After reading people’s trip reports from Hong Kong, China, America (well, mostly Gavin’s reports!), Japan and wherever else in the world, I just thought it would be nice to bring all of us UK CFers right back down to reality by doing a Southend Adventure Island report.
My sister, her fiancée, and my niece were going to go to Southend to watch the fireworks display on the estuary and play some arcade games, so being the opportunist I am, I found that it was also the final day of Adventure Island’s operating season and with half priced wristbands, so I managed to convince them to leave a few hours early to get the park done.
I haven’t been to Adventure Island since the CF Live, and since then the park seems to have built a ton of new buildings to hold tat shops and restaurants, stuck one coaster on the top of a building, and also built a new coaster I still haven’t got.
Being an Essex boy myself, and with my mum’s side of the family coming from Southend anyway, I spent many days as a child at Adventure Island (or Peter Pan’s, as it was then known), with fond memories of sitting on the Space Chase waiting forever for them to send it round, being terrified of the big white dome that sat prominently in the park, watching in awe and wondering how anyone was brave enough to take on the Barracuda, or sitting in the cages of the American Freeway. My first upside down ride was the Sky Lab, a sort-of mini Enterprise. Since then, obviously many things have changed, with them doubling the size of the park, but it’s always fun and interesting to reminisce about your childhood theme park days!
First ride of the day was the Green Scream, famous for holding Mark Evans and many other naked riders to raise money and awareness for [breast?] cancer. For such a long train and being fairly tall for a children’s coaster, this thing just barely manages to make it around.
It was on this first ride where we noticed a trend for the day; the terrible operations! Maybe it’s because it was there last operating day and they were all out of a job tomorrow, but it was painful to watch them load the trains and send them, with all the old classics in there including not loading the gates until the train has completed its circuit, not loading the trains until the station was clear, and spending forever checking the restraints. No faulting the ops enthusiasm, as they were all insistent that we woop, give a thumbs up, and high-five them whenever possible, but it’s just frustrating to be sitting on a coaster for 5 minutes without going anywhere!
The Archeleon was up next. It’s a standard chair swing with excellent individual ride theming; Ian would love it!
When the park’s ghost train was first built, I remember seeing plans for something massive going all underneath the pier, so as a child I was a bit disappointed it didn’t do that! This ride got re-themed a few years back to create Over the Hill, a decent ghost train with a fantastic ending that had my niece terrified!
Sitting between these rides in the “new” section of the park is this disgusting looking thing; Time Machine. Known for being one of the most forceful and sick-inducing rides in the world, I didn’t go near it!
Also in the newer half of the park is Rage (which we skipped until later), a couple of dinghy waterslides, 3 restaurants (why?), a crazy golf course and a couple of other kiddie rides.
Heading to the older half of the park, underneath the world’s longest pleasure pier, they seemed to be building a new pavilion of some sorts where the pirate stuff used to be.
Just after the pier is the Fireball. This is a kiddie spinning ride with the cars swaying back and forth. Nothing too exciting really, but fairly unique, and it took forever for my niece to get on it and ride it.
In the meantime, I wondered off to find some food, and having fond memories of the Three Shells just outside the park entrance selling classic seaside chips and hot doughnuts, this is where I headed… The restaurant is now owned by the theme park! What an absolute disgrace. The food was vile, the lad working in there seemed to be stoned, and the interior appears to have been copied from Amanda Thompson’s School of Generic Designs. What a load of rubbish.
Heading back into the park, my niece was only just getting off Fireball at this time! We headed to our next ride, Barn Stormer:
Small, but a lot better, more fun and more forceful than the Green Scream. Not a bad kiddie coaster at all.
Now sitting on top of a building, and thus being almost impossible to get a good photo of, is the Mighty Mini Mega. What an appalling heap of junk, clunking and screeching it’s way around the tracks with seats that even my 6 year old niece was struggling to fit into!
Finally of the park’s kiddie coaster trio is the aptly yet misspelled named Kiddi Koasta, built in 2011 and therefore a new cred for me! Despite having PortAventura syndrome and only having half the train open, this was actually a smooth and decent coaster, especially for a Zamperla.
