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Incident on The Smiler 02/06/2015

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Still haven't watched it. Anyone got a link?

Still good that varney didn't respond like that though. Wouldn't sound great under those circumstances, even if I would say it.
 
A couple of questions... Is Oblivion and the rest of X Sector open again now? (Without the Smiler).

What is the situation with the Smiler itself - is it the same as before but closed? Or have they covered it in some way/are there people working on/investigating it?
 
Pepper_Plant said:
A couple of questions... Is Oblivion and the rest of X Sector open again now? (Without the Smiler).

What is the situation with the Smiler itself - is it the same as before but closed? Or have they covered it in some way/are there people working on/investigating it?
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X-Sector is open as normal bar The Smiler. A few signs have been removed (such as at the entrance) and some of Oblivion's queue line and station videos have been edited.

The Smiler is virtually the same as it always has been but it is closed. However all signs around the ride have been removed including the ride's name on the entrance and the name signs for the shop and games stall. There is no one working on the ride, it's basically a big white elephant!

:)
 
The last couple of visits I've found X-Sector to be rather eerie, with this lifeless, huge machine casting a shadow over you, with no musi, hardly any people and a completely different atmosphere to a couple of months ago.
 
Despite much of their awful journalism, Nick Varney has given some quotes to the Mirror:
Mirror Online said:
He told the Mirror: “Our aspiration would be but we’re not going to do it unless it is the right thing to do.”

But he revealed: “It won’t be opening this summer, that’s for sure.”

He also pledged to be the first person to ride The Smiler if it got the safety check go-ahead.

“I will definitely be on that ride and if it is important that I am the first person, then I will be as well,” he said.

Mr Varney said that he had not considered resigning over the incident.

But he added: “I can’t deny the whole incident has been a shock to me because I have been in this business for a long time.”

He went on: “The accident should never have happened but we have tried to do the right thing by the victims by accepting responsibility and we continue to support them however we can.

“I still look at myself in the mirror and think, I wouldn’t have done this any other way.”
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He continies to speak well. You could read into those quotes that an opening after the summer is possible (but probably unlikely). I'd imagine a lot of the media would quite like to see him go around on his own for the first ride.

:)
 
I wish/hope they will open it in September, it's a quiet month, they can get the bad pr over with and then a massive push of Scarefest marketing at the end of September/start of October will hopefully help with getting people to visit at the end of the year.

I like the idea of him going on the first ride, that would be a better way of opening it and making a big deal of the owner of Merlin going on the first ride.
 
In a way opening it again this year will be a good hang, get all the negativity over and done with in 1 season. I notice how the press haven't picked up on any of the other park issues such as the incident at lightweight Valley last week where a member of staff was checking a ride when another member of staff decided it would be fun to start the ride, this is the same ride that a woman was killed on about 10 years ago.
 
^ The press have picked up on that now. It took the Mirror a couple of days but they did eventually.

The reality is that the smaller parks aren't as well known to the public. Incidents there don't sell papers.
 
phildenholm said:
In a way opening it again this year will be a good hang, get all the negativity over and done with in 1 season.
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Yeh that does seem like the best way to do it, get it open for scarefest, that way the press can get it out of their system then rather than them have the negative headlines at the start of next season. They will then be free to carry on preparing for SW8 assuming that hasn't been delayed as a result of this incident.
 
Has anyone who has been since the incident noticed any changes to the popularity of specific other rides? By which I mean has it had a different effects on different rides in terms of their popularity? I can't really think of a ride that would be perceived as very similar to the Smiler though, so perhaps that is unlikely.
 
Pepper_Plant said:
Has anyone who has been since the incident noticed any changes to the popularity of specific other rides? By which I mean has it had a different effects on different rides in terms of their popularity? I can't really think of a ride that would be perceived as very similar to the Smiler though, so perhaps that is unlikely.
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If you mean at Towers then the overall gate figure has dropped, meaning rides with queues in excess of an hour in summer are now walk on.

As for other rides (i.e. Gerst coasters) I have no idea.
 
Andrew said:
If you mean at Towers then the overall gate figure has dropped, meaning rides with queues in excess of an hour in summer are now walk on.

As for other rides (i.e. Gerst coasters) I have no idea.
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Yes I mean at Towers. Although the overall gate figure is lower in general, I was thinking about whether specific rides have been affected in different ways. For example, if visitors viewed Oblivion as more dangerous than Nemesis, and as such Oblivion's ride numbers would go down more than those of Nemesis.
 
From what other visitors were saying yesterday, they don't seem too phased by any of the other rides since the accident and continue to ride all in an equal measure. I'm guessing that the people that may view other rides are unsafe are staying away from the park completely.
 
I know this is similar to what was said above, most people who view the rides as dangerous stay away from the park completely. Nemesis will (almost) always be quieter than oblivion, just because of where it is. Most guests don't want to walk all the way down to forbidden valley. I haven't been since the accident, but I would imagine that, if anything, oblivion will be the only one impacted, just because it is right next to it and reminds people.
 
Leah said:
Nemesis will (almost) always be quieter than oblivion, just because of where it is. Most guests don't want to walk all the way down to forbidden valley.
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You what now, most guests don't want to walk to Forbidden Valley? I've never heard that one before! I think people go to a theme park knowing that they have to walk various distances to get ot various rides.

:)
 
All I am saying is that lots of people are to lazy to walk rather than get the Skyride. The Skyride is often not open until 11, meaning nemesis is quieter.

Sorry, just how I see it. I don't mind walking, I'm probably just underestimating the gp again.
 
Nemmy is always my first stop.
Tbh all the rides are equally dead right now. Everything was walk on on Sunday and they were sending empty cars round on most of the rides. 13 was shut from about 11am till the end of the day, Spinball was also shut for hours but this didn't seem to even raise queue times for the other coasters..
 
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