I'd like to see some hardware similar to Mack's Family Spinning Coaster (Arthur at EP) in CCL. Think if it was themed well, with on-board audio and lighting as Mack can provide, it'd be excellent.
I was thinking that myself the only problem is that would be very expensive possibly more appropriate for Legoland only because they need a big attraction to soak up the crowds. If they built one of these in CCL it would be amazing though especially if they did the Indoor outdoor thing they did with Arther at Europa park. I think it would be nice to see merlin working with Mack more.
Due to budget cuts and reduction in capex, SW9 will actually be known as 'The Rollercoaster Hotel'. The world's first hotel fully dedicated to rollercoasters. Rooms are on a small track.
The thing is none of what B&M currently offer that Towers don’t already have would be suitable. Yes they could develop a new concept but thier track design isn’t as well suited to small footprints as say Mack or Vekoma track because it can be twisted and designed to fit a small space.
To be fair it’s been a while since b&m launches a new product. But your right on the footprint size I just cannot see the room for a coaster the size of AIR or Nemesis
The Air car park is a pretty big area if it is where SW9 is going. It's a little larger than Air's footprint so there's plenty of room to work with.
My prediction is an RMC T-Rex or one of those new Vekoma models in Forbidden Valley. Whatever SW9 is, I think it needs to have a launch.
That whole plan was a load on nonsense. Soon went out the window. This is half the problem though with the park currently. It seems since the smiler crash (and a little bit before) they have lost all direction. There seems to be no proper plan anymore.
The above is what developments SMCD would find appropriate in various places around the park and is from the Churnet Valley Masterplan Supplementary Planning Document.
It's not even specific to Towers, the recently announced X retheme at Thorpe is basically confirmation that redevelopments/new investments are being done in Merlin parks whenever and wherever the head honchos feel like it, regardless of previous plans or work.
I just had a thought. If Merlin are cutting CAPEX budgets, then they should go with an RMC T-Rex. "Why?" I hear you ask. Because: I imagine they are reasonably cheap/you get a lot of coaster for your money. Almost all of RMC's roller coasters are universally praised. No one has gone with a T-Rex yet, so it would give Merlin their precious compelling proposition/USP/whatever gobbledegook Merlin calls it. I can imagine the campaign: "Come and ride [insert coaster name here], the world's first T-Rex single rail coaster. Only at Alton Towers Resort." Actually, it's probably more likely to be: "Come and ride [insert coaster name here], the world's first single rail roller coaster fully dedicated to T-Rexes. Only at Alton Towers Resort."
I don't get why everyone is thinking 'SW9 will be on a small budget', Yeah Merlin have reduced Capex spending but it'll be the smaller RTP's and Midways that'll suffer not the bigger Merlin Parks, I mean Thorpe said they could potentially looking into a B&M for 2020. If Towers preforms well in the next few years I see no reason they won't be able to afford a B&M or whatever. Merlin aren't Parques or Six Flags...
I was going to say I remembered a time when I had your optimism about the world. But I've never been optimistic about anything. Whilst I agree that there's no details on where the capex cuts will fall, history suggests the contrary to what you are suggesting here. I'm intrigued as to why you think that Towers will somehow be excluded from the capex reduction and what "smaller RTP's" you are referring to that will carry the burden instead? Pardon my ignorance, but who's suggesting a B&M is being built at Thorpe in 2020?
I should of explained myself more clearly when I meant 'smaller RTP's, I was on about (Some of) the Legoland Parks and Chessington as they are smaller in attendence compared to something like Gardaland or Alton Towers (Heide Park and Thorpe Park are debatable),
Although I am sure Legoland haven't escaped any cuts, but they said most of the £100m is coming from midways and resort theme parks. When you also consider capital projects at midways is very small in comparisons to the theme parks I expect a lot to come from resort theme parks. dont think there has been any rumours pointing thorpes next coaster to being a B&M, in fact the the only talk about thorpes rumoured 2020 project was before Merlin announced any cuts. Our first indication of potential cuts on large projects could come in 2019 when it's rumoured that Gardaland are getting a new coaster.
