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Wild Mouse at BPB Closure - R.I.P. 1958-2017

Personally can't see a coaster going in that space. I think it'll be a few years till we even see anything there, but I'd guess a flat ride of some description. A lot of people, including myself, think that Ice Blast is on it's last legs, so I'd guess that BPB may even ditch that before they look for another investment of equal scale.
 
ATI said:
I've just had a quick look on Google Earth at how much space Wild Mouse takes up, and it takes up round 700 square metres, and Trauma towers takes up around 500 square metres. Is there any kind of attraction that can fill any of those spots? If they removed Alice in Wonderland, that would give them a space of around 2,100 square metres, an area that could house a Mack spinner slightly larger than Turbulence. I know this wont come for a while, but I put money on it that Alice in Wonderland will be the next ride on the chopping block.

In the Wild Mouse's space, I could see a swinging ride of some kind in 2020, maybe an Intamin gyro? I've looked on GE again, and there is definitely for a Maelstrom-sized pendulum ride to fit there, and enough room for the arm to swing either side with a decent amount of clearance.
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I would be gutted to see a pendulum type ride, or worse still, a flaming spinning steel mouse, on that space. Also isn't Alice Amanda's favourite ride?
 
Dipper_Dave said:
I would be gutted to see a pendulum type ride, or worse still, a flaming spinning steel mouse, on that space. Also isn't Alice Amanda's favourite ride?
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Well wouldn't a pendulum ride be a replacement to Bling? That was popular.
I don't think they will get a spinning mouse since they have a good relationship with Mack, I think they will get a Mack Spinner as one of their next major coasters. I could also seeing them going with a Gerstlauer, since they recently installed Skyforce. And if Alice is Amanda's favourite ride, she needs to ride some more rides.​
 
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ATI said:
^Well wouldn't a pendulum type ride be similar to Bling? I mean, it is a form of pendulum ride.
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As with any ride, great for those who like them. I don't have the iron stomach required for spinning rides so they are all the same to me! I can do Skyforce as it can be as tame as you want it to be, but I'd sooner nail my ball bag to Noah's Ark then ride Bling
 
If were speculating about future development, I think FY4 might be moved over to the Trauma Towers and Wild Mouse sites, split over the two by the pathway already existing inbetween the two sites. Demolition of the Bowl a Drome and the Planet Rock dome, as well as that small parking area, that's a decent size for a new ride or even a coaster a few years down the line.
 
Or, even just use the Trauma Towers space for FY4, and using the combined space of FY4, the Bowl a Drome, Planet Rock and the Wild Mouse, that's quite a decent sized space for a smaller coaster that crosses over the pathway towards the ramp up to the Big Dipper.

A size big enough for a T Rex, over those sites? Many years in the future, though.
 
It’s unfair to paint Amanda as the villain here. Yes ok, she would ultimately sign it off but remember that the park is her family heritage and contribution to the industry, Blackpool and beyond. She loves this industry and would not set about taking a chainsaw to a ride unless there was a sound business case (a la Southport). The Pleasure Beach has been progressive as a business (I stress “as a business”) under her stewardship. Books have been more or less balanced (one method has been removing non-viable rides). New attractions have been added. New branding has taken over (love it or hate it). The park has been tarted up. This is all boring stuff for enthusiasts who pine for the golden era under Geoffrey...but it’s the sound thing to do. If the ride was a H&S nightmare, just imagine if something bad happened. It obviously had to go for a reason, so don’t think it was done out of spite or to make way for a fountain.

Defending Amanda aside, I am gutted and wished they gave us warning. I would have loved to give it a send off. I recall riding Wild Mouse for the first time and beaming with joy. I felt the same way every time I rode it, every year for nearly 20 years. It was a gem of a coaster and I’ll miss it when I visit later this year to ride Icon.

The last few posts in this topic sums it up for me; people are already talking about what could go in its place. Everybody has done their outrage bit and yeah sure we’re still upset, but we’ll move on fairly soon.
 
@TommyAlex the Bowel A Drome is an absolute :emoji_poop:hole. I'm not a fan of arcades in BPB full stop. Leave them to the piers and prom. This is the infuriating thing; said building along with the dump that is the Dome are worthy of removal. Mouse was most certainly not.
 
^They need to get rid, or at least refurbish the arcade with the giant dome over it, next to Wallace and Gromit T.O.M, cause at the moment, that place IS a **** hole.
 
Also looking at the spot it used to occupy, it's toward the "noisy" side of the park. The north and east borders of BPB are bordering residential areas, which means that side of the park is somewhat limited as to the noise level of attractions there (the south end less so since the Big Blue hotel acts as a sound wall, but I don't think the city would be happy with any attraction taller than the hotel). Anything tall and noisy (that is, anything that makes guests scream, since that sound carries pretty far) would be out of the question there, and the coasters already there are probably given special permits because of their heritage status. But Wild Mouse sat in the centre of the park, far enough away from neighbours that noise would not be an issue. This means that Wild Mouse could potentially be replaced with something tall and scream-worthy, if the park so wished.

As for my opinion on the demolition itself... I'm shocked as well, Wild Mosue was definitely on my to-do list. But I understand that the ride could be more trouble than it was worth at this point. Keeping it operational was probably an expensive affair, and any serious HSE incident would deprive the park of way more money than its continued presence would ever bring in. The Smiler crash hit Alton Towers pretty hard, and BPB would probably take such a hit even harder. The impression I get from reading this thread is that securing the ride (especially clearance and such) would be prohibitively expensive, and possibly require a rebuild that would rob the ride of its character anyway. Keeping it open would be very risky, if allowed at all, rebuilding it would be very costly and change what made it popular in the first place anyway. Considering that risk perspective, plus the cost of keeping the ride open, Wild Mouse was probably just too expensive to keep. It could not even be open for a last goodbye, and it wouldn't do any good to leave it in place, out of operation, when guests arrived in spring. Might as well quietly demolish it in the off-season and then quickly focus on what goes in its place. Too bad about the timing, since with Icon being built across the park, it's not like they could slap a "coming soon..." sticker on a fence around the lot and expect anybody to take it seriously.
 
