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!
This is going to be a very quick blog just to outline our first ever European Road Trip!
As I’m writing this I’m sat in Tracy’s front room eager to get on the road, but can’t as I’ll be far too early for our Euro Tunnel connection to Calais tomorrow! This will be our first step of course and something I’ve never done before but I’m looking forward to it!
After a good night sleep (hopefully) we’ll drive from Calais into Belgium for the very first park on our little trip, Plopsaland! I cannot wait to have a go on Ride to Happiness and see what my first foreign park will be like!
On Sunday we’ll be at Bobbejaanland and we’ve accidentally hit a home run here as their new attraction Terra Magna opens for its first day after an extensive retheme. There’s also Typhoon to look forward to which was the very first Euro fighter model and Fury, which is the one I’m after most from this park!
On Monday we’ll be at the majestic Efteling for 2 days, stopping on site in their Loonsche Land Hotel which is very exciting! We have seen that unfortunately Baron 1898 won’t be operating while we’re there which is quite a blow but we’ve still got a plethora of excellent attractions to look forward to, such as Python and Symbolica.
Wednesday is a day off and we’re looking at visiting Eindhoven for the day. We’re not sure exactly what’s planned, though Tracy really wants to do their IKEA!
Thursday will be Toverland, a park I don’t see talked about much but well received when it is! Fenix, Dwervel Wind and Troy stand out for me here but there’s probably even more that I haven’t seen yet!
Friday and Saturday will be at the mighty Phantasia Land with a stop in their Hotel Charles Lindbergh. There’s so much to look forward to here, Chapas, Taron, F.L.Y, and Talocan just to name a few!
Finally we’ll be stopping back at Walibi Belgium on the way back around. Kondaa, Pulsar and Psyke Underground are what I’ve picked out but as with the other parks, there will be so much more that I’ve overlooked!
The fun doesn’t stop there though as we’ll be getting back on the Euro Tunnel and heading to Legoland Windsor to stop on site and do a day in the park and a the final Wednesday we’ll be at Thorpe Park to try their Mardi Gras event this year. 2 days to cool down before the finale at Drayton Manor for an Attraction Source event which I can’t wait for either! If Your Experience Guides event is anything to go on, then this should be great too! Extended ride times on Shockwave and Maelstrom, Loki, Thor and Accelerator!
It’s going to be a long one, it’s going to fill hard rives with videos and photos and it’s going to hopefully make some bloody good memories!
Recently I’ve been seeing more and more people voicing their opinions and concerns over the Retro Squad at Alton Towers, and I thought I’d put my thoughts out there too.
To be completely blunt, I think they’re good and certainly do their intended job of helping with capacity. Don’t get me wrong, it would definitely be better if Alton Towers got some permanent, well themed flat rides instead, but the Retro Squad are a good second best.
I like that they have at least put some effort into making them more than just bog standard fairground attractions. They all have proper names and their frames are covered over with boards to make them look a bit tidier. They even have a little back story that they come from an alien planet and are summoned to assist. They do lean a lot on the 80s Transformers idea but I think it works well. If Michael Bay can make vending machines turn into Transformers, then Merlin can make park attractions!
The most recent Retro Squad ride, Twistotron seems to have had the most exposure as it has its own video showing how it’s been corrupted by some form of evil transformer, which I would read into it being some sort of villan. My hopes are that it is run at full power and shows off how fairground attractions are run, as the other Retro Squad rides are run a lot slower than they would be if they were at a local fair.
Roller Disco is a prime example of this. Its a standard Waltzer but is run slower so you barely spin at all. I’ve only ridden it once, and I enjoyed it as I find waltzers make me ill if they spin too fast, then stop, then spin too fast again. Roller Disco was a nice change as it didn’t make me ill at all, however I know many people have differing opinions, Tracy included!
Mixtape in June 2021
Mixtape was a great little ride that if repainted and themed up a little would have been a decent ride to permanently fit into X-Sector. I don’t think Spinjam fits as well as what Mixtape did but still has that sort of sinister look to it that could work, at least a little!
Spinjam in 2022
The other ride is over in Forbidden Valley being Funk n’ Fly. This is a standard Super Trooper attraction and I don’t really have any feelings for it at all. It possibly could fit a little in with Galactica I suppose but only very loosely!
This year’s offering is Twistotron, a Trabant style, self built attraction that usually tours around Scottish funfairs and is placed on the site where Enterprise used to sit in X-Sector. I haven’t ridden this one as yet but I don’t think it is best suited for X-Sector. It would have fit a little better in Dark Forest or even on a plot of land by Spinball Whizzer to give that ride some backup.
I suppose really, my opinion is that they work well enough, they could be better and some would be better placed in other parts of the park.
I’ll definitely agree with the masses that Alton Towers needs some really good flat rides but what I don’t agree with is that funfair rides have no place in a theme park. Chessington is just about to open a new Jumani themed area and it’s two supporting rides are both things I would see at every funfair out there. A junior Miami Wave and a Super Jumper ride are both funfair attractions that are themed up to fit the area. Then there’s Ripsaw and Rameses Revenge. Though neither of these currently exist, they were both static installations of rides that are capable of touring the fair circuit. I could go on and on but I think I’ve started to make a dent in my point!
The point is that most people seem to jump in them for being funfair rides. Rides that have no place in a theme park. Rides that aren’t wanted and other things should be put in their place. Yet no one suggests any alternatives or even takes into account how many flat rides out there are perminant versions of touring rides (Mamba Strike, Ostrich Stampede, Vortex or Wave Swinger).
I think the new Intamin Dynamic Motion Stage would fit great in at Towers, or if that’s more of a dark ride then a Zamperla Energy Storm or Blendez, or how about a Technical Park Aerobat or Gerstlauer Sky Fly?
There are many different rides out there, and I bet a couple of the ones I’ve mentioned will end up on the touring circuit.
As for Retro Squad? Let’s just enjoy what we have, let Alton Towers use them to their advantage and hope that we start to see replacements for Ripsaw, Energiser, Submission and Enterprise in the near future!
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!
The Volcano.
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.
The Odyssey, I was in the second row!
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.
The Balloon Ride, inside the pyramid.
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….!
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.
Dreamland, closed today!
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!
Rage, with Sky Drop behind.
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.
Kiddi Koasta, set above an arcade.
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!
The American Whip
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…
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.
The Swarm’s dive drop
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.
On ride photos!
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.
Tidal Wave’s splash is easily visible!
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.
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