It wasn’t so long I was writing a post about Shockwave, how it was an under appreciated gem of the UK coaster line up and how I adore it, even with its faults.
Now Drayton Manor have announced that Shockwave, in its current stand up form will be no more starting next season and I thought I’d like to say my part on this.
As I mentioned in my other blog, I really do like Shockwave. I like the sensation of riding standing up, I like the noise and the thrills. I think it fit nicely into Adventure Cove, the area they built around it and it looked great with the station refresh.
But converting it to sit-down only will kill it for me! I know the park is going down a family friendly route but top level thrills are part of a family line up, at least in my opinion! The best parks are those that cater to everyone and Drayton Manor had plenty of variety back when Pandemonium was still there.
You had Apocalypse, Shockwave and Pandemonium right at the top of thrills, then Air Race and Maelstrom the next level down. Then there’s Accelerator, The Bounty Pirate Ship, The Rapids, Drunken Barrels, Sherrif Showdown and The Haunting next. Then you have Thomas Land for younger kids (and adults alike).
Now there’s only Shockwave left at the top of the pile and taking away it’s stand-up train will be a big loss to it. I’d be more than happy if it ran two trains, so they can use the same layout but allow younger audiences to ride it, and still offer a top level thrill for those who want that too.
I don’t feel like this is the best decision, but it is decided and we’ll just have to move on without the stand up trains. What I’d love to see though is either Floorless trains, so it remains a unique ride in the UK, or even better, spinning trains.
I’m not entirely sure whether putting spinning trains onto Shockwave will keep it at the 1.2m height restriction the park is going for, but it would definitely be a worthy replacement for the stand up trains in my opinion!
I’ll keep an open mind about what Drayton Manor does with Shockwave but it’s a real shame that it’s going and I hope they can capture at least a small amount of what made the original so special when they change it.
For now at least, Shockwave still stands and will do so until season’s end, so we’ve got until October 27th to enjoy what we’ve got before it is no more!
I’ll be riding the life out of it when we go for the Vikings event later this year and that will be the final farewell from me. Expect a lot of posts about it on that day!
This is also my 100th post and I think it’s somewhat fitting making such a special milestone a blog about such a special coaster!
This is going to be a very quick blog just to outline our first ever European Road Trip!
As I’m writing this I’m sat in Tracy’s front room eager to get on the road, but can’t as I’ll be far too early for our Euro Tunnel connection to Calais tomorrow! This will be our first step of course and something I’ve never done before but I’m looking forward to it!
After a good night sleep (hopefully) we’ll drive from Calais into Belgium for the very first park on our little trip, Plopsaland! I cannot wait to have a go on Ride to Happiness and see what my first foreign park will be like!
On Sunday we’ll be at Bobbejaanland and we’ve accidentally hit a home run here as their new attraction Terra Magna opens for its first day after an extensive retheme. There’s also Typhoon to look forward to which was the very first Euro fighter model and Fury, which is the one I’m after most from this park!
On Monday we’ll be at the majestic Efteling for 2 days, stopping on site in their Loonsche Land Hotel which is very exciting! We have seen that unfortunately Baron 1898 won’t be operating while we’re there which is quite a blow but we’ve still got a plethora of excellent attractions to look forward to, such as Python and Symbolica.
Wednesday is a day off and we’re looking at visiting Eindhoven for the day. We’re not sure exactly what’s planned, though Tracy really wants to do their IKEA!
Thursday will be Toverland, a park I don’t see talked about much but well received when it is! Fenix, Dwervel Wind and Troy stand out for me here but there’s probably even more that I haven’t seen yet!
Friday and Saturday will be at the mighty Phantasia Land with a stop in their Hotel Charles Lindbergh. There’s so much to look forward to here, Chapas, Taron, F.L.Y, and Talocan just to name a few!
Finally we’ll be stopping back at Walibi Belgium on the way back around. Kondaa, Pulsar and Psyke Underground are what I’ve picked out but as with the other parks, there will be so much more that I’ve overlooked!
The fun doesn’t stop there though as we’ll be getting back on the Euro Tunnel and heading to Legoland Windsor to stop on site and do a day in the park and a the final Wednesday we’ll be at Thorpe Park to try their Mardi Gras event this year. 2 days to cool down before the finale at Drayton Manor for an Attraction Source event which I can’t wait for either! If Your Experience Guides event is anything to go on, then this should be great too! Extended ride times on Shockwave and Maelstrom, Loki, Thor and Accelerator!
It’s going to be a long one, it’s going to fill hard rives with videos and photos and it’s going to hopefully make some bloody good memories!
Another visit to Drayton Manor? So soon after the last? Yep, this year we’re season pass holders and with Drayton Manor doing a good job of turning the park around, I’ve decided to try and visit as many of their events as possible to see how they’re getting on. This time its a 3 day event for the Coronation of King Charles III culminating in a fireworks finale for each day!
We visited on Saturday, the day of the actual coronation and because of this we did actually miss seeing the event on the TV, which I would have thought might have been shown somewhere at the park, maybe it was and I missed it, but besides the 4D cinema, the park doesn’t really have anywhere it could show it.
