The Smiler Incident 02/06/15

[xylyx]

Nailed it there: outrage is the lifeblood of the gutter press. Raw emotion trumps any sort of journalistic impartiality, the event isn't important it's the story they can tell.

PS I hate newspapers

Lol never would have guessed :P I don't hate them, I'm just selective with the news outlets that I trust. That's the only downside to the free sun tickets: you have to buy the Sun for ten days, which is galling, but I can always slip it in some pornography to hide the shame.

[S.J_O'Grady]

I'm with Sawboss, I just hate newspapers all together!

[Sawboss]

Vicky was NOT a dancer, she has even said so herself on Twitter.

Haha, wow shows how you can be fooled just from little snippets. What next? Towers made the Scarefest mazes handicapped inaccessible just so staff could point and laugh.

[Luviico]

There was more testing being done today! I spotted a couple of trains with what looked like dummies going round whilst I was on my way towards the dark forest first thing around 10. When I visited X sector in the afternoon there was nothing at all going on though. It appears that AT are doing all that they can to ensure a Scarefest reopening! Would of been nice to of seen it operating today as it was my first visit to the park in 6 years! When it reopens I will soon be back though!

[Aidan Lowe]

Take this with a grain of salt as quite frankly I don't think they'd know, they may of been briefed on its re-opening given today's articles regarding Nick Varney but as I said the person in question is unlikely to know or have been told and is probably guess work.

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

v05mattclay #TheSmiler is to reopen next week, who's excited? #altontowers #gerstlauer #infinity #rollercoaster #uk
thrilltheworld Where did you get this information?
v05mattclay @thrilltheworld Smiler host outside the entrance.
_leah.elizabeth_ Which host said it?
v05mattclay @_leah.elizabeth_ tall black hair, male.

I rarely visit on a Sunday so don't know really which people work so can't really guess who it could be.

[Themeparksandy1981]

The stories don't make people buy a different newspaper. People just stick to same paper they read every day. The Alton Towers stories would be move focused to there female readers as Men mainly buy a paper to read the latest sports news. I also just buy a newspaper for the free Alton Towers tickets as I read online the latest football news. The guys at work spoke about Alton Towers for the 1st week but nothing since then. I speak to a lot of people about Alton Towers/Merlin parks and they choose not to go to the parks not because of the Smiler but the price it costs for a day in the park and the big queues. For example for Alton Towers fireworks for a family of 4 with parking costs roughly £108 now I paid £64.50 for Drayton Manor with parking for there fireworks event. If it wasn't for the free sun tickets I wouldn't have gone since June 2012 before my pass ran out.

[Ryan.B]

Take this with a grain of salt as quite frankly I don't think they'd know, they may of been briefed on its re-opening given today's articles regarding Nick Varney but as I said the person in question is unlikely to know or have been told and is probably guess work.

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

v05mattclay #TheSmiler is to reopen next week, who's excited? #altontowers #gerstlauer #infinity #rollercoaster #uk
thrilltheworld Where did you get this information?
v05mattclay @thrilltheworld Smiler host outside the entrance.
_leah.elizabeth_ Which host said it?
v05mattclay @_leah.elizabeth_ tall black hair, male.

I rarely visit on a Sunday so don't know really which people work so can't really guess who it could be.

If the staff member said that, I'd imagine they might be getting a rather serious telling off... If they have, then we have the problem of the media on park, waiting...

[tallicay2k]

Take this with a grain of salt as quite frankly I don't think they'd know, they may of been briefed on its re-opening given today's articles regarding Nick Varney but as I said the person in question is unlikely to know or have been told and is probably guess work.

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

v05mattclay #TheSmiler is to reopen next week, who's excited? #altontowers #gerstlauer #infinity #rollercoaster #uk
thrilltheworld Where did you get this information?
v05mattclay @thrilltheworld Smiler host outside the entrance.
_leah.elizabeth_ Which host said it?
v05mattclay @_leah.elizabeth_ tall black hair, male.

I rarely visit on a Sunday so don't know really which people work so can't really guess who it could be.

Oh dear, hold on to your hats tomorrow, there may be a few cameras around

[Ryan.B]

The press is accidentally attracting more people though.

[Sawboss]

There's gonna be a bunch of reporters telling their bosses they absolutely must go to Alton Towers tomorrow, for the story! Yup, definately for the story, and not cos they wanna spend the work day on rides :lol

I laughed at that story a while ago about the park being deserted, I'm paraphrasing but it was something along the lines of, 'Our reporter had to queue at most 15 minutes for all of the rides.'

[Morgan]

Sorry if I seem like a bit of an idiot... But why will media be flurrying Towers tomorrow?

[Tom170499]

Sorry if I seem like a bit of an idiot... But why will media be flurrying Towers tomorrow?

It has been rumoured that The Smiler is to open tomorrow by a member of staff.

[Aidan Lowe]

Not necessarily tomorrow, next week could mean anyone of the days. He surely would of said tomorrow. Lets not get carried away though, we'll all be getting ourselves worked up only to wake up, check ride times, see its shut and see "foreseeable future" posts on FB & Twitter.

Another thing Matt mentions which I didn't quote is staff training was taking place today.

Put it this way if it does re-open I won't be going to Blackpool Pleasure Beach on Wednesday. It'll be a full day on The Smiler. :yes:

[Ryan.B]

Staff training can take a short time, saws staff retraining took around two days.just a shame I have the tense time to wait at school until I get home to find out, day after day :lol

[Sawboss]

Gotta be skeptical of anything that's not an official statement, but I am more hopeful of a 2015 opening now.

[Aidan Lowe]

I was there on weds, saw testing and workmen working on the ride, and towards the end of the day we could see a large staff meeting going on near the Smiler shop.

Don't know if anyone remembers but I mentioned an employee had an extra long shift that day. Training could of taken place long after the park closed that day. And this said employee was part of The Smiler team before.

[Luviico]

There's gonna be a bunch of reporters telling their bosses they absolutely must go to Alton Towers tomorrow, for the story! Yup, definately for the story, and not cos they wanna spend the work day on rides :lol

I laughed at that story a while ago about the park being deserted, I'm paraphrasing but it was something along the lines of, 'Our reporter had to queue at most 15 minutes for all of the rides.'

I can't talk for other days but it was actually like that today. Not deserted, but queue times were incredibly low. My first ride on Nemesis was straight walk on and from what I could gather it was pretty much the same for the rest of the day. Air always takes longer and was at about 15 but I managed to get on all the other major rides after a 10 minute wait. It was clear to see the difference from the last time I visited the park, I had never got on so many rides in one day before.

As for this proposed opening tomorrow I wouldn't believe it until we see it. Why would a member of staff risk their job by announcing that before an official statement?

[Adam.W]

As always, I take staff with a pinch of salt, they tend to mess with ethusiasts. They may have an idea, so I'd take this week as likely, but still, where did the tomorrow opening come from?

[adam1942]

@luviico It was similar. The wife and I went on 23rd/24th last week and we had a maximum of 10 minute wait time for all rides apart from one ride on Air in the afternoon.

We even got to ride on the front of Rita, Nemesis, Air and Thirteen. All in all we had a great time although it was better in March when there where queues and we got to ride the Smiler. I'd take queues and The Smiler than no queues without The Smiler. That said I think Nemesis is the best ride in the park but the Smiler just finishes it. The sound track is awesome.

[prawny]

I'm not there today but looking at the queue times app Oblivion is closed at the moment, X-sector closed off we think?