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CharlieN

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Posts posted by CharlieN

  1. 2 hours ago, pluk said:

    Surely you can't do Wicker Man without a significant amount of fire? Terminator Salvation taught me fire in a woodie is a wonderful thing. I'm hoping for the preshow being something like backdraft or that temple thing at PortAventura, good and spectacular. Now that might be something that could salvage an otherwise lackluster looking coaster.

    Absolutely. A screen based pre show would do nothing but disappoint me. (just like #whatsintheshed seems to). A truly spectacular pre show with pyrotechnics and effects could be the saving grace of this ride - at least I can hope.

  2. 22 hours ago, ChessingtonSam said:

    Can't believe I stayed up until 4:30AM just to see us get Norwich at home @CharlieN ;)

     

    Seriously though, I'm disappointed. Another Championship team at home is about the only thing I didn't want.

    I'm really happy with it! It seems like a doable away fixture for me living in London and all that. At least I get to say hello to my old friend Sergi...

  3. Alton Towers have announced hat their 4th maze will be called The Welcoming: be chosen. From the brief description, it does seem like an SW8 link is very plausible...Cults in the woods and all that.

    image.jpeg

  4. On 12 August 2017 at 7:40 PM, MilesK said:

    Why is TOTT returning... why... just why!!?? With it now being shortened it just doesn't feel as good; the bridge scene was one of the best parts for me in '15! 

    Sub Species and AMT I'm very happy about! Both are fantastic attractions, it's no surprise they kept them! 

    A new maze! Yay! I reckon it'll have a link to SW8, same as they did for The Smiler. As others pointed out though, I have no clue where they would put it? 

     

    Oooh an SW8 linked maze could be fab! 

  5. 1 hour ago, 'Airtime Falcon' said:

    That's highly likely, considering many people thought Lost Gravity would be a spinner until we saw the trains.

    True. However, the new Mack rides Xtreme spinning coaster prototype has the ability to run spinning or winged trains. So perhaps we can't predict the style of train from the track, as Mack may have the potential to run either spinners or Big Dipper style trains.

  6. Interestingly, In Italy, the number 17 is seen as unlucky. This is because the numerals XVII can be anagrammatically changed to VIXI. This, as previously mentioned means 'I have lived' in Latin. Hence why the number 17 is associated with death in Italy.

     

    If VIXI were to have a Roman/Venetian theme throughout, then we'd have a very interesting maze on our hands...

  7. I went on a school trip to Thorpe 2 Monday's ago, and thought I'd share some stuff..

     

    Firstly, operations were awful. I've never seen slower dispatches in a theme park. The Swarm staff had no urgency and were chatting to colleagues all the time - so much so that on one occasion it took 2 minutes for new guests to board the ride after the train entered the station.

     

    Secondly, I began to queue for flying fish, but didn't get to ride, because the queue moved so slowly. Bizarrely, quests would only be allowed onto the train once departing riders had completely left the exit path. This was made worse as no one was stationed in the loading bay. What's the point in a loading bay/point if we are held behind a holding point and only allowed to progress when previous riders have completely left the exit? The most inefficient loading procedure I've ever seen on a ride (Although, I'm not a regular Fish rider, so this may just be the protocol.)

     

    Finally, KFC. As you can imagine, the amount of school trips correlates with the busyness of KFC - which on this case, was heaving. KFC seemed terribly over staffed, yet understaffed of people who actually new what they were doing. There was one guy who was just standing around, getting in people's way, hindering everything. Too many cooks spoil the broth, eh?! Furthermore, The woman who served me gave me a notably grumpy look when I have her £10 for a meal that cost £5.79. Her grumpiness was presumably because of her apparent inability to work out my change, which I ended up helping her calculate.

     

    Bloomin' heck! It wouldn't take a lot for operations and service to be made significantly better. A bit of training is all that's needed, incentives for staff and numbers to reach. No staff member I had contact with seemed to want to get things done quickly - there was no sense that the park were pushing the staff to do this either.

     

    Really appalling.

     

  8. Thorpe are 'heartbroken' about closing a ride that could have easily been repared/improved/maintained?

     

    Whatever its replacement will be, better be good - and that's not a second hand children's flat ride with blue fences, Thorpe.

     

     

     

    (a second hand children's flat ride with with any other colour fences however, would be sufficient ;))

  9. 7 hours ago, Wumbamillio said:

    But we all know really the "SW" stuff is just because its a promotional ploy to fans right? It doesn't actually carry any status, they don't sit down and think "ya know what, this ride has such a clever element, I think we should code it a new addition to the Secret Weapons". They just know it will get all the fans interested immediately. Rita could have been a "secret weapon", it was churned out in the same amount of time, but just wasn't by chance because of the management of the time.

     

    Yes, true. But the park will also not want to disappoint the enthusiast contingent. It's far from the top of their priorities but I'm sure that they won't lose enthusiasts trust at the sake of a small marketing claim - because, let's face it, the 'SW' branding really only has an affect on enthusiasts. I highly doubt any GP will think 'I really want to come to Alton Towers because the new ride is a secret weapon.'

     

    Therefore, judging by the small influence 'SW' has on the marketing of Alton's ride, the park surely wouldn't falsely brand the ride just to get enthusiast hype.

     

    Also, I doubt that the ride development process focuses on the 'ground breaking' gimmick and then the SW gets plonked on afterwards.

     

    (To me, the mentality engraved into AT is that the new big scale rides are going to have an innovative aspect to them. Teams of designers present rides knowing that they will be unique. I always imagine it's not a 'we'll have a mack mega here', 'a GCI here' but more of a ' we'll create a roller coaster with a track drop' and then manufacturer comes later. Like John Wardley always said, Merlin wanted a killer image and all that other shiz when a ride gets proposed. I imagine it's still somewhat sinilar.)

  10. Reading for for the win, I guess!

     

    I say that purely on the selfish basis that if Huddersfield don't get promoted then Wagner is more likely to leave and become Norwich's next manager. (At least I can dream, but I don't see Uwe Rosler becoming our next manager.)

  11. Why do some members seem to know things regarding this year's fright nights? Some stating the quantity of mazes, others showing knowledge of IP's.

     

    Was there a major information spill that I missed or is this just a case of 'my brothers friends work at Thorpe and told me this'?

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