Anyway onto the event, things didn’t really kick off until quite late on in the day when there was a live DJ playing a set from 5-6pm. Then there was a tribute act on from 6-8pm, another DJ set between 8-8:55pm and finally the fireworks at 9pm. This marks the first time we’ve ever stayed in the park beyond 5pm too!
The lake was so still I had a go at a reflection shot!
The DJs were good but nothing overly special. They did mix the tracks quite well and played a good range of music so you didn’t have to listen to too much of something you didn’t like! The tribute acts were for Queen on Friday, Ed Sheeran on Saturday and Elton John on Sunday. As we visited Saturday, we got Ed Sheeran and I’ll be honest, I’m not a fan of his music! This didn’t much matter though as he played a lot of different songs and did a good job keeping us entertained.
There was also a very small stage show where Rory, the parks mascot, was doing a bit of a singalong with the kids too, but this wasn’t very long, but it was followed by a photo opportunity if anyone wanted photos!
To finish the day, the park had put on a fireworks display and it was great to see fireworks again, especially in warmer weather! The show lasted about 8 minutes and it was good. It won’t challenge Alton Towers or Legoland’s displays, but they were also up charged events so I really can’t find any faults with the display at all! It was also lovely to hear voice clips of King Charles played during the show too, so it felt properly linked to his coronation too, so another good job there!
Besides a few photo opportunities around there park, there was also a stall selling afternoon tea and alcoholic drinks to those who wanted them, and the Castle Bar was renamed to The Windsor Castle Bar for the event too.
I mentioned in my Alton Towers Festival of Thrills blog that it would have been nice to see some event specific merchandise and the same can be said here. They did offer some coronation flags and a couple of other bits and pieces, but no pin badges or anything park specific, but that’s only a minor thing here.
Outside the event, we had a leisurely stroll around the zoo, rode Sherriff Showdown, Accelerator, Sleipnir, Shockwave, Winstons Whistle Stop Tours, Troublesome Trucks Runaway Rollercoaster and the new for 2023 Thomas and Percy Submarine Splash, which I’ll go into in a minute.
Sherriff Showdown was having issues with its scoring system which meant you couldn’t see how much you’d scored, but the guns and targets still worked so it was nice to go through the attraction and see more of it rather than concentrating too much on winning!
Shockwave was riding great today too, both rides were relatively smooth and very forceful too. The more I ride Shockwave, the more I love it and the more I wish we could get another stand-up coaster in the UK. I hope next year they celebrate its birthday properly!
Finally there’s Thomas and Percy’s Submarine Splash. This is an incredibly cute Soquet S.A. babyflume with submarine shaped cars. The cars are very pretty but also quite uncomfortable as the backrest doesn’t have much padding in it! The ride is a very simple layout, but it’s well presented and has 2 small drops. The subs have a weight limit to them of 18.5 stone/120kg and you can ride as a single adult, as we did! We were hoping for this as some of the rides in Thomas Land don’t allow single adults but the information board didn’t say anything so we had a go. It’s very relaxed, nice and slow and the drops don’t get you wet too which we both liked!
So that was The Coronation Street Party. A nice little event, long park hours and plenty of opportunity to ride many of the ride and see the zoo before things got going. We won’t see another event like this for a while now so this will probably be a completely unique event for many years, unless they decide to do it again next year as just a street party event which would work too!
Next up will be a breakdown of our big holiday this year, so look out for that one!
This year is a year of celebrations, from The Smiler (and Hero’s) 10 birthday, to the coronation of King Charles. It’s also the 15th anniversary of Thomas Land at Drayton Manor, and we went along to see how everyone’s favourite tank engine was doing.
Thomas land was subtly decorated with bunting around most of the railings, a large birthday cake by the entrance and Thomas had a little hat on and birthday livery. It was very in keeping with the area and didn’t look out of place at all!
There were shows on throughout the day, but I couldn’t tell you what shows are new for the event or the usual ones as I don’t spend enough time in Thomas land to notice them I’m afraid! Though we did see one of the shows where Rusty, Dusty and The Fat Controller were playing musical statues with the kids. It was very entertaining and didn’t feel overly silly or awkward either!
That’s about it for the 15th Anniversary event and I’m not sure what more they could have done, so I might as well use the time to talk about Thomas Land itself!
The area is set out in two halves, with the Train Tours attraction bisecting both halves. It would be nice to have a cut through over the rails from one side to the other, but this is a very minor thing! At the time we visited for the event, there were around 20 attractions, ranging from simple carousels and demolition derby rides, to guided rail car rides and a junior roller coaster!
It would be nice if they could somehow link up these two parts
Standout attractions for me are Thomas, Percy and Rosie’s Engine Tours, Troublesome Trucks Runaway Roller Coaster, Winston’s Whistle Stop Tours and The Thomas Exhibition (though this is undergoing renovation and relocation).
Engine Tours takes you from the main section of Thomas Land, to the back of the zoo where 2 more attractions are based and though it can take a while to load, check and set off, it goes past a few scenes from Sodors railways before returning the other way. Sometimes the attraction will run two trains that have to synchronise and set off at the same time, but this time only Thomas was at work.
