Oh right, I only really remember the lively dancy bit from Welcoming

I reckon an Alton Village/harbour like mentioned above could work really well! From what we’ve been seeing the trailers remind me so much of the film the village. And it mentions the coming together/welcoming so it could definitley have a village feel to it near the haunted hollow.

If it was some sort of wicker man festival theme like a celebration maybe of a derelict village (thinking old bunting and worn down celebration signs kind of thing) I think this could both work well with the ride and help to tie in mutiny bay to a new area without it feeling a million miles away from either or theme.

I'm looking forward to seeing how marketing addresses the area, if at all. From the discussions of this forum and others, we're all going to be disappointed if it turns out to be another Flume situation where it is not attached to any area. Mutiny Bay and Haunted Hollows are the two areas I think a possible retheme could occur, although I am hoping for the Haunted Hollows more so!

I have a feeling that it's going to end up going down the smiler route with a heavily themed area that extends to about 5 feet from the ride. I feel as if getting near it will announce its presence but I don't think we're going to see some grand theme change to the area around it. Maybe a slight push to make it fit in better but it doesn't seem to me as if it's going to be drastic.

I’m looking forward to seeing how they encorporate the area into the marketing too it’s very much all about the flames and the chosen ones & the type at the moment. I wonder when we will see more or hear about a potential area theme or which is belongs too? I hope they don’t make it so it is just loosely connected to either or as the SW8 looks like it deserves its own area...we waited long enough for the wooden coaster we all wanted to bad

Just to remind everyone, the Alton harbor thing mentioned in the Welcomings description, was just bad grammar!
It was meant to say "The woods around Alton, Harbour a dark secret" or something to that effect!

The harbour idea was touted about before details of The Welcoming were released.

Now that we've seen the coaster as it is now, do you think Mutiny Bay will be rethemed and what area do you think SW8 will fall into?

I think it will be in Mutiny Bay, either under the theme it currently has or lightly rethemed.

I think it could have its own area, a bit like The Swarm at Thorpe Park.

^ 

Merlin/Towers sometimes lie or change their minds on what they should and shouldn't do. (See Nick’s response about wood coasters when The Smiler opened). 

Mutiny Bay shouldn't require much of an effort to retheme anyway, I mean all they'll have to do is change the audio and add some small bits of theming to the area, eg white flags or 'Be Chosen' or 'The Pirates have been chosen' posters. Think Dark Forest style retheme.

Some of the audio in Mutiny Bay, such as the parrot, is in need of being updated as it still advertises the pirate show.

I don’t know why people don’t see how it can’t link into the pirate thing as sub-Area to Mutiny Bay (like Scorpion Valley to Mexicanna), there’s been plenty of pirate movies that link spiritual stuff and pirates very effectively...

(Continuing on the points made by Bert Spark) I was thinking something similar would happen too, something to connect SW8 and MB without having to really change much. That said, the 'Be Chosen' theme seems a little dark for one of their younger sections.
Maybe, since it mentioned the woods, it might be lumped with the Gloomy Wood? It was put in the Gloomy Wood section on the map this year. It's already gloomy and I don't think they would need to do any retheming, it'd be more like the Smiler and Oblivion, where they're lightly tied together. The area is so big, so most of the general public probably wouldn't even notice. And on top of that, I think Gloomy wood hits SW8's demographic better - family fear, like Duel was trying to get. As well, adding a new ride to Gloomy Wood might help draw attention to that section, which I think it's safe to say is one of the less visited sections. They added their new ice cream place to the Gloomy Wood, which shows how they're trying to draw people there, so they're latest ride would most certainly help.

I have a preference that I think Katanga Canyon's aged a bit now as a theme area- time for a change maybe. Because of the elements theme of SW8 the rapids ride would be an easy fit into the theme and the mine train suits a village and again minerals, airtime, earth, fire, water, in my view Alton are missing a big opportunity if they don't consider retheming Katanga Canyon as 'The Village'- it would be perfect, Mutiny Bay works as an area of its own and I wouldn't want to see SW8 merged in to it or Mutiny Bay replaced with an area to fit SW8, Gloomy Wood is a suitable neighbour to an SW8 area, effectively part of the village in the woods - Katanga would be a perfect solution for me as its rides are already a good match, the location and proximity is perfect and it works as a neighbour to Mutiny Bay too. The rapids will be on many aerial shots of SW8 for starters, hmm, fusing and elements, would also make sense for an area merge of this nature in that respect. Alton should do this!

The welcoming scare maze area which is being refurbed (restaurant if I remember correctly?) could be done in a way that fits a village and a pirate theme thus working with the fact it's effectively in both areas.

As SW8's prequel mentions "The woods surrounding the village of Alton" and the villagers of the mine tours scare maze have a similar vibe they could even retheme (quite easily) the mine train as The Altonville Mines. I don't mean with the scary stuff but it would tie it in with the scare maze and add to the experience aspect for those of us who like such aesthetics in a park. UK parks can be quite poor at theming and miss opportunities parks elsewhere seem to spot! Although not every park/ride has to be themed, Blackpool's never felt like it needs theming, but Alton's setting and 'olde English' feel mean theming works really well there as with Hex, and this means you come to expect it of other rides and areas in the park.

Yeah as Secret Weapons usually lead to an area retheme.

