Tag: The Smiler

Blog, Reviews

Battle of the two top tier thrill machines – The Smiler and Stealth

Loops&Lapbars

I’d really like to get to the bottom of which is the best, in my opinion, out these two excellent roller coasters. I’d like to break them down into component parts and decide overall which one will finally take the top spot for me, as it’s so close between them!

Theme

Let’s get the big one out of the way, theming. Both roller coasters have a good theme, The Smiler being more industrial and about a machine that brings back your smile. Stealth on the other hand is themed to Speedway racing of the 1950’s in line with the Amity themed area it resides.

Out of the two, I think that The Smiler has better theming, its station building, indoor queue line and exit, and its Marmaliser structure all add to the experience, as well as the score by ImaScore. No one ever talks about the musical scores for rides, which is a shame! It fits in brilliantly with the overall theme of X-Sector and compliments Oblivion well.

Stealth does have a nice theme too, the trains are made to look like 1950’s Chevrolet Bel Air drag racers, and the station does resemble a drag strip starting line with starting lights and audio, but no score that I’ve ever noticed and the queue line is quite plain. The Smilers cattle pen doesn’t fair much better but you have the whole ride going on above you, so once again The Smiler takes marks here!

Ride Experience

Both rides are extremely smooth, The Smiler, for me at least, only has one iffy transition on the cobra roll, whereas Stealth doesn’t really have any points where it’s rough where it shouldn’t be. Obviously the launch on Stealth is quite fierce but it doesn’t bang you about much, if at all. The turn into the top hat, the top hat itself and dive turn back are all very smooth and enjoyable. The top hat is exhilarating, which makes me want to try Top Thrill Dragster and Kingda Ka even more!

The Smiler rides well for almost all of its layout. Inversion after inversion it rides quite smoothly and it’s a joy to ride, much like Stealth. As I mentioned earlier though, the transition from half loop into half corkscrew at the start of the cobraroll can be a bit jarring, but other than that, I’ve never noticed anything particularly unpleasant!

It’s certainly worth mentioning the two airtime hills here as both are taken at speed giving you decent ejector airtime, but the second one after the camera is a particular highlight, especially at night! You get the flash form the camera, then the airtime and drop into the bottom of another inversion is excellent!

This hill right here!

I think I’d have to give Stealth the ride experience points over The Smiler, but only just!

Pure Thrills

For me, the more thrilling of the two is Stealth. Its launch is otherworldly, blowing Icons and Ritas out of the water, and even though it is literally a launch, top hat and airtime hill, it does it well.

The Smiler is also thrilling of course, and at times is intense, but I feel Stealth take it purely from its launch alone!

Offride experience

What are both coasters like to just watch? Admire while you eat your dinner or have rest up having ridden one of them?

The Smiler is a pure joy to watch, especially if both running trains manage to get dualling and take the batwing and cobraroll together. A little tip, if both trains are dropping off their lifthills at a similar sort of time, then you’ll more than likely see both trains take the batwing and cobraroll together!

As for Stealth? It’s certainly fun to watch, and looking up at that 205ft top hat from the ground is a great feeling, with riders screaming on the way down, and the noise of the launch is also fantastic too.

For me though, The Smiler is just more fun to watch, even if I end up not riding as the queue is too long, I can still marvel at it as I walk through X-Sector.

So which should take the top spot?

Though its close as I really, really like both, I’d have to say The Smiler will edge out Stealth for that top spot on my list! Its better theming, musical score and with how much fun it is to just observe doing its thing make up for its slightly rougher ride and thrills, when compared to Stealth anyway!

That’s not to say that Stealth isn’t any good either! Its decent theming, launch and train design, aasd well as it presence in Thorpe Parks skyline make it a more than worthy second place addition to my list!

A shot of The Smiler from my drone, taken during Mardis Gras!
Blog, Reviews

Stafford & Alton Towers – Stop 2

Loops&Lapbars

After leaving Blackpool, we headed on to Days Inn at Stafford M6 southbound services. The rooms were standard rooms, twin beds, desk and the like, with an excellent shower but a lack of air conditioning. We had a very good nights stay here.

The following morning we were up, fed and on the road again ready for a day at Alton Towers!

We’ve visited Alton plenty of times before hand and are well rehearsed in how to dodge most of the queues, but I made a fatal mistake, by booking Alton Towers on a bank holiday Monday. The park was extremely busy and it meant we didn’t have much time to do many of the excellent rides this time around.

Our first stop was the new for 2021 World of David Walliams and Gangsta Granny: The Ride. There was a little confusion as to where the queue for the ride actually started, as they weren’t letting folk into the purpose made cattle pens initially, but eventually they filtered us in and after taking our photo in the queue, we boarded the ride car.

I knew nothing of the story aside a few little things I’d picked up from the queue line, but by the end of the ride, i’m pretty certain I know whats going on! The ride was brilliantly done! Very bright and vibrant, the motions, smells and visuals were a real delight to behold, and both of us thoroughly enjoyed it!

After we’d finished in the shop, we had a go on Flavio’s fabulous fandango and the Royal Carousel. Both were good times, though the operations on Flavios were quite poor, with the ride ops seemingly not fussed about getting people onto the ride in any meaningful time.

The Enterprise, finally running!

The next stop was to X-Sector where I finally got to have a go on the Enterprise ride. I’ve seen it many times before on previous visits, and always wanted a go, but for whatever reason, it’s never operated. So I had my go, Tracy sat it out as she wasn’t much of a fan of the ride type. I wasn’t disappointed! Though I do feel that the bulk of the fun of the ride is actually when it’s laying flat, it was still fun to go up in the air and experience nothing but the ride’s forces keeping you in place.

Next we tried our first Retro Squad ride with Mixtape. I’ve never seen anything like one of these before, its a real visual treat when its going and the audio they had on was great and really fit in. I think that if they gave it a bit of a repaint and fit it permanently, it would fit perfectly in X-Sectror with The Smiler and Oblivion.

We skipped The Smiler and Oblivion as their queues were quite lengthy and instead we headed up to the Dark Forest for a ride on Rita, one of my all time favorite rides. We ended up buying Fast Passes though as we couldn’t stay too late and the queue was into the 90 minute realms. As usual, we really enjoyed it, the launch is still exhilarating and the airtime we get keeps us coming back!

Rita!

After Rita, we were pretty much done. The crowds were a bit too much and operations were quite slow so we missed out on the other Retro Squad rides, Forbidden Valley and Wickerman this time around, but we’ll be back later in the year.

While we were there, Alton Towers was hosting Mardis Gras, which involved each areas having its own festival, with plenty of entertainment, street food, bright colours and music all around the park. Though not as good as what Scarefest was in 2020, it was still a great addition to the yearly line up, and we hope they do it again next year! We did feel that some of the food on offer was very expensive, but there was plenty to choose from, with cheaper options available.

Overall, a bit of a disappointing visit to Towers this time around, but I know it was my fault booking on a bank holiday, but we still had fun, experienced the big new ride for this year, and experienced things for the first time, so it wasn’t all bad news!

Next stop is Hereford, and onto Oakwood!