The Smiler - General Discussion

General discussion regarding the UK's No.1 Theme Park. Talk about anything and everything Alton Towers here.
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Nickb91
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X sector is more and more turning into the forbidden valley ;) lol
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meames
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Wedjie wrote: Even if you take out the 'major' problems (ie stalling) I haven't heard a report of anyone queueing who WASN'T delayed by a minor breakdown.
Let me be the 1st then - went on 3 times the day after it opened and only experienced one holdup when a disabled person needed helping on and off again, other than that the cars were running constantly.
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halso86
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Oblivion, air & the smiler closed.

This season has being awful so far for towers!
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Wedjie
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meames wrote:
Let me be the 1st then - went on 3 times the day after it opened and only experienced one holdup when a disabled person needed helping on and off again, other than that the cars were running constantly.
Lucky you! It may not be as bad as Everyone makes out then? It's just quite a few posts about queue times include ''plus a 20 minute breakdown'' somewhere :P

I've tried to go twice so far this year. The Sunday 26th, when they delayed opening :( and then again the day of the first stall after opening.

Going again last weekend in June - am expecting some king of derailment or the VLift to fall over ;)


3 of the coasters now closed? Alton Towers are not having much luck today :/
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JamieH93
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halso86 wrote: Oblivion, air & the smiler closed.

This season has being awful so far for towers!
I'm starting to wonder if my visit will be worth the money next week.
I will end up getting there and the only thing open will be bloody squirrel nutty.
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mikecloud1984
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We are not going until 1st October - hopefully the "teething problems" will have been pulled out and replaced with dentures.
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Alex Tyler
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The only breakdown I've had with The Smiler is when I got stuck on lift 2 on Friday.
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DaveBear
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Gax wrote: A question for anyone who has ridden.. Is there any reference to the backstory of the ride in the queueline? TV screens playing videos about the ministry of joy or anything like that? Seems a shame if not because most will not really know what it is all about.
As someone already said.....

Sadly not, you get a few screens which basically do like what the Marmaliser Screen does.

The Ride is Fab i would say Fantastic, does a good job of what nuts and bolts all it is, and thats a pretty smooth 14 Inversion Thrill roller coaster that balanced on thrill and fun like if you got a cross between what Air and Nemesis offer in one package.

The Actual Theme as far as visual wise, the color scheme the trains the sight of the off ride Dueling and Marmaliser and how close the track and Marlamiser is to the Que Line all really look very nice indeed.

Sadly as far as Story and the implementation of what these so called Marmaliser and Processes do, is sadly a disappointment.

Maybe in hindsight on all the theme and advertising they could have saved money if all we got was the track and replaced the Marmaliser with the Nemesis Crab Monster and back story that its the Hatching from Sub Tera all grown up and then money saved used to maybe had given us a Launched first hill and a Tunneled Vertical or inclined (like Saw) Drop though a tunnel with smoke....

But Alas.....
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Wedjie
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Air is back up, Sonic Spinball has died....still no signs of The Smiler opening?
I thought staff were saying it would open this afternoon? Are they not running out of time for that?
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sully1311
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Wow, Guest Services is going to be taking a battering today (again) with The Smiler, Oblivion, Enterprise, Sonic Spinball and Air being closed. This must be the worst year for Customer Service in a long long time.
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imcn
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Is X-Sector completely closed then or is submission open?
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halso86
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Sounds like that 18 million should have been spent sprucing the park up and maintaining the other rides!
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JamieH93
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imcn wrote: Is X-Sector completely closed then or is submission open?
If it is they might aswell close x sector down whats the point in having it open
Anyone know why oblivion is closed today?
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RubyGaga
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Woah. What a day. What a daaaay!!!
Well, at 9 we ran to the smiler to queue, but they told us to go away and queue in half hour. So we did.
We queued for an hour, but the team said that it wouldn't open until lunch. So, we bought a fast track, £6 each. Not too bad. They were timed for 11:30, but the lady who sold us them said that if it isn't open we can go when it does. Fair enough right?
We went at 12 and they said it would be open in an hour.
Well it's now half 4 and we harm heard
Anything.
Went to guest services to ask or a refund, but they said there's a small print that says they can't refund them- a small print that you can only read AFTER you buy them. So, unhappy, ripped off, we went to the other guest services
And they said they'd revailidate them for any day this year... Too bad we live hours away and won't be coming back this year....

