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The Smiler - General Discussion

Another two horrific rides on this yesterday. Third row left seat and second from left. Violent jolting, vibrating, knocking. Second half of the ride is worse than the first. It needs serious work. The contrast between opening year and this is alarming.

A few overheard conversations on way out of station with shouts of “this is the worst ride I’ve ever had on this”

Took someone on it for the first time yesterday and they hated every aspect of it but did remark it’s not as bad as Spinball.
 
Contrary to the previous post on this thread I had around 50-60 rides on the smiler maybe more in 2022 without a single rough one, besides when one ride early morning on the Friday fireworks but that was down to it being cold and sluggish, it was great later on and still was much better than anyone rough ride I had on it prior to 2022.

I've heard from multiple vloggers who went to kids pass that it's running well again, which makes me think has Merlin got better at maintaining their gerstlauer's because saw the ride was running much better than expected in 2022 in my opinion too.

I will say I'll expect bad queues for it this year because it's basically the only inverting thrill coaster at towers now, I know air technically has 2 but they're not the same.
 
Great ride very poorly built.
Great there poorly executed.

What else can be said really? In my opinion it's been a disaster for Alton since day 1.
 
Jb85 said:
Great ride very poorly built.
Great there poorly executed.

What else can be said really? In my opinion it's been a disaster for Alton since day 1.
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Absolutely love the ride it's my favorite but from the ride construction, the faults its had and still does and the accident although not being a hardware or software fault from the ride itself but yes objectively it has been a disaster.

The ride itself is popular and a big draw, it still has a shop and they still make new merch so it clearly pays but in the long run Merlin probably wouldn't have bothered if they could change history.
 
As much as many on here lament about how poor The Smiler is and how much of a “disaster” it’s allegedly been, I think that enthusiasts (and only a subset of enthusiasts, at that) are in a significant minority in thinking that.

Most Alton Towers visitors still absolutely love it, and I wouldn’t mind betting that it could be the park’s most popular ride. It’s synonymous with Alton Towers for many people, and not because of the crash either before anyone mentions it. It’s a thoroughly loved ride that I would absolutely call an icon of the park and one of the UK’s most famous and iconic roller coasters. When its time comes, I could definitely see it getting a retrack like Nemesis.

For the sake of balance, I should add that I don’t say that from any position of personal fondness for The Smiler; of the big 7, it’s probably my least favourite. With that being said, it is extremely popular from my experience, and I absolutely think that it is an icon of Alton Towers.
 
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George W said:
Contrary to the previous post on this thread I had around 50-60 rides on the smiler maybe more in 2022 without a single rough one, besides when one ride early morning on the Friday fireworks but that was down to it being cold and sluggish, it was great later on and still was much better than anyone rough ride I had on it prior to 2022.

I've heard from multiple vloggers who went to kids pass that it's running well again, which makes me think has Merlin got better at maintaining their gerstlauer's because saw the ride was running much better than expected in 2022 in my opinion too.

I will say I'll expect bad queues for it this year because it's basically the only inverting thrill coaster at towers now, I know air technically has 2 but they're not the same.
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It runs better at the beginning of the season because it has new wheel compounds.

With the exception of the jolts which are just bad profiling the main cause of the rough ride on Smiler is the fact it has to run on hard compounds to keep its speed up due to the stalling. These wear out quicker and therefore you get the awful ride quality that appears random as it depends where they are in the replacement cycle of the wheels.
 
Matt N said:
As much as many on here lament about how poor The Smiler is and how much of a “disaster” it’s allegedly been, I think that enthusiasts (and only a subset of enthusiasts, at that) are in a significant minority in thinking that.

Most Alton Towers visitors still absolutely love it, and I wouldn’t mind betting that it could be the park’s most popular ride. It’s synonymous with Alton Towers for many people, and not because of the crash either before any mentions it. It’s a thoroughly loved ride that I would absolutely call an icon of the park and one of the UK’s most famous and iconic roller coasters. When it’s time comes, I could definitely see it getting a retrack like Nemesis.

