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TBC: SW9 Speculation

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As I said many times just shoehorning another coaster into the park isn’t good enough. They need more filler rides to actually spread people round. The park may have some of the best coasters but just that alone don’t make it a good park, they need more flats/dark rides to fill the day and make queues more manageable. Obviously they will stick with the usual graphs and market research and just shoehorn another coaster in make it look pretty and put the prices up.
 
Mr Pearse said:
put the prices up.
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Have the prices actually gone up significantly in the last few years?

The online price seems to have been £33/£34 for years and I don't think the gate price has gone up by more than £1 a year? I think they know they have reached the limits of what can be charged, particularly with the move towards season tickets for the full gate price.
 
jon81uk said:
Have the prices actually gone up significantly in the last few years?

The online price seems to have been £33/£34 for years and I don't think the gate price has gone up by more than £1 a year? I think they know they have reached the limits of what can be charged, particularly with the move towards season tickets for the full gate price.
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You never know what the future holds to be fair. I don’t expect prices to go up dramatically like you said by about £1/2.
 
I think the most sensible new addition would be a dark ride in the Dungeons area. There's still a boat ride track in there to use so why not make use of it?

Ideally I'd like them to design something from scratch in house like Efteling do, but I'd settle for an IP.

Toyland Tours was always a crowd pleaser and a nice filler ride to break up the day.
 
RicketyCricket said:
I think the most sensible new addition would be a dark ride in the Dungeons area. There's still a boat ride track in there to use so why not make use of it?

Ideally I'd like them to design something from scratch in house like Efteling do, but I'd settle for an IP.

Toyland Tours was always a crowd pleaser and a nice filler ride to break up the day.
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To be fair, they could probably do that in a medium or low investment year if they wanted to. The ride system they already have always worked well as a family dark ride, so hopefully the park might revert it back in one of the lower years? They’d probably theme it to Walliams, as the land is pretty much just outside and will probably be ripe for expansion, but I suppose they could pick a different theme if they wanted to. If they reverted the Dungeons back, the park would have 4 dark rides (Hex, Duel, Gangsta Granny, family dark ride using Dungeons ride system), which I think is perfectly sufficient for a park of Towers’ size, personally.

I know I’m in a minority, but I would personally like to see another roller coaster as Towers’ next major investment.

I’m sure that Merlin have the ability to produce a fantastic dark ride, as Wicker Man shows that they can pull off really effective themed attractions, but I feel like Merlin would want to build something similar to DBGT, and how that attraction seems to have turned out does make me a little sceptical about whether a dark ride as a major investment would be as successful or have that long-term rerideability that the park’s major coasters do. Granted, I haven’t ridden DBGT, but from what I’ve heard, it has arguably become a little bit of a white elephant for Thorpe, so I wouldn’t personally want a similar scenario to occur with a major dark ride at Towers. I suppose Merlin could have learnt from DBGT’s apparent failures, however... but regardless, I personally feel that 3 or 4 dark rides would be perfectly sufficient for a park like Towers.

As for a water ride (the other popular choice), I admit that a new one would be nice, but a lot of modern water rides seem to be real soakers, and I’m not sure that Britain’s climate really suits a soaker of a water ride. A water coaster might work nicely, however, as I’ve heard that some of those do have sensors to adjust how wet you get dependant on temperature, and it would give the park a new water ride and a new mid-ground family ride while also ticking the box of “SW=coaster”.

Also, another coaster would help to soak up the queues in the way that you all desire, and there are still gaps that the park could fill in their lineup if they wanted to.
 
I think the LAST thing Merlin would want to do is build something like Derren Brown ever again. It's been a drainage pipe of money for them and drowned them in problems to no end.

They have I Corsari in their dark ride / boat ride portfolio. Anything like that would suffice.
 
Danny said:
They have I Corsari in their dark ride / boat ride portfolio. Anything like that would suffice.
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To be honest, they could probably pull this off if they rethemed the Dungeons back into a family dark ride. That wouldn’t even take a major investment year and it would add another filler ride back into the park’s selection.

When I said “something like DBGT”, what I meant was “an attraction that uses lots of very unique technology as well as numerous actor-led sections”. This is an attraction format that Merlin seems to very much like, as they’ve put numerous things using this format into their parks; as well as the aforementioned example of DBGT, there was also Sub-Terra before it, and I’m sure that I could think of other examples within the Merlin group.
 
