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[Micronex]

Well, it's been almost a year in the planning, and it's come around so fast.

I'll use this thread to update every night after the parks with how the day was.

Oh yeah, and here's the schedule:

August 2nd: Oakwood Theme Park
August 3rd: Drayton Manor
August 4th: Alton Towers
August 5th: Blackpool Pleasure Beach
August 6th: Lightwater Valley
August 7th: Flamingoland
August 8th: Fantasy Island
August 9th: Adventure Island
August 10th: Thorpe Park

Well, I'm off to Bristol, so I'll update this evening or tomorrow!

[Maxlaam]

Depending on WiFi at the hostels we may upload some videos during the week. I will be bringing my laptop so we can upload video and photo and write some badass trip reports! In less than 4 hours I will be at the trainstation where I will meet Gump and travel to the airport

[Maxlaam]

Let's kick this trip report off with some travel experiences!

Joe travelled from London-ish to Bristol by train where he got picked op by Rhys, his best memory from this trip is his meal at the Burger King.

Gump and Max travelled from Amsterdam Schiphol airport to Bristol Airport where they also met their good friend Arnaud (they we're both wearing their awesome shirts, click the spoiler at the bottom to see what it looked like) who was travelling to Edinbourgh at around the same time. We had diner together and settled for a nice large beer before heading to the gate and board the plane. Sadly there was a young child next to them who cried during the boarding stage and take-off but finally fell asleep during the flight and kept sleeping during the landing. We managed to get of the plain fairly quickly and as soon as we got our bags and went outside we spotted Rhys and Joe. Whoever knows Gump IRL knows that he is the king of puns in every language he knows. Joe immediately burst out in laughter after the first thing Gump said and pretty much during the entire trip to Rhys' house he was chuckling or bursting out in laughter. Max was panicking pretty much the entire ride because of the silly Brits driving on the WRONG SIDE of the road. Gump and Rhys were just chatting like they've know each other for years, frankly they do

When Rhys was up to say something he repsonded with: "Today went smoothly..."

Now we're sitting in his living room, Gump and Max glad they can stretch their legs, all 'enjoying' a Heineken beer, well the ones who are allowed to drink that is. We'll hit the hay soon and get up early to drive 2.5 hours-ish into Wales to visit Oakwood!

Spoiler

[Maxlaam]

Let’s get ready to rumble! Day 2 – Oakwood

Man, man, man. We spent quite some time chatting the first evening, and when we were lying in our beds at Rhys’ place both Gump and Max had some trouble sleeping. Gump because of his cat fur allergy and Max for some odd reason. Thankfully they were rested enough the next morning. We were served a great breakfast by Rhys’ mum involving Cheerios and a couple of different fruit juices.
After that we left for Oakwood, only to stop after a few minutes for Jochem and Max to get some pounds from the ATM. Jochem is not used to those weird Brits who drive on the left, so he accidentally tried to get into the wrong car. A hilarious moment, especially for the other ones.

Xactly one hour later we stopped to get some refreshments and petrol. Jochem asked the Burger King employee for a king deal, starting off his conversation with ‘Ello!’, but to no avail. Actually, everything is rather expensive on the motorway, so we got a move on and continued our trip into Wales.

In a random shop we got food for the upcoming days, mainly dinners and loads of energy drinks that Gump seems to collect. Strange hobby, right?
So, the weather in Wales is pretty unpredictable; it could rain for a bit, with lots of sunshine only a minute later. When we arrived at Oakwood it was pretty sunny and it stayed like that the whole day. If you’ve been to Oakwood already, you’d know that there would be a train from the entrance to the park itself, as it is a ‘long’ (300m) walk.

At Oakwood we did most rides and attractions during our stay, but we cannot be bothered by the order. Highlights are Megafobia, Speed: No Limits, Drenched and the ride that Max got drenched on (they call it Waterfall). We basically started with Megafobia, the great Welsh woodie. Unfortunately it’s rather old and it appears to lack maintenance. Megafobia is a relic, once a unique, awesome woodie, now a back-breaking, knee-banging ride drifting into senility.



Following Megafobia was Waterfall, a rather steep water slide you go on with a plastic sled. Max managed to get himself soaked by almost flipping. Which was the most fun for Gump and Rhys, who were on the side looking at the near-accident.
After that we went to Speed: No Limits, which is a fairly large custom Eurofighter. Rather smooth, but as with most Eurofighters, very intense! During the day we did quite a couple of rides on this coaster and got the onride picture printed. No lines at all, by the way.



Guess that the order of the other rides doesn't come to mind anymore. Awesome stuff happened, though, like Max filming little girls, Joe screaming like a little girl; Max filming Joe screamin’. And let’s not forget Drenched, a very steep flume ride which soaked you worse than a whole week in Wales could soak you!

Edited by Micro'nexer, 15 August 2013 - 05:11 PM.
Just adding a video in.

[Micronex]

Meeting Up! Day 3 – Drayton Manor

We left early today at Rhys’ mansion to move to Drayton Manor, but first we had crumpets for breakfast, something unknown in the Netherlands. Gump doesn’t like butter, so he put maple syrup on them, Max however fancied (as he fancies the use of that word) the buttered version. During the 1.5 hour drive to Drayton, Joe and Max spent most of the time catching some extra sleep in the car, Jochem decided to be sensible and keep Rhys awake by talking to him.

We arrived at Drayton Manor very early because we were to meet up with CW5X (Christopher) and his brother, also a coaster fanatic apparently. It was going to be a good day! Upon arriving Joe contacted Chris, while Gump was making baps with ham for lunch. After we made lunch, we went into the park and met Chris and his brother at the queue of Shock Wave, an Intamin Stand-Up. For its age it was incredibly smooth! The 0-g roll on it isn’t really a 0-g, but more of a high speed roll that drags you through it before entering a straight-ish part that lets you catch your breath before going through the 2 corkscrews. It’s a short ride but packs a punch and its easily the best ride in the park.

