uwurawrus
Mega Poster
London Gatwick Airport, 7am.
I like doing my daytrips to Europe, but this felt a bit extreme. 7am? Normally I'm well in the air by then. This time, I was only just getting to London Gatwick Airport for a 9:30am departure to Faro, Portugal. Ever since Mack Rides announced that they'd be building a new thrill coaster at Aquashow I had been intrigued, and my intrigue peaked even more when concept renderings started coming out. Guess I just had to go and ride it, right? The thing is, I'm a busy girl. I got things to do. So when I saw a random easyJet return flight on the same day for under £50 I thought I had to go for it. I'm not one for travelling during the summer period, but I initially thought if it's gonna open, it's gonna be the summer, and I was right. I missed opening by a few weeks, but at least it was open.
Whenever I travel from LGW (Which isn't very often as I don't like it) it's usually super early in the morning so the Wetherspoons Credit pre security has never been open. This time it was, so I swooped in and ordered a refillable coffee to claim #31 - The Beehive. At the end of the day a Spoons is a Spoons. It was okay.
It was at this point I checked FlightRadar and discovered that my flight had been delayed until 10am... Yay. Usually I'd be fresh in another country by that time. Usually I'd have already made it to the park I was going to. Alas, I was sat in a Wetherspoons drinking my second flat white of the morning. It was ok. I got a hot chocolate and decided enough was probably enough and that I should get my skates on and make my way over to quite possibly the worst airport terminal in THE WORLD, London Gatwick's North Terminal.
It's horrid. Horrendously inefficient, and home to easyJet, quite possibly the worst airline in THE WORLD, namely for their inefficiency. Ryanair clears. I'm sorry.
Eventually I actually managed to make my way onto the plane, as I made the short 2 hour 30 minute hop over to Faro Airport (#66), which is a new contender for worst airport in THE WORLD, for reasons I'll get to later. I waited in a horrendously long queue to get through passport control, and using the dispatch timer app on my phone I was able to record their passport control throughputs as a shocking 460 people per hour. This isn't what you want to see from a major tourist destination in the peak of summer, and by the time I made my way into the country officially, it was 2pm. My flight back was at 8! I only had 6 hours before I had to leave. I immediately jumped in an Uber to my destination; had I arrived on time I would've got on a bus but time was of the essence and it wasn't actually that expensive- around €15 each way which for a 30 minute journey I don't think is too terrible. I finally made it to Aquashow!
First impressions count, and Aquashow have nailed it - at least in terms of presentation. I’ll get to the ride experience shortly, but visually, this coaster makes a statement. Sitting at the back of the park, it stands out vividly against the bright blue Portuguese skies. The structure is striking and imposing - slightly out of place, perhaps, but all the more eye-catching for it. Its presence is further complemented by the Mack watercoaster next door, which adds to the overall visual impact. I’d brought swimwear with me, but thanks to EasyJet’s timekeeping (or rather, lack thereof) and Faro Airport's shocking operations, I skipped the lockers altogether and made a beeline straight for Flash Coaster, the only person in the entire park clothed beyond swimwear. Just like the coaster itself, I felt very, very out of place.
Flash Coaster (669)
is great. I was expecting great things from Mack, but my expectations were absolutely shattered after one ride on this beauty. After waiting in a short queue- people taking your shoes off (bizarre, but for some reason they require you do this) , upon dispatch, you're treated to a; bear in mind this is a Mack coaster, one with a swing launch at that; rather punchy backwards launch sending you halfway up the final dive loop thing. My first ride was in the back row, and you go beyond vertical, stalling out providing some great hangtime akin to Ice Breaker, or more recently Mandrill Mayhem's Junior Scorpion Tail, before quite a forceful forwards launch into a ridiculous twisting top hat. I was expecting something more like a Sky Rocket 2, but Mack's version of it here violently yanks you laterally (especially in the rows towards the front) which isn't something I'm used to experiencing on these Mack coasters. In the back you then experience quite a violent ejector moment, which is wonderful. It hits across the train but you definitely want to be in the back for this moment.
Flash Coaster then treats riders to a bizarrely profiled floaty outward banked non inverting Immellmann like-thing that translates into a downwards barrel roll which I thought would ride like the one on Hyperia, nice and floaty- what I wasn't expecting was to be violently yanked down it like the one on Iron Gwazi. It is absolutely spectacular, one of the greatest inversions Mack has ever produced.
The profiling of this moment is utterly bizarre, I absolutely love how it pops you out of your seat and then violently yanks you down. It's absolutely wonderful. More of this please, Mack!
Flash Coaster then ends with 3 hangtime filled inversions which are super comfortable by the way, shout out Mack's excellent train design! In the back row the final manouver really whips you downwards before you slow down on the launch track and then reverse back into the station ending the rather brief, but action packed ride experience.
