Tag: Theme Parks

Blog, Reviews

Drayton Manor – August 2022 – Vikings!

Loops&Lapbars

Our most recent theme park outing was to Drayton Manor! A slightly impromptu visit but since the park is offering 2 visits for the price of one, it makes a lot of sense, especially with their new area, Vikings!

Vikings

The new area is nicely themed and very pleasant on the eye. Though lacking in a real big centrepiece bit of theming, the rides sort of make up for this.

Walking through the new archway built under the old Buffalo Coasters track, you are greeted with a lot of nicely laid stone pathways and wood everywhere. There is a very small pond with a water feature to the right too, but the main draw is Loki, the parks Zamperla Nebulaz.

Loki

I feel like Loki is the areas signature attraction, as it takes centre stage and has had the most advertising, at least that I’ve seen!

The ride is a Zamperla Nebulaz, which is a first for the UK. The ride features 4 arms with 2 gondalas at each end for a seating capacity of 32 riders. The arms rotate around a 360 degree arc and the tower turns too. As each arm rotates, it’s meshes with the others giving a lot of near miss effects as you ride. Offride it looks excellent and on ride it’s even more fun.

There isn’t a great deal of force but it does give you plenty of pull as the arms get up to full speed. The easiest way to describe the feeling is if you’ve ever driven over a hump back bridge with a little speed. It turns your stomach, and so does Loki. A great new ride for Drayton and hopefully, we’ll see a few more of these in the coming years. I’d love to see ones where the gondalas rotate too…

Sleipnir

Sleipnir (Slay-p-neer) is another brand new attraction and is themed around the mythic horse of Odin. The ride sees you going on an adventure through a training school. The ride features audio on board each horse shaped vehicle, but it was a little too quiet to hear it.

There’s an on ride camera which is a nice thing to see as I’m a sucker for on ride digital photos! Other than that, the ride takes you on a small tour around a few themed elements before taking you back to the station.

This one really is designed for the younger audiences out there, and there is fun to be had on this, such as posing for daft photos, or watching other adults being silly together.

We did see a lot of smaller children riding the ride which is good, but there wasn’t as many excited faces amongst the kids as there was among their parents!

It’ll be nice to see how this ride matures over the years as I’d like to see more greenery around the track, and the audio turning up a notch too!

Jormungandr

Jormungandr (Your-mung-und-r) is the only returning ride rethemed for the area. In it’s old guise it was the Buffalo Mountain Coaster, and besides a good clean up of the station and the train having a new front and rear theming element, not much has changed for this classic ride.

This is both good and bad in my opinion! On the one hand, the train look so much better than it did before and the station is really pleasing on the eye, and I believe I also noticed some nice music being played too. On the other hand the coaster is still incredibly dull, even for a family coaster!

I don’t mean to upset anyone with my opinion on Jormungandr, but it still remains as the worst coaster I’ve ridden so far! I could do with a serious power upgrade around some of the helixes. It’s a shame as it takes up such a large amount of space and has a great section over the lake that I feel is wasted on this coaster.

Thor

Thor is another Disk’O Coaster for the UK, seating 40 guests around a nicely themed central hub. If you’ve ridden Kobra at Chessington or Edge at Paultons Park, then you’ve got some idea what to expect with Thor.

During our visit we didn’t have a go on Thor as the queue was very long and we intended to come back later but ended up getting side tracked.

I feel they missed a chance to make this one stand out by theming the end ramps with stone effect Viking statues, similarly to how Chessington themed up Kobra.

I would imagine the ride is still good fun, but we now have 11 different Disk’O attractions of various capacity in the UK, it would have been nice to see something else new, like Loki!

Overall thoughts

I might have sounded quite negative about Thor and Sleipnir, but Drayton Manor certainly needed them to help to boost their offerings. Though I haven’t ridden Thor, I can imagine it’ll be great fun, and Sleipnir can also be enjoyed by all ages too. Jormungandr could do to be replaced in my opinion, but I’ll go into that in a future blog!

