On the 21st May 2005 I met up with Coasterforce members at Chessington: World of Adventures for the first time. I decided to mark the 5 years of meeting up with CF members with a small trip back to Chessington (not like I never go 
). I was joined by Benin, Tina, Leigh (A-Kid) and Fraser (Enigma Shadow), we had a nice relaxed day, here is what we got up to....
Due to drunken times the night before and for once actually achieving hangover status I woke up late and then missed my planned train. As a result I reached the park around 10:30 just at the end of my arranged meeting time. The weather at my house was quite dismal (which concerned me as I was dressed for hot weather) but at Chessie the weather was lovely, big blue sky, glad I had my sunglasses with me. On my walk up to the park I could see lots of new fencing around the new Savannah area, can't wait to see the finished area in a weeks time. After walking into the park and heading to the meeting point (Hocus Pocus Hall) I noticed a new jeep which was pretty cool (you can climb inside and everything).
Anyway I finally made it to Hocus Pocus Hall to meet up with the group (currently without Fraser who was on the train after mine).
We only had a little bit of time to waste till Fraser arrived so we went in seek of a short queue. Hurrah, Vampire's queueline was about 15 mins. So we went and queued up and, just like the board said, we were on in 15 mins.
I still think it's a great, unique attraction and the leaves on the trees have really grown so now you can quick them again, always fun
Benin was enjoying the Vampire queueline...
because he had his trusty Woodstock with him
We headed back over to Hocus Pocus Hall to meet up with Fraser, who was already sitting there waiting for us. We then walked over to Rattlesnake for our next ride of the day.
Rattlesnake was good fun as always, it's more of a game, who can brace enough for the tight corners and sudden brakes. However it still feels a lot smoother than previous seasons and the majority of the effects were working in the queueline, Benin and I approved of this.
Casually we wandered over to Runaway Mine train. As we were walking down the main stairwell in the queueline we heard new sound effects and saw new lighting effects in the centrepiece thing. This was pretty cool, keep it up Chessie, we love seeing new effects on the older attractions!
The ride was good fun, the ride op maybe loving himself a bit too much (making peeps sing happy birthday etc) but we managed to play tree grab and Benin was pretty awesome at it. By the end of the 3 cycles my seat was covered in leaves Benin had thrown at me lol.
I was starting to feel thirsty and seeing as it was a very hot day it was definitely not a good idea to get dehydrated. So I got out my trusty Annual Pass flask thingy and filled up at the Mexicana diner place with some Spite.
Moving on we decided to have Tomb Blaster times. The queue wasn't too long, about 20 minutes. For some reason they were batching in such a strange and annoying way. They waited until the train was in the station until they let peeps through the barrier to wait at the yellow line in front of the train which made the queue a lot longer and created more faff than was needed. Obviously some sort of silly H&S rule.
Anyway we rode Tomb Blaster and had some good fun. Annoyingly my gun's trigger was pants and sometime didn't go in enough for it to actually shoot at the targets. Meh, that didn't stop me getting the highest score out of us 5 (and probably the entire train). I decided to get the ORP as it was just so funny.
We meandered through Mystic East, skipping Dragon Falls due to a queue (I suppose it was bloody hot). We then ended up at Wild Asia
It didn't take us long to decide what to do next...LORIKEET LAGOON! Absolutely love it, best attraction at any UK park by far. They've added a new rule that only 10 guests can be in the enclosure at a time due to some of the ducks still being sensitive about humans in the enclosure, fair enough. Unfortunately the Lorikeets weren't as friendly as usual. You'd think they would be loving this hot climate at the moment but they all seem to hide in the shade, maybe they've grown used to the UK climate already? Anyway Benin has purchased some nectar so after a while he managed to get one or two to eat some nectar from his little pot.
The keeper was telling us quite a lot about the different birds in the enclosure and their diet. She also had some little worms (forget what they're really called) which is made me and Tina hold for a bit, was a weird experience as they like to cling to your hand.
Like I said though, most were hiding in the shade which was slightly disappointing, but the bird I don't know the name of which is usually hiding we managed to get a few pics of for once!
It was time to move on now and Kobra was on the agenda, especially when we saw how small the queue was. 15 min queue, yes please. Unfortunately the ride had a small breakdown while we were queuing which delayed our ride by a bit (an engineer was on site within minutes and got it fixed pretty quick, it was the test that took time). The ride was still very enjoyable though and plenty of air time was had over the hill.
It was gone 1pm and we were all starting to feel a bit peckish. Benin, Fraser and I opted for Noodle noodle in Wild Asia while Tina and Leigh chose Burger King in Transylvania. I love the food and I like how you can see it being prepared through a window, I also love how an annual pass gets you a whole £1 off the price. I went for the Sweet and sour chicken, Benin also opted for said option.
