Tag: Tornado Springs

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Stop 1 – The Annex and Paultons Park

Loops&Lapbars

The Annex

As I mentioned in the previous blog, out first stop was at a homestay called The Annex in Totton, just outside Southampton.

Very briefly, the property was excellently finished and there was everything we needed and then some! We had a bed and the usual things, but also access to an ironing board and iron, mini fridge and a booklet with as much information about the local area as they could cram into it. Very impressed with our stay here!

There was a lot of care by the host to make your stay as comfortable and convenient as possible, there was a parking space right by the front door and access was by a key safe so you can arrive at any time you like, which was great for us.

I’d definitely recommend the Annex to anyone who has to travel long distances to visit Paulton’s Park, or even Southampton and the surrounding areas.

Paultons Park

We’ve been to Paulton’s Park a few times now, and this is the second visit this year. Every time we come, the park just seems to look tidier and even more well presented than the previous visit. I’ll probably say that again after our next visit too, it’s just so well looked after.

Anyway, for the season, the park was covered in literally thousands of pumpkins and given a Halloween makeover. As with other things the park has done, it was done very well. There were an abundance of photo opportunities all around the park too, which is always fun!

There was a lack of attention given to the area where Cobra sits though as there wasn’t a single pumpkin or any Halloween themed scenery at all over that way. Lost Kingdom had a few pumpkins here and there but not quite as much as the other parts of the park. That’s about the only real negative for the day, and its a stretch to even call it a negative!

The changes didn’t just include scenery though, a lot of the soundtracks to the ride have been altered to give them a spookier atmosphere too. These are the little details that put Paulton’s on my radar and make it incredibly easy to recommend the park too.

Our first stop was Storm Chaser. This is by far my favourite ride at the park, and it even hits my top 10. I just enjoy the forces it gives, the spinning means all rides are different and it’s smooth as glass to ride too. If this ride were longer, then it would definitely rank it higher than Icon, I enjoy it that much!

Next was our first ride on Farmyard Flyer. We just missed out on the opening of this ride when we went in March this year so I’ve been looking forward to trying this attraction for a good while!

The queue line, station and ride area are well themed and I remember there being a lovely smell in the station too though I can’t remember what it reminded me of!

As for the ride, it was very tame. Even for a junior coaster, there wasn’t much force to it, but it was nice and smooth and a good time. Probably better than Cat-o-pillar coaster, but not quite as good as Storm Chaser, Flight of the Pterosaur or Cobra, but it’s really not fair to compare junior coasters to family offerings!

After Farmyard Flyer we visited all the other attractions at least once, though we did Cobra and Flight of the Pterosaur twice as they’re such great rides. We even had a go on the upcharge Go karts, these were fun but not the best Go Karts we ended up paying for on the holiday!

We stayed in the park all the way until closing, and I wish they had stayed open longer so we could have had even more rides, as well as rides in the dark! They do have late night openings, but only 3 nights and none of which were nights we could attend unfortunately!

The conclude our visit, we had a great time! The park was beautifully decorated, for the most part, and operations were great. We managed a new ride with Farmyard Flyer and got back on our favourite rides for the last time this year! Hope to be back sometime next year Paulton’s!

Next stop, Howl’o’ween!

Blog, Reviews

Attraction soundtracks

Loops&Lapbars

One of the things I rarely ever hear anyone talk about are attraction soundtracks. The music that plays in the queue line, station building or themed area. Something that adds ambiance to an area, or builds up excitement for the ride you face!

I don’t know why this is as there are some excellent scores to some great rides here in the UK, and saying that, there are some excellent rides that are missing musical accompaniment!

The good!

When I think of musical scores, the first one that usually comes to mind is The Big One’s theme from Pleasure Beach or Helix at Liseberg. Both of these are euphoric dancey tracks, and even though I haven’t ridden Helix, I can imagine it fits really well. I could easily see Helix’s theme used with Icon at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

Icon, with Big Dipper and Big One behind

Another score I really like is Galactica’s. It fits the ride perfectly, has a sense of wonder about it and adds to the space exploration theme Galactica has. I love this one!

Galactica. A lovely soundtrack to a lovely ride!

Nemesis also has a great theme, chilling and foreboding, it helps to add to the terror of the area and the ride itself.

Another thing I do like it how Imascore, who did the music for Galactica, Spinball Whizzer, The Smiler and Wickerman at Alton Towers included parts from In the Hall of the Mountain King, Alton’s unofficial theme. A very nice little attention to detail by some very talented musicians!

The same can be said for Thorpe Parks theme, it incorporates segments of the big 5 roller coasters, and the themed areas appear to have excerpts from the main theme too. I also like Derren Brown’s Ghost Trains score.

Tornado Springs at Paultons Park also has a great score, feeling very in keeping with the 1950s American theme they have there. Same for Storm Chaser, thats theme is great too, mixing 50s guitars and rock with the sounds of a raging storm.

Tornado springs at Paultons Park

Chessington World of Adventures has some good themes, its overall park theme is fun and inspires adventure, Croc Drop’s theme is also good, but Vampire’s theme is excellent and fits the ride and station building fantastically.

The not so good!

Personally I like, but don’t love Icon’s score. It has some excellent parts, but a lot of it I find to be quite lacking. I just doesn’t have the epicness in my opinion!

Rita is another rides whos score is just ok. I didn’t get to experience Thunder Rock radio when Rita was still part of Ug Land, but I could see that fitting really well. The score it has now, does still fit the Dark Forest and Rita’s final chance of escape theme, but it could be so much more. The fault lies in the fact that Rita doesn’t properly fit Dark Forest and didn’t fit Ug Land when it was there either.

The bad!

For me, the worst score that a ride has is Oblivion. The repetitive techno track doesn’t really fit the theme of Oblivion being a next level of fear that you have to overcome, riders disappearing into nothingness and not returning, but with a techno backing track? I really don’t like this one, but I do wonder what could be used instead?

Riders braving the drop (and score) on Oblivion

Aside Oblivion, I haven’t heard a score/theme that I really don’t like, but I’m sure there will be others out there that are good, not so bad and terrible!

I haven’t been to Europe or the USA to sample their delights, but I have heard a few scores like Taron’s and Helix as mentioned earlier, and I can’t wait to get abroad and see what hidden gems there are!

Blog, Reviews

Southampton & Paultons Park – Stop 6

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.

Cobra, our first stop

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!

Velciraptor, a Vekoma Junior Boomerang

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!

The entrance to Critter Creek

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!

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!