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TBC: SW9 Speculation

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Matt.GC said:
As much as that would be awesome, Towers doesn't need any more thrill rides in reality. Although all 3 areas are in need of an additional attraction, the priority needs to be to get some more 0.9 ~ 1.1 mtr height restriction family rides. I don't think flats would fit the bill here. It already has Heave Ho, Marauders, Blade and Enterprise for this, although I agree a couple of lower height restriction flats wouldn't hurt in reality.

It's whole family attractions the park is missing. They could start by sorting out Duel and the Rapids then in my opinion, a Flume is needed and at least 1 more family dark ride (hint hint, bin the Dungeons off and put a new dark ride in there). Reopen the cinema again, perhaps a new indoor soft play and suddenly you have a much more appealing park again. Perhaps a new family coaster would be in order for an SW but I couldn't see it pulling in the crowds.
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In all honesty I don't think we will ever get another flume ride at a merlin park due to the fact you can stand up on them so they are seen as a big safety risk by management
 
Doublethink said:
In all honesty I don't think we will ever get another flume ride at a merlin park due to the fact you can stand up on them so they are seen as a big safety risk by management
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And also, I think I read somewhere that new water rides now need to have filtration and cleaning systems in place to keep the water clean and safe? Something I presume the rapids don't need retro-fitted or else they'd have been closed by now!
 
Steve74 said:
And also, I think I read somewhere that new water rides now need to have filtration and cleaning systems in place to keep the water clean and safe? Something I presume the rapids don't need retro-fitted or else they'd have been closed by now!
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Yes, although that's been the case for couple decades now and they've already built a couple water rides that work that way.

Doublethink said:
due to the fact you can stand up on them so they are seen as a big safety risk by management
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They do think that (unfortunately) but I don't think the standing up was the biggest concern, I think it was various reasons. Still their older ones could have been retrofitted. It was more costs and the attitude that money spent on existing rides is money wasted that meant it didnt happen

While the old flumes did have some safety concerns, this was more exaggerated in their old age because of increased stoppages/evacuations and then running into the issue that there was no walkway along most the length. If they were running smoothly there was no real risk other than people standing up (I think). But to put it in perspective, modern log flumes continued to get built around the big parks of the world pretty successfully!
 
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A nice modern intamin rapids like infinity falls could nicely scratch that log flume itch with the lift-drop system they use could be a good crowd puller and thrilling ride (infinity falls is arguably the best rapids in the world from my experience) and a good replacement for the current rapids with the sorry state they are in. The great thing about infinity was its use of drops and waves rather than silly squirter effects to get you wet (often soaked)
 
Doublethink said:
A nice modern intamin rapids like infinity falls could nicely scratch that log flume itch with the lift-drop system they use could be a good crowd puller and thrilling ride (infinity falls is arguably the best rapids in the world from my experience) and a good replacement for the current rapids with the sorry state they are in. The great thing about infinity was its use of drops and waves rather than silly squirter effects to get you wet (often soaked)
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I do not think that is the solution, I agree we need a new water ride. Rapids are not the answer. It is much harder almost, impossible to control the wetness on the fly of a rapids ride. With a trough and wheel based ride it is much easier, to my knowledge you can't even modulate the drops on a rapids to lower the wetness level it is what it is. Same for the actual rapids section. When the water vehicles have wheels and are not designed like a rubber dinghy rapid it is much easier to modulate the wetness.

The current temperature at Alton is 13 Celsius....in May!!! A new flagship wet water ride simply will not work all season without being able to modulate the wetness due to the unpredictability of the weather in the UK.
 
A water ride is needed, but the best in the UK currently is Valhalla, That should be the minimum AT strive for.

i keep saying it but a decent theme round it too, maybe even recreate CCL Round the ride
 
DistortAMG said:
I do not think that is the solution, I agree we need a new water ride. Rapids are not the answer. It is much harder almost, impossible to control the wetness on the fly of a rapids ride. With a trough and wheel based ride it is much easier, to my knowledge you can't even modulate the drops on a rapids to lower the wetness level it is what it is. Same for the actual rapids section. When the water vehicles have wheels and are not designed like a rubber dinghy rapid it is much easier to modulate the wetness.

The current temperature at Alton is 13 Celsius....in May!!! A new flagship wet water ride simply will not work all season without being able to modulate the wetness due to the unpredictability of the weather in the UK.
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As proven by the dry state of the current AT rapids these rides rely on the likes of wave machines, waterfalls and other water features so are most certainly controllable on the fly. A bit less reliably granted as you can never predict a mega wave but still there are some variables.
 
evilcod said:
As proven by the dry state of the current AT rapids these rides rely on the likes of wave machines, waterfalls and other water features so are most certainly controllable on the fly. A bit less reliably granted as you can never predict a mega wave but still there are some variables.
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I disagree, the waterfalls and water features are controllable yes. But the actual rapids themselves are not as they are set via physical logs strapped to the channel. Other rapids have logs placed in ways that soak the boats way more than Altons rapids do and they cant be adjusted on the fly. In any case Altons rapids were never really wet to start with, even with all the extra effects turned on, they have never been a soaker of a ride. You may have got moist but never soaked. Not like Valhalla or Storm Force 10 soaked, no where near.
 
DiogoJ42 said:
They already have a rapids, and they've neutered it.

The odds of Merlin ever building any kind of water ride in the current "all rides are death traps" age are pretty much zero.
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They neutered most of the rides to be fair. Now we just have a bunch of boring metal structures
 
Just stumbled across something of interest in the web

B&M have applied to trade mark a ‘surf coaster’ - interesting concept.
There is some imagery around on the net but not sure how accurate it is.

However as with any new concept design takes ages. Could this be the idea we were meant to get for the smiler ? And as a result could this be SW9?
 
GaryH said:
Surely the future must involve something being done about CCL. Rumour a while back was something to do with Lego.....
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I could actually get behind a mini lego land area as long as the legoland Windsor oppperations don't rub off on the rest of the park. Couple of decent flat rides copied from Windsor or preferably lego land Orlando and you could be onto a winner to cover the 6-10yo age group towers is currently so poor at catering for
 
I would like to think they’ll keep CCL open until the end of 2020 then close it all off (incl. the dungeons – though that might just be wishful thinking on my part :)), then spend the 2021 season building SW9 and retheming the area around it. Hopefully they have learned from Wicker Man that they don’t need any cheap gimmicks and that delivering a quality all round product is the way to bring in more people.
 
Robert.W said:
I would like to think they’ll keep CCL open until the end of 2020 then close it all off (incl. the dungeons – though that might just be wishful thinking on my part :)), then spend the 2021 season building SW9 and retheming the area around it. Hopefully they have learned from Wicker Man that they don’t need any cheap gimmicks and that delivering a quality all round product is the way to bring in more people.
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Never gonna happen....

It’ll be a few Lego pics stuck to the walls and re hashed flats
 
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