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Alton Towers | Wicker Man | GCI Wood

Of course you're entitled to your opinion.
Airtime is, to some extent, objective but not entirely (especially when comparing two very different types of coaster).

It's pretty obvious that Shambhala (with its greater height and hills built for airtime) has more airtime than a low to the ground, family-scale GCI woodie, built more for twists and turns.

I'm not criticising but you have to understand that people are going to poke holes in your opinions if they are built on shifting sand.
 
ATI said:
Going over that first drop on the back has more ejector than you'd think.
I'm comparing it to Shambhala because I haven't ridden that many airtime-filled coasters, Shambhala is my number 1, and Wicker Man has enough airtime to satisfy me personally.
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As I thought, you are comparing what you have ridden, which is fine, Wickerman is one of the most airtime filled rides you have ridden. Absolutely no issue with that, but there's at least a hundred other coasters out there with more airtime, Shambz being high up that list, so comparing them is wrong, however much your limited ride count groups them near the top of your personal list.
ATI said:
You guys are making it seem like I'm not entitled to my own opinion. I think younger kids would like the ride (the coaster bit), but also people my age who have never ridden anything quite like it.
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You absolutely are entitled to your own opinion, I can't wait to get my 6 year old on it, he will lose his ****!
ATI said:
Until you've ridden it, I don't think it's quite fair to blast my opinions.
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Oh the irony :rolleyes:
 
Of course you are entitled to your own opinion and I am really pleased that you like the ride and rate it highly.

With regards to the airtime, it does have a few moments of floater, but in my opinion no ejector. Now, I may have ridden it on a bad day or when it wasn't quite warmed up, but at the times I did, there was no great amount of air whatsoever and certainly no moments where I had thoughts like "OMG I am going to die" going round in my head :) . I think your comment "people my age who have never ridden anything quite like it." is quite telling. We are deprived of ejector airtime machines in the UK, so when something comes along which gives a little tickle of what airtime is, then its something new. I remember riding the Big Dipper the first time with the old PTC buzz bar trains and flying out of my seat on every drop, thinking how awesome that was. Now that is just airtime to me, whereas the likes of El Toro, Wildfire, Sky Rush et al, produce insane ejector.

ATI said:
Wicker Man has enough airtime to satisfy me personally
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If you ever get to Six Flags Great Adventure, I would love to see your face when you ride El Toro and discover what ejector airtime really is ;)
 
I can't quite think of another roller coaster that has such an interesting range of different reviews/opinions like Wickerman.

Can't work out if it is - new coaster hype/rider has only experienced a small amount of wooden coasters/ It's genuinely amazing.

If we took an average of the reviews though I think the general consensus is AT are onto a winner and Wickerman is a solid addition, which can only be a positive thing as we don't want to wait another 22 years for a UK woodie.
 
spicy said:
If we took an average of the reviews though I think the general consensus is AT are onto a winner and Wickerman is a solid addition, which can only be a positive thing as we don't want to wait another 22 years for a UK woodie.
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If other park managers were monitoring what's been going on at Alton this past week, I'm quite certain that once they'd seen the crowds turning up in droves to ride the Wicker Dude, they'd have been on the phone to GCI, GG or RMC quicker than a... than a..
Quicker than a big bag of quick things.
We'll be reet. :)
 
Howie said:
If other park managers were monitoring what's been going on at Alton this past week, I'm quite certain that once they'd seen the crowds turning up in droves to ride the Wicker Dude, they'd have been on the phone to GCI, GG or RMC quicker than a... than a..
Quicker than a big bag of quick things.
We'll be reet. :)
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Do RMC ever do straightforward retrackings? I can think of a very rattly ride or two that doesn't need a layout overhaul, but could benefit from having some posh modern tracks on it.
 
I honestly have enjoyed all of the GCI's I've ridden in the front more than the back. Especially Troy and Wodan.
 
@nadroJ I saw the review you posted on your site, and I agree with pretty much all of it.

It truly is an immersive experience. The back is definitely the best though. I rode in row 11 and got quite a lot of airtime on some of those transitions, especially the first drop. GCI do some great, smooth transitions.
 
