It wasn’t so long I was writing a post about Shockwave, how it was an under appreciated gem of the UK coaster line up and how I adore it, even with its faults.
Now Drayton Manor have announced that Shockwave, in its current stand up form will be no more starting next season and I thought I’d like to say my part on this.
As I mentioned in my other blog, I really do like Shockwave. I like the sensation of riding standing up, I like the noise and the thrills. I think it fit nicely into Adventure Cove, the area they built around it and it looked great with the station refresh.
But converting it to sit-down only will kill it for me! I know the park is going down a family friendly route but top level thrills are part of a family line up, at least in my opinion! The best parks are those that cater to everyone and Drayton Manor had plenty of variety back when Pandemonium was still there.
You had Apocalypse, Shockwave and Pandemonium right at the top of thrills, then Air Race and Maelstrom the next level down. Then there’s Accelerator, The Bounty Pirate Ship, The Rapids, Drunken Barrels, Sherrif Showdown and The Haunting next. Then you have Thomas Land for younger kids (and adults alike).
Now there’s only Shockwave left at the top of the pile and taking away it’s stand-up train will be a big loss to it. I’d be more than happy if it ran two trains, so they can use the same layout but allow younger audiences to ride it, and still offer a top level thrill for those who want that too.
I don’t feel like this is the best decision, but it is decided and we’ll just have to move on without the stand up trains. What I’d love to see though is either Floorless trains, so it remains a unique ride in the UK, or even better, spinning trains.
I’m not entirely sure whether putting spinning trains onto Shockwave will keep it at the 1.2m height restriction the park is going for, but it would definitely be a worthy replacement for the stand up trains in my opinion!
I’ll keep an open mind about what Drayton Manor does with Shockwave but it’s a real shame that it’s going and I hope they can capture at least a small amount of what made the original so special when they change it.
For now at least, Shockwave still stands and will do so until season’s end, so we’ve got until October 27th to enjoy what we’ve got before it is no more!
I’ll be riding the life out of it when we go for the Vikings event later this year and that will be the final farewell from me. Expect a lot of posts about it on that day!
This is also my 100th post and I think it’s somewhat fitting making such a special milestone a blog about such a special coaster!
While we were at Portaventura we obviously had to try the new Intamin built Uncharted ride. This is a collaboration of my favourite ride manufacturer and favourite game franchise so what’s not to love? I’ll be going into everything that we saw and felt so please don’t read on if you don’t want spoilers!
Overall, it was a good ride, the layout was fun and snappy and there were a few surprise elements included in the ride such as the cars rotating and turning to face different directions as the ride progresses.
The experience all starts with the queue as you’ll go through 2 scenes in the show building, one is just an old West saloon looking building, and is very loosely themed to the franchise, at least in my opinion!
The second room is the one you’ll have seen all over social media with the two animatronics of Chloe and Nate. They have a decent likeness to the film renditions of the characters but I’ll assume they couldn’t use full likenesses of any of the characters for whatever reason! It is a bit of shame that they couldn’t use the games character designs but what we have is good enough.
Following the first two rooms, you’ll move into another area that looks like underground catacombs with stalactites and the occasional mist effect. I will say that the queueline did spoil the experience a little bit as we queued outside the building, then batched inside, then batched a 3rd time after the animatronics and all the time your thinking ‘how many more queues are there’!? It is to be expected though as the ride has always had long queues whenever we’ve seen it or passed any board with ride times on. I think we queued for about 2 hours all in.
Once you’re into the station though, the fun begins as you’ll drop your bags off and board the ride vehicles, themed around explorer Jeeps, and then sent off onto the ride!
You’ll see a static scene or two throughout the ride portion but a lot of the story is told through video screens. It feels very Uncharted: Drakes Fortune with the gun fight you’ll see and the helicopter lifting artifacts out towards the end.
There are 5 launches and they are all quite tame compared with other attractions I’ve been on, and some of them barely push the car faster than it already was, but they don’t feel unnecessary in my opinion.
