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

[aru]

Although the construction and delivery team do appear to be at fault, I'd also argue that you could place some blame with marketing.

My experience of marketing departments in big organisations is that they are often 10 steps ahead of the reality of a situation. This is often because they are driven by targets and are not in tune with the real world. Usually this is made worse when communication is poor or the person in charge is driven more by outcome of marketing (i.e. lots of guests and money) and not the detail of delivery. This is based purely on my own experience of working in a large organisation with lots going on at once.

Every department in Merlin and AT will be as disappointed as us that the ride has not opened! This is a huge investment with a lot riding on its success. But I would argue that AT should have not marketed the ride until they were really sure the product was ready. Yes, they could have avoided all this by getting the ride finished on time, but they would look less silly if they hadn't have hyped up something that was never going to open!

 

[Jordan]

My point was the whole of the UK theme park industry is lacklustre compared with most other regions.

That seems to echo of "the grass is always greener".

When you look around the world, there's only a handful of places where there's as many theme parks and rides in such a small place as the UK. (I'm sure most of that list is obvious: Florida, California, Rust, Tokyo, etc).

In most other regions around the world, you can be hours and hours away from a decent theme park. Even in America, many cities are in excess of a three-hour drive away from a theme park [1], and there are a lot of poor theme parks across the USA that it might be even further to find one which we'd consider half-decent.

In comparison, here in the UK we have over 35 theme parks [2], about half of which are within two or three hours drive for most people in the country.

We really don't have it that bad.

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[1] List of USA amusement parks - lots of states here have only one or two theme parks - some have just a "family entertainment center"
[2] List of UK amusement parks - I counted only the 'main' parks in my 35+ figure (ie Dickens World and the Sea Life Centres didn't make the cut)

 

[ThemeParkJack]

We can't all blame Alton for this. They did suffer bad weather. late arrival of the track. Also delays with the actual ground work on the site. I guess we should just all pipe it and wait till it opens

 

[Dave]

My point was the whole of the UK theme park industry is lacklustre compared with most other regions.

That seems to echo of "the grass is always greener".

When you look around the world, there's only a handful of places where there's as many theme parks and rides in such a small place as the UK. (I'm sure most of that list is obvious: Florida, California, Rust, Tokyo, etc).

In most other regions around the world, you can be hours and hours away from a decent theme park. Even in America, many cities are in excess of a three-hour drive away from a theme park [1], and there are a lot of poor theme parks across the USA that it might be even further to find one which we'd consider half-decent.

In comparison, here in the UK we have over 35 theme parks [2], about half of which are within two or three hours drive for most people in the country.

We really don't have it that bad.

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[1] List of USA amusement parks - lots of states here have only one or two theme parks - some have just a "family entertainment center"
[2] List of UK amusement parks - I counted only the 'main' parks in my 35+ figure (ie Dickens World and the Sea Life Centres didn't make the cut)

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I think that might be the problem though Jordan, there maybe 35 theme parks in the UK but they are not high quality. Maybe less is more. But this is getting off topic.

 

[Quetzal]

As theme park's we're massively privileged to live in a region of the world with many good standard theme parks.

When comparisons are made between our local parks, and other theme parks which 'do it better', it's almost invariably the same handful of theme parks.

I really am looking forward to when the park can open the ride, mainly so all the sensationalist 'Alton Towers can't do anything right' rubbish disappears. The Smiler is probably the most significant rollercoaster this year. It's a world beater, simple as. When you factor in that some of the most significant coasters worldwide before that have also been in Merlin parks (Raptor and Thirteen) then they can't exactly be doing much wrong.

 

[Ben.]

It's a world breaker

Wait, are alton building a Death Star?

 

[Quetzal]

Whoops!

 

[HaydenCR]

I am actually secretly grateful the ride is delayed My next big payday, is not till June and I dont really want a lot spoiled! Saying that, the queue-line for the Smiler, isn't great. But its probably much better then Rita (worst of the worst in my opinion. It is frustrating, because Merlin have now proven they are capable with making a well done queue line, in the form of the London Dungeons, which is the best queue line I have ever stood in. Theming, interactive elements, animals to look at, very good indeed. oh well, I will be going a weekday anyway, I dont really care enough. (as long as they have skippable bits)

 

[Rob]

You may remember from one of my previous updates that I noticed a yellow sticker on a support towards the top of the site, which I thought would create something similar to the 'SW7' lettering. Well I have just seen this photo on Towers2Go's Facebook page:

 

[TheMan]

You may remember from one of my previous updates that I noticed a yellow sticker on a support towards the top of the site, which I thought would create something similar to the 'SW7' lettering. Well I have just seen this photo on Towers2Go's Facebook page:

We would love to Alton Towers but you wont let us!

 

[Thomas]

That photo really doesn't do the ride justice. I've seen less concrete in a multi-storey car park. Although having said that there's no real alternative.

 

[Quetzal]

That looks awesome!

 

[Olii]

That is beyond cool! It's little touches like this that really add up. Plus it breaks up the solid concrete a little! :twirly:

 

[CoasterCrazyChris]

We can't all blame Alton for this. They did suffer bad weather. late arrival of the track. Also delays with the actual ground work on the site. I guess we should just all pipe it and wait till it opens

I think we can blame them almost entirely actually.

All those things should have been accounted for during the planning process.

 

[Jonathan]

You may remember from one of my previous updates that I noticed a yellow sticker on a support towards the top of the site, which I thought would create something similar to the 'SW7' lettering. Well I have just seen this photo on Towers2Go's Facebook page:

My initial reaction when seeing that was 'dodgy Photoshop'. :/

 

[GaryH]

I agree - dont believe that is real

 

[b2311e]

You may remember from one of my previous updates that I noticed a yellow sticker on a support towards the top of the site, which I thought would create something similar to the 'SW7' lettering. Well I have just seen this photo on Towers2Go's Facebook page:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 5001_n.jpg

My initial reaction when seeing that was 'dodgy Photoshop'. :/

Must be - Otherwise 99% of the time, it wouldn't be readable (height/angle etc)

 

[Spark]

At least by painting the concrete that black colour it would break it up more, certainly a bit more caring on the eyes

 

[Rob]

I'm pretty sure it is real. It is very similar to the "SW7" lettering that is partly on the station wall and partly on supports, and is only readable from a certain angle. Also to back up that it is probably real, here is my photo from last week of what I believe to be a part of it:

 

[Alastair]

Also why the heck would they bother to Photoshop it when all will be revealed soon anyway?