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TBC: SW9 Speculation
- Thread starter Matt N
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Doublethink
TS Member
ScottishChris
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Legend
The thing with 'loosing' a ride is rarely to do with the footprint. It is normally to free up operating staff and maintainance resource. It will be unlikely Towers will want to increase staffing and add a new ride.
I would suggest the Skyride would be a good option to remove. Maintainance must be high, and downtime is pretty common at the moment. It does also take quite a few people to operate!
I would suggest the Skyride would be a good option to remove. Maintainance must be high, and downtime is pretty common at the moment. It does also take quite a few people to operate!
Alastair
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Rise of the Resistance
Removing the Skyride would be an awful decision. It must have cost a fortune to build and it's the only form of inter-park transport in a park far too big to go without.
WickerMan99
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Wicker Man
I really can't see them removing Rita yet. It still gets one of the longest queue times in the park and is quite popular with many visitors. I'd agree it is a pretty boring ride for the rollercoaster enthusiast. But I imagine it is probably rather thrilling for those who are newer to coasters.
As for its rattly nature and shelf life, then its probably best to remember corkscrew which was double the age and rattlyness before it was removed. So I can't really see Rita being removed yet, at least not for SW9.
WickerMan99
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Wicker Man
Yeah true. The queue line does move really slow.
RicketyCricket
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Taron
Most non enthusiasts I know love Rita, and people always seem buzzing coming off the ride.
I was blown away by the launch when it first opened, and I guess a lot of first time riders/non regular visitors get that same feeling nowadays.
I was blown away by the launch when it first opened, and I guess a lot of first time riders/non regular visitors get that same feeling nowadays.
Benjsh
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
I've done both KK in 09 and TTD last year on my trip to Cedar Point and despite being much slower, Rita's launch still delivers. It still gets me. It's the rest of the ride I find really dull. It's quite jolty and just doesn't do anything. Just meanders around a few helixes.
Oblivion's drop still gets me too after all these years despite going on taller versions.
RicketyCricket
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Taron
Yeah that's why I don't bother with it anymore, it's too uncomfortable. Get some Taron style trains on there and it would be up there with Nemesis as a must ride.
WickerMan99
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Wicker Man
Yeah, my point exactly. Thats why I really cant see them dismantling Rita for space for SW9
Removing Skyride would be a huge mistake. As has already been said it makes getting round the park much easier for many guests (when it's working). I do know that Skyride was on very "high-hours" in terms of runtime going back a few years. The Poma engineers came over & could barely believe the runtime meter readings on maindrive. (They are more used to seeing ski lifts which operate 10am-4pm for about 4.5months a year - this was before Towers introduced 10-4pm operations though!) Then there was the investment only a few years ago in the new gondolas, so Skyride will be around for a while yet.
I disagree that losing a ride is done to free up operating staff / maintenance resources. Look at both Air & the Smiler. Both used areas of land that had not been used for a few seasons so there would have been an increase in staff [ride hosts / ops] to run the new ride. No idea if they increased maintenance - last year would suggest not as there was a lot of downtime. This year may suggest otherwise as by all accounts operations are much better.
The biggest problem Towers have re: SW9 is the planning & noise regulations. Then they have the small problem of the CAPEX budget that Merlin won't give them. Coaster Corner [that was] is crying out for development - would have to be an indoor ride to keep the noise away from Alton village. Those of you who have ridden Spider-Man at Islands of Adventure will know what can be done with the budget - it'll never happen though.
Merlin need to decide what to do with their RTP (Resort Theme Park) business, as it seemingly does not sit comfortably within their business model. They want Midway attractions galore that are easy to duplicate and relatively cheap to roll-out and give a pretty good quick buck in return & can operate year-round. RTP's are expensive as they require large CAPEX every few years to keep the ride offering updated and a big new ride only has a one or two year honeymoon period before the general public see it as old. Also, as Merlin are only too aware, one slip-up at one RTP can have dire consequences for the park in question & also the wider RTP estate.
I do hope we see a new coaster of some kind for SW9, It will be interesting to see when it appears though - I suspect we'll have to wait until at least 2022 though.
Alsty
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Fury 325
Well, Merlin's last high budget dark ride turned out to be a colossal flop so there's no way they'll invest in anything like that again. Too many fingers burnt.
Doublethink
TS Member
With the new safety era that post smiler has brought in I would doubt towers would be happy to have any thrill coaster without OTSR sadly as the public could see lap bars as "unsafe"
Daily Mail: "would you trust your kids with a lap bar? SMILER HORROR CRASH theme park installs ride with JUST a TINY LAP Bar to hold you in"
Daily Mail: "would you trust your kids with a lap bar? SMILER HORROR CRASH theme park installs ride with JUST a TINY LAP Bar to hold you in"
evilcod
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Pirates of the Caribbean - Paris
It also wasn't even close to the money required for a world class dark ride
Estimates online seem to be (These may be inaccurate but give an idea):
Harry Potter & FJ - $130 million
Expedition Everest- $120+ million (Okay its a coaster but most of the budget would be theming)
Tower of Terror- $100+ million
Spiderman - $100 million
Indiana Jones adventure- $90-120 million
Test Track- $70 million
...
...
Derren Brown's Joke Train - £13 million
ChristmasPud
TS Member
Interestingly John Wardley mentioned Thorpe Park got quite far with planning a Spiderman style dark ride as far back as 2008
Those are fantastic attractions but if Merlin were thinking that throwing money at something in an attempt to be 'world class' would bring success, they were wrong from the start. It needs to be a good idea done well.
DBGT was a catastrophe of errors, but somewhere beneath the gimmicky last-minute VR and hipstery story, there is a great idea that got wasted
You don't need an astronomical budget to make a good dark ride, those numbers on the American ones are ridiculously high but affordable for the American parks.
Those are fantastic attractions but if Merlin were thinking that throwing money at something in an attempt to be 'world class' would bring success, they were wrong from the start. It needs to be a good idea done well.
DBGT was a catastrophe of errors, but somewhere beneath the gimmicky last-minute VR and hipstery story, there is a great idea that got wasted
Alsty
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Fury 325
I think there's a lesson for Merlin to learn from Wicker Man... you don't have to do something "world first".
You can take something that already exists, something tried and tested, and still make a success of it. The irony is that using existing technology is also low risk and potentially lower cost which you think would appeal to Merlin who seem to be risk averse.
You can take something that already exists, something tried and tested, and still make a success of it. The irony is that using existing technology is also low risk and potentially lower cost which you think would appeal to Merlin who seem to be risk averse.
ChristmasPud
TS Member
This is true, but Merlin's strategy was rarely to ever do anything truly world first.
Their thing has always been to wait for other people to create a success, then buy it out and copy-paste it all over the world, this is the only way Merlin ever grew their company
The world first thing was another example of that, it worked once or twice when Tussauds got a real prototype, then under Merlin it became a promotional buzzword used for everything. Prototypes cost, so now they just make wild 'world first' claims for everything. The actual rides are usually just formulaic ideas with a gimmick on top
Wicker man did have a really wobbly world first claim but it wasnt really a part of the ride's development thankfully. More just advertising slapped on top, not the basis of the whole ride concept
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