After queuing up for G-Force we had a good chance to chat with Chris and his brother and form a proper SSC meet up. Gump and Max have met quite a portion of SSC so far and as always they weren’t surprised that going to a themepark together with people you’ve only just met IRL always feels like you’ve known each other for years. G-Force was a long wait for a quick ride which was fairly smooth, the X-car restraints are comfortable as always, hanging upside down on the lift isn’t very noticeable because of those awesome restraints.

A quick lunch break and off we went towards a small kiddie coaster soon followed by Ben 10, the Vekoma Family Boomerang coaster. The word smooth is surprisingly not meant in a sarcastic way here, it was a brilliant ride.



15 minutes later we got our Coaster Bingo on Drayton Manor and we could move on to the flatrides. Rhys, Joe, Chris, Max and Chris’ brother went on Apocalypse, the drop tower ride with either stand-up, floorless stand-up or regular seats. Max seems to be fairly nervous about drop towers but afterwards reported that the loud noise he produced was an “Incredibly manly scream”.





This was then followed up with Joe and Max riding Pandemonium, a swinging inverter "ship", but it didn't hold you upside down for long.



A re-ride on Shock Wave was much appreciated by the Theme Park Bash crew as they chose the front seat. A great ride again.



We then rode the River Rapids, got a bit wet. After that it was time to try and find our way to the next hostel, arrive early, cook food and let Rhys get his well deserved sleep for driving so many hours already and it’s only going to get worse later in the trip...



If only we knew what we were in for, the roads towards the YHA Hostel were pretty poor but felt very adventurous. We finished the night in the hostel’s shared living room with a family who went to Alton Towers today and 2 guys who like to spend their time on the country side. The 10 year old daughter of the family is a funny lass who’s spent her time sharing her Alton Towers experiences with Gump, maybe a coaster fanatic too? We can only hope.

(‘GRAMMATORICAL’ - Gump)

[CW5X]

That was a good day. The bit where Nick gets hit with leaves was hilarious. Made the best out of a fairly... very, very, very intense ride.

[Britfag]

Joe

Joe

Joe

Joe

Joe...

Edited by Britfag, 11 August 2013 - 10:20 AM.

[Micronex]

Get Corrected! Day 4 – Alton Towers
Well, after an “eventful” waking up, featuring Max’s awful alarm sound amongst other equally weird things, we headed to the kitchen in our hostel, where Joe had a bacon muffin and the others had bacon and egg muffins, which Max loved. They packed up and headed for Alton Towers, getting there at around 9:50, and in the actual park at around 10.

Knowing The Smiler was “closed” we decided, without much discussion, that we would instantly head for Nemesis. The queue, which was advertised as five minutes, was in fact a walk-on, even for the front row. It’s definitely a good ride in the front, but after Rhys had previously told Joe about the back-right seat, Joe decided it would be awesome to try that as well. So, having walked around again, we managed to take the back row this time – with Joe assuming his position in the back-right seat. It was definitely a lot more intense – the corkscrew slams you over, the high speed turn pulls some insane forces, and the zero-g, loop and corkscrew all whip you through. Joe loved it, and Rhys thought it was a lot smoother than the last time he visited.

Afterwards, we decided to check out Air, the park’s B&M Flyer, which had a 15-minute queue for front row – fairly reasonable for that time of the morning. It was definitely a good ride, and Max says it was surprisingly smooth. Max decided he wanted to buy both ride photos, so we paid for 4 photos and had two vouchers to use in advance.

Having found out that The Smiler was open after all, we all decided it would be a good idea to get to that while the queue wasn’t massive – it was listed as 90 minutes. However, having queued for around 20, the ride was announced to be temporarily closed as a result of a train being stuck before the second lift hill.

The four of us stuck around for a bit to see what had happened, and found out the people who were inside the building were given fasttracks. Joe reminded the others about the time he sent a text complaining about Thirteen’s queue to Guest Services and got priority passes as a result. Having headed to Guest Services, Rhys put in a slightly exaggerated, yet still brilliant complaint, having said we were 3 people from being in that building, and his great acting got the group free fasttracks for Rita, Thirteen and Oblivion. Thanks a lot, Rhys!

So, with these fasttracks in hand, we jumped onto the cable car and used the passes for Rita and Thirteen. The front row on Rita was just as awesome as Joe had remembered it being, coming off saying “The Smiler makes you smile... Rita makes you cry”, referring to the speed it goes at which forces tears out of your eyes. Thirteen’s trim brakes made it feel like a massive letdown although the ride still has some decent floater airtime. Between these two, Max picked up a lamb and mint pasty, exclaiming “It’s so minty! My tongue hurts!”

Having done these, we headed for Hex, the parks’s madhouse. The dark theming in it prompted Joe to go up behind four girls and let out a scream similar to his scream at Oakwood, and then run and hide behind Rhys, which was hilarious. We now know why he’s single...

Anyways, enough of that. Afterwards, we headed back to X-Sector to get our ride on Oblivion – however, by now, The Smiler had reopened, and we decided it would be a good idea to try and get on it again. The queue, again advertised as 90 minutes, was probably correct, although Rhys and Joe seemed to think the queue went faster. The theming is really great, having a bit of a government issued brainwash feel to it. It gets you pumped as you move through the queue right underneath a insane criss-cross of tracks going over your heads and trains whizzing by only a couple of feet away. We were unable to sit in the front row because the staff (who needed to get corrected) weren’t allowing people to wait for the row of their choice, and as a result we had to settle for second. It was lacklustre... Joe thought it was good but somewhat overrated, Jochem found it painful, Max thought it was too jolty, and Rhys considered it “way overhyped”. Joe did buy a “The Smiler” hoodie – he’s still wearing it now in the hotel.
Having been slightly let down by the new ride, we headed for Oblivion, which we got two walk-ons for without having to use the fasttrack (which went unused for the rest of the day). It was definitely a great ride, although we wouldn’t have waited an hour for it.

