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2017/18: SW8 Speculation

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Leah said:
Beginning to see what you mean now. When I think of a wooden rollercoaster, I think of a fading white, decaying track, think of it being rough and not having many inversions. Guess if one opened at towers, I would accept that they are actually good. My very non-enthusiast friends say this sort of thing (apart from the fact that they don't understand the words towers, inversions or enthusiast)

Anyone got any POVs of a good wooden?
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For traditional woodie's (not hybrids):



For the RMC hybrids:

 
Wodan at EP:


Troy at Toverland:


Even Megafobia at Oakwood:


I used to feel the same as you, then I went on good woodies. I still think they are massively over-rated in enthusiast circles, but they can be great rides.

EDIT: Ninja'd!
 
Thankyou :D

WOW!!! That hybrid one looks amazing! And the air time on wodan! Let me on, let me on, let me on!!!

Please Alton towers, we need one of them!!

Although I notice that I was right about the inversions.
 
I like the smiler. Not top of my list but in top 5. It is a little rough but it has zero-g rolls, corksrews, cobra rolls, batwings. What more could you ask for?
 
Went on all thorpe coasters twice apart from saw (wasn't open) and collisions because it was that painful. Yes, see what you mean, but no ride at towers is that rough. Personally, as long as this new coaster has a good theme, good marketing and a good track layout, I will be happy, regardless of inversions or speed.

Unless the name is an acronym (Alton Towers Intermin Rocket) or includes numbers in the place of letters (neme21s, th13teen). In that case I would be disappointed.
 
AstroDan said:
Whilst there are flaws, The Smiler is a fantastic ride.

Long, intense.

It's what enthusiasts had been crying out for.

Some people won't be happy no matter what is built.
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Even if we do finally get a woodie with great theming and amazing airtime, a portion of enthusiasts will still feel dissatisfied I feel. I fear our cynical outlook on anything Merlin related might have made us a wee bit more than pessimistic for future projects...:confused1:
 
It really depends on how 'Merlin' the end result is. We more or less know the kind of standard to expect from UK Merlin parks, which tends to be 'it'll do', and that's a depressing thought. If however they could deliver something at Towers to the standard of Oblivion: The Black Hole (without copying the bones of the theme from one of their other parks) or even exceed that I think we'd be blown away, even if it still doesn't quite match what other European parks come up with. I'd dearly love to be able to say that SW8 is a great ride all round by any standards, not just the ones I judge Merlin parks by, but I won't be holding my breath for this!

As for wooden coasters, like I've said before I think a lot of the perception problem stems from the fact that popular UK parks don't have a few even semi-modern woodies, so the public don't actually know what one is and how it varies from what Blackpool Pleasure Beach has in how it looks and rides. Imagine that you tell me that Towers are opening a wooden coaster and my only ever experience of one is Big Dipper. I'm probably not going to be very impressed! If you then take me to Towers and show me the new ride, which is actually something like Wodan or Troy, that suddenly becomes a very appealing prospect and could well completely change my mind.

That's part of what makes a woodie at Towers an intriguing prospect for me. Merlin runs on marketing as we know. They're either going to have to get very creative to show potential guests what they're missing or that marketing arm has been sidestepped by someone going "screw the feedback, we're having one of these next."
 
The British public perception of a woodie is a big problem. I was telling someone at work the other day that my favourite coaster was a woodie (El Toro) and their reaction was along the lines of, "oh god, one of those old rickety ones!?". A lot of people know about Blackpool's woodies and therefore that is what a woodie is for them.

If anything we need a good modern woodie in the UK to educate those that do not know about them!

:)
 
The advert could depict riders being bashed and destroyed on Blackpool's woodies, then cuts across to guests having the time of their life on a Towers woodie, simples.
 
Danny said:
The advert could depict riders being bashed and destroyed on Blackpool's woodies, then cuts across to guests having the time of their life on a Towers woodie, simples.
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I think that bit of marketing would not probably work at present considering everything:p
 
Hehe, that would be like an advert for Famous Grouse claiming "now with 50% less liver failure than Jack Daniels!"

I say they get the ghost of Leonard Nimoy to do the advert, with the tag line "It's wood, Jim, but not as we know it."
 
One of the parks in the UK needs to take a risk with a Wooden coaster. I've said this before, but It doesn't even need to be at a big park like Towers or Thorpe, but even somewhere like Paultons, Drayton or Flamingoland. It will open up a whole new audience and if done right, could potentially change the public's perspective on woodies. I find it very fascinating how Tayto Park decided that Ireland's first major coaster would be made out of wood, that's a big risk if the Irish public shared most of the British public's view on them.

Hopefully SW8 will be awesome, and if it's wood, and people love it, then I hope other parks can follow suit and create more awesome woodies.
 
It doesn't have to be a Merlin park, but to have that level of impact it would need to be one that people across the country know about. Drayton could probably achieve that (though I'm not sure you could say the same pre-Thomas Land), but Flamingoland is too out of the way and too awful in general to make much difference.
 
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