Is a new wooden coaster for the UK actually a good idea?

[Darkrider]

Yes!!
The Grand National at Pleasure Beach is one of the top wooden racing coasters in the World.
The Wild Mouse is absolutely awesome!!
Sadly the 'Bobs' at Manchester Belle Vue was dismantled in the 70's (I never rode it)
It was a twister, specking to friends it was awesome, almost terrifying!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJBdWyjs ... re=related
Whilst Merlin can get away without building one they won't - Need skilled carpenters and continuous maintenance. Pleasure Beach are working hard on the Nash atm.

 

[Mark9]

I guess part of the problem is that when you see a woodie construction it's very hard to get excited. I see the photos of Voodan and I find it hard to tell where the thrill comes from. And yet I love Megaphobia, I love Grand National, I even like Coaster Express at Parque Warner in Madrid. So part of the problem is how do you sell a wooden coaster to the public. It's not like you can show a picture of an inversion or a thin piece of steel drop. You need to throw in the scenic elements as Europa Park are doing with their pictures of Voodan with Blue Fire.

Once the thing is built, the problems dissolve as people will go on it anyway. But to get there is the issue. I think it would work in the UK, any ride can work as long as you show it in positive light. But to get there... that is the issue.

 

[r0bbie]

The Ultimate is a wooden coaster and that has done great. Personally, I think a new wooden coaster should be built, however it may not fare so well with the general public, as most people prefer to ride a smooth, steel rollercoaster.

 

[furie]

The ultimate is a steel/wood hybrid. It's technically a steel coaster though as it runs on steel rails.

 

[Smithy]

I do believe for a wooden coaster to be successful it would need to be aesthetically dominating, or at least have elements/features which stand out. I'm talking in terms of El Toro's drop, if it was able to impose itself as a 'big' ride, and made out of wood, it would garner an awful lot of publicity as well as generate interest in the general public who'd see a ride build alongside other tall rides, yet made out of wood. Would certainly pique their interest at least.

Whereas with a low to the ground terrain monster, although for us it'd be immense, that it lacks the visual appeal would mean it would probably be overlooked by a lot of the GP because it simply ''doesn't look like it does anything''.

 

[nadroJ]

I'm talking in terms of El Toro's drop, if it was able to impose itself as a 'big' ride, and made out of wood, it would garner an awful lot of publicity as well as generate interest in the general public who'd see a ride build alongside other tall rides, yet made out of wood. Would certainly pique their interest at least.

I've always thought that because the market research shows the public think woodies are old-fashioned and dangerous that they could easily be publicised in the typical (Merlin) 'oh my god you're going to die on this ride' kind of way, it's proved popular for their other rides in the past, and if the general public already think this about woodies, surely playing on it would be effective?

Also agree about Toro's first drop. It's incredibly intimidating. It looks near vertical, and on a woodie, you literally look at it and think 'oh god!'. And the fact that it's an awesome ride too, but I suppose that won't matter much unless you can get people on it in the first place.

 

[Nic]

Just to throw this out there, surely our relatively strict planning laws would have a big impact on the decision to bring a new Woodie to the UK? Many parks struggle to get permission to build anything because of the planning process, and associated complaints from locals, let alone a woodie that could potentially create a fair bit of noise.

That said, I agree with Darren Bloomfield. We're far more likely to see one built at a small family run park than at a big corporate one. For the reasons that others have stated, big multi-nationals are likely to see a woodie as too risky. I think it'll take a similar situation to T'Ultimate. It'll take some bonkers yokel with a dream, some land, and a big pot of money to wake up one day and think "Sod it, let's do it!". Concentrating on existing parks where that could vaguely apply, I definitely think that leaves us with either DMP or FL, either of which I think it would suit very well.

Alternatively, we need an epic modern Woodie to be built in one of the established Florida parks and/or DLP. Once a proportion of UK residents have experienced what a 'decent' woodie can be like, that's when we might start to see the likes of Merlin changing their minds.

 

[nadroJ]

Alternatively, we need an epic modern Woodie to be built in one of the established Florida parks and/or DLP. Once a proportion of UK residents have experienced what a 'decent' woodie can be like, that's when we might start to see the likes of Merlin changing their minds.

The thing with that is that Disney and Universal aren't really about coasters, they're about ride 'experiences'. I don't doubt that they could awesomely theme a woodie and make it more of a deal than just a coaster, but it's just not their style. Going by the Florida park thing, that only really leave Busch Gardens and Sea World. Busch already have Gwazi (which I know a lot of UK people have been on and loved, same goes for Stampida at PA) and Sea World, and I doubt we'd ever see a woodie there either.

There are some 'new' (newly renovated and branded anyway) smaller woodies at LegoLand Florida, so maybe those could whet the appetite, but apart from these I don't see any of the bigger Florida parks investing in something along the lines of El Toro anytime soon.

 

[Nic]

Oh yeah, I can't feasibly see it happening (at least not any time soon) but I do believe that's what it'd take to start a shift in attitudes of the UK GP.

 

[SaiyanHajime]

It'll be interesting to see if Europe's new coaster has any impact.

I don't get how Germany can have such a similar audience to the UK, but they get wooden coasters and we don't. What's going on?

