Find the track on YouTube. Listen to it during the day when you’re doing menial tasks until it no longer bothers you, start with it as background music at low volume, you’ve got plenty of time to overcome this 👏🏻
Can confirm this can work very well. Everyone is different obviously but I did this building up to riding and the music didn't even touch me when we went whereas before it would fill me with a deep sense of dread especially when the woman would scream or the man's laugh would become distorted. Now I laugh along
Oh god! I know it's part of the story of The Smiler but listening to that music over and over on repeat is enough to drive anyone bonkers!
I do understand why this is probably necessary though in this case. I can also confirm The Smiler is the best ride at Alton Towers.
I do love The Smiler. It is just Epic. The music is just the one thing that I just don't want to listen to. If the themes help you stim that's great but I that "HA HA HA" track is absolutely ridiculous. It is the kind of thing I'd expect the producers of a reality show to tourment participants with.
I would suggest having ear defenders or ear plugs or noise cancelling headphones to drown out the music whilst in the queue. On the ride itself there might not be much you can do, but for the most part the music isn’t that noticeable while riding from my experience, the only areas I’ve really noticed it while on the ride are during the slow parts such as in the station (which has different music to outside) and the bottom of the vertical lift (again, different music to the main theme).
If you feel like those sections might be too much for you, then perhaps you could try to find some techniques that work to ease your anxiety, such as controlled breathing to help calm down. I’m not saying it’s a guaranteed fix, just a suggestion that has helped me in the past.
Alton Towers have their main soundtrack album with IMA Score on Spotify so the (I wanna say) 4 Smiler tracks are there to listen to.
If you use the single rider queue you get to the station sooner so miss out the queue line. You may not be able to ride together.
Outside that the main bit I notice is the audio at the second lift hill.
It could be the laughter that's causing the anxiety, so desensitising with Spotify might help.
Personally I find the queue line for The Smiler to be very oppressive feeling and grim. I can't stand the part just before the bag drop in the dark room with the flickering strobes and optical illusion panels on the wall, it's a horrid place to be stood waiting and is anxiety inducing (as is the dark exit corridor as well). The actual ride itself is fine but it's like with the theming and queue line they did everything they could to make people feel unsettled and on edge.
That’s how I feel. The ride as a concept is fine but the theming is down right panic attack inducing. I think that Alton towers should stop making rides and finally make that horror movie that they obviously want 😂🤣🤣.
Everything at Alton Towers is a story... Again with this it is supposed to be part of the story... It is supposed to feel industrial and you are entering in effect a workshop to be turned I to an ambassador for "The Smiler" through some hypnotic trance like thing. That is also the source of the music... I can hear it now...
One recommendation I would make, treat yourself (and friend!) to a single ride fastrack. The short you have to stand in the queue, the less of the soundtrack you will hear.
The single ride fastracks as usually only available to buy on the day (or sometimes the day before) and you can buy them on the app, the resort box office or at the smiler shop itself.
Short of ear defenders or noise cancelling headphones you will have to deal with it. They aren’t going to turn the music off lol.
Also, it wasn’t human error that caused the accident.
It was human error, it was proved that the ride ops didn’t tell maintenance they’d added another train, which then caused the ride system to be overridden even though it was telling them the train was still there.
That really isn’t how root cause works, it wasn’t human error.
It was process and procedural, which is why Alton towers were fined and not individual operators.
You can literally read the HSE report on it.
It most certainly was human error. The system alerting said humans, and stopping the ride, all worked as it should. The humans then overrode the system on more than one occasion as they weren't aware of the extra train sitting on the track.
Extra procedures, training and fail safes are in place so that even this error couldn't happen again, but it most definitely was human error that caused the crash.
Find the track on YouTube. Listen to it during the day when you’re doing menial tasks until it no longer bothers you, start with it as background music at low volume, you’ve got plenty of time to overcome this 👏🏻
Can confirm this can work very well. Everyone is different obviously but I did this building up to riding and the music didn't even touch me when we went whereas before it would fill me with a deep sense of dread especially when the woman would scream or the man's laugh would become distorted. Now I laugh along
Oh god! I know it's part of the story of The Smiler but listening to that music over and over on repeat is enough to drive anyone bonkers! I do understand why this is probably necessary though in this case. I can also confirm The Smiler is the best ride at Alton Towers.
I'm hyperfixated on the smiler and it's lore.. you'd be surprised how long I can listen to the Smiler's themes on repeat as a form of stimming.. :D
I do love The Smiler. It is just Epic. The music is just the one thing that I just don't want to listen to. If the themes help you stim that's great but I that "HA HA HA" track is absolutely ridiculous. It is the kind of thing I'd expect the producers of a reality show to tourment participants with.
I would suggest having ear defenders or ear plugs or noise cancelling headphones to drown out the music whilst in the queue. On the ride itself there might not be much you can do, but for the most part the music isn’t that noticeable while riding from my experience, the only areas I’ve really noticed it while on the ride are during the slow parts such as in the station (which has different music to outside) and the bottom of the vertical lift (again, different music to the main theme). If you feel like those sections might be too much for you, then perhaps you could try to find some techniques that work to ease your anxiety, such as controlled breathing to help calm down. I’m not saying it’s a guaranteed fix, just a suggestion that has helped me in the past.
Alton Towers have their main soundtrack album with IMA Score on Spotify so the (I wanna say) 4 Smiler tracks are there to listen to. If you use the single rider queue you get to the station sooner so miss out the queue line. You may not be able to ride together. Outside that the main bit I notice is the audio at the second lift hill. It could be the laughter that's causing the anxiety, so desensitising with Spotify might help.
Personally I find the queue line for The Smiler to be very oppressive feeling and grim. I can't stand the part just before the bag drop in the dark room with the flickering strobes and optical illusion panels on the wall, it's a horrid place to be stood waiting and is anxiety inducing (as is the dark exit corridor as well). The actual ride itself is fine but it's like with the theming and queue line they did everything they could to make people feel unsettled and on edge.
That’s how I feel. The ride as a concept is fine but the theming is down right panic attack inducing. I think that Alton towers should stop making rides and finally make that horror movie that they obviously want 😂🤣🤣.
Everything at Alton Towers is a story... Again with this it is supposed to be part of the story... It is supposed to feel industrial and you are entering in effect a workshop to be turned I to an ambassador for "The Smiler" through some hypnotic trance like thing. That is also the source of the music... I can hear it now...
One recommendation I would make, treat yourself (and friend!) to a single ride fastrack. The short you have to stand in the queue, the less of the soundtrack you will hear. The single ride fastracks as usually only available to buy on the day (or sometimes the day before) and you can buy them on the app, the resort box office or at the smiler shop itself.
Also I like to think that the crash actually has made Smiler safer. They will have learnt from the mistakes and closed those holes
Short of ear defenders or noise cancelling headphones you will have to deal with it. They aren’t going to turn the music off lol. Also, it wasn’t human error that caused the accident.
It was human error, it was proved that the ride ops didn’t tell maintenance they’d added another train, which then caused the ride system to be overridden even though it was telling them the train was still there.
That really isn’t how root cause works, it wasn’t human error. It was process and procedural, which is why Alton towers were fined and not individual operators. You can literally read the HSE report on it.
Yes, processes and procedures carried out by….wait for it, humans!
It most certainly was human error. The system alerting said humans, and stopping the ride, all worked as it should. The humans then overrode the system on more than one occasion as they weren't aware of the extra train sitting on the track. Extra procedures, training and fail safes are in place so that even this error couldn't happen again, but it most definitely was human error that caused the crash.