There are a couple of fun elements such as a turntable, a return spike and a fairly sharp drop but other than those, it is quite a tame, but still enjoyable ride. Less of a coaster and more of a dark ride with coaster elements.
I wasn’t going into it with very high expectations as early reviews seemed a bit so so, praising the hardware but criticising the lack of scenery during the ride. I can see why people would think that, but it wasn’t devoid of scenery and there were always things to look at so I’d say it exceeded my expectations!
A very enjoyable ride in my eyes, a little lacking in places and much more enjoyable on a shorter queue, but definitely worth visiting for, especially if you like Uncharted as much as I do!
Shockwave. Poor old Shockwave. It lives in a park that has gone through a lot of trouble in the past, had troubles of its own and was even over shadowed (until recently) by another roller coaster in the same area, that being G-Force.
The problems Shockwave has faced didn’t start here though, they started right when the attraction was built!
The beginning
Drayton Manor bought this Intamin Stand Up roller coaster from a booth at the 1992 Internation Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions show (IAAPA) and proceeded to build the coaster over the next year. Issues were found when testing started though as the test car couldn’t navigate the zero G roll so another price of track was needed.
Once the ride finally opened in March 1994, it was another uphill struggle as it was competing against Nemesis at Alton Towers.
So we’ve finally gotten the ride installed and opened and all is well, there’s a bit of competition from Nemesis but Shockwave can still shine though. Until Blackpool Pleasure Beach opens the world tallest and fastest roller coaster in May 1994, 2 months after Shockwave opens!
I don’t know at the time what ride attendance was but it can be assumed that Shockwave will have had a smaller number than it was entitled to because of the record breaking Pepsi Max Big One.
Nemesis didn’t really have too many issues as the ride was in a well respected park, had had plenty of investment and advertising done and the ride itself was unique to Europe with it being the first inverted roller coaster outside of North America.
Yeah sure Shockwave was a stand-up coaster and featured a unique zero G roll, a feat it still retains to this day, but would Joe public be as interested in a stand up coaster over an inverted coaster and the world’s tallest? I’m not so sure!
Shockwave today
If I could go back and look at all 3 on paper and decide which I’d prefer to give the most attention to, it would certainly be The Big One, then probably Nemesis, leaving Shockwave last to go and see.
Knowing what I know now though, I rate Nemesis the best of the 3, then Shockwave and finally Big One. A lot has changed since 1994, Big One isn’t the tallest or fastest in the world, Nemesis has got direct competition from Nemesis Inferno, as well as a plethora of other great European inverted coasters. Which just leaves Shockwave.
Things have gotten better for the old Intamin as stand up coasters have fallen out of favour, with many being converted to a much more appealing floorless coaster, a sentiment I’m not sure I mirror! As more and more stand-up coasters are converted, Shockwave gets rarer and rarer and hopefully, more sought after as a ride!
Shockwave still remains today as a stand up coaster and the only one in the UK, one of 2 in Europe and one of roughly 10 still operating worldwide. They are a rare breed of coaster, but Shockwave is the single last remaining to be built by Intamin. It might not look like much to most, but it is actually unique!
So what do I think of Shockwave?
I adore this coaster. Though it’s quite short and has some weird design choices such as the straight piece of track out of the station and dip before the lift hill, the rest is thoroughly enjoyable. It’s not without its faults though as you can get a bit of head banging from the restraints and the final brake run into the station is very harsh.
The very first time I rode it, I found the restrains a little confusing despite watching the videos that play in the queue line, but 1 ride was all it took to understand how they work. There is a saddle that you can ‘sit’ on so when the restraints are locked, make sure your legs are straight and your feet flat so you don’t get any discomfort from this bumping into you.
The first drop is pleasant and smooth, heading into the vertical loop that feels very unusual when navigated whilst standing. You can sometimes get a bit of a knock here as well as the zero G roll following the loop. Next is a small flat piece of track before two corkscrews that also feel really unusual but have great force and are very thrilling before the train turns around and heads into the final brake run. Once again be prepared for this as it is very abrupt and it will remove glasses and other loose articles if not strapped down!