For the sake of balance, I should add that I don’t say that from any position of personal fondness for The Smiler; of the big 7, it’s probably my least favourite. With that being said, it is extremely popular from my experience, and I absolutely think that it is an icon of Alton Towers.
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I do agree here, I mostly think it's an enthusiast mindset that it is a disaster. Everyone I know that likes rides that is not an enthusiast loves The Smiler, and a significant amount of them say it's their favourite at AT.
 
Looking forward to riding it again this season after finally getting my first ride on it last Scarefest. I'm well aware that later rides might not be as smooth or enjoyable as my first one (was super smooth in the front row), but fingers crossed! 🤞
 
Danscott22 said:
I do agree here, I mostly think it's an enthusiast mindset that it is a disaster. Everyone I know that likes rides that is not an enthusiast loves The Smiler, and a significant amount of them say it's their favourite at AT.
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Yep however when I was referring to it as a disaster I must reiterate that's because of it's construction, troubled opening, long periods of down time, accident, bolts falling out a lot during the first year etc.

The ride itself is my favorite rollercoaster, granted I have a lower cred count than most on here, the ride is extremely popular and they still quite often make new merch for it which seems to sell fairly well.

But with the feat of engineering of fitting that much track and inversions to such a tight space which will never cease to amaze me it was always bound to come with a few technical hiccups.
 
It’s a good ride with the car synchronisation. Generally gives a good ride although I haven’t been on it since 2014, so I can’t comment on the jolts etc. It’s a pleasure to watch although it’s a tangled mess which I feel is too close together with added complications such as the brilliant Marmaliser.

When I think of rollercoasters at the park, I can sometimes think of one word to sum them up - unfortunately the Smiler will always be a negative one for me.

Nemesis - legend
Air/Galactica - slow
Rita - fast
Thirteen - dark
Spinball - spinning
Oblivion - down
Smiler - crash. 😐

I make no apology for seeing it that way because that’s how it made headlines and many who don’t visit the park will unfortunately see its negatives before it’s positives. Those who do visit will take a different view.

I could watch it go round for a long time - but I’m never setting foot on that thing again. This is the only ride to ever have this sort of impact on me.
 
I rode It afew times towards the end of last season and personally didn't find it rough bar the last two inversions

It will never compare to Nemesis but people saying it's too rough must be forgetting the GBH machine that was Corkscrew. No where near as unbearable.
 
SMT_ said:
I rode It afew times towards the end of last season and personally didn't find it rough bar the last two inversions

It will never compare to Nemesis but people saying it's too rough must be forgetting the GBH machine that was Corkscrew. No where near as unbearable.
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Am not a particular fan of The Smiler personally - Nemesis will always do it for me if given the choice, 2024 onwards obviously.
Why Towers did not form a sponsorship deal with Anadin Extra for the Corkscrew is beyond me - in it's latter years both parties to the sponsorship deal would have made a fortune! (Let's face it, we had the rather rubbish & short-lived Fanta sponsorship on Oblivion).
The penny has just dropped - Anadin Extra is an age-restricted product sale, so the purchaser has to be over 16 & you can only buy 2 packs at once. Towers would have lost a lot of money on potential sales when the school trips hit.
 
I had to double check and yep this is the Smiler thread.

I don't care if you needed medication to ride any other rides.

The Smiler does what it does. It's the only ride I've been on where I have no idea where I am.

It's brilliant.
 
I think the debate on whether or not the ride has been a ‘disaster’ for the park is an interesting one. On the one hand the crash created a huge negative image for the park, and attendance dropped massively for a good few years. Coupled with the fine and ride construction cost, it has been a very expensive investment.
On the other hand it’s probably the ride most people want to go on. I’ve had quite a few people in foreign parks (especially America) ask me about it and say how much they want to ride. I think having the world record for inversions is a big deal. Plus as others have said it’s very popular with the GP and merch seem’s to be by far the most popular of any ride (just judging with my eyes I have no factual sales info).
Im certainly glad they built it, I love it. Getting a tad old now to lap it tho, but I can still manage 3 or 4 a day as long as they are spaced out 🤣
 
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