planenut

I would say it's way more intense than it looks. Really nice airtime, good laterals and a relentless pace. I did however ride it at the end of a hot, sunny day. If it takes a while to warm up then I probably rode it at the best time. Honestly, I was expecting not much from Wicker Man but it's probably my favourite ride at Alton Towers now.

Chatting with someone today who had experienced Wicker Man, was saying that he thoroughly enjoyed and considered it was quite intense for the whole ride. With the other comments, I am looking forward to riding this.

Talking with my "late eightys" Aunty, when I informed her of my enthusiasm for roller coasters she loudly commented......
"What? that's worse than tattoos, don't you tell any of my friends, up to now they liked you"......................right between the eyes!

Erm, yes.

Talking with my "late eightys" Aunty, when I informed her of my enthusiasm for roller coasters she loudly commented......
"What? that's worse than tattoos, don't you tell any of my friends, up to now they liked you"......................right between the eyes!

Met a chap yesterday at TP, and whilst having a brief chat he told me that "this is my last ride, I've got to catch my flight."
 
Yup, he flew over from Dublin to visit TP for the day.

I got my rides on Wicker Man yesterday (3 to be precise), and, well, it's good, but I have one major problem with it.
 
Let's go back to what I was expecting from Wicker Man:
 
 
As a coaster, this is what Wicker Man is. It's a fun family coaster; it's got its moments of fun and 'woah' bits, but it's quiet low-key: there's nothing during the course which made me, as someone who would be an older member of the family, think 'Wow, that was fun'. It was all very bog standard. And that's fine, as that gives a coaster for the younger age of the ride's market (6-8 years old) a perfect coaster to ride.
 
But then that's where's the problem lies, as they've done sort of done a Th13teen again. The pre-show (which might I add, I thought was brilliant) is, in my opinion, too scary and over the top for that age range. 6-8 year old me would have HATED it, to the point I'd have been afraid to go on the ride. The pitch black brakes at the end of the ride are equally going to be unnerving and too creepy there too (and would have benefitted from something actually happening in there anyways aside from a blast of smoke).
 
I don't know how well I've explained this, but I remain really unconvinced by this for now. We've got a coaster, which I enjoy, and fills in a gap in the market. We've got a theme and pre-show which I enjoy. But the two don't work together, creating a weird identity crisis of a proper family ride once again trying too hard to be scary. And unlike Th13teen, this isn't something which will die away in time, since the scary stuff is present in the attraction.
 
Maybe I'm making something out of nothing. Maybe 6 year olds are braver these days, I was a wimp back then, I'm over-exaggerating, or whatever. But to me, there is a clear divide in the ride experience which is given and the ride experience it is styled towards.
 
HOWEVER. I did ride with some people who have ridden it before, and they did say it was running noticeably slower today; both from an off and on ride perspective. That was regardless of time of riding (about 12pm, 2pm, 4pm) or where I was riding (near the front, back, middle respectively). So maybe I've caught Wicker Man on a bad day, in which case, I look forward to being able to catch it on a good day.
 
For more positive stuff:
-I love the queue
-I love the audio
-I love the statue
-I like the trains
-The random effect on the brakes at the end did catch me off guard on my first time.
 
So yeah, to round off. I got the coaster I was expecting. And it's a good representation of what a 'low-thrill' family coaster can do. But with the presentation of the theme and story, they've got a mismatch on their hands.
 
Hopefully I've caught it on a bad day. But if I have, one has to wonder if that was bad luck, or how many more bad days there are to come...

Was referring to The Walking Dead..

There was a particular group on the park yesterday, from "Essex". This did cause some delay to the ride loading and I politely reminded them that they were holding up the whole process. I'm sure they also caused some disruption on other rides, but then, I suppose it was the only way.

After a brief period of downtime on Saturday, Stealth was back up and running two trains like a dream - fair play to the ride team as they were always dispatching in the 40 second window, and the queue was moving quickly. There's a 2 second gap between "go go go!" and the green lights currently but I can forgive that for now.
 
For all you fans out there, the two trains running are No. 2 and No. 3 #truefacts

Can I take this opportunity to thank all those staff members who made my visits so good this year. The ride operators, the engineers and the cleaning staff, who all dealt with me and those within earshot so tactfully and patiently. Staff and even some managers whom I saw rush to assist to tidy up the mess that some unwell riders left.
 
Whatever you all do in the future, this should have been a good experience to meet and deal with such a wide range of people from all walks of life.
 
The staff should feel chuffed if their "customers" left with a smile, you've done your bit to make somebody's day, well done.

Can I take this opportunity to thank all those staff members who made my visits so good this year. The ride operators, the engineers and the cleaning staff, who all dealt with me and those within earshot so tactfully and patiently. Staff and even some managers whom I saw rush to assist to tidy up the mess that some unwell riders left.
 
Whatever you all do in the future, this should have been a good experience to meet and deal with such a wide range of people from all walks of life.
 
The staff should feel chuffed if their "customers" left with a smile, you've done your bit to make somebody's day, well done.

