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The Smiler - General Discussion

I believe the whole glow in the dark stuff was just a crappy publicity stunt. None of the cars I have seen have got any kind of glow.
 
There is no glow, that was just a PR stunt.

We now have it confirmed that the queue for The Smiler cannot cope with heavy rain. Yesterday when it chucked it down they had to make people queue in X-Sector and let groups through periodically. I believe it closed today as well due to rain.

Now for a rant. Yesterday we joined a queue that was advertised as 80 minutes. That looked about ride, I had queued about 90 minutes from the same point when it was on 4 trains so with 5 running 80 sounded reasonable. However it actually took us well over 2 hours, nearing 2 and a half I think it was. The ride went down when in the queue for what they said were "routine checks". God knows what they were, they probably needed to check it wasn't about to fall over or sink any more. Or maybe they needed to check the indoor section for flooding. Then just as we got in the bays it went down again for about 20 minutes. No idea what the problem was, they were able to send empty trains so it was probably an H&S thing meaning the ride wouldn't allow guests on. Very frustrating. Very few rides are worth such a long queue, let alone The Smiler.

Oh, and yesterday only The Tickler and The Hypnotiser were working on the Marmaliser. A poor show. Plus the queue was in a weird 'order' meaning that queue jumping around the shop was very easy, you could skip half an hour of queue if you wanted to.

On the plus side, I was on the front row meaning I only got 3 jolts on my ride. The rain kind of ruined the whole riding it in the dark experience, I was underwhelmed.

:)
 
Its a shame the flasher, giggler and inoculator are not working, all three would look great at night. On the preview night on Thursday the giggler was really good as you went through a load of mist at one point, just like you would on Oblivion.
 
Firstly, I'm a huge fan of The Smiler at night, like most, first ride in the dark last night.

Is it me or has the exit of the cobra roll got worse?!

Obviously the dark and the lights highlight the 'bodged up' track even more and before you even reach it you can see the kink in the track. You can see the MASSIVE jolt in the train from off-ride too. ( I know you always could. ) It looks re-welded several times and something needs to be done about it because the rest of the ride I felt was very smooth, even the last 2 corkscrews, where I didn't upon first ride.

Closed season they need to REPLACE (not repair) that section of track. Even Gerst & Wardley said it needs sorting.

Also to echo others again, the indoor section was 'better' in the dark as you couldn't see light pouring through, but wow, what a missed opportunity in there. That is the ONLY redeeming factor to SAW:TR.
 
I went on The Smiler three times last weekend, the first time I've been on since mid-August. On our first go, both my hubby and I felt that it was smoother than it was back in August. I was well prepared for the Cobra roll having been on it 20+ times however it really wasn't as bad! But when we went on later that night, it was such a jolt! I think I'm starting to notice the difference between trains that others have mentioned. It really does seem to vary such a lot from ride to ride.

I still absolutely love it though, and riding in the pitch dark and pouring rain on Sunday night was quite an experience! Very disorientating when you can hardly open your eyes! :twirly:
 
I managed to get back onto The Smiler last Sunday for a chance to see if there was any difference to when I rode it in June and July!

I have to say that I thought that it felt much smoother, but that just might be my mind playing tricks on me! ;-)
I've heard a couple of people saying that train 4 is really rickety, but I was on this twice and had no problems with it (even on the back row!)

Got a few rides in while it was light, and then was lucky enough to get a lot more in the dark! I thought it was a good ride in the light; but it is simply incredible in the dark! Hopefully you will all have had the chance to experience it to understand what I mean. :)

The queues were quite long, so hardly any of these rides would have been possible if I didn’t have some unlimited fasttracks! Was very lucky to have won 4 of these for my friends and I to enjoy! :)
 
browny572 said:
The queues were quite long, so hardly any of these rides would have been possible if I didn’t have some unlimited fasttracks! Was very lucky to have won 4 of these for my friends and I to enjoy! :)
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How did you win those? I won some with Krave but they weren't valid during scarefest :(
 
cotda said:
browny572 said:
The queues were quite long, so hardly any of these rides would have been possible if I didn’t have some unlimited fasttracks! Was very lucky to have won 4 of these for my friends and I to enjoy! :)
Click to expand...

How did you win those? I won some with Krave but they weren't valid during scarefest :(
Click to expand...


Mine were from Krave too! I checked the t&c's, nothing about being invalid during Scarefest so I used them. No hassle at all, they were very happy I was claiming them and told me to try not to be sick!! Haha!
 
