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I bet people can't wait to ride this indoor rollercoaster at midnight, it's going to make a big difference.

I will be absolutely shocked if I come off this in August and it has not EASILY become my top coaster!! It just looks like it has it all!! Height - Check Intense Drop - Check Speed - Check Airtime - BIG check length - Check Near misses - Check Pacing - Check (that video makes it look near flawless in its pacing) it really does look like it will be the perfect roller coaster. However the proof in the pudding will be in the eating so I will await actually riding it in August before placing it amongst my best coasters. However if it is as good as it looks then we have one of the best (if not THE best) coasters in the world on our hands

This ride seriously looks insane. Cannot wait to ride it (and the rest) in late August!

Sam it’s great to hear you enjoyed and braved the Wicker Man. It’s a top ride for me too now at Towers. My brother has ASD/Autism so I can appreciate how difficult it is to find the confidence to try these rides. Wicker Man really is fast paced; and if you can do that and Galactica (and you’ve done Thirteen?) I would totally give Rita a go on your next trip; followed by Nemesis and Oblivion and Smiler. You seem to be like my brother deep down you enjoy the rides but you’ve gotta jump that hurdle! :-)

Just remembered I never really shared my thoughts on Wicker Man, so here goes: As some of you will know I get R.A.P so I didnt get to experience the main queue. From the disabled access queue, though, the ride looks amazing, and very intimidating (I was absolutely bricking it looking at the second drop haha). The audio is absolutely fantastic here, I assume it was the third track throughout the queue I've been hearing about, and I wish it was on the Internet. The audio in the baggage hold area is great also however with my ASD I'm fairly sensitive to loud noises and I didnt appreciate the sudden loud music when the doors open, I guess it fulfilled its purpose though haha. Now, I wasn't going to experience the pre show anyway, but it's not like that mattered because someone with a small child who had already experienced it just walked right through and shoved open the doors to the station, so nobody got to see it anyway. I think they should put up some signage and such to prevent this from happening in the future. This also messed everything else up, there were 4 people on our train, and nobody waiting for the next train when ours dispatched (the pre show operator's reaction was priceless though haha). The station, while great, imo is too scary for younger kids. My nine year old sister was in tears just because of the audio (she didnt go on the ride). Now, the actual ride. Probably worth mentioning this was my first wooden coaster altogether. First time round, I was pretty scared and also pulled the restraint down far too tight, and I think I was sat wrong, so my, ahem, Illacus felt like it was being torn to absolute shreds on the ride (something which I think was actually caused on Dragon's Fury). The second time round though, I loved it, for pretty much the same reasons as everyone else. For those reasons, at least until I ride some other bigger coasters, Wicker Man sits at #1 for me, joint with Galactica. Also shoutout to the staff on the ride, they are absolutely brilliant, especially the one who went out of his way to take care of my little sister, even giving her earplugs and offering her water and the like. Another standout was the guy who took me and my dad out of the baggage hold and through a "restricted access" door straight on to the ride, so we could avoid the pre show. I realise this was a wall of text and I wish I had a whole load of nice photos to share - but, I don't. So here's a photo of the statue and also a game - spot me.

No need to panic!! The fire will be fixed and then we will get either of the following. 1. Seasonal operating of the fire effects (Easter and then May half term followed by the summer holidays and then scarefest and fireworks) 2. Fire going off on every third train!! 3. Fire effects after 11pm!! No need to worry whatsoever!!

It is quite risky putting an event like this on given the amount of downtime the ride has had of late.

To be fair we don’t know the reason for removing the beams. It could be that the wood needed to be re-treated to stop it rotting and with the weather it wasn’t done in time so removed as a safety thing. You have to bear In mind everything costs the park. Why would you remove it if you didn’t need to. Look st the old Canada creek railroad. The barriers are still in place. It’s never going to be used but it costs too much to remove them from the ground. Sometimes everyone is a little quick to judge and say Merlin or Thorpe are bad, ruining everything. Maybe there are operational reasons for stuff like this. Business isn’t so simple and why would you do something if you didn’t need to.

Well, it’s better than nothing.

Actually, that could be their new slogan; "Alton Towers - it's better than nothing"