Can I take this opportunity to thank all those staff members who made my visits so good this year. The ride operators, the engineers and the cleaning staff, who all dealt with me and those within earshot so tactfully and patiently. Staff and even some managers whom I saw rush to assist to tidy up the mess that some unwell riders left.
 
Whatever you all do in the future, this should have been a good experience to meet and deal with such a wide range of people from all walks of life.
 
The staff should feel chuffed if their "customers" left with a smile, you've done your bit to make somebody's day, well done.

Can I take this opportunity to thank all those staff members who made my visits so good this year. The ride operators, the engineers and the cleaning staff, who all dealt with me and those within earshot so tactfully and patiently. Staff and even some managers whom I saw rush to assist to tidy up the mess that some unwell riders left.
 
Whatever you all do in the future, this should have been a good experience to meet and deal with such a wide range of people from all walks of life.
 
The staff should feel chuffed if their "customers" left with a smile, you've done your bit to make somebody's day, well done.

Can I take this opportunity to thank all those staff members who made my visits so good this year. The ride operators, the engineers and the cleaning staff, who all dealt with me and those within earshot so tactfully and patiently. Staff and even some managers whom I saw rush to assist to tidy up the mess that some unwell riders left.
 
Whatever you all do in the future, this should have been a good experience to meet and deal with such a wide range of people from all walks of life.
 
The staff should feel chuffed if their "customers" left with a smile, you've done your bit to make somebody's day, well done.

Can I take this opportunity to thank all those staff members who made my visits so good this year. The ride operators, the engineers and the cleaning staff, who all dealt with me and those within earshot so tactfully and patiently. Staff and even some managers whom I saw rush to assist to tidy up the mess that some unwell riders left.
 
Whatever you all do in the future, this should have been a good experience to meet and deal with such a wide range of people from all walks of life.
 
The staff should feel chuffed if their "customers" left with a smile, you've done your bit to make somebody's day, well done.

Can I take this opportunity to thank all those staff members who made my visits so good this year. The ride operators, the engineers and the cleaning staff, who all dealt with me and those within earshot so tactfully and patiently. Staff and even some managers whom I saw rush to assist to tidy up the mess that some unwell riders left.
 
Whatever you all do in the future, this should have been a good experience to meet and deal with such a wide range of people from all walks of life.
 
The staff should feel chuffed if their "customers" left with a smile, you've done your bit to make somebody's day, well done.

Can I take this opportunity to thank all those staff members who made my visits so good this year. The ride operators, the engineers and the cleaning staff, who all dealt with me and those within earshot so tactfully and patiently. Staff and even some managers whom I saw rush to assist to tidy up the mess that some unwell riders left.
 
Whatever you all do in the future, this should have been a good experience to meet and deal with such a wide range of people from all walks of life.
 
The staff should feel chuffed if their "customers" left with a smile, you've done your bit to make somebody's day, well done.

Can I take this opportunity to thank all those staff members who made my visits so good this year. The ride operators, the engineers and the cleaning staff, who all dealt with me and those within earshot so tactfully and patiently. Staff and even some managers whom I saw rush to assist to tidy up the mess that some unwell riders left.
 
Whatever you all do in the future, this should have been a good experience to meet and deal with such a wide range of people from all walks of life.
 
The staff should feel chuffed if their "customers" left with a smile, you've done your bit to make somebody's day, well done.

Can I take this opportunity to thank all those staff members who made my visits so good this year. The ride operators, the engineers and the cleaning staff, who all dealt with me and those within earshot so tactfully and patiently. Staff and even some managers whom I saw rush to assist to tidy up the mess that some unwell riders left.
 
Whatever you all do in the future, this should have been a good experience to meet and deal with such a wide range of people from all walks of life.
 
The staff should feel chuffed if their "customers" left with a smile, you've done your bit to make somebody's day, well done.

Well the IAC stuff is on sale so maybe they are going to get rid of it?  I'm surprised it's lasted as long as it has.  VR on The Swarm would be a terrible idea IMO - they've already slowed down the throughputs on GalacticAir (and that's when the VR actually works) and it would make the near misses on Swarm damn pointless and ruin the ride.
 
 

Launches are probably an area I'm a bit lacking in overall. Stealth is still my standard when it comes to launch, and I love it; I'd never get bored of that feeling. I may be a planenut of the future.
 
I really enjoyed Karacho's launch, I think it was my first rolling launch, so that might be why.
 
My all time favourite, probably through nostalgia but mostly because it was a really surprising and unusual thing at the time, is thunderlooper. Its gravity based technology clearly has nothing on the power of modern launches, but it had a hell of a feeling back then, and Montzoomas at Knott's Berry took me straight back to that moment the first time I powered into that loop. Wonderful.
 
If we're going to talk about disappointing launches too, I'd go Superman at 6FMM. Looks so promising, feels so nothing.
 

That's a 25 minute walk, or one of the buses, is the 446
http://www.londonbusroutes.net/times/446.htm
 
It runs down Chertsey Lane, 100 metres from the hotel.

Perhaps they thought as it was VR, they could experience it anywhere?