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Alton Towers | Wicker Man | GCI Wood

Matt N

CF Legend
I'm gonna buck the trend and say that I didn't think that looked too bad. Bit slow in one or two portions, but generally looks OK. I'm sure it will be a good, fun family ride, however fast the ride turns out to be. It looks no slower to me than InvadR does at BGW, and that has received pretty good reviews from those that have ridden. I did giggle at the video being entitled "world exclusive", though. Sounds like Alton Towers themselves!
 

vaugc002

Mega Poster
Looks beautiful but doesn't appear to have a single decent drop on it.

You don't always need a huge drop to make a good ride though...
eg. Twister @ Gronalund

In terms of pacing, I'm guessing they slow the train down somehow for testing? I don't know enough about the technicalities but I'm pretty sure that's a thing.
Some of those turns still looked pretty nippy so hopefully once it has finailsed testing there will be some decent speed there.
 

sandgrown

Mega Poster
You don't always need a huge drop to make a good ride though...
eg. Twister @ Gronalund

In terms of pacing, I'm guessing they slow the train down somehow for testing? I don't know enough about the technicalities but I'm pretty sure that's a thing.
Some of those turns still looked pretty nippy so hopefully once it has finailsed testing there will be some decent speed there.

Not a huge one of course. But you'd want a bit of the butterflies even on a family coaster I think. Or I wouldn't really understand why you'd have a blank canvas and decide to leave it out as an element.
 

vaugc002

Mega Poster
Not a huge one of course. But you'd want a bit of the butterflies even on a family coaster I think. Or I wouldn't really understand why you'd have a blank canvas and decide to leave it out as an element.

I'm sure it will have some airtime moments - it has several drops that should be taken a some speed (hopefully once it's tested further).
Don't hold me on that though ;)
 

scw55

Hyper Poster
Are they testing with half load?

The lifthill looks like someone playing planetcoaster discovered the snap-angle option when building the chain section.
 

Matt N

CF Legend
I'm sure we'll have some ground level testing footage soon. That'll probably give a better idea of speed. And then we'll have a POV. And before you know it, we'll have a video of Robb Alvey on it screaming "WHEEE!!! TWISTY!!! TAKE THE TUNNEL!!!" or maybe even "TAKE THE WICKER MAN!!!" *shudders*
 

Bert2theSpark

Mega Poster
I'm sure we'll have some ground level testing footage soon. That'll probably give a better idea of speed. And then we'll have a POV. And before you know it, we'll have a video of Robb Alvey on it screaming "WHEEE!!! TWISTY!!! TAKE THE TUNNEL!!!" or maybe even "TAKE THE WICKER MAN!!!" *shudders*
Robb has made his disgust for Wicker Man very clear and is critising everything about it. And he hasn't visited the park since 2005...
 

SaiyanHajime

CF Legend
It's January and it's new. Coasters run slow in the cold. We won't know until it wears in and....

I dunno who I'm kidding, that is slow.

This ride belongs at Chessington with a theme appropriate to the obviously tame ride experience.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
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Lofty

CF Legend
It's January and it's new. Coasters run slow in the cold. We won't know until it wears in and....

I dunno who I'm kidding, that is slow.

This ride belongs at Chessington with a theme appropriate to the obviously tame ride experience.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Literally this.

Yeah, coasters do need to wear in and cold weather plays havoc with woodies, but, my god THAT was slow.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
Am I the only one that noticed it practically stop at the top of the lift hill?

I mean, it's not like it's got a cable lift that's going to give it loads of extra speed, but that's got to be worth something...
 

SaiyanHajime

CF Legend
I dunno if anyone else here has ridden, or even just paid attention to Invadr at Busch Williamsburg, but it really is the most mundane and uninteresting ride.

"But it's a family coaster." **** off. That isn't a legitimate excuse to be crap.

I'm a firm believer that target audience shouldn't matter. There are exceptions some smart arse is going to point out, but if you can all put on your gradient hats instead of the regular black and white ones for just a second and listen, that would be just awesome.

...Your target audience might be ...10 year olds, but if you create something of quality it might be most enjoyed by 10 year olds, but their parents and older siblings will enjoy it to.

With rides, the only legitimate boundary to a ride being accessible to all audiences are safety restrictions. There might be the odd case where you wanna make a rides theme inappropriate for a younger audience, but that should be (and is outside of Merlin ffs) a rare event.

Invadr isn't lame because it's a family ride, it's lame because it's not good.

There are plenty of people who aren't fans of GCI and I can understand why, but Lightning Racer and Thunderhead are some of my favourite rides.

I've been worried from the start that this is just Invadr... Only with an inappropriate theme. It wouldn't surprise me if it has a height restriction above necessity. It wouldn't surprise me if they market it to be adult and scary.

And then Wickerman's teen/adult target audience will come off it and go "that was lame, wooden coasters suck".

Also Invadr was like, rougher than other GCIs? Like, it's no Wildcat at Herhsey, but it wasn't smooth and sweeping like they usually are. Seems like they've got a consistency problem and cannot do anything outside of their bubble.

Wickerman isn't going to be amazing. Like, that much is plain as day. At this point we can still hope and even expect it to be a welcomed difference in Alton's lineup. But... I feel like I've been doing this now for long enough to look at that and turn my nose up. But I'll admit if I'm wrong and end up loving it.

I haven't been paying much attention to the construction of this, but does it have trims anywhere? Is there a chance they're on for testing? Clinging to hope. And I guess, if it's as rough as Invadr, maybe the slowness will be a blessing lol. :/

There's just so many problems with this thing that I don't even know what to make of it really. We finally get a woodie and it's little and lame. It's got another dark theme, but it's clearly a family ride. It's got a eh layout and runs it slow. The theme is the only thing I'm on board with - what a cool, Alton appropriate concept, but whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhy is it so at odds with the damn ride. It;s as if they don't know it's going to be tame and lame... Or it's as if tame and lame is all they can get, for whatever reason? Is it the fault of the actual manufacturer designers not being able or creative enough to make a quality layout within Alton's constraints of budget and height etc? Is it Merlin's fault for not having budget to dig or whatever? WHAT is the problem here?
 
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Lofty

CF Legend
Nah, I agree, Joey. Twister at Grona Lund is absolutely a case to back you up - it's a 'family' coaster, and a really tiny one at that, but what that coaster experience offers is better than some of the larger coasters in the same park.
 

Mysterious Sue

Strata Poster
The voice of reason as ever @Joey.

I've wondered from the start if fear inherited from the Smiler has made them cautious. Like, the creatives on this project had a clear idea of what they wanted and both the idea and themed elements are great. But then, those in charge of comissioning the actual ride have reined the whole thing in.

Surely GCI would have had a discussion with Alton that involved them choosing between a traditional drop vs the neutered drop we got? OR Alton specifically went to GCI with a request for a neutered ride. It seems to me this is all from Alton not GCI.
 
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