Overall, Flash Coaster is absolutely brilliant. I really enjoyed its blend of laterals, which isn't a force I'm used to on a Mack, sharp airtime moments and whip.
5 rides later, I had decided I was happy with my total ride count, and decided to pick up the other +1, their Mack Watercoaster, appropriately named Watercoaster according to the RCDB, however in-park signage simply referred to it as Montanha Russa, or
Roller Coaster (#670)
Which I would be lying if I told you I had anything remotely interesting to say about it other than these two dudes chilling on the brake run of an operational coaster.
According to the RCDB it's a semi clone of Poseidon at Europa Park, only with a slightly different water section. It was okay. Nothing of interest to note. It was a long queue. I got adequately soggy.
I got my ride in, before heading back over to Flash Coaster for 2 more laps, and upon realizing my flight was scheduled to depart Faro in... about 2 hours, exited the park via their gift shop. Flash Coaster had some really nice merchandise actually and I was sure to pick up this bottle and this shirt so I could show off to the world that I had ridden... ROLLER COASTER? Make up your mind, Aquashow. Furacão? Flash Coaster? Roller-Coaster? Which is it?
A short uber ride later and I was unfortunately back at Faro Airport, where I went through another ridiculously slow passport control queue to exit the country, before being told by the border guard that my passport was full. I thought, lies. I had looked at my passport the prior day. Until I looked at it again and realized that the border guard earlier that afternoon stamped me in on a blank page, and the guard that stamped me out also stamped me out on a... blank page.
This baffled me to no end. In all my 8 years of travelling I had never once encountered this. The guard told me that I needed at least 2 blank pages to travel with a UK passport, which I would've had if the guards over at Faro weren't so dang inconsiderate with where in my passport they stamped.
Still, this is Coaster-Force, not Border-Force, so I'm not going to go too much into it, but... fuming.
My mind was slightly put at ease by the use of the Stansted Airport-style trees in the Faro non-schengen departure lounge.
6 hours after being stamped in, I was stamped back out of Schengen again and back onto a plane to take me back to London Gatwick where I asked a border guard if the bloke in Faro was chatting nonsense (he said yes), indulged in a Greggs Sausage Roll before making the journey back home. Would I go again? Maybe. If it's cheap.
Total Ride Log:
Flash Coaster 8 2 (BACK)
Flash Coaster 2 2
Flash Coaster 2 1
Flash Coaster 2 2
Flash Coaster 8 1 (BACK)
Water Coaster 1 2 (FRONT)
Flash Coaster 8 1 (BACK)
Flash Coaster 3 2
I like doing my daytrips to Europe, but this felt a bit extreme. 7am? Normally I'm well in the air by then. This time, I was only just getting to London Gatwick Airport for a 9:30am departure to Faro, Portugal. Ever since Mack Rides announced that they'd be building a new thrill coaster at Aquashow I had been intrigued, and my intrigue peaked even more when concept renderings started coming out. Guess I just had to go and ride it, right? The thing is, I'm a busy girl. I got things to do. So when I saw a random easyJet return flight on the same day for under £50 I thought I had to go for it. I'm not one for travelling during the summer period, but I initially thought if it's gonna open, it's gonna be the summer, and I was right. I missed opening by a few weeks, but at least it was open.
Whenever I travel from LGW (Which isn't very often as I don't like it) it's usually super early in the morning so the Wetherspoons Credit pre security has never been open. This time it was, so I swooped in and ordered a refillable coffee to claim #31 - The Beehive. At the end of the day a Spoons is a Spoons. It was okay.
It was at this point I checked FlightRadar and discovered that my flight had been delayed until 10am... Yay. Usually I'd be fresh in another country by that time. Usually I'd have already made it to the park I was going to. Alas, I was sat in a Wetherspoons drinking my second flat white of the morning. It was ok. I got a hot chocolate and decided enough was probably enough and that I should get my skates on and make my way over to quite possibly the worst airport terminal in THE WORLD, London Gatwick's North Terminal.
It's horrid. Horrendously inefficient, and home to easyJet, quite possibly the worst airline in THE WORLD, namely for their inefficiency. Ryanair clears. I'm sorry.
Eventually I actually managed to make my way onto the plane, as I made the short 2 hour 30 minute hop over to Faro Airport (#66), which is a new contender for worst airport in THE WORLD, for reasons I'll get to later. I waited in a horrendously long queue to get through passport control, and using the dispatch timer app on my phone I was able to record their passport control throughputs as a shocking 460 people per hour. This isn't what you want to see from a major tourist destination in the peak of summer, and by the time I made my way into the country officially, it was 2pm. My flight back was at 8! I only had 6 hours before I had to leave. I immediately jumped in an Uber to my destination; had I arrived on time I would've got on a bus but time was of the essence and it wasn't actually that expensive- around €15 each way which for a 30 minute journey I don't think is too terrible. I finally made it to Aquashow!
