Alton Towers | Wicker Man | GCI Wood

[Will]

£55 will now buy you a season pass* and not just one day's admission though.

*Terms and conditions apply - https://www.altontowers.com/tickets/season-pass/ - I'm sure you've all already seen this, but even I'm half tempted by it.

And yes, whilst I'm not sure why we're all saying it, Icon will obviously be better.

 

[witchfinder]

I've bought a season pass, not really because of this ride, but because I can easily see myself heading 20 minutes up the road to Alton 2 or 3 times this year, so it's worth it for the ability to just pop up there for a few hours and ride Nemesis

The ride itself looks like it should be fun once you get past all the marketing bull****. What's not to like about a coaster that goes through a fiery statue? I'm not expecting it to be a world beater but it's not going to be terrible either. I'm just crossing my fingers they get Iron Maiden to perform at the opening :emoji_metal:

 

[Dar]

How about £27.50 (I'm sorry but no one pays full price, infact towers are fully aware that less than 1% of guests do)

Although I do agree, Icon looks like it will be a better ride.

It doesn't matter what people pay, their headline price is £55. I know no one pays full price, but that's the advertised rate I'd pay if I chose to go on a whim. If it's worth £27.50, charge £27.50! People don't see the park as a £55 day out because Merlin have halved the perceived value of the brand with vouchers, and decimated the perceived value with the new Season Pass nonsense.

 

[rob666]

Go get the liquid soap bottle offer for single half price and just keep it in the car...must move mine soon from next to the sink!

 

[CrashCoaster]

A new video by Alton Towers with Bradley Wynne, discussing the new ride on site.

 

[Robbie]

hope the Wickerman is actually on fire as the train passes through it, could make for a really cool effect especially at night.

So about three times a year then?

 

[Bert2theSpark]

The reaso the artwork looks so good is because it was made by the same guy who designed the Star Trek and Jurassic Park logos. Alton Towers is his home park btw.

 

[Smithy]

That £55 season pass deal thing is a ****ing genius piece of business.

 

[jayjay]

It doesn't matter what people pay, their headline price is £55. I know no one pays full price, but that's the advertised rate I'd pay if I chose to go on a whim. If it's worth £27.50, charge £27.50! People don't see the park as a £55 day out because Merlin have halved the perceived value of the brand with vouchers, and decimated the perceived value with the new Season Pass nonsense.

It's a bit grotty, but it's a common marketing tactic. Some people will see that as some kind of "cheating the system" or just perceive that £27.50 as being worth more, though it obviously isn't. It's why you might put an expensive bottle of wine on a drinks list nobody would ever buy. It's why the DFS sale never ends.

 

[Robbie]

The reaso the artwork looks so good is because it was made by the same guy who designed the Star Trek and Jurassic Park logos.

Not quite. He's done (good) poster artwork roughly in the style of 80s movie poster artist Drew Struzan but he didn't design the logos for Jurassic Park or Star Trek.

 

[spicy]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/950677150641934336

Looks like they have been reading the comments on social media, AT just released this video explaining the safety of the Wickerman.

The fact AT has to explain to people that they won’t actually be coming into contact with fire should maybe tell them that this theme probably wasn’t the best of ideas

 

[gavin]

It says more to me that people are f**king idiots if they need it explained to them that the coaster's not designed to set them alight.

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

 

[furie]

Rumour has it they've arranged a load of firewood from Blackpool to set the fires...

Too soon?

 

[scw55]

Imagine if Nemesis was released or Oblivion.
"Guys, you won't actually get eaten or vanish into the space outside of reality!"

 

[Georgie-M]

To me this ride screams "they're gonna call whatever we build unsafe anyway so let's just try to get them to piss themselves as much as possible".
And despite all the marketing bull and confusing target market, that alone is making me start to really love this ride.

 

[Pear]

This ride is the 2nd shortest GCI as it is longer than Heidi by .4ft. Both of these rides are similar in terms of scale, theming, and extensive sound protection. However, Heidi only cost 7 million USD whereas Wicker Man cost 22 million USD.

It's incredible how expensive this ride is. Just seems like a big waste of money.

 

[catsounds]

This ride is the 2nd shortest GCI as it is longer than Heidi by .4ft. Both of these rides are similar in terms of scale, theming, and extensive sound protection. However, Heidi only cost 7 million USD whereas Wicker Man cost 22 million USD.

It's incredible how expensive this ride is. Just seems like a big waste of money.

They probably included more than just the ride itself in the cost, don't merlin always do that?

 

[Pear]

I would imagine the coaster itself is fairly cheap. White Lightning is longer than Wicker Man and that cost only 3.5 million. The amount of money spent on theming is just insane considering the theming is just a couple buildings and a big statue.

 

[Efan]

To be fair, they said a lot of the “fire” was special effects, so that could affect the price. Obviously it’s not 10 million pounds big, but it might be a bit. Also what about that preshow we were hearing about? Maybe that’s a pretty extravagant preshow?

 

[Matt N]

The groundwork could also have affected the price. Heidi was placed on a relatively flat bit of land, whereas this was built in a pit. Merlin also includes every penny spent in the quoted budget. For example, with Smiler, I can’t think a Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster on its own would cost £18million, but when you add the extras like the Marmaliser, the groundwork, the theme music, the theming etc., it all adds up. Same goes for The Swarm. Even though it’s a B&M, I can’t see the particular layout they chose costing £20million, but when you factor in things like the theming, the marketing, the music, the actors in the videos etc., it all adds up. You guys probably get my gist by now.