If anyone wants free fast pass tickets you're more than welcome.
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Chaz
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^they wont refund FastTracks? WOW.

I can understand if YOU missed your time slot, or if the ride was down when your timeslot was open but re-opened later. But to not give you a refund when they failed to open the ride (albeit if it couldn't be helped). That is terrible, do not leave the park, take it higher.

Some people visit once a year/every few years...re-validating them is not good enough.
1ne, 2wo, 3hree, 4our, 5ive, 6ix, se7en, ei8ht, 9ine, t10n, e11even, tw12ve, th13teen

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sully1311
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RubyGaga wrote: Woah. What a day. What a daaaay!!!
Well, at 9 we ran to the smiler to queue, but they told us to go away and queue in half hour. So we did.
We queued for an hour, but the team said that it wouldn't open until lunch. So, we bought a fast track, £6 each. Not too bad. They were timed for 11:30, but the lady who sold us them said that if it isn't open we can go when it does. Fair enough right?
We went at 12 and they said it would be open in an hour.
Well it's now half 4 and we harm heard
Anything.
Went to guest services to ask or a refund, but they said there's a small print that says they can't refund them- a small print that you can only read AFTER you buy them. So, unhappy, ripped off, we went to the other guest services
And they said they'd revailidate them for any day this year... Too bad we live hours away and won't be coming back this year....

If anyone wants free fast pass tickets you're more than welcome.
I'm pretty sure in situations like this, it doesn't matter what their Ts&Cs say, they haven't supplied you with the service they sold you, so you are entitled to a refund.
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Wedjie
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RubyGaga wrote:
If anyone wants free fast pass tickets you're more than welcome.
Shotgun! ;)
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RubyGaga
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Exactly what I said to them. They said that it said in print on the ticket that they will not supply refunds. Had to leave. We're calling them up tomorrow. I don't know what we can do now. Probably just accept that we've been robbed £12
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Kirsty25

I made a trip down to park this morning, before I drove home, asked @ The Smiler to see what was going on to be told "Technical issues were affecting it and we hope it will be open this afternoon" so up to Dark Forest for Thirteen, then down to X Sector where we learned The Smiler was still down, Oblivion was down, as was Enterprise (Submission was running one arm) but all down with technical difficulties so decided it was better to come home :(

Someone did say yesterday (Alton Towers Staff) that The Smiler was going through wheels really quickly, far quicker than for any other coaster and even he admitted it was worrying.
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JW599
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RubyGaga wrote: Woah. What a day. What a daaaay!!!
Well, at 9 we ran to the smiler to queue, but they told us to go away and queue in half hour. So we did.
We queued for an hour, but the team said that it wouldn't open until lunch. So, we bought a fast track, £6 each. Not too bad. They were timed for 11:30, but the lady who sold us them said that if it isn't open we can go when it does. Fair enough right?
We went at 12 and they said it would be open in an hour.
Well it's now half 4 and we harm heard
Anything.
Went to guest services to ask or a refund, but they said there's a small print that says they can't refund them- a small print that you can only read AFTER you buy them. So, unhappy, ripped off, we went to the other guest services
And they said they'd revailidate them for any day this year... Too bad we live hours away and won't be coming back this year....

If anyone wants free fast pass tickets you're more than welcome.
Legally you are entitled to a refund - as far as I'm aware you are not handed the tickets until payment has been taken therefore AT are in the wrong by forcefully applying terms and conditions without your consent - the only exception to this is if there was a notice placed in the sales booth.

If you have left the park and paid on card, I would recommend contacting your card provider.
Last edited by JW599 on Thu Jun 13, 2013 5:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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