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Ghosterforce XI: RESURRECTION (2014) Trip Reports

Ian

From CoasterForce
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
One of the driest and warmest (in terms of weather, wit and friendliness!) that I've ever been to!

Thanks to everybody who turned up, I look forward to reading your trip reports!

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nadroJ

CF Legend
Shan't be writing a trip report just yet as I'm still living amongst boxes, but just a massive thank you to everyone who came and made this one of my favourite Ghosterforces to date. Everyone was just so full of energy, there was minimal faff and loads of titting about - exactly what CF is all about! Loved it.
 

peep

CF Legend
Had a fantastic time yesterday, it was just brilliant being able to catch up with so many awesome people <3 Just had a good laugh the whole time and there was never a dull moment. I loved the ridiculous amount of glow sticks (thanks Ian!) and all the balloons (Ian again!) and bubbles (Dan!) for queueline entertainment. I don't think we've entertained so many other park guests as we did in the Dodgems queue.

Thanks Jordan for your slightly different approach to organising the day too! I think going off to see some animals is a first for a CF Live?
 

EnigmaHyena

Hyper Poster
First things first, well done Jordan on running the entire Live and making two awesome days possible! Despite arriving at Thorpe near 1pm after an annoyingly busy morning and having to endure the walk from Staines whilst carrying a bag more than twice the weight of 2 double-decker buses (there you go Ian, your favourite type of statistics ;) ) meeting up with the group instantly lifted my spirits to that level that only CF events manage to do.

Thorpe was disssssGUStanly packed but that was to be expected and we just made the most of it like the usual bunch of tits we are...especially in the 1hr30mins+ queue for Stealth which resulted in a mad flurry of knockoff Pez sweets being flung in every direction, for example.

As usual Chessington was the more relaxed day and just generally more enjoyable as it usually is every year (even though I loathe the park and all its mediocrity). As Peep mentioned it was nice that the day was mixed up a bit this year to go and heckle the animals and be the group of TOTALLY SERIOUS MATURE ADULTS we are by taking over the Amazu play tower. CF faffle was a hilarious moment of course, all the tat was deliciously awful this year! I just happened to win (if you can call it that...) the hideous Pleasurewood Hills 'Woody Bear' coinbox which seemed impervious to all our attacks, including Ian smothering his burning cigarette all over it, being dunked in a fountain and being dropped from height multiple times in the Dragon Falls queue. Pretty sure it was forged in the very belly of Hell.

So yeah, really great Live overall with the best part of course seeing everyone again in high spirits. Thank you everyone for continuing to be amazing and making this expensive hobby worth it <3

Didn't take many photos so I'll leave you with this shot of The Awful Coinbox maintaining his smug indestructible grin. Whoever is responsible for donating this to the faffle, I love you.
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SaiyanHajime

CF Legend
A small but fun GhosterForce, and the best weather we've ever had without a doubt! Here's some pics.

Jordan and Conor's fabulous zombie costumes!
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Barry's amazing eyeball cake pops! (Sadly no photos of the brittle)
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Oh look it's Ian from CoasterForce!
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Aztec Resturant!
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Faffle! Or...whatever it was called this year...
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Ahahaha, faffle prizes <3
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Glowsticks on Womb Blaster!
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Jordanovichy

Credit Whore 2016
I shan't be writing a full report because I shan't be writing a full report, just a few thank you's, plus high and low points.

First thanks to Jordan for organising it all <3 I can only speak for Chessington but I'm sure you did an excellent job at Thorpe too, I just wish I'd seen your Ryanair costume :p

Thanks to Peep for the use of your guest bed Monday night, meant I avoided the BURDENOUS 5.20am coach up from Portsmouth which would have killed me I'm sure. Thanks to Ian for driving me back to Eastleigh, it's always great to finish the UK season with a night ride on Vampire and I was able to thanks to your beautiful generosity <3 Plus thanks to everyone that came, it's always one heck of a lot of fun and yesterday did not disappoint, great to see faces I haven't seen since last year's GF, plus everyone else ;)

