Tag: Adventure Island

Blog, Reviews

2021 Season Review

Loops&Lapbars

What a season this has been! Starting all the way back in April at Drayton Manor, and finishing at Alton Towers for their incredible fireworks!

I thought for this blog I’d do a mock awards ceremony, giving me chance to talk about highlights of specific parks, rides and attractions, and to voice a few opinions on others.

Best Event

To start with, I think the park with the best event this year was Alton Towers, with their Firework Spectacular. It would have been Thorpe Parks Fright Nights, but Towers just took it with how good a day we had, and how special the fireworks were.

This year we managed to visit the following events and this I how i’d rank them:

  1. Alton Towers Fireworks
  2. Thorpe Park Fright Nights
  3. Alton Towers Oktoberfest
  4. Legoland – Brick or Treat
  5. Wilderfest – Chessington World of Adventures
  6. Mardi Gras – Alton Towers

None of the events were bad at all, Mardis Gras is only at the bottom as we didn’t really see much of it. Wilderfest was ok, but could be improved here and there. Brick or Treat was great, Oktoberfest was excellent, and Fright Nights and the Fireworks were both really brilliant events, its just the fireworks were slightly better in my opinion!

Best new ride for 2021

There is no doubt in my mind that Storm Chaser is my number one new ride for 2021. We’ve had some great new rides this year, including Gangsta Granny: The Ride and Flight of the Sky Lion, and we’ve had some that are alright, but there are better versions currently on offer, such as Croc Drop at Chessington.

Personally, I wouldn’t say any of this years new rides are bad at all, I just think that Croc Drop could have been a bit more than a redressed Magma, and Spinning Racer at Fantasy Island is good, but will probably be gone very soon. Hopefully next year Flamingo land will get their 10 inversion rollercoaster up and running!

Best overall park

This year, I think the park I’d give this to is Paultons Park. Their ride lineup is good, the park isn’t too big or too busy and has been a joy both times we’ve visited this year. Alton Towers and Thorpe Park are close behind as both have given really great days out, Thorpe park especially.

If I had to say which is the weakest park this year, it would have to be Chessington World of Adventures. The park does need a few new rides and a few of the older rides updating a little here and there. Paultons Park has shown what it can do, hopefully Chessington will up their game to follow!

Parks we’ve visited this year are:

  1. Paultons Park
  2. Alton Towers
  3. Thorpe Park
  4. Blackpool Pleasure Beach
  5. Adventure Island
  6. Legoland
  7. Drayton Manor
  8. Oakwood Theme Park
  9. Fantasy Island
  10. Flamingo Land
  11. Clarence Pier
  12. Chessington World of Adventures

I think I’d rank them in that order too, based on the enjoyment both myself and Tracy have had during our visit(s) there.

Adventure Island and Oakwood were both pleasant surprises, especially Adventure Island as their ride operators were like none in any of the other parks! Both have good rides, and plenty to choose from!

Drayton Manor has done well this year in my eyes too, Adventure Cove has really brightened up Shockwave and the area as a whole. Same with Legoland, Mythica is a great area and the park has some great attractions, but does lack a really good thrilling coaster in my opinion!

Fantasy Island was good, and they seem to keep adding attractions and changing things to keep things fresh so hopefully we’ll see more added there soon. Same with Clarence Pier, but their problem is a lack of space!

Flamingo Land could do with some work. It’s a great day out, with some really enjoyable rides, but it looks so tired in places and lacking in budget to finish things off properly. Hopefully when their new 10 inversion coaster opens, they’ll get a surge in popularity and invest in the park more. Mumbo Jumbo, Kumali and Velocity deserve more attention than they currently get!

Best & worst existing new rollercoaster

This is the category for an existing rollercoaster that I rode for the first time this year. Running for top are Nickelodean Streak at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Megaphobia and Speed: No Limits at Oakwood, and Shockwave at Drayton Manor.

