Mark9

Well it was almost a day until someone bought that up.

Of course, I can only talk about my trips and you can only talk about yours. Suffice to say, on my trips the staff have been exemplary and a credit to the company.

Is there a chance that it wasn't updated by ride staff or whoever is in control of it now. "The queue said 90 minutes and I walked straight on, I DEMAND to queue 90 minutes for a eurofighter, I am outraged"

10.30am So here we go. It's open and current queue time is 120 minutes. It doesn't get more exciting then this.

So guys, Legend has it that the Smiler has become a bit of an operational nightmare. Stalling, breaking down at the bottom of lift hills etc etc. The aim of this game is to become the winner and to do that you need to score the most points. Heres the criteria:- 1) Guess correctly if the Smiler was open on a chosen day. 100 points will be awarded for correct guesses. The only rule is is that The Smiler doesn't have to be open all day, it can open for part of a day. Minimum of an hour of opening. If The Smiler is closed all day then the next two criteria are void and no points will be awarded 2) If you can guess the maximum queue time on any particular day at any particular time that will be advertised on Alton Towers queue time website. 500 points will be awarded for correct answers. 3) The maximum amount of trains seen on the ride on a chosen day. Correct guesses will be awarded 50 points. So to start us off, guesses will be accepted for the 16th June 2013. The winner shall receive a prize, or some kind of recognition. Or something cool. yeah something cool. But you gotta be in it to win it. Competition ends at the end of the season and prizes awarded at the final TPM meet on the last day of the season (if there is one! )

Benin:- Goes to the crappy parks so you don't have to

Boring, dull ride.

Sure, I'll list a few *ahem* Silver Star, Euro-Sat, Euro-Mir, Wodan, Whale Adventure, Poseidon, Pegsasus, Scweizzer Bobbahn, Matterhorn Blitz, Cassandras Curse, Universe of Energy, River Rapids, Alpine Express, Silver River Log Flume, Vindjammer are just a few that you should ride during your day. Queues are something that are non existant at Europa. Just visit and enjoy the magic of high through put, fantastic rides.

Very unlikely. Very, very unlikely.

I would love if this poster came true. Thanks to Go Merlin. Ah.. 2010 speculation

Seems they are going for a Disney style "here's our plan for refurbishments, plan your trips around it". Except, of course if you ignore the fact that Disney has year round opening and Chessington has five months where nearly all the rides are closed giving ample time to do the changes and refurbishments they need to do. This thing would be more helpful and more interesting if it showed future refurbishment plans of closures that may occur during this season.

Pretzel Loops. What Air needs...... is more pretzel loops.

Thanks to AidanCKY from Towers Street I like this picture, it's almost like Oblivion is saying "Yeah.. I work properly"

That music. Makes me want to take the risk of having a closed Smiler just to hear that music. :give_rose:

First with the negatives. The mist no longer works so its back to travelling through a shed with some red lights And now the positives. Inferno is running at the best it ever has done and its hard to believe the changes it has gone in ten years of operation. Somehow it feels faster, it feels more intense and its zero g roll has some real power and kick to it. Yesterday it felt much nicer to ride then Nemesis which had a bit of a jerk to it. Inferno's finale such as the corkscrews feel great and the final helix has a real intensity to it. For me at least, it no longer resides down at the bottom of the list next to Batman La Fuga and Dæmonen, its fighting the big boys like Silver Star, Hulk and Sheikra.

Had my first ride on X yesterday, very peculiar ride experience. Once the novelty of it going forwards wears off, I'm not sure I'll be going on this very much at all. With a forward facing indoor rollercoaster it is immediately competing with Euro-Sat and Space Mountain at WDW and X doesn't come off very well at all. it's main problem is because of the new lighting rig, too much of the indoor section is visible so you know where you are heading at all times and nothing is surprising. That being said I approve of the new lap bar system and that the park has done something with the ride.

A clear example of... Intamin face

Thanks Spider, for me Djurs Sommerland was the best park. it's not all based on the top rollercoasters, it felt like a park that a lot of care and love has gone into and for me that counts for a lot. My next European parks are Disneyland Paris in September and then PortAventura, also in September. My next real aim for countries to hit is Sweden, Holland, Norway and Belgium as despite being so close, are all relatively ignored by UK enthusiasts and there is nothing better then arriving at a park and having no idea how its going to go. As for country trips, I've only done South Germany, Italy and Denmark and the easiest by far was Denmark. It's a relatively small country and the parks are all very close to the two largest cities so trips are relatively easy if you are able to drive. Italy was a challenge due to the way Italian drivers are and the huge distances between Rainbow Magicland, Miribilandia and Gardaland. With that being said, it's worth the effort when you get on things like Katun and Raptor and discover absolutely fantastic rides that really raise the bar.

I'd love to know why the Incredible Hulk is your favourite rollercoaster in the world.

Well impressed that I've been on the worlds first 7 looping, 8 looping, 10 looping and 14 looping roller coasters. Take that Alvey and your "I've been to China" rubbish.

It's valleyed again.. https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/1001636_10151732412883185_1288651133_n.jpg Thanks to Ash3 from TTF

Hats off to Thorpe staff yesterday they were running the park like it was a capacity day. Every single rollercoaster was running at the fastest speed possible. For example, the Colossus team were exemplary, the train barely stopped in the break before rolling into the station, The Swarm staff were sending out trains out as the other train was heading through the barrel roll above the station and Inferno had zero stacking. Despite all this, no downtime or problems. Adding to that, Inferno and Colossus are also running better then they ever have done. I shocked myself by declaring Inferno's ride this week, better then Nemesis on Monday. It just felt so good and enjoyable to ride. Colossus for me, luckily has not one jolt of roughness. Sublime job.

I think its testament to the ride that people are willing to wait 2 and a half hours for the ride.. for a second time. That was certainly the case for when I went and a lot of Towers forums are doing exactly the same. I think part of its success is the length of the ride. You do feel like you are getting your monies worth for every minute spent queuing so when getting off, the quality of the ride makes it all the more satisfying. With Thirteen I wasn't in a rush to get back, but thanks to the Smiler, I am as eager as ever to get back to ride it. Alton deserve a lot of credit for Smiler and finally, after 15 long years they've built a ride that can stand up to Oblivion and Nemesis.