Wicker Man

[Marhelorpe]

I've now ridden Wicker Man too after the weekend and share the frustrations with the constant breakdowns, delays and reduced filled seats occurring that weekend with Coaster above, especially given how the rest of the park was run that day. However, that being said, this ride has surprised me in a lot of ways.

Rather than repeating what I think of Wicker Man, my review of it with photos and a video can be seen here:

Full (yet stupidly long and picky) Wicker Man Review

 

[Mark9]

Few quick words from me. This is a great little coaster and will hopefully open the doors for smaller parks who were maybe thinking of getting a woodie and weren't sure if the hunger for one is there. It's great to see guests loving a ride like this, something that's accessible for all and full of great moments. For many UK people this will be their first modern wooden coaster and it really nails it. Great theme, great use of effects and really solid ride. Once the reliability is sorted out, I can't wait to get lots of rides on it as it's very enjoyable and the park is onto a winner.

[Mega-Lite]

I've got no problem admitting I was wrong and I'm very happy to report that I was most certainly wrong and too quick to cast judgement on Wicker Man. Never again will I doubt GCI, their track record is still perfect.

 

Now while I still agree that Alton Towers could and should have done more with the UK's first modern wooden roller coaster, what we have ended up with is great.

 

The Story: Wicker Man's story about the creepy cult of weirdos, worshipping the Wicker Man for years in the forest and bringing him sacrifices in return for one day him returning their favour and gifting them with freedom and safety, is simple, effective and quite unnerving, I like it.

 

Theming & Effects: Those involved have done a great job with the theming. The Wicker Man himself, in person looks damn impressive. The sheer amount of fire, mist and smoke effects used (please keep these running for the life of the ride) is so overwhelming and surprising and really adds to the experience. Not only that but the buildings (preshow and station) inside and out are incredibly well done. As a package, as present, Wicker Man is probably the best themed roller coaster in the UK.

 

Queueline: After a couple of switchbacks to begin with, the queue ends up becoming a nice swooping semi circle which provides great views of the coaster layout and really helps build excitement. This style of queue over the crap that is Smiler's queue anyday, much appreciated.

 

Preshow: I really enjoyed this, it's creepy, gets you hyped for what's about to transpire and in all honesty is alot of fun to watch.

 

The Coaster: This little GCI is great. Great laterals, a few pops of good airtime, 1 insane ejector moment, that perfect amount of out of control that all woodies need and a real sense of speed. Also to my surprise, it's alot longer than I was expecting, so you get a decent length ride out of it.

 

If you're into ranking things, after 2 laps, I'd probably put Wicker Man above Wodan and Troy, just below Draak, which I feel is a stronger layout and the racing aspect adds so much fun to the experience.

 

I really feel Wicker Man is going to do great things for Alton Towers and I really hope they can quickly improve the up time and maintain both the coaster and effects to the quality they were on opening.

 

[CharlieN]

12 minutes ago, Mega-Lite said:

 If you're into ranking things, after 2 laps, I'd probably put Wicker Man above Wodan and Troy, just below Draak, which I feel is a stronger layout and the racing aspect adds so much fun to the experience.

 

These are very intriguing rankings. I’ve only ridden Wodan of the 4 mentioned, but I kind of thought it would be Wicker < Draak < Wodan < Troy.

 

Good to hear anyway, Wodan was too aggressive for my tastes so I’m looking forward to trying a more gentle GCI.

[Mega-Lite]

7 minutes ago, CharlieN said:

These are very intriguing rankings. I’ve only ridden Wodan of the 4 mentioned, but I kind of thought it would be Wicker < Draak < Wodan < Troy.

 

Good to hear anyway, Wodan was too aggressive for my tastes so I’m looking forward to trying a more gentle GCI.

I didn't think much of Troy to be honest, strange to see you'd rank it the best. Wodan's great, it just falls into the "I can't really remember it" haze that comes with most of Europa Park.

