What's new

Alton Towers | Wicker Man | GCI Wood

Psycoshark1

Roller Poster
Its such a shame that Merlin are a terrible company. They turned down the option of a really good looking wooden coaster for Thorpe Park in favour of the shockingly rough Saw The Ride. Then instead of a new coaster the year before last they make supposedly their biggest investment to date and add the complete waste of time and money that is Derren Browns Ghost Train or Derren Browns Ghost Replacement Bus Service as I called it after visiting three times and finding it not working. Now Merlin have apparently said that they will now be focusing all their investment on the LEGOLAND Parks and will not be doing large installations at the other Merlin owned attractions.Thorpe.jpg Thorpe1.jpg
 
Last edited:

scw55

Hyper Poster
Is there any music playing in the area at the moment? Haven't been myself so just wondering.

For anyone wanting to Youtube "Sw8 Music", I'd wait for a while. SW8 shares initials with a band called Sideways 8. Unless you like looking at pictures of a hairless bear of a vocalist, I recommend waiting.
 

Smithy

Strata Poster
Its such a shame that Merlin are a terrible company. They turned down the option of a really good looking wooden coaster for Thorpe Park in favour of the shockingly rough Saw The Ride. Then instead of a new coaster the year before last they make supposedly their biggest investment to date and add the complete waste of time and money that is Derren Browns Ghost Train or Derren Browns Ghost Replacement Bus Service as I called it after visiting three times and finding it not working. Now Merlin have apparently said that they will now be focusing all their investment on the LEGOLAND Parks and will not be doing large installations at the other Merlin owned attractions.View attachment 2027 View attachment 2028

Have I missed something?
 

MakoMania

Mega Poster
Merlin have stated that they are to reduce investment in the Resort theme parks and midway attractions (most of the cuts will happen in midway and smaller cuts in RTP) by £100 million from 2018-2021 but the Legoland parks budget will not be affected.
 

CrashCoaster

CF Legend
^If it includes a hotel at Thorpe Park then fair enough. If it includes multiple new hotels at Alton Towers, then **** off!
 

Will

Strata Poster
^
Not at all convinced Thorpe needs a hotel to be honest - makes sense at Alton as it's in the middle of nowhere, and Chessington as it's family orientated.
While I can see that hotels are probably becoming more profitable than the parks themselves, I find it hard to imagine the bulk of Thorpe's clientele want to/can afford to stay on site?
 
Last edited:

Pink Cadillac

Giga Poster
Ok so I understand this properly... Smaller amount of money is going to the 5 proper theme parks and with this smaller amount of cash to spend, hotels will be a bigger focus than before? A double whammy?
bx03qKL.jpg
 

JoshC.

Strata Poster
What is happening is that Merlin are reshuffling their budgets for the 2018-2021 period. So, £100m of money that was going towards Capex investments at the theme parks and current midways is now being redirected to focus on new accommodation (ie hotels), new Legoland parks (New York in particular being a focus) and new midways.

There is still money that will be invested in the parks. There will still be new rides and stuff. And this budget reshuffle doesn't affect things like current staffing levels / operational costs. It's a case of there will be a less of it, and not as large an investment. It's major - effectively £25m a year across the parks and midways is A LOT - but it isn't a case that investment will stop completely.
 

Pear

Strata Poster
The top of the Wicker Man was spotted.

491fe601672c1a66b72a939d7cea11ed.jpg


I hate to repost this image but it's how I feel after every update of this ride


1cdf2d1cef284b6992edba767f996753.jpg
 

Pink Cadillac

Giga Poster
Wow is that the ride's theming behind it!!!
Is this before it was constructed or a different, smaller one. I'd be cool with a charred wood look but it's reminding me of a charred corpse - not cool.
 

Sandman

Giga Poster
Is that the top? My first thought was an additional bit of theming. Maybe it's the photo, but it doesn't look that big or interesting.
 

Pear

Strata Poster
Apparently it's a scaled down version of what the top will be. Maybe it's for a mini version in the queue or something. Either way the topper will look like that only a bit bigger.
 

Sandman

Giga Poster
I'll have to reserve judgement until I see the full thing. I'm still wondering how extensive the theming will be for this.
 
Top