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Alton Towers | Wicker Man | GCI Wood

So, The Wicker Man then.

There's definitely some positives going for it. It looks better in person than most of the photos have managed to convey. The presentation of the ride, including the pre-show is pretty decent, although not outstanding by any means. The ride maintains a decent pace through most of the layout, aforementioned "boring corner" aside, and for the most part, the general public seemed to be suitably impressed by the ride.

Unfortunately, during the couple of rides I got on it this afternoon, it seemed a little underwhelming. There's a pretty good downward S-turn as you emerge from the tunnel on the second hill, where the track dives down to pass through the Wicker Man for the first time, but there was a real lack of airtime in the middle of the train on both my rides this afternoon. Perhaps front or back row would have been better, and it looks like it may ride better in warmer weather, but today it just didn't deliver. My experience with it today was very much in line with many of the other bland GCIs I've ridden over the years. For those of you who were on the 2012 Germany Live, and were completely underwhelmed by the way in which Wodan was running that year, well Wicker Man felt much the same. It's certainly no Thunderbird right now, and although I've not got Troy as a reference point, I doubt it'll be holding a candle to that any time soon, either.

Here's hoping it picks up a bit of extra pace as the year goes on.
 
They could have played around with the banking on that turn surely? Have it outwardly banked, or switch between the two (inward/outward banking) ala trick track. Would have made things a little bit more interesting.
 
Here's my thoughts after riding it today. So if you don't want spoilers, unplug the internet.

The theming is really good. The back story isn't overly complicated, the centrepiece of the ride looks great and the pre-show is short, sweet and goes straight to the point. The station also looks great inside, and the soundtrack is superb (wouldn't expect anything less from IMAScore!). The staff were still getting to grips with the pre-show sequence, but once they nail the operations down, it should get through a good amount of people. Especially as the trains are sans seatbelts, like Wodan at Europa-Park.

The ride goes better than those first awful test videos suggested, and the swooping downward s-turn is good fun, but it certainly doesn't fly around all the bends like it's bigger GCI cousins. That's not to say it's bad. It isn't. It's got the usual little pops of GCI airtime, but it rides pretty much how you'd expect if you've done your fair share of GCIs. I'll be interested to see how people who've been on Heidi/White Lightning and Invadr rate it. The closest I've done is El Toro at Plohn, and that was a much better coaster.

For the first time, it is worth the wait. The way the whole package comes together ****s all over Thirteen, and families will love it as a step up from the mine train next door. It is quite short, and yes that boring corner is boring. But for what it's worth, it's a fun experience that will make you want to buy some of the fab merch on sale once you get off.

It will of course be obscenely busy this year, and rightly so with all the hype, and I couldn't see myself waiting for it in a massive queue at the height of summer. I would be willing to wait a while for a night ride during Scarefest (I'll see about Fireworks weekend. As Wicker Man is next to the lawn, you'd have to be tactical where you stand because that will be a disgusting queue once the firework show ends).
 
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Lofty said:
The amount of people I know that's been on it is gobsmacking to be fair. It's potentially the worst 'exclusive cred' I've ever seen...
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Alton Towers has revealed the full rune alphabet:-
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Time for a photo overload by David Wragg on Facebook. I've selected the best ones:-

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7. Look who's in the front seat...
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Don't know what happened here...
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Which coaster out of Icon and Wicker Man do you think looks more photogenic? It's hard, but I'm slightly leaning towards this.
 
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I managed to ride Wicker Man today. It opened on-time and for ERT which was very unexpected. I like how the queueline snakes around the ride giving great views across it. Plus the bonus of none of Alton's recent addiction to super high fences surrounding everything. The preshow is nice as it keeps the story concise, short and to the point. Some cool effects.
The coaster itself is a very solid ride. Unlike other GCI's i've ridden, it's less "bunny hoppy" and very lateral g heavy. I like airtime on coasters so was a little disappointed here, but the second drop is definitely my favourite as it's an S-bend that leads through to the first pass through the Wicker Man. Watch out for your final Wicker Man pass through too, for some reason there is a lot of water pouring out on the right hand side of the train as you pass underneath. If you are on the right side of the train you can get pretty soaked right now! A well timed lean over to the left side of the train helps here!

Overall it has two bad parts in my opinion:- 1. It's too short. I'm very pleased we have a new UK wooden coaster and it's a very well done coaster but it is too short. It just gets going and you're in the brake run. 2. The corner than seems to have been named "Boring Corner". It feels as though it was built in RCT and they built themselves into acorner without knowing what to do next so just put in a very unbanked turn to fix the situation. It just feels a bit strange.

So, it's a decent ride, just not an amazing one. Nemesis is still by far my favourite coaster at Alton Towers.
 
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Looking forward to the accurate reviews in a couple months when people stop bumming it.

Glad to see that there are some realistic opinions here on CF, though. People really need to learn to hide their “I got to ride it before you so I’m gonna say it’s AWESOME” bs. My twitter feed was cringe.

I won’t be riding it until May, but expect honesty when I do.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
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