A Katanga Canyon or Gloomy Wood retheme seems more likely than a Mutiny Bay retheme, due to Mutiny Bay being rethemed relatively recently. I like the idea of the Runaway Mine Train being rethemed and with the Rapids looking like they are having new boats, a retheme could be on the cards.

WallisDan wrote:

Yeah as Secret Weapons usually lead to an area retheme.

A Katanga Canyon or Gloomy Wood retheme seems more likely than a Mutiny Bay retheme, due to Mutiny Bay being rethemed relatively recently. I like the idea of the Runaway Mine Train being rethemed and with the Rapids looking like they are having new boats, a retheme could be on the cards.

It dawns on me they might also merge Gloomy Wood and a rethemed Katanga Canyon where Gloomy Wood / Haunted Hollow (itself currently a secondary area to G.W.) remain but both become a secondary area of the village and feel part of it, there are also rumours of Duel getting a change of some sort although it may just be getting some TLC. I've seen a way it might fit some of my theories on SW8 that would only mean changing part of the ride, some people are thinking it may be getting a full SW8 rework but that feels unlikely to me, I like the suggestions that have been made that Duel should go back to having different sections each with their own music and possibly losing the guns (I'm not sure if I'd miss the target shooting or not), in which case maybe a section tied into SW8 (as I'm thinking the chosen may be those who have left this world which would really make this area merge and retheme options make sense.....). Duel as a proper modern ghost train may also work.


Hadn't heard about the rapids boats so there does seem to be a focus on this area, I do agree that if they do just leave SW8 on its own it's going to impact on its feel within the park and not make best use of its presence and backstory. It will still have a strong theme but will be a bit disconnected from its location in the park.The mine train could be rethemed as more of an abandoned mine or similar that fits an 'old world' village, perhaps it closed because of the villagers' respect of the Earth's resources maybe! Not sure if there's a way they could but bringing the rapids water features nearer to/ under SW8 would be good but is possibly not so easy logistics/ planning/ cost wise, may be something simple they could do though at a later date though. Would be great to even have a small bit of overlap/interaction but may be too late for this now!


The more I think about it the more I hope they do go for retheming the area in some way though. I really hope the Mutiny Bay speculation that seems to be a lot of peoples' expectations is wrong as I don't think that would be good for the Mutiny Bay area which is a strong theme in itself that I'd like them to keep or SW8 that really doesn't need to be forced into a pirate area.


Alton don't always gel their areas as well as they could though- so they might miss the opportunity of a really strong themed area. They have been doing more of this recently though with Sub Terra and The Phalanx around Nemesis and a bit of very minimal Ministry of Joy theming near The Smiler, but I've thought that they could better utilise their rides connections and give their areas more of an identity, for me they've explored it but not really perfected it yet- hopefully they'll continue down this route as it has some real potential such as X sector has potential with the Ministry of Joy- they could combine rethinking the theming strength of areas of the park with some needed improvements such as some proper drainage for the queue of The Smiler so you're not stood in water and The Smiler's station's actually a bit boring in places considering the strength of the theming concept and the ride.


Alton should use the likes of Hex and Nemesis as benchmarks for the theming of all their main areas/ rides as if they capture that level of theming quality it will make for a really first class guest experience.


The ride area is part of the experience- if there's a logic to an area that suggests a story behind the rides it can enhance the fun such as Hex being in the awesome setting of the towers and having the legend and restoration storyline with all the great atmosphere they've created inside the towers, hopefully SW8 will be another sign the park is going to be doing more of this in future.


Would be good to know other people's thoughts on such things.

WallisDan wrote:

Yeah as Secret Weapons usually lead to an area retheme.

A Katanga Canyon or Gloomy Wood retheme seems more likely than a Mutiny Bay retheme, due to Mutiny Bay being rethemed relatively recently. I like the idea of the Runaway Mine Train being rethemed and with the Rapids looking like they are having new boats, a retheme could be on the cards.

Not 100% relevant but if area re-themes were to happen (which I do doubt), I would like them to merge Katanga Canyon and Gloomy Wood together (if it were to come onto the cards), perhaps with the rumoured Duel 'makeover' and the apparent voodoo themes! I would love to see the rapids re-themed/re-done with enhanced theming and water elements and maybe even a minor show scene in the tunnel - all to a more darker theme, either with the supposed voodoo or current gothic Gloomy Wood feel; but, with that being said I do feel a lot of the rides and attractions at AT are 'darker' themes, so doing that would therefore remove 2 'upbeat' rides (as if they did the Rapids, the RMT would obviously be done as well) and turn them into 'darker' ones... However, it would definitely add a lot more time to the rides lives and definitely make them increase in popularity, especially the Rapids and Duel (but, Duel, definitely was a lot more popular than usual last season) and it would be a cheap way for AT to enhance the ride line-up for maybe 2019.  I guess I can dream on, but thought it could be a possible thing they could well and truly do, but I do fully doubt that'll happen.

i don't think any area will be re-themed, we've seen with the park recently that not many of their new rides fit in the surrounding areas (AIR,Thirteen) The smiler being the odd one out that does fit in but even still a different actual theme to the rest of the x-sector 

I think that only Gloomy Wood will be rethemed, with Duel perhaps being tweaked to say that the zombies are the corpses of the former ‘chosen ones’.