[The Smiler] Construction Updates / Ride Speculation Part 2 *SPOILER FREE*

[Rob]

Does anyone even think it'll be open for Saturday?

I'm seriously doubting it myself.

Not a chance mate :twirly:

I wouldn't say there's not a chance. If there was no chance then they would have said by now as I'd imagine a fair amount of people going on Saturday will have travel plans tomorrow evening. If they can get everything finished then there's no reason why it shouldn't open on Saturday. I would remain cautious though.

 

[Oatcakedodger]

Does anyone even think it'll be open for Saturday?

I'm seriously doubting it myself.

Not a chance mate :twirly:

I wouldn't say there's not a chance. If there was no chance then they would have said by now as I'd imagine a fair amount of people going on Saturday will have travel plans tomorrow evening. If they can get everything finished then there's no reason why it shouldn't open on Saturday. I would remain cautious though.

I will be there tomorrow and Saturday and I am extremely confident that I won't have been on the smiler by 5pm Saturday evening :twirly:

 

[Rob]

Does anyone even think it'll be open for Saturday?

I'm seriously doubting it myself.

Not a chance mate :twirly:

I wouldn't say there's not a chance. If there was no chance then they would have said by now as I'd imagine a fair amount of people going on Saturday will have travel plans tomorrow evening. If they can get everything finished then there's no reason why it shouldn't open on Saturday. I would remain cautious though.

I will be there tomorrow and Saturday and I am extremely confident that I won't have been on the smiler by 5pm Saturday evening :twirly:

So are you saying that it's going to open for half an hour at 5pm, with it being a 5.30pm ride close?

Fair enough though. I personally think it all depends on when the queue is finished. I'm sure they are desperate to have the ride open on Saturday.

 

[cotda]

Does anyone even think it'll be open for Saturday?

I'm seriously doubting it myself.

Not a chance mate :twirly:

I wouldn't say there's not a chance. If there was no chance then they would have said by now as I'd imagine a fair amount of people going on Saturday will have travel plans tomorrow evening. If they can get everything finished then there's no reason why it shouldn't open on Saturday. I would remain cautious though.

I will be there tomorrow and Saturday and I am extremely confident that I won't have been on the smiler by 5pm Saturday evening :twirly:

So are you saying that it's going to open for half an hour at 5pm, with it being a 5.30pm ride close?

Fair enough though. I personally think it all depends on when the queue is finished. I'm sure they are desperate to have the ride open on Saturday.

No, its just the queue will be that long

 

[Stevie]

I don't know why, but I do have a sneaking feeling that it'll have a soft opening on Saturday.

Be it for an hour or few hours, but I think it may open.



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[Spark]

Got to say that it does look good from the nerd pics today. The station really does look like an after thought now though, I loved the original idea of it being an abandoned building/hospital but now its just something that hides the indoor part of the ride, shame because it does stick out, perhaps if they painted it black it would look better with the yellow pipes!

 

[Danza91]

I don't know why, but I do have a sneaking feeling that it'll have a soft opening on Saturday.

Be it for an hour or few hours, but I think it may open.

Wouldn't happen, would simply piss off even more guests if they did that.

Not opening tomorrow either? God Alton Towers couldn't arrange a piss up in a brewery.

Starting to wonder if it'll be open when I go in two weeks!

 

[Alastair]

No way this is opening on Saturday by the looks of it today. Work going on everywhere: queueline fencing being lifted out of trucks and welded in, patterns in the pit being worked on (although only half finished so far), screens still going in not to mention workers going up and down the vertical lift all day. All this and the trains didn't move an inch all day. I'm predicting Friday 31st at this point.

 

[BigDave]

Amanda Thomson went to the park today. She wasn't happy when she got told it wouldn't open.
https://soundcloud.com/bigdave151985/so ... -morning-1

 

[BigAl]

No way this is opening on Saturday by the looks of it today. Work going on everywhere: queueline fencing being lifted out of trucks and welded in, patterns in the pit being worked on (although only half finished so far), screens still going in not to mention workers going up and down the vertical lift all day. All this and the trains didn't move an inch all day. I'm predicting Friday 31st at this point.