No one ever seems to talk about Shockwave. Nemesis is always lauded, and rightly so, and Big One still gets attention as the UKs tallest but I’d rather ride Shockwave over Big One if I had to choose between the two. Big One has gotten a lot of retracking but is still quite rough, both Nemesis and Shockwave are still running on their original rails and I’d personally say they ride as well as each other in terms of roughness.
Since writing that, Nemesis has now been taken apart ready for its retrack which might make it ride differently, but I don’t think it’ll change enough to make it a bad ride or anything. Big One has had retracking done, and if I’m being brutally honest, it hasn’t made the slightest difference in ride quality.
Nemesis is still better themed, has better operations and is superior a ride to the other two, but Shockwave comfortable takes second for me. It’s shorter layout means its single train still gets sent out as fast as they can, and Big One runs multiple trains but their operations are dreadful in my opinion!
Call it my own ignorance of how the ride works, but there are plenty of block sections on Big One. Surely they can run 3 trains, load one, have one on the layout and another approaching the final brakes, if not waiting there already! I should stand and watch both rides for a bit and see which one is actually faster for dispatches as it would be interesting to see!
I don’t think there is anything they could do to make Shockwave better than Nemesis and if I’m being honest, I don’t think I’d want them to. It could do with a second train for capacity sake and if they could smooth it out to be like Icon then it would make the decision even harder.
So Shockwave then, a ride overshadowed by two bigger rides that I think deserves its time in the sun, at least a little! Not the UKs tallest, not the UKs fastest, but a unique ride that will certainly divide its ridership, some love it, some hate it but for me, I love it!
Since starting this blog we’ve not had many new rollercoasters open, let alone many new thrill rides. When it was first announced and given the placeholder name of Inversion, I quietly looked forward to being part of the community riding something brand new for the first time together.
The name
Firstly I’ll get the elephant out of the room and address the name. I don’t really like it.
It was named as such because the owner of Flamingo Land, Gordon Gibb, is good friends with the owners of a local fashion brand called Siksilk. This friendship has brought about a partnership between the park and the brand and with it the name for Flamingo Lands newest attraction.
I understand that it’s an advertisement for the brand, fitting with attractions sometimes making people sick, as well as it being trendy to refer to something that is good as ‘sick’, but it’s really not for me. Inversion was a terrible name but I think I’d have preferred that to Sik. Maybe it’ll grow on me?
Onto the good bits
The ride is an Intamin second generation multi inversion roller coaster, featuring a cable lift hill, 10 inversions and new trains with lap bar restraints. It doesn’t really have much of a theme as the trains are very monochrome in colour, featuring a union flag design on them, as does the station.
From the front of the queue line, until entering the station, there is no theming at all. Interestingly though the start of the queue line takes you through a shop selling Sik branded merchandise and Siksilk clothing. You also leave the attraction through the same building too so in that regard it does feel all encompassing.
One thing I did notice is that the cable lift hills cable returns to the station underneath the queue line, unlike traditional chains that usually loop under themselves. I only mention this as it is quite exposed and I hope that should the cable fail that it doesn’t whip into the queue line at all!
I know Rita and Stealth have very high tension cables that run over the queue lines too and they’ve never had an incident, so it’s probably perfectly safe, I just felt it was quite exposed!
The station continues the minimalist theme, with lots of banners flying above with the Sik logo on them and little else in terms of theming. I’ve seen it described as a bit of a nightclub in the station building, which I can see why as there are event lights and loud pop music being played over the speakers. This ride really does need a theme tune in my opinion!
Kumali and Mumbu Jumbo have music in their stations that fit their theme, even if they’re not the most recognisable, at least compared to Nemesis, Big One or Helix’s soundtracks. Hopefully Sik will get one one day!
The trains are quite roomy and the lap bars offer excellent upper body freedom whilst still feeling safe. Boarding is much easier because of the lap bars as they don’t stick out quite a much as the restraints on Stealth or Colossus where crossing the train on those is quite difficult!
