After yet another great CF Live we hit a rather empty Drayton Manor. This was only my second time here and had a great day full of antics.
Nadroj drove Ali, Mushy and I to the park and upon arrival in the car park we were greeted by Big John, Tanya and Phil. We waited ages outside the entrance because we were all early. Once the park was open we went to see the animals (as the zoo section is opened an hour earlier than the rides). One of the first highlights from the zoo was the meerkat house, it smelt funny but the meerkats were awesome, they seemed intrigued about our presence which was amusing too.
The best highlight of the zoo though has to be angry monkey. He didn't like us, especially Phil. As Phil walked over to the rest of us the monkey threw a box at him (obviously hitting the window). After a little while the monkey began to run towards us, orange in hand, and then threw the orange at the window we were standing by, was hilarious. As we continued to watch to see if angry monkey would continue his antics our presence angered him further resulting in a piece of wood being thrown at us, realising that if he threw straight he would hit the window and not us he decided to chuck it over the wall. His second failure at getting rid of us (or hitting us with inanimate objects) his anger grew. Walking back to the other side he picked up an orange and a plastic bottle. The plastic bottle was a cunning diversion as he dropped it as he ran towards us for the third time. He then threw the orange over the wall and as we were distracted by the orange he threw a box at the window resulting in Mushy making a brown fish.
After talking to birds and watching other animals pace up and down their enclosure we decided to grab breakfast at a cafe type place. The food was nice and wasn't too overpriced.
By now the rides had opened so we went on the closest attraction which was the new 4D cinema. The building is awesome and the queueline is well themed. The pre show needs to go though it is just terrible and unnecessary (especially the advert for the film in the cinema). The cinema is really cool, it's large and spacious and the seats are really comfy. The film is well done (and in digital
) and the effects are good though the smell stayed with us way too long.
Next attraction was Apocalypse and as we going on JayJay was coming off, good timing there. We all had two goes on the drop tower.
Next was Haunted which was hilarious because of the screaming chavvy girls and the bored staff member in the wolf-type costume.
I think we rode Drunken Barrels next which looked slow off-ride but due to Mushy making it spin like mad we all felt uber-dizzy when exiting the barrel.
Then we did that Golden Nuggets shooting attraction. It was random and the guns decided to only work when they felt like it.
It had decided to chuck it down so we did Excalibur as the boats have shelter. It was random and apparently half the effects weren't working.
The rain continued so we went over to the Pirate ride thing which looked closed. Then as Big John tried to open the door a ride op was unlocking the door on the other side, great timing! The ride itself was being all "I'm a cheap rip-off of POTC @ Disney" and was generally pants, but it did keep us dry.
Luckily the rain had stopped by the time we exited and so we headed for our first coaster of the day, G Force. It was better than I remember but it was really rough, shame.
Next was Shockwave which just inflicted pain on us. We decided to do the rapids next which didn't get us too wet (unlike at WSP and Alton) and we also had a nice burst of very warm sun too.
We were getting a tad peckish so we headed back over to the Apocalypse area for the food place there. Some nice food was eaten, yumm.
As we had just eaten we did the Buffalo coaster of boredem, so boring in fact that the ride op occupied his time by reading the label of a fire extinguisher.
Next was the pirate ship which was fun. There was a kid in front who looked like he was going to puke but by his friend's reaction this was the intention. Thankfully he didn't chuck up everywhere much to his friend's disappointment.
It was then time for Thomas Land, yay We first did the coaster which was actually fun. We then wanted to do a kiddy ride or two so first we did the spinning trains thing which was funny purely for the weird looks we got from passers by. Unfortunately we weren't able to do any of the other rides because we didn't have a child with us, darn it. So instead we boarded Thomas to the new playground area.
The area was full of climbing frames and slides and was great fun, especially taking the group pic on a tiny wooden car. As we was back to where the zoo was we walked round it again. Good times.
At the end of the zoo we got ice creams from the awesome place, £2.80 for 3 massive scoops in a cone with a flake, whipped cream and a sauce. Was really tasty
Then some of us did boats on a string ride, Pandemonium and sombrero hats ride. We ended the day by doing the boat on the lake which was a nice end to a great day.
