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Who will win 2018's new coaster battle?

Which coaster will be the bigger success for its respective park?

  • Icon

    Votes: 80 60.6%

  • Wicker Man

    Votes: 52 39.4%
  • Total voters
    132
Danny said:
Having now done both rides, there's an easy conclusion as to who "won" this "battle".

We've been screaming out for a modern woodie in the UK, nevermind Towers for so long and we finally had one delivered. We've also gained the most varied and surprising coaster from a park that has long been overdue a modern thrill ride and they've done a fantastic job with it.

Two very solid and enjoyable roller coasters have opened in the country this year, each with their own merits and down sides. Whilst Icon suffers from tacky general appearances such as the turfing and the exterior station visuals, as well as the worst launch of any UK coaster, it has a great soundtrack, transitional pacing, surprising air time and will really benefit from the operations that thus far the team on it have been able to demonstrate they can match.

Wicker Man may not be the most exciting layout we were begging for and potentially could have had, however when it warms up and certainly at night, it's for the most part a very enjoyable ride experience. The theming is undoubtedly of a very different scale of anything we've seen from Merlin for some time with obvious care and attention to detail having been applied to the project.

But who or what is the real winner here?

The two rides are too different to effectively compare on paper so it's down to personal preference; but ultimately the real winner here is us as the riders. We've gained two experiences we struggled to believe we'd see in this country that cater for almost everybody. The only tragedy is that Drayton couldn't pull their plans together to put something else on the table.
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Absolutely bang on. Neither park or ride will 'win'. The UK coaster industry did. I love both and really hope the success of WM restores Alton back to it former glory. BPB just need to keep on doing what they are doing. Both are a win for us, the consumers.
 
You know, I just thought of something pretty funny about the UK's new for 2018 duo. Icon is a Mack launch coaster and Wicker Man is a GCI woodie, so Britain has basically recreated the Iceland area of Europa-Park in terms of ride hardware! No? OK, I'll leave now.
 
Sorry for bumping the thread, but now that I have ridden both Icon and Wicker Man, I've come to the conclusion that while I do rate Icon higher as a ride (it's my #2 coaster compared to WM being my #10 coaster.), you can't really compare them, as they set out to do different things for their respective parks.

The way I see it, Icon set out to give BPB a much-needed "modern steel coaster" so to speak, and I personally feel that it has done that superbly!

Wicker Man, on the other hand, set out to give Alton Towers a much needed wooden coaster and a properly immersive experience coaster. I also feel that Wicker Man has done its job superbly!

So overall, I must admit that I prefer Icon, but both rides have been superb fits for their respective parks, in my opinion!

However, I must admit that I have seen a rather interesting response regarding Icon and Wicker Man from my family. My sister agrees with me on Icon, and currently has it as her number 1 coaster. However, my parents seem to much prefer Wicker Man. My dad said to me when we came off of Wicker Man yesterday "Come on, you've got to admit that Wicker Man is so much more fun than Icon!" and my mum said to me "I normally either scream or laugh on rides. Icon had nothing that made me want to do that; it was very boring. Wicker Man, on the other hand; I was laughing the whole way round, it was just so much more exciting!"

Oh, the wonder of opinion!
P.S. Sorry for long post.
 
Matt N said:
Sorry for bumping the thread, but now that I have ridden both Icon and Wicker Man, I've come to the conclusion that while I do rate Icon higher as a ride (it's my #2 coaster compared to WM being my #10 coaster.), you can't really compare them, as they set out to do different things for their respective parks.

The way I see it, Icon set out to give BPB a much-needed "modern steel coaster" so to speak, and I personally feel that it has done that superbly!

Wicker Man, on the other hand, set out to give Alton Towers a much needed wooden coaster and a properly immersive experience coaster. I also feel that Wicker Man has done its job superbly!

So overall, I must admit that I prefer Icon, but both rides have been superb fits for their respective parks, in my opinion!

However, I must admit that I have seen a rather interesting response regarding Icon and Wicker Man from my family. My sister agrees with me on Icon, and currently has it as her number 1 coaster. However, my parents seem to much prefer Wicker Man. My dad said to me when we came off of Wicker Man yesterday "Come on, you've got to admit that Wicker Man is so much more fun than Icon!" and my mum said to me "I normally either scream or laugh on rides. Icon had nothing that made me want to do that; it was very boring. Wicker Man, on the other hand; I was laughing the whole way round, it was just so much more exciting!"

Oh, the wonder of opinion!
P.S. Sorry for long post.
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... and people said wooden roller coasters were "unmarketable" to the general public.

My thought from Icon is if you're judging it based on the launches it will dissapoint (at least for me) but everything else makes it a fantastic coaster. Whereas Wicker Man is "just" a traditional wooden roller coaster but a very enjoyable one.

What I'm trying to say is Wicker Man is better at being a wooden coaster than Icon is at being a launch coaster. However add the inversions, twists, airtime that Icon has and maybe that pushes it ahead.

Did that make any sense?
 
speedy said:
... and people said wooden roller coasters were "unmarketable" to the general public.

My thought from Icon is if you're judging it based on the launches it will dissapoint (at least for me) but everything else makes it a fantastic coaster. Whereas Wicker Man is "just" a traditional wooden roller coaster but a very enjoyable one.