The ride experience
Once you’re strapped in and dispatched, the train rockets up the first hill thanks to that cable. There is quite a lot of noise as the latter part of the train leaves the station though.
Once you crest the top, you fall into a nice smooth steep curve to the left turning 180 degrees as the train enters the first inversion, a vertical loop. The train then flies into an airtime hill, into a mist filled tunnel and into the second and third inversions, a cobra roll.
Next is another misty tunnel, an airtime hill, and then into back to back corkscrews before turning to the left again to enter into a series of 4 back to back heartline rolls, then a long sweeping turn to the left and into one more heartline roll before the final brakes and back into the station.
Thanks to the cable lift, the train carries much more speed around the track than it would have on a first generation coaster. The heartline rolls are still uncomfortable though, but much less so as the lap bar helps and the train navigates them quicker.
Of all the elements on the ride, I think I enjoyed the vertical loop the most, as it gives great force and feels big.
Let me explain.
Nemesis’ loop is quite large in comparison, but it feels smaller, probably due to the proximity to the ground, as the loop is sunk into the terrain. Speed: No limits has a full size loop, but that doesn’t give the same feeling of scale either, I’m not sure why Sik’s loop feels bigger than it actually is. The speed it takes the element maybe?
I still don’t like the heartline rolls at the end though. They feel tacked on purely to get the design up to 10 inversions with minimal effort, but that’s Intamins fault, not Siks.
I’d have preferred to see a zero g stall, cutbacks or a sea serpent roll being added in someway to make up the numbers, rather than the 4 rolls back to back. Once again, I understand that this is Intamins design and not the fault of Flamingo Land or Sik, just passing comments!
It was also nice to see that the fountains at the end of the ride synchronise as the train moves past. If you didn’t notice it, you will now and I appreciate that little detail!
So how does it compare to Colossus?
I wasn’t going to compare the two here, since everyone else is. However the difference is night and day between the two, at least thus far. Colossus is a 20 year old coaster that has seen better days and I feel is in desperate need of refurbishment as it batters you about far too much now.
Sik on the other hand rides incredibly smoothly and just feels better all around. It’s faster, smoother and much, much more comfortable than Colossus is. I do wonder what would happen if Siks train was put on Colossus for a few runs. Would that sort out the issues, or is the second generation coaster just that much better as a whole package?
Colossus still has some redeeming features though, even if they are minor! It’s name and theme are much better, and its queue line is prettier (though I know that wasn’t necessarily the case upon opening). It also runs two trains too, and makes a great sound when it d2isengages the chain at the top of the hill. Sik doesn’t make any noise at all, besides the metallic clunking as it leaves the station.
To summarise then, is Sik any good?
I’d certainly say so. I might have sounded quite negative with a lot of my comments, but besides the name, I do quite like everything else about the coaster. Maybe it needs a theme, or maybe it’s current look with come to mature over time? Maybe it’s lack of soundtrack will give it some identity on its own?
All I can say for certain is it topped Mumbo Jumbo as my favourite ride at Flamingo Land, and found its way to number 6 on my list of favourite coaster that I’ve ridden, so that should say more than enough about my true feelings for this attraction than any paragraph could!
This will be my first full resort review of Drayton Manor, my thoughts of the park and what I’d like to see moving forward.
Drayton Manor is a large theme park located near Drayton Bassett, Staffordshire, UK. The park has a hotel, zoo and a theme park with over 40 different attractions to enjoy.
I’ll do a separate review of the hotel and zoo as they warrant their own blog post, so for now, this will be all about the park.
I like Drayton Manor. It doesn’t have the thrills of Thorpe Park, or the beauty of Alton Towers, but it has its own identity and is definitely worth a visit to collect some credits!
The parks signature attraction is Shockwave, the UK’s only stand up rollercoaster, and also the only one in the world to feature a zero-G roll. It opened the same year as Nemesis at Alton Towers and Big One at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, and yet I rarely hear anyone talk about it!
