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[The Smiler] Construction Updates / Ride Speculation Part 2 *SPOILER FREE*

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Ride was running very well today. Opened just after 10. Queues around 90 minutes or so for most of the day. 4 trains operating. Feels much smoother than last weekend, and those couple of jolts aren't as bad. Running very quick towards the end of the day. Seemingly good thru-puts all day, with train cresting first lift hill as second train is just starting to ascend the second, and the 3rd train just hitting the brakes at end of ride.

I also feel that the 1st half of the queue, you are effectively in the queue for the queue line shop ;D, moving ever so slowly as everyone seems to want a drink or an ice cream. Then finally break free and walk through the empty cattle pens, finally catching up with the main queue again. Once past the shop, queue seems to move much much faster,
 
Vik said:
I also feel that the 1st half of the queue, you are effectively in the queue for the queue line shop ;D, moving ever so slowly as everyone seems to want a drink or an ice cream. Then finally break free and walk through the empty cattle pens, finally catching up with the main queue again. Once past the shop, queue seems to move much much faster,
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It's funny you say that - the complete opposite happened yesterday...

The shop staff were telling people in the queue to not wait and just walk past/ahead of people buying stuff! I wouldn't have been happy if I was one of the people being jumped ahead of!
 
Yes but likewise, its your choice to stop and buy something in the queue. Queueline shops have never really struck me as being necessary. If its a hot day, then you buy a drink to take around with you. I never suddenly get the urge to buy something whilst queueing.
 
BigDave said:
Yes but likewise, its your choice to stop and buy something in the queue. Queueline shops have never really struck me as being necessary. If its a hot day, then you buy a drink to take around with you. I never suddenly get the urge to buy something whilst queueing.
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Hmmm, I disagree.

The queueline shop doesn't make the queue any longer for a guest waiting behind someone buying food/drink. It just makes it a bit... stop/start. If I bent down to tie my shoelace I would have issue with people overtaking me in the queue just because I'd decided to stop for a little while.

To make this more on topic - I did buy food yesterday, but that was because we got on park without food and joined The Smiler queue first thing (10am) before they'd even started testing. We hit the queueline shop around 12pm so were hungry. The shop in The Smiler queue was a godsend. Especially in the hot, sunny weather!
 
Whilst having a queue line shop may be handy, it can give a false idea of what the queue time is like. When we entered the queue on Friday, we were told the queue would be 2hours at least by the staff up in the temporary queue by the Towers.

I was given a slip with the time I entered the queue to give to staff at baggage. We entered at 5.15pm, were at baggage at 6.45pm. I understand that the park haven't had time yet to get accurate queue times however a half hour out is pretty big. Why was this? Because for a large portion of the queue under the ride we were constantly walking and came to some longer pauses before walking again as people were stopping quite frequently to visit the shop.

It was a bit annoying.
 
I'm not entirely sure I get what you're moaning about Danza? Are you suggesting that people stopping at the shop for ages sped up the queue by half an hour? Or saying that Towers cannot judge queue times because people are at the shop? I'm just curious is all.

As for the shop, I don't necessarily see the point in some (looking at you Air) but The Smiler's must be particularly handy right now with the pleasant weather and very long queues being experienced. I can imagine it is great for some people who are getting mighty thirsty or hungry while waiting. Besides, as others have said, it can make the queue stop-start but doesn't actually physically make it any longer.
 
I was moaning was I?

It's not about whether it's physically longer, it's that the queue gets backed up with big gaps around where the shop is meaning for those wanting to join the queue, the queue time isn't really accurate, so as I said the queue was advertised as 2 hours, when it was really 30 mins less than that. I'm not moaning, 30mins less is great if you're not concerned about time upon joining, merely just stating that because of these hold ups people could have missed out on a ride on it.

For example, r kid I saw wanted to go on it but his Dad said 'We're not queuing 2 hours for a ride' and the young lad was in tears. I can't say they'd have queued 90mins anyway, but it's the fact that by the shop faff people aren't joining the queue.

We went to the shop, bought some snacks and drinks, and joined the queue. Job done, no shop faff.
 
You said it was annoying and from your tone it sounded like a bit of a moan, nothing wrong with that though.

I understand what you mean now anyway, the length could be perceived to be longer because of the shop causing gaps which aren't being filled. I think that there are other issues than that right now though, such as the two temporary queues which make larger gaps and can make it hard to gauge the correct time. Equally, it's so new that staff are still working it out for themselves and I'm not even sure whether the full main queue is open yet anyway. It's good to see they are handing out papers though so that an accurate queue time can be forecasted.
 
Thee only problem I found with the queue was there were no signs informing you of how much longer you had to wait, e.g. 60 mins from here, 30 mins from here etc etc. The queue line is incredibly long and disorientating , probably the worst I have ever been in .... in terms of layout anyway as you cant gauge how close you are to the station. The other problem I found was that because a lot of it was enclosed, if something did happen, or if someone had a panic attack, there was no real way out as such. With cattlepens like Rita at least you have the open air and a feeling of space. While it didnt bother me in terms of claustrophobia, I can see some people potentially having problems in that queue line....
 
Scott said:
It's good to see they are handing out papers though so that an accurate queue time can be forecasted.
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I did think this as well, hopefully within the next couple of weeks the queue times will be much more accurate.
 
And it's on the same section as before...somebody put some grease on that bit to help them out, unless they've been tinkering with more new wheels. :/
 
With weighted dummies in as well, oops. Hopefully it's the same train as last time and not a different one.
 
This is becoming quite an embarrassment now.

With any new ride downtime is to be expected, but generally you expect that to be rooted with the rides electronics/computers. NOT the general running of the ride, and for the problems that occur to be really quite as catastrophic as they are!
 
Not surprised really, it came so so close to stalling during testing with empty trains on Thursday, what I am surprised at is that its stalled with dummies in.
 
Surely If it keeps stalling in the same place then it will continue to do it in the same kind of weather conditions? Its just gravity after all that controls it, and if there isn't enough force to take it past the element then it will roll back each time, no?

Reminds me of something I read about when they tested Nemesis and John Wardley asked Bolliger/Mabillard what happens if it stalls. They replied that its a B&M - it WON'T stall. Guess Gerst cant make the same claim :/
 
B&Ms do stall. Just very rarely. This ride has stalled 3 times. Almost once a week!

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
 
Oh I'm not saying they don't, that's just what Mr B or Mr M (cant remember) said about Nemesis.
But once a week isn't good...
 
BigDave said:
B&Ms do stall. Just very rarely. This ride has stalled 3 times. Almost once a week!

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
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I guess B&M would say it won't stall on its first test run. And they'd be right on every occasion :p
 
They have closed off most of X-sector (again) but at least they're keeping Oblivion open it seems.
 
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