I really hope this SW we see a break away from rollercoasters. They have a great line-up as it is, but their variety of other experiences are dwindling. Someone mentioned Poseidon's Fury from IoA...whilst I would adore an experience similar to that, Towers simply don't have the budgets or the faith in themselves to pull off even a half decent ride. Plus with the amount of staff, effects and actors an experience like that would requir it would simply be too much of a challenge - even more so now with the closures of some of the most experience and story led attractions currently on park.
SW8 has the potential to be so much - but the experience has to be phenomenal and on-point. Merlin/Alton have time and time again displayed an anxiety towards a story led experience or ride (Sub:Terra, Krake Lebt, Saw:Alive, Inferis, CatCF, Zufari) which in turn is half hearted and results in reduce operation periods or closures. I know the listed rides above aren't all but that's because those are ones they've recently tried an alternative experience that isn't 4D or track led and they've been a let down.
If Derren's Ghost Train is a success, then I hope Merlin begin to build confidence in this area of experiences - but not limit themselves to a dark/bleak story and theme.
The flume is an interesting area for an SW. It could lead to a few different options but I don't feel it should lead to another coaster. Why? The simple answer is this: they're tiring out their USP. But looking in to it further we already have a great variety of coasters each offering very different experiences. Why then should they decide to make a 16 looper or something ridiculous to entice the public? They shouldn't. Smiler wasn't the original planned SW and it was a mess in terms of construction. The only good part to the Smiler was the strong brand and suitable marketing.
They need to stop living up to this world first tag for the sake of it - get back to the drawing board. What direction are different rides in the world going in? We've got VR, we don't need to revisit this, so what we need is a game changer for the UK...
Towers need to explore some technologies not yet seen in UK parks. If they are to be the UK's leading park or the gem in Merlin's crown - then start acting like it. What is it that makes other European and international parks good? Is it the flawless presentation? (yes, we're working on that with TLC project). Immersive areas? (we've lost that since the 90's slowly, work on that). Rich rides/areas full of story and discovery? (Ahh...we've lost that too). But ultimate its cohesion and strong development for the entire project they need to work in - from path bins, aesthetic elements, right down to the ride interacting with the guest and the surroundings. Wild Asia should have been a gentle lead in the right direction with interaction from standard themed elements, atmosphere and the true redesigning of an area - not a lazy, half hearted attempt of an overlay (yes Dark Forest, I mean you).
They need to explore every element of this plan to make it a "ground breaking" experience not just grounbreaking in ride elements/hardware. It's not enough any more to bung a massive coaster in and expect crowds to go crazy. People say all the GP or their friends want is a new coaster...but actually they're only saying this because in this country it's all we're used to, we haven't got theme parks wow-ing us with an entire area or a ride from queueline to exit giving us such an immersive experience. We've never explored a whole other level to ride experiences and it's delivery other than the tag "World First".
So what should we actually expect?
Well, we should expect an entire area which is rich, rides which cause us to marvel at the amazing technology used within, along with the experience and the entire magical escapism presented not just by the ride but by it's surroundings too.
Get real, bring back the intrigue, the suspense and the excitement that used to be seen from years gone by. Sop telling us the entire ride cost 18 million pound coaster because it didn't - why include money from the marketing drive to concrete support foundations?
The GP DO listen to that, then suddenly you scratch your heads if it wasn't as amazing as tthe GP hoped for so you set-up for a fail, getting yourself into this viscous cycle that makes you only want to attempt big budgets on rollercoasters because you haven't tackled other non-coaster experiences correctly in the past.
It's over hype, and time and time again it happens. Instead, start actually realising that as the UK's best theme park that you have to have faith, you have to push for bigger and better budgets, you have to trust that you can pull off a decent non-coaster SW if you just stop wasting money and using language that causes confusion or over-hype. There's elements mentioned that are in and out of Alton's control - but all of those elements in this last paragraph Merlin do have control in.
Why do dark rides or story led experiences work so well but not in the Merlin company? Funny that...I think the answer is staring us in the face.
I'm not pulling Towers apart. I just know they have so much potential - it's Merlin who need look at themselves and the structure for which the studios use to provide service, delivery, trust and quality to their parks.
SW8 needs to be decent and it needs to reassure us that Alton Towers firmly remains as one of the top UK parks and the industry leader in the UK.
