Tag: Fantasy Island

Blog, Reviews

2022 Season review

Loops&Lapbars

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.

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Paultons Park

Alton Towers

Thorpe Park

Blog, Reviews

Halloween Holiday 2022 summary

Loops&Lapbars

Now that all the individual blogs have been written, I’d like to summarise our holiday and get any last bits out that I may have forgotten!

Though each park did a great job of their own respective Halloween events, the standout one for me was Fantasy Island’s Fear Island event. This is followed closely by Thorpe Parks Fright Nights, Chessington’s Howl’o’ween, Legoland’s Brick or Treat and then Scarefest coming in last.

Scarefest was the weaker offering purely because it just didn’t feel like it had the weight that 15 years should carry. I think if it had just been any other year then it would have probably beaten Howl’o’ween and Brick or Treat, as Darkest Depths is now my favourite scare maze of all the ones I’ve done.

It’s not to say Scarefest was bad as it most certainly wasn’t, it was just lacking something is all!

Though Paultons Park didn’t put any scare mazes or any scare zones or such, they decorated their park beautifully and it’s well worth a visit on a lovely autumnal day to see it all.

If I had to rank all the scare mazes/zones we did this holiday, I’d say it goes as follows:

  1. Darkest Depths
  2. Villa Voodoo
  3. Blood Bunker
  4. Scream Asylum
  5. The Crows of Mawkin Meadow
  6. The Invitation
  7. Vile Villagers
  8. Deaths Door
  9. Terminal

None of the scare mazes or zones we did were bad by any stretch but some were executed much better than others were. The audio only experiences were good but have a lot of scope for improvement, as did Deaths Door. I like to see them changed and adapted for next year and build in the foundations put in place this year.

There wasn’t much I could say needed changing at Fantasy Island, except perhaps that they stay open a bit later for dark rides. I’ll touch on this topic in my Alton Towers Fireworks blog!

Overall this holiday went a whole lot smoother than our summer excursion did! We had great service from The Annex, Ramada at Cobham and Stargazing Pods at Alton Towers and all in all it didn’t cost a fortune to do it all. I’m more than happy to share an itemised breakdown for anyone who’s interested!

I can’t wait for next year’s Halloween events to roll around as I hope to be doing something similar to this next year too!

Blog, Reviews

Fantasy Island – Fear Island 2022

Loops&Lapbars

Our final visit for this trip was Fantasy Island for their Fear Island event. This event is extremely good value as it includes unlimited rides, a round of 18 hole mini golf, access to 4 scare mazes and a digipass for your ride photos too, all for £35!

I’ll start by saying that despite the good value, I didn’t feel like the scare mazes were left under funded or feeling tacky at all, quite the contrary actually! They were all well themed and had plenty of thrills and scares.

The first we tried was Scream Asylum and was set around the idea of urban explorers breaking into an abandoned asylum and getting caught by the old inmates!

This was a great start to the mazes as it was well themed and jumpy in places, but not over the top either. It did include a crawl space though so it isn’t suitable for everyone, but we managed just fine! Also unique to this scare maze was that it was so dark and you had to navigate it using a glow stick, which wasn’t very bright at all. This really added to it!

The next maze we did was Villa Voodoo. This sees you going through a swamp and finding a villa that appeared to be in the possession of Bwonsamdi, a Haitian voodoo deity who tries his best to keep you safe with his friends on the other side.

Themed mostly to a jungle, there was a really great standout part where you trudge through a swamp, using a mixture of lasers and smoke, it really did look like you were about to sink into a bog waist deep!

The final maze we tried was Blood Bunker. This was the only maze to feature physical effects which was a lift that takes you down to a labyrinth filled with tormented folk who are out to get you!

This featured some very claustrophobic areas and even a point where you are caged up and look to be unable to escape! I don’t suffer from claustrophobia so it didn’t affect me all that much, but I can imagine it would really terrify someone who does!

Besides the mazes, there’s also the chance to ride Millennium in the dark. This entails wearing a blindfold whilst riding and though a good idea in theory, the blindfold did let a bit of light through and you could make out where you were on the ride, so I just closed my eyes to get the same effect.

There was also a pirate show in the Pyramid and a circus show too but we were always doing something else during the showtimes so we missed those unfortunately.

Since this was our first visit this year, there was also 3 new rides to try out, The Guardian, Harrington Flint’s Island Adventure and Wild River Rapids.

I’ll start with Wild River Rapids. This is a road transportable version of the popular river rapids models you’ll see at Alton Towers and Thorpe Park but much smaller in scale.

The boats are much smaller and not quite as enclosed as modern rapids boats are but the ride still gives you all the feelings of its larger cousins. You’ll get a light sprinkling of water, and it even features a small drop. The best way to describe it is a much better version of Storm Surge at Thorpe Park, with river rapid elements.

