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The Smiler - General Discussion

tayspru said:
And last time there was a public vote - one that was conducted on park with non-enthusiasts - Nemesis won.

Now this *was* before Wickerman and Smiler, so being generous you could argue they take 1st and 2nd place, it still wouldn’t put Nemesis in 6th place. Similarly, Oblivion also came 2nd.

You can have your opinions but it isn’t one that holds water against a majority
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I think the social media reaction to Nemesis closing this season and the reasons behind it being widely known (contradictory to the usual behaviour of social media commentators acting like there's been a deadly accident because a ride paused on a block section), shows how loved Nemesis is. I too remember when they had the poll some 10+ years ago and Nemesis won by a mile.
The Smiler is still a crowd-puller though, regardless of capacity, if the queue was too long people would go elsewhere, but it regularly exceeds 2 hours on a high capacity day. I think that says a lot about how people feel about it that they are prepared to sacrifice so much time out of their day waiting to get on.
I personally wouldn't wait more than half an hour for it these days.
 
tayspru said:
And last time there was a public vote - one that was conducted on park with non-enthusiasts - Nemesis won.

Now this *was* before Wickerman and Smiler, so being generous you could argue they take 1st and 2nd place, it still wouldn’t put Nemesis in 6th place. Similarly, Oblivion also came 2nd.

You can have your opinions but it isn’t one that holds water against a majority
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Like I said I was just basing it off what I see. Throughput may play a part I'm not sure but whenever I'm at towers Nemesis and Oblivion are always empty. Rita and Galactica tend to have more people in the queue whenever I'm there but maybe queues build up quicker for them because of slower dispatches
 
Ethan said:
Like I said I was just basing it off what I see. Throughput may play a part I'm not sure but whenever I'm at towers Nemesis and Oblivion are always empty. Rita and Galactica tend to have more people in the queue whenever I'm there but maybe queues build up quicker for them because of slower dispatches
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Don’t you often visit at off peak times? The fact is one persons opinion is never a good marker for overall opinion. Most of the members on the forum disagree with your assessment of the coasters, as did the GP at the last measurable occasion.

And that’s ok!
 
Rick said:
That was your opinion based on your own observations, surely.
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Well technically no as it isn't biased. I look at the queues and am able to judge roughly how busy a ride is. That's just numbers, if it was my opinion I'd be claiming one ride is busier but it actually isn't and I'm just favouring my favourite ride
 
Ethan said:
Well technically no as it isn't biased. I look at the queues and am able to judge roughly how busy a ride is. That's just numbers, if it was my opinion I'd be claiming one ride is busier but it actually isn't and I'm just favouring my favourite ride
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You can look at one queue at one point of the day. The app isn’t reliable enough to give you reliable info, and as mentioned previously crowd flow, guest demographic on the day, this all plays into it.

At a push you could maybe compare Rita and Thirteen at a given time, but you’d have no way of knowing what the queue time was at other attractions at that specific time.

It’s all anecdotal and you have a bias
 
Once again, please can we generally refrain from the utterly pointless "I prefer x ride so here's my list of my most popular rides" and ensuing one-uppery? Yes, everyone has a favourite ride. No, there's no need to repeat the same points regarding this over and over again - at the very least unless something constructive or actually interesting is being stated. Thank you.
 
Rick said:
Does Alton count ridership or just dispatches ?
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We certainly used to count both. Every train you dispatched you'd record the number of people on the train. Every hour you'd total it and work out the hourly throughput. This was recorded in the operations logbook.

I think some of the modern coasters record the number of dispatches as well.
 
We all have opinions, but that's all they are. I've noticed a bit of a pile on going on with this thread, That's not helpful and it makes us theme park fans come across as nerdy, obsessive idiots to be honest.

I marginally prefer the Smiler over Nemesis, but there's not much in it for me.
Can we all agree that The Smiler is better than Nemesis for the duration of this season though? Wink, wink.
 
RIPCorky said:
It is kind of two rides welded together though
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Ethan said:
Makes it worth the queue. A ride that actually lasts longer than a minute.
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Ohh goodness this is an interesting juxtaposition…

On the one hand yes it is two rides welded together, and I’m surprised they didn’t go down the launch option for the second half

On the other hand the mid-course lift creates an interesting dynamic and if it had been executed well it works as the vertical lift hill is a feature all in itself. That said I don’t think the simple fact it rides for more than a minute makes it worth the queue. Length is not always equal to pleasure and yes I intended that!
 
Sorry to be boring after the previous post, but why is there such a wait before the lift hills start and engage with trains on The Smiler? It seems the same can be said for Saw The Ride too. Is this just a Gerstlauer thing?

I haven’t ridden Saw but after the first inversion on The Smiler you seem to be sat there for a good few seconds stationary before the lift chain starts up and engages. Most other coaster trains seem to roll onto an already moving chain.
 
s_g_k said:
Sorry to be boring after the previous post, but why is there such a wait before the lift hills start and engage with trains on The Smiler? It seems the same can be said for Saw The Ride too. Is this just a Gerstlauer thing?

I haven’t ridden Saw but after the first inversion on The Smiler you seem to be sat there for a good few seconds stationary before the lift chain starts up and engages. Most other coaster trains seem to roll onto an already moving chain.
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I’d imagine it is party due to a block section clearing and programming of the ride itself. The base of both lift hills feature some sort of pre show with the laughter at the first and the TV screens at the second (if you could call them pre shows is another thing all together). But I’m sure someone with more technical knowledge may have a better idea or know more than I do.
 
s_g_k said:
Sorry to be boring after the previous post, but why is there such a wait before the lift hills start and engage with trains on The Smiler? It seems the same can be said for Saw The Ride too. Is this just a Gerstlauer thing?

I haven’t ridden Saw but after the first inversion on The Smiler you seem to be sat there for a good few seconds stationary before the lift chain starts up and engages. Most other coaster trains seem to roll onto an already moving chain.
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I could be completely wrong here, but when I was taking some nerd shots in the queue a while back, I noticed there is a part of the chain that has what looks like a large catch car of sorts. As the catch car reaches the train at the base of the lift hill the chain slows down, catch car engages, speeds up again and train then makes its way up the hill.

Really not a very clear example of what I am describing however you can see part of this piece circled in the screenshot below.

d1ab25550e581be4422a95144e163538.png



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
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