Not to mention the grinned sections of track were still unpainted and there were still one or two trenches around the site with pipes sticking out of them.

 

[Spark]

Sorry but who is Amanda Thomson?

 

[Alastair]

Sorry but who is Amanda Thomson?

Managing director and resident tyrant of BPB. I refuse to believe she hadn't heard it wasn't opening yesterday given her contacts in the industry.

 

[Max]

Yesterday I felt sympathy towards Towers about The Smiler not being available on its planned opening day, but after seeing the state of the construction site today, there is no way that I can sympathise with them, I find it utterly appalling that the queue line is barely half finished when it was meant to be opening today, its clear that management knew The Smiler wouldn't be ready for quite some time, yet held off telling anyone until the day before, its utterly despicable. I'm usually a big fan of Merlin, and the investments they've made, but its times like this where I really wonder if they're capable of running Alton Towers, I was fine with the original delay because I understood that it was due to something that they couldn't control, but this time its really taking the piss, and the state of the construction site today shows a degree of incompetence on Merlins part.

 

[Jon]

As I'm not overly familiar with either the layout of the site or of specific H&S rules, I was wondering whether it would have been possible for the ride to have opened even with construction work still going on? I've been amazed more at the level of activity on gates and queuelines which is still going on than whatever technical delays may have happened. Could the ride have opened even with this superficial work still going on by making a temporary queueline, or do they need the area completely clear?

 

[EuroSatch]

Today they were installing communications around the site such as the entrance aiphone. The ride clearly wasn't ready, it's even enough to suggest this may have been an oversight.

However, it was categorically not unforeseen, it's because the ride is not finished yet!

 

[AstroDan]

The pressure is on for Saturday. With 18,000 or more guests forecast to come on Saturday, that's considerably more than today and tomorrow.

They really need to get it sorted ASAP.

 

[Dar]

As I'm not overly familiar with either the layout of the site or of specific H&S rules, I was wondering whether it would have been possible for the ride to have opened even with construction work still going on? I've been amazed more at the level of activity on gates and queuelines which is still going on than whatever technical delays may have happened. Could the ride have opened even with this superficial work still going on by making a temporary queueline, or do they need the area completely clear?

From what I understand, the activity is the reason it isn't open. The queue and such like needs to signed off as safe by Towers, but the fact is that there simply isn't, or wasn't by about 4PM, a queue line to be acknowledged as safe!

I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that something catastrophic had happened to the ride, stopping it from opening. After seeing it today, it's inexcusable. Why are they still welding and painting the queue line fence and installing the entrance host phone on the afternoon it was supposed to open?

 

[delta79]

I am glad i don't go rushing to ride new coasters. I am going on the 26/6 with the sun free tickets, and when may 23rd was announced as the opening date. I thought great a month for them to work the bugs out. but I am starting to think i will be there on the opening day of the frowner smiler after all ;D

 

[AirFAN]

I went to the Towers this Tuesday and to be honest was shocked at the lack of work that could be seen. You'd expect them to be going into over drive to get a ride like this ready, doing whatever it takes and using all resources available to them to ensure it opened on time. All I saw was the fence being installed leading from the X-Sector to the Towers and the odd construction worker on the site itself.

The Towers need to get down to the job centre and employ a few more labourers!

 

[Burn.e]

From what I've witnessed, this is always how Towers have always operated. Lots of humming over which projects to pursue, therefore late construction preparations, therefore massive last minute scrambles to get things complete, all with an overzealous marketing department ready and rearing to get their quotas sorted. Splash was a relative construction site when opened, Spinball had a mid-season opening, 2011 was a trainwreck, Terra was a construction site until the day before then had to close again, as did Th13teen...