Imiha

Thank you both! I will be there “only” for 3 full days because we are arriving late at night on the first night. I so think that it should be enough time for everything with FLP though. I will not be going to the waterpark. Sounds like staff at Breakers is awesome so I’m sure it will be great.

Next month will be my first visit to CP and I’m staying in Breakers hotel for 4 nights and I bought tickets for the park + Fast Lane Plus in the hotel package. My question is how is the process of getting the actual tickets and Fast Lane Plus wristbands? Do you go to the hotel front desk in the morning to receive your ticket and FLP wristband? Do you have to do this every morning? Is there usually a line for this? I have no idea of how this process is going to be and I would appreciate it a lot if someone could explain it. Thanks!

Gardaland has 4 OK coasters (Oblivion, Raptor, Blue Tornado, Mammut), Mirabilandia has 3 awesome coasters (iSpeed, Katun, Divertical). I think that Gardaland's coasters can't really compare to those in Mirabilandia really. They are great themed but that's it, except maybe Oblivion where the first drop is amazing but that's it, there isn't much of a ride after the drop. iSpeed and Katun are fast, forcefull, fun and all the way great coasters, and Divertical is one hell of a fun ride. Both parks have also smaller coasters that aren't much really. Gardaland has a great themed Jungle Rapids ride (Mirtabilandia also has one but not that great themed) and an awesome underground Disney style boat ride. You can have much more fun in Mirabilandia during hot days because you are soaking wet on water attraction whereas in Gardaland you don't get wet really and there isn't a lot of trees you can hide and chill under. If you are looking for adrenaline and fun I would definitely suggest Mirabilandia!

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/world-news/alton-towers-air-rollercoaster-breaks-5985495 "Air rollercoaster breaks down leaving dozens stranded hanging face down in midair" (Just stuck on a lift hill, how awful). Ok, the whole article is making a big, big, BIG deal out of this again. It's not good press for Alton Towers right now. It reads very awful, but what alse did I expect.

CocaCola Zero

http://youtu.be/b0Bu81PlKmw the whole channel is posting your videos

I changed my mind after seriously thinking about what you guys wrote. I agree, changing the name (and the theme) is probably the best option.

But do you think that changing the name and theme of the smiler will be good for the ride/park? I think that they will get shit by news stations for changing the name and "trying to mislead the visitors" and this kind of crap and they will lose even more visitors. On the other hand, if people forget about it, it could be OK. They might have plans for a different theme already though.

I'm just waiting for Kay Burle to go there and throw some screws under a coaster and then make a big story about it. Sadly I think she would actually be able to do this.

No, the queues are up to 100minutes because of the one trail policy. This is the post from Gardaland Fan Page which translates to (Google Translate):

Blue Tornado, Magic Mountain and Mammoth (all Vekoma rides) are all currently running with only one train on the track. Maybe it has something to do with the accident on Smiler at Alton Towers.

Test

Gringotts

Flying Island in Gardaland

French fries. Would you rather ride your favourite coaster faced forwards or backwards for the rest of it's life?

Pumpkin

I was in the park last saturday and here are some detailed pictures of the additions to the Divertical. I guess it's a motor with a hook that can be used to pull the train if it gets stuck again. The rods on the other supports could be used to hold the wire (or whatever they will use to pull the train) depending where on the track the train gets stuck. Or they could be used for some kind of platform for the people to get down, but I'm not sure about that. Anyone have any other idea? The section after the MCBR is what I'm talking about: This is the motor: And this is all that has been added (a motor and the blue thingies on the existing orange supports): I made a short video with 60fps and slo-mo clips of some rides in Mirabilandia if you are interested to watch. It's nothing special, just some wheels turning, people screaming and wheels assembly turning in slo-mo, fun stuff if you are into rollerocasters (watch in fHD 60fps for the full effect - coasters are awesome in 60fps)

Divertical (Intamin) at Mirabilandia had a lot, a lot of problems. The ride was down a lot of the time, last year a train got stuck at the section of the track and riders had to be rescued from the middle of the track, it will reopen in a few days. I don't consider this coaster unsafe because of all the problems. It didn't cause any injuries or anything that could be seen as dangerous or unsafe. It is unreliable though and that's what I would also call The Smiler. Also only one crash and everything points that it was a human error so it could have happened on any ride. If anything I will consider The Smiler to be much more safe with all the investigations and staff training going on.

I was also planning a trip to Alton Towers and Thorpe Park this summer, because from this month on our national airliner has a direct line from my city to london for s really low price and I was hoping to ride The Smiler, but I will wait for what happens and reschedule if they close it down for the season. I was really looking forward to it. I also wouldn't mind riding it after this, if anything the ride would be more thrilling (only psychological of course).

Someone said that The Smiler trains don't have bumpers on the front and on the back of the trains, but they do: They sure aren't made for the high speed impact but perhaps they still saved lifes of the people in the front row, because the bumper transfered a lot of force to the car chasis instead to the carriage.

The train does slowly rollback if the lift stops, it doesnt stay in place. Oh right, the second lift is vertical, so it does slowly roll back. But the first lift isn't vertical and has a catwalk so I assume it stays in the same position if the ride stops. That's what some people said happened yesterday, the car was stuck on the first lift hill for cca 5 minutes.

That's just in case if a chain breaks, the train would slowly descend to the base of the lift. But if a chain stops, the train would stay in a same position.

Valleying I guess, but there really isn't much to do about that. Could be wind, some say it was pretty windy today, but valleying isn't the big problem. Big problem is why the train was not stoped while the next section was occupied.

Towers Street on Facebook posted that Merlin entertainments CEO Nick Varney just arrived at Alton Towers

In Italy (Gardaland and Mirabilandia) someone usually yells "uno" or "due" (you can see the screen with how many seats are left) in the line and the first single or double rider gets to skip the line. It's actually pretty good, it's fast, no one complains and if there are no single seats left you just wait like normal.