To continue with the “Coaster Bingo” Max and Jochem are trying to complete, they headed to Sonic Spinball, which had a single rider queue that was practically a walk-on. As a result of the weather which wasn’t too good, Sonic Spinball had to operate with 3 people per car – which led lots of groups of 4 to split into two smaller groups. Having marked off Spinball, we headed for the mine train, which wasn’t too bad. To follow this, we headed to the Rapids, which had a short queue, featuring a “manly Gump scream” just before he got drenched.

It was getting late now, and we decided to do Sub-Terra and Nemesis before leaving. Unfortunately, Sub-Terra was closed with a bin blocking the entrance to the ride, which was a shame. However, Nemesis was still open and still operating, with a very short queue to top it off. Unable to get the same seats, we settled for the 5th row. It was still a pretty good experience. Before we left the park, we did pick up the two ride photos from the row 7 Nemesis ride earlier – one for Joe and one for Max.

So, having finished Alton Towers, we started the long-ish drive to Blackpool, featuring some of Rhys’ awesome dubstep in the car, and some metalcore and pop-punk from Joe’s first CD. We stopped off in a KFC on the way, to pick up dinner from somewhere cheap, but not awful. The hotel we’re staying in isn’t awful – the hallway stinks of piss, and the guy that owns the place isn’t great, but it’s four beds. We went for a little walk around, seeing the piers and some of the shops around, and we’re now chilling in the hotel while Joe’s typing this, and Rhys, Max and Jochem are talking about electronics.

[Micronex]

Day 5 – Blackpool Pleasure Beach “someone said something that was going to be the title, but we forgot it.”

Awakening in our ‘cosy’ room and hearing the rain outside was definitely not the most vitalising start to the day, but after a little sitting and rubbing our groggy eyes we got up and started to get ready. Meeting the owner of the “hotel” in the lounge, we took back our deposits and awkwardly shuffled out of the hotel. Gump saw a Polish shop across the road and decided to check it out for possible new energy drinks.

We walked down the road to the car park we had been ballsy enough to use overnight, and in the rain hurriedly shuffled the contents of the trunk around. We got in the car and made our way through the maze-like road system of Blackpool’s seafront; “Effing ridiculous” apparently. We got to the car park, and were told we needed our booking number to get in, Rhys tried to get it up on his phone but a queue formed behind us and the parking attendant kindly used the surname instead. Afraid of the rain, we sat in the car for a little while, drinking energy drinks and making ham ‘baps’.

Eventually conquering our fear of our damp surroundings, we got out of the car - prepared to run to the entrance – before realising it was barely still raining. Feeling a little foolish we made
our way to the ticket office and picked up our wristbands seamlessly before walking over to the entrance itself. Making our way through the metal detectors (seriously), we realised we didn’t have the tickets required to enter, just the wristbands required to get on the rides. We searched briefly in Max’s bag, but couldn’t find them, eventually we stopped the mini-panic and walked over to a loitering employee who let us through the gates anyway.

Our first ride was Wild Mouse, a very old, rickety looking wooden ‘wild mouse’ style roller coaster, except without the usual spinning cars, and with some very old, cramped mouse-esque cars. We got in the queue, and were immediately befuddled by the ride stopping – turns out the ride op considered a lost packet of fags a decent reason to stop the whole ride. How bloody ridiculous. We eventually got on the ride, and decided to ride individually instead of in twos, Joe was up first and strapped in with the extremely secure single seatbelt, then Gump, Max and finally Rhys. We were rather taken back by just how fun the ride was, not smooth, no banking, but we are all in agreement the raw feeling of the ride was pretty damn awesome.

After Wild Mouse we headed over to Big Dipper, a ride Rhys in particular was excited about. We walked into the station, and straight into the gates for the back seats. The ride wasn’t exactly smooth, but there was a fair amount of air time. Max complained that it hurt his back, but as the only complainer we just assumed he was being a heaping pile of poon.
Next to the exit of the Big Dipper is the entrance to Infusion a standard Vekoma SLC. Open and closed.

After we had gotten over the standardised disappointment of Vekoma SLC’s we headed over to Steeplechase, the ‘racing’ ride with horse-shaped cars. Fortunately for us, the yellow track was not operating, allowing us to split into two pairs; Max and Jochem, and Joe and Rhys. The ride wasn’t exactly great, and the transitions were sudden but the experience of riding a two-person fibreglass horse around a roller coaster track was definitely unique. Of course Joe & Rhys won.

The layout of the Pleasure Beach means that a lot of the rides are very close to one another, allowing for very short walks between the exits of some rides and the entrances of others, fortunately for us, the stations for Steeplechase and The Big One are practically adjacent. We walked straight out of Steeplechase and straight into The Big One. Unfortunately we encountered the biggest queue so far, and had to wait about 20 minutes, partially due to the 2 mandatorily empty cars per train, partially due to the single-train running and mostly due to the people in the queue ahead of us. We boarded The Big One in groups of two, allowing Max and Jochem to hop on a ride earlier than expected, and Rhys and Joe to get some decent leg room in the same seats. Unfortunately the weather was not optimal, and the rain felt like BB pellets on your face at high speeds. The ride was otherwise pretty enjoyable, a little jerky, and not exactly smooth, but somehow very fun.

Next up, Afterburner Revolution. After walking up the stairs to the elevated station, we were ‘welcomed’ by one of the grumpy (rain eh?) employees of the park. Anyone who has seen Jumpge’s model knows Revolution. It is a classic Arrow shuttle looper that launches you from an elevated track down into a vertical loop, back up a second elevated track. At that point, the halfway point, you will be launched backwards to re-do the entire layout. The British fellows decided to do the ride twice, apparently they liked it more than the Dutchmen did.

