Ghosterforce 7 Trip Reports

[Beans]

Wow what a couple of days.

The visit to Vampire was excellent, just been watching Leighs footage, and caught up with a few details, only got one ride in evening as the chap wanted me to take photos of you all on the ride, I did however get to stand on side of platform whilst train was running through which I supose is a privilage on it's own, he really loves that ride and a bit of an enthusiast himself..

Thanks to Mark and Ian for putting it all together, was amazing, even the rain yesterday didn't seem to put people off from having a good time. Thanks to everyone for making it such a memorable couple of days. To many highlights to list really although the Runaway Mine Train yesterday will really stick in my mind with all the head holding and Leigh shouting out "I've lost me helmet, I've lost me helmet" to which Nic replied behind, "you helmet's on my head", so funny, and Nic's laughter all the way round was epic, made my ears ring.... (think he must be learning some of my naughty ways with comments like that, (waits for Marks comments)

Really pleased for Leigh obviously for winning the comp he has placed the trophy next to his Hollywood Towers sign.

Good to meet Taylor at last, and Colossus(Collie to annoy Ian) isn't really that bad, you will have to come back and try it again when it is warmer. And Rush is better than Skyhawk, might be smaller but heaps better.

Now to deal with all the photos which are still on the camera due to too many distractions getting everything dry today.

Hope Ian got sorted, just sorry we couldn't have got the car going. And I didn't get lost again, bloody red traffic lights, Leigh suddenly remembered the way from his trip round that way in March on Wild Asia preview.

 

[benjybobs]

You've gone up a point in my estimation, well done.

Yah, it wasn't even that it was rough, it was just.. Lame. I rode it in the front as well, and it made me feel sick </3. Here's a quick rundown of what I thought of each cred.

Nemesis Inferno: Pretty good, nothing spectacular but DEFinitely better than Raptor (Brad hates me for this but Joey agrees, we're Raptor haters together)

Stealth: A much more forceful launch than I thought, probably my favourite cred in England so far, but that will likely change at Alton this weekend. And there was AIRTIME on the top hat, something you don't get on the bigger ones.

Flying Fish: Really?

X:/NoWayOut: Kind of ridiculous, not as bad as people say but there's really no point to it because it brakes every three and a half seconds.

Samurai: Loved it, just wish I got to see the Gingerbread Man from the ground, haha. One of my new favourite flats.

Saw: I liked it a lot, it wasn't even rough or as bad as people say. Second best cred in the park, and the theming is good.

Colossus: No. Too many inversions.

Rush: SUCKED.

Rattlesnake: A Wild Mouse.. Scary as usual.

Runaway Mine Train: A boring cred but was hilarious for some reason I started laughing and couldn't stop when Gavin dropped his hat .

Dragon's Fury: YAY, despite the rain it was good fun. Definitely the best spinner ever.

Vampire: I thought it was really fun, so much better than I thought it would be.

I'm glad you enjoyed your days having travelled so far

 

[EnigmaHyena]

Haha, I've just remembered how much me and Neal were laughing at Will on the flying elephants thing. Quoting Neal, Will looked "like a Nazi hunkered down in a trench". That, along with the constant elephant floor bouncing, made one HECK of a hilarious ride.

"Phew, the park's closed now..." "Yes, but there's still CHESSINGTON ZOO!" "Noooooo! :c"

Flailing Gingerbread Man on Samurai was just unbearably hilarious, it hurt too much to laugh. And it brought out my high pitch laugh of doom.
And I had no idea Taylor was coming until I actually arrived at Thorpe and Errol told me. Meeting Taylor was made of win <3

 

[Ian]

I’m afraid I’m another person in the “Thorpe was Thorpe” camp. A busy Thorpe Park is not a place I enjoy visiting. I find the park quite claustrophobic and intense when it’s rammed (queues over an hour). A theme park visit should always feel light-hearted and carefree.

I don’t dislike Thorpe Park, I just don’t like visiting with a large group when it’s busy. Thankfully the people who attended the Live did make the park more enjoyable.

The day started with the usual faff outside Crust. Always a pleasure saying hello to people I’ve not seen in a while, eating overpriced food from Crust, waiting on those who are late and waiting in anticipation to see the costumes.

The costume effort this year was extraordinary. All of them were of top quality and well crafted. I was exceptionally impressed with Raybould and Mark’s costumes. I think it’s also the only time I’ve seen Beans not wearing some kind of theme park clothing! Excellent effort, guys and gals, they made me chuckle. In AJ’s defence, when I questioned him about his costume in the Travelodge that morning, he said it was somebody from Scooby Doo….