Troublesome Trucks Runaway Rollercoaster is a great little Gerstlauer junior coaster that only has a simple helix and small hill but offers just enough to make it fun for us, as well as being a great introduction to roller coasters for you younger thrill seekers!
Winston’s Whistle Stop Tours is a Zamperla monorail with single cars that take you on a tour of one side of Thomas Land. It gives great elevated views of most of the area and interacts nicely with some of the rides it goes past with the on board audio. Very gentle and charming to boot, and recently they’ve added a photo green screen to the queue, so you even get a photo before you board the ride!
The Thomas Exhibition is a fantastic look back through the life of Thomas the Tank engine, from the early days of the Railway series of books by Rev. W. Awdry, to the Thomas and Friends TV series and all the way up to All Engines Go! As I said earlier, this is undergoing a relocation as it was set at the end of the zoo tucked away in a corner, but it’ll now be in the same building as the shop, you’ll not miss it if you ride Whistle Stop Tours as the exit path takes you through where the exhibition will be.
We’ve only seen it once and it was great to look back at how far the series has come and how much it has changed over the years. It was also a bit eye opener as to how many new characters have been added to the series over time. I grew up with the original Thomas and Friends series, and so much has changed and been added from what I knew! The model railway inside the exhibition even uses models from the original series which was great to see!
There are plenty of other rides too, Captains Sea Adventure will get you wet, and Cranky’s Drop Tower is a great entry level tower ride, but there are some rides that we can’t have a go on, such as Sodor Classic Cars. They require and adult and child in order to ride this one which has meant we’ve been unable to ride it even once! It is a shame but the area isn’t designed with us enthusiasts first and foremost so I’m definitely not going to grumble!
So that’s Thomas Land really, it’s a wonderful area full of good attractions all well themed and in kepeing with the spirit of Thomas and Friends. New for this year there will be a junior log flume ride called Thomas and Percy’s Submarine Splash which we’ll be hopefully riding during the Coronation Street Party, which will be our next blog!
This is quite an exciting blog to write as we’ve somewhat finalised our plans for the coming year
This year, as I put down in my 2023 resolutions blog, we were hoping to get across to Europe and thanks to our latest bookings, we now shall be! I’ll go into a little detail later but to start our season, we’ll be at Blackpool Pleasure Beach! We only had 1 trip there last year so it’ll be nice to get back on Big One, Icon and celebrate Big Dippers centenary. We would have been going to Alton Towers for the opening weekend, however…
Next up will be Alton Towers in April for the Your Experience Guide (Pleasure Beach Experience) event. I’m very much looking forward to meeting like minded enthusiasts as well as getting a few rides on Wickerman before the park opens! I’ve never been to an enthusiast event so this will be my first and something I’m very much looking forward to.
Our big trip this will be in Europe as I mentioned earlier. We’ll be going in mid May and our route will take us to 6 different parks and will take us through 4 countries, starting in France, then Belgium, The Netherlands and finally Germany! Our intention will be to take the Eurotunnel across to France then stop the night before visiting Plopsaland De Panne for the first time. Next will be Bobbejaanland then onto Efteling for 2 days, stopping in the Holiday Village Efteling Loonsche Land.
Then we’ll have a day off to see the surroundings and then onto Toverland! Next stop will be Phantasia Land for 2 days, stopping in their Hotel Charles Lindbergh. Finally we’ll visit Walibi Belgium on the way back to the Euro Tunnel and the UK.
All in, we should have the chance to ride up to 42 new rollercoasters, as well as plenty of flat rides and other attractions.
Not only will we be visiting 6 new parks, seeing new sites, eating different food, but I’ll be driving the whole way too. I’m don’t know whether I’m more excited about the chance to drive new roads, seeing new things or the fact I’ll be doing it all with Tracy too.
Not only will we be making a grand tour of Europe, but we’ve also got annual passes for Drayton Manor this year. This is the first time I’ve ever held a park specific annual pass and it’ll supplement our Merlin annual passes too. We intend to visit Drayton Manor for their new events so the annual pass makes financial sense!
We’ll also be threading in visits to all the Thorpe Park events, not only to compare and contrast to last year, but as part of the competition being run by Thorpe Park to have a chance to be the first to ride Project Exodus when that opens! I won’t be able to visit every day as we live over 220 miles away, but you have to be in it to win it, so event visits will have to do!
In the autumn, we hope to make a final trip across to France to visit Disneyland Paris and Parc Asterix over Halloween as we’ve been to neither park and want to see both! We will definitely make a concerted effort to get to Fantasy Island for Fear Island again as that was a definite highlight of last year!
Finally, we’ll try to get back to Paultons, Chessington for the new Jumanji area as well as my home park, Flamingo Land, to see how Sik is settling in.
There’s so much to be excited for this year, from trying out Taron and F.L.Y, to Baron 1898, Troy, Fury and The Ride to Happiness! Along the way, I’ll be comparing these to their closest UK offerings, such as Icon being our closest thing to Taron etc. I also can’t wait to see all the themed areas, try out the food, trying to speak German and French again and just having an overall great time this year!
I will, of course, be doing blogs for each visit and possibly trying out video logging (Vlogging) for some, starting with the Alton Towers event in April!