Just some general high and low points from me
Highs
Conor dropping his bag of sweets on Rameses leading to the ride ops getting out a torch and shining it into the pool to see many floating sweet wrappers.
The rain of glow sticks on Rameses
The fab music and smoke effects on Rameses were just brilliant, kudos to Chessington for this!
The faffle with amazing new ticketing system, death rides <3.
All aiming for the other other Jordan on the dodgems.
The balloons in the queue for said dodgems which got everyone else joining in.
The peanut brittle :O I have no idea who made it but is was gorgeous.
I'm also glad the 2 day old sausage rolls Joey was handing round didn't make me ill :p
The glow sticks being distributed in the most inappropriate queue line, Tomb Blaster with the gaps just large enough to fit glowsticks down ;)
Hocus Pocus Hall <3
Incredible and unexpected spinning times on Dragon's Fury with Scarlet <3
Dragon Falls selfie times
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Lows
The lack of working stuff on Bubble Works </3
Getting to Eastleigh to find the next train to Pompey cancelled and the second one 80 minutes away (I drowned my sorrows in the nearby Spoon's so it was all well).

Well there was no other low point, it was all fab.

Looking forward to seeing many of you at Christmas <3 Happy Halloween!
 

Serena

Miss CoasterForce 2016
Staff member
Social Media Team
What a fab couple of days that was! Thanks to Jordan for organising the days (and for involving the petting zoo :D) I'm going to combat the dreaded Post-erforce Live blues by writing a trip report.

Got the train to Staines on Mon, where my Chaviot awaited, in the form of a blue bus full of chavvy teens. I sat alone amongst them dressed as a bumblebee and received plenty of funny looks, ha.

For some reason, I thought the meet-time was 11, and didn't realise I was 45 minutes late...sorry for bee-ing such a burden. Jordan's Ryan-Air-Hostess costume was amazing, as was Conor's undead Santa complete with burdenous baby. My Duct-Tape Zombee outfit had much more competition for the costume prize this year ;)

We rode Saw first, I made Erol count the moments of airtime to prove that it has the most out of any steel UK coaster.

Next was Logger's Leap - Flume of Hearts, and Volcano: The Ride - where the disgusting mucky station floor certainly put the 'mess' into Nemessis. (sic)

Was excited to try the New For 2014 Angry Birds Cinema afterwards, purely to see how it managed to tell a story through such inexpressive characters. Also, how many Dimensions would there be?! I noted:

1. Chair-D
2. Steam-D
3. Bubbles-D
4. Sharp Animation-D.

Leg-Ticklers made a brief appearance, but not enough to be a D, so I'll say Leg Ticklers-C. For 'Crap'.

Delpiero Tom arrived, his costume effort was second to nun. Highlight of the Stealth queue was Mike getting fussy about whether there were Dates or Currants in the cakes being passed around. As he ate one, I told him he was now up to date with currant affairs. Oh, how we laughed.

After we rode the teacups, Delpiero Tom introduced his ingenious Treat or Treat creations. It was a Lucky dip of foil-wrapped lollypops - some chocolate covered strawberries, some chocolate covered XXX hot-sauced sprouts. I got a Hot Sprout and had to immediately purchase a Slushy to rid my mouth of the burning pain!

I cooled off on the rapids, where me and Ian discussed at length the best shades of orange, green and purple <3

Some of us broke off to do some mazes, i.e.: to look at the horrendous queue times for mazes (120 mins!) and do Slammer instead. (By do, I mean, me and Erol watch everyone else ride that monstrosity)

We reconvened at The Swarm, with all of it's red lights working in the dark, hooray! The queue was long, but this gave a perfect opportunity for us to stand in Ian Bell's Tower of The Swarm Church - named especially after him, don't you know!

Me and Ian gooned out over our shared love of cheese for the best part of the queue; and were then joined by Nic and Jordan in an appealing conversation of how to peel / slice various fruits.

As we got into The Swarms station we had a serious political decision to make: would we ride the right wing or the left wing? Obviously, we all knew where ATTACKHAMMER would be sitting...

Overcome with excitement of staying at The World's Best Travelodge, me, Nic, Ian and Dan left early just so we could appreciate every broken lift, every un-hoovered carpet and every stain on the walls of Tolworth.

Here we made the prize draw that was to take the place of this years Faffle at Chessington: The Last Rites Lollypop Lottery! Decided to go with the theme of Death Creds for that ghostly Halloween feel.