Instead, Fraser opted for a cookie as he wasn't feeling too hungry. However he then chose to dip it in his now very melted galaxy chocolate.
The food was so nice and filling, although I was quite a messy eater, I think I need to perfect how I eat noodles
After a while Tina and Leigh found us and we headed off for a ride. Dragons Fury's queue was really small so we decided to queue for that. We must have queued for about 15 minutes before we were on the ride. We didn't get much spin but it's still good fun.
After all that fun on Dragons Fury we headed into Land of the Dragons. Benin spotted an old colleague working on Sea Dragons and so had to ride, the rest of us decided not to follow and let Benin ride in shame
Our next destination was the Dragons Tale theatre to watch Spike and the missing Griffin. I'd never watched this one and was intrigued by the story I jest, but the face on everyone while the show was on was hilarious. It also featured a scouse monkey which was certainly a highlight for Benin and Fraser.
Well that wasted 20 minutes of our day hehe. It's great fun for the little ones and quite boring for adults (lame jokes alert) but I suppose that is the intention lol.
Leigh and Fraser wanted Ramses times so we let them queue up for that while we watched with joy everyone getting and absolute drenching on the ride. Leigh and Fraser sat at the end though, not intentionally, just the only seats left as for once it had quite a queue, very popular ride.
Next up was Bubbleworks. It surprisingly didn't have much of a queue which was nice as it meant we weren't queuing outside in the heat. I still don't like the Imperial Leather re-theme and I hope it all gets changed soon.
I have to admit that it was refreshing getting a little wet in the finale scene. Anyway when we got out we headed to Vampire but it had broken down
So instead we headed round to Black Buccaneer, another popular ride on this occasion. We managed to get into one of the back rows but they now have silly bar checking procedures which delays ride time However the operator was actually good fun, getting the guests to scream to go higher (although, as Benin pointed out, we were already at the highest point when we said this lol). He brought a little atmosphere to the area which I liked, shouting over the speakers is more entertaining than on Vampire....
....We saw Vampire going round with guests on so we headed straight round to the queueline which wasn't long at all (well, it had only just opened up after break down). It was yet another good ride on Vampire and I could actually hear the new sound effect in the tunnel (although you can hear it more off ride than on ride). It was definitely the best way to end the day.
Benin and I said our goodbyes to the others, grabbed some ice cream from the Town Square and headed for train times.
Thanks to Benin, Tina, Leigh and Fraser for joining me and making it such a great day. It was nice and relaxed with some great banter and lovely blue sky. Thanks for reading
). I was joined by Benin, Tina, Leigh (A-Kid) and Fraser (Enigma Shadow), we had a nice relaxed day, here is what we got up to....Due to drunken times the night before and for once actually achieving hangover status I woke up late and then missed my planned train. As a result I reached the park around 10:30 just at the end of my arranged meeting time. The weather at my house was quite dismal (which concerned me as I was dressed for hot weather) but at Chessie the weather was lovely, big blue sky, glad I had my sunglasses with me. On my walk up to the park I could see lots of new fencing around the new Savannah area, can't wait to see the finished area in a weeks time. After walking into the park and heading to the meeting point (Hocus Pocus Hall) I noticed a new jeep which was pretty cool (you can climb inside and everything).
Anyway I finally made it to Hocus Pocus Hall to meet up with the group (currently without Fraser who was on the train after mine).
We only had a little bit of time to waste till Fraser arrived so we went in seek of a short queue. Hurrah, Vampire's queueline was about 15 mins. So we went and queued up and, just like the board said, we were on in 15 mins.
I still think it's a great, unique attraction and the leaves on the trees have really grown so now you can quick them again, always fun
Benin was enjoying the Vampire queueline...
because he had his trusty Woodstock with him
We headed back over to Hocus Pocus Hall to meet up with Fraser, who was already sitting there waiting for us. We then walked over to Rattlesnake for our next ride of the day.
Rattlesnake was good fun as always, it's more of a game, who can brace enough for the tight corners and sudden brakes. However it still feels a lot smoother than previous seasons and the majority of the effects were working in the queueline, Benin and I approved of this.
Casually we wandered over to Runaway Mine train. As we were walking down the main stairwell in the queueline we heard new sound effects and saw new lighting effects in the centrepiece thing. This was pretty cool, keep it up Chessie, we love seeing new effects on the older attractions!
The ride was good fun, the ride op maybe loving himself a bit too much (making peeps sing happy birthday etc) but we managed to play tree grab and Benin was pretty awesome at it. By the end of the 3 cycles my seat was covered in leaves Benin had thrown at me lol.
I was starting to feel thirsty and seeing as it was a very hot day it was definitely not a good idea to get dehydrated. So I got out my trusty Annual Pass flask thingy and filled up at the Mexicana diner place with some Spite.