I would really hope that between DBGT, Sub-Terra and Galactica all ideas of staff-heavy and VR based attracts should be dead at MMM.

A dark ride in the current dungeon building would be great. It doesn't need new technology or anything silly. Some of the best rides still are based on very classic technology. Charlie and choc factory was fine, but a bit life-less, it needed a lot more animatronics and action in most of the scenes.
 
AT would really benefit from a Pirates/Fata Morgana rip off. I corsari is pretty decent, so they have one in their portfolio (albeit inherited) and it has VR if that avenue isn't closed to Merlin. (although I agree it should be @jon81uk :D ).
 
Rojo said:
AT would really benefit from a Pirates/Fata Morgana rip off. I corsari is pretty decent, so they have one in their portfolio (albeit inherited) and it has VR if that avenue isn't closed to Merlin. (although I agree it should be @jon81uk :D ).
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I think Alton Towers already have the pirates theme done and dusted with Mutiny Bay really, so although pirate is a classic theme for an indoor boat ride, it may not be the best choice here. Something like an expanded Hocus Pocus would be good, some kind of generic wizards and witches theme that works with Dark Forest, but is more humorous.
 
I'm conflicted in what I want from the next major project. The park has enough coasters and could use something else, but I don't trust Merlin to put in a major non-coaster attraction that isn't terrible.

The park would be a far more attractive proposition if, rather than a coaster, they spent their next major investment budget on at least 4 good flat rides of varying thrill levels (including 2 to replace Blade and Enterprise as they've pretty much reached end of life). One should be a Gerst Polyp, obviously.
 
^Don't know why everyone wants a Gerstlauer Polyp, there are better flats out there, although I admit they are decent family-thrill rides. Doubt it will happen anyway since I'm pretty sure Merlin have had no intention of working with Gerstlauer since the Smiler.
 
ATI said:
^Don't know why everyone wants a Gerstlauer Polyp, there are better flats out there, although I admit they are decent family-thrill rides.
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Because they're just so much fun, and will appeal to a wide range of guests!

"Get a Gerst Polyp. Stick it in the Dark Forest. Call it Vine Twist. Job's a good'un." Or words to that effect.
 
On the flat ride front, I think an S&S Screamin’ Swing would be a great addition; some of them aren’t that tall, and could probably fit within Alton Towers’ height restriction. I’m also one of few people who seems to really rate Rush at Thorpe; it’s my personal favourite UK flat ride, and if Towers were to get one, it’s something I would very much enjoy riding, personally!

But in terms of SW9, I’d personally like something with a major focus on airtime, because I feel that it’s something the park (and probably the country) lacks. While Wicker Man has quite a few brilliant pops, Smiler has the two really good hills and Thirteen also has some nice floater, I don’t think the park really has anything that properly focuses on airtime. Something that focuses on some really good sustained air would be especially good, but I’m not sure how the park could achieve this within their height restrictions. With those in mind, maybe something like a Chance Hyper GT-X coaster might be a nice addition; Lightning Run at Kentucky Kingdom gets rave reviews, and is only 100ft tall, so I’m sure Chance could concoct something within a nice pit somewhere that fits within Towers’ planning boundaries?
 
Towers coaster line up is fine in my eyes, a good mixture and all have plenty of shelf life left, investments in a couple flats would be nice but it's hard to see merlin putting a flat at towers. My choice would be a trackless dark ride, and for it not to be an IP, I think towers have always been one of the best parks in the world at coming up with unique and interesting storylines for their attractions, so I'd like to see them do that with a top class dark ride for SW9. Where it would go is the question.
 
I would have said get a GCI rollercoaster in Gloomy Wood and give it a similar theme to Mystic Timbers, but then Wicker Man exists i remembered a second later. If i'm honest, from what i've heard most people would like a wing coaster, a water coaster, an Intamin Blitz or a Mack Big Dipper:
. Wing- I can't see it happening tbh
. Blitz- more likely
. Big Dipper- it would fit well in Rita's spot
. water- i would like to see one but i don't know where it could go!
 
I like a Mack Big Dipper and think they're really fun, but ultimately they're designed for smaller parks. The throughput, whilst possibly better than Rita achieves these days, wouldn't be adequate for a new major ride at Towers I wouldn't have thought.
 
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