Inferno was the first ride of the day. They added a second train as we joined the queue. I spent the queueline learning about helicopters thanks to benjybobs. When I finally boarded the train after an hour long queue, I spotted a space in the front row so my first ride on Inferno for months was a good one. She felt forceful, disorientating and relentless. One of the best rides I’ve had on Inferno for ages.

Then we did Stealth. I queued next to Steven for 30mins until I couldn’t take anymore and pushed myself to the front of the group. I do apologise for that. As many of you know, I’m happy to wait my turn and I rarely pull rank, but I had to escape. With Steven’s costume, the GP were looking at him and in turn me. I spent the last 10 mins of the queue with Mark and Jordan (and others) quoting lines from South Park The Movie. I sat next to Raybould on the ride. It zoomed off, went up, over the top and back down again. Like Inferno, I enjoyed the ride experience. I think giving Thorpe a decent break and being in good spirits helped.

For lunch, Gavin, Vadge and I headed to the Glasshouse. I pigged out because “I’m on holiday.” My personal, most belly-aching laughter moment of the weekend happened during lunch. Every minute, you could hear somebody dropping cutlery on the floor. We then decided to drop out cutlery on the floor on purpose. The three of us found this hysterical. We exploded with red-faced, crying laughter when the “waiter” dropped a fork as he cleared our plates. Ok, so it’s one of those “you had to be there” moments, but that’s what I love about Lives. I work throughout the week being Mr Sensible at work and then all of a sudden, I’m in a childish environment with similar people who don’t take themselves too seriously and I’m acting silly. Brilliant!

We met up at Logger’s Leap after lunch. I opted out because I needed to contact CWoA about the track walk on Tuesday…and I remembered I got piss wet last year

I’m glad I sat it out though because I happily entertained by a plastic dismembered hand and pinging Raybould’s dungarees straps. That proves my point that you don’t need to have the best rides in the world to have a good day out a theme park. A plastic hand and easy-going people are the only essentials!

The group did Samurai next. I sat it out because I don’t do spin & spews rides. Marc made me a laugh by informing me and Beans that “Colly had a hour long queue.” I could tell by his smile that he was discreetly ribbing Beans, as she often refers to Colossus as “Colly”. Soon we were discussing all rides in the park by their shortened names – Nemmy (Inferno), S (Saw), Sammy (Samurai) and so on. It was stupidity of the highest degree. Although Beans did inform us that she doesn’t shorten Logger’s leap to Loggy. I have to admit that that’s one of my pet hates, but each to their own and it’s something good to take the piss out of.

Then the Gingerbread Man rode Samurai… I have never witnessed such merriment on the faces of people in the vicinity of Samurai. With the arms and legs stuck out in the starfish pose, watching the Gingerbread man flying around was utterly hilarious. Fantastic! When I look back at previous Lives and see how certain people have integrated themselves, the sure-fire way is to lose all inhibitions and bring something stupid to the party. Maybe all n00bs should come dressed as a Gingerbread Man. Amaze!

From Sammy, we went to S. Mark, Vadge, Gavin and I sat out of this as we had something to do…which was revealed during the Chessington Faffle. We ended up spakker banding Saw. I found Saw to be even more painful than I remembered. Unlike Inferno and Stealth, absence had not made the heart grow fonder. In a way, I wish I had queued because it sounded like those who did had great fun!

During the 75min queue, it started to get dark and therefore cold. I had not prepared myself adequately. My feet were turning to ice, I was shivering and was loosing the will to live. Thankfully after the group photo, a short break was called and I warmed up with a hot chocolate in the Glasshouse, watching the smoke machines fill the area.

When we met up afterwards, the costume results were announced. I must applaud Mark and furie for their efforts to make this a live vote, with non-attendees participating. It was very close and the top three were certainly the most deserving, but that’s not to knock the others!

Then “free time” was called. I’m aware that it’s not ride count, but fun and faff with mates that’s more important, but it’s a long day, people travel from all over the place to attend, so having time to do what you want is important. There’s plenty of time to catch up with people throughout the day. A few hours in the evening to ride what you want is perfect. I opted to leave the park because I could chat properly with people at CWoA the following day, I couldn’t be bothered to queue for rides I’ve done to death and I was cold!

