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[The Smiler] Construction Updates and Ride Speculation

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Sku said:
Am I the only one who doesn't even really care about what the uniforms look like? Alton Towers is not Disney and has never really tried to be.
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Not to add, the almost identical "Ghost Host" sting from Haunted Mansion that appeared in The Haunted House. Or the watered down "Main Street U.S.A" with an iconic "castle" in view at the end? Or the phrase "The Disneyland of the U.K" motto they briefly used. (Or something along those lines)

Or not. I don't know. Probably not. Who cares? Alton Towers rox init.

Photo from Barryzolas photobucket, check it out. Some other nice photos there too.
 
It seems the entire ethos of 'the magic' was borrowed from Disney, although carried out in a more British way.

Machin said:
Not to add, the almost identical "Ghost Host" sting from Haunted Mansion that appeared in The Haunted House.
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Yes, that was such blatant copying! How did they get away with it? It was not part of the original Haunted House, either, added in around 2000 I think for H&S reasons.

The Smiler is of course as far from Disney as one could get! It's mad.
 
I think the main problem now is that they are own by some big corporate company that does not allow for so much freedom with creating a 'magical' (or at least the 2013 equivalent) experience. I've heard of several 'projects' that have been requested for funding the past 5 years and have been rejected by Merlin.

While Tussauds still managed all the UK parks in the way Merlin does. They seemed to have realised that risks need to be taken - and on the whole Tussuads had a more close family feel. Which resulted in the theme park being what it was during the 80s, 90s and arguably up to the mid 2000's.

Anyway, we better move on now before this turns into a Merlin/Tussauds/Magic debate. :p



With this bad snow hitting Alton Towers I'm getting more and more certain we will not be seeing this opening in May! As my mum said they should have just left it with a "opening summer 2013" line - as that would have allowed them to open it in any month they like. May could have easily squeezed in this. If this gets delayed any further they could receive quite a lot of flack from the general public.
 
It's not great for monetary reasons either. The longer their new ride stays like this, the further Alton Towers goes into the season with low gate figures. This ride should have been open and pulling in loads of visitors by now, so as each day passes the money they could have been making isn't appearing.

Hopefully things will pick up a bit for them over Easter though.
 
Machin said:
Sku said:
Am I the only one who doesn't even really care about what the uniforms look like? Alton Towers is not Disney and has never really tried to be.
Click to expand...

DSC00643.jpg


Not to add, the almost identical "Ghost Host" sting from Haunted Mansion that appeared in The Haunted House. Or the watered down "Main Street U.S.A" with an iconic "castle" in view at the end? Or the phrase "The Disneyland of the U.K" motto they briefly used. (Or something along those lines)

Or not. I don't know. Probably not. Who cares? Alton Towers rox init.

Photo from Barryzolas photobucket, check it out. Some other nice photos there too.
Click to expand...

As cute as this was, it really was another time, pre-Tussauds even. John Broome's vision for the park was a lot more kitsch.
 
I really feel for Towers at the moment, they can't have been expecting weather late this in what is now late March. This time last year we were experiencing some lovely weather! I'd imagine no work has been done on the site since Thursday now.

I actually hope The Smiler doesn't open in May now. There is still a lot to do and I feel that if it opens in May then it will not be the complete product. However it's hard for Towers. Opening it after May will cause a lot more bad press as May has been very heavily publicised. I really hope they don't rush the final theming and details just to get it open at the end of May. Someone is going to have a very hard call to make.

:)
 
I also hope that they do not rush to open the ride in May if it looks like they are going to miss that deadline. I believe it would be a bad call to make on such a significant investment to the park and that they need concentrate on extracting 100% of it's potential.
 
They can't afford another Sub-Terra scenario where the ride opens with parts not finished or not working. First impressions are so important. If the ride is incomplete when it opens then it will be noticed and there will be bad reviews. After the last few years this ride needs to be spot on come opening day, if it's not then I genuinely worry for the future of Towers planning and attractions.

In hindsight, after the initial delay they should have said opening late Spring 2013. This can go into June and would have given them a bit more leeway.

