I reached the park at about 1pm, so plenty of time for rides, re-rides, and re-re-rides. I headed for Scorpion, a Tivoli ride. The awesome thing with the park is the queues are so short during the day, if you get lucky you can walk onto half your rides. I'll admit, it's quite good if you're on your own, since you can cause a bit more swinging by leaning in and out. I'd give it a 8/10.
After that, I decided I'd walk across to Rage, a Gerstlauer Eurofighter. I waited one train, then waited a second since I wanted front-row. I ran off and back around, and got my camera at the ready. I asked a ride attendant if I could film, and to my surprise, I was told I could, and was offered a ride assistant to ride with me. I was sure I was OK, so I said no, and got on. Here's the video. The ride is generally quite bumpy, I'm blaming it on the cars.
I then ran back for Scorpion while I still had my camera on, and was told that I could record it, but it was at my own responsibility. I double-looped the wriststrap on the camera around my wrist, and got in. Here's what I got, I'm proud of myself
I walked back to the other side of the park and went on Vortex, a Tivoli Typhoon Orbiter. It's a nicely designed ride, with a couple of small jerks. It was a lot of fun, and I didn't have to wait at all. Again, out came the camera.
And now we're going back to the East side. I got in queue for Ramba Zamba, when I heard my name. It was one of the girls from the year below in school, queueing a few people in front. I walked forwards, and the queue actually went a lot quicker. For all you pervs on SSC, here is a picture:
Spoiler
Anyways, the ride itself is a laugh. I'd recommend riding one if your park has one.
We both walked onto Scorpion for two rides, and then split and I went back to Vortex for two more. I went on Rage again, then got my camera out and went for Dragon's Claw. I rode it once, then got off, got my camera out, and got on again. Meh, the girls were alright, but they were outdone by a later set of riders.
I spent the afternoon re-riding these. Vortex, Rage, Scorpion, Vortex thrice, Rage, and then I went off for dinner. The Pier Arches restaurant (under the bridge near the elevators) does a lovely Cod and Chips, with incredible service (checking everything was ok, polite, friendly) for £5.20. I'd recommend it to everyone.
I went back in straight after, and got on Dragon's Claw twice. I then went across to MiniMega, but it was closed. So from there, I went on Rage twice (the queues had picked up a bit, to around 5 minutes), then three rides on Vortex, one on Archelon, one on Pharoah's Fury, then Ramba Zamba again.
After these, it was getting late and I had about an hour left in the park. I pulled my camera and went for Green Scream, the park's first (I believe) Zierer coaster. I rode row 17, which was alright. I was determined to get one better though, so I went round, queued 15 minutes, and got row 20. I recorded this one:
This out the way, I took one more ride on Rage. Basically...
Deciding it was time to go, I went back to MiniMega, which was now open. I waited one train, recorded half a POV in back row, but I didn't upload it since it cut off during the last helix.
So, after 36 rides and 47 inversions, I got the train back from Southend Central, to Barking, then got the bus home. Overall, a great day.
