Joey I am way too busy at the moment. However I plan to make this weekend my editing videos weekend. There also isn't much footage but hopefully I'll be able to pull something out the bag. For the meantime have a trip report....
Tuesday 26th October 2010
Not being able to make the Thorpe day of the Live I was really hoping my favourite UK park was going to provide an awesome day but at like 5am it felt like it would have to be the best park visit ever to make the early start seem understandable. It was going to be a very long day and I was so tired. I got ready though and managed to somehow leave on time, getting my train with time to spare. Once at Waterloo I had a little wait so I rewarded my achievement at getting up and ready on time by grabbing a lovely hot chocolate from Costas. Did I mention it was freezing out? No, well it was, glad I was wearing stupid amounts of layers under my 'safari' (read as casual) outfit.
After the train journey I was finally at Chessington South. On my walk from the station to the park I randomly met MouseAT. I think I went on at him about the temperature and how early I had to wake up to get to the park on time. When we arrived at the car park there were a few other CFers hanging around. We started to appreciate the lovely red skyline and the reflection in the hotel windows.
After a while Beans and I decided that we couldn't wait any longer and headed to the loos inside the hotel. It was nice and warm in the hotel but I thought it was best we joined back up with everyone else in the car park. The group was getting bigger all the time and we were already having buckets of sweets being offered to us courtesy of Mark. Large sugar intake was a clever plan for all of us lol.
It got to 8am and we were let into the ticket area. This is where we then waited for a little while for peeps to get tickets sorted.
Once everyone was ready we were taken over to Transylvania where we were greeted by the head engineer for Area 1 of the park. He told us what he does at the park and about some safety rules for when we walk around the legendary Vampire coaster. The first area we were taken around was the brake run at the end of the ride where he discussed how many parts there are in just one train and some info about the brake run and how the system for the ride operates. He also told us about some of the changes they had to make in the building when they changed the trains in 2001.
We then progressed round to the transfer track just before the station. He then demonstrated how the track changes and what would happen if the ride was not controlled properly. It was pretty cool and probably something I'll never get to see again.
I liked the way he was talking to us about everything, was very informative and geeky but in a way anyone could understand. You could also tell he really knew what he was on about.
It was now time to walk into the station area. He opened up the restraints for us to sit in the seats and have our pictures taken etc. He then showed those of us interested the control panel and what each button does, was pretty cool.
We then exited the station and went to one of the middle sections. He talked alot about the changes made to the surroundings when the trains were changed. That's all I heard in this section of the tour really, he also handed out some fact sheets for the ride.
He then showed some of us the machine room for the ride and explained all the geeky bits about what controls what on the ride, very informative.
It was then time to walk round to the second lift hill. One of the trains was sitting just before it so we talked more about the trains and how they secure them to the track over night, he also informed us about the lasers at the bottom of the lift hill that tells the computer that the train has reached the lift hill, was quite cool.
We then moved into the tunnel, good timing too as it was starting to drizzle. He talked about the tunnel and then asked if we had any questions, not many were asked but he did explain everything so well. We then had our group photos taken in the tunnel which was cool.
After the photos he then left us to roam the area and ask him questions for the remaining time. He was a really cool guy and I loved the attention CF are getting from the park, very awesome. I took a few pics in the area:
The park was now open to the public so we said goodbye to the Chessington staff and headed over to the meeting point for those that couldn't make the special tour. Some went in search of coffee while others just topped up on sugar-based sweets. I admired the halloween theming in the Market Square area...
I then spotted a new halloween character called Halloweenie, he was awesome and mischievous, I just had to have my pic taken with him. The cool bat character was also out so obviously pics were taken of him too
When some of us returned to the meeting point after character entertainment we noticed everyone was getting safari hats courtesy of Mr Ian. Was really cool seeing everyone else in safari hats too.
Ian had also purchased some inflatable hammers from the Chessie shop which provided lots of entertainment. Somehow Richard got 2?
Once everyone had arrived (well nearly everyone, Will and Neal were yet to be seen) we moved on to our first ride of the day, Runaway Mine Train. It was a fun ride with several of the hats Ian purchased flying off, one landed near the camera for the on-ride and we all tried to reach for it as we went past. It was amusing but unfortunately none of our arms were long enough to catch the hat.
We then moved on to Rattlesnake where there was a little bit of a queue, made a lot longer with the mass of CFers joining it, I believe Neal and Will had also joined us by now. I was at the back of the queue but it went by quite quickly. They were only letting a max of 2 adults per car which was annoying, oh wells. Mushy decided to wear a face mask of Ian for the on-ride which he then purchased.
