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TBC: SW9 Speculation

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Who knows, certainly never expected them to build a wooden roller coaster after all these years.

Not sure how high they could build with the treeline giving them cover but the current coaster line up is missing a traditional steel coaster so how about a B+M going into the valley?

Also you'd hope the park has big plans for 2020 seeing how it's Alton Towers 40th birthday!
 
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Aren't they prevented by planning restrictions from building in the valley?

Of course that doesn't stop the creating a new valley.... ala Nemesis's pit.
 
It's not that they aren't allowed to build a coaster in the valley, it's more that they would find it very difficult to obtain planning permission. They valley is a part of the Grade I listed historic park and gardens and a site of biological importance. So any development would have to be extremely kind on the environment.

A steel supporting structure would appear far more suitable than a wooden supporting structure in the valley, although I don't think either are at all likely.

As for SW9, it will be a coaster. But will the next major investment (due in 2022) be a coaster? I'm not so sure.

:)
 
CSLKenny said:
Major water ride without a doubt. Something like Tayto Park's which only cost around £7 million - it is also the most popular ride there. Water rides are always a family favourite and people ride them whenever so there is absolutely no excuse for Alton not to get one.
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I do remember that an American enthusiast once said that the GP don't like water rides anymore because:
A) They don't want to get expensive items e.g. phones wet.
B) If they wanted to get wet, they would go to a water park.
I personally disagree with this enthusiast because the queues the Flume sometimes attracted when it was around and the queues for water rides at IOA would beg to differ. I for one love a good water ride on a hot day, our own Congo River Rapids is always a good level of wetness for Britain's hotter days in my opinion. I do, however, secretly wish that Alton would install their version of Bilge-Rats or Jurassic Park. I hope this is what the park gets for SW9. As much as I'm glad that the Flume was removed (I felt it was very dated and didn't get you that wet) and I think that SW8 will almost certainly be better, I do feel that the Flume's removal has made the water ride lineup very small.
 
A new water ride at AT needs to be a good dark ride first. If you want to get soaked ride Battle Galleons. But extending Charlie/Toyland so it has a small drop (similar to London Dungeon) could work, especially if the exterior water level is adjustable so you do get wet in the summer and stay dry in the winter.
 
Surely there are only so many times you can re-work that old ride system? It's had it's day, and as much as we hate to admit it, we will never get another Toyland Tours. I say scrap the whole lot and start from scratch with something new.
 
Okay, new ride system in the same building. Water based dark rides should be a simple ride that suits all parks.
 
Our proud nation of people with a stiff upper lip has become a nation of wimps.

I want a water ride with huge drops, that soaks you to the skin with freezing cold water all year round. A water ride that doesn't get you wet isn't doing its job.

If I come off an SW water ride, I expect to be more soaked that after 10 goes on Battle Galleons.
 
I don't think an SW will ever be anything other than a coaster. Towers doesn't have many traditions left unmolested, but "Secret Weapon" being some kind of epic coaster is one of them.
 
I would like to see a bit of a change and see a new multi-million pound dark ride in the Duel warehouse.

I think the problem with Towers now is that you have the Duel and Charlie warehouses that need something done to them, and the loss of a popular water ride (The Flume), I'm not sure if Merlin would invest much in any of these outside a SW year. If any of these are addressed, I would rather see a larger and newer ride over a simple retheme of Duel/CATCF with there outdated hardware.

A coaster will be most likely for SW9, I'm hoping we see B&M return to Towers with a new large coaster.
 
This all assumes there will be a "high investment year", considering this terminology can trace it's roots back to the now well defunct LTDP of many years ago.

Also we're yet to see what was meant by naughty Nick redirecting funding from RTP'S to accommodation and where that would leave the parks by 2021-22. We have no idea yet of how they plan to pull this money out. Mixture of operating budgets, and maintenance? Large investments on a 5 year cycle? Cancellation of specific projects that were planned for the immediate future? Money being pulled out of certain parks but being protected in others?

We just don't know how the world will be by then and what the park offering will be like. All we know is that there will be some sort of SW and it will be in the future, hence why this this thread has turned into a bit of a wish list with everyone trying to fill the gaps in between now and 4 years time. Nothing wrong with that of course.

That said, I think it's safe to say that the gaps in the coaster experience at the park by 2022 will be the same as they are as of 2018, no matter how many water or dark rides are added or removed in between. And SW9 WILL be a coaster and it's unlikely any sizable coaster will be built between now and then to change this.

The park lacks long ride time, a decent launch coaster and it lacks air time. I say combine the 3 and design a decent launched air time machine. It would require a massive land mass, probably talking from the drill end of FV to the end of the Air car park. But it could be kept under tree line and wouldn't require anything unrealistic like building in the valley or across the Ropers lawn or anything.
 
Reuse of ride hardware at Merlin parks is emblematic of how they're funded/operated, and unfortunately that's not likely to change. Why invest millions in building a brand new, half-assed attraction that might last 5 years without major maintenance when you can repurpose the corpse of a well constructed, intelligently-thought-out classic of yesteryear and save $$$?

In fact, I'd much rather the Toyland Tours/Haunted House hardware be reused again than see whatever low-fi abomination they'd be replaced with. Picture Sub-Terra being built on Duel's site and you'll get an idea of the sort of wasted potential that I fear would occur.
 
If Merlin weren't willing to put a new transit system in for the Gruffalo ride, I doubt they're going to do anything to the dark rides at Alton.

A Ghostbusters retheme of Duel has Merlin written all over it, another cheap facelift with some additional props that could be re-marketed as a new ride with an I.P.

I would imagine with the Gruffalo being such a success, they have something similar lined up for the CATCF shed.

At this point anything would be better than nothing..
 
Given merlin have given in to the idea of a woodie, I'm putting my bets on a cross valley hyper, either Mack or Intamin.

;)
 
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