Attraction Source Forum

I think the gif that turned smile in 53173 was actually accurate to the opening day! The Smiler will open on may the 31st 2073! It's a long wait and some of us may not make it but we will fight to see the smiler open 

Kirsty25 wrote: hang on... what does this have to do with the smiler? :O

Yeah! Isn't this off topic? lol

Ooooh that Interview with one of the Smile Assistants, very very interesting !!

I quote "inside the building there's scare actors"

Trustworthy information? I'm not too sure..

Benji wrote: I quote "inside the building there's scare actors"

Trustworthy information? I'm not too sure..

Oh i know that, this is just a Member of staff at the bottom of the Institutions Hierarchy, but the reasoning for posting the link is the pure reason of the information that he provided was very interesting.

clayj wrote: I wonder if anyone has tried removing the batteries, giving them a rub and putting back in again ??

In my experience I would say the best approach is maybe to turn it off, and then back on again.

TheOutpatient wrote:

clayj wrote: I wonder if anyone has tried removing the batteries, giving them a rub and putting back in again ??

In my experience I would say the best approach is maybe to turn it off, and then back on again.

Someone hit ctrl-alt-delete

Or cut and paste whichever works best

EDIT: Forgot they had already tried cut and paste on that other support :/ XD

Probably the lift motors or sensors. If it's the computer systems, their best bet is to try turning it off and on again

As promised here are my photos, sorry about quality, was using a phone to capture pictures, but they show off what has been happening

So, lets take it from the beginning...

In the bottom left corner you can just make out blue strips on the floor, this was the theming added today


Proof the area is still a 'Hard Hat Area' and gates have been attached at this area


Entrance to 'The Smiler' testing lights for around an hour at the end of the day


This will soon be open to the public, where thousands, if not millions of people will eventually walk through to ride


Nice weather every so often, didn't last that long though


'The Marmiliser' standing and waiting to work at full capacity


But before that, a quick test is in order...


And again... but wait, AT staff in the background are performing cleaning duties for the opening, or just brushing water away


An old view from up the top end, but this view never gets old, especially now landscaping has 'finished', to the right we can see three trains which have sat there, all day long...


...And another view...


Didn't particularly know if anyone had mentioned this, or shown this, but pole fencing has been put around the site and the pit NOTE: General Public cannot walk near pole fencing anywhere on the rides area


Again the AT staff walking through the queue line, cleaning or brushing away water or dirt from the queue in preparation for the opening, we can also see a black cherry picker in bottom right, I believe this will stay here for the ride in case of an emergency


The following pictures have been screenshot out of the video I have taken, sorry about quality change and size.

Theming losing its protective coating to unveil a nice white, although, I can see this mucking up quite quickly, typical english weather


Welding steel above the queue line so no jumping or climbing over the queue I suggest is being implemented



For the last shot I managed to capture a TV through the coaster testing with 'The Smiler' logo playing on the screen, the red circle represents easily spotted one, and red arrow indicates the second TV showing the same video


I hope you have enjoyed the pictures I managed to snap, sorry it's not much, but you can now clearly see what is left to do, a lot of the queue line is now finished and as I was leaving the drainage near the marmiliser centre stand and fencing at beginning of queue was being installed

Here's to hoping we'll be on this thing next week to come!

This is a bit of a joke to be honest.
The ride looks amazing, but Alton Towers need to realise that its not acceptable to delay the opening of a new ride with less than 24 hours notice! Whatever "teething problems" have arisen, have surely been there for a few days at the very least, probably there is a connection between the current problems and the issues encountered on the press day.
The ride has already been delayed by 2 months, which to be honest I think was the right decision as hopefully we'll end up with a complete, un-rushed ride, rather than it being completed gap hazardly in order to get it done for the original opening date.
But the whole thing just smacks of amateurism. Staff in the park openly admitting that they knew about the delay later than most of us did (6pm one of them said,) no idea when it will open and the majority just seemed like they didn't care.
I appreciate that sometimes things go wrong out of the blue, but this could have been handled a damn sight better. Just makes Alton Towers look really un-professional.

The station is looking very dirty already, was a big misstate using concrete

danny.g97 wrote: The station is looking very dirty already, was a big misstate using concrete

That could well be how they want it to look... And anyway, I don't think the main focus of the ride is the station hence why it's so bland, they want attention to be drawn to The Marmaliser and track.

Jmurphy55 wrote: This is a bit of a joke to be honest.
The ride looks amazing, but Alton Towers need to realise that its not acceptable to delay the opening of a new ride with less than 24 hours notice! Whatever "teething problems" have arisen, have surely been there for a few days at the very least, probably there is a connection between the current problems and the issues encountered on the press day.
The ride has already been delayed by 2 months, which to be honest I think was the right decision as hopefully we'll end up with a complete, un-rushed ride, rather than it being completed gap hazardly in order to get it done for the original opening date.
But the whole thing just smacks of amateurism. Staff in the park openly admitting that they knew about the delay later than most of us did (6pm one of them said,) no idea when it will open and the majority just seemed like they didn't care.
I appreciate that sometimes things go wrong out of the blue, but this could have been handled a damn sight better. Just makes Alton Towers look really un-professional.