Shockwave. Poor old Shockwave. It lives in a park that has gone through a lot of trouble in the past, had troubles of its own and was even over shadowed (until recently) by another roller coaster in the same area, that being G-Force.
The problems Shockwave has faced didn’t start here though, they started right when the attraction was built!
The beginning
Drayton Manor bought this Intamin Stand Up roller coaster from a booth at the 1992 Internation Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions show (IAAPA) and proceeded to build the coaster over the next year. Issues were found when testing started though as the test car couldn’t navigate the zero G roll so another price of track was needed.
Once the ride finally opened in March 1994, it was another uphill struggle as it was competing against Nemesis at Alton Towers.
So we’ve finally gotten the ride installed and opened and all is well, there’s a bit of competition from Nemesis but Shockwave can still shine though. Until Blackpool Pleasure Beach opens the world tallest and fastest roller coaster in May 1994, 2 months after Shockwave opens!
I don’t know at the time what ride attendance was but it can be assumed that Shockwave will have had a smaller number than it was entitled to because of the record breaking Pepsi Max Big One.
Nemesis didn’t really have too many issues as the ride was in a well respected park, had had plenty of investment and advertising done and the ride itself was unique to Europe with it being the first inverted roller coaster outside of North America.
Yeah sure Shockwave was a stand-up coaster and featured a unique zero G roll, a feat it still retains to this day, but would Joe public be as interested in a stand up coaster over an inverted coaster and the world’s tallest? I’m not so sure!
Shockwave today
If I could go back and look at all 3 on paper and decide which I’d prefer to give the most attention to, it would certainly be The Big One, then probably Nemesis, leaving Shockwave last to go and see.
Knowing what I know now though, I rate Nemesis the best of the 3, then Shockwave and finally Big One. A lot has changed since 1994, Big One isn’t the tallest or fastest in the world, Nemesis has got direct competition from Nemesis Inferno, as well as a plethora of other great European inverted coasters. Which just leaves Shockwave.
Things have gotten better for the old Intamin as stand up coasters have fallen out of favour, with many being converted to a much more appealing floorless coaster, a sentiment I’m not sure I mirror! As more and more stand-up coasters are converted, Shockwave gets rarer and rarer and hopefully, more sought after as a ride!
Shockwave still remains today as a stand up coaster and the only one in the UK, one of 2 in Europe and one of roughly 10 still operating worldwide. They are a rare breed of coaster, but Shockwave is the single last remaining to be built by Intamin. It might not look like much to most, but it is actually unique!
So what do I think of Shockwave?
I adore this coaster. Though it’s quite short and has some weird design choices such as the straight piece of track out of the station and dip before the lift hill, the rest is thoroughly enjoyable. It’s not without its faults though as you can get a bit of head banging from the restraints and the final brake run into the station is very harsh.
The very first time I rode it, I found the restrains a little confusing despite watching the videos that play in the queue line, but 1 ride was all it took to understand how they work. There is a saddle that you can ‘sit’ on so when the restraints are locked, make sure your legs are straight and your feet flat so you don’t get any discomfort from this bumping into you.
The first drop is pleasant and smooth, heading into the vertical loop that feels very unusual when navigated whilst standing. You can sometimes get a bit of a knock here as well as the zero G roll following the loop. Next is a small flat piece of track before two corkscrews that also feel really unusual but have great force and are very thrilling before the train turns around and heads into the final brake run. Once again be prepared for this as it is very abrupt and it will remove glasses and other loose articles if not strapped down!
No one ever seems to talk about Shockwave. Nemesis is always lauded, and rightly so, and Big One still gets attention as the UKs tallest but I’d rather ride Shockwave over Big One if I had to choose between the two. Big One has gotten a lot of retracking but is still quite rough, both Nemesis and Shockwave are still running on their original rails and I’d personally say they ride as well as each other in terms of roughness.
Since writing that, Nemesis has now been taken apart ready for its retrack which might make it ride differently, but I don’t think it’ll change enough to make it a bad ride or anything. Big One has had retracking done, and if I’m being brutally honest, it hasn’t made the slightest difference in ride quality.
Nemesis is still better themed, has better operations and is superior a ride to the other two, but Shockwave comfortable takes second for me. It’s shorter layout means its single train still gets sent out as fast as they can, and Big One runs multiple trains but their operations are dreadful in my opinion!
Call it my own ignorance of how the ride works, but there are plenty of block sections on Big One. Surely they can run 3 trains, load one, have one on the layout and another approaching the final brakes, if not waiting there already! I should stand and watch both rides for a bit and see which one is actually faster for dispatches as it would be interesting to see!
I don’t think there is anything they could do to make Shockwave better than Nemesis and if I’m being honest, I don’t think I’d want them to. It could do with a second train for capacity sake and if they could smooth it out to be like Icon then it would make the decision even harder.
So Shockwave then, a ride overshadowed by two bigger rides that I think deserves its time in the sun, at least a little! Not the UKs tallest, not the UKs fastest, but a unique ride that will certainly divide its ridership, some love it, some hate it but for me, I love it!
Though we haven’t had quite as many brand new attractions to ride this year, we’ve visited more parks and done more events than last year. As with last year, I thought it would be fun to look back at the 2022 season, rank the events and new attractions we rode this year and reflect on the season passed.