Some peeps wanted to ride Ramses next but just as they entered the queue it was announced that it was broken and so the group moved on to my favourite ride in the park, Tomb Blaster. The queue was long but with plenty of CF antics time flew by.
My score, yes I play this a lot and that is, for me, not a good score
The smell of the chicken place had made everyone hungry by this point so lunch times occurred next. Originally I joined in with the Pizza pasta buffet group but looking at the queue I opted out and joined the 'I don't like queues or pizza' group. We ended up at the Greedy Goblin. It was busy but we managed to get a table for the seven of us (Mysterious Sue, Rach, Rush, Will, Joey, Tim and man I can't think of his name man and I apologize, therefore you will be known as Curious Man). The food came mysteriously quickly and to me the food tasted fine. However the food was not good enough for the taste buds of Tim which resulted in him assaulting Joey with a chip kebab.
This clearly amused Will
This clearly wasn't enough action for one meal. Mysterious Sue decided that ketchup was her sauce of the day but I don't think she intended on getting it all over he leg
Saucy Sue was being saucy
We was meant to have a fair bit of time left before meeting back up at Falls. So Tim, Joey, Will and I decided to journey into the Wanyama area. We spotted Meerkats..
Joey decided to lose his hat over the electric fence...
We said hello to the Zebra...
We were rained on...
And then we played with the musical items in the area. Tim also got out his cool gadget which somehow plays really loud music but it's so small. He put it one end of the red tube thing and we all listened to the music at the other end, we were easily amused.
We then made our trek to the meet up, diverting to the Market Square area for toilet based activities. I met yet another cool character...
We also bumped into family of Karen who seemed especially happy despite the very glum weather that was happening. We moved on as a group to the meeting point outside Dragon Falls. We were a bit late to the meetup but oh wells, everyone else was kind enough to wait for us. (on a side note, it'll be a while for more photos to appear, it rained, my camera hides in this weather)
The faffle happened and although I didn't win anything sometimes there were amusing items up for grabs like the signed ORP, I thought that was epic, congrats Marc, I is very jealous
The park had given CF a mass of fast track tickets for Falls but due to the inclement weather on show the queue was empty anyway so we just walked into the queue as normal. Mushy kept making sure I was in his boat and organised a small group to be in the boat. I knew straight away that he was planning to use masks of me for the ORP because I knew Maddie was thinking up something similar. Bless, he tried his hardest to keep it a secret till the drop
The photo be flying around somewhere in the ORPs area of the forum. My arms got drenched on the drop as there was no room to hold on so they were on the side where all the water rushes up, this involved dirt from the water invaded my white sleeves and making my arms very cold
We then moved on to Wild Asia. They had some cool voodoo dolls around the area for Halloween, they looked cool. Annoyingly the weather was just getting worse which made me opt out of Kobra, along with a few others. Some went and saw the Lorikeets but I went off with Richard and Co for dodgems amusement.
Will was borrowing Ian's safari hat due to the weather (Ian had resulted to a poncho by this point). The queue was quite long and nothing of interest really happened apart from the occasional attack of randomness. However we only just managed to get on at the same time but it did mean I had to share with someone, I chose Will. We nearly didn't fit in the same car due to our bags but we found a way.
Before we began the staff announced that we shouldn't go near the edges, we didn't really know why. However we were pretty much on the edge already and as soon as it started we knew why they announced that. We barely moved, just sat there being attacked from every angle, we then slowly managed to move and away we went. After a while Neal rammed into us, then burst into hysterics shouting "Will looks like a Nazi" to which everyone started laughing at. After that and then seeing Richard whacking peeps with one of the inflatable hammers from earlier on in the day. This had me along with Neal's excited discovery of Will looking like a WWI Nazi had me crying with laughter, other peeps on the ride must have wondered what the hell was going on lol.
After we got off we had more lol times about Will and then a soft ball was found on the floor. This clearly meant that baseball had to occur with Richard's inflatable hammer. The first few attempts failed much to our amusement and then bam, he hits the ball and it goes on to the roof above the ice cream place in Wild Asia, the staff couldn't stop laughing, especially when the ball somehow managed to find its way back off the roof and on to the floor. This meant Richard had to try and hit it again and he did. The ball went back on to the roof and didn't come back down
After the group got back together Dragons Fury was called. I'm not keen on riding Fury in the rain as it can sting quite badly. So I opted out and sat with Ian, Nic and Mushy. At one point Mushy Mark and I went for a drink and cake at Cafe Nero. Somehow Mushy managed to get some mass ring of chocolate from the cup. I didn't really notice until we met back up with Ian and Nic. We should've been good peeps and pointed out straight away but it was just so funny, sorry Mushy but it was.