So, “Thorpe was Thorpe”. It wasn’t anything more or less that what I expected it to be. It was busy, but more importantly, there were some cracking, memorable moments and banter. I enjoyed myself thoroughly, laughing myself silly throughout the day.

 

[Snoo]

PS- I prefer you to the Americans Wink (HI SNOO Razz )

It's only because we all make fun of you and half of the UKers want to bang you. Of course, we've had to endure weeks and weeks of being around you. 2 days? Thats like visiting daycare for an hour.

 

[Dave]

I didn't forget the group photos. Was sprung upon me so apologise for the darkness. I was standing quite far back.

Silly one

 

[marc]

I have uploaded my picture to FB, I will copy some here just need a bit more time.

If people want to look and tag etc here are the links.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=5 ... 3130734253

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=5 ... 1d480a7695

For me this was one of the funniest things I have seen on a ride. Credit to Thorpe for letting people ride with costumes on.

 

[Rush]

Buttons: Tom (Rush)

Actually Will won the buttons competition, I won on epaulettes. (Including 2 unexpected epaulettes. )

I only went to Chessie but I had a fantastic day and it was great to see some people again and talk to CFers I hadn't met before.

There was only one problem with the day in my eyes and it couldn't be helped and that was the awful weather. It would have been an almost perfect day was I not cold and wet for most of it, although part of that was my fault for putting on inappropriate footwear.

Some personal highlights of the day for me:

- The safari hats. It was really surreal to see pretty much everyone wearing them and even funnier having some blow off on the Mine Train. I was able to get hold of Mysterious Sue's in the Tomb Blaster queue and managed to make it survive the rest of the day, so I'll be keeping it as a souvenir.

- Womb Blaster queue with myself and Neal cornering mini-Tom and whacking him with the hammer. Berry chucking. Sue almost being thrown off the edge. The coat/trousers of many zips and having two of the hats taken off me and given to the ride hosts.

- Greedy Goblin. I was probably the only one on the table who enjoyed their food but the chip kebabs and Sue's ketchup incident were hilarious.

- Fury queue. Trying to avoid the huge puddle just before the SinTicket merge point. Then myself having extreme hammer rage at Sue for having poor aim and soaking me instead of Stone Cold which amused the ride host as well. Then giving said hammer to the ride host to whack Stone Cold after he'd been on the ride.

- Getting an absolutely INSANE spin on Dragon's Fury. Bloody hell it was running well yesterday!

- Glowsticks.

- Somehow managing to pile up 4 Bubbleworks boats.

- Coasterforce shout-out on Black Buccaneer. Really really enjoyed that, didn't enjoy the plastic bag to the face much though.

- "Takeover" on Vampire. It was really awesome of Chessie to let us do that. Huge thanks to them and Vampire was actually quite a bit better than I remember it being.

- Tim's costume. I have no idea where it came from but it was bloody awesome and hilarious!

There's probably quite a few more I've missed off but I had an excellent day overall. So much so I wasn't bothered at all about missing Kobra and RachelAdedeji: The Ride. Only thing I wish I had done was paid a little bit to get food for the Lorikeets. Chessie have trained them well not to go to the people who haven't paid. :lol:

Time for the sentimental part.

Huge thanks for Mark, Ian, Nic and the rest of the team for organising the day! Massive thanks to Darren for saving me a lot of money! :wink: Thanks to Rach for being travel company and putting up with driving rage. Big thanks to Chessie for organising the "ERT" on Vampire and finally thanks to everyone else who came for an awesome day.

Hope to see you all at several lives next year!

 

[nealbie]

Seriously, if Tom says "Hammer Time" - RUN!

And I met a REAL-LIFE Malteser! <3

 

[MouseAT]

I was hoping to post a load of photos and a proper trip report, but it's late, I'm tired and I want sleep now. In the meantime, here's a little something to tide everyone over until I get around to uploading everything else...

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

 

[ryan462]

That video is epic ^

 

[Nic]

Ah, that is made of win! Good effort! As Jordan described, I kept replaying the moment in my head (captured in your vid at about 24 seconds) where he first went flying past with flailing limbs. It's been making me grin all day. Now I can actually watch it back for real

 

[Mr Nash]

I think,without a shadow of a doubt,that was my favourite Live so far.I havn't laughed so much for so long in ages.I felt quite down at work today,after having such an awesome day,not felt like that for ages.

It was a shame about the weather,but when you're with a great bunch of people,having a good laugh,then things like that don't really matter.Such a shame I had to leave early,would have been good to stay to the end and say proper goodbyes,but thanks to good old British transport,that wasn't possible.