:)
 
I am glad you lot don't run this business that's all I can say.

They need to get this ride open as soon as, and if that means tacking bits on as they do, then that is what needs to happen.

If the opening weekend doesn't show everyone, and now this weekend, what damage this is already doing to Towers bottom line and their long term budgets, as a result of the ludicrous budgeting strategy from Merlin, as obviously evidenced last year, I give up lol.

Longer than May? That will be disastrous for their profitability. You can still only fit so many visitors into the park, in what equates at that point to little over half a season.

They need to get this thing built as best they can, and open as quick as they can. This is not some glorified frog hopper that relies on the story and theme (THANK GOODNESS!!) and an Easter egg in a basement, followed by a tinnitus inducing maze. (Why IS that so loud anyway? My ears were ringing and I'm a drummer/producer for goodness sakes - I LOVE LOUD!)

They can open this with the bare minimum and add as they go, the public will be way too involved in the track experience initially to care.

Get the darn thing open ASAP!
 
It's essential they manage to get this open for the May bank holidays. I think they will still acheive that, as I was predicting late April before this latest snow.

The park has been heavily hit by it not being ready for the start of the season - a lot of people see no reason to go yet - myself included.
 
Tom said:
It's essential they manage to get this open for the May bank holidays. I think they will still acheive that, as I was predicting late April before this latest snow.

The park has been heavily hit by it not being ready for the start of the season - a lot of people see no reason to go yet - myself included.
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For purely selfish reasons, thanks and I hope more think like that, I love having the place to myself ;D
 
I have to agree with TheMan here. Alton Towers simply can't afford to push back opening further and further, they have got to get in open in May. The public simply aren't going to care if there is a piece of theming or effect missing here or there, this can be added later. They've already heavily publicized this May opening now and I know there'll be lots of people who have planned their visits around this, myself being one of them. The negative press they'll receive if opening is delayed even further is not worth it.
 
Danza91 said:
I have to agree with TheMan here.... The negative press they'll receive if opening is delayed even further is not worth it.
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Steady Danza, it's chilly this side of the fence ;)

Seriously though, that is absolutely right. People gave them the benefit of the doubt with the harsh winter, which it was. However, if they put it back again, they will get absolutely panned. I am convinced they placed May as a date they felt was far enough away to allow wiggle room.

Unfortunately, when you allow that wiggle room, complacency can set in - maybe this couple of days or so on top, will actually inject some real urgency into the project. Both times I visited, that appeared to be rather seriously lacking. There was no real buzz about the site if that makes sense, something you expect with a big project like this.

Seemed way, way too relaxed.
 
If Towers can't get The Smiler completely finished and open in May, they're probably going to get bad press regardless of whether they delay it until it's ready or open it incomplete. Of the two I'd rather see it delayed, as this is a ride that is going to have to blow guests away from day one. I'll certainly forgive them for the wait if the end result is worth it. If on the other hand it opens incomplete it'll be Sub-Terra all over again. Expectations are much higher for this than for Terry, and if the internet is flooded with poor reviews on opening day the final touches will come too late to turn the ride's reputation around (and probably the park's too).
 
Agreed. I'd much rather wait and have a world class ride, than have something that is "acceptable" ASAP. For all my moaning, I won't complain (though obviously I will mock ;) ) about it being delayed as long as it's worth the wait.
 
May is 31 days long, this snow will have cost them 3 days work (though as they don't need to pour concrete to put track up they might have got some done on Friday and maybe some tomorrow, but unlikely).

Therefore they will open 3 days later if the can't catch up... unless the planned opening day is the 30th of May they should still open in May.
 
How can they open this incomplete? The theming would be made elsewhere and you can't exactly open an incomplete rollercoaster. I can't see how this can be a sub terra all over again. If the ride is terrible I doubt adding a scare maze at the end will make this better...
 
Indeed there is only really The Marmaliser theming to add to the site, if i'm honest that's the only theming i am expecting. Any little details will have been sucked out of the project by the mounting costs this delay will cause.

Though i am worried how incomplete the building appears to be :(
 
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