The Events
Over the last year we went to the following events:
Alton Towers Opening Weekend
Alton Towers Festival of Thrills
Thorpe Park Mardi Gras
Thorpe Park Carnival
Alton Towers Octoberfest
Chessington Howl’o’ween
Thorpe Park Fright Nights
Legoland Brick or Treat
Alton Towers Scarefest
Fantasy Island Fear Island
Legoland Fireworks Spectacular
Alton Towers Fireworks Spectacular
That list is just in the order we did them, not the order I enjoyed them most. The best event we did this year, at least in my opinion was probably the Alton Towers opening weekend as we saw plenty of other enthusiasts as well as sharing it with a couple of good friends too.
It wasn’t truly an event in the same vein as the others but I included opening weekend as it’s celebrated as such and I enjoyed it!
The most surprising event and probably the second best we did was Fantasy Island’s Fear Island. For such a relatively small park to put on such a good event was staggering and though not everything was a massive hit, the scare mazes definitely were!
The most disappointing event unfortunately goes to Scarefest at Alton Towers. As highlighted in my blog, the event felt a little lacking and missing something special to mark the occasion.
All the other events and visits we had were great, though I did feel that Carnival was just Mardi Gras but with a yellow overlay, but it was still enjoyable none the less!
The Attractions
There wasn’t many new attractions to try this year but we did get around all the ones we could! We managed:
Sik at Flamingo Land
Enso at Blackpool Pleasure Beach
Harrington Flint’s Island Adventure at Fantasy Island
The Guardian at Fantasy Island
Wild River Rapids at Fantasy Island
Farm Yard Flyer at Paultons Park
Vikings at Drayton Manor
Barrel Bailout at Chessington World of Adventures
Trawler Trouble at Chessington World of Adventures
Not a very long list but still plenty to go at!
The best this year, at least in my opinion, was the long overdue Sik at Flamingo Land. Daft name but great ride! Despite it being my home park, we only managed it once and I’ve heard it’s having a few issues as the years gone on but I’ll get back to it next year to see!
The weakest of the new additions is a tie between Enso and The Guardian, a bit of a cop out, however both had issues.
The upcharge and lack of value for money on Enso is what took it away for me. Even then, once you’d paid the fee, I wasn’t blown away by the feeling of free spinning. I followed all the advice people have me such as sitting in the right hand seat and going alone but even still I didn’t get the same levels of enjoyment out of it as other seem to!
Dragons Fury, when sat facing backwards, spins more going into the first break run than Enso did through its whole layout. That ride is probably built with spinning in mind, but it is included in park entry at least.
The Guardian was a good idea that was executed badly. Bad CGI and screen quality hampered an otherwise good idea, especially when you first enter the queue line and see all the theming and effort that’s gone into this attraction.
I’m not sure if it was budget constraints or purposeful decisions that caused the issues but they are somewhat easily rectifiable and should make this attraction live up to the expectation that the queue line builds up!
As for the other new attractions this year, there was Vikings which is a good themed area with a good new ride in Loki. I wasn’t really that blown away by it though. Thor is just another Disk’o Coaster and Jormungandr is still Buffalo Coaster with a new theme. Sleipnir is decent though, especially for younger kids.
The whole area is pleasant to walk through and features a lot of wood and some Viking theming but it could do with a bit of an expansion on the theme in my opinion! It was put together very quickly, especially when compared with some of the other new additions and in the nicest possible way, it shows! Just a bit of fine tuning, a few props here and there and it’ll be spot on.
Another surprise entry was from Fantasy Island with Harrington Flint’s Island Adventure. This was much better than expected. I’m a sucker for interactive dark rides, I think every park should have one and this one stands out from Tomb Blaster, Rootin’ Tootin’ Target Trail, Sheriff’s Showdown, Laser Raiders and Dual because of its use of both screens and physical props. The cars were comfortable and the shooting was fun. It just lacks on ride photos and the physical props adding to your score!
The New Parks
This year we visited a lot of new parks, this includes:
Funland Hayling Island
Crealy
Barry Island
Southport Pleasureland
Joyland
Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach
Pleasurewood Hills
I think the biggest surprise out of all the new parks we visited, for me at least, was Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach. The ride selection was great, there were very few queues throughout the day and we had a great time.
Joyland was also a wonderful little park. Though not even a half day park, it was worth our money and time, and I’ll certainly visit here every time I’m back in Great Yarmouth in future!
Crealy was a nice and tidy park, as was Pleasurewood Hills. Both have good ride line ups but in both cases we weren’t the intended audience of the parks, so it wasn’t quite as fun for us as some of the other parks, such as Barry Island or Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach.
Finally I’d like to mention both the owners of Southport Pleasureland and Barry Island for all their help with regards to filming around their parks and on the attractions!
The New to us Attractions
In this section I’d like to highlight some of the existing attractions that we only experienced for the first time this year. We tried all sorts, ranging from our first scenic railway, a 70 year old virginia reel, weird and wonderful flat rides, all the way up to two different snail attractions!
