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Incident on The Smiler 02/06/2015

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GaryH said:
It may be that its closed all season....

but...... why all the testing.... why the work on the marmaliser..... why all the cleaning up around the site...... why the stock crates in the shop...... to me, that sounds like preparing for opening, not closing it up for the next 6 months...
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That's the thing.

All the new safety features, new e-stops, new panels, new evacuation procedures, wind machines and ride testing you can perhaps let past as all preparations for 2016, so the ride can have many months of thorough testing to ensure it runs without fault in March 2016.

However what seems like stock being moved into the shop, staff cleaning the queueline, staff cleaning the pit and effects on The Marmaliser being worked on... all of that is not essential, it can be done over closed season and a day or two before the ride opens. So why do it now? It leans far too much towards the ride reopening this season.

My bets are that they (Alton Towers) have been told to prepare the ride for imminent opening, and await to be given the green light, although informed that this doesn't mean it WILL open this season. Then those higher up are in constant meetings working out the best time to open it. So it's more of a we might/might not reopen it in 2015. Rather than a straight yes or no answer.
 
What I don't get, is that over the past couple of weeks, the ride queuing area has been cleaned, crates of what I assume is merchandise moved back into the shop, effects on the marmaliser (and I'm hoping inside the station and queuing area) being worked on, installation of new/additional emergancy procedures and weather/wind machine monitors and increased/intense testing. All of that points directly to "imminent opening" - the work that they're doing now, is work that could be done in the winter "close season". Cleaning of the ride area and repairs to effects wouldn't be happening now if AT didn't want the ride reopening before the end of the season.

The plot thickens.....
 
Third row seems safest! Not enjoying the ride until after the 5th inversion and a blind panic if it stops at the top of the first lift hill!
 
Resonate said:
Surely even 3 cars will be crappy throughput?? Especially when no one will want to go on the front row.... What did it used to run on normally?
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To be fair, 3 cars wont actually affect the throughput as much as you would think. Yeah, at full capacity you would see a difference, but hell, most of the times there's at least one, normally two stacked anyway.

The front row, there's defiantly enough people (on here alone ;) ) that will be filling up the front row. Yeah there will be people who are nervous about that row, but not more than 75% where it will make a difference.

I don't know when it will open, very few people do, although its pretty obvious that they are trying to re-open it this year, however if that happens is not up to AT/Merlin.
 
Leah said:
Just heard one of my friends say "I've heard that the smiler is going to open for one day over Halloween"
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This is far from the most ridiculous suggestion we've heard... Or, assuming the Big 6 Challenge day is still happening they could be gearing up for it to open then just for that day?

This has probably already been mentioned - 200+ pages are hard to keep track of!
 
allyallyally47 said:
This is far from the most ridiculous suggestion we've heard... Or, assuming the Big 6 Challenge day is still happening they could be gearing up for it to open then just for that day?

This has probably already been mentioned - 200+ pages are hard to keep track of!
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what really got me is that she thought it would open for one day then close again!! Who told you this?
 
No one has specifically told me anything - I was just putting it out there that your friend might not have "heard" the worst idea that's been suggested and that there's every possibility they could open it for a day just to see how things go.

Again, I don't know if there's been any notification that the Big 6 Challenge day is still on or not but there may be people who have a wristband for that and might not bother if they know that one of the 6 isn't even going to be available. Though saying that, AT might not even announce when it will be open so hey, I'm speculating like everyone else!
 
Isn't the Big 6 day just a regular day on park but with free entry to those who completed the Big 6 when it was on? It doesn't make one jot of difference if the Smiler isn't operating with regards to that one day does it (apart from the on-going lack of another ride)? I don't recall anything special being planned for the free entry day, unless I've missed something......
 
allyallyally47 said:
No one has specifically told me anything - I was just putting it out there that your friend might not have "heard" the worst idea that's been suggested and that there's every possibility they could open it for a day just to see how things go.
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i think she read it in the papper actually.

big 6 day is just free admission, nothing special really.
 
They would probably open up a whole load of media hell if it just opened for one day and one day only. I can imagine it now 'The Smiler opens for one day for those who survived it before the June horror smash'. Yeah, not going to look great. The Big 6 day is just a free day out for guests anyway, nothing extra going on as far as I'm aware.

If it opens this season it will open and stay open, unless they get any major problems.
 
Dave said:
It will open before scarefest unless something goes completely tits up.
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I love your glass half full approach but do you have anything tangible to Base it on?

I would LOVE the smiler to be open but the glass half empty side of me is there is not much sign now :(
 
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Leah said:
So all this non-essential work going on ISN'T a sign of imminent opening (unless they have an issue as @Dave said)
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Don't get me wrong it's they way you look at it though.

5 weeks ago smiler started testing. We thought opening soon.

New control panel and evacuation on vertical lift. We thought now it must be soon.

Emergency stop on gate. New stairs we thought must be soon.

The wind reader it must be soon but still closed.

Finally it has been swept and bin liners fitted but over 7 days later the ride is closed.

It tests pretty much everyday. Then something new is added. I just can't see the smiler being open in 4 days.

And as for the stock entering the shop. Picture or it never happened. And even if it did it could be retail/ scarefest stock ready for this month.
 
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