 

The large GCIs have dead spots, where you are waiting for things to start getting good again, the smaller ones (Wicker & Draak), don't waste time faffing about and just kick more ass.

[Robert.W]

I can't say how pleased I am that Wicker Man has made such a positive impression on so many people here who had originally dismissed it. I'm still yet to ride it myself, but based on such positive reviews, I have no doubt that it'll be a great experience, from the moment the pre show beings till the moment the train re enters the station after the ride has finished.  

[Flipper]

1 hour ago, Robert.W said:

Till the moment the train re enters the station after the ride has finished.  

Agreed. Loved the thrill of sitting in a pitch black unthemed tunnel being squirted with scented smoke. I’m sure you’ll love it too.

[Zappomatic]

Anyone else think that the fake burning smell in the station smells/tastes a bit like blackcurrant throat sweets?

[Coaster]

So apparrently the fire effect is broken/switched off already...

 

Words fail me.  And people wonder why there is such cynicsm surrounding Merlin.

[L7123456]

56 minutes ago, Coaster said:

So apparrently the fire effect is broken/switched off already...

 

Words fail me.  And people wonder why there is such cynicsm surrounding Merlin.

It was off last Friday on my visit It's been on for the majority of the season so far I believe? But it's not a good sign if it's becoming more and more frequently off.

 

I might as well drop a review of the ride whilst I'm here! I wasn't overly excited for Wicker Man initially. I didn't think it looked great in terms of a coaster. I was so wrong!

The queue line is probably the best queue in the UK. You get some fantastic views of the rollercoaster in action, and you also get very close to the Wicker Man structure itself, which is absolutely stunning in person! The pre-show was also very impressive. It was different and unique; something I haven't seen in the UK before.

The ride itself then... I was lucky enough to be placed on the back row for my first ride, and wow! I was honestly surprised at how intense the ride actually was, and how fast it is. 44mph isn't the fastest for a coaster, but it felt so much quicker. 
My only negatives would be that the fire effect on the shoulders was turned off as I previously said, which was a shame, but it didn't detract from the ride experience. The reliability of the coaster was pretty poor also. A lot of empty trains were sent around, and it often took long periods of time to send another train out. It's a new ride, so obviously there will be technical issues. I do hope that the operations improve as the season goes on!

It's the only wooden rollercoaster I've ever done, so I can't compare it to anything else. The theming, the speed, the intensity, all combine together to make a fantastic overall experience. In my opinion, it is easily the best coaster at Towers. It's definitely worth visiting the park this year to ride it!

 

[Stuntman707]

This was entirely inevitable. Call me pessimistic but we all saw it comming. Just quite amazing how quickly after opening they've turned off the fire on a mostly fire themed and marketed ride. I would have predicted at least half a season. If you want to be more optimistic, maybe the fuel tanks have just run out and they're waiting for a refill.

[Marc]

It’s not turned off, it’s broken, it will be fixed - but don’t let that get in the way of merlin bashing

[Stuntman707]

9 minutes ago, Marc said:

It’s not turned off, it’s broken, it will be fixed - but don’t let that get in the way of merlin bashing

Ok It's broken already?

[Mark9]

5 hours ago, Coaster said:

So apparrently the fire effect is broken/switched off already...

 

Words fail me.  And people wonder why there is such cynicsm surrounding Merlin.

 

No one wonders. Every review on this ride has mentioned how the effects will be off/broken soon. 

[Coaster]

51 minutes ago, Marc said:

It’s not turned off, it’s broken, it will be fixed - but don’t let that get in the way of merlin bashing

If it's genuinely an unavoidable issue than that's different, but taking into consideration Merlin's track record of maintaining thematic elements and effects, I don't think it's unreasonable to assume this is more of the same.