Just got back from 3 Days at Scarefest, witnessed a Smiler moment yesterday evening. Was next in line for the front row and when the previous train returned and when the restraints were released, The Smiler refused to let one of the advocates go and the restraint wouldn't open, leaving a rider trapped for about 20 minutes. Ride Hosts were unable to manually open the restraint, resulting in Tech Services to be called.
They managed to free the person eventually, but resulted in the the train being removed, as after closing the row of seats again, the seat once again failed to open!
Never witnessed anything like this, slightly amusing, there were a few cheers when the rider was eventually released!
 
To be honest, although I think £10 is over the top, even I would pay that price being someone who can only visit the park once or twice a year. Alton know people will buy it so they will push the price up as high as possible.
 
Perhaps it is just a temporary thing as the park is so busy they want to keep disruptions to the main queue at a minimum?

Or at least meant to be a temporary thing until they realise it wont stop people buying them!
 
They have a set quota per day (which at this point must be getting sold out each/most day(s)) so the price increase is only down to profiting.
 
The Smiler appears to still have a quota that is stuck to (unlike some other rides!) so this is pure profiteering rather than trying to get less people to buy them.

Having said that, I think Fastrack should be priced higher - purely to make it a more premium product and so less are sold. Yet as the other products have remained at the same price point, this isn't really happening.

Can't blame them though. If people are willing to pay it then fair enough!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.
 
Fastrack prices all raised at beginning of the year, there's none at the same cost as last year. Most are a lot more expensive than before (plus they removed scream+).

No issues with them raising the pricing of fastrack, it's the thing which should be done.
 
GaryH said:
TS are reporting today that Smiler fasttrack has gone up from £7 to a tenner!!!!!
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Good. If you're willing to queue jump hundreds of people, it should come at a hefty price, especially on the Smiler.
 
I got marmalised for the first time on Wednesday. The Smiler is a very important coaster for me, as its the first ever coaster I've followed from speculation, to completion, as an enthusiast. It pretty much turned me in to the raving Towers geek I am today. So you might say it had a lot to live up to for me :)

We got to a fairly quiet (for Scarefest) Towers pretty early via a lift, at about 9:15, so we decided that we would like to be the first people to be corrected that day and stood at the gates until they were raised by some really friendly staff, who were more than willing to chat with us until the Towers opened(don't know if the front gates are supposed to be electric, but the staff had to raise them by hand, and looked as if they were struggling). We then proceeded to run straight to the Smiler, which didn't really detract from the experience because, as the first to the Smiler, we had to wait outside the queue until about five past ten. However this wasn't such a bad thing for me, as we got to see some dummy testing whilst some executive looking people stood on the brake-run catwalk, which was fairly exciting for this geek.

So then the queue line opened and we ran down it until we had to wait in the optical procedures room until about twenty five past ten. Now, the optical procedures room... I've heard good things about it, but I thought it was a bit naff, and seemed to be there as an after thought. I think the money would have been better spent elsewhere (DRAINAGE, PEOPLE).

Anyway, then we were let into the station, which was pretty average. We were loaded into the front seat of the first (public) train of the day, and the ride-op checking my restraint made my day by commenting that my (Joker) costume looked great :D . Always have and will love the staff at Towers. Anyway we were dispatched pretty rapidly, to no mist ( :( ). The indoor inversion took me by surprise even though I was expecting it, as it was more forceful than I thought it would be. The music in the tunnel was great, lovely and loud, and the silent lift hill was cool. Gorgeous views start off the first part of this coaster really well. As for the coaster, it was fantastic. Plenty of hang time on the inversions, but also some lovely forceful inversions too. The airtime hills were a little tame for my taste though. The vertical lift was a nice feature, having never experienced one before, and was a nice touch to break up the experience, as I was feeling a little dizzy after the first half. There was a noticeable jolt coming out of the cobra-roll, but that certainly didn't impact the ride. The intensity was maintained throughout, and the way in which this coaster doesn't let up maintains the legacy of its great great grandfather, Nemesis. It's not quite on par with Nemmy, but I'd say it's 85% there.

Another great touch was the exit, pretty disorienting and certainly fits the theme of the ride. The shop was also great, plenty of merch that apparently lured 30 odd quid out of my pocket...

I'm not going to give the ride a rating, what is there to rate it against? It's pretty unique.

All in all, I feel the ride certainly deserves its spot at Towers, and the tag Secret Weapon. I genuinely can't wait for next Saturday when I'll get to ride it again :D
 
So The Smiler's down again, because of another bolt jetersing itself from a support on the first drop.

Beyond a joke now to be honest.

Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk 2
 
I think some people really need to sort themselves out and launch an investigation into this. It's beyond a joke now!
 
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