Smiler Opens to Good Reviews, Downtime and Big Crowds
The Smiler, Alton Towers new roller coaster for 2013 opened in May after nearly 3 months of delay’s to very positive reviews. The ride which is now the world-record holder for the most number of inversions of any coaster in the world has seen huge crowds and long queues sometime reaching the 3 hour mark. TowersStreet forum members have been offering their views on the new ride, here are a few of those:
The Smiler is truly an incredible ride, and despite the delays, I tip my current non existing hat to Towers for in the end, pulling off a spectacular new addition to their line up!
Danny
Overall I was very very impressed, Towers have done what I thought they would and pulled this off. It may have been late, but it was well worth the wait
Rob
I loved it. It looks amazing, sounds amazing, and rides amazingly. It’s that great ride that Towers have needed for some time.
Dar
The Smiler hasn’t been without incident since it opened though, as expected with any new ride there has been long periods of down-time, however, of concern the ride has stalled (not made it around the track) twice. Both incidents required the stalled train to be removed from the track using a crane and at times the Whole of X-Sector had to be closed.
The park has also noted a massive increase in guest numbers since The Smiler opened. With queues for the main rides often exceeding an hour, this compares to the lack-lustre start to the season where the Smiler delays and bad weather resulted in the resort being unusually quiet for the first few months of operation.
As always big crowds bring their own problems, with reports of huge Fastrack queues and complaints that the park was still closing early despite the park remaining busy at the end of the day.
Technical Issues Plague Alton Towers
Aside from The Smiler’s down-time Alton Towers has also been plagued by technical difficulties with many of it’s rides this season. Air had a week of poor operations the week Smiler opened though it was open fully within a few days. Of more concern though was Oblivion which had an extended closure of nearly 3 weeks due to technical issues. This was unfortunate considering its close proximity to The Smiler as Oblivion helps soak-up queues in X-Sector. Currently Oblivion seems to be back to her old self and has been operating well for the last week.
Another X-Sector ride, Enterprise has also been closed for nearly 6 weeks, despite having extensive closed season maintenance and new parts. The ride which is one of Alton Towers oldest operating has had to be completely dismantled and re-built in-order to get it back to working order. It is understood that Enterprise is now open and hopefully it will be functioning well as the park prepares for a busy summer.
New Transport for Park Entertainments
As already reported Alton Towers have increased the number of wandering park entertainers this year, with a new troop of actors known as the “Park Keepers” entertaining crowds as they pretended to maintain the resort. For most of the season they have wandered around the park as well as performing an invisible band show in the courtyard. However the troop have now acquired their own mode of transport, a quirky van that blasts out bubbles and music, allowing them to spread their magical musical entertainment further around the park.
Smiler on Television
As with most new ride offerings at Alton Towers Resort a series of marketing campaigns using popular brands help to publicise and spread awareness of the ride. Recently The Smiler has been publicised by Kellogs cereal Krave whose ‘Chocovore’ characters are seen riding an interpretation of the Smiler with the opportunity to win VIP Hotel experiences, Park Tickets and Smiler Fasttrack for ‘tweeting when you eat’.
The Smiler also featured on the BBC One Show on the 9th of July, with presenter John Sergeant joining two roller coaster enthusiasts as they prepared to go on the Smiler for the first time. The segments also briefly featured Nemesis, Rita, Air, Sonic Spinball and Oblivion. The episode can be seen on the BBC iPlayer service around the 20 minute mark through to the end of the show.
Alton Towers Live
The large concert event held on the lawns of Alton Towers has been deemed a success with many people enjoying the combination of rides and popular music artistes. Olly Murs who was the headline act was spotted landing at the resort via helicopter and having a ride on the Smiler before his contribution to the event, other acts including Connor Maynard, Stooshe and Union J were also seen around the resort enjoying the sunshine, atmosphere and rides.
It has also been confirmed that due to the success and popularity of the event Alton Towers Live will be returning for the 2014 season.
