Alton Towers Discussion Thread

[BudtheWeiser]

Hahaha Guy no tbf= to be fair

[oriolat]

Somebody came up with this video about Hitler not happy about The Smiler not opening on time.

 

http://meemsy.com/v/9348

 

Too funny. I hope Alton can get the apparent H&S issue out of the way and open the ride as soon as possible.

[Garet]

Although it hasn't changed at the top of the page the yellow box now read it won't be opening on the 24th: http://www.altontowers.com/

[thedazza]

At this rate Ring Racer, Flying Turns & Orphan Rocker will be open before The Smiler

 

[Dinnwitted]

Supposedly, journalists were stranded on the ride's vertical lift hill during the media event.

[A.J.]

I'm sure this is frustrating, but safety trumps all. If they don't feel that it's safe to run Smiler right away, so be it.

[RCT3Bross]

This isn't going to help also:

Towersstreet Facebook.

The queuing fences still aren't completely up yet. O Alton doing a good job there. I bet a opening next week like this.

[TyRush]

Its not too hard to put those up though. They could do it in a day.

Really dissapointed anout the rides delayed opening, seems like they were so focused on marketing it, that they actually forgot about the ride

[RCT3Bross]

http://www.altontowers.com/the-smiler-faqs/

This isn't looking good. I can confirm there is a crane on site but no action. Also today all path ways to X-sector are closed (meaning Oblivion, Enterprise and Submission are closed too). I'm starting to think this may be a big problem, If Alton Towers just can tell us what is wrong.

[rctneil]

Yep. All of x sector is totally closed off. Looking like a more serious issue. I'm currently in a mega long queue for Rita. Never queued this long for it!

 

Alton have also confirmed it will not be open tommorrow either

[Guy T. Koepp]

Oh Noes!

[hinklea]

Wow. Last thing you would want to happen on a preview night:

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/alton-towers-smiler-breaks-down-1895825

[COASTER FREAK 11]

Oh my god, the over hype in that article makes me think its a Merlin Publicity stunt! Its so out of control.

[willh51]

So they were stuck on the lift.

 

Too bad it wasn't lift #2; the paper would have described the situation as "riders stuck inside out on a large, painful spike."

[jray21]

That's too bad. I hope they get it all worked out soon!

[nemesis-storm]

Just announced on the parks Facebook page & on it's website, Smiler will not be opening over the Bank Holiday weekend

http://www.altontowers.com/the-smiler-faqs/

 

Apologies, due to unforeseen teething problems, The Smiler will not be open during Bank Holiday weekend (25th-27th). The Alton Towers Resort is however open as usual from 10am-5.30pm with over 50 amazing ride and attractions for you to enjoy.

[Anything]

Oh dear oh dear. PR disaster!

[Dinnwitted]

This just gets annoying now. Come on are they planning a week delay or a June opening over there?

I just read rumors that the park closed X-sector thanks to a stall. I'm not saying here I believe it, but yeah it wouldn't be a good thing to show the new ride stalled.

Wouldn't a week delay and a June opening be the same thing?

[RCT3Bross]

^ Not exactly as the ride was meant to open Thursday so a week delay means May 30th.

[Ultimate]

This made me laugh http://isthesmileropen.co.uk/

[cal1br3tto]

Did the marketing department put that up to help make the best of the unfortunate setback?

[necoastergp]

^^^That's great, haha.

[Garet]

Tower Time has this, doesn't say where it get's it sources from.

 

Major Incident:

 

TowersTimes has learned that between the park closing on Thursday 23rd May and opening on Friday 24th, a major incident occurred during the ride's testing. This resulted in numerous issues with severe scraping to the track as well as an entire ride train being removed from the track after 'valleying' due to an undisclosed reason. Valleying is when a train stops on part of the track after being unable to complete the circuit under its own momentum. X Sector was closed to the public for the entire day so work on removing the train could take place out of sight of visitors although a replacement train was seen being lifted on to the ride later in the day.

 

No details on this incident have been released by The Alton Towers Resort and it is unlikely they will do so. However most references to the ride's opening date have now been removed from the official website. Due to the ongoing issues with the ride we believe it will not open for the foreseeable future and if you are planning to visit solely to ride The Smiler, you should hold off on purchasing tickets or making any other plans until further information is released.

 

TowersTimes will continue to bring you more details as and when we hear them. Our Facebook page and community forum are great places to check for updates during this time.

[_koppen]

Take that with a grain of salt.

 

The only way it could scrape and damages the track is if they wheel assembly broke loose, and that is very unlikely.

 

Nothing, that does not come from Alton Towers, about this rides delays are true.

[KarlaKoaster]

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]"