Next up is Harrington Flint’s Island Adventure, which is a trackless interactive dark ride which features screens and physical props.

This was a great addition to the park, the guns work really well and the screens are excellent. There are only 2 small issues with this one. The first being that one of the screens tries to wrap around you using a pair of curves screens and they don’t quite match up. One is brighter than the other and it makes the divide very noticeable.

Secondly the physical elements you can shoot at are nice and all but they don’t add on to your score and are simply there for set dressing. Its a shame that they don’t add on to your score, but I’d rather it be like that than not have them at all!

Harrington Flint’s is definitely the best new ride this year which leads me onto The Guardian.

This ride is a robotic arm motion simulator with a large curves screens and takes you into a fantasy world to fight off malicious beasts that have come in from another dimension.

The queue line is excellently themed and the attraction features a preshow and this is where the problems start. If I’m being very critical, the CGI and acting are quite lacking here. Once you move into the ride room you’ll be sat down and over the shoulder restraints lowered and belted in place. You can’t do these yourself as the belts are too low to reach and requires the ride operator to do so.

Once you’re strapped in, the arm will lift you up into the air at a steep angle, your photo is taken and the ride rotates, facing you towards a large concaved white screen.

This is the second and biggest issue with the attraction as the screen quality and lighting is quite poor meaning you can’t really make out what’s going on properly. The ride also doesn’t tilt beyond 45 degrees too which was a shame as the over the shoulder restraints gave me the impression there would be a full 360 degree roll or something, but unfortunately not!

I do hope they can adjust the ride so it features a roll or two, and the screen/projector gets a little attention so the video is easier to see. I’d love to see the video get a bit more budget too so the CGI looks the part!

The idea is there, the ride looks great, it’s just let down by the video elements. It feels like a poor man’s Flight of the Sky Lion, an attraction I’m already critical of!

Besides the new rides, we had a go on Volcano, Rhombus Rocket, the Balloon Ride, Dragon Mountain Descent, Magical Seaquarium, Jungle Adventure, The Dodgems, The Odyssey, Go Karts and had a round of golf too.

As I mentioned in my Paultons Park blog, the Go Karts there weren’t the best, the ones at Fantasy Island are proper press and go go-karts. The track even has an F1 style overtaking section to make it feel like a proper racing track.

Though this was an upcharge and more expensive than Paultons Park, I much preferred these karts as they were faster, turned tighter and overall felt much more fun!

The other attraction I’d like to talk about is Odyssey. This is the parks Vekoma Suspended Looping Coaster (SLC), and usually that’s a cause for alarm, but not here!

The ride isn’t as smooth as Kumali, but even then it doesn’t smash your head about, and on this ride, neither of us had any issues at all! It’s also the world’s tallest SLC and would have been taller but complaints limited its size to what we see today.

Since our last visit which would have been last year now, they’ve introduced a digipass system to the ride wristbands at no additional cost. It also works differently to how other parks handle theirs as none of the rides feature a manned booth so you get your photos by pressing your band against an NFC reader.

This is a great idea, but some of the readers are behind Perspex screens that mean you can’t get the reader to read your wristband so some of the photos were unattainable. Rhombus Rockets screens were also so dark that you couldn’t make out who was who I’m the photos too.

I really like this idea though, as it not only adds additional value to your visit (as I love ride photos) but it also means you literally scan and go. It’s arguably better than iMagic at the Merlin properties, but iMagic definitely works better overall. Which I’d expect since you have to pay additionally for iMagic, where Fantasy Islands is included in your wristband price.

I hope they can sort out the little issues with the digipass system as it’s great that they’ve introduced and retrofitted the older rides with cameras, some are literally just DSLRs on sticks but it works!

Odyssey and Millennium don’t have them currently but I do recall my first ever ride on Odyssey having a camera on it, so maybe it’s something they can easily add back on?

Fear Island was a massive surprise to us as we weren’t expecting it to be quite as good as what it was. There were more scare mazes here than what Alton Towers put on for their 15th Anniversary, and though there wasn’t as much entertainment as what Towers had, there was more variety here.

We’ll definitely be returning to Fear Island next year to compare and contrast and I hope they do as good a job next year as they did this year. Excellent work Fantasy Island!

With that comes the conclusion of our holiday and a great end to a wonderful week! I’ll be doing a summary post next so look out for that!

Blog

Halloween Holiday!

Loops&Lapbars

This year, we thought it would be a good idea to have a week away visiting various parks for their Halloween events. We were impressed with Alton Towers Scarefest in 2020 and last year’s Fright Nights at Thorpe Park, so it makes sense to have a tour of the big parks!

The parks we’ve decided on are Paultons Park, Chessington, Thorpe Park, Legoland, Alton Towers and Fantasy Island. The Merlin parks are a given as we’re annual pass holders, but Paultons Park at Halloween, as well as Fantasy Island’s Fear Island event will be new to us.

