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The World of David Walliams: General Discussion

That's the thing, really; dark rides come surprisingly cheap these days, as tech becomes more widespread! Didn't Legendia build their interactive dark ride for somewhere in the £2m ballpark in 2018?
 
Matt N said:
That's the thing, really; dark rides come surprisingly cheap these days, as tech becomes more widespread! Didn't Legendia build their interactive dark ride for somewhere in the £2m ballpark in 2018?
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That ride is almost entirely screen based and things cost much less in Poland.

I think it was closer to £3million anyway.
 
Matt N said:
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?
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Based on we've seen so far I'd lean more towards Cuckoo Cars remaining as a stand alone attraction. Or we could see 'Cloud Cuckoo Land' remain as an area, a little like 'Adventure Land' still technically exists. In previous years rides which were being removed from the park would have come off the site in the past week or so.

That said there is still some time for them to announce a David Walliams theme if they want to have a second round of interest between now and the season start.
 
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Matt N said:
That's the thing, really; dark rides come surprisingly cheap these days, as tech becomes more widespread! Didn't Legendia build their interactive dark ride for somewhere in the £2m ballpark in 2018?
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£2m doesn't get you much dark ride these days.

I expect this to be 95% screens with a couple of moving features. Low budgets don't allow for large physical sets.

Also, with all due respect... Alton Towers is not Legendia.

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Are we sure it isn't just going to be a bunch of these plonked in there?
 
These photos from New Year’s Eve seem to show zero work on Cuckcoo Cars, suggesting it will either be a very light retheme, or none at all.



It also appears they may be moving Frog Hopper back to its location outside the old Nick building, opening up the possibility of theatre re-opening. It also looks like cosmetic work is also happening on the front of the theatre which also supports that theory.



The fence around Twirling Toadstool could have just been removed to help with access for construction, or maybe a replacement flat will be added. Or a new patch of grass.
 
As a couple of people have intimated - it most certainly is a multi-year project.

The fact is, Alton Towers no longer have the budgets required to do a complete themed area and attractions in one year.

The budgets that Merlin are green-lighting just are not sufficient anymore.
 
AstroDan said:
As a couple of people have intimated - it most certainly is a multi-year project.

The fact is, Alton Towers no longer have the budgets required to do a complete themed area and attractions in one year.

The budgets that Merlin are green-lighting just are not sufficient anymore.
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Has the buyout been completed yet? Hoping the budget situation will change. This judges would have been put in place before the buyout anyway.

Can I ask where did the £2m budget source come from? It does seem low.
 
I'm not sure if we shared it at the time but here's an early construction pic from December 8th 2019:

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You can see the scaffolding up around the Gangsta Granny building, so hopefully we're going to see slightly more then a basic repaint. Also you can see more of the Gallopers being stored under the Education Centre awning.

I'm guessing that since the Gallopers has been left on site since construction began we probably shouldn't be expecting any significant retheme. :/
 
AstroDan said:
It isn't a quoted source. It is a speculated one.

2020 is a "small" capex year at ATR. £2m is typical of such a year. 2019 was also a "small" year.
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I thought it was supposedly a medium year under Merlin's 4-year cycle? Or have they changed it again?

Out of interest, how are people managing to get these photos? Were they taken during the Christmas event or something?

In terms of my thoughts, the fact that Frog Hopper has moved makes me optimistic about the 4D cinema reopening in some form; they could very well have just left it there if they had no plans of reopening the cinema. I must admit, the lack of work on Driving School is rather interesting; maybe the theme they're applying won't take too long to implement?
 
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