Megaphobia takes this one, but Speed: No Limits and Shockwave come close as all three are great rides in their own right. I feel that Megaphobia is the best of the UK wooden rollercoasters, offering enough roughness that you’d expect from a woodie, but not being too overbearing and uncomfortable. Grand National and Big Dipper are great examples of older, rougher woodies. They will throw you about and take no prisoners!

At the other end of the scale, we have the worst existing rollercoaster that I rode for the first time this year. It could very well have been Infusion at Pleasure Beach as that can be borderline painful. It could have been Dino Chase or any of the junior coasters, but for me, its Buffalo Coaster at Drayton Manor. It might be well loved as a classic rollercoaster by some, but for me, it was utterly dreary and didn’t really do anything!

At least the junior coasters have theming to them or offer pops of ejector on back row rides, or something! Buffalo just didn’t do anything for me!

Best & worst flat ride

For this category, all flat rides are up, be it Pandemonium at Drayton Manor, Cyclonator at Paultons Park, Magic at Fantasy Island or any of the existing flat rides we have here in the UK.

There are lots to choose from, but for me, the best flat ride I’ve ridden is Red Arrows Sky Force at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Built by one of my favourite manufacturers, Gerstlauer, this Sky Fly attraction isn’t the tallest or most thrilling attraction I’ve ridden this year, but it stands out for being interactive. Controlling the wings either side of you allows you to flip as much as you can manage, or in Tracy’s case, as little as you like.

Honourable mentions to Pandemonium, Apocalypse, Magic and Cyclonator too. All were first time rides for me this year, and I remember each one for surprising me with how well the attraction rode, or how little it made me feel ill afterwards! Magic especially. It looks like it’ll spin you a little too much but I felt it was just right, comfortable and memorable too.

Though Pandemonium can have the title as most painful ride too since its restraints dug into my shoulders quite badly during its extended upside down sections. Shame its being removed from Drayton Manor, but I’m glad I did get a ride on it before it goes!

The worst flat ride I’ve ridden this year would probably be Quantum at Thorpe Park. I don’t really get on with Magic Carpet or Miami type rides in the first place so I wasn’t that enthusiastic about Quantum. Coupled with the fact that operations are dreadful on the ride, so queues take far longer than they should, I didn’t really enjoy this one at all. Tracy did though so that’s a bonus!

Best water ride

This one is easy enough to award based on how wet we got on the ride. Stormforce 10, easily takes the top spot for me this year as no other ride we went on soaked us through like this one did!

A very close second would have to be Waterfall at Oakwood. Riding a plastic tray, you drop down a slide and have to navigate a long channel of water in the hopes of skimming across its surface to the end. Not only is it a great attraction to have a go at, but also fantastic fun to watch others having a go, whether they make it or not!

Other notable water rides this year would be Adventure Cove River Rapids at Drayton Manor, Viking River Splash and Pirate Falls: Treasure Quest at Legoland. Adventure Cove River Rapids rides well and the water effects make it one of the better rapids rides, alongside Viking River Splash which actually felt like a proper rapids ride with how turbulent it was!

None of the water rides I went on this year were bad I’d say, although River Caves at Blackpool Pleasure Beach was one of the weaker ones in my opinion, feeling quite dated and lacking something special.

Best dark ride, interactive or otherwise

For this, I’ll be including all the Vekoma madhouses, shooting rides and ghost train type attractions. I’ll be writing a separate blog comparing the many Vekoma madhouses on their own, but for now, I think the best dark ride I’ve ridden this year has to be Sheriff Showdown at Drayton Manor, with Duel at Alton Towers, Tomb Blaster at Chessington and Lego Ninjago: The Ride at Legoland following close behind.

The Haunting at Drayton manor would be up thanks to its pre shows and effects prior to the crypt scene! However it’s actual madhouse part and the lack of clarity in the queue as to whether the attraction is running dampened the whole package for me. Both Hex and Haunted house monster party have good pre shows, but better madhouses to experience so I’d rate those better.

