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Enterprise Site

Trooper Looper said:
My point still stands. They could be taking it away for it to have some work done elsewhere in the parks workshops, or away from the park? Samurai went all the way back to Holland for an overhaul before arriving at Thorpe Park!
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Agree with this and admire the optimism. They have had a long amount of time to complete this sort of work and have chosen to let it rot. Replacement is the only viable option and still is possible….

It remains on the website still. Which is beyond bizarre to me. They were rapid to remove Duel when it closed I can’t believe this is overlooked.

Is there any historic occurrence of Alton refurbing a flat ride or replacing like for like?
 
They were literally cutting it apart in the drone video. It's not a careful disassembly, it's just being scrapped.

I'm not expecting a replacement, mainly on the evidence of the last 10 years of non-coaster rides gradually disappearing
 
I'm more curious as why it has taken them so long to dismantle the ride until now compared to the likes of Ripsaw or Submission? Maybe park management were holding on to hopes for it to have renewed life before Merlin finally told them enough is enough?

Either way, if park management and Merlin are on two different wavelengths regarding flat rides, I wouldn't be suprise of maybe they are feeling the same as we are?

As it has already been mentioned, all the UK owned Merlin parks need more devolved control to manager their own affairs instead of Merlin trying to micromanage all of them which as we've seen has had at best mixed results. If that were to happen then I'm certain that park management would absolutely have no trouble in fixing the flat ride situation...and hotels...the Monorail...rapids...F&B. Actually, flat rides are just the tip of the iceberg regarding the park's current issues.
 
Anyone made a list of flat rides removed by Merlin with no (permanent) replacement? I have a feeling that it's getting quite lengthy.

Submission
Ripsaw
Twirling Toadstool
Enterprise

Am I missing any?
 
Merlin have invested in 4 new flat rides for Chessington recently, this is a clear departure from the last few years, whether that trend extends to Alton Towers is yet to be seen, but there is a chance.

I don’t massively expect them to drop a new Enterprise model in the space, but then I didn’t expect them to completely retrack Nemesis or retheme Duel without an IP so I remain open minded at this point.
 
WillPS said:
Boneshaker was removed (and sold/shipped off, eventually) before the Merlin takeover. Same for Dynamo.
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Don’t think it makes any real difference that it was Tussaud’s branding at the time , it’s still a flat ride removed and not replaced. At least Dynamo was replaced by Sub-Terra eventually.

Even Bouncing Bugs was indirectly replaced by Go Jetters Vroom.
 
jon81uk said:
Don’t think it makes any real difference that it was Tussaud’s branding at the time , it’s still a flat ride removed and not replaced. At least Dynamo was replaced by Sub-Terra eventually.

Even Bouncing Bugs was indirectly replaced by Go Jetters Vroom.
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Sure, but there are loads of flat rides which have been removed and not directly replaced by Tussauds and earlier - sensible to draw a line somewhere.
 
WillPS said:
Sure, but there are loads of flat rides which have been removed and not directly replaced by Tussauds and earlier - sensible to draw a line somewhere.
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In the post-Nemesis era of the modern park, I don’t think many were removed without some kind of replacement. Energizer/Boneshaker and The Blade moved a lot. 1001 nights was replaced by Energizer. But Boneshaker, Ripsaw, Submission and Twirling Toadstool have all closed without replacement.
 
RIPCorky said:
Yes but Tussauds actually occasionally installed new ones at the park
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Yes, which is why I don't really think it's fair to compare the 'progress related' removals on the Tussauds era with the Merlin ones.

jon81uk said:
In the post-Nemesis era of the modern park, I don’t think many were removed without some kind of replacement. Energizer/Boneshaker and The Blade moved a lot. 1001 nights was replaced by Energizer. But Boneshaker, Ripsaw, Submission and Twirling Toadstool have all closed without replacement.
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There was a huge cull in 1992 leading in to the golden era - but one imagines a 1993 guest might have felt like they perhaps did not have quite the choice they did the year before. Again, I don't think it's helpful to look at these because it's fair to say there was overall no net loss across a 5 year period. I'd include Boneshaker in with that given that less than a season after it closed it was being replaced with a massive rollercoaster...

That's a world apart from the last 10 years, where there is little doubt the overall lineup has been depleted.
 
I'd be very surprised if it gets a like-for-like replacement.

There's nothing marketable about a like-for-like replacement. If it doesn't generate any interest from the GP to increase visitor numbers, it would be seen as not financially viable for Towers to do.

Best case scenario is that we get another (completely different) flat ride in its place that the park can market in a television advert.
Worst case scenario, and probably the most likely one for the foreseeable future at least, is that it's removed and the area is utilised as some sort of picnic space.

Their financial commitments right now are likely the Nemesis retrack and Project Horizon.
Replacing a 30-odd year old flat ride like-for-like is probably very low (or even non-existent) on their priority list right now.
 
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