The biggest standout of the year is most certainly Roller Coaster at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach. This is our first scenic railway (of the 2 in the UK and 7 worldwide) and is the second fastest wooden rollercoaster in the country only behind Megafobia. Though not as thrilling as Megafobia, or as well themed as Wicker Man, its definitely the smoothest woodie we’ve ridden and was a joy from start to finish.
Other standout attractions of the year include Lightning 360 at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach, Roller Coaster, The Rocket and Ghost Train all from Southport Pleasureland and just because of the sheer amount of spinning we got, I’ll include (what I believe to be Crow’s) Spinning Coaster from Hull Fair too.
There’s one final attraction that was notable this year too, that being Kite Flyer at Pleasurewood Hills. This was the only ride all year that made me feel genuinely ill afterwards! I’m not sure if I was having an off day, the ride cycle was too long or I moved my head too fast while the ride was spinning but it really knocked me for 6.
Summary
We’ve ridden some great attractions this year. Tried some terrible ones too. Had some ups and downs, rainy days and absolute scorchers along the way. Throughout all the visits we’ve had, we’ve always had fun. Yeah Enso was a bit pricy, Sik took far too long to open and Kite Flyer went a step too far (for me at least), but each day was still fun.
We’ve shared at least 3 visits with friends and family this year, I’ve found that one of my best friends, Pedro, is a secret adrenaline junkie and both he and Tami are welcome to join us anytime they like!
I’m not sure there is too much to be excited for in terms of the UKs new offerings next year, but as this year comes to a close, we’ve started drawing up rough plans for our visit next year, with a blog to follow once we know more.
Hopefully next year will be as fun as this year has been but only time will tell!
The Awards
Best New Attraction
Awarded to the best single attraction opened during this year.
Sik
Harrington Flint’s Island Adventure
Loki
Best Event
Awarded to the events that I felt were the best from this year.
Alton Towers Opening Weekend
Fantasy Island – Fear Island
Thorpe Park Fright Nights
Best New Park
Awarded to the park we visited for the very first time this year.
Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach
Joyland
Crealy
Best New To Us Attraction
Awarded to the attraction that we experienced for the first time this year.
Roller Coaster – Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach
Ghost Train – Southport Pleasureland
Lightning 360 – Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach
Best Rollercoaster Overall
Awarded to the top 3 rollercoasters from my ranking page.
The Smiler
Stealth
Nemesis
Best Flat Ride Overall
Awarded to the attraction that I felt was the most fun and enjoyable flat ride from the last year.
Haunted House Monster Party
Detonator: Bombs Away
Zodiac
Best Onsite Stay
There were only two to pick from, but its awarded to the park with the best onsite stay we had through the year.
Thorpe Shark Cabins
Alton Towers Star Gazing Pods
Best Customer Services
Awarded to the park who’s customer services were needed and how well they handled our issues.
Alton Towers
Pleasurewood Hills
Southport Pleasureland
Best Food
Awarded to the park that I think had the best tasting food from the year.
Chessington World of Adventures (Drop n’ Chicken Nuggets)
Alton Towers (Front Lawns Catering)
Thorpe Park (Pizza Pasta Buffet)
Most Disappointing Visit
These are my least memorable visits from the year. Non were bad, just didn’t fully hit the mark!
Alton Towers – Scarefest (Lacked Ceremony for the 15th anniversary)
Oakwood (Rained off with no rainy day return)
Legoland – Firework Spectacular (Too short!)
Worst Ride of the Year
Grand Canyon – Southport Pleasureland
Kite Flyer
Rootin’ Tootin’ Target Trail
Park of the Year
Awarded to the park that, overall, had the most enjoyable visits.
I feel like I should write this blog about Drayton Manors Apocalypse. The ride is a 177ft Intamin Drop tower, the first of its kind to feature stand-up gondolas when it opened in 2000, a feat it held onto until 2005.
2 years after opening it was converted to have a 5th tower around its central column to facilitate a floorless standup gondolas.
Today, the 30th of October 2022 marks the last operational day for Apocalypse and it holds a special place for me. Alongside its distant cousin, Cliffhanger at Flamingo Land, these two are the two towers that setup my fear and eventual conquering of drop tower style rides.
In 2017 I rode Cliffhanger at Flamingo Land as the very first drop tower I’d ever do and it terrified me. It was a great feeling in some ways but scary in others as the ride reached its maximum height and began to fall back, my bum left the seat and despite being restrained properly, I’ll never forget that feeling of true terror, something I’ve yet to replicate on any ride since.
Anyway time passes and 2019 rolls around and our first visit to Alton Towers. This is the visit that cements my love for theme parks and is the trip I’ll officially state as the beginnings for Loops and Lapbars.
2020 comes around and COVID restrictions hamper access to parks but soon after we’re back at parks again. Besides Thorpe Park though, no Merlin parks have any drop towers so I begin to forget about my dislike of them as I choose to ignore Detonator and Ice Blast at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.
Our first visit to Drayton comes in 2021 and with it my first ride on Apocalypse. I’ve heard so many great things about this ride from plenty of other enthusiasts and it brings drop towers back to the forefront of my mind. Will I still feel the fear or will my understanding of how they operate make it easier to ride them?
I queue for Apocalypses alone as Tracy doesn’t want to try it, and I actually wanted to try the standup section first but found myself in the sit-down queue.