Day Two

Went for a Greasy Spoon breakfast the following morning, yum. Then we managed to get into Chessington's posh car park with our Chessington World of Lies.

Bubbleworks, petting zoo and the New For 2014 Death Trap climbing frames kicked off the day to a literally wobbly start. Was nice to see Geography Dave for our annual Chessington catch up :)

I noticed the hand-dryers at the Petting Zoo were called 'Tornado.' This is yet another hand dryer to add to the list of 'Xelerators', 'Air Blades' ...why are they all named after creds?!

Next up was the Hocus Pocus Hall - Superior Halloween edition, featuring fab Polish Pirate! The attraction is so much better than the usual Hocus Pocus Hall, but the High Quality Mirror Maze finale could really do with being upgraded to the Mark 7 system ;)

As we waited for Rattlesnake, Peep told me of the wonders of Walibi parks at Halloween, now I have another thing on my must-do list next year!

Then we visited the New For 2014 restaurant at the Azteca hotel. It was a Buffet The Hunger Slayer, and had a really nice selection of food. I had grilled salmon, potatoes, olives and feta (and a massive bowl of ice cream). Easily the best place I've eaten at a Merlin park, and reasonably priced too.

There was themeng in the restaurant: faux-monkey's that looked as though they're weeing into a fountain, faux-thunder and real leaf-cutter ants.

After chowing down, it was time for the Last Rites Lollypop Lottery by Dragon Falls. Highlights included: Scarlet winning a Brean Leisure Park plastic coin cup, and Fraser winning the vile indestructible money box.

I won an actually fab Oblivion photo frame, going to put the group photo from this Live in it to make it a Ghosterframe <3

Rode Dragon Falls, and then I pulled my Lorikeet Face.

We provided the whole Dodge Thems queue with top notch entertainment, namely Halloween balloons courtesy of IFC. But they didn't rival last years' pegs.
Then out came the bubbles in the queue for Dragon's Fury, with Jordan popping them with what can only be described as a Slappy Hand Faffle Piece Of Tat.

Appreciated Dragon's Fury's pointless second half with Nic, then it was onto Womb Blaster and time for the Glowsticks to come out, yay!

Ramesses Revenge had fab new lasers, which made it great to watch in the dark (especially when it was raining Glowsticks). Then it was onto Scorpion Express to appreciate it's new fiery / water spitting goodness at night.

A traditional "Coaster!" "Force!" ride on Black Buccaneer followed, where all the shouting is an excellent distraction for how sickly that ride is. Then it was time for the grand finale of riding Vampire at night, where Ian once again told me his utterly realistic, heroic tale of rescuing hundreds of people who were waiting in the snow from a Vampfire in the queue.

I was honoured to share the last ride of the UK Merlin Park season with I.F.C. *swoooon*

Then it was sadly the end of the Live, after a fab 2 days of silliness and laughs. I would never enjoy a Merlin park that rammed in any other circumstance, but CF makes it fun, I had a great time chatting with everyone in the long queues. It was nice to meet Rachel, Lain and Nicky for the first time too.

Thanks for all the great company, I already can't wait for the next Live :)
 

Mike

Giga Poster
I haven't really got anything to add from what has already been said, so I'll just say what I said on Facebook...

Absolutely brilliant couple of days theme parking with CoasterForce. It has now been over 10 years since I joined CF and became a "theme park enthusiast", and since then I have met many, many awesome people, had a ton of brilliant days out and have gained lifelong experiences and memories. I seriously don't know where I'd be in my life right now without these. I'd like to give a massive thanks to everyone that has been part of, and has stuck with me in, my journey, both through the good times and bad. Long may it continue!
 

jj23w

Hyper Poster
I wrote a long report but it didn't go through just gonna put my highs and lows of Monday and a detailed report of yesterday tomorrow.

Highs
Meeting new people
Getting on all coasters
Riding The Swarm front left with all effects on
The BBQ place
My Bloody Valentine
Cabin In The Woods
Slammer

Lows
Chavs
Chav bus
Burdenous queues
Traffic Jams to get out
Queues for the mazes
Having that stupid doll all day
Them trick or treat chocolate foods even though I got treats.

