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Flat Rides: What would you like to see come to the park?

djtruefitt said:
To be fair if you bought a standard flat ride it wouldn’t take long to install. The likes of Enterprise, Blade, Ripsaw are all back of lorry flat rides.
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That's exactly what I wouldn't want to see though, yes flats generally can be plonked on a vaguely flat surface, as retrosquad were, but in a theme park they shouldn't be. They can also be properly and permanently installed, like enterprise being built into a dug out pit and submission with its rockwork and pool. That should be what sets apart flats at a theme park over the travelling circuit, and is probably why some found retrosquad so offensive.
 
Definitely gotten to that bit of closed season where I'm pondering this question! It'd be nice to see a medium-sized investment on several small (yet nicely themed) flats in one year as that would not only help increase the overall number of rides, but it would be a great little selling point. Chessington did something vaguely similar on a smaller scale in 2002 with Tomb Blaster and Vampire being refurbished into "new" attractions and the Dennis' Madhouse foam-ball shooty arena. Naturally, if we were to see more than one ride in a year, they'd have to be smaller, cheaper rides - but sometimes, the less elaborate flats have a more timeless appeal.

First thing I'd love to see is a little Mack Seastorm in place of the arcade in Mutiny Bay. It's a popular enough model that we've seen at many parks, and it'd help add appeal to Mutiny Bay. It's also a good capacity attraction which is always appreciated, especially given it's location in regards to the main entrance. I know that the arcade may be a bit of a money spinner and would need partial demolition, so a decent chunk of the investment would have to go on the building itself.

Another more traditional ride would be a small Magic Carpet - perhaps in Katanga Canyon. Assuming the top of the Rapids tunnel is sturdy enough, it'd be groovy to see one squeeze in there. As an area, it hasn't changed all that much in 30yrs+, so it'd really shake things up. Of course, we don't know how strong that tunnel is; an alternative location in the same area wouldn't really be possible, so I'd maybe suggest a larger model on the Ripsaw site.

So far that's families catered for, so let's try something a bit more thrilling - has one of the newer "Booster Revolution" rides by Huss been built yet? It gives me the same vibe as a Breakdance (would love to see a permanent one in the UK; Towers has already had one in the form of Dynamo so I don't know if they'd get another), but with a little extra flair. A good case for this is the high capacity of ~1200pph which would definitely churn through people if operated correctly. The ride lends itself to quite a bit of decoration, and people have often been calling out for a permanent ride to occupy one of the vacant plots in X-Sector, so using one of those would be most welcome. On the subject of this particular ride though; with a low height of 6m, it'd also make a good part of a small new area where Spinball is once that bites the dust. I seem to recall this area having a more recent imposed height limit around that mark.

Will any of this happen? Probably not, but it's always fun to speculate.

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dave___ said:
my two love the dodgems at Chessington but they might be a bit.. retrosquad.. for Alton Towers, no?
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I've always loved the idea of Towers getting a bit of a "wackier" dodgems ride - the one at Europa Park is a really fun variant with it's excercise ball flying around the arena! It'd be cool to see an indoor dodgems with a few more special effects and lighting thrown in to make it extra chaotic. Just imagine trying to avoid collisions with a bit of haze, crazy lighting... absolute carnage would ensue.
 
James said:
Something like that could work in Fountain Square. It would be a good space to see put to more use again.
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They wouldn’t get planning permission.

As an aside it seems that Merlin are doing some sort of deal with Huss. Genuinely think if that’s the case bringing a topspin back would be a good move (Ripsaw the Revenge). An Enterprise 2G would also seem to fit seamlessly where Enterprise was but be sufficiently different to a classic enterprise.
 
Is the possibility of a brand-new Ripsaw making a return to its original location totally out of the question?

It had a relatively loose theme/story as a decontamination device (hence the water) made out of scrap left over from the arrival of Nemesis. Seeing how the area is receiving a bit of a refresh now from Nemesis Reborn, something like the return of Ripsaw would be a great addition.
 
If they are going to bring something it should be something new/different. There's already the nostalgia-fest around Nemesis, don't go bringing back other "old" rides like Ripsaw and Enterprise as to me that just looks like they can't come up with any original ideas.

You'll be making a case for Submission and a return of Ug-Land next...
 
dave___ said:
If they are going to bring something it should be something new/different. There's already the nostalgia-fest around Nemesis, don't go bringing back other "old" rides like Ripsaw and Enterprise as to me that just looks like they can't come up with any original ideas.

You'll be making a case for Submission and a return of Ug-Land next...
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That's true, there has been instances in the past where something has been updated/replaced with the same thing and marketed as "new" or "2.0" I'm still relatively gutted they got rid of Ripsaw in the first place, it was one of the best themed flats they had in the park and gathered a lot of viewing attention.

... I liked Submission and Ug-Land and miss those greatly! :grinning:
 
havaska said:
A new Enterprise would be silly. They should go for something completely different.
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Why? If you can find another inverting flat ride with a similar height restriction that caters for the currently under serviced 1m ish height guests I'll be all ears...

It's also pretty rare in the UK now, I can only think of Zodiac at Thorpe and I've not seen one on the travelling circuit for years.
 
I don't really care about replacing the flat rides that are currently gone, because well, they're gone...

I also don't think we need to be saying "Oh they should buy [X] flat from [Manufacturer]". When buying a new set of flat rides there should be 3 criteria for a successful attraction:

  1. It should be a crowd-pleaser
  2. It should be reliable
  3. It should have decent throughput

After that, ride hardware doesn't really matter, they can sell the ride by doing something unique theme-wise, whilst serving as a thematic addition to the areas in which they reside. The most recent additions the flat ride lineup, Go Jetters and Flavio's Fabulous Fandango contribute and enhance the areas in which they sit, even though they were both cheap additions, they shouldn't just plonk a load of flats into a corner of the park as they did with Heide and Thorpe.
 
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