I board the gondola, get sat down and start to feel the adrenaline rush going somewhat into the unknown again. The ride starts and takes us all the way to the top and then holds us there for a few seconds. Tension mounts as you know it’s coming but nothing happens.
Then as quick as a flash the gondola drops and I feel the rush as we free fall back down to earth, reaching speeds of 50 miles an hour. Back in the station before I really knew what was going on, I get off and look back up at the tower. That was exhilarating and thrilling but not at all scary!
I don’t know if it’s something Apocalypse did different to Cliffhanger and I gather the restraints are different (and I’ve gained a bit of weight too since 2017), but whatever the case be, I really enjoyed the first drop on Apocalypse.
I’ve only actually ridden the ride 4 times since starting regular theme park visits. Only once have I done the standup side too as it’s been closed a lot since I got my first ride but that was on another level!
It’s in part thanks to Apocalypse that I enjoy drop towers as much as I do now. Since my first ride, I’ve now tackled Ice Blast at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Cliffhanger at Flamingo Land again, Detonator at Thorpe Park and Vocalno at Fantasy Island.
I’m not sure if Detonator would have done the same if I’d ridden that first over Apocalypse, and I can speculate that it would have, however I rode Apocalypse first and not Detonator so Apocalypse gets the special treatment today. Detonator is a great ride though and I’ll still be able to ride that next year. Apocalypse is sadly going after the end of today and that’s a shame.
I will miss the big guy and to be honest I hope a smaller park buys it and adds it to their line up, renovates it and has it running at it’s best once again!
Our most recent theme park outing was to Drayton Manor! A slightly impromptu visit but since the park is offering 2 visits for the price of one, it makes a lot of sense, especially with their new area, Vikings!
Vikings
The new area is nicely themed and very pleasant on the eye. Though lacking in a real big centrepiece bit of theming, the rides sort of make up for this.
Walking through the new archway built under the old Buffalo Coasters track, you are greeted with a lot of nicely laid stone pathways and wood everywhere. There is a very small pond with a water feature to the right too, but the main draw is Loki, the parks Zamperla Nebulaz.
Loki
I feel like Loki is the areas signature attraction, as it takes centre stage and has had the most advertising, at least that I’ve seen!
The ride is a Zamperla Nebulaz, which is a first for the UK. The ride features 4 arms with 2 gondalas at each end for a seating capacity of 32 riders. The arms rotate around a 360 degree arc and the tower turns too. As each arm rotates, it’s meshes with the others giving a lot of near miss effects as you ride. Offride it looks excellent and on ride it’s even more fun.
There isn’t a great deal of force but it does give you plenty of pull as the arms get up to full speed. The easiest way to describe the feeling is if you’ve ever driven over a hump back bridge with a little speed. It turns your stomach, and so does Loki. A great new ride for Drayton and hopefully, we’ll see a few more of these in the coming years. I’d love to see ones where the gondalas rotate too…
Sleipnir
Sleipnir (Slay-p-neer) is another brand new attraction and is themed around the mythic horse of Odin. The ride sees you going on an adventure through a training school. The ride features audio on board each horse shaped vehicle, but it was a little too quiet to hear it.
There’s an on ride camera which is a nice thing to see as I’m a sucker for on ride digital photos! Other than that, the ride takes you on a small tour around a few themed elements before taking you back to the station.
This one really is designed for the younger audiences out there, and there is fun to be had on this, such as posing for daft photos, or watching other adults being silly together.
We did see a lot of smaller children riding the ride which is good, but there wasn’t as many excited faces amongst the kids as there was among their parents!
It’ll be nice to see how this ride matures over the years as I’d like to see more greenery around the track, and the audio turning up a notch too!
Jormungandr
Jormungandr (Your-mung-und-r) is the only returning ride rethemed for the area. In it’s old guise it was the Buffalo Mountain Coaster, and besides a good clean up of the station and the train having a new front and rear theming element, not much has changed for this classic ride.
This is both good and bad in my opinion! On the one hand, the train look so much better than it did before and the station is really pleasing on the eye, and I believe I also noticed some nice music being played too. On the other hand the coaster is still incredibly dull, even for a family coaster!
I don’t mean to upset anyone with my opinion on Jormungandr, but it still remains as the worst coaster I’ve ridden so far! I could do with a serious power upgrade around some of the helixes. It’s a shame as it takes up such a large amount of space and has a great section over the lake that I feel is wasted on this coaster.
Thor
Thor is another Disk’O Coaster for the UK, seating 40 guests around a nicely themed central hub. If you’ve ridden Kobra at Chessington or Edge at Paultons Park, then you’ve got some idea what to expect with Thor.
During our visit we didn’t have a go on Thor as the queue was very long and we intended to come back later but ended up getting side tracked.
I feel they missed a chance to make this one stand out by theming the end ramps with stone effect Viking statues, similarly to how Chessington themed up Kobra.
I would imagine the ride is still good fun, but we now have 11 different Disk’O attractions of various capacity in the UK, it would have been nice to see something else new, like Loki!
