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Alton Towers | Wicker Man | GCI Wood

Oh Renegade... Man, I forget that thing exists. It was good, but I'm just sad it's so out of the way at a dumpy park surrounded by other dumpy parks. I have no desire to ever go back that way. So I forget about it. But yeah, it was good. Operations sucked there too. Eugh, need to go back to forgetting that place asap.

Thunderhead is outstanding and objectively the best GCI imo, but Lightning Racer is my personal favourite. It's a different kind of good, just such honest fun. I liked Joris too, but Lighting Racer is by far the best racing/dueling coaster I've been on by miles. It really bounds around, dancing with the other train. In general I like GCIs rides, I quite like the sweeping turns over the airtime machines.

I won't get to ride Wickerman until mid May, but despite the fact I rather like GCI and all the praise it's getting I'm still not expecting anything too special. I am hoping that photos and videos just don't do it justice as a space.

(I've still not been on Troy or Woodan, I know, I know... I need to sort my life out.)
 
I didn't really notice a loss of pace in the Boring Corner, myself. So I call it the Not-So-Boring Corner.
 
Is it the same kind of breakdown every time? Been hearing that it's been breaking down a lot, I know there was a rumour that there was a new sensor trial going on but still, it had been testing with people for months. Unless maybe they didn't test with two (or three?) trains then and the issues are due to that?? I expect they would have done that though...?
 
SilverArrow said:
Is it the same kind of breakdown every time? Been hearing that it's been breaking down a lot, I know there was a rumour that there was a new sensor trial going on but still, it had been testing with people for months. Unless maybe they didn't test with two (or three?) trains then and the issues are due to that?? I expect they would have done that though...?
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I think it's the new sensor/brake system having trouble dealing with three trains. Engineers have been fiddling around with the outside break run quite a bit yesterday and they've taken out one of the trains and everything seemed to work a lot better afterwards. But just a guess from my side.
 
Matt N said:
What did you think?
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After two rides and waiting longer because of the ride just breaking down several times, I do have to say I quite liked the entire experience. That is, the theme, build-up and ride itself. If I were to judge the ride by itself, it is a really save options as a new addition for Alton, maybe a bit too tame (but then again it is a family coaster, but then again with the pre-show and all, I'm surprised I didn't hear any small children just scream out loud).
It does miss some little tricks here and there for me to make it a world class experience as advertised, but I can imagine why Alton/Merlin wouldn't fully commit to it. :p
 
NeoXIII said:
After two rides and waiting longer because of the ride just breaking down several times, I do have to say I quite liked the entire experience. That is, the theme, build-up and ride itself. If I were to judge the ride by itself, it is a really save options as a new addition for Alton, maybe a bit too tame (but then again it is a family coaster, but then again with the pre-show and all, I'm surprised I didn't hear any small children just scream out loud).
It does miss some little tricks here and there for me to make it a world class experience as advertised, but I can imagine why Alton/Merlin wouldn't fully commit to it. :p
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Great stuff! Glad to hear that you liked it! I also think that the coaster is a fantastic experience overall, and for me, I actually thought the coaster on its own was fantastic!

With regards to the theme, I like that Merlin have attempted a more mystical attempt at dark theming, as opposed to their usual out-and-out grim dark theming. While their usual theming is still fantastic, I do prefer Wicker Man's style, as it gives off quite a different vibe to Merlin's other themes. Whereas Merlin's usual themes tend to have dark written all over them, Wicker Man's theme is more mystical, and doesn't give too much away. If you get what I mean. Don't get me wrong, Merlin's other themes are all fantastic, but Wicker Man is on a completely new level of theming, and it makes me really optimistic for future Merlin attractions. In their defence, The Smiler is another coaster that isn't really out-and-out grim, but I didn't find The Smiler to have Wicker Man's mystical vibe, either. The Smiler gives off a very strange sort of vibe, in that it appears nice and cheery at first, but once you delve further into it, it really starts to get quite creepy. Anyway, that's going off-topic a bit. Glad to hear you enjoyed Wicker Man.
P.S. Sorry for the long post.
 