 

[Lofty]

To be honest, a new woody would be fantastic for the UK, a GOOD one could really change the whole "Wooden Coasters are Rough" attitude that a lot of the UK General Public seem to have. Saying that, parks are more than likely not willing to risk a lot of; A) Effort. B) Time & Most important C) MONEY, on an addition like this that really is impossible to predict the outcome. It's a catch 22.

This said, I suppose every single addition to any park in the world is going to have this option for both For & Against the opinions of the General Public on new attractions.

 

[Gavin]

As an enthusiast, it does annoy me that parks may have decided to ignore wooden coasters based on public opinion, as we know that they can be amazing and that once people are on them, they will love them, too.

On the other hand, it would obviously be stupid, from a business perspective, to ignore the opinions of your customer base. I just think that if people could SEE a decent woodie, it would change their minds.

I showed one of my classes some videos of Megafobia (we were doing persuasive writing and looking at a leaflet from Oakwood), and they were amazed that we had something so "awesome" in Wales. It's nowhere near here, but still. Maybe if Megafobia, or something like it, had been built in a park that more people went to, the overall image of woodies would be drastically different?

 

[MouseAT]

Wooden coasters can be amazing. As enthusiasts, we know this.

If a UK park builds an amazing wooden coaster, I'm sure the general public will love riding it, and it's likely that we'd see more wooden coasters in the UK.

The problem is, all of the wooden coasters I've experienced over the last few years have fallen into one of three categories:

1. Rough enough to be unpleasant.
2. Extremely boring.
3. Mind blowingly awesome.

Out of the 30 wooden coasters I've ridden to date, only around 6-7 of them fall into the "mind blowingly awesome" category. The remainder tend to fall under "ouch" or "meh". Admittedly, many of the rides in categories one or two are older woodies, but there's still a fair few more modern wooden coasters that are either painful (some of the Custom Coasters rides such as Great White) or just plain boring (such as the S&S wooden coaster Falken, or some of the GCIs).

Just building a wooden coaster in the UK isn't enough - it's got to be good enough to win over the general public to the point where they enjoy the wooden coasters at least as much as steel ones. Unfortunately, we live in a country where the big corporate parks don't like them because their marketing teams would actually have to work as opposed to just recycling the old lines "OMG, TERRIFYING - U WILL DIE!!!" or "OMGZ WORLD 1ST!!!". As for the smaller parks, well they're on limited budgets, and also probably have planning issues to contend with. Even if they are going to add a wooden coaster, it's likely to get scaled back to the point where it's a forgettable ride experience.

Having something uniquely marketable in the short term may help, assuming that the marketing team is halfway competent, but if the ride isn't particularly good, it's not exactly going to help win people over in the long run.

 

[reddude333]

I think it's pretty clear that a woodie in the UK would be a good idea and that the first park to get a good GCI, CCI, or GG coaster will probably benefit greatly from it if they can just get over a public opinion that is no doubt long outdated and is really referring to the wooden coasters of the past (that's not to say there aren't plenty of rough and painful new woodies out there). As others have said, it really will only take one to get the ball rolling and (if done correctly) could probably get the other major parks on-board the wooden coaster train. I think it's going to happen soon...and I'm excited to see how it goes down.

 

[IntaminToWin]

I don't live in the UK, but from reading the posts the concern seems to be roughness. I love woodies and my favorites are El Toro, Predator (Darien Lake), and Comet (Hersheypark). As you probably all know, El Toro is made by Intamin, and it is very smooth, better than a lot of steel ones honestly. So if Intamin was to make a new UK woodie they could do it using their prefabricated manufacturing style and it would probably end up being a big hit. So...there's my suggestion

 

[Lofty]

^ Yeah, we all know that, a lot of our UK members have rode El Toro. We're meaning people's attitudes towards the coaster simply for the fact it's wood. Even the look of a wooden coaster would put some people off. It's a shame really.

The park that could pull this off would be Pleasurebeach, more than any other in my opinion.

 

[IntaminToWin]

^ I actually find it interesting that the appearances of woodies puts people off. If it is well made, I personally think wooden coasters are the most appealing looking ride type. Watching the cars bounce around on a rougher one is very exciting looking. They also seem to have beautiful aesthetics that other coasters cannot pull off, especially the supports where it meets the track.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

P.S. (to the CF team) I apologize for my forum discussion topic...I assume it would cause too many arguments and controversy, was a bad idea in retrospect.

 

[reddude333]

But you see, that's a major part of the turn off for UK park goers. They don't see cars rattling around as appealing but rather as dangerous (as this thread has aptly addressed). Most of us enthusiasts don't see wooden coasters like that but parks need to appeal to a wide range of people so the preconceptions are precisely the topic at hand. I agree with you on your view of woodies but you have to understand that that's not the issue. Its really more GP related.

 

[furie]

Yep, woodies in the UK are seen as the kind of ancient thing you see at clapped out, dangerous old seaside fairgrounds like Rhyl, Southport, Margate or Blackpool.

It's a stupid attitude, but you can easily imagine people turning up to Alton Towers if they build the world's number 1 wooden coaster going "why have they got this tat? They're just copying that old stuff at Blackpool that was crap, bet they just moved it from Blackpool. Alton are really going downhill doing crap like this".

 

[Scott88]

It's about time this country got some modern woodies to be honest, everywhere else is building them but Britain. It doesn't shock me though when we have a teenage generation that considers the likes of Air and Rita exciting and claim rides that aren't glass smooth, are rough.

I just wish some park in the UK would take a chance on a modern woodie.