A few points to make...
People say the magic has gone from the park, perhaps this is true of the 90s stuff, but there is still something there within the park... Going to a park with non-enthusiasts is always a good experience, because you see the excitement on their faces throughout the trip and it's rather catchy at times...
With Woodland Walk reopening for ERT you can see why they plan on opening more in that area rather than elsewhere (although Oblivion/Hex/Thirteen were all still open this weekend), because it's effort... They also need to advertise it more, as we were the only group of people on it on Sunday morning, as most hotel guests got the Monorail (maybe as a result of Smiler possibly opening at 10 that day though)... Also of note, you don't need to prove you're of the hotel to use it, which may be of interest to enthusiasts...
Smiler being down all Saturday meant we went on the GS ride, with unsurprisingly lots of other angry guests of varying levels... They were starting to pull the old "it's on the website" line, which is a bit off considering it had no message for a few days of it being closed, but as we'd booked in advance we got entry for another day for the non-MAP holders and a fastrack adrenaline (or of choice of any of the bronze packages) for myself and Nicky... I sense that the level of complimentary entry however was not high once they put the message up on the website... Poor show...
On the other hand, Smiler has really captured the GP as a brand and ride... I've never seen so many specific ride shirts being worn by guests over a weekend at any park before... They've also added a strobe to the indoor section of the queue which is mental and annoying in equal measure... They could also do with LOTS of fans to keep it cool, because it's a hotbox when people remain stationary for a long time... Seemed slightly smoother on my rides as well (although the Cobra Roll jolt still exists), and it's a brilliant ride...
Duel's trommel is back on after being broken, Sub Terra's exit lift seemed to not move (left side), Charlie was struggling with life as always and Hex still over-shoots... Thirteen's shutter didn't close but tbh it's not overtly noticeable in a weird way? It seemed brighter but I had to look back to see if it was down to the shutter, it's nowhere near as bad as Polar X-Plorer with that shutter CLOSED...
Aside from Smiler, I didn't see many breakdowns, though Spinball and Rita both had some small ones (surprise surprise)...
A big burden was at Courtyard BBQ/Hot Dogs where they weren't taking card for some reason, it's nice to be told this after queuing 10 minutes for food, taking that 10 minute walk to the free cash machines and back before queuing 10 minutes again... Apparently they can't post up a sign mentioning cash only? That's a load of rubbish, so we complained about it, because we wasted 30 minutes as a result of the issue... Poor, poor show...
To end this on an extremely positive note, the entertainments department this year on park is out-doing itself immensely... When I heard about the orchestra I was worried that it would mean the removal of the Park Keepers, but nope, they're still there and roaming, the Pirates are still roaming, and the Orchestra are rather good... When we left yesterday all 3 groups were around Towers Street and interacting with each other, and it really does top off a day at the park... The Pirate Show is still brilliant and the Park Keepers are excellent as well... If there's anything to keep Towers positive this year, it's the ents due to the amount of stuff they are doing on a limited budget... The hotel singers though need to be turned though a lot, because it's headache fuel... Be interesting to see how Scarefest affects the current ents as well and what they might try and do for it...
Speaking of the hotel, Splash Landings repaints are not that bad at all, and Secret Garden is really good for the food as well... Shame it's limiting but the Salmon of JOY made things worthwhile...
I had an excellent weekend overall, where it wasn't too busy and we got on all major rides aside from the Flume... If they can sort out any further issues with Smiler (without the need for queue evacuations and extended downtime, though cracked concrete is a fair reason in the end) then they might be able to salvage something out of the season and push on...
