Saturday 17th April 2010
Well after a rather random night with the students from the Czech Republic and an epic day at Asterix we were up an raring to go for the CF Live, April Douches at Bagatelle.
Richard, Neal and I went down to the reception area for breakfast (Brad and Ryan already there and munching on some breakfast). However French lady of spite was there and was not pleased to see Richard or Neal so we (from what we could gather from her ramblings) were not allowed breakfast. Damn it. We went back to our rooms and collected all our gear and left the hotel.
Richard came up with a quick plan for some breakfast...go to a local supermarket for cheap food. We drove down the road and came across a Lidl..win!
Yay for cheap food of nom. We then continued our journey to the park. At one point we came across a lot of traffic which made us concerned about being on time for the meet. However it didn't take very long as the traffic kept moving. So soon enough we were at the park and pleased to see that the car park wasn't too full and that the weather was beautiful (just like the Friday).
We got into the park straight away and saw no sign of the others. Some staff member put a bird on my shoulder and took a pic which was rather random, he then gave me a token to collect it later in the day (I had no intention of doing so). However after he put the bird back on his own shoulder I decided he should also have a photo taken.
At the entrance of the park is a random pedal bike course thing, we had time to spare so we all opted to have a go...
It was quite good fun and it just kept going on and on, annoyingly there wasn't any room to be able to take over or anything exciting. Shame, still a nice way to waste some time waiting for the others to arrive (who, by now, had sent a text to let us know they would be late). We then spotted a costumed character, so naturally we wanted our photo taken with it...
We still had some time to waste so to the small kids play area we went. Ryan makes it down the slide without any problems...
Neals go...
It looked painful for Neal, lets see if Richard can get down...
Well, he finally gave up and just climbed down. "Oh look...a goat!"
Q: In the following image is Neal just drunk or is he trying to do a strange pose?
A: Probably a bit of both
We still had time to waste so to the little shop it was. "Oh look...a hat!"
"Hey, what's going on over there?"
"Oh, Richard's just about to starfish"
Well, the wait was now over, The BellMobile had arrived.
Hurrah, so everyone had now turned up. What's this? Neal gets some pressies. Silly string and BUMTING!
After a little bit of faffing we then moved on to our first ride of the day, Le Ragondingue, a spinning wild mouse coaster. Nothing special, exactly the same as all the others.
So what be up next? It be sunny so a water ride was obviously on the agenda. So it was time for...
This is a rapids ride with a proper whirlpool (never done one before). We all managed to just about fit into one boat and as soon as we got off the station ramp I could tell we were going to get very wet. There are like random channels for the water to go down in between the three sections of seating. The first rapids section and the water was going all over the place and we were already getting quite moist. The section with Neal, Vadge and Brad? had a leak so it was filling up with lots of water and was actually above their shoes at one point! Then the whirlpool happened. It builds suspense better than any Hitchcock film (which is saying a lot) and the way you slowly go further into the whirlpool the more you become aware of the sudden drop in the middle. Bloody terrifying moment and then the drop happens which is all over so soon, water all over the place and straight into a section with waterfalls either side. We got lucky and missed those quite nicely and then it quaintly goes back round to the station ramp again.
Well that one ride was enough for me. I usually have a bad omen when it comes to getting soaked on water rides, I got off very lightly on this ride and I was not going to risk it again. However the others decided to stay on for a few more goes. So yeah, as you can imagine, most peeps came off quite soaked...Especially Brad.
Some faff happened as Brad took ages emptying his shoes of all the water
It was then time for Le Grand-Prix. This is very similar to Disney's Autopia just on a smaller scale. It was ok just a little bit boring.
We then continued down this random pathway which led us down what was more like a forest in the middle of a theme park. This led us to the big lake where the swinging ship sits nicely at the back. However we opted out of it and continued on to the boat slide. Ian and I backed out of going on and when we saw this boat come down with two kids in it we just looked at each other with disbelief, the kids got drenched a massive wave just came up and collapsed on top of them. Feck that. No one from the group got
that wet but Brad wasn't exactly helping his situation.
We then walked past the ex-location of some sort of coaster over to a horse riding attraction. CF takeover times occurred.
I was now in desperate need of a loo break but decided to wait it out a little longer. What was the next ride? A junior log flume! This was not going to help and to make it worse there was a queue. I consulted the park map for the location of the nearest loos. OMFG, they were either on the other side of the park by the lake or by the entrance of the park, how is that helpful? And people say Chessington has a lack of loos. Urgh, sad desperate times were occurring but I stuck it out.
Anyway Ryan, Neal, Richard and Ian's nephew all rode the little log flume.
They got a little moist but not by much. A coaster lurked behind us so naturally that was next (and yes I was still desperately not to piss all over the place
). I filmed a POV...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNZ9AXzwrB4[/youtube]
Lunch break was called and we all headed to the place near the entrance of the park. This is also where the toilets were located so I could finally relax
Brad and I then went to collect some stuff from the car of Rah.
