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Slammer - The end may be near?

Wow, don't hear that much love for Slammer! I like the ride too. When these rumors started flying about it closing, I was like, WTF! Why get rid of such a strange and unique ride. Slammer appreciation society anyone?
 
Nic said:
Not really relevant, but I'm pretty sure that the Chessington hotel has nothing to do with Holiday Inn anymore. Where's Peep when you need him?
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Hello.

Yeah it still operates under the Holiday Inn title and is on their site etc but is actually owned and run 100% by Chessington now. Hence the introduction of themed rooms.


Oh and Slammer? I hope they burn it to the ground along with all the SLCs of the World.
 
furie said:
Development and investment plans are completely fluid and utterly dependent on gate figures, profits, projections, current economic climate, shareholder interests, investor profits and projections and a thousand other things we can't even begin to comprehend.

There is no cycle, there is only a potential plan local management will try to stick to, but changes in management will also have an affect.
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The cycle exists because of financial reasons, they could probably install a medium ride every year quite comfortably. But to build large rides they have to have years with little to no investment as well.

Look at the Alton Towers development plan. It was created by the new Merlin led management team and the only link it has to the old Tussauds plan was 13 which was the last plan brought forward by previous management before they were replaced.
http://www.towersalmanac.com/features/index.php?id=69

I don't know if we'll even see the planned four medium/large installations.
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It's rumoured that 2014 will be a family year for Alton, fitting in with the cycle.

Also Thorpe seem to be much more forthcoming with their future plans than Alton is.

Plus, the GCI wood was meant to be Saw. The plans change constantly, things get shifted around as timing and money change. There really isn't a set cycle. They will try to stick to plans as best they can (that's the idea of having plans), but anything beyond the current committed project is just mist.
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The number of rides that are unbuilt is probably far greater than the number of actually built rides.
Back in 2004 saw was represented by air. Even after it was decided to be a Eurofighter the layout was changed drastically, the initial planning permission showed the ride with a different outdoor section to what was built. I even read somewhere that the whole ride was planned to be enclosed at one point.

Now onto the Arena, a lot of construction work has been going on there. The most obvious thing is that the high dive tower has been demolished.

I have to say I agree with you in that I think the Arena is a waste of space. But Thorpe seem to think it has a use.

Personally I think the arena would be a good spot for a dark ride, someone on mania forums super imposed Tomb Blaster over the arena and it fit quite well.
 
Idlewild said:
The cycle exists because of financial reasons, they could probably install a medium ride every year quite comfortably. But to build large rides they have to have years with little to no investment as well.
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I agree, but that doesn't mean it's set in stone as to how they run an investment cycle. If they park is deemed to require heavy investment, then it gets it. We saw that with Thorpe with an initial heavy investment which has tailed off a little. At Alton we saw a flurry too (Air 2002, Spinball 2004 and Rita 2005) which was all to do with economics (and increasing asset value ready for sale) than any kind of "cycle".

Idlewild said:
It's rumoured that 2014 will be a family year for Alton, fitting in with the cycle.
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Yes, but your "cycle" is based on a MTDP for Thorpe that is almost 10 years old. The LTDP for Alton which is five years old says medium and large from 2010-2014. Hence, there is no cycle and you can't base an argument on investment on either cycles or development plans.

Idlewild said:
The number of rides that are unbuilt is probably far greater than the number of actually built rides.
Back in 2004 saw was represented by air. Even after it was decided to be a Eurofighter the layout was changed drastically, the initial planning permission showed the ride with a different outdoor section to what was built. I even read somewhere that the whole ride was planned to be enclosed at one point.
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Yes, but the GCI wood was also designed to go on the same site. The representation was simply a planning mock-up to work out future ride areas, it was just a placeholder. Everything is in flux, which is the point I'm making - you cannot predict anything based on anything you may have seen before or heard. Everything can change from month to month, never mind year to year.
 
I've never realy likes Slammer, and I doubt Thorpe Park will add another coaster, because swarm was added this year. I dont have any ideas as to what the new attraction may be, but I hope that it's more relyable than slammer.
 
^^They don't have to use the available space immediately though. If Slammer is going, there's no reason why they can't/won't keep the area empty for when they're ready to put something there at a later date.
 
Lofty said:
I've still not rode it. Every time I've been, the **** been shut!
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Yeah, I think it took seven visits before I found it open just the once. POS
 
I have ridden it EVERY single time I have been at Thorpe. And I go there once in a blue moon.

Mark, you must have been at Thorpe quite a few times, right?
 
No. Ha. I've only been 3 times, none of those times has Slammer has been in an operational state. Which is a shame.
 
I have been twice, and both times it has been working all day, guess im just lucky. I would say it's the best flat ride in the country.
 
I would say it is about 50/50 working/not working when I go. It has only been working once this year when I have been.
 
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