[The Smiler] Construction Updates and Ride Speculation

[Danny]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

If anyone can look at that image and still say that ride is opening on March 16th, they need to be locked away in the bottom of deep, dark pit somewhere.

This time 5 months ago, I would have been expecting the track to be complete by FHT at the very minimum. Back then I didn't even think that with only 69 days until the ride opens, not even 1/4 of the ride would have been built.

 

[Alastair]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

Oh dear. No trackwork or footers placed whatsoever in the past 3 weeks. Good work Alton!

 

[Russ]

Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

I do not think it is as late or behind as people are saying. But i do believe it will not be open on the 16th.

 

[James]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

One things for sure, they HAVE to get this open by the easter holidays. If they don't get it open by then they could potentially be missing out on a huge wave of guests for this ride.

 

[Dave]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

One things for sure, they HAVE to get this open by the easter holidays. If they don't get it open by then they could potentially be missing out on a huge wave of guests for this ride.

Not necessarily, if people know its opening after the hols they will just delay their trip, the major effect will be in making the summer and late season busier.

 

[Scott]

Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

While delaying it to create a finished product the park can be happy with is obviously the right thing to do, it's an unknown for the big UK parks as to how people will react and what the delay will mean in terms of financial losses.

I'd also be concerned if a delay has a knock on affect on visitor numbers for the season. Merlin will be expecting a rise in visitor numbers from an investment like this and I'd be concerned that they will cut future investment cash if this is delayed too long.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.

 

[Poisson]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

While delaying it to create a finished product the park can be happy with is obviously the right thing to do, it's an unknown for the big UK parks as to how people will react and what the delay will mean in terms of financial losses.

I'd also be concerned if a delay has a knock on affect on visitor numbers for the season. Merlin will be expecting a rise in visitor numbers from an investment like this and I'd be concerned that they will cut future investment cash if this is delayed too long.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.

I think we have to give Merlin more credit then that. I think they are sensible enough to realise that a delay might have an effect on visitor numbers.

 

[Fredward]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

I have no worry about it being delayed and how it'll affect the park. Now while video games and coasters are different things, games get delayed all the time and while people complain, bitch and moan while it's late as soon as the game is out, they forget all about it being late. Usually the release date is amended by now though. So the longer Towers take to make an announcement the worse it'll be.

The park will have a dip in attendance while it's late, but once it's opened I don't think they will lose out.

This is a confusing project though, Everything Towers have done doesn't add up. I hope we can get some insight as to why all of this has happened once it's released either by official means or unofficial

 

[LordOfDarkness]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

I have no worry about it being delayed and how it'll affect the park. Now while video games and coasters are different things, games get delayed all the time and while people complain, bitch and moan while it's late as soon as the game is out, they forget all about it being late. Usually the release date is amended by now though. So the longer Towers take to make an announcement the worse it'll be.

The park will have a dip in attendance while it's late, but once it's opened I don't think they will lose out.

This is a confusing project though, Everything Towers have done doesn't add up. I hope we can get some insight as to why all of this has happened once it's released either by official means or unofficial

The thing is, you can play a Game any-time.
Alton not opening for a whole year only has a limited time span for allowing visitors into the park.

 

[Alastair]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

Even if it does open late it won't do the park any favours. The period between usual opening in March and the Easter holidays is usually the period where regular breakdowns and problems won't matter as much and can be ironed out because there was less people on park for that time. If SW7 opens for Easter or even after there will undoubtedly be lots of breakdowns and issues which the public won't sympathise with - especially when the park is extremely busy.

 

[Fredward]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

I have no worry about it being delayed and how it'll affect the park. Now while video games and coasters are different things, games get delayed all the time and while people complain, bitch and moan while it's late as soon as the game is out, they forget all about it being late. Usually the release date is amended by now though. So the longer Towers take to make an announcement the worse it'll be.

The park will have a dip in attendance while it's late, but once it's opened I don't think they will lose out.

This is a confusing project though, Everything Towers have done doesn't add up. I hope we can get some insight as to why all of this has happened once it's released either by official means or unofficial

The thing is, you can play a Game any-time.
Alton not opening for a whole year only has a limited time span for allowing visitors into the park.

