JoshC.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/alton-towers-smiler-breaks-down-1895825 Any publicity is good publicity or..?

The more and more I look up Europa Park, read trip reports, etc., the more and more I want to go, and the sooner too. May just have to get saving for a trip next season... Great report as ever Mark - thanks for doing it; really enjoying it and can't wait for the next part!

For people concerned about the music - it may not necessarily be the whole thing even! Remember when they were testing the screens on The Marmaliser at first, and it had a few minute loop? Could be exactly the same here; so that the speakers get tested, sound levels tweaked, stir up more attention, etc. Admittedly I have some reservations about what has been heard so far, but I'll wait till I've actually visited before making any of them vocal. Also, this was tweeted earlier by AT during the press event. It's a photo of a car coming into the station, and you can see staff as well (the uniform looks well suited inside the station). Put in spoilers just in case...

At a guestimate, maximum capacity could be anywhere up to 1400pph. I'd expect more a theoretical capacity in the region of 12-1300pph though, again at a guestimate. If it's got a 6 hour queue capacity, that would mean at least the capability for 7200 people... Unless this thing has a ridiculously long queue which is just unnecessary, I can't see that happening...

It would be interesting if they could somehow 'marmalise' people's faces, but I don't think it would work for on ride photos, mainly because people aren't always going to be looking at the camera / not at the right angle for it to be effective. Would love to be proven wrong though!

Thorpe's probably had about £80 million invested since the turn of the century. It's where the money is spent that would make the difference, not the amount thrown at it.

I believe that's also been sorted now; was just a(nother) little error.

For clue 2, it only let me continue when I entered it as 'Its time 2', as opposed to 'It's time 2' (even though both gave a tick, strangely...). It's been corrected now though, allowing both answers to continue. Woo.

Seems to only stall when the cars are empty? Maybe it's just because, like all coasters, it's designed with the weight of people in my mind to make it round the circuit, and sometimes, without that weight, it just can't make it round due to other reasons?

Nice video, creeped me out a bit as well! Anyone else just getting redirected to the videos page (with their clues deleted) after they put in the clues, which show up to be correct? EDIT: Got it to work; think there's a bit of naughty trickery on Towers' part though about how to enter it...

Ah, didn't think about it being covered in T&Cs, good point.. Personally, I think the theming will return in some shape or another. Maybe I'm just being too optimisitic, but for the most part, there's clearly been effort put in by all the Merlin parks with regards to theming and overall experience (the only exception that springs to mind is Storm Surge). Of course, it hasn't always been successful (as you say), but it's there. So yeah, fingers crossed on that one. But this season in general is not exactly great. The transitional period is just rubbish, and not what guests should be expecting, nor deserve.

Probably living in la-la land when suggesting this, but why on earth haven't entry prices been reduced, even by a couple of quid? I 'get' that it's a business and all that, but we have three major rides which will look and feel significantly less 'good' isn't a good service. It's all well and good saying 'We're improving your experience, we're sorry for the inconvenience', but is that good enough for seeing naked rides and construction sites across the park? As I say, I know it's probably living in la-la land, but personally, seeing the state the park is in more and more, I don't think that a few notices here and there apologising is enough for what guests will experience this season...

I don't think a B&M would suit the park at this stage yet to be honest, and finacially I doubt it's worth the risk. A Gerstlauer would suit the park well and be cheap, though a Mack would go well as well I think (though I'm not too sure on the costs of that?)

Did someone say two world's firsts? http://press.altontowers.com/news-alton-towers-resort-unveils-worlds-first-14-looping-rollercoaster-11766 Oooh-err!

http://www.coasterforce.com/news/1-latest-news/2235-gatekeeper-media-day-report A review of the Media Day on CF. I guess as you'd expect, front of the train gives a nice, elegant ride, whereas the back can give some nice Gs and be surprisingly forceful. Wooo.

Wow, she was certainly at the base of the vertical lift for a long time... It's almost 50 seconds between arriving on the breaks just before the vertical lift and going up the vertical lift. Yeah, okay, there's TVs there, but when you're on a coaster, do you want to be stuck waiting half way round watching a TV? Probably not. Trying not to judge it because we have no idea what may happen, but I find it hard to see what could keep me entertained for so long mid course... Of course, it may not necessarily be like that when the ride is open, but who knows?

Ah, one of the few positive memories I have of secondary school are the Welsh jokes I heard... And SCB, I understand your rant completely. I remember being told how our year was the going to be the best yet, and we had a 72% expected pass rate. It ended up being 50-something % and about 33% 5 A*-C including English and Maths... It really annoyed me how the focus was always on getting this pass rate collectively, as opposed to get the passed out of individual students. I don't know if it's the same at other schools, or whether it's still the same now, but it always felt like if everyone got the bare minimum to make the school look good, the school was happy, regardless of whether students met their own targets. I remember one teacher in particular who constantly banged on about how 'every student she ever taught' had gotten at least a C in French, and yet our class ended up with a range of grades from C to E, for various reasons.. Best of luck for your exams scary (and to everyone else!), I'm sure you'll do great! When it comes to the school and teachers itself, just do your best to ignore them and focus on exams however you do it best - no point in stressing about somewhere you're leaving in a couple of months..

So, testing is happening in front of the public now... Should put to rest any rumours about a 'chain break' feature where you freefall backwards on the vertical lift. Nice screechy wheels too. Not sure whether that'd still be normal after the number of test runs it should have made by now (considering it's safe for human riders)..

Don't think it's as funny as the first time though, when it was in a more impossible looking position!

Strangely, when I was watching the video, I was thinking it didn't look like as 'jolty' (if that's the right word) as Saw. And it certainly looks a lot better than other headbanging rides (ie Colossus). From that offride video, it certainly looks likely that there'll be a good few 'duelling' points if the trains leave the lift hills and roughly the same time.

AT have posted on ride footage of the presenter, showing the second half of the ride. Looks fast.

Did no one get a recording on their phone to upload to Youtube?! I am disappoint. Still, the train on that track looks nice, a lot more 'train like' than I was expecting really. Can't wait to see it going round the track and completing those tight elements...

If you hit enter after you enter your guess, it comes up with a tick if you're right. Apparently, Smiler is appeared on Daybreak tomorrow, with human riders..!

Media event today, before the public opening on Saturday (From the park's FB page). Worst trains and station of a B&M wingrider?

Well, we pretty much know it's testing, so it would be pretty silly of them to have not got shots of it testing with that set up. It does seem as if we won't see it run until it opens, which is great for the build up. Can't help but feel that some will get too excited and think there's still some special secret, and could end up disappointed when seeing there isn't (as I highly doubt we're seeing any special features on the cars or the lift hills, as has been speculated...)