As a big X:\ fan I must say have my fingers crossed that the ride will receive a lot of attention over this closed season. However over the years I have started to grow accustomed to being slightly disappointed every time the rumoured 're-themes' have not lived up to our expectations. Who knows though, perhaps this time the park will surprise us!
Whilst I understand that a large amount of enthusiasts, fan boys and members of the public think that X:\ is a waste of space and should just be replaced by another ride, I believe the ride should be given a fair chance to gain new fans by having a nice amount of money and care spent on it.
Back when the ride opened in 1996 it was the biggest ride RMC had ever added and although it was not received very well amongst the coaster enthusiast community it was popular with park guests. In my opinion the various changes to the queue line, the ride itself and a general lack of care and attention have harmed the ride experience over the years. Nowadays there may be a huge collection of newer thrilling roller coasters at the park, which make X:\ look quite tame in comparison, but I feel the park should proudly embrace their oldest non-powered coaster.
My wish list of improvements (if the 2013 rumour is true) are as follows:
1. A good deep clean and re-painting of the entire queue line, the nearer you get to the station the more disgusting the walls and floors seem to get. Whether it is piles of trash or large phallic etchings on the walls, these are reasonably small touches that would help improve the queue line for the new season, at least until the undesirable guests start to wreck it again.
2. If they are going to spend some money on the ride I would like the park to decide on a clear theme and stick to it. If the ride is destined to become a club themed "rave ride", I have no problem with that, I would just like to see it being a consistent theme from the entrance to the pyramid to the exit!
3. Please re-build/replace the train cars, at the end of this season they were looking worse than ever. As well as looking extremely dirty, I agree with another poster that the seats themselves seem to be deteriorating.
4. Whilst I would like to see the trains improved personally I would love to see the ride continue running backwards. I know that reversing the seating would probably help improve the downtime, but I feel that it would be striping X:\ of any originality. It would be a great shame to see the back of this unique ride gimmick, the 'backwards in the dark' sections of Revenge of the Mummy and TH13TEEN are some of the highlights of those rides for me but they are far too short in duration.
So in conclusion whilst I am hoping that the rumours are true and that we will all get to see a different incarnation of X:\ when the park opens in March, I am also a little apprehensive. My message to the park is that if you are going to make chances to this ride, please do it properly this time!