I was only giving an example of how public reacts when something is late. Considering you will have the park open for 8/9 months after the ride opens, I don't think they are that restricted when going. The only people this will affect is the people visiting before it opens, so as long as Alton Towers advertise clearly that the ride won't be open and/or give reasonable compensation for those who visit before it opens I can't see it being that bad on the PR front.

 

[Joseph]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

From Alton Towers Twitter....

Its Reece ‏@reecewatters
@altontowers is there a set date when the name of SW7 will be released
Expand
3h Alton Towers ‏@altontowers
@reecewatters yes there is
Hide conversation Reply Retweet Favorite
3:17 AM - 6 Jan 13 · Details

 

[Alastair]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

Well let's face it, it's nearly as far away from this as it was in November.

 

[Ian]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

Even if it does open late it won't do the park any favours. The period between usual opening in March and the Easter holidays is usually the period where regular breakdowns and problems won't matter as much and can be ironed out because there was less people on park for that time. If SW7 opens for Easter or even after there will undoubtedly be lots of breakdowns and issues which the public won't sympathise with - especially when the park is extremely busy.

Well this is one of the reasons for setting a date a good way in advance and soft launching the ride. Almost every park on the continent does it, as it's the perfect way to put the ride through its paces quietly and fix any issues which arise. Phantasialand had Maus in soft launch for a few months if I remember correctly, as the digital scenes kept crashing and freezing during the ride. However, by the time it had it's full launch it had all been resolved.

I've always thought it'd be better opening new ride after the rest of the park personally. On the first day of the season the park operations team have a huge challenge put to them. For a lot of the staff it'll be the first time they've had to deal with the park running normally, with guests and queues building up, etc. It's a mammoth task getting the park ready for the first day, and ensuring it all runs properly. Dumping a huge new coaster in no one knows much about, and expecting them to run it perfectly just adds to the strain on the team.

If they staggered some of their openings a bit more it would be a massive ease on resources across the resort. Almost like treating the first week of opening as a preview week for the whole park (They could even off slightly reduced tickets during this time, for attractions not being ready, and any mis-haps which may occur). It'd probably encourage a lot of people to take advantage of the reduced cost, and also draw some return customers back to come back when the new attraction opens.

Soft launching is a brilliant way for breaking in a new ride. Alton really should consider taking advantage of it on SW7 as far as I'm concerned

 

[Rob]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

I love that even after this aerial update we still don't really know exactly what SW7 is going to be like/do. I'll hold my hands up now and admit that I was completely wrong in saying that the whole of the pit would be used for a pre-ride indoor section. It did look like that was going to be the case at first and I had heard things suggesting this but clearly it's not the case.

The Staffordshire Knot element definitely appears to be lower than what was shown on the plans, although not significantly as it is still very visible from outside of the park. It will now be interesting to see what parts of the pit they do cover up.

It's great to see a the station building finally taking shape, it looks like they've got a lot done there which is good. It is clear that Gerstlauer haven't been around for a while though with the lack of progress on track and supports. The top of the site is also still very worrying, it appears there is still a lot of groundwork to be done. I would imagine that Gerstlauer will be back tomorrow and hopefully things will really pick up then, but how many times have we said that before!

 

[James]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

Even though I myself too have been proven wrong regarding the pit, I can't help but wonder why they have gone to such lengths to create the pit. It's no small thing and looks like it's been a nightmare to create, does make me wonder. It will be interesting what else happens in the pit area.

 

[Tom]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

I think that they could get everything ready in time, but my concern would be over testing and staff training. I would have thought there would be a minimum timeframe for that.

Someone should phone the theme park ticket line and see if staff still sound as confident as they did on Friday.

 

[Rob]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

Yeah, they must be a good reason as to why they have gone and created a large pit like that rather than just dig as was shown on the plans. It's going to be very interesting to see what they do eventually do with it.

 

[Dave]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

Even though I myself too have been proven wrong regarding the pit, I can't help but wonder why they have gone to such lengths to create the pit. It's no small thing and looks like it's been a nightmare to create, does make me wonder. It will be interesting what else happens in the pit area.

I don't think people are wrongin regards to the covered nature of the pit, i did think more of the pre-lift hill would be under-ground but not too worried as flying through those channels will give a great effect.... even better if they become tunnels.

We will see though.

 

[Martin]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

For those of us who don't have an account with them, when will this new TTF update be on their facebook?

I'm interested to see how much of the station is up, what the top end of the site is like and see more of the prelift.