Loki was certainly the standout attraction for the new area and it rides great too! I hope they expand the area a little in future and do something with that pond!

The rest of the park

The rest of our time in the park was spent having rerides on many of the other great attractions, such as Sherriff’s Showdown, Apocalypse and Shockwave.

Shockwave was certainly my highlight of the day. The more I ride this Intamin Stand up coaster, the more I enjoy it. I’ll have to go into detail about why I like the coaster so much at some point!

We had also had a wander around the zoo and still failed to see the tigers! We’ve seen them in the back room on the monitors in the past but we didn’t see anything this time!

Bryan’s Works Museum

One thing we did finally manage to see was Bryan’s Works, the parks display of working penny slot machines. Since our first visit in 2021 we’ve wanted to have a look around this and the Thomas Exhibition, but both were closed due to Covid-19 measures. While the Thomas Exhibition has since reopened and we’ve been around it, Bryan’s Workshop always remained closed.

Though the building is small, it holds a good collection of penny machines, most of which only accept the older and larger 1d penny. Many of the machines are well before my time, but a few of the more modern ones I remember playing on when we went to Mablethorpe on holiday!

There is a small charge of 10p per 1d Penny, and they do ask that you don’t take the old coins home, but Tracy got a quid’s worth and we had a good time playing some of the machines on offer!

It’s fascinating to see machines that do quite a lot really and yet are completely mechanical and don’t use any outside power sources. This is a must for anyone wanting to go down memory lane, get away from the rides, or simply have a bit of cheap fun!

Conclusion

To conclude our day at Drayton, I’d say we had a great time! Vikings is another good step for the park, and though Apocalypse is leaving the park at the end of this season, I’ve heard rumours that a new rollercoaster is in the works, so hopefully we hear something of this soon!

Looping Group seems to be putting investment into the park and saving it from what was once a grim looking future, so hopefully investment will continue, the park will grow and with it new attractions and experiences!

We’ll be heading back in a month or two to try out Thor and reride Apocalypse to death before its removal too. I didn’t get the chance to do the same for Pandemonium before that was removed, so I’d like to make up for that! Looking forward to our next visit!

Blog, Reviews

Thorpe Park Mardi Gras!

Loops&Lapbars

Mardi Gras is something of a new thing in the UK. In writing this blog I’ve found out that the UK equivalent is Pancake Day which I can’t see Merlin Entertainments hosting in their parks, so Mardi Gras it is!

This is our first visit to Thorpe Park this year (of many to come) and though we could have picked Alton Towers, we decided on Thorpe Park for their Mardi Gras event, and to get on some rides for the first time too.

We went over two days, intending to ride the rides on one of the queiter first day and put more of a focus on seeing the Mardi Gras events on the busier second day when ride queues would be longer.

Day 1

Our first day we arrived nice and early, got through security, purchased the digipass and recharged our refillable drinks then headed to Stealth. Second train of the day, pretty much a walk on and the ride delivered! I haven’t been on Stealth in about 7 months so it was great to get back to my second favourite coaster! Part of me was hoping it would be able to pull out all the stops and dethrone The Smiler as top dog, but alas, Stealth remains second!

Next we had a go on Detonator, a first time ride and another walk on. Now this ride impressed me quite a bit. Even though it’s only 115ft tall and is essentially a drop and done, it’s more than the sum of its parts. If it were simply a drop and nothing else then it probably wouldn’t have been quite as much fun, but we were at the top of the tower for a good 60 seconds waiting to drop.

The ride operator controls when you drop so you could be there any length of time. I’ve seen the ride drop immediately as it gets to the top, or be held there like we were and its just a nice fun bit of interaction for me!

After Detonator, we went to Nemesis Inferno, the parks B&M invert. Though I talked at length about how I prefer Nemesis over Nemesis Inferno, this has got to have been the single best ride I’ve had on an invert. It’s pacing was excellent, intense and very smooth too.

The ride operator was also going off the rails with singing and really pleasing the crowds and adding to the fun!