It’s a shame, and I will go into more detail in another blog about Shockwave, but for now, I like it. It’s unique, it’s fun, it’s a bit rattly and rough in places, but it’s a good classic coaster.
Shockwave is now located in the brand new for 2021 area, Adventure Cove. This new area saw a refresh and reopening of Splash Canyon, now called Adventure Cove River Rapids. Without being too dramatic, but I’d go as far as saying that this is the best river rapids ride the UK has. It’s bright and fun, the soundtrack is funky and the ride incorporates a few special effects here and there which is rare to see on UK rapid’s rides these days.
Also new to the area is Wave Swinger, a Zierer Waveswinger offering both single and double seats. If you’ve been on a Waveswinger before then this doesn’t really do anything new, but it does give a nice view of the new area and its a pleasant little sit down after riding Shockwave or Air Race.
Speaking of Air Race, I’ve yet to get on it, so I can’t talk much about it, but it does look like fun! The same can be said for Maelstrom, the parks Intamin gyro swing. Maybe next time!
The final ride in Adventure Cove is Storm Force 10, a 500m long, 3 drop flume ride. I’ve ridden it once on the very back of one of the boats and you will be thoroughly soaked on this one.
I’d argue that this is the best water ride in the UK as it’s the only one I’ve been on that I had to get changed after riding! The first and last drops are fine, giving you a light spraying but nothing major, it’s the second drop that does the work.
The thing about the second drop is that it’s taken backwards and the back of the boats is flat and not very tall, so when the boat splashes down, it flops into the water rather than gliding over the top, causing a large wave to engulf the boat. Those at the back will get soaked through so bring a change of clothes, just incase (and I’d advice everything from socks and shoes, to underwear). Great ride though!
Next there’s Thomas land, a themed area dedicated to everyone’s favourite, number 1 engine! There are loads of rides here for the the whole family and all are themed around Thomas and Sodor. All in, there are currently 20 different rides and attractions within Thomas land, including a rollercoaster, a fully themed train ride, and plenty of Zamperla junior rides.
Highlights for me are the Troublesome Trucks Runaway Rollercoaster, Cranky’s Drop Tower, Captain’s Sea Adventure and the Thomas and Friends Exhibition.
You could easily lose a day just doing Thomas Land attractions, as most have good throughput, with only Troublesome Trucks and Engine Tours (the themed train ride) having really long queues throughout the day.
Once you’re done in Thomas Land, you would then start heading towards the back of the park. On you way you’ll pass the Carousel and guest services, before coming to a small pirate themed area.
The pirate themed area has a little theming here and there but not quite as much as other themed areas and includes 3 rides. The rides here are a Pirate ship called Bounty, a Seastorm ride called Jolly Buccaneer and a dodgems ride.
I’ve not ridden Bounty or Jolly Buccaneer, but I’ve been on similar at Chessington World of Adventures. As for the Dodgems, I’m not entirely sure why they decided to theme a dodgems around pirates, but it’s something at least!
After the pirate area, you’ll reach Accelerator, a Vekoma Junior boomerang with a racing theme. This is the original prototype Vekoma built, which eventually led to Velociraptor at Paultons Park being built, which I found interesting to know!
The theming is good as the queue line takes you through a garage testing performance cars, and there is plenty to look at here. Though I do think I prefer Velociraptor at Paultons Park to Accelerator, I do like the effort they put into theming the attraction, and the ride itself is good too.
You’ll also find the 4-D cinema adjacent to Accelerator, which for this year is showing Thomas & Friends 4-D Bubbling Boilers. When we went, the 3D effects weren’t working, but we got the same show as intended, just without the 3D glasses.
It was a decent time, not mind blowing or anything but still a pleasant show to experience.
Moving past the 4-D cinema you’ll find the Haunting, Sheriff’s Showdown and Drunken Barrels. All three of these have something good to offer, so I’ll start with The Haunting.
