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The Smiler - General Discussion

According to The Alton Towers Guide on Facebook, staff have been informing guests that X-Sector will be closed all day today. I'd imagine this is to let them complete repair work on The Smiler without everyone having a good nosey at it. Also helps if they need any heavy equipment/vehicles.

:)
 
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Picture posted on The Alton Towers Guide.
 
.... and that crane which it has to be said is in Smiler yellow. They may as well plonk it in the middle of the Smiler site and make it look like part of the themeing the amount of times it has been used this year lol.
 
Steve Foster to the rescue! Always. On the topic of how the Smiler Incident happened, IMO I think the ride components have been taken from the eurofighters and this means there not designed to take the heavier infinity trains, I think this is then causing to much stress on certain parts of the ride and causing things to snap over time. It can of course be fixed and im sure they will fix it. What actually happened though... No one will ever know.
 
Dave said:
bottom line is the thing isn't working, somewhere there is a cause, we wont ever know but Towers need to sort it before it really throws a wobbler!
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That could well be its new name The Wobbler
 
Having just listened to the radio interview, what I find quite interesting is how the chap appears to have a fantastic recollection of what happened, but missed out half of the ride cycle?! Just goes to show how inaccurate 'first hand accounts' can really be. It's a shame, that sort of thing (especially on large radio stations) can really give people a warped idea on situations. He even went as far too say that they 'unfortunately' continued with the ride, what an absolute *place own expletive here*, The Smiler is amazing the cheeky.... :eek:
 
Well, looks like my Scarefest trip was just in time!
Coming from someone who has ridden The Smiler only very recently, it seemed to be okay when I was there - apart from the back row joltiness, but that's gerst for you - but Smiler's constant closures, it's going to start putting people off. Looks like it already has, tbh.
 
Its unfortunate that the ride has suffered all these issues as it really is a thoroughly enjoyable ride that the public really seem to have bought into - not just the ride but the brand. Never have I seen so many people wearing ride t shirts and carrying merchandise in my many visits this season!

I really hope they get everything sorted and perhaps (most likely not) sort out the messy parts over the closed season, such as the building site indoor inversion.

Its bad for the park that this is their biggest ride investment ever and they've barely managed to have it open for a few months! Hopefully they can add to it and do the Merlin's 'now even scarier/better/fantabulous' next season.

I must say though the way the media has sensationalised this latest problem (wheels falling off etc) really doesnt sound good at all.
 
I'm surprised actually that the Daily Mail hasn't compared the latest incident to the Final Destination 3 movie......... "Alton Towers Rollercoaster wheels fall off copy Final Destination 3 disaster"
 
Or massively over hyped it...

"Alton Towers' 300mph coaster lost a wheel and nearly derailed. Riders were left upside down for 12hours before being taken off. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt.

In other news, riding The Smiler can give you cancer!"
NSFW!
http://youtu.be/KZTeSxWdk1g
 
BigDave said:
Or massively over hyped it...

"Alton Towers' 300mph coaster lost a wheel and nearly derailed. Riders were left dangling upside down for 12 hours before being taken off. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt.

In other news, riding The Smiler can give you cancer!"
Click to expand...

Just improved that for you ;)
 
Your Daily Mail report was inaccurate.

You forgot the bit where it failed because it was built by illegal immigrants and unemployed vagabonds broke it due to Labour ruining the global economy.

Come on lads, get your facts straight! ;D
 
GaryH said:
Won't be riding the Smiler again for a long time. This is shocking. This is the only ride at Alton I don't feel 100% safe on. There are too many faults and bits like this should not be falling off. I wonder what the general public would say I'd they knew all this and previous issues.

Maybe a partial rebuild of the ride will be on the cards come closed season. Extremely worrying, thank god those safety nets were in place. If this ride doesn't injure someone on it, it will injure someone waiting to get on it...... Either that or they will drown in the queue line.
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My thoughts exactly. It is only a matter of time before this joke of a ride kills someone, and I don't intend to be that person. (If I'm going to die on a coaster, I want it to be a good one.)
I shall be filing The Smiler in the same draw as Furius Baco, labled "WILL NEVER RIDE AGAIN".
 
With all the high profile failures of this ride. I do wonder, if it will affect gate figures. It was on BBC midlands today yesterday and it painted a bad picture of the ride.
 
According to ridetimes The Smiler is once again closed today. However Oblivion is open. I have a feeling that they will just keep The Smiler closed now until the start of fireworks on Friday, maybe opening it for a short period on Thursday afternoon to make sure it's working all ok.

:)
 
First thing I was asked at work today:
"what's all this about some ride at Alton Towers falling to bits then?"
 
It is certainly a worrying prospect that the ride has had problem after problem, because I think it's a wonderful ride experience, and Alton Towers has already sunk too much money into the project to just hope for the best and hope the problems 'iron out' over time. I think we can expect extensive work to be done on The Smiler over this closed season, and I for one readily look forward to opening day, 2014 to ride it once again.

On the subject of what's currently happened however... Me and TurboJ are actually going to be at the park tomorrow so we'll be able to see what the current situation looks like and have some kind of report as to what's going on.
 
Wonder if the Magic Mountain fanboys were like this with X and Deja Vu's various constant issues...

Again it just all seems to stem from rushed planning and poor contractors...
 
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