The Smiler - General Discussion

Thu Jun 13, 2013 5:18 pm

Kirsty25 wrote: ...The Smiler was still down, Oblivion was down, as was Enterprise (Submission was running one arm) but all down with technical difficulties...

I appreciate this may not be the place for this question, but why does Submission only run one arm nowadays? Is it purely because it isn't popular enough to justify running two or another reason?

Thu Jun 13, 2013 5:27 pm

gordon_mfc wrote: Hi guys,

LONG time watcher of the forum... especially this one, and have tracked the smiler from its planning stage!

Just a quick question... Im finally going to the park on tuesday, how busy to you guys think it will be? Im not really familiar with the english term times.

Also, I'm just off the phone with alton towers and they just said the smiler fast track isn't available at all. Can anyone help clear this one up?

Thanks

I think most of the schools are back from the holidays and someone from AT said that there are a limited number of fastpasses available per hour

Thu Jun 13, 2013 5:36 pm

RubyGaga wrote: 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

Thats unfair, and especially at the cost.... i mean if £46 is not bad enough....

Really the Tickets should in fairness state that they can not be refunded if you fail to arrive at the ride at the designated time, so you book a 11-12 ticket and your not at the que by then tough.

But when its out of your hands i.e you buy fast track for the 2-3pm but ride breaks down at 12:30 and is closed for the day, then i feel you should be issued with either a full refund or credited some kind of voucher that can be used at the park.

Their policy and also problems they have had with the Smiler is not going to do the reputation of Alton Towers any good at all.....

Now i can understand if you paid entry to the park to go on the Smiler and due to unforeseen problems the ride is not open and you cant claim anything back, or indeed you get a Gold or Platinum Fast Track...

But when you have a Fast Track that applies to just ONE RIDE and that ride breaks down, then surely you should have a refund or credit....

Alton Towers need to make sure their staff explain before sale of these tickets that in the event the ride is closed at your allocated time then you can not get refund.... no point in having it in small print after you made a purchase.

Thu Jun 13, 2013 6:44 pm

The down time on The Smiler is a real concern right now, and the troubles with other rides is also quite worrying.

I'm going up on the 23rd/24th - time booked off work, B&B booked and paid for, tickets paid for. Revalidating a ticket barely scratches the surface of compensating what people pay to travel to the park from around the country. I understand Alton Towers' terms and conditions, and I'm fully understanding to the fact that rides do experience down time - but the volume of attractions unavailable today is shocking. Everyone on park should receive a full refund of their ticket as far as I'm concerned, not a revalidation. Alton will still make money from what guests have spent on food, merchandise and the honour of being able to park their car.

As for refusing to refund a fastrack ticket... unbelievable.

Alton Towers' customer service reputation is taking a huge hit at the moment, and neither Alton or Merlin seem to be helping themselves.

Thu Jun 13, 2013 6:45 pm

AT Twitter have also said you would be able to get a refund on the fastrack:

@altontowers Its CLOSED AGAIN today, my second visit & its dead all day (AT were still selling Smiler fast passes 2 make money!) No Refund!

@SuperMuscleMan Hi, if you visit the Resort Box Office before leaving the Theme Park then we will be able to refund this for you. ^Matt

Thu Jun 13, 2013 6:54 pm

I don't know if this will help or not, at Disney if you get a fastpass for say 12-1 and you get the the ride at say 4 they still let you use the fastpass.

Thu Jun 13, 2013 7:27 pm

alex tyler wrote: I don't know if this will help or not, at Disney if you get a fastpass for say 12-1 and you get the the ride at say 4 they still let you use the fastpass.

Unfortunately, Disney do not allow this anymore. As it should be, the times shown are the cut off and that's how it is

I really hope the Towers can sort out this downtime on The Smiler! Keep it closed for a whole day if it'll get it sorted!

Thu Jun 13, 2013 7:34 pm

Well just got home from a very wet day on park, gutted I didn't get on the smiler today and that Oblivion was down also, but after being told in the morning that it was not open we went over to th13teen and Rita and walked on, then went to Nemesis and sub-terra, both walk on, Air was 40 mins and spinball the same.
I spoke to a ride op and he said The smiler lift chain had got "mushed" when it was put in reverse on testing this morning, not sure if that is true or not, he said enterprise was a hydrolic issue and oblivion was a p.a problem but did hear later in the day the Oblivion was more serious than first thought, I got to guest services at around 12 and they re validated my tickets without any problems so i guess i got a free day out of it (apart from petrol costs and car park) but still gutted I have to wait again before I can loose my smiler virginity!!!!!

Thu Jun 13, 2013 7:48 pm

How does revalidation work? If they don't re-issue tickets with an open date then isn't any ticket valid for any other day without question?

