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The World of David Walliams: General Discussion

skyscraper said:
Video by Coaster Chall;
Interesting that he thinks, from the car design, plans and what other people have said, that it will be a trackless system from Mack Rides. We'll have to wait and see but I would be very happy if this was the case. :)
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Mack don't have a trackless system in their portfolio at present, and in any case there's no need for a trackless system based on what is a very linear layout:

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I can't see this being trackless at all, there's no need for it as it wouldn't add to the ride experience at all. I'm expecting a Ninjago style ride vehicle that spins, and has built in effects such as wind (but without the shooting aspect) which run on a track.
 
theGman on CoasterForce has made a plausible suggestion that the ride system for Gangsta Granny: The Ride could be the Garmendale Motion Master: https://www.garmendale.co.uk/theme-park-ride-systems/motion-master-six-all-electric-3dof-ride/

For those that don't know, this is apparently the ride system used on Forbidden Caves at Bobbejaanland, and it was designed in conjunction with Holovis, the company who did Wicker Man's pre-show, as well as being the company that apparently employs Pete Cliff, Alton Towers' former entertainments director. I could potentially see Holovis also getting involved here, as Merlin seem to like using them.

From looking at Garmendale's website, this certainly seems likely, as the vehicle shown looks similar to the one in the rendering, and Merlin seem to have used Garmendale a lot lately.
EDIT: I don't think it is the same ride system as Forbidden Caves, actually, as that looks more like an Immersive Tunnel from the POV I just watched, but I still think that the Garmendale Motion Master seems like a very plausible option!
 
Matt N said:
theGman on CoasterForce has made a plausible suggestion that the ride system for Gangsta Granny: The Ride could be the Garmendale Motion Master: https://www.garmendale.co.uk/theme-park-ride-systems/motion-master-six-all-electric-3dof-ride/

For those that don't know, this is apparently the ride system used on Forbidden Caves at Bobbejaanland, and it was designed in conjunction with Holovis, the company who did Wicker Man's pre-show, as well as being the company that apparently employs Pete Cliff, Alton Towers' former entertainments director. I could potentially see Holovis also getting involved here, as Merlin seem to like using them.

From looking at Garmendale's website, this certainly seems likely, as the vehicle shown looks similar to the one in the rendering, and Merlin seem to have used Garmendale a lot lately.
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The funny thing is the ride will be the same length as that prototype :tearsofjoy:
 
siralgenon said:
The funny thing is the ride will be the same length as that prototype :tearsofjoy:
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Even though it's not the longest dark ride in the world, I don't think it'll be quite that short! Besides, the ride might stop at points and work around the length for all we know!
 
Yup Forbidden Caves is an Immersive Tunnel ride using a 30 seater bus, so a different ride to the Motion Master Six being suggested. Both built by Garmendale though, and Holovis procured Garmendale to produce the ride system for it.

Holovis did debut "The Lost Cove" at IAAPA a few years back which appears to be a static car moving in front of a large screen. The chassis of that car does feature in one of Garmendale's videos for the tracked version:

 
Croftybaby said:
"We want something like Spiderman in Universal"
"Ok whats your budget?"

"50p"
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I do think Alton Towers needs another big scale dark ride but this was never going to be it. It was pretty much known since October that it was going in the wobble world building. Also I don’t think these books would lend themselves to that sort of ride.
Derren Browns confusing VR train should have been the SpiderMan style dark ride.
 
I'd argue that they probably won't need to build another family dark ride, as I'd say this could almost fill that void, even if it isn't the largest attraction by any means! David Walliams' books appeal to a wide audience, and this ride certainly seems to be designed with a wide audience in mind!

In a way, I'd almost call this ride the spiritual successor to CATCF, as even though the Dungeons was its physical replacement, Gangsta Granny will appeal far more to that wider family demographic that CATCF was designed for than the Alton Towers Dungeon does.

Interestingly, this is also the first brand new traditional-style dark ride built at Alton Towers since the Haunted House was built in 1992! I know that Hex and Sub-Terra are newer than the Haunted House, but I wouldn't really call those "traditional dark rides" as such; I'd say they more fall under the category of "stationary ride system within a wider walkthrough attraction". I'm also aware of the many ride rethemes that have taken place since 1992, but they did not entail any sort of new ride system being built (apart from the elevators for CATCF in 2006). By traditional dark ride, I mean a tracked ride system that moves through different scenes in a ride vehicle (e.g. most dark rides around the world. I probably didn't phrase that in the best way!).
 
Zooming in on the layout, it looks as though there's at least one, more likely two screen sections on the ride, so this would extend the ride time:

Screenshot-at-Jan-09-19-24-37.png


That said, the plans also show just 4 cars, meaning if that's correct a capacity of just 24 riders. They're going to need that queue line space in the opening months!
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it would seem that the ride will enter closer to Driving School and exit where House of Monsters used to enter or approximately in that location. For some reason, I was expecting it to be the other way round, but I'm not sure why!

Interestingly, the park has thus far mentioned nothing about the Driving School and its fate; do we think this is something they are yet to announce, or are we predicting that it has been removed? I'm leaning towards the former, personally; the park has said that there are more surprises to be announced, so I could see a new theme for the Driving School being announced at a later date. That does beg the question, however; why did they announce the new Frog Hopper & Gallopers themes, but not Driving School's?

However, I'm now starting to have doubts about whether the 4D Cinema will reopen. I definitely think that there's a decent chance it could reopen, but the fact that Frog Hopper is staying and the Toy Shop doesn't seem to be reopening does seem to question whether it will be reopening. I think it would certainly be a nice thing to have, and it would be quite inexpensive to reopen, so I could definitely see it being one of the surprises that the park is yet to announce, but I'm not overly sure at this stage.
 
I'm not expecting much however this is a pretty inoffensive investment considering it's taking over an area that has been barren for years. I'm disappointed of no mention of the 4D cinema returning.

Fingers crossed The Dungeons are removed in 2021 to pave way for a larger dark ride to become a part of the area once more.
 
The ride is very cheap. It wasn't designed for ATR originally. It was designed for a midway attraction but their project was shelved resulting in a system going spare.

Don't expect anything more than a basic ride and you'll probably be OK.

Merlin are spending MINIMAL amounts on their parks at the moment.

The budget for this will be as such.

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AstroDan said:
The ride is very cheap. It wasn't designed for ATR originally. It was designed for a midway attraction but their project was shelved resulting in a system going spare.

Don't expect anything more than a basic ride and you'll probably be OK.

Merlin are spending MINIMAL amounts on their parks at the moment.

The budget for this will be as such.

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I take it the ride wouldn't have been themed to David Walliams in the midway attraction? Certainly interesting to hear that it wasn't designed for ATR, and this would explain the original rumours of CATCF being used.
 
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It's as cheap as you could get a dark ride in for, really.

I'm highly concerned about the ride length.

I hope it's pretty, at least.

There's no budget for the area as far as I know. It'll be basic.

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AstroDan said:
It's as cheap as you could get a dark ride in for, really.

I'm highly concerned about the ride length.

I hope it's pretty, at least.

There's no budget for the area as far as I know. It'll be basic.

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Sorry to keep asking questions, but by "no budget", how much are we talking? Like £2-3m?
 
I'd probably estimate in the region of £2m.

Figures that historically wouldn't have even entertained the idea of building a dark ride at ATR.

But these are new times, with lower investment and new, cheaper manufacturers.

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