After ages everyone was only just getting into the station. Nic suggested using her spazz band to get on the ride via the exit, I said I'd join her. We walked straight on and Richard shouted something at us from the other side of the station. It was only us two in the car and for the first half of the ride we span like mad, quite rare to get such an epic spin.
Everyone then met back up at the exit of Fury. In a random turn of events our next ride was Toadies. I went on with Joey, Tim and Will. Tim got his little music device again and we tried to find the most random song to dance to on the ride. I think we achieved this well, choosing a Lady gaga song. One of the most random but hilarious moments ever, I'll never forget that ride.
It was then decided that the next ride would be Flying Jumbos. I opted out as the rain was becoming a bit silly. I sheltered with everyone else in Cafe Nero. Apparently it was an amusing ride for those that did ride.
We were owning the kids rides by this point so why stop? Our next ride was the carousel. I was hoping that Richard would get Taylor in the spinny car, it feels almost like something everyone has to go through at some point. However Taylor refused to, a very clever move but it was a shame for the rest of us. In the end nothing exciting really happened but near the end I did see AJ run to a different horse and just as he got on it the ride announced it was stopping, AJ got spited by the carousel.
It was dark and this meant the arrival of the glow sticks. There were just so many glowsticks, everywhere I looked I just saw hundreds of glowsticks. It was an amazing sight, always a highlight of Ghosterforce. Then, out of nowhere, Tim's amazing Cyber Cobra costume was placed on Mysterious Sue for one of the most hilarious moments of the day. It was just such an epic costume and it dwarfed Sue, when she started dancing, that was it, I was in hysterics again.
Now covered in glowsticks we were ready to hit another ride. Next on the agenda was Bubbleworks. There wasn't really a queue (most of the park had emptied by this point due to the weather) and we just created a CF party in there. Having mexican wave times in the indoor part of the queue was epic. We then found ourselves squeezing lots of peeps into one boat. I was in a boat with Rach, Rush, Mini Tom and MouseAT. We were strangely evened out but we managed to catch up with the other CFer tubs very quickly. In no time at all we had a train of 4 or 5 CF tubs. Was quite a sight. On the lift hats were being thrown to different tubs and stuff, if was rather amusing. We then went down the drop. We didn't get that wet or create much of a splash but it was amusing just seeing the finale room just full of CFers getting wet from the fountains. I got the ORP:
Yes, mini Tom's glowstick thing was epic.
We then met back up with the head engineer who took us up the exit of Vampire for some special ERT-type riding. They allocated a train just for us and we all got at least one ride. I managed two, it was amazing in the dark with all the fantastic lighting in the area and all the smoke, mass really effective and cool. The ride op was really awesome too, kept shouting Coasterforce over the tannoy and saying really cool creepy stuff, he has been one of the best staff members at the park all year and I so hope he returns next season.
Well after all our Vampire fun we went to do Buccaneer. I didn't go on as I wanted to film it off ride. The shouting contest was the best it has ever been. Especially with the whole Ian...Bell. He was standing next to me and he seemed really over-whelmed by it, was uber cool.
After everyone gathered all their belongings we walked through the black forest haunt. It would seem it doesn't really work with 40 CFers walking through it at the same time. They have also changed it ALOT since last year and unfortunately not for the better. Oh well at the end of it I bumped into my Favourite Entertainments lady who I quickly caught up with, I said good bye and then caught up with the rest of the group outside Burger King for glowstick group photo. It was at this point that one of the management team that some of us met earlier in the year walked past and said a quick hello.
We then went for a final ride on Vampire. We literally walked straight through to the station. There wasn't much of a wait and then we were on. A fantastic way to end the day, it was running really well, very fast at the right moments and just very cool again with the lights.
We then headed to outside Hocus Pocus Hall for the farewell speech. I have to admit that it wasn't as emotional as it has been in previous years, maybe it's because I've learnt I always keep on meeting up with CFers throughout the closed season? But it was still a nice way to end a fantastic day. We then all made our separate ways home.
Thanks to everyone who made it such an amazing day, thanks to Mark for the organisation, Ian for handing out all the goodies causing much hilarity. Thanks to anyone who brought sweets to the party as sugar + CFers = more amusement. Sorry to those I didn't speak to that much etc, I think I was so tired and overwhelmed that most of the day I was very quiet. It was obviously very cool seeing certain peeps again and was great meeting some I haven't met before, hope to see you at future meets/Lives!
Thanks for reading
