspective, it's going to hit the nail on the head. And yes - it is a particularly nice shade of blue, and I look forward to seeing the finished theming.
Like many others, few things would make me happier than to see a Mack Youngstar appear on the land that the eyesore that is Spinball still occupies but whilst there's RMT & Thirteen happily satisfying that audience, we'll just have to keep waiting.
One thing DOES concern me though - the queue times in CBeebiesland were particularly bad during its opening season and the new coaster, whilst it will at least disperse the crowds slightly, doesn't exactly look like a throughput machine...