Finally rode The Smiler for the first time last week and noticed a lot of the issues people have talked about since it opened. I rode it twice, once in the morning, and once at the end of the day. Maybe I got the rough train in the morning, but my first ride was extremely rattly, even going up the lift hill. Oddly though, the worst section for me was the pre-lift, and the exit from the cobra roll is a bit sharp, but I didn't think it was that bad. My second ride later in the day was much better. Wasn't glass smooth, but it wasn't unpleasant, just how I like it, although I can see why others don't.
The queue is horrific. Absolutely horrific. I guess the path and the fences make sense in the theme, but I'm not naive enough to think that's why they were designed like they are. Luckily it was a dry day, so flooding wasn't an issue, I can't see how the randomly placed drains help, and in true Alton style, there's at least on screen that is broken/turned off (like half the legs on The Marmaliser, which is shocking for a park like Alton, can you imagine Disney opening rides without half the set pieces fully working?), which for such a new ride, is really disappointing. Being able to walk around under the track is exciting though, I'll give them that. The station looks a lot worse than I expected, I thought it looked fine in the pictures, I quite liked the simple, operating theatre vibe it seemed to have, but in real life it just looks naff. The projection room is great, apart from the one projector that has shifted too much for it to work properly, don't know why they won't fix it, it's a two minute job.
I am a fan of the theme, I just wish it was explained. There's no context for it. Thirteen is fine in my opinion because it's clear and self explanatory what's going on, but The Smiler is just 'there', it needs exposition. Even the sort of videos Oblivion has, which don't really explain much explicitly but tell you a lot about the ride and theme, would have been great. The queue video for The Smiler is great to look at, but it doesn't tell us anything.
As a ride though, I absolutely loved it, it's fast, intense, thrilling and makes my head spin. The second to last inversion in particular is incredible, but all the elements are great. As a package it's the best thing Merlin have done, and the best development since Hex and Oblivion, it's just a shame it's so flawed.