Season 2022

Next season, we’re hoping to get across to Europe to start to experience some of the world class attractions over there, as well as visiting more of what the UK has to offer!

For the UK, I’d like to get back to Oakwood and have a go on Drenched, Tidal Wave at Thorpe Park and hopefully The Ultimate at Lightwater Valley! Rumours are circulating that Icon could be getting spinning trains which would be a very different approach to the ride, and if so, I’d like to give that a go!

As for Europe, Taron, Zadra, The Ride to Happiness, Red Force, Baron 1898, F.L.Y and Talocan are all on the bucket list if I can manage it!

Hopefully I’ll have written plenty more blog posts and gotten the hang of Youtube, my drone and my cameras a little more by then as well!

Blog, Reviews

Eurofighter showdown – Saw: The Ride, Speed: No Limits & Rage

Loops&Lapbars

Similarly to my blog comparing The Smiler to Stealth, I’d like to breakdown 3 very similar yet ultimately different rides. 3 Gerstlauer Eurofighters here in the UK, Speed: No Limits, Saw: The Ride and Rage.

The facts

All 3 rollercoasters feature similar elements, all have beyond vertical drops, all have vertical chain driven lifts, over shoulder restraints, 8 riders per car and all feature at least 2 inversions.

The fastest and tallest is Speed: No Limits, followed by Saw: The Ride and finally Rage is the shortest and slowest. Saw has the longest track, Rage the shortest and Speed features only 2 inversions, while the other two have 3.

Bottom of Saw’s beyond vertical drop with Samurai behind

Saw is the only one to feature any real theming. Rage does try to have a little storyline with a superhero called Captain Rageman attached to the ride, but beside a voiceover and a few static boards, that’s really it. Speed has no theme.

Speed was the first to be built, arriving in 2006, then Rage in 2007 and finally Saw in 2009. As mentioned earlier, all feature beyond vertical drops, with Rage and Speed having 97 degree drops and Saw’s being 100 degrees.

Speed navigating its heartline roll.

All have held a record for the steepest drops in some form or another, where Speed and Rage were the steepest in the world being tied with 7 others for the title. Saw never held the world record as Steel Hawg ( at Indiana Beach, Indiana) was introduced a year earlier than Saw, and beat its 100 degree drop by 1 degree. However Saw did hold the UK title for 16 weeks before Mumbo Jumbo (at Flamingo Land) took it away again. I’ll certainly have to talk about Mumbo one day!

The theming of Saw

As I mentioned before, only Saw has any theming worth talking about, and it is very heavily themed around the Saw films. It features an extensively themed ride station and building as well as a decently themed queue and of course, a soundtrack.

Saw’s well themed station

Though Speed doesn’t have a theme, I don’t feel it would benefit from one. The same for Rage. Both are fine enough rides without theming, though they could certainly do with a soundtrack to listen to!

Ride experience

All 3 ride well enough, but I feel that the weakest is Saw a that does suffer a fair bit with rough patches, where Speed feels incredibly smooth. Rage is certainly in the middle ground here, not as smooth as Speed, but certainly not as rough as Saw!

I find the trains on all 3 to be quite comfortable, the restraints are just right, and keep you in place enough to enjoy the ride. It’s certainly a different experience being on your back when ascending each rides lift hills but I didn’t feel uncomfortable in my seat on any of the rides.

All 3 would definitely benefit from lap bar restraints as opposed to the over shoulder ones we have, especially Saw, that would add even more to the ride!

Inversions aren’t everything…

Saw and Rage both feature 3 inversions, and Speed only has 2. Each has a different layout, and though each has similar inversions, all are unique in their own right.

Saw has a heartline roll, immelmann loop and a dive loop, Rage has a loop, cutback and heartline roll, and finally Speed has just a loop and heartline roll.

Interestingly, Speed is the only one of the 3 that doesn’t immediately enter into an inversion following the beyond vertical drop, instead opting for an airtime hill, that is taken at decent speed and offers great ejector airtime!