I've got to give credit to Chessie for Wild Asia,I was really impressed with the whole area.I also think Kobra is an excellent addition to the park,really enjoyed riding it,even in the rain. :lol:

Big thumbs up to Mark,for organising a cracking day,to all the people who supplied the never ending amount of sweets,to Ian for the hats,and to everyone else who made it so special.

Oh and Taylor,meeting you was such a hoot.

Time for piccys.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15387&id=100001617250865&l=093992fbe8

 

[Anonymous]

Haha that video is cool! I'm glad I could make people laugh like that! =D

 

[Nic]

^LOL! You know that will be your name forever more, gingey!

 

[AJ]

Madeline.

 

[ciallkennett]

Right, shall I do a PTR?

Sunday - Before the Live

Mark (Mushroom) picked me up from my house around 8pm as he was on his way down from the North for the live, and as he was passing, kindly offered me a lift. We then took the journey down to London and to the first of 2 Travelodges.

We got there, got to our room, and realised we had only got a double bed, when we specifically asked with one with a zip bed for me. So, I travelled down to ask about changing/getting a zip bed moved in, and we then found ourselves up one floor in another room.

Nonetheless, after watching some TV and drinking a few ciders, we hit the hay early... or at least Mushy did. I have never known somebody to fall asleep literally within about 45 seconds of saying goodnight... and anybody who has ever slept in the same room as Mark will know that he is VERY loud in his sleep... and as such, I got literally not one wink of sleep all night.

Monday - Thorpe Park

Got up early(ish) and packed our stuff. Mark changed into his costume, so I nabbed a pic:

We checked out of Travelodge and travelled early to Thorpe as I was due to meet Brad, Ryan and supposed-to-be-mystery-to-everybody-else guest. After a very impatient and long hour and a half wait, they eventually arrived, and I gave mysterious Taylor the biggest hug ever, so much so, we fell onto other members of the general public multiple times, knocked over barriers and almost fell to the ground. I'd known about her visit for many months now, so was very happy to see her looking so well

We faffed, and then eventually went in, before more faffing occurred in the dome. Nabbed a few more piccies of Taylor, Brad and Ryan:

We then headed for meet up, and we all said hewoo to everybody and talked to those whom we had not seen in ages. The costume people also assembled for their photo together:

Soon enough, it was time to head off for the first ride of the day, so Inferno was first. The queue wasn’t too bad, and seemed to pass quite quickly, though in actual fact it probably didn’t at all.

Afterwards, some of us went for Mr Monkey’s Banana Boat ride though as we got on, Chris (Infernus) begun his shift on it, so inevitably, it broke straight away. Typical. So we left and joined the rest of the group, before hitting off to Stealth.

After a pleasant enough queue, we were on. As I have said to Taylor for some time now, we had to get an on ride photo together, and as she looks hilarious in every launched coaster ORP I’ve seen, Stealth seemed the best option for this. She loved it, and I could tell by her deafening scream throughout the whole ride.

After meeting with the rest of the group, it was decided that lunch times would occur. I decided to join lil’ Tom and headed to KFC, where we met Ollie there as well. I had my own lunch of pasts because I’m not a silly person and I didn’t want to spend £5-8 on food per meal.

We walked around for a bit to find that Brad and Taylor were in the X:\WTF queue line, so talked to them briefly, before we headed for Depth Charge as a time waster. After a short and uneventful queue, we were on – I lost, and I was even beaten by the ride op who was going down with us to change shifts

We met back up with the rest of the group at Loggers, which I then went on with probably about half the group. This queue was much better as me and Matt decided to play the “I would/I wouldn’t” game whenever a boat passed – brilliant. We got on, went down, and got very wet... but enough about my sex life...

After getting off Loggers, I saw that Peter and Martyn had arrived, only a mere 5 hours or so after the meet up. It turns out they decided to skip Ghosterforce for a bit and go to Central London to play Gran Tourismo 5 ¬¬ I wasn’t best pleased, and actually found it quite insulting that they’d put a game ahead of seeing CFers and socialising.

We headed to Samurai next, and it was on the most intense setting I have ever experienced, mainly due to the staff wanting to see Gingerbread Man’s costume flap about It was, quite simply, epic <3

Saw then followed, as did a very, VERY long queue.

