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This is a long shot, but.... (rumoured woodie for Drayton)

Re: This is a long shot, but.... (rumoured woodie for Drayto

Gullivers MK was meant to get a Woodie in the Eco Park when it opened. An Antelope clone. It was in park literature I think?

But, if it is there, there'd be nothing to get excited about, so.

Same with Paultons probably. No amount of wooden polish is gonna make that turd of a park shine.

*watches that get deleted because I said something bad about Paultons*
 
Re: This is a long shot, but.... (rumoured woodie for Drayto

Joey said:
Where has the 3 woodies for the UK rumour come from?
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The original tweet from Marcus Gaines, which was edited out in the first post of the thread for some reason.

http://twitter.com/#!/coastertouring

coastertouring Marcus Gaines
Apparently yesterday Drayton Manor announced plans to build a wooden coaster. That means England will see 3 new woodies in the next 5 years.
 
Re: This is a long shot, but.... (rumoured woodie for Drayto

Cool, and who is this person and has anyone asked who else is looking into one then?
 
Re: This is a long shot, but.... (rumoured woodie for Drayto

Ben said:
Same with Paultons probably. No amount of wooden polish is gonna make that turd of a park shine.

*watches that get deleted because I said something bad about Paultons*
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Nah, you're entitled to your opinion no matter how wrong it is <3

Joey - Marcus Gaines is an "industry guru", he writes for several theme park magazines and is well connected. He's also a smashing chap.

I keep meaning to email him but I need to log on to my home computer to find his email address.

I do feel a degree of sympathy for any UK park who builds a woodie. It'll be a big gamble because steel coasters are so dominant and popular. It's my gut feeling that any woodie built in the UK will not be a world class one, it'll be more along the lines of a family woodie. This is will obviously draw criticism from some enthusiasts, who, imo, should be encouraging a "new" experience for the UK.
 
Re: This is a long shot, but.... (rumoured woodie for Drayto

Ian said:
I do feel a degree of sympathy for any UK park who builds a woodie. It'll be a big gamble because steel coasters are so dominant and popular. It's my gut feeling that any woodie built in the UK will not be a world class one, it'll be more along the lines of a family woodie. This is will obviously draw criticism from some enthusiasts, who, imo, should be encouraging a "new" experience for the UK.
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I don't know how everyone else feels, but I want a new woodie in the UK to be extremely successful. Doesn't necessarily have to be the most intense thrill machine straight away, but I want the other UK parks to realise that these new woodies are very different from the old fashioned rides at Blackpool. I also hope to a certain extent that the GP feel the same. That way the woodies get their foot in the door in the UK and suddenly we'll see a bigger, more thrill orientated park, getting an intense and thrilling woodie. It may take a few years, but hopefully it'll work out.

My worry is that it'll be too tame...
 
Re: This is a long shot, but.... (rumoured woodie for Drayto

There's a huge difference between loving a coaster post riding it and thinking it sounds amazing so traveling to ride it.

The concern is that from a marketing perspective, it's not just a gamble, but it's almost sure to fail.

With no good wooden coaster in an accessible place in the UK, and no good wooden coasters at any parks Brits visit on holiday (Port Aventura, Florida), the public perception of them is undoubtably crap.

However, I'm also of the opinion that if parks build something - anything - people will come if they simply market it as a NEW THRILL COASTER. Play your cards right, opening it when your competitors are not getting anything new, and people will come, ride it and love it.

The parks are more than aware how great modern wooden coasters are. They know full well that they could get more for their money, and more quality for their money. The problem is selling the idea to a dubious public.
 
Re: This is a long shot, but.... (rumoured woodie for Drayto

The original tweet from Marcus Gaines, which was edited out in the first post of the thread for some reason.
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Like I said, I left that out as it made the whole tweet sound like a wind up, and I still think it sounds like someone taking the piss.
 
Re: This is a long shot, but.... (rumoured woodie for Drayto

^As do I.

if Drayton have "apparently" announced a new woodie, where is the announcement? I'd be **** ing overjoyed to see it happen, but it seems like, at the moment, we're all jumping on next to nothing as some kind of confirmation, all based on wishful thinking and very, very little else at this stage.

Nic said:
I really hope the rumours about FL selling Crokscrew because they're desperate for cash aren't true, because if they are then that's not happening any time soon.
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Sorry, but one person talking **** about a rival park in which they have no involvement, financial or otherwise, does not constitute rumours. I thought that whole "statement" came across as petty and bitter to be honest; Flamingoland is quite obviously the more financially successful park. Parks are allowed to have a bad year or two (if that's even the case at all; we don't know) without having to suddenly sell off their assets.

Plus, how much money would Corkscrew actually make anyway? Next to nothing.
 
Re: This is a long shot, but.... (rumoured woodie for Drayto

I thought the Drayton rumour was plausible, but the '3 Woodies for the UK' is surely just a wind up?

Anyway, a small update on the matter:

I am part of the RCCGB, and they DID talk wood at this years Loopathon.