I'd like to thank Jordan for organising the trip.
It was good to meet new people honourable mentions to out lain Nic Erol Sue Will Serena and Mike.
 

DelPiero

Strata Poster
Had a great day at Thorpe with everyone. Stupidly busy but not burdenous at all, simply to do with the company.
I arrived around lunch due to work as a nundead, got a lot of attention from the GP for my effort, which was well received. Shame I lost the cross i'd made out of fingers.

My highlights:
The Zom-Bee, Ryanair dolly and Sexy Santa
Mine and Darren's attempts to miss the water squirting in Angry Birds 4D
The sprouts of doom, Mouse's video will appear shortly i'm sure
Being unable to spin a teacup properly with Connor and Jordan
Dan's solitary spin in said teacup
Rapids were excellent, attempting to pray for the photo but being the wrong side
Sue's total disappointment when she got the doll
Meeting some new (to me) people, Rachel and Errol mainly
The eyeball cake pops, nom
Connor telling the thrilling tale of Scare Kingdom
Swarm being decently fun again

Thanks to Jordan for the organisation, it was a fab day, just not long enough. I'll make sure I save the extra days holiday for Chessie next year as one day at the end of the season really isn't long enough with you guys.
 

Pierre

Strata Poster
Ah, I miss GF - the end of season bash.

Looks like a fun day and not a stupidly big group to get things done with minimum faff. Also, very cool jumper Jordan.
 

MouseAT

Hyper Poster
A MouseAT video this way comes...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmyzYAnK8jw[/youtube]

Many thanks to Joey for his camera work on Dragon Falls and whilst we were on the dogems. Apologies to Serena, but the sequence with the hot sprouts was just too hilarious not to include it in full.

I don't really know what else to say here. This year has been amazing, I think I've probably seen more of CF over the last few months than I have in any previous year, and I'm on a bigger post-Live downer than usual simply because I've had so much fun with all you crazy people and now it's all over for yet another year. That said, there are multiple highlights worthy of note:

  • The weather has been amazing. Lovely warm sunshine during the day, and with the clocks going back we got plenty of night rides due to the early sunset without it getting cold on a night.
  • All the major coasters at Thorpe were on fantastic form. Colossus was seriously moving at night, I don't think I've ever known it run that quickly before, and Swarm had actual forces (where the hell did they come from?).
  • DelPiero's now infamous hot sprouts of doom. If you don't know what we're referring to, watch the video and all will make sense.
  • A nice chilled evening at Tolworth, talking random crap, preparing the The Last Rites Lollypop Lottery and my goon knowledge completely failing me when it comes to death creds.
  • The Chessington slides and watching people landing at the bottom of the Chessington slides.
  • Hocus Pocus hall. It's much the same as last year, and whilst it seemed to be missing something minor this year (CFers in a massive glowstick chain perhaps) it's still a brilliantly put together attraction. Maybe they just need to update the mirror maze to a fab new model. That must be it.
  • The amazing buffet lunch at the Azteca hotel restaurant. Probably the best meal I've had at a park in the UK.
  • The amazing random crap given away in this year's [strike]faffle[/strike] The Last Rites Lollypop Lottery. Bonus points for finding the indestructible money box. If there's ever a nuclear holocaust, somewhere amongst the debris will be that grinning bear in pristine condition.
  • Getting an amazing ride on Dragon's Fury, probably the best I've ever had. Spinny times!
  • Glow sticks, glow sticks, people's reactions to the glow sticks, the glow stick train on Tomb Blaster, glow sticks on... well, pretty much every other ride we rode that evening.
  • The laser effects on Rameses Revenge. I think Chessington maybe need to pay a bit more attention to where they're aiming said laser, but it looks amazing at night.
  • CF! You're all fab, and I miss you already!

Thank you once again to everyone for making the last few days and indeed the entire year so epic. =D>
 

Rachel

Coaster MILF
I had a fantastic day on Monday, it was really great to meet some more members and get to speak more to others that i'd met before. Thanks to Jordan for organising the day, I really did have a lot of fun and the day flew by despite the long queues. Kudos to Jordan, Connor, Tom and Serena - you all looked amazing in your costumes!