Pokemaniac said:
The Smiler crash hit Alton Towers pretty hard, and BPB would probably take such a hit even harder.
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Reading replies on a non-enthusiast discussion, there seems to be a trend of people generally feeling this ride was unsafe. So I guess an incident could go two ways - either brushed off because of the ride's perceived nature (like the M&D derailment) or spreading to the reputation of the other historic rides and "how dare they operate such unsafe things!"
 
jayjay said:
Reading replies on a non-enthusiast discussion, there seems to be a trend of people generally feeling this ride was unsafe. So I guess an incident could go two ways - either brushed off because of the ride's perceived nature (like the M&D derailment) or spreading to the reputation of the other historic rides and "how dare they operate such unsafe things!"
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Not to mention that BPB has a smaller economy in the back than Merlin, so the direct costs and settlements would have a proportionally larger impact. All in all, an accident would be too serious to risk, so drastic measures needed to be taken to reduce the risk as much as possible.
 
I get removing it from a H&S perspective and it’s true that BPB couldn’t handle the financial hit and low attendances if a Smiler-esque accident did occur. But surely this applies to most parks around the world?

Big Dipper crashed in 2009, if they were so worried about H&S surely Mouse would have been demolished back then?

And the wild mouse managed to operate without serious incident for 59 years! Why would it suddenly have an accident now?

I just wish BPB would tell us the REAL reason for its removal. The fact they haven’t revealed why makes me think they hiding something, like a repair bill they didn’t want to pay and was just easier to get rid.
 
spicy said:
I get removing it from a H&S perspective and it’s true that BPB couldn’t handle the financial hit and low attendances if a Smiler-esque accident did occur. But surely this applies to most parks around the world?

Big Dipper crashed in 2009, if they were so worried about H&S surely Mouse would have been demolished back then?

And the wild mouse managed to operate without serious incident for 59 years! Why would it suddenly have an accident now?

I just wish BPB would tell us the REAL reason for its removal. The fact they haven’t revealed why makes me think they hiding something, like a repair bill they didn’t want to pay and was just easier to get rid.
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I must admit this is a VERY good point. Nobody has died or lost a body part on the ride, and to our knowledge no serious incident has occurred (well, apart from the one they say closed the ride) If you are going to close a ride because of something that 'might' happen then why not shut the lot of them?

From what we know, a woman claimed that she accidentally knocked the seatbelt release and thus her son, sat in front of her, almost went flying out. The ride then closed, then the park modified the mice with an extra seatbelt, so one for each rider. As far as we know this modification was ok'd by the powers that be. By this logic, it could then have reopened. Some say they could no longer insure it, but the fact that the mod had been made and passed as acceptable makes it seem very odd that insurers would pull the plug. You were pretty much held in to the Mouse by gravity anyway, pinned into your seat. Certainly I cannot imagine anyone tall enough to ride the Mouse being flung out because the belt was no longer in place
 
Dipper_Dave said:
If you are going to close a ride because of something that 'might' happen then why not shut the lot of them?
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Wild Mouse isn't protected like the other woodies and I think that management figured that Wild Mouse was the easiest option for removal a while ago. I can't see how it's removal at this time could have been planned far in advance though, because I just think, logically, it would be announced like the Log Flume and other notable ride removals over the years. BPB have actually started improving with their social media communication and updates ever since announcing Icon, which also makes it feel a bit odd and detached that Wild Mouse has suddenly just... gone and still not even been properly addressed by the park. It's just odd and weird, and makes me think that this was planned for further down the line but brought forward (for reasons?) perhaps partly to cushion the blow behind the much anticipated new investment.

I agree with Ian's post, there shouldn't be a hate mob gunning for Mandy over an obviously difficult but hopefully progressive decision, I just think that it's such a weird and abrupt end to one of the only classic British coasters consistently enjoyed by all ages. Hopefully more info arises soon.
 
I don't think this is anything to do with H&S, but rather insurance.

There's been a risk assessment dive by them, and the insurers won't give them public liability.

So many reasons.

There's the safety envelope and potential broken limbs and knocked heads on the lift hill.

Then there's no way to secure riders and force them not to stand or try to get out.

While there hasn't been an incident, it was just a matter of time.

I don't know what the rules are on current rides, but I suspect this is similar to the building industry (which I know a lot about).

Anything new has a million rules and regulations that architects, builders, material suppliers, etc. must adhere to.

Anything that currently exists is under a kind of "well, we'd like it to meet modern day build regulations, but know it's impossible. So here are some best fit guidelines and just make sure you have good insurance and hope nothing bad happens."

As we've seen with the Grenfell Tower, this approach isn't the best...

So I suspect the insurers have looked at The Mouse and asked "just how far away from modern rules is the ride - if it were built today?" and the answer wasn't good.

They'll have then probably wanted otsr fitted, height restrictions, arm length restrictions, the lift hill modifying, etc.

Massive, impractical costs.

There's definitely discussion to be had about the way BPB handle their pr, they're very much of the "don't talk to the peasants" style rather than the "communicate and get beaten with people's special kind of stupid outrage" style. That's their house choice though really.

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