That’s before we try out both parks new attractions, with Farmyard Flier at Paultons and The Guardian and Harrington Flint’s Island Adventure at Fantasy Island!

We’ll be stopping at The Annex In Totton for our first two nights, Ramada at Cobham services for the next two and finally we’re stopping on site at Alton Towers in their Stargazing Pods for the last two.

I’m not sure we’ll get around all the scare mazes on offer this year, especially with there being a few repeats, but there are a couple of other things to look forward to! The Scare Zones are returning and look to be good this year, as well as Farm Yard Flier at Paultons and the two new rides at Fantasy Island.

One of the other things I’m really looking forward to is Millennium Darkness at Fantasy Island. This will be a ride on Millennium, but blindfolded! I’m quite looking forward to this unique experience of what was my very first inverting coaster!

I’ll be writing up blogs for each of the parks and comparing it to other visits we’ve had, and tips I notice, as well as a good sprinkling of my opinion on things!

First stop is The Annex and Paultons Park…

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

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!

Blog, Reviews

Ingoldmells & Fantasy Island – Stop 10

Loops&Lapbars

Our final stop on our epic trip was The Villager Hotel just outside Fantasy Island at Ingoldmells. The hotel was once again really nice, quiet too considering it had a bar below and to the side of it. The rooms were nice and had everything we needed, a lovely place for our final stop.

Before we headed home though, we had Fantasy Island to do! As with Adventure Island, we pre purchased wristbands which allows access to all the rides here.

First up, we had a go on The Volcano, an 183ft S&S shot tower. I used to be terrified by these, but recently I’ve been trying them out, with Apocalypse at Drayton Manor and Cliff Hanger at Flamingo land helping with the fear! Tracy also found it to be quite enjoyable after the initial shock!

The Volcano.

We followed up The Volcano with a ride on Magic, a Huss Magic flat ride which was great fun! It didn’t spend too long spinning in one direction, and gives good force every now and then. We then tried Firebowl, a Teacups style ride, then followed by the Dodgems.

Next we headed into the Pyramid to visit Millennium, the parks first major roller coaster. Manufactured by Vekoma, this was the very first ‘big’ coaster I ever rode and I was pleased to see others saying how smooth it rode, and we have to agree. It is a very pleasant ride, if a little lacking in raw thrills. Still, a very good roller coaster for anyone progressing onto bigger rides with inversions!

Millennium’s first loops, the first time I went upside down on a roller coaster.

Once we’d had a wander around the Pyramid, we made our way outside to try out Speed Racer, a new for 2021 Maurer Spinning coaster. This is a really decent spinner, with good force in the turns and plenty of sharp drops in its small footprint. After which I queued for Odyssey.

The queue took a while as they have to assess wind conditions as the ride can’t operate in winds that are too strong, as the ride has previously been known to valley in the cobra roll element. Eventually they got the all clear, to a cheer from the crowd and I took my seat for my 3rd ride on the Vekoma Suspended Looper.

The Odyssey, I was in the second row!

This ride does, at least to some extent, hold up to its reputation of being the best Vekoma SLC ever built. Personally I feel it could do with going through the cobra roll a little faster, and it does knock your head about a little here and there, but otherwise, it’s an excellent inverted coaster.

After Odyssey, we had a go on the parks Star Flyer, which is a first for me as I’ve never really seen the interest in them until recently. It is quite cold when you’re at the top, what with the speed of the ride, the height it gets to and the strong coastal winds, but otherwise it offers really great views of the east coast and over the park!

Upon returning to the ground, we headed over to the Family Roller Coaster, a Wacky Worm ride, situated just next to Spinning Racer and Star Flyer. The attendant had his doubts that we’d fit, but we gave it a go, and there was room to spare! As for the ride, it was alright, just a standard Wacky Worm, but with no theming at all!

Spinning Racer, Star Flyer and Family Roller Coaster. (Taken when the park was closed).

Next we went back into the Pyramid to play in the arcades a bit and finish of the attractions in there. We rode Mystical Dragon Mountain, Toucan Tours, Jungle Adventure, The Balloon Ride and Seaquarium. All of which are quite pleasant little rides, with decent scenery and all indoors.

The Balloon Ride, inside the pyramid.

We finished off our day at Fantasy Island with a look around the shop, collected prizes from the arcades and then made our way to the car for the final trip home.

Like Adventure Island before, Fantasy Island was a lovely day, with barely any queues for attractions and pleasant helpful staff too. The only issue we had, and its only a minor one, was that certain rides were closed at certain points during the day. So for example Odyssey would close when Millennium was open, which is fine, but the ride operators weren’t always there for a rides opening time, which did lead to a little confusion as to whether some rides were actually open or not!

The Odyssey, Millennium, and so many caravans!

Overall though, another great day out and a good end to our UK road trip. Conclusion to follow….!

Blog

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!