Blue Flyer is a decent wooden kiddy coaster, completely coloured blue. Other than it being very small, there is not much to talk about. However, we decided to buy the onride photo, since we were all the picture without being disturbed by the excessive rain. The picture ended up cutting half of Gump’s face off. Maybe Blue Flyer is not meant for tall people from the Netherlands.
Nickelodeon’s Streak is another wooden ride. Modest in size, but it still makes for quite an enjoyable ride. Situated literally next to Blue Flyer, it makes for a striking image of two wooden coasters together, one large and Bright Orange and one slightly smaller and completely Blue. Unfortunately the ride op decided we couldn’t sit in the back, and had to move down the platform, meaning we got a ride in the middle of the train. It was still pretty enjoyable though.

Avalanche is a Mack Bobsled ride, not particularly long, but reasonably fast for its height. Nothing special.

The Thrill-O-Matic is a Wallace and Gromit ‘endorsed’ ride, which (according to Rhys) features an underground layout with multiple launches and 9 inversions. Unfortunately this isn’t the case, and it is a simple indoor powered ride that leads you past multiple scenes from Wallace and Gromit’s adventures, including ‘A Close Shave’, ‘The Wrong Trousers’, ‘The Wererabbit’ and ‘A Grand Day Out’. It is quite cool, especially if you are a fan of Wallace and Gromit, as the life-size representations of them are featured in the vignettes with all the small details Aardman themselves had included.

Grand National really hurt Rhys’ back. He and Joe both thought it was outclassed by almost every other wooden coaster in Blackpool and felt it was kind of shitty. Jochem and Max on the other hand, loved the ride and decided to do both sides, since it is a Möbius coaster. At the time of riding we were really tired of all the rain and we urged to get out of the park. Just like we are tired of writing now, and trying to finish the trip report as soon as possible.

The ride Gump was looking out for, Valhalla, was shut unfortunately. A real shame, but it was a good reason to get out of the park earlier and it is a good reason to end the trip report now.

[Micronex]

Light Water Valley Day 6 - Rolling Rolling Rolling!

The morning started out with the hateful alarm from Max’s phone as usual. We decided to not have breakfast in the hostel but pack our stuff and head to the car and eat a few French Milk Brioche Rolls in the car. Almost at the park, Max realised that he forgot the adapter for the wall socket at the hostel. It’s the only plug Gump brought along that accepts the plug from Max’s laptop so we have to stretch the battery for the last 5 reports unless we manage to find one that accepts the plug...

We arrived at the park and concluded that there were more people than we expected there to be. We picked up our tickets at the ticket collection booth and went into the park. We were stopped when we tried to get to The Ultimate because that side of the park doesn’t open until 10.30; instead, we decided to ride the Ferris Wheel first. Upon returning to the sign and the employee that was to hold the people back we waited for the last 5 minutes before we could go through.

When the employee let us through everybody started running, Max falling behind but overtaking Gump for a short time as he tripped in the grass. The excellent duo, Joe and Rhys that is, managed to finish at The Ultimate second and third, Rhys being just behind someone else. Upon arriving at The Ultimate we queued and managed to get the first ride of the day.
The first part wasn’t too bad but after the second lift the turns started and it quickly became a knee shattering ride where Gump and Max fought for every little leg space in their coach. Considering a 40 people train would depart every 5 minutes we couldn’t be bothered for waiting 30 minutes for a ride that was just a painful torture machine.
Joe and Max rode the Mondial Top Scan called Whirlwind and when they finished the ride they met back up with Rhys and Gump who were still recovering from The Ultimate. Upon looking a bit further we noticed that Raptor Attack (which was supposed to be shut) was in fact open.

Raptor Attack is a short indoor coaster with a few scary raptors along the ride munching on human cadavers. Considering the size of the park it was very nicely themed, there was a bit of back story to the ride about it being a famous fossil site. The queue leads into a cave like entrance with tunnels that resemble more of a sewer pipe with water running through it then becoming more of a mining area again. The exit of the ride gives you a few scares too as there is a big metal door that bangs as you walk by and the sound of a raptor chasing you as you walk back through the exit tunnel.

Upon exiting the ride we noticed the most amazing ride ever, the Skate Karts. You grab a skateboard/luge kart with a little seat and footrests and drag it up a small hill, then you sit down and coast it down a short curved track where you lean into the turns to steer the karts. Because it was early in the day we managed to continuously ride it for about 10-15 minutes and we came back more than a few times during the day to ride it, each one of us rode it at least 20 times. Hands down the best ride in the entire park.

After that we decided to skip the Revecheron Spinning coaster because of the insanely large queue and headed for the Lady Bird coaster, a Zierer Small. Nothing special, pretty standard. We then walked around the park a bit to figure where the short queues were, but sadly there weren’t any. We queued up for the Spinning Coaster when we walked past it again.
Max has worked at the Super Mouse and during the Happy Hours they managed to run full capacity Which is 900 people an hour with 9 coaches. The Spinning Coaster here ran with only 4 out of 6 coaches and managed to get a capacity of around 140 people an hour. We waited for roughly 1 hour to get on it, an insanely long time where the ride ops managed to take over 1 minute to fill a coach.

After that we went to the Big Apple and got the credit in. We went back to the Skate Karts again and rode them a couple of times before heading back towards the car.
Upon nearing the park entrance we remarked that some people from coaster forums have been given used wheels from The Ultimate. We decided to detour to guest service where Rhys managed to get the lady behind the desk to call around for it. Coincidentally one of the people who work at maintenance walked in to show a picture to her colleague. The lady behind the desk asked us to tell the story again upon which the maintenance lady used her walkie-talkie to call in her colleagues about it.

