KarlaKoaster

Thanks for the pictures of this much needed ride for the park. The whole area looks really nice. Also, is that a Euro Disneyland high-vis jacket I spot?! Somebody didn't get the memo!

I agree, I always think Thorpe Park has a very Six Flags feel about it. I visited Angry Birds Land today and it's pretty woeful. I thought Angry Birds was already a bit out of date, and like everyone here says, everything feels so temporary. If they are trying to get more kids into the park, then they'll definitely not be returning!

It's hard to tell whether it will be amazing as a coaster, but it definitely looks like it will be a great experience. What is International Drive like at the moment? Was it affected by the financial crisis? I got the impression it was, but it's great to see investment like this and the Orlando Eye recently.

Those photos are just incredible! Great work!

I think you mean drainage not irrigation(!), plus like others have said it was an extreme downpour after days of rain, I don't think it's awful planning to flood once in the three years its been open after so much rain. As said water needs to drain somewhere and if the water table is high, it has nowhere to go.

I can't remember Alton advertising it as the 'first' but that's not to say they didn't. Parks often are economical with the truth when it comes to advertising their rides. You could say the same about Oblivion bearing in mind Ultra Twisters existed before Oblivion did. They definitely didn't advertise it as the "World's first B&M flying coaster" because, to 99% of people that would mean absolutely nothing ("what's a B&M" etc)

This has become one of my favourite threads because of all the amazing updates. Liseberg looks so amazing. I wonder if attendance was down this year because Helix has been so well promoted that people are holding off until 2014 so they can ride it?

Yep, it's powered. I think the power pickup things will be going near the top of the track as you can see the brackets near the top of the triangle backbone (they are probably adding these last so they don't get damaged).

I think there's been a few decent layouts from B&M recently - Shambhala, Black Mamba and Oz'Iris for example (Although apparently Oz'Iris isn't that good). They definitely seem to be moving away from the formulaic stuff anyway. Hopefully it will ride as good as it looks. I think it's a good layout when you can't really put a name to any of the elements, it just kinda... you know... flows.

It's low like that on Raptor at Gardaland too. It does look a bit strange, but I guess there's no point elevating it, particularly as the station is at ground level.

Don't forget they have an American-themed hotel, so they're not too strict about European theming, at least on the resort (as opposed to the park)

Just to pick up on this point, they dispatch two trains at a time on Saw, and only the back train sees the Jigsaw scene as it waits for the train in front to clear the block - chances are, you've always been lucky and been in the second train

First post here - hello! I think the whole Smiler project has been rushed and mis-managed from the word go. I don't think there's a single cause for the opening date being pushed back to May, and likewise, not a just single cause for the recent delays, either. Merlin seem to quite like building things to a tight timetable recently. I guess this keeps costs and disruption to a minimum, but it also gives them absolutely no wriggle-room. With regards to the Towers Times article, the bit about the health and safety citations does seem to hold true as there's links to the reports on this, but although it seems it probably did valley (as there's been pictures of a used train being craned back onto the transfer track), I'm pretty sure the 'scrapes' they're looking at on the track are just wheel marks from the normal running of the ride. Some parts of the track look worse than others, but this is presumably just to do with the different forces on different parts of the track. There's been a lot of work all over the ride over the past few days - trains being craned around, people working on the lift hill, they've been increasing the height of queue line fences, even the bins weren't put out until a day-or-two after the ride was due to open. So as exciting as a train grinding itself into the track sounds, I think the reality is a lot more boring than that. It will be interesting to see how this affects Alton Towers' attendance this year, and of course their takings. I feel a bit sorry for them, but it's the risk you take when you run to such tight deadlines with no redundancy. Building a coaster is a complex thing involving the park, architects, council, health and safety, the manufacturer, the construction crews (both groundwork and steelwork), electricians, landscapers, Studios North etc... all have to work in perfect synergy and every delay can be amplified further down the line, and I think this is what has happened from day one. Incidentally, Alton Towers have updated their site to basically say it is "currently closed" as opposed to "will not be opening on [the next day]"