I rode The Wicker Man for the first time yesterday along with Neo. We got in the queue at 10am and the queue time was immediately 90 minutes, and at that point it wasn’t even running. After about 15 minutes it started dispatching trains, though in some cases they had several empty rows, with this being the worst culprit…
BU5A7I7.jpg


Pretty frustrating to see this when you’re in a very long queue! :mad: An hour later we were getting close to the station and the ride broke down again. After a delay of around 20 minutes it started testing again and sent at least 6 trains, then operations restarted. We then got as far as the preshow and then as we were in the final queue in the station it broke down again for another ten minutes or so. By the time we got on the ride we had been waiting 2hrs 40mins!

It's hard to be positive about a ride when you’ve stood in a queue for so long and seen it break down several times, but there are positives. The preshow is good, the station is nicely themed (as is the queue line in places) and the ride itself is quite fun. It was kind of like a junior version of Thunderhead and I enjoyed the wild, twister style layout. There were even the faintest pops of airtime in places (we rode in row 10) and the near misses and interactions with the Wicker Man statue were good. Even Boring Corner wasn’t that bad - it looked awful off-ride but it didn’t take as much pace off the ride as we expected. Overall I’d say it’s a decent family woodie and the 4th best coaster in the park, but my opinion may change when I’ve ridden it more.

Now for the bad points, and ride-wise the only real issue was how short it was (other than the technical issues). The other issues are all around the supposedly World Class Experience that Merlin claim to be offering. Firstly, The Wicker Man statue looks cool but is a lot smaller than it seemed on all the PR material, so that was a bit disappointing. The fire effects weren’t switched on so the only ‘fusion of wood and fire’ was the very obvious screens inside the statue, which look a bit naff, a few orange LEDs and some smoke effects which are cold. Very poor.

Even worse though is the dark tunnel that you end up in at the end of the ride. We were expecting something spectacular but basically just sat there in the dark on the brake run for a couple of minutes. It looked like there was some kind of pathetic fire effect near the front of the train but we couldn’t see what it was. I noticed the ceiling of the tunnel seemed unfinished, with the wooden beams still showing. This made me think that they were intending to mount something on there but ran out of time/cash/enthusiasm. This tunnel is crying out for a big, dramatic, fire-filled finale, something like they do on The Mummy at Universal, with screens showing a ceiling of fire and some kind of heat blowers. That would have been a world class experience.

Similarly the lack of any kind of heat in the Wicker Man statue and no fire effects in the two tunnels on the ride are further missed opportunities. So in summary, the ride is fun but it seems incomplete and the theme is not carried out anywhere near what it should have been. Add to that the current technical issues and shaky operations and it’s exactly what you’d expect from a Merlin attraction! I completed the survey at the exit of the shop and rated the ride 6/10 overall. I am looking forward to riding it again when they've sorted the issues out and a 90 mins queue actually means 90 mins. :rolleyes:
 
Matt N said:
Great stuff! Glad to hear that you liked it! I also think that the coaster is a fantastic experience overall, and for me, I actually thought the coaster on its own was fantastic!

With regards to the theme, I like that Merlin have attempted a more mystical attempt at dark theming, as opposed to their usual out-and-out grim dark theming. While their usual theming is still fantastic, I do prefer Wicker Man's style, as it gives off quite a different vibe to Merlin's other themes. Whereas Merlin's usual themes tend to have dark written all over them, Wicker Man's theme is more mystical, and doesn't give too much away. If you get what I mean. Don't get me wrong, Merlin's other themes are all fantastic, but Wicker Man is on a completely new level of theming, and it makes me really optimistic for future Merlin attractions. In their defence, The Smiler is another coaster that isn't really out-and-out grim, but I didn't find The Smiler to have Wicker Man's mystical vibe, either. The Smiler gives off a very strange sort of vibe, in that it appears nice and cheery at first, but once you delve further into it, it really starts to get quite creepy. Anyway, that's going off-topic a bit. Glad to hear you enjoyed Wicker Man.
P.S. Sorry for the long post.
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You apologise way to much. :p There is no limit to how long you can make your posts (I believe). ;)
 
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