The Crooked House is one of the park’s original attractions, and I can’t think of any other parks actually having one? With sloped floors and weird scenes of some old man perving on you as you walk past, maybe it’s no wonder no other park has one of these?!
The ending scene used to be a teddy bear band playing a joyful tune. It is now this nightmare-inducing piece of What the ****…
Another of the park’s oldest attractions was up next, the Devil’s Creek Gold Mine.
This is basically a train of spinning barrels, with many U-turns in the track to impose the maximum spinny sickliness. I actually can’t believe this ride has survived as long as it has, with it now being over 40 years old.
Talking about classic rides, how about an old American Whip for you?
This was a favourite of mine as a child, and still managed to be extremely fun whipping you around the corner. It’s a shame that there are barely any of these left in the world to be honest, as they are great rides for any age!
Apart from an old Helter Skelter which was closed and a few spin-n-spew rides which we didn’t bother with, there’s not a lot more to this park really, apart from Rage, which we would do after the fireworks, which we managed to find a really good spot for…
For a free fireworks display, this one wasn’t bad and went on for a good 15 minutes. It could have done with a few more colours and a bit of music, but I guess they can’t hook up the entire seafront with speakers.
Following the chaos to get out of the crowds and back into the park, we were onto our final ride of the day, Rage, the park’s Eurofighter…
What a fantastic ride this is. I’ve never really heard any really positive reviews about this ride, and I’m scratching my head as to why not. It may be small, but it really packs a punch, is smooth all the way around, the restraints don’t dig into your thighs and it’s just a lot of fun. I ran around for a re-ride. Saw and Speed take note, this is what a Eurofighter should be like!
We left after this to chance our luck in one of the promenades many arcades (I won £6
), before getting some food in a nicer chip shop and heading home.
If you’ve never been to Adventure Island, I think it’s well worth going, not only for the 5 credits, but also for the older unique attractions. It’s not somewhere that I plan to run back to unless they build a new coaster, but I still had a very fun evening, and my niece loved the place!
My sister, her fiancée, and my niece were going to go to Southend to watch the fireworks display on the estuary and play some arcade games, so being the opportunist I am, I found that it was also the final day of Adventure Island’s operating season and with half priced wristbands, so I managed to convince them to leave a few hours early to get the park done.
I haven’t been to Adventure Island since the CF Live, and since then the park seems to have built a ton of new buildings to hold tat shops and restaurants, stuck one coaster on the top of a building, and also built a new coaster I still haven’t got.
Being an Essex boy myself, and with my mum’s side of the family coming from Southend anyway, I spent many days as a child at Adventure Island (or Peter Pan’s, as it was then known), with fond memories of sitting on the Space Chase waiting forever for them to send it round, being terrified of the big white dome that sat prominently in the park, watching in awe and wondering how anyone was brave enough to take on the Barracuda, or sitting in the cages of the American Freeway. My first upside down ride was the Sky Lab, a sort-of mini Enterprise. Since then, obviously many things have changed, with them doubling the size of the park, but it’s always fun and interesting to reminisce about your childhood theme park days!
First ride of the day was the Green Scream, famous for holding Mark Evans and many other naked riders to raise money and awareness for [breast?] cancer. For such a long train and being fairly tall for a children’s coaster, this thing just barely manages to make it around.
It was on this first ride where we noticed a trend for the day; the terrible operations! Maybe it’s because it was there last operating day and they were all out of a job tomorrow, but it was painful to watch them load the trains and send them, with all the old classics in there including not loading the gates until the train has completed its circuit, not loading the trains until the station was clear, and spending forever checking the restraints. No faulting the ops enthusiasm, as they were all insistent that we woop, give a thumbs up, and high-five them whenever possible, but it’s just frustrating to be sitting on a coaster for 5 minutes without going anywhere!
The Archeleon was up next. It’s a standard chair swing with excellent individual ride theming; Ian would love it!