So which is best?

In my opinion, Speed is the better ride out of the 3 but Saw is the best overall experience. The scenery, story elements and ride itself, push Saw slightly ahead of Speed if you take the whole package into consideration.

Rage is the weaker of the 3 for me. It’s still a great ride and well worth a visit to Adventure Island to have a ride on, but I would honestly say that Saw and Speed are better overall.

That is actually me in the back row there!

Blog, Reviews

Holiday 2021 in Summary

Loops&Lapbars

As I stated in my previous blog, I’d like to summarise our trip away and add any advice to others planning on the same sort of trip.

The Parks

Over the course of the holiday we visited 8 very different parks around the country with our standout favorite of the trip being Paultons Park, with Oakwood and Adventure Island coming in close behind. That’s not to say that Pleasure Beach or Alton Towers were bad at all, more so that Paultons left an excellent impression on the both of us!

Alton Towers and Chessington were a bit of a letdown due to how busy they were, but it’s not entirely fair to blame the parks here, I’d booked for Towers on a bank holiday and I didn’t know Chessington would still be within the holidays. That being said, we did Thorpe Park just before Chessington and that went a lot smoother, comparatively.

Pleasure Beach was also excellent, probably the best of the parks from this trip that we’ve already previously visited. We did give it two days though which meant neither day was rushed and we managed to get on mostly everything we wanted to (except Avalanche, which kept running into issues).

The Hotels

For the trip we stopped in 10 different hotels and guesthouses, each different to the next. Highlights for anyone aspiring to visit UK parks would be the Ramada at Cobham services, because the location is excellent for Legoland, Thorpe Park and Chessington, and the service have excellent facilities.

All the places we stopped at were good, True Lovers Knot in Blandford Forum was the only one we had anything like a negative feeling towards, and that was purely for the way the staff interacted with us. The rooms themselves were probably the most premium feeling out of all the places we stayed, it’s just the staff and lack of a warm welcome that really put us off.

Advice from our experience is just to make sure you’re not driving too far from one stop to the next. If I were to do it again, I would probably add a stop a bit closer to Oakwood as Hereford was a bit of a trek that early on in the day! Other than that, everywhere we stopped at was mostly what we expected, just make sure to read reviews before booking the cheapest places as some accounts suggested some properties were down right dangerous!

The Car + Equipment

I own a Mazda 6 Estate which offered up plenty of room to carry all our belongings and didn’t cost an arm and leg to run. We filled up twice throughout the trip, once in Bristol and the second in Southend, and it cost around £165 for fuel for the whole trip.

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Daft bit of advice to give, but spilt clothing into little bundles so you can take in only necessary things to each stop, saves you lugging about large suitcases!

It should probably go without saying that you’ll want something comfortable for the long miles, and something that has enough room for all the things you’ll need. We took enough clothes to get through the 2 weeks we were away but we did plan in stops to laundrettes if needed. We didn’t take any cooking provisions and ate on the road for this trip, but you could easily bring along a gas camping stove and cook to cut down on expensive meals out.

Another probably obvious thing to add would be to keep a bit of money spare for issues with the car as I somehow managed to pick up a puncture while we were in Southampton and ended up needing a new tyre. I’ll take that over a larger fault though! I do also have breakdown cover just incase.

The Cameras

I took with me my Nikon D5600 DSLR, 18-55mm Nikkor lense, 70-300mm Tamron Lense, DJI Mini 2 drone as well as a GoPro Hero 6 Black. I didn’t get a chance to use the GoPro as most parks don’t allow on ride recording, and I never thought to ask at Paultons, Oakwood or Adventure Island.

I have since bought a Nikon B700 superzoom camera as I lacked ability to take photos at larger ranges and long range DSLR lenses are extremely expensive!

The Rides

Standout attractions from our visit will certainly be Storm Chaser at Paultons Park, Red Arrows Skyforce and Nickelodeon Streak at Pleasure Beach, Gangsta Granny: The Ride at Alton Towers and Megaphobia and Speed: No Limits at Oakwood.

