June 4, 201510 yr Author comment_210458 See my last post, it'll be bad for them not to do that. I didn't think of it until now, but if you try to book an entrance ticket online, the earliest day available is Saturday, could mean absolutely nothing though.
June 4, 201510 yr comment_210459 Yeah I wouldn't look into that too much. If people book and it ends up still being closed, they will be refunded, can go another day this season, or go to another UK Merlin attraction on that day (or any subsequent days it remains closed due to the incident). Makes sense to leave the option to book if they don't know yet if it will still be closed.
June 4, 201510 yr Author comment_210461 Yeah I forgot to say that Thursday and Friday was blanked out (this was before they announced the park was closed tomorrow), but as you say, it indicates nothing other than their website manager is at work LOL.
June 4, 201510 yr comment_210462 Just got back from an excellent afternoon at Towers doing the High Ropes Challenge. Some things I noticed. 1) You enter the resort normally but where you get to the staff car park/priority car park entrance the road is cordoned off. To get to the tower you have to drive through the overflow car park. The reason for this is purely to have 2 checkpoints for people to go through. At the end of the car park. where you have the traffic lights. There was a second check point of staff. All were smiling and looked fine. 2) The big "Big 6" A board at the traffic lights had Big 6 Challenge on when we entered the area at 12 ish, but the big 6 banner had been removed by the time we left at 2:40 3) Some hotel guests were being offered free use of the high ropes course. Yet we did hear one woman saying 'its disgraceful the park is shut'. I nearly punched her. Luckily the guy she was with 'corrected' her. 4) The staff around the hotel and other attractions were doing a brilliant job.
June 4, 201510 yr comment_210467 Some hotel guests were being offered free use of the high ropes course. Yet we did hear one woman saying 'its disgraceful the park is shut'. I nearly punched her. Luckily the guy she was with 'corrected' her. Some of the audacity and impertinence I've heard from some people is disgusting! It's sad to see that some people can be so close-minded and petty with such a thing, really. Unsure if it's really been touched on, but one of the worst injured has returned to Twitter, saying he was 'overwhelmed' by everyone's support, he has decided to make his account private and I saw that a journalist had asked him for an interview, so I don't blame him for doing so at all, very wise. According to reports, he's got two broken legs; don't quote me on that, though.
June 4, 201510 yr comment_210470 I have to say that if I had booked time off work and spent a fortune on the over priced hotel, I would be a little bit frustrated (at no one or anything) that the holiday wasn't cancelled but I was not able to do the main thing I had planned, obviously it pales in comparison to those who suffered injury on and those than had to watch the incident, It still must be somewhat disappointing on a personal and financial level that the park is closed down, even though the circumstances are incredibly upsetting and distressing. I am surprised there is nothing for the hotel guests, is there any reason they couldn't open Nemesis and Air just for hotel guests and on single train operation. At least give the people who have spent a small fortune and using up precious holiday time something to do in the park? Apolicies of this sounds like an insensitive post, it's not intended in that way, but hopefully you understand my point.
June 4, 201510 yr comment_210471 I've just realised something Thirteen was the thirteenth roller coaster at towers whilst Smiler was the fourteenth. However that includes Runaway Train which statistically speaking is a powered coaster which means Smiler was the 13th proper roller coaster, which means the rollercoaster is unlucky! :0 To add further the opening date 31st may if reversed spells 13 (again unlucky) and it is/was the park's sixth big coaster in the big six challenge (another unlucky number). IN EHOLE, THE SMILER IS AN UNLICKY ROLLER COASTER!
June 4, 201510 yr comment_210472 Or instead of luck it was a rushed, poorly engineered business investment which was executed poorly and run by staff who were following insufficient protocols. Then again like you said it could just be luck.
June 4, 201510 yr comment_210474 Or instead of luck it was a rushed, poorly engineered business investment which was executed poorly and run by staff who were following insufficient protocols. Then again like you said it could just be luck. Yet it after all its bad press (ignoring this one) was Merlin's most effective, best investment business wise. It was only rushed because of delays that occurred. And even then, the rushing means nothing as a coaster won't open unless it passed all the tests of which there are many. Towers has never had a serious incident of this type, what's to say protocols were insufficient and the staff member simply didn't make a mistake (okay a large one) or it's a system error. Nothing can be concluded until the report of the incident is released. People at work, college, everywhere are talking about Smiler. No press is bad press in the long run, even if it seems it. Smiler is in the public eye, and it always has been a huge brand. Texas Giant killed someone yet opened a few months later is a widely acclaimed hybrid. Give it a year and it'll be back to normal operation with its merch everywhere once again.