Soon after she got a response that there were “a few” laying around and that we should follow her towards the workshop. We got backstage where we met the head of maintenance who then rang around again and got one of the full-time maintenance guys from The Ultimate to drive over with some used parts. Meanwhile we could clearly look into the workshop and managed to get quite well informed about the park and some of the ride details about The Ultimate.

When his colleague arrived he presented us one of the main running wheels which is about 16 inches in diameter. He then asked his colleague to look at the warehouse for other parts and we were presented with a used side wheel, a used upstop wheel or bottom wheel as they called it and another part which is probably one of the most special parts they had lying around. In the 22 years of operation they only had one wheel crack which they removed and saved to use for teaching new employees how to work with the wheels. It doesn’t look anything like a wheel anymore as it is just the hub which is cut up entirely but the bearings are still in there.

After we got those 4 souvenirs we went back to the car but not before saying goodbye and thanking the lady at guest service for being so incredibly friendly and helpful with such an odd request.

At the hostel we quickly agreed on who would be taking which part, Rhys obviously getting the big running wheel as he talked to the people and also got us the fast tracks at Alton Towers. Joe wanted the second biggest wheel, the side wheel and Gump and Max settled with the smaller wheels or parts mainly because of issues with shipping and weight. Gump got the small upstop wheel and Max really wanted to have the cracked hub. They are all very special parts and will become very dear to us.

We cooked diner late that night after we went for a quick tour to a few stores by foot that are located around the hostel. Pasta with Swedish meatballs because we couldn’t get hold of minced meat. A good meal as there was plenty of food for everyone. While we’ve been at this hostel, Rhys has bet Joe £15 and a ride photo that he can’t propose to a stranger in a group at Flamingo Land tomorrow. It should be interesting to see if he does it or if he chickens out... you’ll have to wait and see.

Going to bed fairly early tonight, probably the best beds this trip that are not at Joe’s or Rhys’ place. A successful day it was.

[CW5X]

Hehe. Don't say I didn't warn you about the Grand National. It nearly jarred my back as well but it was probably made worse by a muscle I pulled in my chest earlier that week. Shame you didn't manage to go on Valhalla. It gets you soaking but it's a class ride.

[Britfag]

Hehe. Don't say I didn't warn you about the Grand National. It nearly jarred my back as well but it was probably made worse by a muscle I pulled in my chest earlier that week. Shame you didn't manage to go on Valhalla. It gets you soaking but it's a class ride.

Yeah, royally ruined my back for the day, and I hear it is an awesome experience, but I guess we were wet enough..

[CW5X]

Yeah, royally ruined my back for the day, and I hear it is an awesome experience, but I guess we were wet enough..

Who needs Valhalla to get you wet when you can have rain gunned at your face at 85 mph on The Big One? I won't describe the experience in case you go there again because I don't want to spoil it but you'd definitely enjoy it big time, as long as the weather is nice. Somehow I managed to get 19 degrees in November on just about the nicest couple of days in Autumn.

[Maxlaam]

Flamingo Land Day 7 - ‘Marrying little birds in suits.’
We woke up in our spacious hostel room, and started poking fun at Max, out natural past-time.We eventually rose from our beds and began our shower and pack routine. After we had packed and handed in our room-key we headed downstairs to the kitchen and began cooking, Bacon and Eggs, a real breakfast for once!

We set off on our drive, managing to leave late as per usual. We arrived at the park after a reasonable drive, and saw the insane child-density in the tickets queue. As soon as we got in, we headed straight for one of the kiddy coasters, a small minecart ride. Unfortunately the correlation between small ride and small cars was apparent, and the leg room was a little lacking. After making it through the ride, we headed straight to Mumbo Jumbo, the parks El Loco coaster, with a world record 112* drop, and a downward heartline roll. We queued for quite a while, something like an hour. The ride was operating at about 240 people/hour, almost double the capacity of the Wild Mouse from the previous day, with half the cars!
We all agreed Mumbo Jumbo was pretty damn tight. Joe thought it was a lot smoother and less forceful than he expected it to be.

We walked over to Kumali, Flamingo Land’s custom Vekoma SLC. Fearing the worst, we hopped on after a reasonable 35 minute wait, and embarked on our ride, It’s a 270* turning drop, with a very intense 90* banked turn at the bottom, before being whipped into a huge loop followed by a cobra roll. Interestingly enough, this is one of the only Vekoma SLCs with a Zero-G roll (the others being the same layout / slightly modified layout), which is a little bit jerky, but it pretty much the only jerky part of the ride – insane for an SLC!

After Kumali, we headed for a Zamperla Spinning Coaster the park holds, which consists of a four car train with a layout which starts similar to that of a Wild Mouse. We decided to use the opposite seating arrangement to the one we used on Twister for the fact that the spinning section was a mirror image of the one on Twister. It definitely did generate quite a spin, although the wideness of the corners held us back some.

To continue collecting the credits, we headed for the Go-Gator coaster. Unfortunately, the ride operator thought we were all too old to go on it, saying the ride was “for children”. Rhys asked what she defined a child as, with the operator responding with “under 11”. Joe told a pretty awesome lie that he was born on the 29th of February and had only had three birthdays, and she told him that if he could fit in the cars he could ride it – however, despite his best efforts he couldn’t. It was still a laugh regardless.

Dragon Coaster was a small kiddie coaster that we rode, nothing worth mentioning about...

After failing at getting that credit, the guys headed for the park’s Suspended Swinging Coaster. The queue seemed pretty long; Joe and Rhys decided they didn’t want to wait as it wouldn’t be time well spent. After taking a quick pit stop and buying a drink, they spent the time waiting in the area near the ride. Joe then tried to complete the bet which he had with Rhys the previous evening, going up to a girl around his age, who said “Nope” and walked off before he even had the chance to kneel down. Poor Joe, maybe he’ll have better luck later.

