The Smiler

The Smiler is a Gerstlauer Infinity roller coaster located

at X-Sector, Alton Towers in Staffordshire, United Kingdom. With 14 inversions, The Smiler holds the world record for most inversions on a roller coaster.

The roller coaster suffered a series of setbacks and ride incidents – including one that occurred during its preview event – that delayed its official opening and resulted in high number of temporary closures. The Smiler eventually opened to the public on 31 May 2013, two months after the ride's originally planned debut.

The ride is themed around a fictional organization called the "Ministry Of Joy" which performs experiments on people to ensure that they "Smile always", as their tagline goes, with the Smiler being one of it's experiments.

Ride experience
The train dispatches from the station and immediately enters into a sweeping drop 180-degrees to the left. Partway through this drop, riders encounter a heartline roll, the ride's first inversion. The train then comes to a stop on block brakes, before ascending the first lift hill.

Upon reaching the top, the train drops into another 180-degree right turn before banking into the second inversion, a downward corkscrew. The train drops straight down into the next two inversions – two consecutive dive loops – before travelling over an airtime hill into a batwing element. Upon exiting the batwing, the train traverses another corkscrew before doing a double heartline roll before doing a bank turn to the Magnetic Brakes.

After a brief pause, the train ascends the second lift hill known as a vertical lift hill. The train then enters another drop, 180-degrees to the left, banking into a downward corkscrew. Riders next encounter a sea serpent roll, followed by a second airtime hill. Riders here experience a large amount of ejector airtime before the train reaches a cobra roll element. Upon exiting the cobra roll, the train hits two consecutive corkscrews before a 180-degree left turn into the final brake run.