Moving on we decided to have Tomb Blaster times. The queue wasn't too long, about 20 minutes. For some reason they were batching in such a strange and annoying way. They waited until the train was in the station until they let peeps through the barrier to wait at the yellow line in front of the train which made the queue a lot longer and created more faff than was needed. Obviously some sort of silly H&S rule.
Anyway we rode Tomb Blaster and had some good fun. Annoyingly my gun's trigger was pants and sometime didn't go in enough for it to actually shoot at the targets. Meh, that didn't stop me getting the highest score out of us 5 (and probably the entire train). I decided to get the ORP as it was just so funny.
We meandered through Mystic East, skipping Dragon Falls due to a queue (I suppose it was bloody hot). We then ended up at Wild Asia
It didn't take us long to decide what to do next...LORIKEET LAGOON! Absolutely love it, best attraction at any UK park by far. They've added a new rule that only 10 guests can be in the enclosure at a time due to some of the ducks still being sensitive about humans in the enclosure, fair enough. Unfortunately the Lorikeets weren't as friendly as usual. You'd think they would be loving this hot climate at the moment but they all seem to hide in the shade, maybe they've grown used to the UK climate already? Anyway Benin has purchased some nectar so after a while he managed to get one or two to eat some nectar from his little pot.
The keeper was telling us quite a lot about the different birds in the enclosure and their diet. She also had some little worms (forget what they're really called) which is made me and Tina hold for a bit, was a weird experience as they like to cling to your hand.
Like I said though, most were hiding in the shade which was slightly disappointing, but the bird I don't know the name of which is usually hiding we managed to get a few pics of for once!
It was time to move on now and Kobra was on the agenda, especially when we saw how small the queue was. 15 min queue, yes please. Unfortunately the ride had a small breakdown while we were queuing which delayed our ride by a bit (an engineer was on site within minutes and got it fixed pretty quick, it was the test that took time). The ride was still very enjoyable though and plenty of air time was had over the hill.
It was gone 1pm and we were all starting to feel a bit peckish. Benin, Fraser and I opted for Noodle noodle in Wild Asia while Tina and Leigh chose Burger King in Transylvania. I love the food and I like how you can see it being prepared through a window, I also love how an annual pass gets you a whole £1 off the price. I went for the Sweet and sour chicken, Benin also opted for said option.
Instead, Fraser opted for a cookie as he wasn't feeling too hungry. However he then chose to dip it in his now very melted galaxy chocolate.
The food was so nice and filling, although I was quite a messy eater, I think I need to perfect how I eat noodles
After a while Tina and Leigh found us and we headed off for a ride. Dragons Fury's queue was really small so we decided to queue for that. We must have queued for about 15 minutes before we were on the ride. We didn't get much spin but it's still good fun.
After all that fun on Dragons Fury we headed into Land of the Dragons. Benin spotted an old colleague working on Sea Dragons and so had to ride, the rest of us decided not to follow and let Benin ride in shame
Our next destination was the Dragons Tale theatre to watch Spike and the missing Griffin. I'd never watched this one and was intrigued by the story
I jest, but the face on everyone while the show was on was hilarious. It also featured a scouse monkey which was certainly a highlight for Benin and Fraser.
Well that wasted 20 minutes of our day hehe. It's great fun for the little ones and quite boring for adults (lame jokes alert) but I suppose that is the intention lol.
Leigh and Fraser wanted Ramses times so we let them queue up for that while we watched with joy everyone getting and absolute drenching on the ride. Leigh and Fraser sat at the end though, not intentionally, just the only seats left as for once it had quite a queue, very popular ride.
Next up was Bubbleworks. It surprisingly didn't have much of a queue which was nice as it meant we weren't queuing outside in the heat. I still don't like the Imperial Leather re-theme and I hope it all gets changed soon.
I have to admit that it was refreshing getting a little wet in the finale scene. Anyway when we got out we headed to Vampire but it had broken down
So instead we headed round to Black Buccaneer, another popular ride on this occasion. We managed to get into one of the back rows but they now have silly bar checking procedures which delays ride time However the operator was actually good fun, getting the guests to scream to go higher (although, as Benin pointed out, we were already at the highest point when we said this lol). He brought a little atmosphere to the area which I liked, shouting over the speakers is more entertaining than on Vampire....
....We saw Vampire going round with guests on so we headed straight round to the queueline which wasn't long at all (well, it had only just opened up after break down). It was yet another good ride on Vampire and I could actually hear the new sound effect in the tunnel (although you can hear it more off ride than on ride). It was definitely the best way to end the day.
Benin and I said our goodbyes to the others, grabbed some ice cream from the Town Square and headed for train times.
Thanks to Benin, Tina, Leigh and Fraser for joining me and making it such a great day. It was nice and relaxed with some great banter and lovely blue sky. Thanks for reading
