The Smiler - General Discussion

[delta79]

Member of staff stood trying to batch 3 separate queues (SRQ, 'Ambulant disabled', and main queue) clearly struggling. Have to wait for baggage hold to be clear to allow each queue to be allowed forward. SRQ seems to suffer hugely for this. You can be waiting ages to be batched and get to the station area

This is also a problem for 'Ambulant disabled' Queue. Being a carer of someone with a problem with queue is not help by the baggage area hold ups. and trying to do distraction technique in a darken queueline is not easy, and ended up with a comment from a guest in FT queue.

I also felt sorry for the bloke that had to fill in the time card, it was so dark he had to stick his upper body thought the plastic flap so he could see what he was writing. Come on give the guy a small torch from the pound shop.

 

[DiogoJ42]

Sounds like the ride is going to pot already. Glad I rode it on opening day.

 

[Benzin]

It's more a shame we can't let the place assume that people won't be idiots and vandalise things really...

 

[BigAl]

Even if nobody were to vandalise anything, stickers and patterns painted onto brick won't last long because of people leaning on things, the elements getting at things (no better example than the vines in the Dark Forest) and there's also the matter of cleaners... cleaning! You pay for what you get, and if a park uses cheap methods of "theming", don't expect it to last long in an acceptable state.

 

[Natalie]

There were also a few people suffering from the heat on Sunday, a boy collapsed in the queue and I saw a girl throwing up in the bin that was holding the fire escape door open at merge/baggage. I think Towers need to make it more shady in the pit, put Florida style fans with misters in certain queuelines and tell people to keep hydrated!

 

[Benzin]

You can bang the keep hydrated drum for as long as you want but people still won't do it (see situations on the Underground)...

Misters/fans are a good idea though, problem is the original open-air design of the queue kinda got thrown out after H&S turned up and realised how close the track was...

 

[GaryH]

Alton need to put some covers over parts of the queue line to create some shade. I dread to think what the temperature is down there in the pit. Staff at the queue entrance should be telling people to ensure they have plenty of fluids before joining the queue. The wait before you get to the shop can be at least an hour on a busy day.....

 

[BigAl]

I'd love for UK attractions to invest in misting fans but would they get enough use out of them to justify the cost to the accountants and shareholders? :/

The mist fans in Florida were really helpful, but it's always hot and almost always sunny and they're pretty much always in-use.

Source.

 

[e4kenndr]

Def over heating in terms of the projectors.

This was on sat 6th by the "cube mapping" one.

They need to sort that room out really. I imagine it's going to be bitter in November etc too

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[DiogoJ42]

Well heating in the winter months won't be a problem. With a room full of people and four projectors it will be self heating. I think there may even be heat lamps in there as well (they could have been floodlights for maintenance, it is dark in there and I couldn't tell).

The queue desperately needs shade. A few canvas sheets stretched between the supports would do the job. However, that would reduce the already minimal airflow in the pit, but it would be the lesser of two evils.

I say again, "Worst. Queueline. Ever."

 

[GaryH]

I agree - it may have looked a good idea on paper - get the riders as close to the ride as possible, have it swooping over your heads etc, but theres no way I would stand down there and queue for anything over half an hour. 2 hours nearly finished me when I last did it, and that was on a hot sunny day. By the time I got on the ride I had a headache from hell.

 

[James]

Regarding using misters. I had a little idea the other day that they could cut small sections of the fences then create little cornered boxes scattered around the ride area and have them as 'mister zones'. So, lets say, every 10-20 minute forwards in the queue you can go into the 'mister zone' and quickly cool down. In the colder months of the year then these 'boxes' could be used as space for the bins.

Here's a quick (badly drawn) drawing of what I mean:

You get the idea.

 

[GaryH]

Wouldnt they need to dig up the floor and put in water pipes though? Quite a bit of work when generally speaking, a few strategically placed sections of sun reflecting fabric, or just even some planks of wood (aka, Dark Forest "theme") placed on top of the queue lines would offer some welcome relief from the sun . They dont need to be everywhere, just here and there.

 

[Harv]

Or, you know, they could just do the decent human thing and provide free water for those who paid the ridiculous entry fees and are queueing for hours in the sweltering cesspit? I refuse to believe that it is too inconvenient or expensive for them to issue a free paper cup of water to guests. It's common courtesy in my opinion.

 

[DiogoJ42]

I gather they don't even provide water for the staff. They surely won't be giving it to the public.