We both felt Croc Drop was a bit over hyped, it looks the part, but the ride sequence itself isn’t as good as Magmas. The Big One at Pleasure Beach really needs some work in regard to operations, they don’t seem to utilise multiple trains as well as other attractions do. The queue really kills it, as twice we’ve had really long wait times unfortunately.

Hopefully with this year’s additions, we’ll see more and more development into the UK Theme Park scene and get bigger and better, world beating attractions!

Closing Comments

We’d have liked to have done our intended trip to Europe, but I’m more than happy with how our holiday around the UK went, we’ve both ridden some great attractions, visited new parks for the first time, tried some new and tasty food and overall had a fantastic stay here in the UK!

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Margate, Southend & Adventure Island – Stop 9

Loops&Lapbars

From Chessington we drove to Margate and the Hussar Inn which is a pub with rooms above it, and quite a nice one at that too. The rooms were good sized, and the bathroom was massive, and yet the telly was tiny! The barman was excellent, helped us with any of our queries and served us a nice breakfast the following morning.

Dreamland Margate was next on the agenda, but due to the pandemic, they had delayed opening which is a real shame as I’d have liked to have tried some of their attractions. Margate itself wasn’t that great. It looks like it’s seen better years, but hopefully it’ll pickup once the pandemic is over and Dreamland opens again.

Dreamland, closed today!

So we left Margate quite early the following morning and moved onto our penultimate hotel for the trip, the Skylark Hotel in Southend on Sea. Just a note to add here too, the Dartford tunnel is excellent, easy to pay and quite convenient, and it didn’t cost too much for us to pass through.

As for the Skylark Hotel, its situated right next to Southend airport so does suffer a little from noisy aircraft, but we had quieter rooms and it wasn’t that noticeable. The rooms were ok, but the bathroom was a bit mouldy in places and the halls could do with a bit of a refurbishment!

While we were in Southend we booked to visit Adventure Island, a local theme park right on the seafront. all day bands were £20 and entry is free. We were finally clear of the school holidays and our visit to Adventure Island was excellent, we barely queued for any attraction and managed to get around a lot of what the park has to offer.

We started on Rage, a Gerstlauer Eurofighter the parks biggest roller coaster. While I’d say this is the weaker of the 3 Eurofighters in the UK, it’s still a great ride with plenty of force and enough packed into its tight layout!

Rage, with Sky Drop behind.

We then had a ride on Sky Drop, a Zamperla drop tower, and it was here we noticed how differently this park appears to operate. All the ride ops blend with the experience of the ride, they greet you on the ride, load you, and make it quite a personal affair that you have the best time you can possibly have on their attraction. It was excellent seeing the interactions between the operators on later attractions and it really helped make the park stand out!

As for Sky Drop, it was fun but not as good as Magma or Croc drop mentioned in previous blogs!

Next we tried Green Scream, a Zierer family coaster with a crocodile theme. This was another walk on attraction and was a pleasant ride that sits above a few of the parks other attractions. We then tried Archelon, a Waveswinger model themed to a giant extinct turtle, very similar to other Wavesingers out there, but the cycle did feel like it lasted longer.

From Archelon we moved onto Over the Hill 2: Spooksville, possibly the most confusing ride name in the UK. This park built dark ride has guests travelling past a variety of child friendly horror scenes, some with moving parts, but mostly static props. A very colourful ride, but not quite up there with other dark rides we’ve ridden.

After Spooksville, we moved over the other side of the park, which involves going through Adventure Inside, an arcade with a few bigger rides dotted about. Similar in idea to Fantasy Islands pyramid, but not quite as large.

In the other side of the park, we headed up to the Kiddi Koasta and Dragon, a family roller coaster and roundabout ride respectively. Upon boarding the Kiddi Koasta, it ran into technical difficulties and we had to come back later, but not before having a go on Dragon.