Finally got on this one today after a couple of hours wait, thoroughly well worth it

Theming is excellent, even if the music did grate on me a bit after a while, seats are really comfortable for a very large gentleman such as my self, the ride was so smooth, love the fast back and forward turns a bit like Mystic Timbers. As others have said not really any airtime but a ride can be good without air time in my view ( especially woodies)

The interactions with the wicker man itself were the only slight downside as I expected heat and it was a cold mist all 3 times which on a cold and wet day wasn't great. Hopefully they can sort out the 'bugs' in operating and get in running smoothly as cant wait to ride again and dont want to have to wait for hours on a day when the park is pretty quiet
 
Managed to get 4 rides on this today (all times in middle of train!). Much better than I was expecting and actually carries some decent speed! It is quite obvious that in the designing stage, the ride went much slower through the 'boring corner' than it does, possibly explaining the lack of banking on it.

There is floater airtime in parts but not that much, tends to focus on the twisty nature of the ride rather then airtime. Just have to wait and see to see how it holds up to Icon though.
 
Thekingin64 said:
Managed to get 4 rides on this today (all times in middle of train!). Much better than I was expecting and actually carries some decent speed! It is quite obvious that in the designing stage, the ride went much slower through the 'boring corner' than it does, possibly explaining the lack of banking on it.

There is floater airtime in parts but not that much, tends to focus on the twisty nature of the ride rather then airtime. Just have to wait and see to see how it holds up to Icon though.
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Four times?! That's lucky, I managed to get on it after a near two hour wait not long after it opened for the day.

So seeing as everyone else is sharing their opinions, I might as well. In brief, I personally thought it was great. Whilst the reviews from the past week left me feeling hopeful, I couldn't help thinking it'd give a Thirteen-style kind of experience. But it's a hell of a lot more exciting than Thirteen and definitely in the 'thrill' category. It throws you around loads, probably more than Rita does, but I wouldn't say it has much airtime though. Maybe that was because I was sat on row 5 (I think), but the whole layout seemed to be a lot more about the twistiness and interactions with the theming. The fact it's quite compact really helps to make it seem faster than it probably is as well. In terms of the ride itself, the only thing which let me down, as well as probably everyone else from the get go, is how short it is. On the good side though, it means it hasn't let up much speed by the time you reach the brakes.

I thought the pre-show was pretty good as well. A bit like Hex's in that it's on a big screen above you and doesn't last too long, but better. I thought the second part of the pre-show was actually fairly immersive too and provided some good atmosphere. The tunnel in the shed at the end of the ride is alright too I guess, in that it sprays mist and is lit up, so at least something happens. The only other let down aside from the length is that the throughput seems to be very low and obviously it was having quite a few teething problems (hence the 2 hour queue on a basically empty day), but of course that should get better with time.

All in all, I'd probably rate it third in the park personally, behind Oblivion and Nemesis, with it being just a bit more forceful than the Smiler.
 
elephant58 said:
Four times?! That's lucky, I managed to get on it after a near two hour wait not long after it opened for the day.
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Queued outside for it for 45mins during morning ERT for it to breakdown on me, got given a fast-track pass to use later in the day. Used fast-track pass when it re-opened about 3ish but they never checked/took the pass so was able to keep using it! Bit sneaky I know but they should have been more thorough on fast track checking.
 
I've been hearing rumours that the constant downtime is being caused by the train overshooting the station and parking incorrectly, not the final brake run. This would cause the ride to shut down as the control unit would think two trains are occupying the same block. That might explain why it seemed the brake run was working fine to me, it definitely looked to stop in time, so trims shouldn't be needed on the main layout. I hope these issues are resolved soon, even if it means the ride is down for a month or two for them to correct it.
 
Thekingin64 said:
Queued outside for it for 45mins during morning ERT for it to breakdown on me, got given a fast-track pass to use later in the day. Used fast-track pass when it re-opened about 3ish but they never checked/took the pass so was able to keep using it! Bit sneaky I know but they should have been more thorough on fast track checking.
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How long was the fast track queue? Because it still looked fairly long, although that might just be because the ride was at a standstill for an hour when I was queuing for it.
 
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