Tom G wrote:
Really don't see a point in queuing from 9am tomorrow. Anyone agree?
-Sent from a mobile phone-
You will have to queue regardless , its better off starting at 9 than later, you tend to be in the shade at the entrance to x sector, then they let you down to the ride entrance, so you have a good view when they start testing.
Any more feedback from people at the park today on how the ride is running, number of cars in operation etc?
I have to say that I was quite against the "Towers-bashing" that went on here (from some members) regarding the delays in opening, the lack of information disclosed, the "mismanagement of the whole project" etc etc etc, but I'm really disappointed to read about the late starts for testing each day.
You would have thought that, with a new flagship ride that has already suffered delays and downtime, thus disappointing visitors and fans, and one that is still highly susceptible to "teething troubles", testing would start as early as possible to ensure a 10am queue opening time.
Add to this the heavy TV advertising and the holiday season boost to visitor numbers, leaving testing to so late really does seem a risky and inappropriate strategy to me!
Unless, of course, there is some reason that they cannot test earlier... (noise? Gerst staff presence?)
Hi, I've been a long time lurker on this forum but this is the first time I've posted! Seriously love this site, you guys have been great for behind the scenes stuff for Smiler.
Anyhoo, I've just uploaded a video of our day at the Towers to ride The Smiler and thought some people might be interested to watch it. There's some great slo-mo footage of the ride that I took.
Hopefully me posting this doesn't contravene any forum rules, I just figured some of you may be interested in watching.
Tom G wrote:
Really don't see a point in queuing from 9am tomorrow. Anyone agree?
-Sent from a mobile phone-
Depends what you want. We chose to ride it later, which while a three hour queue, allowed us to ride everything we wanted knowing that as long as we were in the queue by 5:30 we would get a ride. Had we done it in the morning there was the possibility of not knowing when it would open, how long the queue was and therefore if we would get a chance to ride anything else.
Regarding popularity have any other coasters had the same impact at opening? This seems like a total MUST RIDE for everyone! I imagine Oblivion was the last major major opening.
don't forget that people who booked time off for the 23rd opening day and throughout that week will be riding it throughout the first few weeks,
the queues will die down, I reckon the end of summer will see quitter queues, then Halloween will be mental as this thing will look absolutely beautiful at night.
I love reading all the comments, a few years ago I probably would have stood in line for a few hours to ride the smiler but now I don't think I would have the patients tbh.....my daughter loved her first visit to the park and we will be going again on 24th a day in McDonald's farmyard for me I think lol if the single rider que was 20 mins I would give it a go though
We went last Monday (when it broke down at 5:40pm with all the late riders in the queue!) and having booked online we got in the park at 9am.
The queue line was already filling up with the "runners" keen to get there first so we ended up starting the queue about half way up towards Hex. We were lucky that day that testing started about 9:30am and the ride opened just after 10am.
We were off the ride by 10:30am so having gotten in early we'd only been queuing about 1 1/2 hours so my personal view is if you're in the park at 9am then queue straight away as in reality it doesn't take long to pull the the first people through the queue......
....that said though it does appear that testing is taking longer and longer and they're later opening! We went back for a final ride at the end of the day and that was when The Smiler broke and they closed the queue having to evacuate people off the ride!
Roller coasters = the most fun you can have with your clothes on!
I'm going to Towers on Monday, whats the best idea to do regarding getting on The Smiler?
Getting to towers early, waiting til the gates open then going straight to the Smiler then?
Ditto - I'm there on Monday and Thursday. Really hoping the queues this week haven't been helped by and half terms so may be better next week? (wishful thinking?).
Likely to arrive around 10:00, do have Sun tickets so that'll save a small amount of time. Not sure if we'll be heading straight to the smiler queue though.
Absolutely sprinted it down to The Smiler at 9:00 am this morning and was first in the queue. They was already testing it, however as 10:00 and 11:00 came and went they were still testing it!! Three of the four trains had dummies on them and each train took about 10 minutes to offload them.. (Which they did at about 10:45) The Smiler opened at approximately 11:45 today to a 3 Hour Queue (So we were told, as they wouldnt let me out to go to the Toilet ) All in all, good ride, but wouldnt reccomend sprinting it first thing, absolutely dead haha
So after being on park for 3 days and finally riding the smiler, I only have one question. How long does it take for that music to get out of your head?
djtidus wrote:
So after being on park for 3 days and finally riding the smiler, I only have one question. How long does it take for that music to get out of your head?
Absolutely ages. I've still got it ringing through my head now and I left yesterday at 3 o'clock! All I can hear is Ha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
long time lurker of this forum and thought i would sign up, just after abit of info about the smiler, someone was telling me about exit passes, can anyone shed any light on these type of passes, what are the que times with these passes ?
djtidus wrote:
So after being on park for 3 days and finally riding the smiler, I only have one question. How long does it take for that music to get out of your head?
Absolutely ages. I've still got it ringing through my head now and I left yesterday at 3 o'clock! All I can hear is Ha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
It's driving me nuts!
It is driving me insane, sat here watching the telly and then just hearing that in my head constantly.
Ha Ha Haaa Ha ha Haaa....... maybe we all did get marmalised.
Going from 11am until 4pm on the 24th June, any idea how long I will be queueing for the smiler and how many other rides I'll get to go on (namely nemesis and oblivion, and air which I'm not overly bothered about but would still like a ride )? Thanks
Man late opening again, I am gonna go tomorrow but really don't know what time to head down! So much so I don't even know if I wanna go at all, too much of a headache...
This last week of operation has really took the shine off a new attraction. Totally killed the buzz of a new ride!!
) All in all, good ride, but wouldnt reccomend sprinting it first thing, absolutely dead haha 