We then went back to the eatery where we ordered foodage, well I managed easily enough and then Brad struggled to translate his order resulting in the man coming out to see what Brad was pointing at
After all the fuss the food was really nice and the amount you get for your money is excellent, it's just a bit too much and I ended up throwing away half of my chips.
After foodage we made our way to the circus tent at the back of the park for the Lion and Tiger show. Now I had never seen a show featuring Tigers and Lions and was very intrigued and concerned. We got in and the cage looked very unstable etc, just not the sort of set up you would expect for massive Lions and Tigers.
The show began and I was in true shock. Most of the Lions and Tigers looked so miserable and any time the guy struck his whip at them I just got more angry at him. One of the Tigers was so pissed off with him too and I know I wasn't the only one in the audience hoping the Tiger would attack him. No wonder they hated us taking photos.
SPITE
Well after our shock from that show we needed a different type of shock. Oh yes, it was time for dodgems! Brace yourselves...
It was awesome fun and we had quite a long run on them.
I only went on the one time but most of the others opted for several goes and kept ganging up on this one girl, who was loving the attention lol.
After lots of banging we opted for the boyzone coaster. A nice little family coaster with lots of helixes of doom and a drop into the middle of the lake. I'll explain the antics after you watch this POV...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plCeAjnknsg[/youtube]
So that little drop into the lake, well Ian and Neal had the clever idea of putting their hands into the water to spray back and soak everyone. The coaster does two laps too so on the second go round they knew what to do and even more epic wetness happened. Nicky and Vadge were very wet so only opted for the one ride.
However the rest of us went back for more Boyzone coaster. Neal planned to use his flip flops this time and Richard decided to join in on the fun. I'm just glad I was sat in front of them two as water sprayed and got everyone sitting behind them, however not as much as it sprayed the first time around.
On the second lap Richard tried a new tactic and instead of getting everyone else soaked, he got absolutely drenched. This was rather hilarious and everyone on the train was highly amused, even the French lady about 3/4 rows behind who also got soaked.
So what does everyone want to do after getting wet? Another log flume? Ok then...(well, I say everyone, I meant, Neal, Richard and Ian's Nephew)
It was now the end of Bagatelle times for Ian, Vadge, Nicky and Nathan. So we had to have a group photo. Luckily a passer by was happy enough to take the photo for us...
Amusing anecdote: French guy told us to say 'cheese' for the photo so we all shouted 'fromage' (the French word for cheese
)
We said goodbye even though we would be seeing them again on the ferry back later in the evening. We then weren't sure what to do with our time. We had done everything we wanted to do, apart from one thing.
I wanted to do their 3D dynamic cinema but only Richard was interested in seeing it too. Neal, Brad and Ryan then sat on the grassy patch by the entrance while we went to see what it was like.
There was no queue and we walked straight in. We waited a little bit in a pre show room that was now unused while more peeps turned up. We then went in and sat down on the simulator. We had no idea how bad or good this was going to be. The lights went out, the simulator got ready and then...nothing. We sat in the dark for a min or two and then the simulator went back down and the lights came on. A door opened and the ride op apologised but it had broken down. We all remained in our seats and after about 5-10 mins the lights went back out and we jigged around a bit. Then something happened on the screen. Hurrah.
The film was like a Star Wars pod race or something which was weird as the theming for the queue and show rooms were all scary haunt themed lol. Lack of funds to complete new ride theming: Bagatelle has this. It was ok but the simulator was a few seconds ahead of what was on the screen and it really jolted around. Overall it was just a very random experience.
We then went back to the others who were sitting down sunbathing/sleeping. After looking in the shop and buying shot glasses we went back to the car.
We drove to Calais, stopping off at the big shopping centre (forget the name of it) to waste some more time before our ferry. So, what do we do when we have lots of time to spare in a big shopping centre? We play games in Toys 'R' us obviously
We find this basket of bouncy coloured balls so we all took a different coloured ball and hid it somewhere within the store. The person to find the most balls won. This didn't quite happen though as we were all good at hiding it but not good at finding the others so no one won after about 20 mins or searching the store lol.
We left and searched for food and drink. They had a massive Tescos dedicated to alcohol, it was amazing, shame the prices were the same as here or more expensive and that 95% of the drink they sold was wine. Oh wells. So after some time we ended back in the car and we drove down to the ferry.
Once on the ferry we met up with the others and played with Neal's new packet of Pixar Top Trumps, it is such an epic card game. When we were sat in the lounge area Vadge chose a selection of songs on the video jukebox, it was very 80s. Neal also decided to do the same. However he opted for the same song for all 6 selections. What song? 'It's Chico time' by Chico. However it wasn't played 6 times, just the once much to the amusement of the group.
Ferry times then came to an end and we drove to our next hotel. A travelodge in the middle of nowhere. We stayed up and watched Bond film, Die another day and then fell asleep (which wasn't hard despite the sleeping arrangements).
Thanks for reading and don't forget to take your towel!
Next: Credit hunt
