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Galactica: General Discussion

Rick said:
I can't believe people are talking about dumping extremely popular multi-million pound assets like they're an old hoover you take to a car boot sale.
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to be fair the asset in question is probably worthless now - from an accounting point of view
 
air is anything but worthless my friend. It was the world's first flying roller coaster, and the cars back then were a technological breakthrough on the Theme Park industry. And its still extremely popular, even as its inferior version.

Whoever see's air as worthless probably need to have an eye test to see if they can differentiate air between a battery dead Digital Clock.
 
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Trooper Looper said:
air is anything but worthless my friend. It was the world's first flying roller coaster, and the cats back then were a technological breakthrough on the Theme Park industry. And its still extremely popular, even as its inferior version.

Whoever see's air as worthless probably need to have an eye test to see if they can differentiate air between a battery dead Digital Clock.
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i think your misunderstanding. As an asset to Merlin it is worthless

It would have been fully depreciated off their balance sheet by now, so in effect it makes no odds to them if it’s scrapped or kept
 
Sorry, but no.
Semantics and pedantics again.
I understand what you mean about commercial accounting terms, but ask Merlin directly...
"Is Galactica an asset to your company?"
What would your answer be?
"As an asset to Merlin it is worthless."
or...
As an asset to Merlin it is a high quality, reliable cutting edge rollercoaster that has been a major draw to the park and to the company, and will continue to be a meaningful, tangiable asset of high value to the company for years to come.
Balance sheets are not reality.
If they were, Disney Paris would have been dead a couple of decades ago.
 
Jb85 said:
It would have been fully depreciated off their balance sheet by now, so in effect it makes no odds to them if it’s scrapped or kept
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By that logic they could scrap Nemesis and it would make no difference.

Assets aren't just about the financial cost. If they bring people to the park or provide a marketing hook then they very much still have value.
 
There is no chance of it being rethemed back to air because what's the point of spending that money? It makes so little difference and everyone knows it as galactica now. Putting it back to it's original theme won't really change the experience. For Merlin it will be seen as a waste of money.
 
JAperson said:
There is no chance of it being rethemed back to air because what's the point of spending that money? It makes so little difference and everyone knows it as galactica now. Putting it back to it's original theme won't really change the experience. For Merlin it will be seen as a waste of money.
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Not entirely. They could easily give the ride some rockwork theming from its unused concept art, rebrand it back to air, give it a new slogan like 'the flight continues', give the scenery a few special effects to interact with the ride.
If the Galactica was enough to get the GPS attention just because it had VR on it, imagine what air with new additional theming and interactive scenery could do, like a geyser shooting water at the car when it passes nearby, you get what I mean.

Make Wardleys vision come true, and satisfy guests at the same time :)
 
Trooper Looper said:
If the Galactica was enough to get the GPS attention just because it had VR on it, imagine what air with new additional theming and interactive scenery could do, like a geyser shooting water at the car when it passes nearby, you get what I mean.

Make Wardleys vision come true, and satisfy guests at the same time :)
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I’ll admit this does sound cool, but I think the difference with the VR was that it offered the ride a more obvious hook than new theming would have done. New theming is quite hard to market, whereas the VR was a very unique selling point that people were quite compelled by; even in 2018, I remember the VR still had huge queues compared to the non-VR.

New theming, on the other hand, is quite difficult to succinctly market, as it doesn’t really alter the experience quite as drastically. As much as I’m sure many people would feel that new theming would enhance the area and overall experience, I wouldn’t say that it materially changes the ride experience in quite the same way as the VR did.

Also, it would appear that I’m in a drastic minority, as I definitely prefer the Galactica theme to the Air theme, personally. I feel like the revamp gave the ride a far stronger sense of thematic identity than it had before, and I love elements like the portal and soundtrack. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t particularly sad when the VR went, but I personally really liked the other changes the revamp bought with it, and I do think they enhanced Air compared to how it was before.
 
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Matt N said:
I’ll admit this does sound cool, but I think the difference with the VR was that it offered the ride a more obvious hook than new theming would have done. New theming is quite hard to market, whereas the VR was a very unique selling point that people were quite compelled by; even in 2018, I remember the VR still had huge queues compared to the non-VR.

