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2018: Wicker Man - General Discussion - SPOILERS! - Part One

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I'm sure the ride will be an excellent family coaster, no matter what Wardley says!
 
I have a feeling this ride will exceed expectations for the hardcore enthusiasts.

The misguided general public, I believe, will be disappointed.

:)
 
PeteA said:
No company, be it a theme park, restaurant chain, or a corner shop, should be able to get away with false advertising. Lots of people get suckered in by adverts which make them part with their money only to find that the vision they have been sold is not what they get.
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Right, but this is different than if I buy a beef burger from Tesco and it turns out to be horse - that's blatantly wrong - this is different. If someone goes to Alton and rides Wicker Man, thinks it's wicked (man) and then on the way home they spy this thread and realise there's another wooden coaster that they'll never ride with a fireball incorporated into it - that makes the ride worse? I don't get it.

Presumably you object to Disney calling Disneyland 'The Happiest Place on Earth' because it might be not be for every single person?
 
Jordan said:
There's been some careful message crafting going on. Could John Wardley have been any more diplomatic in that statement? :rolleyes:

I'm sure John will be wheeled out a lot in the weeks ahead!
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Wardley is on record as saying he will not be part of the PR for Wicker Man. People more involved with the project will be doing most of the PR work. I'd imagine Wardley has quite close links with the ECC which is why he has sent them his review.

I am with @WickerManiac though, I do think Wicker Man could exceed expectations for some.

:)
 
WickerManiac said:
I have it on good authority that the "sound tunnels" on the ride are full of fog, and have strobing flashing lights. The Wicker Man statue also has an LED screen pointing outwards which gives the effect of burning embers to those spectating and in the queue line.

:)
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Well, that's nice.

The Smiler also had a tunnel full of fog and flashing lights to conceal the first inversion, it even had a fog curtain to conceal the drop out of the station. Neither of which made it past the first season.

It's all very nice Merlin integrating these wonderful psychological effects in to their rides but most of the GP won't have rode their rides until the 2nd, 3rd and maybe 4th season, by which time everything is broken or just switched off.

It would be like Disney or Universal spending $50m on a new dark ride only to switch everything off and leave what looks to be a $2m ride.

If Merlin are spending their budgets on effects then they have to last and always be part of the experience. I'm sick of the attitude of "well at least the trains are going round" being an excuse as if to say that counts as an open and working ride!
 
PeteB said:
Well, that's nice.

The Smiler also had a tunnel full of fog and flashing lights to conceal the first inversion, it even had a fog curtain to conceal the drop out of the station. Neither of which made it past the first season.

It's all very nice Merlin integrating these wonderful psychological effects in to their rides but most of the GP won't have rode their rides until the 2nd, 3rd and maybe 4th season, by which time everything is broken or just switched off.

It would be like Disney or Universal spending $50m on a new dark ride only to switch everything off and leave what looks to be a $2m ride.

If Merlin are spending their budgets on effects then they have to last and always be part of the experience. I'm sick of the attitude of "well at least the trains are going round" being an excuse as if to say that counts as an open and working ride!
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As has been pointed out previously, entertainments are going to be responsible for looking after the effects on Wicker Man as opposed to tech services who have done so on all other rides previously. This should have a positive impact in terms of Wicker Man's effects going forward.

:)
 
Rob said:
As has been pointed out previously, entertainments are going to be responsible for looking after the effects on Wicker Man as opposed to tech services who have done so on all other rides previously. This should have a positive impact in terms of Wicker Man's effects going forward.
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Do we know if they have been resourced for the task? Last time I heard, entertainments was now made up of Postman Pat & some hotel carabet singer.
 
Rick said:
Do we know if they have been resourced for the task? Last time I heard, entertainments was now made up of Postman Pat & some hotel carabet singer.
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Well Ents and Tech Services have both faced large cuts (hence less entertainment on park and more ride breakdowns). You'd like to think that if Towers want to maintain Wicker Man well they will ensure they have enough skilled resources on hand to do so.

:)
 
WickerManiac said:
The above post are true.

It is all well and good for the Entertainments department to be tasked to complete a job.

For them to be well resourced enough to do it, is however, another thing...

:)
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Well that's a park wide problem really.

I'm sure Ents managing the effects on this ride can't be any worse than Tech Services managing ride effects. Ents has less going on so there may be some hope for the effects on this ride to be more reliable than previous rides (The Smiler as one example).
 
I know less about the dynamics of the park than some here, but don't Merlin have some daft system in which a new ride is prioritised in the budget as part of Merlin Magic Making for the first two or three seasons? So it should be on fire for at least a while.
 
Their operational budgets come out of the same pot of money given to them by Merlin. So when the central funding stops, Wicker Man effects could well be turned off due to entertainment cuts. That or they'll remain and they'll sack Postman Pat instead or something.
 
It sounds all very Phoenix Nights to me. Although, you can draw similarities between that and Altons operations as of late...Que Peter Kay on the Microphone.
 
Wasn't N:ST entirely the responsibility of ents at one point?

That didn't work out too well.
 
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