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2017: New Attractions for Cbeebies Land

Rob said:
I suppose it is good that they are supporting local businesses and all that!

And to be fair, the Zamperla equivarlent is smaller and has the same minumum height restriction. Are Disney's Dumbo rides inhouse?

:)
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Zamperla's site you linked states: "90 cm (36”) if not accompanied", it does not mention an accompanied limit which if 0 would put it on par with the Disney restrictions.

Compared to the Towers restrictions which are: "Minimum height 0.9m. Children under 1.25m must ride with an adult aged 18+."
 
Although Zamperla are incredibly successful and supplied several opening day attractions for Disneyland Paris, I think Zamerpla's success is more to do with the fact they're cheap rather than their quality, although I'm not necessarily saying that's why Disney used them. Disney use Vekoma quite a lot, whereas generally Vekoma aren't the favoured manufaturer for major roller coasters (their Mine Trains are very good and of course their haunted swings have done well).

Nonetheless I don't think you'll find a lot of people who work in the industry rushing to praise Zamperla for the quality of their products. In fact I've spoken to quite a few engineers from different parks and their experiences don't tend to be entirely positive. Although to be fair to Zamperla you get what you pay for and not every park can afford a Mack or a Gerstlauer etc. Generally speaking (and this is a generalisation) the Italian manufacturers are the budget manufacturers. It doesn't necessarily mean that Zamperlas are poor value for money (I suspect they're reasonable value for money of they wouldn't be so common), but I don't think they're normally a good manufacturer to go for if you've got a big budget and want something that's really well engineered and comes with a high level of service.

It's not just about the quality of the build, but also down to other factors such as how quickly they can supply spare parts when you order them, the quaity of paperwork (technical drawings etc) that comes with the ride to assist the park's engineers and general after sales service. There are quite a few factors that affect the quality of a ride that aren't immediately obvious, for example the quaity of the electrics, how the PLC works etc.

If the park has a good relationship with Garndale and find they've been giving good after sales service then why not use them. And if it means supporting a local engineering firm in the process then all the better. At this stage we don't know how reliable or good to operate it will be, but if it does turn out to have problems I won't necessarily say that they should have gone to Zamperla.
 
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A great idea for a new attraction would actually be separate gates. The place seems intent on having huge dominance in the park, why not have one of those independence referendums that are all the rage atm?...
 
Go Jetters is much better than the standard plonking down of a flat ride in an empty space than we're used to. It's very colourful, and the props used around the attraction aren't overused nor underused, they strike a great balance. I really love the animatronic Ubercorn above the op cabin as well whilst the ride is in operation. A wider range of movement wouldn't have gone amiss however. There's nothing bland or generic about the ride, even the queue line has a nice backdrop.

That brings me onto the Furchester Hotel. The outside facade is well presented other than the endless yellow void of a queue line. The show itself is on a similar scale as to Mr Bloom's Allotment, however geared in a very different direction. Adults and particularly tall children will find it very easy to see the tops of the puppeteers heads as the counter for the cast is relatively low, and some of the "hidden" props for guests to find within the attraction are a little too obvious when you first walk in. Some of the main lighting rigs also weren't working but other than that, it was an enjoyable and different offering that further enhances the already varied CBeebies Land line up. I just wish some of this effort and quality could be rolled out elsewhere across the park.
 
Well that looks terrible.

The fact that even Lightwater Valley are theming their new rides better than Towers says a lot, and that place is one of the worst parks I've ever been to.
 
Really? Both new attractions look great and fit perfectly into CBeebies Land. Capacity is the main issue with CBeebies Land so this goes part way to addressing that.

:)
 
Rob said:
Both new attractions look great and fit perfectly into CBeebies Land.
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That's a rather weak reaction thought isn't it, Rob?

I wanna see people being completely blown away, inspired and mind boggled my Merlin's latest developments. Never gonna happen though.
 
PeteB said:
That's a rather weak reaction thought isn't it, Rob?

I wanna see people being completely blown away, inspired and mind boggled my Merlin's latest developments. Never gonna happen though.
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Middle ground? Yes the new attractions are nothing mind blowing but nothing Merlin ever do is! At the same time they are not terrible. For a low cost investment I think both new attractions have been executed well and add much needed capacity to CBeebies Land. Ideally there will be even more flats of a similar scale to Go Jetters added over the years.

:)
 
Even if we had a decent company running Towers I'm not sure anyone would make a kids small flat ride "mind blowing". It looks good, sure it could always be that bit better but this is still "good".

I have though given up ever seeing a phantasialand/ europapark level of care anywhere in the uk industry.
 
Looks great, bravo. If you're looking for more than that in a kid's ride at Alton, I fear you're not going to find it. This is what Merlin are doing and seemingly will continue to do so.

In the same way that if you don't like what they're doing with coasters - whether that be Raptor, Demon, Swarm or Smiler - if those don't tick your boxes, you're never going to 'get it' and therefore will likely not enjoy it.

(Feel free to keep posting your contempt for Merlin's efforts on here though, that'll help).
 
I don't see many complaints about the coasters, other than a valid point about Smiler's terrible build quality resulting in it looking terrible in places. Likewise the consensus seems to be that Go Jetters is fine, but it doesn't address the hole in the ride line up for kids in the 1.2m-1.4m bracket resulting from the loss of rides like the Flume, Toadstool and Charlie.
 
I thought it worth pointing out that the reliability of Go Jetters so far this season has been pretty poor. More often than not it is down when I check ridetimes, and the one time I attempted to do it this season it broke whilst in the queue. It's a relatively simple ride but I suppose this is what happens when you go for a cheaper manufacturer.

:)
 
Furchester has massive blank gaps on the outside as me and @Kieron found out with green tin shed being clearly visible from Go Jetters side
 
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