To be blatantly honest this doesn't come as a surprise, Alton Towers traditionally have never handled things like this very well at all. It's just something that they don't seem to do, crisis management that is. But with that in mind just imagine the sums of money that alton will have lost this year due to the smiler alone, so it is well within their interests to open it ASAP.

The ride not opening today does however come as a surprise. It was a bold move to plant a date in the ground when they did, and personally I think that this was their biggest error, alton towers knotted their own noose, making a concrete day, instead of saying that it'll be ready when it's ready, which is probably what they should've done in hindsight.

A little bit on the speculation side of things, but what may have gone wrong, we know that the ride is safe for people, due to all the news reporters and such going on it in the past few weeks, so what could've gone that wrong in less than a week. Two possible options are that having more than one car on the track is causing issues, or that the rumours are correct and something like fire safety execs haven't signed the ride off for some reason. Which might also be the reason for the last minute welding of roofs on the queue's and such.

In my opinion I think we need to all take a step back!

To all those who spent hard earned money on a non refundable trip to the park, yeah it sucks and I'm genuinely sorry for you... but in fairness you still got to go to Alton Towers!! To put it in perspective I was slaving over a 3 hour exam and would have given anything to be on park - Smiler or no Smiler. It also sounds like the info desk were very helpful indeed, so all in all it sounds like a positive day to me

Yes we all want the Smiler open, but wouldn't you rather wait a week (probably) to ride it when it's completely perfect? Let's not forget this is arguably going to be one of the best roller coasters in Europe - we've watched it being born which is likely why we forget just how good it is!

Any professional in the world who takes pride in their work would never unveil an unfinished project! A chef wouldn't send out a plate of food if it wasn't cooked yet!

So chill. When it is Goldilocks (just right), then it will be open. I, for one, am glad they are perfecting it before opening. In the immortal words of the Doctor to the shrinking man: "You'll just have to be a little patient".

youarecorrectsir wrote: Any professional in the world who takes pride in their work would never unveil an unfinished project! A chef wouldn't send out a plate of food if it wasn't cooked yet!

I'm pretty sure if a chef gave you your food 2+ months late you wouldn't be best pleased!
They knew what they were building and when it needed to be built by, in this respect they have failed and it is costing them serious money.
On the flip side I was at Alton having a good (if unseasonally cold) time rather than being at work yesterday!
I would rather have been told it wasn't opening rather than standing in a queue all day waiting for a ride that would never open.
People have a right to complain and that's the reason they are giving out free tickets to come back. It means you leave feeling happier.

Stern John wrote: I'm pretty sure if a chef gave you your food 2+ months late you wouldn't be best pleased!

You're not comparing apples with apples.
You don't have to wait months for food to be cooked in the first place, however food can be sent out late and under cooked and you are given compensation (more free food or free meal)

I don't go to openings often as  this sort of thing can happen frequently. People should expect it, large projects can cause problems that no one foresaw earlier, look at the Olympics for example. Time keeping was bad but I wouldn't say it is the worst yet, things happen. I can understand peoples annoyance though.

A bit of news from peeps on park this morning!

The whole of X Sector has been fenced off, so all rides there are unavailable ATM. Read into that what you like tbh

lewis97 wrote:

danny.g97 wrote: The station is looking very dirty already, was a big misstate using concrete

That could well be how they want it to look... And anyway, I don't think the main focus of the ride is the station hence why it's so bland, they want attention to be drawn to The Marmaliser and track.

Yeah, the original planning application shown that the station would have a 'dirty' look and is meant to look old.

I hate it personally, but they seem to intend to have it looking dirty as it's meant to be a building of some description that the Ministry of Joy have taken over. Or much like the Sanctuary, it's an old facility that closed down but has been reopened and reused in a different way.

Tom_Jephson wrote: I have to agree with jayson. Just from looking at photos you can see that a lot of the workers are just strolling around without a care in the world. They don't look like they have much passion for the job they're doing.

Whaaaat?? 
Seriously, who are you to say that? Just because you're angry at the Smiler not opening doesn't mean that you can blame it on the workers. Wow, show some respect, they are workers and their job is to do what they've been told to do, so blame it on the management if they seem not to be doing anything.

Also, workers are not meant to have passion in building rollercoasters... they didn't design it, they didn't plan it. They are doing the same job they would be doing on a house construction site: filling concrete supports, assembling stuff, connecting the electrics, etc...

i have seen the vip povs on youtube. i was woundering that on the first drop in the staion do they have some sort of lighting effects. if anyone has been on it is it possible that you can show me?