Holiday 2021

Holiday 2021 in Summary

30th Aug 202126th Aug 2022 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.

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

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

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

The Cameras

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

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

The Rides

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

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

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

Closing Comments

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

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Ingoldmells & Fantasy Island – Stop 10

29th Aug 202126th Aug 2022 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!

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.

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.

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….!

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Margate, Southend & Adventure Island – Stop 9

29th Aug 202126th Aug 2022 Loops&Lapbars

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Axis and an overview of one side of the park

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

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

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

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

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

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

Adventure Golf, next to Adventure Island

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

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Chessington World of Adventures & Margate – Stop 8

29th Aug 202126th Aug 2022 Loops&Lapbars

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

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

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

Croc Drop – Brave the drop, release the curse!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our next stop was Margate and the Hussar Inn…

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Cobham & Thorpe Park – Stop 7

29th Aug 202126th Aug 2022 Loops&Lapbars

After our final night in Southampton Holiday inn, we once again packed the car up and left for our next stop, Thorpe Park!

We’ve visited Thorpe Park twice before and both times we’ve enjoyed it but felt that it wasn’t as good as it should have been, so this time we gave ourselves plenty of time to take it all in.

Our first visit was to Swarm. This B&M wing coaster is well themed and rides extremely well. This was only my second time riding it and Tracy’s first, and though she was terrified initially she said she’d ride it again. It does look very intimidating with the initial dive drop and elements, but much like Galactica, it’s more of a gentle giant than it looks.

After The Swarm, we went to Flying Fish, for our first ride on this junior coaster. It’s an average ride, let down a little by the landscaping and untidy ride area, but worth a ride for the credit!

Next up was The Walking Dead: The Ride, an indoor roller coaster that was closed due to the pandemic during our last visit so we missed out on it, but we have ridden it before. I like the theming and design, and I find the roller coaster itself to be quite enjoyable, especially the second lift hill scene. I’ve not heard many good reviews of the ride, and I don’t really think it needed to have an IP attached but both of us enjoy it.

After The Walking Dead, we headed to Quantum, a magic carpet style ride, near the front of the park. We queued for what felt like ages as operations were very slow, the ride operators seemed to lack training to get people on and off safely and quickly. Multiple times we saw riders loaded on and then the bars released and people moved around. We felt it wasn’t worth the queue, especially when we could have been in queue for one of the roller coasters just as long.

Following Quantum, we had a bit of a wander around, taking in the atmosphere of the park, which was quite busy. We headed over towards the Black Mirror Labyrinth, this years new attraction. We failed to realise that both this and Derren Brown’s Ghost train were timed ticketed attractions, and by the time we found out, all tickets were gone, which was a bit disappointing but not the end of the world. We rode Ghost Train in 2019 and were extremely underwhelmed by the experience.

We then queued for Stealth, the parks tallest and fastest roller coaster and a favorite of mine. The queue was slow as Stealth’s queue always is, and Tracy decided not to ride this time, but has said she’ll have a go on our next visit! As for my ride, I loved it. It was only my second time riding, and the launch is still the best the UK has to offer, and short of visiting Japan for Do-Dodonpa, I doubt it’ll get much more intense than this! The top hat offers great views of the park, as you’d expect being 205ft up, and though its a short ride, its worth the wait.

Stealth about to crest the 205ft top hat.

To cool off, we had a go on Storm in a Teacup, and then the Dodgems, and then had a ride on the Rumba Rapids before stopping for something to eat at Burger King.

By this time, it was getting later in the day so we queued up for Nemesis Inferno as our last ride of the day. Inferno is an excellent ride, and though I personally prefer the original Nemesis, Inferno is still worth the queue. Its jungle themeing and volcano are all great and when we rode, the tunnels mist effect was working which cools you off!

Once we’d finished up in the shops and collected all our photos from the Dome, we went to try and find the car. No word of a lie, this is the first time I’ve ever parked a car and lost it in the car park! We did eventually find it of course, so I sent the drone up for some aerial shots and then we drove off to Cobham services for our overnight stop at the Ramada.

To summarize our visit to Thorpe Park, we had a great day overall. The best visit we’ve had so far, even though Quantum was a bit of a letdown. We did also have refillable drinks courtesy of the Coca-cola freestyle system they have here which wasn’t running at its best, but we were advised when we bought our cups that they had supply issues.

