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The Smiler - General Discussion

Ethan said:
I had to stop watching pleasure beach experience because of how ridiculous his opinions are. I get that everyone's different but I'm convinced some just love the attention of being different. He said that opening weekend best ride was National, but the worst was smiler because of how rough it is... I'm sorry what?
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Maybe he just avoids the wheel seats on the National, and avoids the back of the train...those seats are far smoother, as indeed they were last weekend.
The worst couple of spots on the smiler are rougher than anything on the National, but the National is rough most of the way round.
Horses for courses, but it is the Grand National.
 
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If I'll be honest, other than the last two inversions, I've never had a true rough experience on Smiler in which the trick is hold onto the restraints and keep your head back at all times. Yeah it's not perfect and you can't let your hands up but for the most part you can get a somewhat good ride. Others though likely will have different opinions on Smiler but I do love it just for being utterly bats**t insane, just which the theming was better, giving a new coat of paint and have the lapbar trains which it should've had from the start and that would go a long way for it. Honestly I find it nicer to ride than PMBO these days which says a lot.
 
QTXAdsy said:
If I'll be honest, other than the last two inversions, I've never had a true rough experience on Smiler in which the trick is hold onto the restraints and keep your head back at all times. Yeah it's not perfect and you can't let your hands up but for the most part you can get a somewhat good ride. Others though likely will have different opinions on Smiler but I do love it just for being utterly bats**t insane, just which the theming was better, giving a new coat of paint and have the lapbar trains which it should've had from the start and that would go a long way for it. Honestly I find it nicer to ride than PMBO these days which says a lot.
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Look at peoples ride photos when you've ridden it next time and see how many people have their heads back :banghead:
 
Steve74 said:
This reminds me, this week I was talking to a colleague of mine and when she saw my laptop lock screen was Wicker Man, she said "oh not the one that crashed". She said her daughter said she would never go on The Smiler due to the accident and I proceeded to say how the ride was and still is perfectly safe and that ultimately, the accident it was down to human error and not a mechanical fault. She admitted that she thought it was a mechanical fault - and was very surprised to find out it was human error.
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personally think that it being human error makes it equally as bad, its the humans who are supposed to prevent it, not cause it!!
 
Steve74 said:
This reminds me, this week I was talking to a colleague of mine and when she saw my laptop lock screen was Wicker Man, she said "oh not the one that crashed".
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She thought it was Wicker Man which crashed?

I know I’ve said before about the fact I’ll probably never go on The Smiler again after what happened, and that things like that usually don’t phase me, I stand by that and if anyone asks me about going to the park after what happened my general response is “go for it”. And if they ask about the Smiler’s past I’ll say it’s perfectly safe.

Over the years, I’ve grown to wish The Smiler wasn’t there. Not because of what happened but when you look at its layout, it’s a tangled mess! Even when you watch a car go round, trying to trace it can be hard. My only favourite bit about it has ever been The Marmaliser and the long video on the screen in the middle. I once stood and watched it do a complete loop, it took about 10 minutes or maybe a bit longer. What a video and what a lot of information in it!
 
rob666 said:
Maybe he just avoids the wheel seats on the National, and avoids the back of the train...those seats are far smoother, as indeed they were last weekend.
The worst couple of spots on the smiler are rougher than anything on the National, but the National is rough most of the way round.
Horses for courses, but it is the Grand National.
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^This.
If you sit in the middle of a carriage, as in not above the wheels, The National is a brilliantly smooth ride full of airtime and is great fun, and feels much smoother than the last 2 inversions of The Smiler. Move one row back or forward though so you are sat above the wheels and you get the wind knocked out of you as your spine gets compressed to dust :tearsofjoy:can't believe how wildly different the ride experience is.

I think it's the same for any old wooden coaster really.

