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Hex [2024 Refurb]: General Discussion

Steve74 said:
We'll never know the full reasons why Hex wont open next weekend. As others have said, the obvious cause is delays in parts, but it could even be something to do with what they say they are doing to improve the effects. By that I mean lets say the original plan when it closed last year was to open at the start of this season with it fully repaired but operating with very little new effects, if any. Then The Curse opens. Management sees how phenomenally well received it has been so plan for new effects for Hex to bring that up to similar levels of quality effects. Budgets and capex's then have to be submitted. If there is a delay getting that through (and in any corporation that can take weeks or months), that may mean that they only got the green light a few weeks ago. Then the decision is made to keep it closed and make a big deal of it's reopening after the Nemesis (and Hyperia) excitement has died down. Bianca did say in her announcement "From events to new attractions, it's my ambition that there is always something to look forward to in 2024 - long after opening"
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I don't often stick my neck out like this, but I am entirely certain this will not be the reason for Hex's delay.

The park have already made the big deal out of the reopening, it is now damaging to their reputation to announce it's not reopening at the start of the season. There are no new effects they could add to counteract the situation they find themselves in. There is no good news story here for the park.

It would be a better news story if they opened it and then enhanced it (much like they actually did in 2000).
 
I suspect there may be nothing majorly wrong to be honest.

Given Bianca's specific wording, "the triumphant return of Hex" it is very possible they want to have a proper re opening for what is a very beloved dark ride. It makes perfect sense from the perspective of driving visitors to the resort, to delay the opening until the fanfare for Nemesis has died down. With new effects and upgrades I am fairy confident they will want to re open this properly, perhaps with entertainment similar the Curse of Alton Manor and it's queue / area actors and of course, plenty of media attention that would otherwise be mainly covering Nemesis.

You could re open them together yes, but you'll get far more press coverage and for much longer, if you stagger the openings of what is two major and two very popular attractions. If they both open at the same time, Nemesis will take the crown in the media with perhaps a small bit about Hex at the same time come the weeks around March 16th. Open it later, you get another bit of press coverage for free, for the attraction and importantly the park for the weeks around the date you choose to open it. Quite a clever move actually.

It also gives them a bit of extra time to polish the show.

Very paulsable that they decided last minuite to re plan the opening strategy of the attraction.

If this is the case I understand why people are annoyed but from the business perceptive why would you not try and maximise you ROI.

The ride has been closed all this time, so give it the proper re opening it deserves, not shunted as a secondary offering behind the mighty Nemesis.

Even IF this is not the reason. They do now get this added benefit by opening it later in the season.
 
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Tom said:
At best something has gone wrong, or at worst they have delayed based on cost. Ultimately it is poor, but there is still a greater good that it is coming back, and hopefully improved.
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Again they wouldn’t have advertised its opening if they then delayed due to cost.

If you look at the timeline of them announcing it reopening and taking it off the closed page of the website, my bet is vekoma came in, seemed to have fixed it, then during staff training its failed again.
 
Dave said:
Again they wouldn’t have advertised its opening if they then delayed due to cost.

If you look at the timeline of them announcing it reopening and taking it off the closed page of the website, my bet is vekoma came in, seemed to have fixed it, then during staff training its failed again.
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I struggle to see it personally. I would have thought Vekoma would have cycled the attraction many hundreds if not thousands of times before handing it back to technical services. If anything was going to fail, it would more than likely fail then, rather than the comparatively small amount of times it would cycle for training.
 
A friend of a friend who has a drone and works at towers has told me that they’re bringing back professor Graham Nicholson from the first iteration of Hex and they can’t quite find his scarf!

Jokes aside is it just me or it only feels like yesterday when a couple of years ago they ‘relaunched’ Hex with improved effects and fixed it. If I remember rightly all they did was improve the lightening, add some more smell pods and turn up the music a bit. Hoping this fix lasts a little longer!

Don’t get me wrong- I love that fuss is being made of one of my favourite rides on park but hoping they don’t go too far on the upgrade of effects. I think animated screen effects like in Alty Mans might look out of place.
 