I can confirm that the park ARE considering a woodie in the future, and they did mention that they have been in touch with The Gravity Group and are looking very closely at the ride being built in Europa park. A woodie will NOT happen in 2013 as they told us their new major coaster will be open in 2013, and will be based on a product. While wood is still a while away in this country, it is getting closer and Drayton are very keen to make an enthusiasts dream come true!
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Re: This is a long shot, but.... (rumoured woodie for Drayto

^Hmmmmm

"Considering" a woodie is a far cry from announcing a woodie. I'm pretty sure all major, and most minor, parks are "considering" woodies and even contacting manufacturers. That whole statement means basically nothing.
 
Re: This is a long shot, but.... (rumoured woodie for Drayto

^ Yeah.

To be honest, I can't see Drayton getting a woodie. As much as I love the place, they love their gimmicks and a woodie is just too dull in the eyes of the sophisticated West Midlands clientele. The only way I can see a woodie happening is if they incorporate some sort of gimmick into it, which is obviously harder to create (and market) with a wooden coaster.

I think sompting like a ZacSpin would be more likely... sompting with a small footprint (and a UK first at least). That could easily be themed to Knex too, haha.

Obviously I'd LOVE to see a GCI mincing at Draytes, but I'll eat minge if I ever see it.
 
Re: This is a long shot, but.... (rumoured woodie for Drayto

Jake said:
I think sompting like a ZacSpin would be more likely... sompting with a small footprint (and a UK first at least).
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Another low throughput coaster is NOT what Drayton needs. G-Force's throughput is abysmal, and Shockwave's is pretty dire considering the capacity of trains and the length of the track. Ben 10 is also very poor.

They need something reasonably cheap (a GCI), something visually impressive (a GCI), a coaster that's actually GOOD (a GCI) and something with high throughput (a GCI).
 
Re: This is a long shot, but.... (rumoured woodie for Drayto

^ I don't think Zacspins have a terrible capacity to be honest, no less than a spinning coaster or a wild mouse. Granted, they don't get through thousands of people an hour, but most other parks manage. Drayton hardly need something with a huge capacity, and if they did they'd only ever run one train anyway. Besides, I wasn't saying just a Zacspin in particular, just something along those lines.

Drayton's rides are bad capacity because of the operations, it's nothing to do with the actual rides. They never have all sides of Apocalypse open, hardly ever have both trains on Shockwave (actually, Shockwave is just understaffed), couldn't be bothered with a second train for G Force etc etc. Actually, the only ride with an obscene capacity is Pandemonium which is wasted on them because they faff for about 20 minutes between every cycle.

You could give them a B&M Hyper with 3 trains and they'd find a way to give it a 2 hour queue with 50 people in the park.

It sounds like I hate Draytes, but I really don't, I promise <3.
 
Re: This is a long shot, but.... (rumoured woodie for Drayto

Jake said:
I think sompting like a ZacSpin would be more likely... sompting with a small footprint (and a UK first at least). That could easily be themed to Knex too, haha.
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Forget that, why not just build something like a Eurofighter or...groan....SLC? both are quite thrilling and don't take up a great deal of space. A top quality thrill coaster is just what DMP needs.

The coasters all have such terrible throughput, because they're silly, gimmicky efforts which are a pain to load. Just look at Shockwave. Also, the queues are usually so small that there's no justification in running the second train. As for Apocalypse, all seating is open during extremely busy times only - this is no doubt done to help keep costs down.
 
Re: This is a long shot, but.... (rumoured woodie for Drayto

To help this rumour, I was there today and I noticed by the car-park next to the Thomas land entrance, there was some kind of wooden supports and track. May not be but it's definatly along those lines.

Also, they've cleared and flattened a bit of land near the rapids.


It all could be red herrings but somethings definatly happening.

Btw, I do have a picture to prove the supports which I'll upload on Sunday.
 
Re: This is a long shot, but.... (rumoured woodie for Drayto

^Any pictures? Or, if you don't have any, a further description of what you saw?

Remember that any wooden coaster eats planks like there's no tomorrow. A woodie on the scale of, say, Mean Streak, is built from several hundreds of kilometres of wooden planks. Even a small one like El-Toro consists of tens of thousands of planks. Wooden coaster construction also needs tremendous amounts of concrete, nails, etc, etc. If a woodie was being erected, the parking lot would be brimmed with materials.
 
Re: This is a long shot, but.... (rumoured woodie for Drayto

Also if this coaster was opening for 2012, we would have seen way more construction/marketing by now. Swarm is halfway to being built, and the promotion for it started beginning of the season.

If this is for 2013, it's far too early. I'm calling BS on this one, it must be for something else. :)
 
Re: This is a long shot, but.... (rumoured woodie for Drayto

I'll see what's happening. At the minute, I'm going to DMP three times a week to get the most out of my pass before the end of season, so it should be easy to spot anything out of the ordinary :)
 
Re: This is a long shot, but.... (rumoured woodie for Drayto

^ You should be able to see the supports if you park by thomas land and look to the trees on your left. For the ground clearence, go on the rapids and look over the railway towards the carpark. Think there's a digger there as well.

For pictures, I do have one which I'll upload later when I can get my phone's USB cable.
 
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