The Haunting is a walkthrough attraction and Vekoma Madhouse ride themed to a haunted vicarage. The queue was a bit long for this one, but when we did eventually get brought in, we were shown a video setting the scene. The story goes that the vicarage is supposed to be haunted and we’ve been brought in to see if we notice any paranormal activity.
There are two areas next, a corridor with lights and effects that leads into the second area, a square room. Here the attraction really shined for me as I really wasn’t expecting what happens in that room. I won’t spoil that part, but it’s not too scary or anything, just very interesting and really well done!
The room then leads into the ride section of the attraction, the lapbars come down and the ride begins. I’ve ridden both Hex at Towers and Haunted House Monster Party at Legoland, and personally, I feel The Hauntings Madhouse section is the weakest of the three.
It’s still good and give you the same feelings as the other two do, but there were a few synchronisation issues that I noticed that spoilt the illusion for me.
Next along is Sheriff’s Showdown, and interactive shooting ride themed to the wild west. I like this ride, and I think Merlin could do to take some notes from this for Duel and Tomb Blaster.
Unlike Duel and Tomb blaster, Sheriff’s Showdown is more than a pleasant drive through a themed shooting gallery as many of the targets cause things to happen when shot. Be it shooting out lights, or causing cans to fall which are really nice touches and gives the ride character and reridability. Sheriff’s Showdown is definitely a highlight of the visit!
Drunken Barrels is the last ride along and is a teacup style ride themed to Oktoberfest. Each rider sits in a barrel with up to 5 others, and as with other teacup rides, you can decide how much or how little you want to spin. The big difference here is that the entire platform tilts and raises you up to a 45 degree angle, which is both fun to ride and great to watch from off ride too.
The show building is themed excellently and the ride is also indoors so it’s great if the weather isn’t quite so good too!
After coming off Drunken Barrels, you’ll see a toilet block as well as Apocalypse, the parks thrilling drop tower. At the time of writing this I believe that Apocalypse will be leaving Drayton Manor at the end of the season, which is a real shame as the ride is excellent.
It consists of 5 drop towers all together, two are sit down and two are stand up and the final one is a stand up floorless tower, the first of its kind. I’ve managed to experience both the floorless and sit down drops this year, both are excellent, but the floorless one is in another league.
I used to really detest drop towers as they were a bit out of my comfort zone, but having tried a few this year, I can honestly say I see the appeal and I’d love to have a go on the really tall ones!
At the foot of Apocalypse is Pandemonium, a Fabbri swinging inverter. This was my first go on one of these and thought it was a great experience, I did suffer quite badly with my shoulders digging into the restraint when we were held upside down. I don’t recall this being an issue on Rameses’ Revenge when that was at Chessington, so I gather it’s Fabbri’s restraints.
Next is Flying Dutchman, another Wave swinger, this time manufactured by Intamin. The key difference between this and the other one in the park, is this one has you say in little boats, and it doesn’t tilt. It’s quite a relaxed ride, and really should be in the pirate themed area!
Finally there’s the Buffalo Rollercoaster off to the side. I don’t have much nice to say about this one I’m afraid! The theming is ok, but the ride itself is quite dull!
The coaster is powered by what looks to be two drive wheels and a hamster as it has little force at all and doesn’t really do much for me! I know it’s a junior ride, but I’ve been on plenty at Adventure Island, Chessington and Alton Towers, and all of theirs have a decent helix or something!
I’d love to see this themed up more, a few little airtime hills added and it sped up just a little. Still keep it as a junior coaster of course, but give it something for you to remember it by!
There is also a lovely train ride that takes you around Adventure Cove, the lake and behind Shockwave but I felt that this was criminally underused as more than half of the ride has you looking at nothing but behind the scenes parts. Shame really!
I’d love to see Drayton add a new modern thrill coaster to its lineup, maybe next to Buffalo Rollercoaster or to replace it entirely. I never got to ride G-Force when that was at the park, but something along those lines would be great!