Overall thoughts
I might have sounded quite negative about Thor and Sleipnir, but Drayton Manor certainly needed them to help to boost their offerings. Though I haven’t ridden Thor, I can imagine it’ll be great fun, and Sleipnir can also be enjoyed by all ages too. Jormungandr could do to be replaced in my opinion, but I’ll go into that in a future blog!
Loki was certainly the standout attraction for the new area and it rides great too! I hope they expand the area a little in future and do something with that pond!
The rest of the park
The rest of our time in the park was spent having rerides on many of the other great attractions, such as Sherriff’s Showdown, Apocalypse and Shockwave.
Shockwave was certainly my highlight of the day. The more I ride this Intamin Stand up coaster, the more I enjoy it. I’ll have to go into detail about why I like the coaster so much at some point!
We had also had a wander around the zoo and still failed to see the tigers! We’ve seen them in the back room on the monitors in the past but we didn’t see anything this time!
Bryan’s Works Museum
One thing we did finally manage to see was Bryan’s Works, the parks display of working penny slot machines. Since our first visit in 2021 we’ve wanted to have a look around this and the Thomas Exhibition, but both were closed due to Covid-19 measures. While the Thomas Exhibition has since reopened and we’ve been around it, Bryan’s Workshop always remained closed.
Though the building is small, it holds a good collection of penny machines, most of which only accept the older and larger 1d penny. Many of the machines are well before my time, but a few of the more modern ones I remember playing on when we went to Mablethorpe on holiday!
There is a small charge of 10p per 1d Penny, and they do ask that you don’t take the old coins home, but Tracy got a quid’s worth and we had a good time playing some of the machines on offer!
It’s fascinating to see machines that do quite a lot really and yet are completely mechanical and don’t use any outside power sources. This is a must for anyone wanting to go down memory lane, get away from the rides, or simply have a bit of cheap fun!
Conclusion
To conclude our day at Drayton, I’d say we had a great time! Vikings is another good step for the park, and though Apocalypse is leaving the park at the end of this season, I’ve heard rumours that a new rollercoaster is in the works, so hopefully we hear something of this soon!
Looping Group seems to be putting investment into the park and saving it from what was once a grim looking future, so hopefully investment will continue, the park will grow and with it new attractions and experiences!
We’ll be heading back in a month or two to try out Thor and reride Apocalypse to death before its removal too. I didn’t get the chance to do the same for Pandemonium before that was removed, so I’d like to make up for that! Looking forward to our next visit!
As mentioned in a previous blog, I’d like to break down the various Vekoma Madhouse attractions that the UK has, compare and contrast their ride mechanics and themes and finally rank them. It won’t be that hard though as there are only 3 currently in the UK.
Firstly I haven’t ridden Impossible at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, and its not manufactured by Vekoma so I won’t be including this attraction here!
Like so many others, the first Madhouse I rode was Hex – The Legend of the Towers at Alton Towers. I went in knowing what was going to happen and spoiled it a little for myself (a feat I wouldn’t do when trying Derren Browns Ghost Train). Even though I knew how the ride worked, I was still impressed with the attraction and the feeling it gives you.
The walkthrough and show portion of Hex is brilliant, showcasing the Earl of Shrewsbury’s story and the chained oak legend. It could do with a little modernising as it does feel the oldest out of the 3 when directly compared, but it does its job perfectly well!
Next is Haunted House Monster Party at Legoland Windsor. This rides preshow is probably the weakest of the 3 attractions as it is just a video that plays in a large room with lights and sounds. It’s still good but not quite as good as The Haunting or Hex’s preshow.
The actual Madhouse portion itself is top notch. The room and seats sync up very well giving you that weird sensation of movement without it looking like you’re moving and the whole story of this being a party trick is very silly and bombastic and fun! Definitely memorable!
Finally there’s The Haunting at Drayton Manor. This ride features a well themed show building like the other two, and similar to Hex has different rooms leading up to the Madhouse.
The Haunting has probably the best preshow section of the 3, and features 3 rooms with screens and projections, as well as jump scares and motion to boot. However it is let down incredibly by its ride section. I’ve ridden it a couple of times and noticed the walls and seats aren’t quite in sync and the effects are nice, but lacking too. On our last visit the final section of the crypt opening didn’t actually do anything which is a shame as the preshow is so good!
It’s also worth noting that The Haunting is a smaller scale attraction than the other two, and though I can’t find figures, I would guess that The Haunting has roughly half the capacity of the other two, which can both manage 70+ guests each.
I think Hex is my favourite of the 3 as it’s consistent in its approach. The preshow is excellent and so is the ride element. I like the story behind it too and it uses the Towers really well.
Next I’d put Haunted House Monster Party as its ride element is really good fun, possibly the most fun of all 3, but its preshow does let it down a bit. The show building looks great too!
Finally there’s The Haunting. The ride section really does let The Haunting down massively and if it were given an overhaul and made into a larger capacity attraction with improved effects in the crypt, it would probably take the top spot!
I don’t know whether I’d put Vekoma Madhouses or Huss Top Spin rides at the top of my non rollercoaster attractions list, but the UKs Madhouses certainly make it a difficult decision! It doesn’t really help that we have no more Top Spins left in the UK, which is a shame! Maybe Talocan will make it easier to decide?
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