JoshC.

I was there today and used RnR for a couple of rides. The park was quiet, of course. The longest queue I saw on a board was about 60 minutes for Swarm, but I'm pretty certain it wasn't that long. The longest queue was probably about 30 minutes or so. Not many people were using the system it seemed; many were happy to use the standby queues; they simply weren't that long. For anyone using RnR, the longest virtual wait I saw was a whopping 3 minutes for Swarm. The merge points of the queues will mean people using RnR won't spend very long in queues - 5-10 minutes at a maximum. For those wanting confirmation - you have to present your tickets / passes when signing up to the system; they're scanned along with a QR code on your phone when you log in. The main point where this can be done is in the Dome, but I did notice a few people roaming around who were able to do it. My experience probably won't silence any critics of the system, as it's too quiet a day and too soon to give any conclusive results. However, this does at least show that, on an off peak day, it does work, and it won't stop people getting re-rides if they so wish. Personally though, I'm still happy with the system and would be happy to use it again on a busier day given that things went smoothly today.

In fairness, if you've got all your details from the media and have bought in to all the scaremongering, you can't blame some people for feeling a bit insecure about visiting.

I didn't even need to read post to know why you had quoted me and what you had to say.

Reserve N Ride will also be trialled on the 14th, which should hopefully make it easier to get all the coasters done with minimal queueing.

Petitions to get Burley sacked of fruitless. All it does is create free advertising for Sky News. Ofcom received 900 complaints for an interview she did with Peter Andre in 2010; this will be no worse. Equally, 'Save The Smiler' and 'Ban The Smiler' campaigns will never get enough people behind them for them to make any serious impact. Merlin no doubt are already aware of how people will feel, but it's very hard to see then getting rid of Smiler. We've seen with plenty of rides that Merlin are willing to put in a serious amount of time, effort and money to get rides working; Smiler will be no different - when they're legally allowed to operate it, they will.

Could have been doing maintenance checks to / replacing the launch cable?

I think they can do manual cycles, but very rarely do at Thorpe (for the obvious reasons such as throughput, to prevent general wear and tear, etc)

The park's Twitter has stated that the park will once again be closed tomorrow.

The Health and Safety Executive have only required that Smiler is closed. Towers legally cannot reopen Smiler until the cause is identified and rectified. It is up to Merlin when Alton reopens, and Merlin have no obligation to close any other rides. Source: H&SE report (the link can be find on Towers Street; would give a direct link, but I'm on my phone). Edit: Ninjaed by SCB, but meh.

So I visited the park yesterday (yes, I'm sure if you look back through these forums, you'll find me saying I wouldn't visit this season, but I was convinced to go with my family, so my baby brother could go for the first time. So meh). Park was alright I s'pose, but I just don't have a love for the place any more I guess. Some things of note... -Park was extremely quiet, which was nice. -Rode Fury and Rattlesnake yesterday; they were both operating normally and were running well. Was nice to see the majority of the effects in Rattlesnake working. -Kobra and Rameses were both closed all day. Tomb Blaster was closed for the morning too. -Lorikeet Lagoon was also closed (first time I've ever seen it closed since it's been open). Had a peek in the enclosure; couldn't see any lorikeets, but could see some big rats... -Zufari is still extremely average and probably worse than how I remembered it (even though I saw basically all the animals on the circuit). Wreaks of missed opportunities at every corner. -New Madagascar show is alright I guess; the kids around seemed to like it. -There really needs to be a good, sit-down restaurant within the park and not based at the hotels in my opinion. Bring back Greedy Goblin! Chicken Shack is very meh. -Zoo was looking good on the whole; liked the new Penguin Enclosure. All in all, I had a nice day on park, but the park itself just isn't very appealing to me these days...

Pretty sure Samurai has single rider ages ago right? If so, they've bought it back, put it in the same place as the Fastrack queue and basically not changed the system they operated before which was unsuccessful? Seems odd. I'm all for single rider queues if they're put in a logical place, with their own dedicated queue line, and don't affect operations of the rides themselves. But bringing back the system which didn't work for the park in the first place seems...illogical?

That Sky News interview was one of the most frustrating things I have ever listened to. The guy at the end saying how Varney must know what has gone wrong was so frustrating too. There's trying to create a story and there's just being down-right ridiculous. Varney looked like he wanted cry during that interview too... Just argh.

The park will remain shut tomorrow, as confirmed by their social media team.

Fury and Rattlesnake were both open yesterday on normal service, for the record.

Yeah, well that's clearly bull, given the time of the tweet and the hashtags. The company stated that the person who posted it was an inexperienced / trainee member of their social media team who has been dealt with appropriately.

The trains look like a constipated HeMan that's had his hands tied behind his back... :/

Looks like the area around the shop / some general plaza for the ride? Probably needed because there's some track nearby and it's needed to show in case anyone trespasses? --- On the note of 'stopping at the top of the loop' thing, it's frustrating to hear because not only is it complete rubbish, but if it actually had stopped, then valleyed, it would have had less impact with the other car and potentially have caused less damage than it actually has done.. :/

If that's the case, don't ever try Shockwave at Drayton.

Thorpe's Twitter has stated there are no planned closures for tomorrow, so Saw will presumably reopen then.

It seems that other Merlin attractions (specifically Thorpe) are accepting tickets that could have been used today, and also any other days that Alton remain closed because of the incident. Full credit to Towers' (and Merlin in general) social media. They've been handling the situation really well, which is important at times like this.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32980354 Remember, it's always worth taking things from social media with a big pinch of salt, especially if it's someone claiming to be related to an injured guest.

That happens on many of their coasters, possibly because Gerstlauer cement their supports into the ground (as opposed to bolting them in) before attaching the track. It's nothing to be concerned of I think, even if it does look quite concerning during construction!

It's worth remembering that between the beginning of the 2014 season and now, Smiler has been a reliable and popular ride, with only one day closed.

Crikey, this is awful. Really hope none of the injuries are life-changing / lasting. This is going to really affect the park as well. Let's just hope the cause of this is found quickly and any issues can been resolved.

Confession: I did not know that Matt Creek had only gone to Disneyland Paris for the first time this year. Furthermore, I did not know he still has not been to the likes of Europa Park, Efteling, Phantasialand and more.