Theme Park Discussion / Alton Towers 2013

I'm sure it'll be a fine ride and all, but damn, the theming around it just looks so cheap and uncreative.

beat me to it airtime was going to post some videos of it, yes very slow, but this is down to new trains, new bearings, lighter load (less test dummies) and possibly of different variants of wheels. some videos show it being very quick and some are showing alot of hang time through certain inversions.

i am sure all of this is common practice in testing....

i maybe on site do it live update via my twitter (@iamgarfield90) on opening if not i will hopefully going the week after just depends.

I actually think slow inversions are more fun, especially when you get some proper hang time.

The only gerstlaur (i do not know how to spell ) I've been on is the spongebob one at mall of america and it was rough as hell. so I'm really hoping this won't be like that because the layout looks really awesome.

I think certain parts are going to have the trademark Gerstlauer head bashing. Personally I think the only smooth parts will be the indoor inline, the lift hills, the two (trimmed) airtime hills and possibly the inverted drops. The rest I can imagine being awful.

Also, I'd already commented on how weird the batwing is (definately not a standard batwing) but I'd assumed they had done it like this to improve the flow of the coaster, however when watching it in these videos it looks totally the opposite and just seems like its totally jerky

POV

That version's mirrored. Screws with my head.

The non-mirrored version:
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=mZM0-jEUUiE

So if nobody has heard, the Smiler won't be opening tomorrow as planned and Tower's seem to be pessimistic it will even open this weekend going by the way the FAQs are phrased.

http://www.altontowe...he-smiler-faqs/

It's hilarious more than disappointing I think. Saw at Thorpe (another Merlin and Gerts coaster) had major problems on opening day and the few previews day, looks like deja vu almost...

MERLIN + GERSTLAUER = EPIC FAIL

I was planning on going down on Friday. Luckily I only live a few miles from Alton Towers so it isn't really an issue to change plans. I could do with getting the car MOTed anyway

It's a shame it wont be open but I'm not surprised. It's been massively rushed over the last month or so to get it open. Maybe they shouldn't have promised it so soon.

Some of you may remember the Kings Island version of this which was hilarious. Well this is just as good. It's so true though. Brilliant.

http://www.youtube.c...eature=youtu.be

Full POV with effects working

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=pH-13BDBOUc

looks really good i must admit, still not sold on the name but i won't dwell on that.

Louis, that video is absolutely hilarious.

If anyone is interested I shall be posting pics of The Smiler tomorrow throughout the day on my Twitter account. First visit since it's opened tomorrow because of the extra week long delayed opening.

LINK.

Lol shameless self promotion

THERE MAY BE PICS OF ME TOO

everyone follow airtime!

It was shit by the way.

Why is it shit? I still need to wait till august before I can ride it and I have high hopes of it still.

Because it was just awful.

1st half was decent. Second half was just really rough, really rough. I did like how Gerst added proper padding to their restraints though, an improvement on their normal restraints.

Also, watch out for the totally mishapen cobra roll.

(Does anyone else feel like this coaster is actually probbably pretty decent, just louis is really stringy about coaster design?)

Dude, when I say the Cobra Roll is mishapen, I don't mean it doesnt look like a normal one, I mean it has a massive kink and Gerstlauer themselves have said they need to sort it out.