When the park’s ghost train was first built, I remember seeing plans for something massive going all underneath the pier, so as a child I was a bit disappointed it didn’t do that! This ride got re-themed a few years back to create Over the Hill, a decent ghost train with a fantastic ending that had my niece terrified!
Sitting between these rides in the “new” section of the park is this disgusting looking thing; Time Machine. Known for being one of the most forceful and sick-inducing rides in the world, I didn’t go near it!
Also in the newer half of the park is Rage (which we skipped until later), a couple of dinghy waterslides, 3 restaurants (why?), a crazy golf course and a couple of other kiddie rides.
Heading to the older half of the park, underneath the world’s longest pleasure pier, they seemed to be building a new pavilion of some sorts where the pirate stuff used to be.
Just after the pier is the Fireball. This is a kiddie spinning ride with the cars swaying back and forth. Nothing too exciting really, but fairly unique, and it took forever for my niece to get on it and ride it.
In the meantime, I wondered off to find some food, and having fond memories of the Three Shells just outside the park entrance selling classic seaside chips and hot doughnuts, this is where I headed… The restaurant is now owned by the theme park! What an absolute disgrace. The food was vile, the lad working in there seemed to be stoned, and the interior appears to have been copied from Amanda Thompson’s School of Generic Designs. What a load of rubbish.
Heading back into the park, my niece was only just getting off Fireball at this time! We headed to our next ride, Barn Stormer:
Small, but a lot better, more fun and more forceful than the Green Scream. Not a bad kiddie coaster at all.
Now sitting on top of a building, and thus being almost impossible to get a good photo of, is the Mighty Mini Mega. What an appalling heap of junk, clunking and screeching it’s way around the tracks with seats that even my 6 year old niece was struggling to fit into!
Finally of the park’s kiddie coaster trio is the aptly yet misspelled named Kiddi Koasta, built in 2011 and therefore a new cred for me! Despite having PortAventura syndrome and only having half the train open, this was actually a smooth and decent coaster, especially for a Zamperla.
The Crooked House is one of the park’s original attractions, and I can’t think of any other parks actually having one? With sloped floors and weird scenes of some old man perving on you as you walk past, maybe it’s no wonder no other park has one of these?!
The ending scene used to be a teddy bear band playing a joyful tune. It is now this nightmare-inducing piece of What the ****…
Another of the park’s oldest attractions was up next, the Devil’s Creek Gold Mine.
This is basically a train of spinning barrels, with many U-turns in the track to impose the maximum spinny sickliness. I actually can’t believe this ride has survived as long as it has, with it now being over 40 years old.
Talking about classic rides, how about an old American Whip for you?
This was a favourite of mine as a child, and still managed to be extremely fun whipping you around the corner. It’s a shame that there are barely any of these left in the world to be honest, as they are great rides for any age!
Apart from an old Helter Skelter which was closed and a few spin-n-spew rides which we didn’t bother with, there’s not a lot more to this park really, apart from Rage, which we would do after the fireworks, which we managed to find a really good spot for…
For a free fireworks display, this one wasn’t bad and went on for a good 15 minutes. It could have done with a few more colours and a bit of music, but I guess they can’t hook up the entire seafront with speakers.
Following the chaos to get out of the crowds and back into the park, we were onto our final ride of the day, Rage, the park’s Eurofighter…
What a fantastic ride this is. I’ve never really heard any really positive reviews about this ride, and I’m scratching my head as to why not. It may be small, but it really packs a punch, is smooth all the way around, the restraints don’t dig into your thighs and it’s just a lot of fun. I ran around for a re-ride. Saw and Speed take note, this is what a Eurofighter should be like!
We left after this to chance our luck in one of the promenades many arcades (I won £6
), before getting some food in a nicer chip shop and heading home. If you’ve never been to Adventure Island, I think it’s well worth going, not only for the 5 credits, but also for the older unique attractions. It’s not somewhere that I plan to run back to unless they build a new coaster, but I still had a very fun evening, and my niece loved the place!