Kiddi Koasta, set above an arcade.

From Dragon, we had a go on the American Whip, a ride I’ve only ever seen in Planet Coaster, but Tracy knew of them so we had to have a go on it. For how simple the premise of the ride is, you get chucked into the turns with decent force, and once again the ride ops were interacting with everyone and making it even more fun!

The American Whip

We then had a go on the Helter Skelter, a ride type I haven’t ridden in decades, let alone years! It was a little trip down memory lane, to times gone by when all seaside parks had these and the Dual Snake slides.

Up next was Adventureville, a self built dark ride that is best described as weird! It has a very similar aesthetic to Spooksville, the colours of the props pop out and its well designed but it does have a soundtrack that will get stuck in your head!

I then braved Axis while Tracy sat back and watched, as she didn’t want to attempt this 30 meter tall inverting frisbee. It does look quite intimidating, and as part of its cycle it does hold you upside down for a while, but overall it wasn’t as terrifying as it looks. It gives good force when it picks up speed, but it isn’t as hardcore as it looks!

Axis and an overview of one side of the park

We then decided to stop for dinner, which was a burger meal that was very pleasant. Pricing wasn’t too bad, similar to Burger King really, but the food was good quality.

After dinner we had a go on Barnstormer, another Zierer family model, that I’d read has one of the best helixes on any junior roller coaster, so expectations were higher than usual. You get two laps on the ride, and the helix most certainly doesn’t disappoint! The layout is only very small, with a couple of drops and a few turns, but it’s certainly worth a ride!

Next we had a go on Mighty Mini Mega, a Pinfari MM29 roller coaster which offers a little force here and there, but is more pleasant than forceful. Though the cars are quite small, as the name might suggest, so I wasn’t quite as comfortable as I could have been!

As the day went on, we had a few rerides on Rage, Sky Drop and Barnstormer, as well as a go on Fireball, which is like nothing i’ve ever seen before. It’s like a ferris wheel but the rides face outwards and the gondolas tilt from side to side as the ride rotates. It’s a nice little ride, with another great operator to help it stay memorable.

By the end of the day, we’d ridden more in this park than we did at Thorpe and Chessington combined and we thoroughly enjoyed the whole day. Operations were excellent as mentioned earlier, there was only one ride that had issues and they sorted it out pretty quickly. Overall, well worth the drive down for a day or two to visit this park, and Southend on Sea is great too!

We ended up playing a round of mini golf and visited the arcades as well, met up with friends while we were there and genuinely had a great time in Southend!

Adventure Golf, next to Adventure Island

Our next stop would have been Great Yarmouth for a day visit but due to the distances, we ended up going straight to our final stop of the holiday, Fantasy Island and the Villager Hotel…

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2021 Summer holiday

Loops&Lapbars
The Big One running tests

Over the summer Tracy and I did an epic 1600 ish mile trip around some of the UKs best theme parks. Over the course of two weeks, we visited:

  • Blackpool Pleasure Beach
  • Alton Towers
  • Oakwood
  • Paultons Park
  • Thorpe Park
  • Chessington World of Adventures
  • Dreamland
  • Adventure Island
  • Fantasy Island

As well as the above, we also stopped off at Bovington Tank Museum and Clarence Pier, but we didn’t ride anything at Clarence Pier as the wristbands had sold out! The tank museum was an excellent day out if, like me, you’re into that sort of thing!

In subsequent blogs, I’ll breakdown each park we visited in turn, our experiences there and what we liked and didn’t like!

The only one I won’t be able to say much about is Dreamland at Margate as it wasn’t open when we arrived and, at time of writing, still isn’t open properly, so another visit will be needed there!

Dreamland Margate

In all, we had an excellent trip all told, there were a few things we’d have done a little differently when we do something like this again, but otherwise nearly everything went brilliantly, with only a few little issues here and there!

The next blog will talk about Blackpool Pleasure Beach and our visit to Blackpool itself.

Stay tuned!

Nemesis Inferno!