Next up was Walking Dead, besides not having any live actors today, there wasn’t much to say about it. Fun, little indoor attraction, well themed and a laugh.

After Walking Dead, we went over to Saw and queued for about 20 minutes for the best themed Eurofighter in the country.

As with Nemesis Inferno, Saw was running really well too. I’d go as far as to say it was the best ride I’ve had on Saw and and Eurofighter yet! I usually get a small amount of head banging in the transitions as it is quite a brutal ride, but not once did I get that here. I was in the back row, in the centre seat with Tracy on my left and she said she didn’t have any issues either. Very commendable!

On the inverse is Colossus however. We elected for a back row ride to see how it faired verses our previous front row at Fright Nights and it was truly awful. I’ve ridden Infusion and Hero, Grand National and Big Dipper and yet this 1 ride will stand out as the worst and most uncomfortable that I’ve ever had. I don’t know what was wrong, but we had another ride on the second day and it was bad too. Middle of the train this time though.

While writing this I’ve noticed a lot of people complaining on various social media outlets about the sheer roughness of Colossus. Maybe Merlin will retrack it and give it the attention Nemesis is getting at Alton Towers?

I’m looking forward to seeing what Flamingo land’s 10 invertion coaster is like and hopefully Colossus can be retrained to remove the over shoulder restraints to help with the head banging we had here. Such a shame as it’s its 20th anniversary and it left such a sour taste!

Once we’d finished on Colossus, we went for some dinner and to have a little break. We tried Peckish for the first time and I risked it with a Chilli dog. Needless to say I’ll certainly be having those again, not too fiery but just right!

To cool off after dinner we had a go round on Rumba Rapids and this was probably the longest we queued all day, and even then it was only about 20 minutes or so! Not much to be said really, a fun rapids ride with a good tunnel and layout, but not much more!

There’s a couple of things that could be addressed with all the UKs rapids rides. For one, you barely get wet on any of them, which is nice on the one hand but would add to it on the other. The second issue is that people don’t seem to follow the rules and because of what happened with Drayton Manor, the staff have to constantly bark orders at people to tell them to sit down and stop being a nuisance which does take you away from the ride

We then had a saunter around, taking photos and enjoying the summer air before making our way to Flying Fish for a couple of runs around. We managed a record 5 laps in one sitting as the ride op just kept it going! The most I’ve had one one of these junior coasters has been 3 on Runaway Mine train at Alton Towers so once again, another very memorable ride!

We then made our way around to The Swarm. This was another near walk on, only queuing on the bridge over to the far side seats which took no time at all. The ride was running well, plenty of thrill and the right amount of intensity on the turns!

We finished day 1 with our first ride on Tidal Wave. Due to the nature of the ride and how soaked others looked that were getting off, we saved it until last. I’ve been to Thorpe loads of times and never gotten on Tidal Wave, either the queues have been far too long, the ride hasn’t been running or its not been particularly warm for it, but today was perfect.

The ride doesn’t last all too long but its a great crowd pleaser. It has a huge splash down element and splash zone to not only soak riders but also on lookers too! There’s even a set of upcharged water cannons to further soak riders through.

Needless to say we got completely drenched on our ride and I even managed to record a decent splash with my GoPro after exiting the ride too. After that we got changed, headed out the park and to the hotel for the night.

Day 2

With day 2 being a Saturday, we decided to focus more on the Mardi Gras part of the visit and less so on the rides. We still got a few rides here and there such as Colossus (which was still rattling around) and Nemesis Inferno, but primarily we watched the shows and took in the atmosphere.

The events started around midday with ‘The Crowning of the Krewes’, a show that saw 4 party crews performing to become champions of Mardi Gras. Each act was great though some were better than others, and each had a connection to one of the rides. Stealth, Nemesis Inferno and Rumba Rapids each had an act loosely themed to them, and then there was another called Aqueous who represented water whisperers and was ‘a champion of harmony’. Not really sure what ride or attraction she was representing, if any, but she was still good!