Next stop Chessington World of Adventures…

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Southampton & Paultons Park – Stop 6

28th Aug 202126th Aug 2022 Loops&Lapbars

Once we’d fought our way through traffic to Southampton, we arrived at the Holiday Inn Southampton West. We had 3 nights booked here, and this was a nice place to stay, with ample sized rooms, and we had a decent view from ours as we were further up in the building.

Next day we set off for Paultons Park, for our first ever visit here and expectations were high due to what we’d heard about Tornado Springs.

We got parked and through the gates and made our way towards Cobra and Magma first. Cobra, being a Gerstlauer Bobsled was a really fun ride, nice pops of airtime on the final hills, a good bit of force in the helixes and the hairpin turns were tight but not uncomfortable, very spacious cars too!

After we got off, we bought a Photopass, which we felt was a bit expensive for what you get, as it costs £40, and gives you 5x printed photos, keyrings or photo blocks and digital copies as well. Since I’d paid £60 for a Merlin Annual digipass months prior, it just felt a bit high for what you ended up getting, but it was nice that they offered physical prints for the price!

Once we’d finished with the photo pass, we had a go on Magma, which is the parks tallest ride. An SBF Visa drop tower, measuring 25m, it gives great views of the park and offers a good thrill, with plenty of drops and hang time at the top, we thoroughly enjoyed Magma!

Afterwards we had a go on The Dragon, a roundabout ride by Zierer. A decent kids ride, and surprising how much force it throws out when it gets going!

Our next stop was Velociraptor, which features a pen like queue line with dinosaur animatronics and great landscaping around. We didn’t queue too long and I found the ride to be a pleasant little boomerang. The first turn has a lot of force to it and the layout, though short, offers enough for it to be worth a queue!

While we were in the Lost Kingdom area of the park, we also tried Dino Chase and Boulder Dash but left Flight of the Pterosaur for later. Dino Chase was fun, but designed for very young kids so didn’t offer too much, and Boulder Dash was a fun little Demolition Derby type ride, with plenty of near misses, though taller folk might prefer to sit this one out at the cars are quite cramped!

We then headed out of Lost Kingdom and had a wander around the parks various animal enclosures as we wound our way towards Critter Creek. One thing that can’t be understated is how nice a place Paultons Park is. The landscaping is great, the planting is lush and looked after and the path ways are immaculate. Even later on in the day we didn’t notice much litter about at all! Paultons park is beautiful.

After our walk, we ended up at Critter Creek, home to two junior rides, Prof. Blast’s Expedition Express and The Cat-O-Pillar Coaster. We omitted Expedition Express as it did look quite busy and a bit small for us, so instead had a go on The Cat-O-Pillar Coaster, which was fun!

We then thought it was time to have a look around Tornado Springs and see if it would live up to all the hype, and it certainly does! This is arguably one of the best themed areas in any park in the UK (at least that I’ve seen)!

You walk under Storm Chaser’s track and a welcome sign which leads to a sprawling American themed route, featuring 9 attractions and plenty of places to eat. We headed straight for Storm Chaser.

Storm Chaser is a Mack Rides Spinning Roller coaster, featuring a top speed of 37mph, heights of 65.6 feet and a good fun layout with one of the best helix’s I’ve even been on! This ride blew me away, pardon the pun! It rides brilliantly, no rattles, not jerks. Each Transition is excellent and thought it doesn’t spin too much, we both thoroughly enjoyed it. IT ranks in the top 10 of all UK Coasters for me, easily!

After our Storm chase was over, we tried the Windmill Towers ride and Buffalo Falls Dingy Slide. The towers were fun, even for a junior ride, and the dingy slide gets you slightly wet but nothing too major! We then headed back over to Lost Kingdom for a go on Flight of the Pterasaur.

Flight of the Pterasaur, a lovely junior suspended coaster.

We both really enjoyed Pterasaur, it had plenty to offer and another great helix at the end, but we both felt it could have done with being a bit longer as it does stop quite abruptly before the station. The seats were very comfortable and the lapbars give you great upper body freedom to move and enjoy the attraction.

While we were at the park, we had a go on the Go Karts, which is an upcharge and was good fun, but spoiled a little by the others on the track with us as they had no idea how to drive and kept swerving and blocking passes, still fun though!

Once we had our go on the Go Karts, we did a few rerides here and there, Storm Chaser, Velceraptor and Cat-O-Pillar Coaster most notably, had something to eat at The Hay Barn, delicious burritos, before heading out to the shop and the car.

