A bit late, but here’s my blog on Brick or Treat at Legoland Windsor!
This was only our second visit to Legoland, as we’d visited earlier in the year and initially we weren’t that impressed overall. However after another visit, my opinion of Legoland has vastly changed for the better, and I feel I was a bit harsh to judge so badly so soon. I will have to get around to writing that blog during the closed season.
So, Halloween has also descended upon Legoland and it sees the park covered in pumpkins. They were everywhere, and though nice to see, I hope they did something with some of them after Halloween had finished!
Just one of the many Lego scenes now adorned with pumpkins!
There were also plenty of Lego models themed to Halloween dotted about the park (most of which I failed to photograph, once again). As for our day overall, we thoroughly enjoyed it. The park wasn’t overly busy, and it meant we got on a lot of the rides with very little queuing, which was excellent.
In all, we managed 17 rides through our day, and I wish the park had stayed open a little longer for a few more! This time around, we did get into Duplo Valley to try out some of the kids rides, and had a blast doing so! There are some really good kids rides here, such as Duplo Airport, and Duplo Dino Coaster, although the audio for the coaster can get a little annoying!
Wheeee!
We also managed to find Fairy Tale Brook, which for some reason I thought was a walkthrough attraction. This ride sees you on little boats that float along a water channel, showing you various fairy tale scenes and though it could do with a little cleaning here and there, was a really nice water ride, and it took photos too, so that’s a bonus!
For this visit, we managed to get into Farmer Joe’s Chicken Company for dinner, and were surprised to find themed food for Halloween, which was a nice bonus! With annual pass discount, the food wasn’t too expensive and the ordering screens make the process simple too. Tasty chicken burgers all round.
Purely cosmetic, so still the same great tasting food, just with different colours!
Later on in the day we got to have a go on Hydras Challenge, a Zierer Jet Ski ride. This was great fun! Not only do you have control over the vehicle allowing you to swing in and out for a faster or slower ride, but onlookers can also activate buttons the cause water to explode around you, showering you lightly. We didn’t get very wet on here at all, which was good as you take your belongings on with you while you ride. Thoroughly enjoyed this one!
Something I should also mention, and I’ll go into in further blogs, is the sheer amount of good quality dark rides, shows and indoor attractions here. Laser Raiders, Ninjago: The Ride, Lego City Deep Sea Adventure, Flight of the Sky Lion, Lego Studios 4D and Haunted House Monster Party. Even the parks signature rollercoaster, The Dragon, has a lengthy indoor section! Great for the British weather!
Inside the preshow to Haunted House Monster Party!
Dotted around the park are various trick or treat crypts that have a host who will talk to you, question and test you, before giving you a bag of goodies, we got a small Lego set, some pop badges and sets of vampire teeth, as well as Brick or Treat paper bags too. Worth seeing them all to see what you get from them!
I’ll go into the attractions more in depth in my next Legoland blog, but to wrap this blog up and summarize our day at Legoland Brick or Treat, we both thoroughly enjoyed it. I can imagine it being quite busy on a weekend, as we went on a Monday out of school holidays, but there were still plenty of folk about, but not so many that queues were ridiculous! Well worth the change of plan, as we were going to do Chessington for a second day, but decided against it last minute!
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!
loopsandlapbars.com 