I wont go into too much detail about the park, everyones been there a hundred time before, but my highlights of the day included -

- All of the coasters running really well, especially Colossus which really surprised me and gave an amazing night time ride.
- Getting to ride Slammer again for the first time in ages. It is a bit disgusting, but i've always had a little soft spot for it.
- SWEETS! So many sweets and cakes.
- Night time ride on the rapids - this was a first for me and I really enjoyed it. Being taken over by the other boat and the failed attempt at a praying photo.
- Spicy chocolate covered sprouts <//3
- The baby in a box.
- The weather - it was a perfect sunny autumn day.
- The company

I was slightly disappointed we didn't get to go in any of the mazes but with 100 minute queues they just weren't worth it. Next time i'll know to visit Thorpe prior to GF so i've got all the mazes out of the way.

Thanks again to everyone for such a great day, until next time :--D .
 

caffeine_demon

Strata Poster
Had a great few days! Thanks again to Jordan!

DAY 1:
Highs:
The weather
Jordan's ace "ghostess" costume (ok - it was a zombie, but I don't care!)
Trick or treats (spesh the sproutsicles)
Meeting Erol SC at last! (Puerile innuendos included)
The maze replacement ride on slammer - about the third time I've done it and really loved it
Realising how good X is now that they've turned the cars around - it's now X:NLWTF (No longer WTF)


Lows:
Clapham Junction
Extended faff waiting for everyone
Having to do the walk of shame to the fat seat on inferno
The stupidly long maze queues - Next year I'll either go beforehand as well - or suggest fastpasses for those who want to do mazes!


DAY 2:
Highs:
The weather
The playground takeover, including the "someone fetch the margarine" comment.
The queues not being as bad as we feared on arrival - most rides they were overstated by at least 50%
Lorikeet feeding - first time I've been through and in not the last!
The Faffle / Last rites lollypop lotto (Yay for the stupidly small wallet)
The great ride on dragon's fury - I used to prefer spinball, but the last few rides on each have totally changed that
Balloooooons!
It just being a truly lovely day!
Glow sticks!
The Laser show on Rameses!


Lows:
Extended faff waiting for everyone
The overlong wait for noodles at lunch and the burger for dinner
Missing the train because I underestimated the time to get from chessy south to euston! (oh well - 'sonly money)


FINAL HIGH
The great company

FINAL LOW
The comedown when I've realised I've eaten way to much unhealthy stuff!!
 

jayjay

Giga Poster
As usual, I've come back from Ghosterforce having had a fantastic time! It's always great to see new faces and old faces.

Thorpe was far less burdenous than usual. By the way, if anybody ever going by train wants to save money and/or avoid the chav bus, I discovered it's easier to get a train to Chertsey and take a half hour walk. Most of the rides were running really well and I had far better rides on The Swarm, Inferno and especially Colossus than I've ever had. Stealth is amazing as always. In the queueline for Saw, I was talking about how I never noticed the "Gerstlauer brain-mash" and then immediately got it on the ride. 2/10, would not recommend. Queues were also not quite as torturous as they have been in the past.

The costumes were awesome at Thorpe. Jordan's flight attendant wins it for me but the Nun and Santa were great too! Thanks to everyone that brought sweets and things (I managed to avoid the lucky dip things fortunately); the diabetes I'll be getting soon will be totally worth it.

To Tolworth Travelodge for the evening, where we spent time listing death-creds for the Last Rites Lollipop Lottery.

After a bacon roll from a Tolworth greasy spoon, it was off to Chessington. I don't care that it might be stagnating somewhat, I still love Chessington as a park. Dragon's Fury is still one of my favourite rides and I feel like they've put lots of effort into the zoo areas of the park. The restaurant at the Aztec hotel is nice and atmospheric (and the food is good too).

Tonnes of highlights from Chessington. Mystery of Hocus Pocus Hall was a bit of fun, with most of the actors being surprised at the group size and some amusing acting. Taking over the playground (monkey ladder <3). The Faffle/Last Rites Lollipop Lottery. Watching Fraser and co trying to destroy the moneybox. Glowsticks! Rameses operator being generous with the flips. Ian recounting his heroic tale from the Vampire queue.

Overall, I'm sad that my season is over. Hopefully when I have more money and freedom to do things next year, I'll have a more active season and see everyone more.
 
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