 

[James]

Wouldnt they need to dig up the floor and put in water pipes though? Quite a bit of work when generally speaking, a few strategically placed sections of sun reflecting fabric, or just even some planks of wood (aka, Dark Forest "theme") placed on top of the queue lines would offer some welcome relief from the sun . They dont need to be everywhere, just here and there.

I was thinking more of just some temporary 'loose' piping would suffice. Just something that they could use yearly during the summer months.

Although I understand how that would not be viable, it was more of something I thought of rather than something I actually thought Alton Towers would look into or implement.

---

That's one thing that annoys me about Alton, lack of free water. I hate to bring out the 'European park' argument here, but many parks I've been to in other countries have free water scattered around. I've even seen some parks have plastic cups next to water points for guests to get a cup of water to drink for a bit. It's a very cheap thing to do so it's certainly one of those little things that annoys me.

 

[pritchardavid]

Never heard of these mists systems before, sound a really good idea! That would be great at the Smiler queue. Only problem being, I can't see them paying out for this to happen. We will be lucky for theme to fix the vandalism inside the station.

 

[Novas]

Just got home so I can finally join in with this thread again. ;D

I won't post a review as no one ever reads them, but In short...after a year of defending the ride during construction and after doing everything possible to keep my expectations low following previous disappointments, I have to admit... I didn't really rate it at all.

Lets start with the positives:

- Great to have a coaster with a decent ride length.
- The track layout is great, the elements all flow brilliantly including the second lift.
- Shop. Can't believe I'm listing this as a positive feature but it's great fun.
- Best queue line exit ever.


Now the negatives:

- I'm a 26 year old healthy male and I can handle rough rides. When discussion turns to the likes of Saw or Colossus I'm the first one to tell people to stop moaning and man up, but The Smiler has some awful moments of roughness, especially both of the inverted drops. This thing will age like a bitch and no amount of playing with wheel compositions is going to save it.

- I don't know why they've used LED flat screens in the queue as you can't read a bloody thing on them.

- The whole queue line is awful. As already stated it’s a concrete jungle which is falling apart already. The main queue line is dangerously claustrophobic. I apologise to anyone who I shot down when they voiced concerns during construction discussion because it really is a horrible experience, the indoor area might be quite interesting but I couldn’t enjoy it due to the heat. On my second ride I was in the middle of the indoor section when it broke down for about 15 minutes (about 13:15 today.) 100 people, in the sweltering heat with no way out, most having been in line for nearly 2 hours = not fun. One rather scary guy actually lost the plot and charged through the queue just to get the hell out of there. I felt like joining him!

- I hate the queue line part 2: The temporary additional queue line is a total panic job. It looks crap and creates a horrible bottle neck when entering X-sector.

- The themeing is really poor in places. I like the concept, but everything I thought that I wouldn’t like I didn’t, such as the concrete station and the retarded signage, but other things that I thought I would like also failed to impress. Simple things like not having any backs to the Hyponotiser wheels or the entrance just made it feel so cheap! Other elements I didn't even notice, but having just read TS newsfeed it appears that a lot of effects were down today.

So yea, I wasn’t impressed. It’s a good ride, it’s a solid ride, but It doesn’t make my personal top 20 and I don’t think it will age well. I’m in the minority as usual tho, most people seem to love it and the GP are lapping it up so who knows, maybe it will be a grower!

(PS: This was my first trip after taking a 2 season break from Alton, and it was awesome. I'll be posting lots of positive comments over the coming days as well I promise, but the Smiler wasn't a highlight!)

 

[Alastair]

In my experience the mist isn't very effective at all. It's too thin and the method by which it is distributed is extremely weather dependent (ie. if it's even slightly windy then it'll blow all over the place). I think the only way it could be implemented is by James' method which I've never seen anywhere else, but which would contain it at least and stop it being blown away.

 

[Dave]

I say again, "Worst. Queueline. Ever."

Rita
Anything at PortAventure
Big Thunder Mountain

All much worse.

I don't mind the enclosed nature of the queue for the Smiler, what it needs however are a few queue tunnels placed along it. Give intermittent shade and maybe a few effect within to entertain.

But this is Alton Towers who wont really do anything except wonder why their stickers on the walls have pealed off and baffle at the fact the queue they built is too short and now have to pay staff to man an extension.... It's nice to see tight budgets increase staffing budgets.