June 4, 201510 yr comment_210476 I don't think that anyone apart from the Alton Towers management is in a position to dictate when the ride will run again, if at all. I think the biggest deciding factor behind whether the ride will run again is if they can pinpoint exactly what went wrong or not. I have every confidence that they will do, and that the ride still has a future at the park but I don't think that people can make statements such as "it won't run again" or "it will run again" at this stage. Furthermore, the priority should still be the health of those affected and investigations into what happened IMO.
June 4, 201510 yr comment_210481 Well you certainly got the last bit right. The first bit not so much. The smiler was an ambitious, but impressive new ride for the park, certainly needed to encourage more people to visit the park. As Alton says, it had a few "teething problems", no idea where you got the idea that the staff were following insufficient protocols either, it has not been revealed as to why what happened, happened. Its no secret that The Smiler was a disastrous project. Aside from the fact that the ride system is a prototype, the coaster ended up two and a half months delayed and five million pounds over budget, not to mention the countless faults since. Teething problems yes, but that doesn't cover the fact that the ground works were completely wrecked resulting in a weak track structure that will undoubtedly need significant work in a few years. (remember how many cracks they found in the supports in the first year...) The ride was rushed and pushed to the point where they were adamant that it would open in 2013, meaning that they significantly cut corners, thankfully though, numerous people have been sacked/not asked back since, so another Smiler style failure is unlikely to happen again. Saying that though, the ride has certainly been one of Merlin's best investments. Similarly to Saw funnily enough, The Smiler is currently ranked as the No.1 coaster in the park on guest surveys (I think?), couple that with the fact that it does have a very strong brand and you've got the ideal crowd puller. Such a shame that it may struggle in the long term.
June 4, 201510 yr comment_210482 Whilst I agree with your comments - where have you got the £5m over budget figure from? It isn't something I am familiar with.
June 4, 201510 yr comment_210483 ^ I know Merlin's (old) Senior Project Manager who told me why he was given the sack.
June 4, 201510 yr comment_210484 Alton Towers Smiler crash: 999 call made 11 minutes afterwards Really not showing the parks initial response to the incident in the best light. Could it really have taken them that long to realise this was not just another stall or breakdown?
June 4, 201510 yr comment_210485 Something I don't understand is why security were phoned to make the call. Surely in a situation such as this, alerting the emergency services as quickly as possible should be a priority over following what is presumably a rule over staff calling 999?
June 4, 201510 yr comment_210486 This is just disrespectful. http://money.aol.co.uk/2015/06/03/injury-lawyers-accused-of-capitalising-on-alton-towers-tragedy/
June 4, 201510 yr comment_210487 They did apologise for that tweet and did delete it almost instantly.
June 4, 201510 yr comment_210488 They shoud have thought before they posted. Which is also probably a good motto for myself.
June 4, 201510 yr comment_210489 Agreed. Stupid bit on their behalf, the person who posted it claimed he was unaware of the smiler incident at the time.
June 4, 201510 yr comment_210490 Agreed. Stupid bit on their behalf, the person who posted it claimed he was unaware of the smiler incident at the time. 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.
June 4, 201510 yr comment_210491 Agreed. Stupid bit on their behalf, the person who posted it claimed he was unaware of the smiler incident at the time. Suuuure... as what JoshC said, the decision to post that was probably by an inexperienced person.
June 4, 201510 yr comment_210492 Oh by no means do I believe it, I was just passing on what was said.
June 4, 201510 yr comment_210493 Alton Towers Smiler crash: 999 call made 11 minutes afterwards Really not showing the parks initial response to the incident in the best light. Could it really have taken them that long to realise this was not just another stall or breakdown? As someone on the previous page mentioned it's just protocol to call it internally first; and if that's what you've been trained to do then... you do it!
June 4, 201510 yr comment_210494 Something I don't understand is why security were phoned to make the call. Surely in a situation such as this, alerting the emergency services as quickly as possible should be a priority over following what is presumably a rule over staff calling 999? Merlin policy is for security to call 999 because they have the most appropriate ways of remaining in contact. They can also easily coordinate entrance to the specific area of the park for the emergency services and co-ordinate the rest of the park.
June 4, 201510 yr comment_210498 Because most people were thinking.. why call emergency services when you can just film the accident and sell it to the newspapers?'
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