Having failed there, we headed for the Vekoma Booster Bike coaster, appropriately named “Velocity!”. We got in the queue for it, which lasted approximately half an hour. There was a girl around Joe’s age wearing a blue hoodie and trousers, which would have been an ideal opportunity for him to complete the dare, but he couldn’t pull himself together to do it. The ride itself was pretty good. The seats weren’t awful, and the coaster itself had a fun layout, with some floater airtime. It was a shame the ride photos were really hard to see with the cartoon overlay they had, because it probably would have been a good one to get. Oh well, it’s another credit for Jochem and Max’s “Coaster Bingo”.

Following Velocity!, we decided to queue for Hero, a Zamperla flying coaster. The queue for Hero was around 15 minutes; a lot shorter than it was when we entered the park. The ride itself was pretty jerky, but the restraints it has are pretty unusual – you step into the front of the seats and are caged in from behind – it’s sort of like a stand-up flying inverted wild mouse toaster coaster, or something. It was pretty fun, notwithstanding the uncomfortable restraints.
Having ridden all the coasters in the park we physically could, we decided to head home, but not without visiting some of the animals on the way out. We walked around the kangaroo enclosure, and then, after a little bit more searching, were able to find the penguins; Rhys’ favourite animal. On the way out, he reminded Joe that he hadn’t completed the bet... It would be a shame if he couldn’t on the way out.

Rhys decided that it would be nice to stop at a gift shop near the exit to pick up a penguin plush, which they unfortunately didn’t have. However, he was able to get a panda, which he thinks is almost just as good. At this shop at the end, Joe spotted two girls to finally finish his challenge, he wandered up and tapped one on the shoulder – Rhys thinks 12, Joe thinks she was more like 14. – and he got down on the required one-knee, and proposed. Like. 4realz. She sorta seemed to freak out, and it was rather exciting. Mad respect for Joe for being able to do that, we’re not sure any of the rest of us could.

Having left the park, we then commenced the journey to this hostel, named “Woody’s Top”. Rhys is laying in bed, Joe is typing this (although some sections were done by Rhys), and Max and Jochem have headed to the kitchen.

[Britfag]

Day 8 - Fantasy Island "I hope these Gypsies don't steal my bag"

After we left Woody's Top without too much hassle from the old lady, we headed off to Fantasy Island, approximately a 30 minute drive. Due to the flat land surrounding the park, we could see the coasters from quite a distance - making a very impressive skyline for an otherwise bogstandard coastal area.

We walked into the park - literally - no gates, no tickets, we just walked straight in. Our great sense of direction sent us through the entire maze of market stalls, selling everything from "designer" underwear to pellet guns. After walking for what felt like eras, we found a queue for what seemed to be the wristbands sales and promptly got in line. After picking up the wristbands we went straight back to Jubilee Odyssey, we waited for about 10 minutes whilst they ran some final test runs with no riders before being the first 4 accepted onto the ride. Of course we got front row, fearing the worst as it is a Custom Vekoma SLC. Max and Joe in the front row and Rhys and Gump in the second row. The layout is amazing, though very messy and the ride seemed alright at first and then we crested the lift hill. We can conclude that Jubilee Odyssey is unique although painful. Kumali is still the only smooth Vekoma SLC.. ever.

Nursing our new headaches we headed for the next big ride, the Millenium Coaster a huge Vekoma sit down looper - conveniently coloured in McDonalds colours, next to a McDonalds. The ride itself was good and actually quite smooth, quite unexpected after our previous experiences with Jubilee Odyssey. There was an odd straight section after the first loop though which stretched over several market stalls, The following Sidewinder and Helix were also very smooth. Gump wonders how in 1999 Vekoma could build a pretty sweet, smooth sit down but just 3 years later produce this terrible invert literally just metres away.

What followed was a quest for the remaining credits through the "Jungle of Gypsy". Max and Joe spotted a Mondial Top Scan that they were eager to ride, and being sensible people Rhys and Jochem decided to sit down and watch a childrens dancing show with Fantasy Island's mascots instead, and a really fit girl too.
After what seemed like millenia, The ride cycle completed for what must have been the third time, and Joe and Max got off the Top Scan. Joe wasn't too happy, and now reminiscing, Max says "it was pretty intense".

The dancing show was hosted in the centre of a helix which appeared to belong to Rhombus Rocket, neither a rhombus, nor a rocket. We decided to ride it anyway, looking for the valuable credit. The ride was not particularly excellent, so we moved on quickly to the Revecheron Spinning Mouse the park had. We used the same seating layout as we had previously, maximising weight in one side of the car to generate MOARZZ RPM. Apparently we succeeded. Stepping off the ride, now rather dizzy, we headed for the dodgems we had seen whilst queueing and decided to all ride individually. This wouldn't be a trip involving Max if we didn't pick on Max, so we decided to aim almost exclusively for Max. The other people seemed to notice, and they all joined in, making it one massive fuckfest of Max's dodgem. We all had a lot of fun, except of course, for Max. Mission accomplished!

We were aware of another small coaster indoors, but we were all too tall to ride - especially Gump.

Before we left, we decided to re-ride the two Vekoma coasters, so we would definitively not have to return to this awful fuckhole of dog muck, thieving kids and Crusty jugglers.


The ride to Joe's house was a long one (that's what she said..) and involved a stop off at a small "services" that was just a Little Chef, Burger King and a Petrol station.
We left without Max and decided to keep on going, but felt too guilty - we drove back to get him and then left to continue our quest to Joe's.

After what seemed like Hours - partially due to being stuck in a car with Max - we arrived at Joe's house, wading through the scummy depths of Barking (We didn't see any dogs, though? Just 'dawgs'..) and arriving at the quaint little house Joe calls Home. we ate like kings and slept pretty poorly - again due to Max and his unstoppable snoring.

Edited by Britfag, 12 August 2013 - 03:30 PM.

