Tag: Gullivers

Blog, Reviews

Gullivers Kingdom – The first visit

Loops&Lapbars

As part of LoveTwoexplores weekend, on the second day we ended up at Gulliver’s Kingdom in Matlock Bath.

The first thing that strikes you when you approach the park is the terrain the park is built on. It’s essentially a mountainside! There’s definitely been some creative uses of the land throughout the building of this park.

Once we were parked up and got into the park we headed to our first of our two exclusive ride times. The first was on the only roller coaster called The Log Coaster. We only had one go around but it did mean we had more time for the next attraction which was the Riggers Revenge Zip Line.

Now I’ve never done one of these before but I have done similar and the idea is that you’re strapped into a harness and then attached to the rail above allowing what is this essentially free flight around the park. You start off the attraction by climbing a small hill and then you jump off and it swings you around the roof tops and trees before bringing you back into what is essentially a station. For all intense purposes it is a roller coaster though it’s not really classed as such!

By the time we’d had a few goes round on the zip line the park had open to the general public so we headed down to the chairlift for the first of many trips up and down the hillside. This lift takes you from the very bottom of the park to what is the second highest point in the park and onto our first ride up here the Laser Dodgems.

These are exactly as the name implies dodgems with laser guns! Though throughout the whole day the gun scoring systems didn’t work unfortunately. It was still a good laugh as these dodgems seemed faster than the ones yesterday and they had forward and backwards pedals which is unusual!

After a couple of cycles on the laser dodgems we moved on to the Drop Tower attraction. It looks quite small compared to other tower rides in the UK but it does have great views over the park and surrounding area. It’s also quite intense as it doesn’t mess around with the drops. It takes you up then drops you then takes you back up then drops you again and it is quite forceful, a lot of fun as well as being quite comfortable too!

Once we were done with the drop Tower we headed up to the the highest point in the park which is another Western themed area but getting there you get the chance to use something called The Travelator! This is a transport Ride of sorts that takes you up the final little hill to the very top of the park. This only covers about 75 m or so but it’s a unique thing I’ve never seen in a park before!

At the very top is the western themed area as mentioned earlier which includes two rides; a dark ride and the log Flume. We all had a go on the log flume first and like a lot of other rides at the Gulliver’s parks it feels like this should be more to look at but it does make up for it by going through what looks like a purpose-built gorge that does actually look really impressive considering the demographic of the ride! The drop was short and sweet and you didn’t get too wet overall so I’d say this is quite a pleasant little ride!

The next stop was Silver Mine but it didn’t open for about 20 minutes so we ended up having a bit of a break and then queued up for the dark ride. Much like yesterday’s Tombstone Mine this one is set in a Western mine area but this one retains its guns so there are targets to shoot at. Unlike other interactive dark rides in the UK though this one doesn’t keep score, the guns are simply there to activate things as you go around the ride. It was quirky but probably not as exciting as it could have been!

We then spent the rest of the afternoon riding very similar rides to Gulliver’s Valley, such as the Dino Explorer Cars, Crazy Barrels, Carousel and Gully’s Pirate adventure. A couple of standouts were The Cycle Monorail and Gully’s Magic Bikes.

Both of these are pedal powered attractions (of sorts) where the monorails is entirely powered by your peddling and the Magic Bikes raises and lowers depending on how fast you peddle. Great fun, but quite tiring if you’re as out of shape as what I am!

For dinner, we stopped in the parks chippy and had chips, sauce and a drink. The curry sauce was one of the best I’ve ever tasted and the portion size was decent for the price too. Food options were pretty standard across both parks, offering the usual fast food but it was tasty.

The vast majority of the afternoon was spent re-riding the attractions and just enjoying the scenery around the park. We had a look in the toy and puppet museum as well and this was a nice distraction from the rides!

To finish up, I’ll say that Kingdom is a great little park and definitely the more scenic of the two parks we visited but I think I prefer Valley. Purely because it’s newer and therefore it’s a lot tidier to look at. Kingdom seemed in desperate need of a pressure wash here and there and some of the scenery tidying up a little. That’s not to say that Kingdom is bad, far from it, but it would be better than Valley if it had a bit of work done here and there!

Blog, Reviews

Gulliver’s Valley – The First visit

Loops&Lapbars

The Gullivers family of parks is a group that I wouldn’t normally be able to visit as they have a very strict adult to child ratio which means only adult groups can’t usually go.

However, thanks to Love2explore setting up a little event, 29 of us were allowed to visit as part of a larger group! We jumped at the chance to try something completely new to us and had a great day along the way!

Our first stop was the Gullivers Gears area of the park, which includes Carfari, a tracked car ride, Dodge City, a dodgems, and Grand Prix Racers, which is the biggest rollercoaster at the park. As part of our visit we were allowed 30 minutes with Grand Prix Racers all to ourselves so we cycled it over and over again. Though it’s hardly the most insane coaster we’ve ever had for an exclusive ride time, it was definitely one of the funniest!

The ride itself is a clone of Junior Red Force at Ferrari Land in Portaventura World but not quite as extensively themed. It is a nice, fun ride, if a little jarring on some of the transitions. Nonetheless, we had a right laugh riding it, and Gulliver’s were even happy with us recording on the rides, so we got a lot of footage through various different cameras!

