• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

The Smiler - General Discussion

Even typically, though, I do think Smiler is possibly one of the lower throughput thrill coasters at Alton Towers. Combined with it also being one of the most popular, that often makes for a lengthy queue.

In terms of which one’s highest, I’d probably go for either Nemesis or Oblivion, closely followed by Wicker Man (since the tech problems have been ironed out, it seems to have really hit its stride!).
 
Matt N said:
Even typically, though, I do think Smiler is possibly one of the lower throughput thrill coasters at Alton Towers. Combined with it also being one of the most popular, that often makes for a lengthy queue.

In terms of which one’s highest, I’d probably go for either Nemesis or Oblivion, closely followed by Wicker Man (since the tech problems have been ironed out, it seems to have really hit its stride!).
Click to expand...
Wickerman also made changes to the station(moving the numbers) and how they batch which helped improve, smiler seems to have remained mostly the same (apart from covid rules of course)
 
Ethan said:
Despite it being human error, I'm surprised after an incident like that they managed to reopen the ride again
Click to expand...
I'm glad they did, i didn't get to ride it until after the crash - and thoroughly enjoyed it, it's a firm favourtie of mine.

Also, one of the few UK coasters that overseas enthusiasists seem to talk about much.
 
Mikw said:
I'm glad they did, i didn't get to ride it until after the crash - and thoroughly enjoyed it, it's a firm favourtie of mine.

Also, one of the few UK coasters that overseas enthusiasists seem to talk about much.
Click to expand...
I think thr main draws to the UK for enthusiasts living abroad is nemesis and the smiler
 
John_P said:
When I visited some American parks in 2019 almost every US enthusiast I encountered asked me about The Smiler.
Click to expand...
Well that just proves it popularity then if the americans mention the ride first. Honestly I thought they would've mentioned nemesis first due to how highly regarded the ride is
 
Strangely, the ride that American enthusiasts would often ask me about over on CoasterForce was Nemesis! So Nemesis must still be popular over there!
 
When I was on a road trip through California in 2017 a few people mentioned Nemesis, although most employees I spoke to at the theme parks there said they are more interested in Oblivion. I guess maybe because there aren't any dive coasters on the west coast.
 
Talking of the smilers throughput, I wonder what each coaster does per hour on an average day. My bet is:
Nemesis 1200
Wicker man 1000
Oblivion 1000
Th13teen 900
Galactica 850
Smiler 800
Rita 800
 
Most of those seem in the right ball park apart from Galactica, which (in theory) can get through 850/hr on just 2 trains. The absolute max capacity is 1456 (52 trains/hour) but I think low-mid 40s is more typical, for about 1100-1200. With a good team on they'll often be waiting quite a while for a train to get back to the station following each dispatch. On paper at least there's potential for improving throughputs by adding a 4th train, as it would eliminate the idle time.

Last time I rode Galactica was at the end of the day on a relatively quiet scarefest evening, they'd gone down to 1 station but the staff were rushing around sending trains out at an impressive pace - they were consistently getting the train out before the other one got back.
 
John said:
Most of those seem in the right ball park apart from Galactica, which (in theory) can get through 850/hr on just 2 trains. The absolute max capacity is 1456 (52 trains/hour) but I think low-mid 40s is more typical, for about 1100-1200. With a good team on they'll often be waiting quite a while for a train to get back to the station following each dispatch. On paper at least there's potential for improving throughputs by adding a 4th train, as it would eliminate the idle time.

Last time I rode Galactica was at the end of the day on a relatively quiet scarefest evening, they'd gone down to 1 station but the staff were rushing around sending trains out at an impressive pace - they were consistently getting the train out before the other one got back.
Click to expand...
Ye Galactica was the one I was unsure about but I doubt its as good as nemesis or wicker man
 
Out of interest, is it known whether The Smiler was originally built with a different theme in mind? Only asking because there are numerous elements of the ride and its construction that seem to hint at a possible last-minute theming change. These are:
  • The whole style of the ride and its theming was portrayed as a lot darker and a lot more stark in the planning application than it later turned out to be in the finished product. For example; the Marmaliser, although similar to the finished product, had a far darker, more horror-type look about it, and some of the near miss elements originally intended for lower parts of the pit had quite a horror-type look about them. The station building also looked far more stark and oppressive than the finished product, almost more akin to Saw at Thorpe in vibe than the finished product we got, which almost has quite a happy, colourful vibe about it, with the colourful pipes.
  • Some of the released Merlin Magic Making concepts also imply a much darker edge to the theme; some of those original concepts of the interior look almost like a horror asylum type theme, as opposed to the very clinical, yet happy vibe that the finished product had.
  • The build-up to the ride, such as The Sanctuary and the Ministry of Joy videos, are surprisingly sinister and on-the-nose in their creepiness, in comparison to the rather happy and less on-the-nose vibe of the actual ride. This to me would have pointed towards a much darker theme than the ride eventually ended up having.
  • The signs in X-Sector during the ride’s construction originally had a more stark, almost Oblivion-style tone to them, with the very simple black and silver aesthetic and the helixes, before the brighter, happier Smiler-style marketing was eventually introduced towards the end of 2012.
For some idea of what I’m talking about, the original concepts for Smiler can be found within TowersStreet’s construction archive page for the ride: https://towersstreet.com/construction/the-smiler/

So, do we think that Smiler was originally intended to have a different theme (or at very least, a different take on the theme that it has), or am I reading into it too much?
 
I definitely think the theme was meant to be slightly more sinister based on The Sanctuary and concept art. What went wrong I'm not sure, budgeting probably. As controversial as it is, I actually like the theme of The Smiler as present.
 
I’ll admit that I actually quite like The Smiler’s theme as well; it’s quite a clever theme, and quite different to the other Alton/Merlin coasters with darker themes in that it’s not overly on-the-nose in terms of its darker vibe.
 
There was always rumours it was going to be Halo themed, or some kind of dark IP, which I guess is where original dark concepts fit in. No idea when that might have changes. However I guess a scaremaze is always going to be darker and more scary as that’s the nature of a scare maze, compared to a ride which needs to fit to more people and younger people.
 
I think the idea remained dark, it just didn't translate well. The 'insanity/brain washing' aspect of it just comes across as jovial and tacky.
 
The idea if executed would be great. The theme works with all the videos etc but the realisation of it is horrendous
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tom
Out of interest, what is it that you guys don’t like about the execution of The Smiler’s theme at present?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top