Since Apocalypse is up for sale, maybe move the rides around at the back of the park and create a new themed area there. Incorporate Sheriff’s showdown and a few new junior and thrill flat rides, maybe even have a new version of the Buffalo Rollercoaster for this area!
There is plenty of potential at Drayton Manor, and with it being sold to Looping Group, hopefully they’ll invest money to make a good park, into a great one!
I’d really like to get to the bottom of which is the best, in my opinion, out these two excellent roller coasters. I’d like to break them down into component parts and decide overall which one will finally take the top spot for me, as it’s so close between them!
Theme
Let’s get the big one out of the way, theming. Both roller coasters have a good theme, The Smiler being more industrial and about a machine that brings back your smile. Stealth on the other hand is themed to Speedway racing of the 1950’s in line with the Amity themed area it resides.
Out of the two, I think that The Smiler has better theming, its station building, indoor queue line and exit, and its Marmaliser structure all add to the experience, as well as the score by ImaScore. No one ever talks about the musical scores for rides, which is a shame! It fits in brilliantly with the overall theme of X-Sector and compliments Oblivion well.
Stealth does have a nice theme too, the trains are made to look like 1950’s Chevrolet Bel Air drag racers, and the station does resemble a drag strip starting line with starting lights and audio, but no score that I’ve ever noticed and the queue line is quite plain. The Smilers cattle pen doesn’t fair much better but you have the whole ride going on above you, so once again The Smiler takes marks here!
Ride Experience
Both rides are extremely smooth, The Smiler, for me at least, only has one iffy transition on the cobra roll, whereas Stealth doesn’t really have any points where it’s rough where it shouldn’t be. Obviously the launch on Stealth is quite fierce but it doesn’t bang you about much, if at all. The turn into the top hat, the top hat itself and dive turn back are all very smooth and enjoyable. The top hat is exhilarating, which makes me want to try Top Thrill Dragster and Kingda Ka even more!
The Smiler rides well for almost all of its layout. Inversion after inversion it rides quite smoothly and it’s a joy to ride, much like Stealth. As I mentioned earlier though, the transition from half loop into half corkscrew at the start of the cobraroll can be a bit jarring, but other than that, I’ve never noticed anything particularly unpleasant!
It’s certainly worth mentioning the two airtime hills here as both are taken at speed giving you decent ejector airtime, but the second one after the camera is a particular highlight, especially at night! You get the flash form the camera, then the airtime and drop into the bottom of another inversion is excellent!
This hill right here!
I think I’d have to give Stealth the ride experience points over The Smiler, but only just!
Pure Thrills
For me, the more thrilling of the two is Stealth. Its launch is otherworldly, blowing Icons and Ritas out of the water, and even though it is literally a launch, top hat and airtime hill, it does it well.
The Smiler is also thrilling of course, and at times is intense, but I feel Stealth take it purely from its launch alone!
Offride experience
What are both coasters like to just watch? Admire while you eat your dinner or have rest up having ridden one of them?
The Smiler is a pure joy to watch, especially if both running trains manage to get dualling and take the batwing and cobraroll together. A little tip, if both trains are dropping off their lifthills at a similar sort of time, then you’ll more than likely see both trains take the batwing and cobraroll together!
As for Stealth? It’s certainly fun to watch, and looking up at that 205ft top hat from the ground is a great feeling, with riders screaming on the way down, and the noise of the launch is also fantastic too.
For me though, The Smiler is just more fun to watch, even if I end up not riding as the queue is too long, I can still marvel at it as I walk through X-Sector.
So which should take the top spot?
Though its close as I really, really like both, I’d have to say The Smiler will edge out Stealth for that top spot on my list! Its better theming, musical score and with how much fun it is to just observe doing its thing make up for its slightly rougher ride and thrills, when compared to Stealth anyway!
That’s not to say that Stealth isn’t any good either! Its decent theming, launch and train design, aasd well as it presence in Thorpe Parks skyline make it a more than worthy second place addition to my list!
A shot of The Smiler from my drone, taken during Mardis Gras!
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 Enterprise, finally running!
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!
Rita!
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!
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