Paultons park was an excellent day out, operations on the rides were good, the staff were pleasant and welcoming, the park itself was very pretty, well laid out and easy to navigate and there was plenty to do! Even though its marketed as a family park, both of us had a great time here, we both ended up returning after this visit, which will be in an upcoming blog!

One of our 5 photos from the photo pass, Cobra!

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Hereford & Oakwood – Stop 3

17th Aug 202126th Aug 2022 Loops&Lapbars

Once we’d finished with Alton, we hit the road, heading to Hereford and the Three Horseshoes Inn. On the way, we got caught up in some heavy traffic following an accident, which made us quite late to the Inn, but the staff were fantastic. They kept the kitchen open for us so we could have a something proper to eat, which we both had Steak and Ale Pie which was out of this world!

The following morning we were on the road early as we’d got a 3 hour drive to visit Oakwood Theme park over in Wales. The staff at the Inn packed us up a breakfast sandwich which was very kind of them and off we went.

We arrived at Oakwood at around 9:15 which gave me plenty of time to get the drone in the air to have a look around before we got in queue to enter the park. Park opened at 10 and the train wasn’t running due to Covid restrictions so we walked into the park and queued up to enter Spooky Street and have a ride on Creepy Crawler first.

Not much to say about Creepy Crawler, it was a decent little coaster, not too rough and ready, not too fast but quite pleasant. Though we were surprised to find it had a camera for on ride photos which was great to see!

After that we had a go on Witches Brew, a tea cups ride themed to witches cauldrons, and then onto Spooky 3D, which was interesting to say the least. I can’t be too harsh on it as it is 21 years old and looks to be running technology and theming from around the time, even though it was revamped in 2003. Certainly an experience but not the best dark ride out there!

Next we had a look in Megaphobia’s shop and found the ride parts section and bought a digipass. We found this to be good value at £20 for as many photos as you like, all day long. We then got in queue for Megaphobia.

This is what I thought a wooden coaster should be. It was rough around the edges, decently intense and a proper thrill to ride! We both agreed that even after riding it only once that its the best wooden coaster in the UK, just edging out Wickerman at Alton Towers.

Following on from Megaphobia, we had a wander around and eventually found Treetops, which is another fun junior coaster, with a camera! Decently forceful, and has plenty of hang time too!

After that we had a go on the shooting range which was an up-charge attraction, but a first time for both of us shooting air rifles at paper targets. Well worth the money for 40 shots. Next it was time for a go on Speed: No limits.

Personally I feel that Speed: No Limits is the best Euro fighter model in the UK for what it offers and how it rides. Saw the ride is much better themed and more intense which just puts it ahead for me but I still think Speed is the better ride, if you take away Saw’s theming. This was also Tracy’s first beyond vertical drop, and though she was terrified, she ended up trying other euro fighters later on in the trip!

We then decided to have a sit down and something to eat, in this case a burger meal from the main food court in the centre of the park. The food was good, plenty of choice and extras, and not too expensive either, we’d happily recommend the food here! There were plenty of areas to sit down and eat, we picked a nice bit of grass under a tree behind the restaurant, it was lovely and pleasant!

Once we’d finished our dinner, we had a wander about, taking photos and the like, before having a go on Waterfall, a water ride thats gaining fame for its unique idea. You climb the tower to board a ‘tea tray’ that is then dropped down a chute and the idea is that you then skim across the water trying not to fall in before then end.

When we were there, it was quite popular and there was always someone not making it to the end and falling in. Its a real crowd pleaser and an excellent little attraction for Oakwood to have. On my go I made it no problem, Tracy on the other hand toppled over about three quarters of the way across to fits of laughter from myself!

Once we’d gotten dried and changed, we had a round of mini golf, which was in a pretty poor state, but it was only £1 so I’m not complaining! We then started to queue for the Bobsled, the parks oldest ride. The queue took a very long time and there wasn’t much cover from the sun in the queue line. The ride itself is quite fun, but I didn’t feel the queue time was worth the ride itself. Get on this one early if you can.

To round off our visit, we had a go on the boating lake before a second ride on Megafobia and a trip to the parks shops. I would just like to mention at this point that you can buy old, used ride parts in the Megaphobia shop and they are very well priced. I ended up with a gear mechanism from Megaphobia for £25, an absolute bargain in my eyes!

