May 20, 201312 yr comment_159224 Thanks for sharing that, it really does look like they are cutting it fine even with all the extensions they've had!
May 20, 201312 yr comment_159225 Not my favourite advert. After the recent one from the Swarm, I was expecting something a little more original and different. Never mind, does the job.
May 20, 201312 yr comment_159226 Regarding the station of The Smiler, I think it should have bigger scale versions of The Sanctuary posters around it so that it has at least a bit of theming rather than just white walls.
May 20, 201312 yr comment_159228 The feel I've got from all the advertising is that it is very clinical. You wouldn't get massive posters in a psychiatric clinic, so I think white walls fit the theme quite well.
May 20, 201312 yr comment_159238 ^ The posters were clinical and hospital like though, saying things like "a smile a day keeps the doctor away". The station should recreate the good atmosphere that the sanctuary queueline had in my opinion, which was clinical and there were well themed posters.
May 20, 201312 yr comment_159245 Well I haven't really followed this construction much. If they could frame it as though they were photos then yeah, maybe.
May 21, 201312 yr comment_159247 Sanctuary and Smiler really aren't that connected. Though saying that, massive posters would be wonderful. Hmm.
May 21, 201312 yr comment_159250 Covering up the building in anything would make it look worse. They should have given it better dimensions or a proper facade. Apparently they are looking into how they can improve the station already, but it will probably be more low budget additions like paint details.
May 21, 201312 yr comment_159260 A nice little video here showing some mounted on-ride shots and the legend himself, John Wardley.
May 21, 201312 yr comment_159261 Towers have now confirmed that the competition winner preview won't happen until Thursday morning... Hello, Unfortunately due to the tight timescales over the coming days, the preview cannot happen until Thursday morning. Whilst this is of great disappointment, I am sure you will agree that it’s important that the project isn’t delayed and is open fully from Thursday. So the alternative suggestion is that I meet you at the turnstiles on Thursday morning at 8.30am, I will then walk you into the Theme Park a whole 30mins before Early Ride Time guests are admitted to the Theme Park. We’ll go down to X-Sector and we’ll see if we can get you onto the ride before public are admitted, this will all depend on the ride being ready to run. Whilst I can’t guarantee that you’ll ride before 10am, we’ll do our very best to get you on! Let me know if you can make it.
May 21, 201312 yr comment_159266 And not even overly confident of getting you on before park opening? Really cutting it fine, surely it would have been better to have the opening day in a week or so and soft open now as and when possible.
May 21, 201312 yr comment_159304 I imagine they rather not lose yet another vital holiday period, hence saying it then. But either way, morning as a ride opens is a time when you'd find it most difficult to get early riders - they'll be literally doing final touches, making sure ride works and everythings prepared. It'd actually be easier to get them on weds evening (as long as rides running) than on the run up to 10am, when no doubt merlin studios will be literally finishing things off to the tight schedule.
May 22, 201312 yr comment_159315 From Towers Nerd Facebook page: The Alton Towers home page has been updated to include the following line of text: "Due to unforeseen teething problems, The Smiler will not be open on 23rd May." The message on the home page was removed shortly after it was found though. If it doesn't open tomorrow, it will be such a shame; Alton really can't afford for this to be delayed any more.. EDIT: Screenshot of it taken by TTF member Danny, before it was taken down:
May 22, 201312 yr comment_159316 Just been confirmed on AT's Facebook page. Oops oops oops! Big fail Merlin! They'll have to pull those Smiler adverts now as they say opening 23rd May
May 22, 201312 yr comment_159317 Yep yep... http://www.altontowers.com/the-smiler-faqs Bring on the outrage...
May 22, 201312 yr comment_159318 I'm watching it develop on TTF. Ooooh there are some very unhappy people already!
May 22, 201312 yr comment_159319 Hehe I love reading the angry comments on Facebook Especially the ones like, "Why are you doing this to me!!!"
May 22, 201312 yr comment_159320 It was obvious that 23rd May was going to be tight... I don't know why they didn't just say June and be done with it, and let the ride settle in and make sure everything is 100% OK. Wouldn't fancy being on Guest Services at Alton Towers over the next few days Check out their Twitter feed - I don't think telling people that there are 50 other rides and attractions ad nauseum is going to appease people who can only visit once a year or have had their trip planned for ages!
May 22, 201312 yr comment_159322 I'd be very interested as to the reason for this delay; 'teething problems' is of course very vague. The fact that just yesterday Ben and the other competition winners were told that they'd be able to ride on Thursday before the public after having pushed it back from today is...interesting (I wonder what's happening with that now?!). The park have seemed fairly confident that the ride would open tomorrow, so either this is a last-minute problem, or they've just been too optimistic. Without knowing full details, it's hard to criticise AT here in my honest opinion. If this is something really unexpected that happened today / yesterday evening, then I guess it's just really bad luck. If they've been too optimistic with this date then, well, AT deserve some of the slack that's coming their way really. Also, I think they need to lay of the 'WE HAVE OVER 50 ATTRACTIONS' stuff; the whole point of tomorrow (and probably the next few days) would be Smiler; for enthusiasts and non-enthusiasts alike. Either way, this is a PR disaster for the park, and one they don't really need...
May 22, 201312 yr comment_159323 Will be interesting to see what competition winners will be told now!
May 22, 201312 yr comment_159324 The Alton Towers enthusiast community right now: "Unforeseen circumstances" With a schedule so tight and having only visibly started multiple - train testing over the past couple of days, I'm sure this WAS foreseen as being a possibility that the thing would not open for Thursday. If it were to have opened tomorrow I'm sure it would have received great praise for opening so soon after so little multiple train testing. Anyway. It will open soon nonetheless and it should be an awesome ride.
May 22, 201312 yr comment_159325 I expect Towers will have loads of complaints for a while now because of this, there's already over 400 fb posts on the post. What I don't get though is what's caused the ride to 'very' suddenly be deemed unable to be open.
May 22, 201312 yr comment_159326 I expect Towers will have loads of complaints for a while now because of this, there's already over 400 fb posts on the post. What I don't get though is what's caused the ride to 'very' suddenly be deemed unable to be open. It's because they can't get the secret Top Spin in the dark section to work properly EDIT: Update from TTF: "The reason for the delay, is that Towers are now still waiting on the health and safety executives, to sign off on the fire exits, evacuation procedures, and all manner of other H&S paperwork/risk assessments"
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