New theming, on the other hand, is quite difficult to succinctly market, as it doesn’t really alter the experience quite as drastically. As much as I’m sure many people would feel that new theming would enhance the area and overall experience, I wouldn’t say that it materially changes the ride experience in quite the same way as the VR did.

Also, it would appear that I’m in a drastic minority, as I definitely prefer the Galactica theme to the Air theme, personally. I feel like the revamp gave the ride a far stronger sense of thematic identity than it had before, and I love elements like the portal and soundtrack. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t particularly sad when the VR went, but I personally really liked the other changes the revamp bought with it, and I do think they enhanced Air compared to how it was before.
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Yeah, I'd have ti agree with you on there. Theming is certainly a challenge to successfully market in most cases.

Though I can't blame you for preferring Galactica over air, the soundtrack and additional theming is certainly brilliant for us enthusiasts, but Airs theme really felt natural to the area, and might I say, probably just my preference, more timeless than galacticas overall concept. Airs was unique about pure flight while Galacticas us just another cliché futuristic space theme.

If Air was to come back though, I really wouldn't remove any of galacticas theming excluding the logo of course, I'd probably retheme the portal with rockwork at the bottom connected to it so it doesn't look like it's floating around, and I'd repaint it to a light grey colour scheme so it doesn't look out of Airs theme.

All in all, if Galactica was an temporary and experimental retheme, I think it would've been looked upon more positively upon enthusiasts and old school fans.

I know quite a few people really enjoy it as Galactica, but same could be said for Air.
 
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I have always enjoyed Air and the experience it gives. The VR not so much and was glad it was removed.
For Air to have been a total complete package it really needed the water elements to fly over as in the original plans. Was such a shame they are not introduced.

If it’s one thing I really do miss though is the “prepare for air”, the blue lights, the blast of wind and “now fly” as you leave the station.
 
GaryH said:
I have always enjoyed Air and the experience it gives. The VR not so much and was glad it was removed.
For Air to have been a total complete package it really needed the water elements to fly over as in the original plans. Was such a shame they are not introduced.

If it’s one thing I really do miss though is the “prepare for air”, the blue lights, the blast of wind and “now fly” as you leave the station.
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I agree with this, I really liked the whole "prepare for air" thing, and I personally preferred Air's soundtrack over Galactica's.
 
Galactica is probably just over mid way through it's life. I think the reason we're taking about its removal is because the subject of retheming is being discussed and not because bits imminent.

If it gets a retheme in the next half decade, it's probably right to say it's likely to be it's last. It's not going anywhere any time soon and certainly not for SW9 (neither is Rita by the way for all the constant removal dreams I keep reading on this forum about it). But I don't think there's any going back. Galactica is a silly theme but spending money, even a few grand on retheming not back to Air will likely be lost on visitors. There's simply no point in doing it. They won't retheme it back and spend loads of money realising the original concept that never came to fruition.

It'll likely stay as is for many years to come. The park isn't a museum and although I have a soft spot for celebrating and learning from the past of the park, I have no wishes for the park to return to it. I have fond memories of playing on my Sega Mega Drive, but it ain't 1991 anymore.
 
Hopefully retracking Nemesis might motivate AT to at least clean up Galactica, or possibly return to Air. I hope they will spruce up the whole of FV valley and market this whole area after the retrack.

I never got with the Air theme, Galactica was a better idea for a theme but it was half done and without VR doesn't make much sense. I don't really care if it's Air, Galactica or Galactic Air, it just needs to be brought up to whatever standard they bring Nemesis up to. That includes the tunnel and the mid course ditch. It's not the most exciting ride, so more theming would be a big plus.
 
I can't see them doing it up for release at the same time as Nemesis, They would want to focus on Nemesis only rather than watering it down with multiple releases

Maybe the season before (end of this season?) or the following one
 
It’s the space theme I don’t get as with VR it worked but now it’s just a enclosed station with a portal. Like all it needs is the portal removed and new signage. If they can put Spinball back from Sonic then I’m sure Air can make a return.
 
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