[Britfag]

Day 9 - Adventure Island. "High Five, Hot Ride Op!"

We awoke at Joe's and were treated to an awesome Full English Breakfast - excluding the nasty bits (Black Pudding, Mushrooms & Grilled Tomatoes.. blech)
We used our morning time to recover from our action-packed week, and lounged around Joe's for a good hour or two.
We had the option of walking to the train station, but as that would lead us through the hardened ghetto of Barking, we took the offer of a lift from Joe's Mum.
We got on the train which took us to the lovely sea-side town of Southend-on-Sea in about 45 minutes, Gump noticed a couple of 'One Pound' stores on the way to Adventure Island, which we vowed to return to later in the day. Making our way to the park itself we saw just how compact the area is, literally fitting 5 coasters into about the floorspace of the Forbidden Valley at Alton Towers, not to mention their heaps of flatrides.

Entering the park, again forced to put the wristband on the right-arm (a major frustration for Rhys.) we went straight to Rage, Adventure Island's prize Eurofighter.
Rage was alright, very small which means that all of the corners are a little pokey, but otherwise the ride was okay. Unfortunately it does not compare to Speed at Oakwood, so the view is a little biased.
Next up was a Zierer kiddy coaster - Green Scream. A few things were nice about this ride, the knee space wasn't terrible, the ride wasn't awful and the ride op was hot. That pretty much covers it though, it is still just a Kiddy Coaster.
Max and Joe were in full Flatride mode, and went to ride Time Machine, a disgusting excuse for a flatride, of course Rhys & Jochem sat down in the shade and ignored the world.
Max says Time Machine was terribluh - What a surprise. Rhys and Jochem stayed seated so Max and Joe could ride to their hearts content in one single go.
They rode Vortex next which was "just a fast spinning ride." How delightful.

We strolled over to Barnstormer the other Zierer coaster, and got on pretty quickly. A few things sucked about this ride, the ride itself was not spectacular, and it was not exactly smooth. Oh and the ride ops were male.. what a shame.

After Barnstormer we decided to ride Kiddi Koasta, another kiddy ride.. it was a kiddy coaster.

After Kiddi Koasta we rode the final credit - Mighty Mini Mega - another Kiddy coaster located ontop of the Arcade's roof. It wasn't bad, and the ride op even let us sit in the back seats for maximum enjoyment. "She was pretty hot" says Max.

The exit was straight into an Arcade, and unfortunately we were suckered in by shitty coin-pushers and claw games. We spent about 20-30 minutes wasting money, whilst Gump sat outside.

We eventually broke free of the grasps of the Arcade and headed for Joe's prized Fish & Chip shop. Everyone ate Fish & Chips, although the Dutchmen complained about the lack of (Dutch) Mayonaise. Max was more than happy to produce his own Dutch Mayonaise over the female waiter, but she wasn't having any of it.

Day at the park over we headed back to the Pound stores to buy missing Energy Drinks for Gump's collection.

At the Railway station we sat down for a while (30-40 minutes) because we couldn't figure out the right train to take. We ended up on a train with a girl with a big fringe and Dr Dre Beats, Max says she was alright, everyone else thought she was male.
Max insists she was hot.

We got the train back to Barking and a lift from the station to Joe's off of Joe's excellent mother. We got back to Joe's and spent a while upstairs in Joe's room, without giving anything away, it was awesome.

[Witting]

I don't want to think about the last sentence ...

[rollercoasterfanatic919]

This thread is so much fun to read. Sounds like you guys had/are having a great time.

[Micronex]

Day 10 - Thorpe Park "Gettin' Lucky.. (not like that.)"

Awakening at Joe's (on time for once) we all got ready and headed downstairs for breakfast. Joe's mum had made us these lush Bacon & Sausage baps for breakfast, so we chowed down and got on our way.
This would be our last day with Joe, so we gave his mum a hug and respective number of kisses (Max takes any opportunity..).
We got in the car and set up the GPS, unfortunately it wouldn't find a route to Thorpe Park.. at all.. Max suggested that we had the "Avoid Ghetto" mode on, and being surrounded by Barking, we were a little bit stuck. Funnily enough as we began driving towards Thorpe, the GPS seemed to come back to life and started the directions to Staines.

We arrived at Chertsey, and followed signs to Thorpe Park, unfortunately landing us in quite the traffic queue. We spent atleast 35-40 minutes in the queue behind some temporary traffic lights.. classic England.
Parking up at Thorpe, we got out and remarked about how damn full the car park was. We realised just how busy the park was going to be when we started queueing for the ticket collection (not even the ticket _SALES_) and we waited about 20 minutes before finally picking up our tickets. In the meantime we sent Joe into the park (with his Merlin pass) to queue for the Fast Passes. We had just managed to get into the park and get to the Fast Pass sales booth as Joe was up. We picked the big 5; Saw: The Ride in Front Row, Stealth in Front Row, Nemesis Inferno, Colossus and The Swarm forwards. Using some magic trickery, the price total each for the fastpasses and the tickets was the cost of a regular entry ticket to the park.. how wonderful!

We headed off to Saw: The Ride, as the fastpass' time was almost immediate.. as we arrived at the queue entrance, the sign said the queue was 15 minutes, rounding the corner to the fastpass queue Joe and Rhys noted that the queue was more like an hour (or more) so we were indeed lucky to have our fastpasses (phew).
We waited at the fastpass gate and literally a few minutes later were inside the building dropping off bags and getting in line to embark on the ride.
As Jochem & Max hadn't ridden the ride before, Rhys and Joe had spent a bit of time hyping up the indoor section without revealing anything (if you've ridden it, you may know what we mean). Jochem and Max both thought the ride was great, but Joe and Rhys aren't so fond. The layout is strange, as the lift is quite tall, but everything after the lift is less than 2/3rds the height. meaning the top of inversions are very forceful and the transitions are often rushed and jolty.

