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2019: General Discussion

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Because the ride team finally flipped after 19 years of people standing around looking like gormless dumplings after the video finishes until someone pipes up "ooh do you think we should go through the entrance that opened?", "yeah, bright idea Susan"
I have only witnessed that happen once or twice in 19 years.
 
Awesome day at towers today. The weather was on and off but still the reliability was good and got on all the coasters and some family rides. Tbh I think 6 close is fine as you can easily get on everything in that time. There was a power cut at about 4:30 and the coasters were down for about 15 mins but up quickly after. Queues were averagely 30-45 mins which isn't bad, some got higher on odd occasions. But great day and for saying it's the summer holidays, not that busy at all!
 
Surprised there hasn't been a Sun article about guests being stranded perilously/helplessly/gravely* in mid air yet.

(* choose a strong emotive adjective here)
 
Surprised there hasn't been a Sun article about guests being stranded perilously/helplessly/gravely* in mid air yet.

(* choose a strong emotive adjective here)

Reports of more controversy regarding safety this afternoon as more terror strikes victims at Alton Towers.

Eye whiteness Beverly reported her sweet darlings Kyla and Kia we’re trapped upside down for a staggering 45 minutes. “We saw bolts falling from above us and our best mate Stacey held on for dear life as her harness snapped. All we want is a full refund and the rides to be teared dahn”.
 
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Reports of more controversy regarding safety this afternoon as more terror strikes victims at Alton Towers.

Eye whiteness Beverly reported her sweet darlings Kyla and Kia we’re trapped upside down for staggering 45 minutes. “We saw bolts falling from above us and our best mate Stacey held on for dear life as her harness snapped. All we want is a full refund and the rides to be teared dahn”.
Heart did some vote for the public as to whether the smiler is safe and 68% said it isn't. Now I know the media annoy us enthusiasts about making a deal out of everything but this proves a lot of the public believe the crap.
 
I'm probably being overly picky here, but we had the staff member shining a torch around in Hex yesterday and I felt it ruined the experience.

It's great to see that the staff have enthusiasm and want to add to the ride, but the theatrical feel of the experience relies on the feeling that it's "running itself" in my opinion, it's much more effective with just the voiceover and only needs some improved lighting. Shining the torch at the bookcase etc feels so cheap and IMO it should all be presented with permanent timed lighting.

I have seen the PA used before so there is always that if people just don't move (I remember on my first ever ride, the staff awkwardly announcing "can you make your way up the stairs please" followed by everyone laughing!)

Whilst I'm on about Hex, why does some of the static lighting stay on during the lightning in the octogan room now? I'm sure it used to go pitch black?

On a positive note, Hex is still one of my favourite rides and such an incredibly executed attraction, it's the heart of Alton Towers IMO and leaves me with goosebumps every time.
 
Was on park today, had a great day on the whole. Didn't start great as while i was deliberating whether to walk from the car park or monorail, i noticed that the "Cow" monorail train had stopped outside the station and was struggling move again.

Everytime it tired to move there was a horrible squealing sound and it juddered along for a yard or two then stopped again. Someone must've pressed the magic button because it arrived at the park entrance station just before i did and i was on foot.

Then i walked to Forbidden valley and Nemesis was closed - some somy guys working on the brake run. So i did Galactica, then walked to Rita and Thirteen, did The Smiler 4 times (Single rider was operating as normal despite the queue being less than an hour).

Then Nemesis reopened so did that a couple of times. Strangest thing, the audio notices saying the "ride is experiencing technical difficulties and is currently unavailalble" were playing over and over again, despite the coaster being operational!

Then did Blade - someone got a firm telling off due to having their phone out on the ride. Then Wickerman which was as great as ever. Then back to the Smiler for a couple of afternoon rides.

I left before the power cut. I think it may have been weather related because there a torrential storm on the A50 as i was driving home, with very heavy rain.

Good day all in all, operations fantastic, big shout outs to all the crews.
 
(Single rider was operating as normal despite the queue being less than an hour)
Ye it was fine today. When I went couple of weeks ago they didn't allow me in SRQ and the queue was 1hr. It was busy that day so I'm assuming it helped throughput for the main queue
 
Heart did some vote for the public as to whether the smiler is safe and 68% said it isn't. Now I know the media annoy us enthusiasts about making a deal out of everything but this proves a lot of the public believe the crap.

Cars, planes, trains, boats, roller coasters, knives, guns, electricity, controlled nuclear fission, etc. All relatively safe until someone does the wrong thing or 'an act of God' causes something to go wrong.

Unless they're badly designed/built, that's a different issue altogether. The smiler would not be operating if it was unsafe.
 
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Ye it was fine today. When I went couple of weeks ago they didn't allow me in SRQ and the queue was 1hr. It was busy that day so I'm assuming it helped throughput for the main queue

I wonder why they didn’t let you in the SRQ I’ve been there when it was 80/90 minutes in standby. It surely can’t be a throughout issue because you’re essentially just filling seats that would otherwise go around empty
 
I wonder why they didn’t let you in the SRQ I’ve been there when it was 80/90 minutes in standby. It surely can’t be a throughout issue because you’re essentially just filling seats that would otherwise go around empty
Ye I used it on that day when the main was 100. When I went to the SRQ later on, the staff member said " the SRQ is currently closed as the ride is only on 60". That to me is stupid tho as that's still quite a long queue. I assume it was cus there was a lot of fastrack sold on that day so they didn't want to slow the throughput anymore
 
Just to make it clear, I’m saying it’s utter rubbish that the host said it’s closed due to it being under 1 hour
Ye I know I thought that aswell. I was gonna have a massive rant at him but I'd already been on it so wasn't that bothered
 
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