Also, for anyone saying that a coaster isn't fun unless you're being thrashed about, clearly you've never been on an RMC. Completely out-of-control feeling whilst running glass-smooth, best of both worlds :tearsofjoy:
 
Ethan said:
Am I the only one who doesn't see why people want rides to be really smooth. Thirteen and Galactica are the smoothest on park and there's no thrill to them. Smiler and Rita, which some say are quite rough, actually feel thrilling and like they're doing something. They're damn rollercoasters, they're not meant to be nice and comfortable and smooth, they're meant to throw you around
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Its possible for a coaster to have forces to it without it giving you a migraine.

Velocicoaster and Iron Gwazi for example as as thrilling as any ride I’ve been on but there’s no roughness to them, you get thrown around a bit as in there’s forces to it, but not painful banging of the head.

I don’t think Smiler is that bad personally but there’s a world of difference between Gerstlauer and the likes of the modern Intamins, RMCs and B+Ms in my opinion.
 
Josh555 said:
Velocicoaster and Iron Gwazi for example as as thrilling as any ride I’ve been on but there’s no roughness to them, you get thrown around a bit as in there’s forces to it, but not painful banging of the head.
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I was more referring to rides like Thirteen that is so smooth you barely feel like you're on a ride. The 2 coasters you mentioned have lap bars so have a massive advantage. It's a lot harder for a ride to be rough when it has lap bars
 
Smiler seems to suffer from vibration that other Infinity coasters don't, or do to a lesser degree. The vibration issue certainly worsened after they changed up the wheels, post-crunch.

Karacho opened a few months after Smiler and that wasn't anywhere near as unpleasant. It feels like they tried to do something with Smiler that the 'platform' didn't really allow them to pull off with any finesse.

The restraints don't help either, because you're being secured by something that repulses you.
 
I would be curious to see what a proper reprofile and a better managed system regarding wheels would bring.
 
Rough or not it’s a very popular ride which people are prepared to queue hours for.

This might be an unpopular opinion but I absolutely love the Smiler music haha
 
Ethan said:
I was more referring to rides like Thirteen that is so smooth you barely feel like you're on a ride. The 2 coasters you mentioned have lap bars so have a massive advantage. It's a lot harder for a ride to be rough when it has lap bars
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I get that but my point is that the exciting element of the ride is the force, not the roughness, and it’s quite possible to have the former without the latter.

I appreciate that the two rides I mentioned have lap bars which assist with the roughness, but that’s kind of my point, that they’re not rough but are still extremely thrilling because a large part of the thrill on a ride is the forces it generates rather than anything else. People’s issue with rides like Saw and the Smiler is the roughness, not the forces.

You’re right about the restraints though and it’s something which makes a huge difference, Space Mountain in Paris has gone from near un-rideable to quite enjoyable now they have the vest restraints.
 
Dave said:
I’m not sure we can judge it’s popularity as it gets about 700pph in throughput so not many people need to want to ride it before a queue forms.
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Depends how many trains it's on. It'll get 750+pph on 3 and 900+ on 4 so the throughput is certainly higher than you think
 
Maggiemoo said:
Rough or not it’s a very popular ride which people are prepared to queue hours for.

This might be an unpopular opinion but I absolutely love the Smiler music haha
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I like The Smiler music, just not the god awful "hahaha hahaha" bit that comes in half-way through. If they could remix it without that, it wouldn't annoy me to hear it while queuing.
 
STEJENT said:
I like The Smiler music, just not the god awful "hahaha hahaha" bit that comes in half-way through. If they could remix it without that, it wouldn't annoy me to hear it while queuing.
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The bass drop is unbelievably catchy and gets me hyped every time. More interesting soundtrack than most the rides on park. Not quite my favourite I love the eerie music for Alton manor it's fantastic
 
Dave said:
The point is it has the lowest throughput of the big coasters so queue length is not completely indicative of popularity.
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Well currently with operations it has the highest. Based on the number of trains things are running on:
Oblivion 5 (28 dispatches ×2=56 trains= 896pph)
Wicker man 3 (35-37 dispatches=840-888pph)
Th13teen 2 (32-34 = 640-680pph)
Rita 2 (33-35= 660-700pph)
Galactica 2 (23-25= 644-700pph)
Smiler 4 (56-58= 896-928pph)
 
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