Dodge City was the next stop and we had a great time here too, even if there was only six cars on the track and the track was pretty small!

Car fari came next and this feels like a little bit of a missed opportunity. The ride itself meanders round very short oval shaped course but doesn’t really have anything to look at, however right next to the Gears area there’s a little farm and it feels like it would be better if it went around the farm!

Once we had finished in the Gears area we moved on to the Wriggler. This is your standard wacky worm though when compared to other models, this one is incredibly smooth! You couldn’t fit two adults in each car but that didn’t take away from the fact that we all piled on the train and had a right laugh doing it!

Our final stop before dinner was the Rocking Tug, which is exactly as you would expect, a rocking tug! It does have some nice theming to it but overall it’s just a rocking tug.

Next up was dinner and we ate in the Lilliput Restaurant while a show was playing. The restaurant offered your standard thoroughfare of park food such as burgers and sandwiches and wasn’t too expensive. The only issue was that the digital boards for ordering food didn’t really tell you what was included in the price so Tracy ended up ordering more than she really needed!

After dinner we headed into the Western themed area of the park and had a go on the three attractions there. These were the Rocky Ridge Railway, Apache Falls and Tombstone Mine.

Rocky ridge railway first and unfortunately there’s not really much to talk about. The best part about the ride is arguably the fact that it feels like a wild mouse mixed with a conventional long train coaster as the layout is very back and forth like a wild mouse is. However unlike a wild mouse it’s incredibly slow, but this does make it a perfect fit for a kid’s first roller coaster.

Next up was arguably one of the best rides in the park, Apache Falls. This is a river Rapids ride very similar to the one that Fantasy Island installed last year though this one is a permanent fixture. It didn’t really have much theming to it but unlike the vast majority of other rides it did have some music playing which was nice to hear and added character!

Do be aware though, you will probably get very wet on on this rapids ride despite its deceptive size. The reason being is that Gulliver’s have installed wooden partitions in the trough which catches water and throws it back at the boat so you get a nice showering effect right off the lift hill. It feels very similar to storm surge at Thorpe Park though a lot more thrilling and more interesting!

The final ride in the Western themed area is Tombstone Mine which at one time of day was an interactive dark ride. However the shooting element has since been removed leaving a decent ride but not quite as good as it could be. I think the shooting element would have definitely improved this one, at least for me!

After the Western themed area we headed into the pirate themed area and had to go on the pirate ship and teacups ride which are both as you would expect. The teacups ride, here called Blackbeard’s barrels, is somewhat interesting in the rotates both ways so it will stop halfway through to rotate the other way and you’ll get decent spin in the cars.

The final area of the park is The Lost World and as the name would imply is heavily themed around dinosaurs. This theming extends to the five rides that we had to go on starting with Jurassic Jeeps.

Jurassic Jeeps is another car ride similar to carfari earlier however this one has a lot more things to look at. It’s not quite as good as the one at Paulton’s in my opinion but it’s still a great ride for kids.

Speaking of great rates for kids next up was Paragliders which is a swing ride but unlike most others, this one doesn’t lift and tilt it keeps a level spin which makes it once again perfect for kids.

The next stop was the thing that pretty much everyone was looking forward to, Gyrosaur. This is the most thrilling ride at the park and is a gyro swing ride which means it completely inverts.

Though it’s not quite as thrilling as Cyclonator or Maelstrom it’s still a great addition to the park as it means older kids have got something to go on while the younger kids go on the young rides. As a group of enthusiasts, we thoroughly enjoyed it naturally!

Finally there’s T-Rex Towers and Lost World River Tour which are both water rides of differing thrill level. T-Rex Towers is a fun set of dingy slides where two will race and the third does its own thing but is faster and covered. I had to go on the cover tunnel myself.

The river ride feels like an extension of Jurassic jeeps as both do the same, they traverse a short course surrounded by dinosaurs whether they be static or animatronic and with river rides case there’s a little show scene of dinosaurs playing Walk The Dinosaur by Was Not Was which is a bit of fun.

After we’d all had to go on the right and lost World we headed back to the entrance to have a walk through the final traction monster Manor. This is essentially a ghost house but very kid-friendly. You can tell a lot of effort has been put into this one as there are many scenes to see with plenty of details within. It’s not the scariest attraction but it does have a little bit of character to it and the Facade is quite impressive outside.

Once we’d finished in monster Manor we had a go around the shop and I was surprised to find PIN badges and patches but other than that there wasn’t really much Gulliver’s related merchandise which is a bit of a shame but I can understand it with the park appealing more to kids.

So how did we find it?

Despite the fact that we were all a large group of enthusiasts I felt like I had a really good day. Yes the rides weren’t the most thrilling but we still had a right laugh. It would be nice if Gulliver’s had days where no kids were allowed and groups of adults could come and enjoy the rides for themselves as everyone can enjoy every ride there, which means no one’s left out.

If you do have kids Gulliver’s is definitely worth your time and money, I think Paulton’s Park is still better but that’s because it appeals to a wider audience and has things that really really interest me. However don’t let that take away from the fact that Gulliver’s are still great fun and great value too. As we were part of a large group we ended up getting discounted tickets which came to around about £15 which is incredible value considering how much we got done during the day as well as having exclusive ride times on the roller coaster!