On Sunday myself and Darren B visited Southends' premier/only attraction 'Adventure Island.' It has all the usual seaside-cred suspects: a Pinfari, a Zamperla kiddie cred, and not one, but two Zierer Tivoli's!
It also has Rage - a fab yellow and pink Eurofighter with a lovely big loop:
Rage is a solid fun coaster, it's fairly smooth for a Eurofighter which makes it more re-ridable than others. The first drop is great, and the inversions are taken just slowly enough for that weird 'time is slowing down' feeling to kick in, but without feeling uncomfortable. It's by far the best attraction in this park.
The other coasters in Adventure Island are all too similar in their junior-coaster dullness to be remarkable. Mighty Mini Mega has some interesting-looking bits of bendy track, and makes a terrifying banging sound at the top of the lift hill, but that's about it.
Darren found his prince awaiting him by the kiddie cred...
What a creepy piece of themeing!
Flat-ride wise the park has lots of vile spin n spews which we avoided; plus a fun-but-painful classic ride called American Whip and one amazing Zamperla drop tower 'Sky Drop.' I could happily live on that ride, it was so floaty and fun <3
There was also a brilliantly unique ghost train called 'Over The Hill' which features some great Tim Burton-esque themeing - wonky gates and strange skeletal-but-slightly-cute creatures inside. The ride ends with a fake exit station, where the lights go out and the air gates flap around before creatures jump out at you. It was fab!
One of the best things about Adventure Island is their staff. Every ride op or staff member we encountered was friendly, outgoing and really paying attention to the guest in the park. With their constant singing and joking, they seemed to be having just as much fun as the visitors, it was lovely to see that.
Adventure Island has also made a decent amount of effort in themeing their flat rides, which makes the place feel less like a funfair.
The food was average theme park junk, but reasonably priced.
Unless you love spinning flat rides, there's not enough variety of rides at Adventure Island to keep you entertained all day, but I still had a really fun time there. It was nice to visit a park on a weekend and walk on every ride, even if the majority of them were nothing special.
It also has Rage - a fab yellow and pink Eurofighter with a lovely big loop:
Rage is a solid fun coaster, it's fairly smooth for a Eurofighter which makes it more re-ridable than others. The first drop is great, and the inversions are taken just slowly enough for that weird 'time is slowing down' feeling to kick in, but without feeling uncomfortable. It's by far the best attraction in this park.
The other coasters in Adventure Island are all too similar in their junior-coaster dullness to be remarkable. Mighty Mini Mega has some interesting-looking bits of bendy track, and makes a terrifying banging sound at the top of the lift hill, but that's about it.
Darren found his prince awaiting him by the kiddie cred...
What a creepy piece of themeing!
Flat-ride wise the park has lots of vile spin n spews which we avoided; plus a fun-but-painful classic ride called American Whip and one amazing Zamperla drop tower 'Sky Drop.' I could happily live on that ride, it was so floaty and fun <3
There was also a brilliantly unique ghost train called 'Over The Hill' which features some great Tim Burton-esque themeing - wonky gates and strange skeletal-but-slightly-cute creatures inside. The ride ends with a fake exit station, where the lights go out and the air gates flap around before creatures jump out at you. It was fab!
One of the best things about Adventure Island is their staff. Every ride op or staff member we encountered was friendly, outgoing and really paying attention to the guest in the park. With their constant singing and joking, they seemed to be having just as much fun as the visitors, it was lovely to see that.
Adventure Island has also made a decent amount of effort in themeing their flat rides, which makes the place feel less like a funfair.
The food was average theme park junk, but reasonably priced.
Unless you love spinning flat rides, there's not enough variety of rides at Adventure Island to keep you entertained all day, but I still had a really fun time there. It was nice to visit a park on a weekend and walk on every ride, even if the majority of them were nothing special.
