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Wicker Man - General Discussion - Part Two

Britford said:
What's the max..."thickness"...
FAT!
for this ride?
Can someone ask on twitter?
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Millennium flyer trains are fairly average In comparison to other rides for fitting larger folk on them. This guy at the media event looks to me to be someone who would struggle on most rides.

It’s hard to get an exact dimension limit as each restraint has different issues. Some rides restrict based on the size of the belly, others it’s the thickness of the thighs and sometimes it’s chest measurements.

If wickermans trains are like Wodans then if you can ride Spinball then you will definately be fine.
 
There isn't really a thickness you can put as say chest size like OTSRs, and in most cases belly size is completely irrelevant too. So officially, there's no measurements they can give.

There's two main things that may cause a problem - big thighs (my problem on some rides!) and being tall - or simply just having long legs. As I mentioned earlier, Spinball has a problem with long legs due to having them at a pretty high angle when you're sitting in the seat. On top of that the bar sits further back on Spinball compared to Wicker Man causing issues for those with a bigger belly, especially when you're hunched in the seat. That's why I said earlier if you're fine on Spinball (or even if you're a few clicks away and don't usually get on) you'll likely be absolutely fine on Wicker Man.

Wodan is a good comparison as I pretty much find Wicker Man to be the same restraint wise for obvious reasons, if anything maybe slightly more forgiving. Just give it a shot - the vast, vast majority of people will be absolutely fine on the ride!
 
I remember bashing my kneecaps on Wodan the first couple of rides due to my long legs. But adjusted to a cross legged approach and was fine.
 
Can someone explain to me any conceivable reason why, if AT do as their faceboom suggests, that they’d be able to open every ride bar wickerman?

Is wickerman more prone to snow or something? Maybe I’m cynical but to me it all seems a bit odd that they can open every ride in the park but the brand new one, with its opening day joe rearranged for next Saturday, is still unable to run due to snow.
 
Josh555 said:
Can someone explain to me any conceivable reason why, if AT do as their faceboom suggests, that they’d be able to open every ride bar wickerman?

Is wickerman more prone to snow or something? Maybe I’m cynical but to me it all seems a bit odd that they can open every ride in the park but the brand new one, with its opening day joe rearranged for next Saturday, is still unable to run due to snow.
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I think they are being a bit more careful as there has never been public on the ride before (apart from previews etc) and don't want something to happen such as the ride stalling and someone slipping on ice during the evacuation etc. The last thing they want is an incident before the "official" opening.
 
Or maybe they want to open it on Sat? That' the one thing I haven' seen mentioned here. Hasn' anyone thought that now they are delaying opening till then so they don' have people ride it mid week? This could be for 2 reasons. 1 so nothing malfuntions before official opening and 2 for the figures. If you ride mid week chances are you won' return opening day so gate figures won' look as impressive as keeping the ride closed and then having everyone turn up sat to ride it. It might even work it Altons favour. If they can show the ride brings high attendance then can request further budgets
 
Merlin / Towers won't care what the numbers are like on the ride's opening day. They'll care what they're like during the whole season.

Open the ride sooner, more people visit sooner, which increases their chance of returning during the season. And a person is more likely to return if they experience the park on an off peak weekday than a busy weekend.
 
It's their brand new ride, which is the first of it's type at the park - it's not the same as the rides they've had running in poor conditions for years. As KingNemesis quite rightly says, they want to be 100% sure that running conditions are good for it. Up here there's still spots of ice around, and that's likely the same down at Alton too. There's no conspiracy about holding off for a big reveal on Saturday, if anything they'll feel more comfortable getting some more low key running going on during the week.

Considering how things were going yesterday, give it a few hours today for things to warm up further and I can't see why we won't see it running at least for a bit today.
 
Of course they care about opening day figures. Any major theme park keeps a eye on figures for spikes or declines to help decided what's needed to improve. Opening weekend will tell them if there adverts on social media instead of main stream was successful and will problely determine next course of adverts
 
Crawleyboy01 said:
Or maybe they want to open it on Sat? That' the one thing I haven' seen mentioned here. Hasn' anyone thought that now they are delaying opening till then so they don' have people ride it mid week? This could be for 2 reasons. 1 so nothing malfuntions before official opening and 2 for the figures. If you ride mid week chances are you won' return opening day so gate figures won' look as impressive as keeping the ride closed and then having everyone turn up sat to ride it. It might even work it Altons favour. If they can show the ride brings high attendance then can request further budgets
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I suppose though by running it midweek, if something DOES malfunction then they may have time to sort it before the official opening. I mean, it malfunctioning on opening day would be somewhat disastrous for them, at least in the short term. Surely its good for it to be run in by a couple of days before Sat.
 
Crawleyboy01 said:
Of course they care about opening day figures. Any major theme park keeps a eye on figures for spikes or declines to help decided what's needed to improve. Opening weekend will tell them if there adverts on social media instead of main stream was successful and will problely determine next course of adverts
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The phrase "all of your eggs in one basket" springs to mind. No way are they putting everything on an opening day? You want sustainable figures throughout the season. In fact, I don't really think anyone cares about an opening day apart from us... Talking to many people in my office, they are saying "I'll visit later in the year"
 
Although they are saying the official opening is the 24th - every tweet I see from Towers also indicates they will open the ride this week as soon as the weather improves. If they keep it closed this week, it will only serve to annoy people who are visiting this week. It will also make sense to run it this week to iron out any niggles, and get it fully ready for the weekend.

As for why its still closed, looking at the pictures, there is still ice on the walkways around the track. I would assume this therefore, means that engineers cannot access the ride should it fail and for checks, and that if there was an evac needed, they wouldnt be able to do it.

Given Towers said specifically it will not open this morning I think they are hoping to get it running this afternoon.
 
rob666 said:
1.95metres I think...don't know what that is in old money.
The max height line is there right by the turnstile.
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Not done to quote yourself...but I need to correct myself...again.
Infusion has a height limit of two metres, or six foot six in old money.
So I have a spare couple of inches, especially around the waist.
Used to be six foot four, but now only six three.
See what old age does to you.
 
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