However, I begun talking to an epic random guy who I thought was a CFer, and his mate. They were great, and spotted out attractive females, talked about a whole range of stuff, and were, well... epic

The queue was also entertaining for blown up pumpkin times with the general public, and the fact I climbed the fences to try and get it back – much easier than I expected if I’m honest. Saw itself was more tolerable than the beginning of the season, though, still doesn’t amaze me.

If my memory is correct, we then had group photo times before splitting into maze and ride groups. I went for mazes this year, and went with Peter, Martyn, Matt, Tom etc to Hellgate, which was pretty naff this time around, but only had a 15 min queue line. Afterwards, we headed back to meet-up early and most of them did the crappy walk-through area while I had a bite to eat and something to drink.

It was then time for costume competition results, which were very close – Mushy and Leigh were separated by only 1 point! But Leigh won, and deservedly so – Two-face was done to a T, and the CF 7 on the back was just so sneakily done It was there that epic random guy found me again, and we exchanged Facebook details – he was brill.

It was goodbye times as the group split for the night, and Matt was joining me and Mushy for the night at the Travelodge. We all decided to call it a night then too, so said bye to everyone and headed for the exit to get back early, rest and hopefully nab some sleep.

We got to what we thought was our Travelodge only to be told we were after the one about 2 mins walk away...so we walked there with our stuff, settled for the evening by watching TV and munching snacks.

Me and Matt tried to sleep, but failed... but, well, I’ll explain in part 2 later...

 

[EnigmaHyena]

Epic report there Ciall, looking forward to your take on the Chessington day. Although, there was no mention of our affectionate hugs of awesomeness. Not impressed!

 

[Ian]

It’s such a lovely feeling to enter a park before it publicly opens. It makes me feel special and proud watching a group of CFers excitedly marching for a perk.

I selfishly requested a track walk on Vampire for sentimental reasons. It was the first big coaster I ever rode. It’s also the most interesting ride at Chessington in terms of theme and history.

Martin (presumably without a y), the engineer chap who showed us around was awesome. His little spiels were full of facts an figures and he delivered it in an interesting way. When we’ve had tours in the past, sometimes they are a bit in-depth and boring, this one I found perfect.

It started in the brake run shed, where we learned that there are THOUSANDS of different components in a train, before moving to the transfer track area. I had to lol at the amount of camera flashes when the switch track and counter weight moved, sheer geekery! Marvellous.

Then we sat in the seats for photos and checked out the control panel. It was reassuring to learn that the restraints are locked very securely when they’re pulled down. To manually unlock them requires a two key system, similar to setting off a nuclear bomb in a James Bond film!

Martin then took us outside and we were standing under the track, near the “crossover” section. Again, a few facts and figures were explained. Trench being dug for clearance, one of the train cars still runs on an unnamed coaster somewhere in the world and so on.

The control panel was next on our tour. I had a brief glance. From what I could see, it looks very similar to a large scale traffic light controller, with plenty of boards saying what’s wrong etc. Martin also told us that the biggest downtime reason is for vomit and retrieving lost items.

He also explained that they are replacing all the bolts on Vampire as a matter of course. Before anybody says anything, the ride is not falling apart and it’s incredibly structurally sound. During the off season, a thorough check and testing happens (obviously).

Our next stop on the track walk was the second lift hill. Here we could clearly see the trains were strapped to the track overnight to prevent movement.

As it started to rain, we conveniently moved to the my personal highlight, the tunnel. I found it rather surreal privilege to be wandering a round inside. I grew up with Vampire and it’s always been my favourite part. The strobe lighting was put on, posed for a group photo and Martin answered a few questions. Interesting facts I remember – top speed ever was 45mph and the shelf life of the coaster is as long as it’s viable for the Merlin group…which will be for or a very long time to come!

Half an hour of free time to wander around and take photos followed. I know Beans took plenty!

I found the track walk to be a great experience. When you see the work that goes on behind the scenes, it does increase it’s appreciation value.

Many thanks to Maria, Tom and Martin at Chessington for their time arranging the tour for us. I love to indulge in the geeky side of theme parks occasionally and I think secretly the rest of us do as well!

I’ll continue my CWoA report later but I thought this part of the day deserved a separate post.

 

[Ian]

Sorry to double post, but as I started to write the report, I typed "LESBIANS, RRRREADY?! GAYS, RRRRREADY?! Lesbians, you will go on my first whistle. Gays, you will go on my second whistle. 3, 2, 1..." and have been in hysterics ever since. Had to share that part!