Future improvements for Charlie

[Alexsutton]

I don't think the majority of punters would be impressed with a dark ride, unless it was spectacularly good. Based on the general reaction of people going on Sub-Terra and expecting a coaster I don't think many non-enthusiasts really consider dark rides to be proper rides, at least when they go for a day out at AT. Personally, I would love a high investment dark ride although I don't think it could ever come close enough to Disney's standard, which would be the standard it needs to hit.

 

[James]

That's why I open out the possibility of a dark ride in the place of Charlie being something instead of a roller coaster (for a Secret Weapon). SW7 is a £18 million investment. Imagine that sum of money for a dark ride. There would be so much potential and room to play with, they could create something world class.

Of course they will never hit Disney standard, but I believe they could hit a standard that Haunted House had in 1992. Which was regarded as the UKs equivalent to Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.

 

[djtruefitt]

We were talking today that Wobble world would be a great place for a childrens dark ride, some kind of little car ride (like Europas Bench), would be perfect in there, as wobble world is currently a waste of space!

 

[Poisson]

I am frustrated with CATCF as I saw what lies behind the ply (The rather large boat for example) and the remains of the loop of the ride (The old celebration room.)

Pretty much any retheme would be better than what we have at the moment. But I can't hate it due to the clever system used for the lifts (It is magic: lies, smoke and mirrors ) But I don't think without a major improvement I could like CATCF.

 

[aru]

The crazy thing about Charlie is that it would be sooo cheap to make some changes. The flow of the dark boat ride could be solved by reconfiguring the timing, better lighting and a sound track that makes sense. At the moment there are too many uncomfortable silences and effects that turn on randomly. :-\

The scenes need a bit more movement - a simple conveyor belt or some moving machinery would do
the trick. If the boat ride is going to be so slow you need something to look at. It's such a shame because quite a lot of work went into the first room. But beyond that there is naff all going on (with the exception of the lift).

 

[djtruefitt]

The biggest shame is that Toyland tours had no end of moving things, infact pretty much everything inside it moved. Then they just binned it all and replaced the majority with car board cutouts. I dont know why they couldnt have used loads of the bits from toyland tours (not the toys, but the mechanical parts, etc).

I dont know if its recent or if its always been bad, but the audio around the ride really is pretty bad, in some parts you hear two or three different bits of audio at once and its hard to make sense whats going on. It really doesnt help when some of the audio is so out of time with what you are seeing.

 

[Dungeons master]

Is it possible to skip the boat ride and just move onto the lift section? For me the boat ride does nothing for me, how about turning the lift section into a 3d ride like vengeance in London dungeons. Not shooting anything but still flying in the glass elevator.

 

[aru]

I believe that all of the old Toyland themeing and mechanics were sold a another park, perhaps in China? Somewhere the wobbling spectacle that was the Toyland finale is still going strong (one hopes anyway)! ;D

 

[JonoD]

It's a bit of a strange case with Charlie, in that it looks stunning until you see it in motion. What I mean is summed up by this picture:

(best image I could find... sorry!)

A look at this is eye candy. Magical almost. It would certainly whet my appetite for a ride. Thing is... it only looks good as a still image in that there really isn't anything happening when actually riding. The only sort-of exception to this is the Chocolate Room which has some elements, but still doesn't feel truly 'alive'. If Charlie is to improve, it needs to have a lot more happening kinetically and not just in terms of static scenery.

 

[GaryH]

One thing we are missing here...... we are not aged under 12, which the majority of people on the ride will be, its a kiddies ride. While we may see the ride as a pile of poo, ask the toddlers and little un's what they thought - they probably enjoyed it.

Yeah it could be better, but we have to ask ourselves who the target customer is here..... and its not us!

 

[JonoD]

One thing we are missing here...... we are not aged under 12, which the majority of people on the ride will be, its a kiddies ride. While we may see the ride as a pile of poo, ask the toddlers and little un's what they thought - they probably enjoyed it.

Yeah it could be better, but we have to ask ourselves who the target customer is here..... and its not us!

Not quite with you there. As it stands, charlie is a very 'static' ride. You really have to look to find the stuff actually doing anything.

The atmospheres in each room in Charlie are nice, but it still doesn't help that there isn't anything going on in them. For a child to be engaged in the experience, there has to be something fairly obvious to get their attention which is something crucial that Charlie lacks.

Toyland Tours had this angle sussed by putting something moving in pretty much every corner and space they possibly could, and Charlie simply doesn't have anything like that. You really have to search to find stuff to like in Charlie... and if we as seasoned theme park goers can't find it, then I wouldn't expect a younger child of 7 to.

 

[BigAl]

Thinking about our last ride on it, when an animatronic on Charlie doesn't work properly, it really highlights just how static and empty the whole thing is. The quicker they retheme this ride, the better (I mean, it couldn't get any worse, could it?)!

And if the lifts end up going, I really wouldn't care. As much as the idea was nice and a lot of time, money and effort was put in to making them, they're really not very effective at all. Especially when the footage is pixelated... :