DistortAMG said:
I struggle to see it personally. I would have thought Vekoma would have cycled the attraction many hundreds if not thousands of times before handing it back to technical services. If anything was going to fail, it would more than likely fail then, rather than the comparatively small amount of times it would cycle for training.
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Machines don’t work like that, you can think you have a fix and run it for hundreds of cycles then hand it back over to the owner and it then goes.

Jb85 said:
My guess is they did a short terms fix again
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Everyone who is in the know has said Vekoma have been working on it, or at least the park have been working to vekoma’s instruction.
 
Dave said:
Machines don’t work like that, you can think you have a fix and run it for hundreds of cycles then hand it back over to the owner and it then goes.
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In the case of Hex I would say it does. We keep hearing of this bodge job fix that keeps breaking, indicating there is an underlying root cause that causes the ride to keep breaking with the same fault. Therefor maraton cycling the attraction will almost certainly bring said fault to the forefront I would have thought as the fault is clearly, very common.
 
Dave said:
Machines don’t work like that, you can think you have a fix and run it for hundreds of cycles then hand it back over to the owner and it then goes.



Everyone who is in the know has said Vekoma have been working on it, or at least the park have been working to vekoma’s instruction.
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Yes, but we don’t know the options that were given. One could be ‘this could fix the ride but may not last’, the other could be ‘replace the ride hardware’

I’m going with the former being the choice. I have a feeling the plan was to get the ride running this season with a longer term plan of replacing the whole system.
 
Jb85 said:
Yes, but we don’t know the options that were given. One could be ‘this could fix the ride but may not last’, the other could be ‘replace the ride hardware’

I’m going with the former being the choice. I have a feeling the plan was to get the ride running this season with a longer term plan of replacing the whole system.
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They had already done the former, that’s what kept failing (replacing the slew ring).

I’m pretty sure you are wrong but we are never going to be able to prove it either way.
 
Dave said:
They had already done the former, that’s what kept failing (replacing the slew ring).

I’m pretty sure you are wrong but we are never going to be able to prove it either way.
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I’d hope I’m wrong ….. like you say we know what was wrong….. what else could have gone wrong. In reality it’s a simple ride.
 
Jb85 said:
I’d hope I’m wrong ….. like you say we know what was wrong….. what else could have gone wrong. In reality it’s a simple ride.
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Obviously, over the decades, the effects of the old crone's curse and magic have faded.

Do you know how hard it is to get replacement crones to curse a family these days? Takes forever to get them to clear customs.
 
Thameslink Rail said:
Have they been cycling with sandbags? It might be the case that whatever fix they did was fine for an empty load but could break under the added strain of 78 guests.
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They're a long-running theme park, with a team of highly experienced engineers who know their rides inside out, and a group engineering team behind them to ensure policies and procedures are in place to make sure rides are fully soak tested as and when required, and are as safe and reliable as possible. Pretty sure they'll have considered running it with sandbags :tonguewink:
 
I'm sure the park has asked vekoma for a full inspection of the ride to get an idea how much longer they'll get out of it before deciding on spending money on upgrading the pre show, ride effect's etc.

I'd say the ride itself has been fixed and they're working on upgrades. I just hope the original narration remains as it's perfect.
 
Trooper Looper said:
Towers on Twitter released a video today, giving us a quick insight what Hexs new lighting looks like in the queue.

Screenshot_20240310-180331_X.jpg
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I’ll reserve full judgement but on first look, I don’t really like the look of that! The queueline doesn’t need coloured lighting, it was fine as it was.

Just looks far too artificial for the armoury setting.
 
Trooper Looper said:
Towers on Twitter released a video today, giving us a quick insight what Hexs new lighting looks like in the queue.

Screenshot_20240310-180331_X.jpg
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s_g_k said:
I’ll reserve full judgement but on first look, I don’t really like the look of that! The queueline doesn’t need coloured lighting, it was fine as it was.

Just looks far too artificial for the armoury setting.
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Looking at the new look, I do wonder if the more 'artificial' lighting could be part of a sequel story idea for Hex explaining the big changes are happening?

Maybe it could be that the curse of the oak tree is taking over more of Towers such explaining how the queueline is looking like the way it is?

I did make the idea of a sequel to the ride some months ago in which the curse takes over more of the Towers and it could be that it's actually happening?
 
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