The Crowning of the Krewes was enjoyable and after the show, each of the krewes stayed around for meet and greets and photo opportunities.

The next thing we watched was the ‘Drum Works’ community band who were very good too, though a little repetitive in my opinion! Their set lasted about 45 minutes but there was only so much they could do with drums on their own. Don’t get me wrong , it was a great showing, just a little too long for the amount of variety they offered.

While they were playing, the Mardi Gras parade rolled through which comprised of a themed vehicle carrying the Mardi Gras royals and a few members of the krewes. The parade did feel a little like it was interrupting the Drum Works band and neither stopped while the other was coming through so it did feel a little mixed up.

One of the biggest things that Mardi Gras has highlighted to me is how little room Thorpe Park has. I’ll bring it up in detail in a future blog about what I’d do if I ran Thorpe Park, but in brief, they need room for events!

The other issue was the lack of members in the parade. I could put this down to the staff shortages that the tourism sector are having, so I’ll let this one slide as it wasn’t a big issue, just something I noticed.

After we’d seen the parade and watched a few of the acts on the mini stages, we continued wandering around, had another few rides on Swarm, Rumba Rapids and Storm in a Teacup before heading to the shops and then to the hotel.

Overall I enjoyed Mardi Gras, the costumes, actors and stages were all well made and the park looked good in its colours. I don’t think it was as good as Fright Nights, but I doubt anything other than another Fright Nights/Firework event will top that! Still, it was well worth the visit and I’d like to see Alton Towers’ and Chessingtons take on the event next year!

Blog, Reviews

Ramada By Wyndham at Cobham Services

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This is a very different blog to my others, but very relevant to other blogs I’ve made. I’ve mentioned before that we’ve stayed in the Ramada at Cobham services for our trips to Thorpe Park, Chessington and Legoland as its location is great for all 3 parks.

Legoland is 30 minutes away but Thorpe and Chessington are about 20 minutes each and since the hotel is located on a service stop on the M25, it has a lot of facilities and places to eat too.

We’ve stopped here on at least 5 separate occasions since first finding the hotel on our 2021 road trip around the UK. The staff have always been great, the rooms clean and the prices very reasonable. If I recall we paid £29 for a nights stay on our first visit. (Though we’ve not managed to get it quite that cheap since!)

The rooms are a good size and have most things you’d need for a few nights away, including a bed, shower, kettle, storage, plenty of sockets and even an ironing board, iron and hair dryer. Not mind blowing by any means but ample for our needs. It’s worth pointing out that there are sockets close to the bed too.

They do provide face wash and shampoo in the bathroom but I always take my own anyway, I think everyone does! They will also help out with additional tea and coffee supplies and a few basic hygiene needs, though I’ve not had to use this service so I’m not sure what they’d offer!

The hotel is set over two floors and does have a lift to the upper floor. We’ve never had a ground floor room so I assume they’re family or accessible rooms which would make sense to me.

There’s a lot of greenery around the back and side of the hotel and plenty of places to sit and eat or watch the world go by in downtime. There’s even a nice pond with all the wildlife you’d expect.

Around the back of the hotel.

As it’s next to the M25 there is quite a bit of road noise during the night but it’s only noticeable with the window open and closing it mutes that. There’s a blower in the room too that cools the room sufficiently but in the heat of summer it struggles to get rooms down to selected temperature as I don’t believe it is actually air conditioning, though it does claim to be!

The hotel has access to the services’ massive car park so there is always ample parking for even the largest of vehicles.

A view from our latest visit in May 2022. Plenty of room for Coaches!

It won’t blow you away like some of the top 5 star hotels will, but it’s not a 5 star hotel itself. What it is is a well connected, pleasant and clean 3 star hotel, situated in an excellent location for theme park enthusiasts such as myself!

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Chessington World of Adventures & Margate – Stop 8

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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.

Rattlesnake

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.

Chessington from the air!

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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2021 Summer holiday

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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!