Tag: Croc Drop

Blog, Reviews

Attraction soundtracks

Loops&Lapbars

One of the things I rarely ever hear anyone talk about are attraction soundtracks. The music that plays in the queue line, station building or themed area. Something that adds ambiance to an area, or builds up excitement for the ride you face!

I don’t know why this is as there are some excellent scores to some great rides here in the UK, and saying that, there are some excellent rides that are missing musical accompaniment!

The good!

When I think of musical scores, the first one that usually comes to mind is The Big One’s theme from Pleasure Beach or Helix at Liseberg. Both of these are euphoric dancey tracks, and even though I haven’t ridden Helix, I can imagine it fits really well. I could easily see Helix’s theme used with Icon at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

Icon, with Big Dipper and Big One behind

Another score I really like is Galactica’s. It fits the ride perfectly, has a sense of wonder about it and adds to the space exploration theme Galactica has. I love this one!

Galactica. A lovely soundtrack to a lovely ride!

Nemesis also has a great theme, chilling and foreboding, it helps to add to the terror of the area and the ride itself.

Another thing I do like it how Imascore, who did the music for Galactica, Spinball Whizzer, The Smiler and Wickerman at Alton Towers included parts from In the Hall of the Mountain King, Alton’s unofficial theme. A very nice little attention to detail by some very talented musicians!

The same can be said for Thorpe Parks theme, it incorporates segments of the big 5 roller coasters, and the themed areas appear to have excerpts from the main theme too. I also like Derren Brown’s Ghost Trains score.

Tornado Springs at Paultons Park also has a great score, feeling very in keeping with the 1950s American theme they have there. Same for Storm Chaser, thats theme is great too, mixing 50s guitars and rock with the sounds of a raging storm.

Tornado springs at Paultons Park

Chessington World of Adventures has some good themes, its overall park theme is fun and inspires adventure, Croc Drop’s theme is also good, but Vampire’s theme is excellent and fits the ride and station building fantastically.

The not so good!

Personally I like, but don’t love Icon’s score. It has some excellent parts, but a lot of it I find to be quite lacking. I just doesn’t have the epicness in my opinion!

Rita is another rides whos score is just ok. I didn’t get to experience Thunder Rock radio when Rita was still part of Ug Land, but I could see that fitting really well. The score it has now, does still fit the Dark Forest and Rita’s final chance of escape theme, but it could be so much more. The fault lies in the fact that Rita doesn’t properly fit Dark Forest and didn’t fit Ug Land when it was there either.

The bad!

For me, the worst score that a ride has is Oblivion. The repetitive techno track doesn’t really fit the theme of Oblivion being a next level of fear that you have to overcome, riders disappearing into nothingness and not returning, but with a techno backing track? I really don’t like this one, but I do wonder what could be used instead?

Riders braving the drop (and score) on Oblivion

Aside Oblivion, I haven’t heard a score/theme that I really don’t like, but I’m sure there will be others out there that are good, not so bad and terrible!

I haven’t been to Europe or the USA to sample their delights, but I have heard a few scores like Taron’s and Helix as mentioned earlier, and I can’t wait to get abroad and see what hidden gems there are!

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Chessington World of Adventures & Margate – Stop 8

Loops&Lapbars

Following on from Thorpe Park, we stopped in The Ramada at Cobham services on the M25. This hotel was very cheap, and my exceptions were low because of this but I was pleasantly surprised at how good the hotel actually is. We paid £29 for the night, and it easily kept up with the Holiday Inn in terms of quality. The staff were helpful and pleasant, and the service themselves have a multitude of food offerings. It is a perfect stop for visitors to Chessington World of Adventures and Thorpe Park as both are within 30 minutes drive away.

We hit the road early so we could get to Chessington, get parked and into the park, but due to traffic and other factors we arrived a bit later than I’d have liked which meant we were in a queue to get into the park. It was only while queuing that I realized my second mistake, and booked Chessington for a teacher training day, which meant the park was extremely busy.

It took us a fair while to get in, but once we’d had our bags and tickets checked, we headed off to Croc Drop, Chessington’s newest addition and replacement for Rameses Revenge.

Croc Drop – Brave the drop, release the curse!

The new ride looks the part, it has great themeing, and we both liked the little puzzle they put on to work out what the glyphs on the side of the building say. The ride itself is an SBF Visa drop tower in the same vein as Magma at Paultons Park. I will say that Croc Drop is the better themed ride, but Magma is the better ride overall as it has more to its sequence.

After Croc Drop, we headed over to Mexicana for a ride on Rattlesnake. This wild mouse is a laugh, and well themed in places. It could really do with being tarted up a little here and there, but otherwise it’s a good all round attraction for Chessington.

Rattlesnake

Our next visit was to our old favourite at Chessington, Vampire. We’ve ridden this more than any other roller coaster in the UK and until recently, it was my favourite family coaster. It is an Arrow Dynamics suspended swinging coaster with Vekoma trains. It fits in well at Chessington, and rides great, if a little slow and rough in places. We both thoroughly enjoy it and will endeavour to always have a go on it when we visit!

On to Wild Asia next for a go on the Monkey Swinger. This is a standard chair swing ride, that usually features water jets, but they weren’t operational. Despite this and the lengthy queue, we still enjoyed it!

Once we’d finished up on Monkey Swinger, we had a wander around, looked in the shop and decided to call it quits for today. As I mentioned earlier, the park was very busy, with 90 minute queues on Dragon’s Fury and Vampire, and 120 minute queues for Tiger Rock. So we headed to the car and once again I sent the drone up for some photos.

Chessington from the air!

This was the worst visit we’d had to Chessington unfortunately. The amount of people that had come along was staggering, meaning that even if you weren’t in a long queue, you were surrounded by folk and it just wasn’t as good as it has been on previous visits. Still a great park to visit, just not during the holidays!

Our next stop was Margate and the Hussar Inn…