The system would be unable to to determine the difference between the two, no?

Thu Jun 13, 2013 7:51 pm

Miserable day. Cold wet and everyone on park looked glum! Was set to lose my smiler virginity today but was left rather peed off. Me and my friend were the first in the que behind a gentlemen I believe to be from towers times and works in the courtyard! You know who you are! Now I can understand towers being worried about the coaster stalling but the problem with the smiler today was the lift hill! The 3 test runs the smiler did today it flew through! It seemed quicker to all the videos by a country mile! What really aggravated me was that I was in the que with my friend for 4 hours and for the first 2 and a half from what we could see the engineers for the ride did nothing they stood there and scratched their heads. I understand teething problems but its 2 weeks tomorrow and its stalled 3 times and had various patches of downtime. To make it worse 3 delayed opening dates you would think they would try everything to make the coaster work. But credit to the staff they were excellent today trying to cheer people up! I just think the communication between park management is abysmal atm. Rant over.

Thu Jun 13, 2013 8:13 pm

To all those that missed out today, I sympathise. I missed out on my birthday trip on monday too. At least Oblivion was working then though. Gutted though as we had to leave fairly quickly at the end of the day so I wasn't able to call into guest services. I'm awaiting an email back from them to see if they can let me go up again to ride it, as thats the main reason I went on Monday.

Thu Jun 13, 2013 8:34 pm

Wow, you've gotta feel sorry for AT's frontline staff. As if the public's (understandable) anger at today's major ride downtime wasn't bad enough, that old article about Muslim day has resurfaced (for some bizarre reason) and stirred up a hornets' nest - have you seen their Twitter feed?! Bad times!!

Thu Jun 13, 2013 8:36 pm

I feel so lucky! My family and I went on Tuesday and we queued for the Smiler for 2 hours and we got on no problems! It was our first and probably only visit this year and we managed to get on it. I feel rather lucky! I feel for the people having problems

Thu Jun 13, 2013 8:43 pm

I really must apologise to all TT members for my post last night.... I didn't mean to jynx it like I did

I am going to throw out a theory.....

They have tried to increase the chain lift speed today to compensate for any prevailing winds and in doing so they've either broken the chain or managed to chew a gear up in the motor... Hopefully I'm wrong but who knows.... Seems like I was right yesterday night :/

Once again, sorry to all TT members and I really hope I haven't jinxed it again :/ SORRY

Thu Jun 13, 2013 8:50 pm

Phild94 wrote: I am going to throw out a theory.....

They have tried to increase the chain lift speed today to compensate for any prevailing winds and in doing so they've either broken the chain or managed to chew a gear up in the motor...

I would be surprised if increasing the speed can cause so much damage - Saw shoots up the lift hill compared to The Smiler.

I think the lift hill could handle increased speed without falling apart.

Saying that, the ride has surprised me before so, you could be right.

Thu Jun 13, 2013 9:06 pm

Well what can i say about today, nothing that hasn't already been said really. Really disappointed to still not have ridden The Smiler, also gutted Oblivion was closed as it is probably my favourite ride there. Tickets were re-validated so will get another chance soon. I live a couple of hours away so don't get there as often as i'd like, not exactly cheap for petrol there and back, so can be quite an expensive day out. Fingers crossed for next time.

Also, can't believe they would not refund for the fast pass. That is not on really.

Thu Jun 13, 2013 9:13 pm

Or it's the same lift system as Saw, but lifting twice the weight! That would mash the gearbox!

Surely that couldn't have been an oversight?

Thu Jun 13, 2013 9:39 pm

Why is this ride open?
It clearly is not ready.
I have really bad feeling its going to end up hurting someone eventually...

Thu Jun 13, 2013 9:56 pm

Jammydodger wrote: Why is this ride open?
It clearly is not ready.
I have really bad feeling its going to end up hurting someone eventually...

It's open because it passes all Health & Safety regulations and was signed off by the manufacturer.

Since the sign off, there have been an unprecedented amount of errors and down time. The trains, the trims, the wheels, the vertical lift, the drainage.

Is this worse than Air was 10 years ago? I remember that having loads of down time when it opened due to the new tech.

Thu Jun 13, 2013 10:11 pm

Jammydodger wrote: Why is this ride open?
It clearly is not ready.

The people that matter obviously think it is ready.

The fact its a) a new ride b) a unique coaster mean it will have teething problems. Everything has its teething problems, Air, Thirteen all exactly the same.

The problems are most probably things that would never have been discovered during just testing, it takes the public to reveal the problems. Just like you never know how a coaster will behave when moving from plans to reality, you don't know how a coaster will be affected when moving from closed to open.