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The Smiler: What does the future hold?

Very good points @Rob. It's fair to say that the magnitude of those events are somewhat different.
 
Until it reopens, all we can do is speculate. I can't see them getting rid of the theme and name all together, but certainly it tone it down in many ways like some have suggested already. I think they've only removed the sign just to keep quiet and hope for no photo opportunities from anyone, which I can't really blame them really.

Though that said, if it does open say next year with the current name, would any of the GP remember the incident? Hard to say during this time, the Smiler brand is a fairly well known brand to many and getting rid of it altogether would be quite OTT for a PR persective. Then again I suppose people like to get attractive by controversy and Smiler may get this infamous reputation that, as crazy as it might sound, might work in it's favour.
 
Considering how much the incident has cost merlin already I doubt that if they do re-theme the ride that it will be extensive.

I thought the theming was very strong and will miss it if changes are made.
 
Stripping away the sign and any references to the ride around the park at the moment are pretty normal and the right thing to do to 'keep quiet'.

I'm sure the management teams will have many meetings about what to do with the theme.

Personally I think the brand they've created with The Smiler is too good to just scrap all together, so I could see the theme being toned down. Dropping some of the taglines and creating new ones and some editing of the music will suit well. They could rename it, although whatever they do people will still know it as that ride that crashed.
 
James said:
They could rename it, although whatever they do people will still know it as that ride that crashed.
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They may as well just save the money and continue with the same theming. The hype will die down soon enough
 
Personally, when it opened, I hated the theming. Think of it this way,
nemesis, Oblivion, air, thirteen - really good themes. Rita and the smiler though... I know they wanted something original but I just didn't like it.

But now there is a chance I may never ride on "the smiler" again, never stand next to the speaker playing that music while watching an amazing rollercoaster speeding over my head or see the disturbing smiling logo as I prepare to go on Alton towers' (3rd) most intense experience.

I have got really attached to it and would be quite upset if it changed theme, names or even its music.
 
AliceHL91 said:
I think the theming is supposed to be based on an airport, but it's not very strong.
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No, it really isn't! The theme is supposed to be an oasis type area at the bottom of Forbidden Valley. Yet much of the theming (such as waterfalls etc) never materialised due to it going over budget.

:)
 
Rob said:
No, it really isn't! The theme is supposed to be an oasis type area at the bottom of Forbidden Valley. Yet much of the theming (such as waterfalls etc) never materialised due to it going over budget.

:)
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Ha ha well that explains a lot. I always wondered how it fitted into the forbidden valley. Kind of seems out of place :)
 
Rick said:
I'm not disputing it has been covered in depth (too much depth), I was disputing that the media hadn't made a big deal out of the fact that the concept of the ride was to alter your mind and body.
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Yes, but when you say "the smiler", a lot of people will think about the crash
 
Danza91 said:
Air? As a concept yes, but there is no theming.
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I did mean the concept of these rides. Sorry if that wasn't clear. I wonder if when they expand the air shop to a restaurant if they will add additional theming and maybe we should mention this more often as we know Alton towers reads this forum.

Anyway, I could understand them returning, but with the amount of theming the smiler has, -insert new ride name here- would have less visitors because only people who really know that much about Alton will still associate it with both the crash and the advertising, which for the smiler was very good. Even now, to me, I think of the smiler every time I see the colours yellow and black together, see that font or even see an optical illusion or hear someone laugh! This shows how much it really got into our heads and merlin would want to take advantage of that.
 
It's a balance between the possible negative PR if it reopens under the same name and theme, versus the negative PR if they completely retheme it. "ALTON TOWERS FOOL VISITORS WITH REOPENING OF DEATHTRAP RIDE UNDER NEW NAME"
 
They've taken the sign down because the ride won't be open for a while. No point having a big sign pointing to a ride that's most likely going to remain closed for the rest of the season. The brand is too strong to replace, it's probably the most impact a new ride has had at Alton since Oblivion, they won't scrap it.

When it reopens it'll make the news, and that'll be that, by the end of next season it'll mostly be forgotten about.

People will forget or stop caring. How many of us know people who think people have died or been seriously injured on rides at Alton or elsewhere but still go on those rides?
 
I agree with everyone here, I do hope however this is an opportunity where they can basically polish up the ride. Figuratively give it a new lick of paint. Fix some issues; change the name if they want, although I would rather they wouldn't. You know, Install drains.

Oh well. Whatever they do we can only go forward from here so...

Boop
 
I would just like them to stop playing the music so loud you can hear it up in forbidden valley. Just play it in the queue line and play the oblivion music in x-sector (which I consider far more suitable)

However I know this is just my opinion when I say that oblivion music is superior.
 
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