 

Look at the former world-class dark rides in decrepit and unimpressive states, error screens on The Smiler's projectors, clear water in the "blood" waterfall, theming torn out of ride stations (have you SEEN The Swarm's station this year - it's a disgrace), scenes missing from a £30 million pound dark ride in its third season and generally poor maintenance of anything that isn't essential ride hardware.

 

Nemesis' station is an exception to all this - it's stunning after the refurbishment.

[Stuntman707]

To be fair, they had to stop using blood red water around Nemesis. It was built before water around rides had to be retained and treated separately, (Hence the pool filters around The Swarm) therefore the red water was seeping into the surrounding environment.

[Flipper]

3 hours ago, Coaster said:

Look at the former world-class dark rides in decrepit and unimpressive states, error screens on The Smiler's projectors, clear water in the "blood" waterfall, theming torn out of ride stations (have you SEEN The Swarm's station this year - it's a disgrace), scenes missing from a £30 million pound dark ride in its third season and generally poor maintenance of anything that isn't essential ride hardware.

I’m not disputing any of what you’ve said; and before I say this I want to point out I grew up with Pleasure Beach, and hold a soft spot for it even though I visit maybe once a year now. But. Valhalla. Everything you’ve said, it’s reflectable onto Valhalla also. The ride was in such an abysmal way it needed to be overhauled a few years ago. The exterior was rotten through to framework, effects didn’t work and were subsequently removed etc. and that was an award winning ride.

 

I’m not knocking that maintenance should be far higher on the scale than it is. But I think the problem lies that Merlin hold a monopoly in the UK sand until someone truly rivals them or a park, they will continue to do enough to turn maximum profits like any business would. Things are different in Heide and Garda, there’s an element of competition so they have to upkeep the parks. Whereas at present the closest competition is Chessington and Legoland vs Paultons Park. And I think that is starting to become apparent as Merlin have suddenly pulled their finger out to invest into LL and CWOA. Towers and Thorpe to a degree still ride on their own branding. Thorpe could be an amusement park (like Cedar Fairs or Six Flags) and people will still go, and through the hundreds of thousands of people who visit only 1-2% will make their opinion known... so things won’t change.

 

It infuriates me to see such effort being put into Thorpe (and Towers somewhat) such as the dome, entrance, X:/TWD, the IMAScore audio... and then we’re left with things like Swarm’s roof. And it’s the same for Towers...

 

And I’ve just realised I’ve gone on a massive tangent on the Wickerman topic so I’ll stop.

 

Wickerman. Clap clap. Nobody noticed the fire anyway.

[Benin]

*insert joke about Varney seeing the gas bill*

[Mark9]

12 hours ago, Coaster said:

If it's genuinely an unavoidable issue than that's different, but taking into consideration Merlin's track record of maintaining thematic elements and effects, I don't think it's unreasonable to assume this is more of the same.

 

Look at the former world-class dark rides in decrepit and unimpressive states, error screens on The Smiler's projectors, clear water in the "blood" waterfall, theming torn out of ride stations (have you SEEN The Swarm's station this year - it's a disgrace), scenes missing from a £30 million pound dark ride in its third season and generally poor maintenance of anything that isn't essential ride hardware.

 

Nemesis' station is an exception to all this - it's stunning after the refurbishment.

 

Out of interest does anyone have a picture of the Swarm station and the bit thats been ripped out. 

[Marc]

11 minutes ago, Mark9 said:

 

Out of interest does anyone have a picture of the Swarm station and the bit thats been ripped out. 

[Imagineer]

FML.

[alexander]

Have they ripped out the old wooden beams? I need a comparison picture.

[Flipper]

6 hours ago, alexander said:

Have they ripped out the old wooden beams? I need a comparison picture.

Not the clearest photos but just grabbed these from Google (credit to their sources which I didn’t take note of sorry)

 

Also sorry posting from phone so IDK how they’re gonna upload.

 

[Whatever]

Holy ****, that looks terrible. They seriously opened the park knowing that It looked like that? 

[GetEchoes]

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.