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

[Oatcakedodger]

After a couple of very quiet days how come a few posters suddenly start posting that it will be later this week when it's open. :twirly: Guess work ?

 

[Andrew]

After a couple of very quiet days how come a few posters suddenly start posting that it will be later this week when it's open. :twirly: Guess work ?

Just speculation really due to pretty much everything being finished and only a few minor details needing to be added.

The signs point to it opening later this week anyway.

 

[BigDave]

Theres been a lot of bad press locally about it opening late. Our store currently has a billboard showing the newspaper headlines and most of them are about The Smiler being late.

Hope they get it open soon

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Alastair]

I hope they post some form of news prior to its opening, would be incredibly unfair on those that went on the 23rd if they didn't.

 

[Rob]

They almost certainly won't do this, but after a few weeks of operation they should add The Smiler to ERT. It would just be a nice gesture to those who have had to put up with these endless delays, giving people a chance to ride it when there isn't a massive queue.

 

[Jon]

So many things are bewildering about the progress this coaster has made as it inches towards completion. I doubt we'll ever properly know all the details of what has held it up, even if we know the overall picture. It seems many delays knotted together with the more serious issue of a failed H&S test.

None of this is anywhere near as bothering as the constant shift and uncertainty about the opening date. Though everyone, park and guests alike, want new developments constructed as speedily as possible, ideally opening at the start of the season to avoid heavy construction and testing during open hours, I think it is fair and easy to accept that construction takes as long as it takes. Granted, construction time can be made vastly shorter with proper planning and reduced delays, but even so, if the park were fairly quiet about when they believed the ride would be finished until they were confident they could comfortably open in June, sure there would be grumbles at having to wait, but they would be the positive grumbles of keen anticipation. It would just be accepted that from October to June was how long this project took.

A longer construction time is much less annoying than a broken down ride riddled with errors and incomplete elements.

 

[MattH]

They almost certainly won't do this, but after a few weeks of operation they should add The Smiler to ERT. It would just be a nice gesture to those who have had to put up with these endless delays, giving people a chance to ride it when there isn't a massive queue.

Wouldn't you think that doing that would make the queue longer earlier? Just a thought...

I personally think this is a joke now, they are taking so long for something that is finished, yes, I understand H&S need to be happy, but surely the fencing outside of the queue line is something they can add while the ride is open? The media are slamming this ride all over the place now, and Alton are just becoming more and more of a joke each day.

I just hope to God it will open before the end of the month...

 

[Rob]

They almost certainly won't do this, but after a few weeks of operation they should add The Smiler to ERT. It would just be a nice gesture to those who have had to put up with these endless delays, giving people a chance to ride it when there isn't a massive queue.

Wouldn't you think that doing that would make the queue longer earlier? Just a thought...

Not significantly. I don't know the figures but I have not once seen the park overly busy during ERT. Most people do tend to arrive around 10am rather than 9am. That's one of the benefits of ERT, the rides on it have no or very little queue. As I said though, there's next to no chance of it happening so it's probably not worth discussing.

 

[AstroDan]

I am sure the plan always was to open The Smiler as soon as it was ready to do so. Not necessarily at 9am, but before 10 at any rate.

 

[Rick]

So many things are bewildering about the progress this coaster has made as it inches towards completion. I doubt we'll ever properly know all the details of what has held it up, even if we know the overall picture.

And rightly so. No good can come of that being out in the open. When it opens only a small minority of people will care anyway.

 

[stretchy]

I have noticed though that none of the season pass people have had any compensation for the delays. The regular visitors have been given free days. What i think they should do is maybe give all season pass people a free hot drink, maybe after 3pm at one of their eating establishments, maybe the Burger Kitchen. You know just as a thank you for being loyal

 

[Orlando parks]

On park today it appeared that the ride was ready. The mesh was being painted when we where there around 12:00 and by 16:00 it had almost been completed.

One over thing is the workers where sweeping out the queue, something I thought they would only do if the ride was due to open imminently.

 

[Rob]

I have noticed though that none of the season pass people have had any compensation for the delays. The regular visitors have been given free days. What i think they should do is maybe give all season pass people a free hot drink, maybe after 3pm at one of their eating establishments, maybe the Burger Kitchen. You know just as a thank you for being loyal

They have not promoted this at all, but I believe Annual Pass holders have been able to extend the life of their pass by a month for free is they went to the Box Office. I rather stupidly forgot about this when I was there on Saturday!

 

[djtruefitt]

On park today it appeared that the ride was ready. The mesh was being painted when we where there around 12:00 and by 16:00 it had almost been completed.

One over thing is the workers where sweeping out the queue, something I thought they would only do if the ride was due to open imminently.

The thing is when I was there on Saturday (and I think even last Thursday), staff were around cleaning and washing the queue line down as well. Only for builders to go and put mesh over it

 

[Orlando parks]

On park today it appeared that the ride was ready. The mesh was being painted when we where there around 12:00 and by 16:00 it had almost been completed.

One over thing is the workers where sweeping out the queue, something I thought they would only do if the ride was due to open imminently.

The thing is when I was there on Saturday (and I think even last Thursday), staff were around cleaning and washing the queue line down as well. Only for builders to go and put mesh over it

Seems like that's an incredible waist of time then :S. In all seriousness if there is going to be more than a few days until opening then towers need to send out some staff to fix the banners around the site. Several are suggesting that the ride opened two months ago again.

And to veer slightly off topic I do have to praise Towers' operations today. On a relatively slow day due to the weather they did their upmost to keep the queues down with every ride on at least two train operation with no queue going over an hour in the day.

 

[lozzyhickers]

I have noticed though that none of the season pass people have had any compensation for the delays. The regular visitors have been given free days. What i think they should do is maybe give all season pass people a free hot drink, maybe after 3pm at one of their eating establishments, maybe the Burger Kitchen. You know just as a thank you for being loyal

They have not promoted this at all, but I believe Annual Pass holders have been able to extend the life of their pass by a month for free is they went to the Box Office. I rather stupidly forgot about this when I was there on Saturday!

I was only offered fast-tracks for use on that day. I did enquire about the extra month but apparently that was not possible.

 

[willb]

It's interesting that TT have now updated their "breaking news" article and the header stating not to book tickets for the foreseeable future has vanished.

Alot of people look at these forums that are just joe public, what they posted must have caused damage to the park and caused a lot of unessasary confusion and anger.

Thank you Towers Street for only reporting solid rumours and facts and not using speculation as hard news, upholding the reputation of this fine forum.

In other news....my finger is hovering above the book hotel button just waiting for the news of opening! :twirly:

 

[Thomas]

The Theme Park is open from 10am today (9am if you have ERT!) Please note - The Smiler is currently closed due to technical issues.

These technical issues carry on, yes well done to Towers Street for honest, non-sensationalist news!

 

[LiamC]

I'm fairly certain they will get this open by the weekend at the latest. The press they've had for this so far has been horrendous with one delay followed by another big delay. Anymore would be PR suicide in my eyes

 

[KingNemesis]

Well in all fairness they need to get it open by Friday as the mini site still says: JOIN US... MAY 2013.

If they don't I think there will be even more trouble...