I should also mention that Oakwood does have a very good area for younger families, we had a look around but ultimately didn’t have quite enough time to ride some of the rides there, but it looked like it’ll be more fun to have at Oakwood! A second visit will certainly be coming!

Once we’d packed the car up, we headed off for an overnight stay in Bristol for a quiet day off, before a visit to Bovington Tank Museum!

Blog, Reviews

Stafford & Alton Towers – Stop 2

16th Aug 202126th Aug 2022 Loops&Lapbars

After leaving Blackpool, we headed on to Days Inn at Stafford M6 southbound services. The rooms were standard rooms, twin beds, desk and the like, with an excellent shower but a lack of air conditioning. We had a very good nights stay here.

The following morning we were up, fed and on the road again ready for a day at Alton Towers!

We’ve visited Alton plenty of times before hand and are well rehearsed in how to dodge most of the queues, but I made a fatal mistake, by booking Alton Towers on a bank holiday Monday. The park was extremely busy and it meant we didn’t have much time to do many of the excellent rides this time around.

Our first stop was the new for 2021 World of David Walliams and Gangsta Granny: The Ride. There was a little confusion as to where the queue for the ride actually started, as they weren’t letting folk into the purpose made cattle pens initially, but eventually they filtered us in and after taking our photo in the queue, we boarded the ride car.

I knew nothing of the story aside a few little things I’d picked up from the queue line, but by the end of the ride, i’m pretty certain I know whats going on! The ride was brilliantly done! Very bright and vibrant, the motions, smells and visuals were a real delight to behold, and both of us thoroughly enjoyed it!

After we’d finished in the shop, we had a go on Flavio’s fabulous fandango and the Royal Carousel. Both were good times, though the operations on Flavios were quite poor, with the ride ops seemingly not fussed about getting people onto the ride in any meaningful time.

The next stop was to X-Sector where I finally got to have a go on the Enterprise ride. I’ve seen it many times before on previous visits, and always wanted a go, but for whatever reason, it’s never operated. So I had my go, Tracy sat it out as she wasn’t much of a fan of the ride type. I wasn’t disappointed! Though I do feel that the bulk of the fun of the ride is actually when it’s laying flat, it was still fun to go up in the air and experience nothing but the ride’s forces keeping you in place.

Next we tried our first Retro Squad ride with Mixtape. I’ve never seen anything like one of these before, its a real visual treat when its going and the audio they had on was great and really fit in. I think that if they gave it a bit of a repaint and fit it permanently, it would fit perfectly in X-Sectror with The Smiler and Oblivion.

We skipped The Smiler and Oblivion as their queues were quite lengthy and instead we headed up to the Dark Forest for a ride on Rita, one of my all time favorite rides. We ended up buying Fast Passes though as we couldn’t stay too late and the queue was into the 90 minute realms. As usual, we really enjoyed it, the launch is still exhilarating and the airtime we get keeps us coming back!

After Rita, we were pretty much done. The crowds were a bit too much and operations were quite slow so we missed out on the other Retro Squad rides, Forbidden Valley and Wickerman this time around, but we’ll be back later in the year.

While we were there, Alton Towers was hosting Mardis Gras, which involved each areas having its own festival, with plenty of entertainment, street food, bright colours and music all around the park. Though not as good as what Scarefest was in 2020, it was still a great addition to the yearly line up, and we hope they do it again next year! We did feel that some of the food on offer was very expensive, but there was plenty to choose from, with cheaper options available.

Overall, a bit of a disappointing visit to Towers this time around, but I know it was my fault booking on a bank holiday, but we still had fun, experienced the big new ride for this year, and experienced things for the first time, so it wasn’t all bad news!

Next stop is Hereford, and onto Oakwood!

Blog, Reviews

Blackpool Pleasure Beach – First stop!

2nd Aug 202126th Aug 2022 Loops&Lapbars

Continuing on from my previous blog, I said we’d started our road trip at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. We were there over two days, and we stopped at Seaforth Guesthouse, which is 10 minutes walk from the entrance. It was a lovely little place, just enough room for the two of us to get all our things in and still have room to maneuver. We’d certainly recommend it for a visit like we did, or even just a weekend away in Blackpool.

Continue reading →

Blog

2021 Summer holiday

27th Jul 202126th Aug 2022 Loops&Lapbars

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!

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!

The Parks

The Hotels

The Car + Equipment

The Cameras

The Rides

Closing Comments

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