Thanks to everyone for such a great day. Photos and some video clips may appear over the next few days.
Nadroj drove Ali, Mushy and I to the park and upon arrival in the car park we were greeted by Big John, Tanya and Phil. We waited ages outside the entrance because we were all early. Once the park was open we went to see the animals (as the zoo section is opened an hour earlier than the rides). One of the first highlights from the zoo was the meerkat house, it smelt funny but the meerkats were awesome, they seemed intrigued about our presence which was amusing too.
The best highlight of the zoo though has to be angry monkey. He didn't like us, especially Phil. As Phil walked over to the rest of us the monkey threw a box at him (obviously hitting the window). After a little while the monkey began to run towards us, orange in hand, and then threw the orange at the window we were standing by, was hilarious. As we continued to watch to see if angry monkey would continue his antics our presence angered him further resulting in a piece of wood being thrown at us, realising that if he threw straight he would hit the window and not us he decided to chuck it over the wall. His second failure at getting rid of us (or hitting us with inanimate objects) his anger grew. Walking back to the other side he picked up an orange and a plastic bottle. The plastic bottle was a cunning diversion as he dropped it as he ran towards us for the third time. He then threw the orange over the wall and as we were distracted by the orange he threw a box at the window resulting in Mushy making a brown fish.
After talking to birds and watching other animals pace up and down their enclosure we decided to grab breakfast at a cafe type place. The food was nice and wasn't too overpriced.
By now the rides had opened so we went on the closest attraction which was the new 4D cinema. The building is awesome and the queueline is well themed. The pre show needs to go though it is just terrible and unnecessary (especially the advert for the film in the cinema). The cinema is really cool, it's large and spacious and the seats are really comfy. The film is well done (and in digital
) and the effects are good though the smell stayed with us way too long.Next attraction was Apocalypse and as we going on JayJay was coming off, good timing there. We all had two goes on the drop tower.
Next was Haunted which was hilarious because of the screaming chavvy girls and the bored staff member in the wolf-type costume.
I think we rode Drunken Barrels next which looked slow off-ride but due to Mushy making it spin like mad we all felt uber-dizzy when exiting the barrel.
Then we did that Golden Nuggets shooting attraction. It was random and the guns decided to only work when they felt like it.
It had decided to chuck it down so we did Excalibur as the boats have shelter. It was random and apparently half the effects weren't working.
The rain continued so we went over to the Pirate ride thing which looked closed. Then as Big John tried to open the door a ride op was unlocking the door on the other side, great timing! The ride itself was being all "I'm a cheap rip-off of POTC @ Disney" and was generally pants, but it did keep us dry.
Luckily the rain had stopped by the time we exited and so we headed for our first coaster of the day, G Force. It was better than I remember but it was really rough, shame.
Next was Shockwave which just inflicted pain on us. We decided to do the rapids next which didn't get us too wet (unlike at WSP and Alton) and we also had a nice burst of very warm sun too.
We were getting a tad peckish so we headed back over to the Apocalypse area for the food place there. Some nice food was eaten, yumm.
As we had just eaten we did the Buffalo coaster of boredem, so boring in fact that the ride op occupied his time by reading the label of a fire extinguisher.
Next was the pirate ship which was fun. There was a kid in front who looked like he was going to puke but by his friend's reaction this was the intention. Thankfully he didn't chuck up everywhere much to his friend's disappointment.
It was then time for Thomas Land, yay
We first did the coaster which was actually fun. We then wanted to do a kiddy ride or two so first we did the spinning trains thing which was funny purely for the weird looks we got from passers by. Unfortunately we weren't able to do any of the other rides because we didn't have a child with us, darn it. So instead we boarded Thomas to the new playground area.The area was full of climbing frames and slides and was great fun, especially taking the group pic on a tiny wooden car. As we was back to where the zoo was we walked round it again. Good times.
At the end of the zoo we got ice creams from the awesome place, £2.80 for 3 massive scoops in a cone with a flake, whipped cream and a sauce. Was really tasty
Then some of us did boats on a string ride, Pandemonium and sombrero hats ride. We ended the day by doing the boat on the lake which was a nice end to a great day.
Thanks to everyone for such a great day. Photos and some video clips may appear over the next few days.