We did like the picture though..

After we had ridden Saw, we noticed our Fastpass for Stealth was about ready to ride, and it's across the park so we rushed off to Stealth.
Unfortunately, as the park has a small floorspace, the routes around are ridiculous. You can't just point at anything and walk in that direction, you need to swerve around other rides and other stuff.
We made it to Stealth on time, however, and got in the queue for the Fastpass. We walked through the empty queue and got in line on the station, waiting for the front row.
We had max 4 rides infront of us, so we sat tight and watched it speed out of the station repeatedly.
When it was our time to ride we had to pair off, and Joe and Rhys went first (hands up all the way of course). Rhys & Joe disembarked just in time to get outside and watch Jochem and Max come down the far side of the tophat and over the airhill hands raised.
Waiting in the photo shop we waited impatiently for the picture of Max & Jochem (as well as the picture of the people behind) came up on screen just to see what Gump's hair would do. It was worth it. Max high-fived a wasp mid ride.. Poor wasp.

Our Fastpass for Nemesis Inferno was not for another 10-15 minutes so we decided to check out the 'Mega'store so called because it is over 9000 feet in height.
Looking at the merchandise in the store, it was full of the usual shit - cups and mugs that are way too big or impractical, and hoodies and Girls t-shirts with "Ride Me" written on.

We headed for Nemesis Inferno, to use our fastpass, and got in line. Rhys & Jochem decided we would be riding front row, even though it wasn't included in the fastpass (meaning an extra wait time, which Joe wasn't too pleased about).
The staff at Thorpe Park have utterly shit all over the idea of themeing by playing what must have been "Now! That's what I call shit 2013" ruining all immersion in the station.
The ride itself is quite good, the pre-lift is quite fun and the interlocking corks are also unique.

We exited Nemesis and headed off to Colossus the next ride in our Fastpass mania. Entering the queue we were quickly followed by a couple of chavs who were more than excited to talk about "smoking bushes" and "being stoned every day", especially after realising Gump was from the Netherlands. Serious morons.
We rode Colossus in back row, as the view of the train infront of you looked awesome in the quadruple heartline roll.
The ride is pretty good, although definitely aging.

We headed over to The Swarm (the highlight of the day), to finish our Big 5. We were in the queue for regular riding (the forwards rows) but as there was no-one present with a "backwards pass" we were allowed to ride it backwards (which also meant less waiting).
It is pretty cool backwards, definitely unique, but not as good as it is in the front row. Max & Gump obviously having not been on the ride before found it weird riding backwards first, as they did not know the experience of a wing rider forwards. But still thoroughly enjoyed it.

On the way out of The Swarm, the ride broke down, literally one ride after us. We suspect Gump's hair to be the culprit.
Feeling incredibly lucky, we headed to Flying Fish - one of the last credits of the day.
Queueing for a little while, approx 20 minutes, we sat down and prepared to enjoy. It was alright, nothing special.

We headed to X, the final credit of the day - but we got waylaid at Storm Surge, where we paid to spray riders with water cannons (from a very short distance.)
As soon as the first boat we sprayed was getting off the ride, we ran for our lives.
Arriving at X, the queue didn't look too bad, maximum 25 minutes, but as we joined the queue we soon found that we had stopped moving.
We stood still for approx 15-20 minutes before moving again, but when we entered in inside of X, there was almost no queue - so I guess it wasn't too bad.
X is an indoor 'dark' ride, it's an experience of 'light and sound' as Max calls it.
Basically, it's an indoor roller coaster that completes its circuit to thumping electronic music and flashing lights.. not amazing.


We came off X and decided we'd see what the ride times were before dedicating to any re-rides. We saw that The Swarm was "only" 70 minutes. We decided to visit the store again and check again afterwards. Great News, The Swarm had shortened to 60 minutes so we went off to ride it.

Unfortunately, they were a bunch of dirty liars, and partway through queueing noticed we had waited at least 60 minutes already, and we were about 30 minutes from the station.
Eventually we reached the front, and decided to ride in the front right (to compare to the rear left, which was backwards) so we could experience both sides, both ends and ways of the ride. Joe and Rhys went first, soon to be followed by Max and Gump.
Rhys, Joe and Jochem prefer the front, but Max will always prefer it in the behind.

We got off the ride and Max exclaimed he has sore knees (what a hoe). We decided it was probably time to call it a day, as we couldn't be bothered to keep up with the queue times.
Walking to the car, we stopped off to pick up our picture from Saw, and headed off to drop Joe at the train station.

We drove off to the train station and with a few manly hugs (tears in Max's case) we sent Joe off on his way before driving back to Rhys' house for the night.



Days By Order (Best to Worst):

1. Alton Towers (Super Awesome)
2. Lightwater Valley (Super Karts & Wheels)
3. Oakwood Theme Park (Super Unlike Wales..)
4. Drayton Manor (Super Meet Up)
5. Blackpool Pleasure Beach (Super Torrential Rain!)
6. Flamingoland (Super Poor Operations!)
7. Thorpe Park (Super Busy)
8. Adventure Island (Super Ride-Ops!)
9. Fantasy Island (Super Gypsy)

Top 5 Coasters (Best to Worst):

1. Nemesis
2. The Swarm
3. Kumali
4. Air
5. Millennium Coaster

Honourable Mention Roller Coaster: Raptor Attack at Lightwater Valley

Honourable 'Over-hyped' Roller Coaster: The Smiler

Honourable Best Non-Roller Coaster: Skate Karts at Lightwater Valley

Best Food: Joe's Mum's Stir Fry.

Best Hostel Experience: The Night at YHA Dimmingsdale.

[Maxlaam]

And that's pretty much a wrap for the super duper awesome Theme Park Bash. We'll bump this thread a couple of times when we get pictures and videos sorted.