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The World of David Walliams: General Discussion

Rick said:
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Oh wow; that is actually a surprisingly substantial space! I reckon we could potentially be seeing a small dark ride here; it would definitely function as a replacement to what I presume was a planned Charlie replacement in the original plans for the area (which I heard were to be built in 2019, but were cancelled in favour of ATD?).
 
MaxPower said:
Walkthrough similar to Room on the Broom incoming.

Remember, they'll have to fit in a cattle pen queue and fasttrack entrance into that space so it won't be anything extravagant.
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Surely that would be outside (external) though? ;)
 
skyscraper said:
Surely that would be outside (external) though? ;)
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According to the (leaked) plans I saw, the entire building will be fitted with a large indoor cattle-pen. A cardboard cut-out of David Walliams will greet guests at the exit to the walk-through as the finale.

But, you're right, an outdoor cattle-pen will be required for guests to queue for the attraction (the indoor cattle-pen).
 
The only place they could really put a large external queue in for that building would be where the CCL cars currently run.

It would be a bit of a failure if anything new did not provide more attraction capacity, because AT has lost so much of that with removals, slower loading procedures etc. over the last few years.
Charlie, Toadstools, Wobble World,,the cars and Ice Age 4D had a decent combined capacity AT would greatly benefit from reinstating.
 
I know it's easy to bash Merlin and they generally deserve it, but CCL has needed work for ages and it's finally getting done.

So far, it looks pretty promising with a new decent IP and new dark ride of some description. They aren't going to blow enthusiasts away with this development but I reckon give them a chance and wait and see what they are doing at least!

I'm guessing that we'll see a Zamperla bundle purchase installed in the area.
 
In my opinion, the use of the words "new ride" in Alton Towers' marketing definitely implies that whatever is being built in the Wobble World space will be a ride of some form; if it were to be a walkthrough a la Room on the Broom, like many seem to be expecting for some reason, I presume something along the lines of "new attraction" or "new experience" would have been used instead. My current expectation is a small dark ride, maybe something along the lines of the recently opened Snorri Touren at Europa Park in terms of scale, which I think would suit the area down to the ground. Dependant on manufacturer, I could even see it potentially being trackless, as I don't actually think the technology is that expensive to buy these days if you're building a simpler ride, and trackless rides are also quite good for spaces that aren't massive; the aforementioned example of Snorri Touren was built in a relatively small basement beneath Scandinavia!

I must admit, I am rather looking forward to seeing how this area turns out! If you think about it, it actually has the potential to satisfy many people's demands of Alton Towers at present:
  • The Wobble World project could very well provide the new family dark ride that many people want at Alton Towers.
  • David Walliams' books are aimed at the exact audience that many people want Alton Towers to provide for more heavily (the "too big for CBeebies, but too small for Nemesis" audience), so this area should fill that void.
  • This project will involve the overhaul of CCL that many have been asking for.
So I am definitely looking forward to seeing what Merlin Magic Making and Alton Towers unveil in 2020! I think we could be in for a really good area, personally!

On a side note, are we expecting this area to open at the start of the season in March or later on?
 
On another note, what are we expecting in terms of ride lineup in the area and the fate of the present CCL attractions? In terms of my personal expectations, I'd say they are as follows:
  • Wobble World/House of Monsters building to be reutilised for the area's "headline attraction", which I'm presently expecting to be a small dark ride of some form. Not sure what the theme could be; maybe an amalgamation of all of Walliams' novels?
  • Driving School to be rethemed, potentially to Bad Dad as cars feature quite heavily as a theme in this novel.
  • 4D Cinema to be reopened showing a new film of some sort. As with the headline attraction, I'm not sure whether they'd go for a specific Walliams novel or an amalgamation of all of them.
  • Frog Hopper to be removed; it would definitely have to be at the very least relocated if the 4D Cinema reopens, and they have a near clone of it in CBeebies Land now, so I'm not overly sure whether it's worth keeping.
  • I'm not too sure what they could do with Gallopers Carousel; I could potentially see it getting replaced with something new, but I suppose there are also retheme opportunities.
  • I could potentially see them putting in some form of new family ride on the site of Twirling Toadstool; maybe some form of family flat ride or maybe even a family coaster, dependant on budget?
Whatever happens, though, I definitely see new ride hardware being involved in some way. Under Merlin's investment cycle, 2020 is set to be a "medium" year, and as Alton Towers is presently one of Merlin's strongest performers in the RTP division, I could see there being a reasonable budget. For reference, past medium years at Alton Towers have brought investments like Ice Age & Sub Terra, costing around £5m combined in 2012, and CBeebies Land, costing £9m in 2014. I'm not personally expecting the budget to be as high as CBeebies' was, as Old McDonald's Farmyard and Storybook Land combined was a considerably larger area than CCL, but I could see around £4-5m, which could net them a decent amount of things.
 
What worries me is how much of that budget have they spent buying just the "rights " ? Hence not leaving much to spend on hardware. I know poultons worked pepper pig world well but since their new themed areas are original free themes so can spend more on hardware which is what the customers want at the end of the day. Alton fell lucky with CBEEBIES Land as they already had good hardware which could just be rethemed. Cloud cuckoo land is definitely going to need hardware investment otherwise poor David walliams is going to be a laughing stock if his area has just 3 or 4 attractions.
 
Thinking on would planning consent not be needed for new attractions? It was needed for zoom ride thing and Peter rabbit in Cbeebies Land was it not surely we'd be seeing applications if new attractions were on the way?
 
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