What I'm trying to say is Wicker Man is better at being a wooden coaster than Icon is at being a launch coaster. However add the inversions, twists, airtime that Icon has and maybe that pushes it ahead.

Did that make any sense?
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Yes, I get what you mean. I wouldn't personally say that Icon is really focused on the launches, more on the overall coaster experience and how it all blends together.

I don't think my parents were judging Icon based off the launches. My mum was actually expecting Icon to have a lift hill until we got on it, so was very surprised when we were launched out of the station!

Even though I personally prefer Icon, I feel that both rides have been brilliant investments for their respective parks!

However, it does seem as though Wicker Man has been far more successful for Alton Towers than Icon has been for Blackpool Pleasure Beach (commercially, I mean), because Alton Towers seems a lot busier this year than 2017, but from reports, BPB actually seems less busy than it was in 2017. I'm not sure why this could be; could it possibly be down to Wicker Man offering a more appealing product than Icon to the GP? As my parents both lean towards Wicker Man when you ask them which of the 2018 coasters they prefer.
P.S. Sorry for long post!
 
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I don't know for sure, but a Blackpool employee did say Icon hadn't seen the response they were hoping for. Maybe you're right and people are just visiting Alton Towers instead (I guess most people don't visit both).

I'm sorry but I can't decide on one or the other. I thoroughly enjoyed both.

As far as family/general public are concerned my mum won't ride anything that goes upside down without OTSRs (she refused to try Scorpion). However I reckon I could win her over with Icon. She also doesn't like wooden coasters, but I convinced her to try Heidi and she liked it so I think she would try Wicker Man. I wonder if the lapbars put anyone else Icon?
 
Another thing that i'll add is that we all felt Icon was absolutely going to pummel Wicker Man before they were both built, which obviously I don't think has happened, perhaps it's just Wicker Man's relentless pacing that I like, it feels like it doesn't let up until you hit the brakes. But now if we're also judging on which has been more successful for it's park in question, then Wicker Man takes it again.
 
Danscott22 said:
Another thing that i'll add is that we all felt Icon was absolutely going to pummel Wicker Man before they were both built, which obviously I don't think has happened, perhaps it's just Wicker Man's relentless pacing that I like, it feels like it doesn't let up until you hit the brakes. But now if we're also judging on which has been more successful for it's park in question, then Wicker Man takes it again.
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I think for me personally, Icon was as expected whereas Wicker Man was better than expected. Both were what the respective parks needed.
 
I like them both, but Icon wins because the throughput is so high. You can easily go on it 3 or 4 times in a visit, wheras Wickerman is a single ride on a visit, because the queue takes so long to get through.
 
TheBolt said:
I like them both, but Icon wins because the throughput is so high. You can easily go on it 3 or 4 times in a visit, wheras Wickerman is a single ride on a visit, because the queue takes so long to get through.
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Thing is the ICON queue is nowhere near as big as the Wickerman queue so its going to go down quicker

If the WM queue is about where the queue line shop is i'd consider that a small queue and would probably re ride...but i'd say the same amount of people would probably be at the ICON gates

Does the ICON queue really move faster than Wickermans.....i'm not too sure myself (not counting downtime....which is rare on WM i admit)
 
yoursilentface said:
Ti'm not too sure myself (not counting downtime....which is rare on WM i admit)
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Yeah, Wicker Man is supprisingly reliable now. :) When I went on Tuesday it was only down once so they could add the third train, as a problem with it meant that they couldn't add it at the start of service.
 
skyscraper said:
Yeah, Wicker Man is supprisingly reliable now. :) When I went on Tuesday it was only down once so they could add the third train, as a problem with it meant that they couldn't add it at the start of service.
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Yes. it's in it's groove now i hope, No downtime today as far as i could tell, and the restraint issues seem to be over now, they were banging them out so quick today a train was still on circuit as another train was halfway up the lifthill
 
Having visited BPB 3 times this year i think i can say that Wickerman has been the biggest success for its respective park

Icon just doesn't seem to have pulled in the crowds from what i've seen

They must be disappointed with its performance for getting people in....the big one still seems the big draw for punters to me
 
Very interesting... opinions definitely seem to have changed since the rides first opened. When the rides first opened, it seemed like Icon was getting better reviews. However, it seems as though Icon's good reviews were only around opening, whereas Wicker Man's good reception seems to have stood the test of time. Even though I personally prefer Icon, it seems like most prefer Wicker Man now... could 1994 be repeating itself?

Not that I'm trying to compare the two rides, though; both are amazing and different in their own special ways, in my opinion!
 
Was disappointed I didn't get a ride on Wicker Man in the dark on Saturday, but the one ride I had on it was great. Gives me a reason to go back next year I suppose.

Also haven't done Icon yet. Next year it will happen!
 
Unfortunately I can’t really compare the rides in terms of experience as I’ve not yet ridden Icon. However, I think based on looking at the general public opinion of both rides, Wicker Man has clearly been more of a success for Alton Towers than Icon has been for Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

Pleasure Beach’s poor marketing has probably contributed. Perhaps Wicker Man catering for a larger demographic than Icon has also. Wicker Man just seems to have dominated this year, I’ve heard very little about Icon in terms of advertising, social media, etc. I’ve not met one single person in real life who knows about Icon... yet it’s actually been surprising the amount of people I’ve met who know Alton Towers opened Wicker Man this year...
 
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