First impressions count, and Aquashow have nailed it - at least in terms of presentation. I’ll get to the ride experience shortly, but visually, this coaster makes a statement. Sitting at the back of the park, it stands out vividly against the bright blue Portuguese skies. The structure is striking and imposing - slightly out of place, perhaps, but all the more eye-catching for it. Its presence is further complemented by the Mack watercoaster next door, which adds to the overall visual impact. I’d brought swimwear with me, but thanks to EasyJet’s timekeeping (or rather, lack thereof) and Faro Airport's shocking operations, I skipped the lockers altogether and made a beeline straight for Flash Coaster, the only person in the entire park clothed beyond swimwear. Just like the coaster itself, I felt very, very out of place.
Flash Coaster (669)
is great. I was expecting great things from Mack, but my expectations were absolutely shattered after one ride on this beauty. After waiting in a short queue- people taking your shoes off (bizarre, but for some reason they require you do this) , upon dispatch, you're treated to a; bear in mind this is a Mack coaster, one with a swing launch at that; rather punchy backwards launch sending you halfway up the final dive loop thing. My first ride was in the back row, and you go beyond vertical, stalling out providing some great hangtime akin to Ice Breaker, or more recently Mandrill Mayhem's Junior Scorpion Tail, before quite a forceful forwards launch into a ridiculous twisting top hat. I was expecting something more like a Sky Rocket 2, but Mack's version of it here violently yanks you laterally (especially in the rows towards the front) which isn't something I'm used to experiencing on these Mack coasters. In the back you then experience quite a violent ejector moment, which is wonderful. It hits across the train but you definitely want to be in the back for this moment.
Flash Coaster then treats riders to a bizarrely profiled floaty outward banked non inverting Immellmann like-thing that translates into a downwards barrel roll which I thought would ride like the one on Hyperia, nice and floaty- what I wasn't expecting was to be violently yanked down it like the one on Iron Gwazi. It is absolutely spectacular, one of the greatest inversions Mack has ever produced.
The profiling of this moment is utterly bizarre, I absolutely love how it pops you out of your seat and then violently yanks you down. It's absolutely wonderful. More of this please, Mack!
Flash Coaster then ends with 3 hangtime filled inversions which are super comfortable by the way, shout out Mack's excellent train design! In the back row the final manouver really whips you downwards before you slow down on the launch track and then reverse back into the station ending the rather brief, but action packed ride experience.
Overall, Flash Coaster is absolutely brilliant. I really enjoyed its blend of laterals, which isn't a force I'm used to on a Mack, sharp airtime moments and whip.
5 rides later, I had decided I was happy with my total ride count, and decided to pick up the other +1, their Mack Watercoaster, appropriately named Watercoaster according to the RCDB, however in-park signage simply referred to it as Montanha Russa, or
Roller Coaster (#670)
Which I would be lying if I told you I had anything remotely interesting to say about it other than these two dudes chilling on the brake run of an operational coaster.
According to the RCDB it's a semi clone of Poseidon at Europa Park, only with a slightly different water section. It was okay. Nothing of interest to note. It was a long queue. I got adequately soggy.
I got my ride in, before heading back over to Flash Coaster for 2 more laps, and upon realizing my flight was scheduled to depart Faro in... about 2 hours, exited the park via their gift shop. Flash Coaster had some really nice merchandise actually and I was sure to pick up this bottle and this shirt so I could show off to the world that I had ridden... ROLLER COASTER? Make up your mind, Aquashow. Furacão? Flash Coaster? Roller-Coaster? Which is it?
A short uber ride later and I was unfortunately back at Faro Airport, where I went through another ridiculously slow passport control queue to exit the country, before being told by the border guard that my passport was full. I thought, lies. I had looked at my passport the prior day. Until I looked at it again and realized that the border guard earlier that afternoon stamped me in on a blank page, and the guard that stamped me out also stamped me out on a... blank page.
This baffled me to no end. In all my 8 years of travelling I had never once encountered this. The guard told me that I needed at least 2 blank pages to travel with a UK passport, which I would've had if the guards over at Faro weren't so dang inconsiderate with where in my passport they stamped.
Still, this is Coaster-Force, not Border-Force, so I'm not going to go too much into it, but... fuming.
My mind was slightly put at ease by the use of the Stansted Airport-style trees in the Faro non-schengen departure lounge.
6 hours after being stamped in, I was stamped back out of Schengen again and back onto a plane to take me back to London Gatwick where I asked a border guard if the bloke in Faro was chatting nonsense (he said yes), indulged in a Greggs Sausage Roll before making the journey back home. Would I go again? Maybe. If it's cheap.
Total Ride Log:
Flash Coaster 8 2 (BACK)
Flash Coaster 2 2
Flash Coaster 2 1
Flash Coaster 2 2
Flash Coaster 8 1 (BACK)
Water Coaster 1 2 (FRONT)
Flash Coaster 8 1 (BACK)
Flash Coaster 3 2
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