Gullivers Warrington trip and more

[peep]

Friday 3rd July 2009


So on Friday I woke up at silly 'o' clock at Mushys ready for the CF Live weekend. We got ready and we were soon on our way to pick up Rach. Couple of hours later and we arrived at Rach's house. It was raining and we were invited in for a drink. After a quick drink we loaded all of Rach's gear into the car and headed onwards to Gullivers!

After driving through some harsh rain we arrived at the park and met Martyn H and Peter at the entrance of the park. They were informed that we were not allowed into the park even though Rach had called a week in advance asking for their permission to enter the park and ride the coasters. We talked to several park staff and finally the new manager, Paul, came and talked to us and after ages of negotiations we were finally allowed into the park, for free!

We were then escorted to their wooden coaster, Antelope by Paul. We then queued as normal (with loads of very loud children). It was a very strange feeling, was quite awkward but when we walked through the park we felt like VIPs, which was cool.

Antelope however was far from cool. It was the most rickety ride I've ever been on and after the first drop I began to dread the double drop and hill. It bounced around like an overweight heffalump on drugs. It has obviously aged badly and I was glad we didn't get a re-ride otherwise I think we would have had broken backs.

Paul seemed quite amused by the fact we were ready for our next ride, Wild mine ride. On our way over to the ride Paul nearly took us the wrong way! Lol, oh well, he had only been working their for four days :O

We finally got on Wild mine ride. It was quite fast because the track was wet from the rain and considering it is slightly similar to Rattlesnake at Chessington I was expecting a mass of pain. I was very happy when it smoothly went round the track and glided over the brakes. The only problem was the tight corners which were ok. So overall a lot better than expected, then again anything was better than Antelope

We thanked Paul for letting us in and riding the two coasters (even though Mushy still insisted we did the third :roll: ) and made our way to the cars.

We stopped off at a local Asdas to grab a few bits to eat and drink and made our way to Blackpool.

Our first stop in Blackpool was our T'lodge for the night. It was really close to the sea front and was inbetween the tower and the park. It was also a lovely new modern one, yay

We couldn't book in just yet (we had to wait a few hours) so we first headed to the Sea Life centre where we met back up with Martyn and Peter. We didn't really look round that much, once you've been to one you've been to them all really. We did spend quite some time in this Pirate themed area where they had a shark tank. We had quite a chin-wag there and discussed what else we should do.

At the end of the Sea Life there was a small cafe area so we sat and had a drink there. It took ages to get served though as the staff hid in the back room or kitchen (couldn't really see) which was rather bad of them.

Anyway it was time to hit some arcades and play on some 2p machines. Unfortunately the machines in the arcade we went to were pants so we didn't spend long in there. Mushy, Rach and I then headed back to T'lodge to drop our stuff off in our room. It was a nice room, though the view was of a football ground which was under construction and a row of houses which looked like balamory! That amused me.

We then met back up with Martyn and Peter on the sea front. We tried to find somewhere to eat so after ages of going "don't like the look of that place" we found a small chippy where we all had greasy fatty foods, yumm

Our next decision was to have some fun on the beach. Rach had provided us with a very large inflatable ball which we attempted to play football with but we failed as there were very strong winds so it was more kick the ball and then run after it and try to grab it. This was a very fun game and amused us all for quite some time. The sea was really far out and we decided to walk more towards it, after jumping over the small rivers that had formed and getting next to the sea I got a call from Alan (AKA Badger), he had arrived in Blackpool and was coming over to the beach to meet us. So we then spent ages going more towards the road and finding Alan and his daughter.

We finally found each other and we had a long discussion about something random, probably our thoughts about turnips wearing jogging bottoms or something. We then made our way to one of the piers so we could play on more arcade machines.

These 2p machines in this arcade were pants too which was not fun for all. Mushy, Rach, Martyn, Peter and I had to decided to go cinema to see the Hangover so we had to make haste. So we said our goodbyes to Alan and went to the cinema (stopping off at the T'lodge on our way). It was an ok cinema and the lady behind the counter was very friendly. We also managed to get two free boxes of popcorn due to some random scratch card thing the cinema was doing. Woop

Anyway we all enjoyed the film (despite popcorn going everywhere :roll: ) and Mushy, Rach and I said goodnight to Martyn and Peter and we went back to our T'lodge room where we got some much needed sleep


Hope you enjoyed reading my little trip report of our random day at Gullivers and Blackpool. Congrats if you read all of it

 

[Rach]

I was going to put this in Life Outside, but seeing as John has posted here, I may as well post here too.

On the Friday before the Live, myself, Mushroom, Peep, Peter, Martyn, Badger and his daughter headed up to Blackpool for the day, or in Badger's case; the afternoon.

Mushroom's car load and Peter and Martyn got there by about 2pm after a brief stop over at Gulliver's Warrington, so those that haven't been there could round up the credits.

However, Mushroom, peep and myself were running a bit late as we stopped for half an hour at mine before heading north. Before we even got there, Peter phoned us telling us that we wouldn't be able to get in.

They had got management by the time we got there and I explained that I had phoned them up one day the week before and asked if it would be ok to go in. They said yes on the phone, but no on the gates. After about half an hour of waiting around and the management discussing what to do, they let us in free of charge but only allowed us to get on the two coasters with an escort from Paul (management).

T'antelope was a LOT rougher than what I remembered it being and it was very bouncy and painful. Nash and Dipper are bouncy, but they were no were near as bad as T'Antelope.

We moved onto the Wild Mouse coaster which wasn't as painful as what I remembered it being.
The corners were pretty violent and I ended up sitting on John for most of it.

We then headed for the exit, where we said bye and thank you to Paul.
Paul was a lovely chap and everyone aside from Mushroom seemed pleased that they had managed to get 2 of the 3 coasters there. Not defeated, we headed to the nearby Asda to pick up a few supplies and feed the cars with oil and petrol.

We headed up to Blackpool then and headed to the Travelodge to see if we could change our booking to a family room as Mushroom didn't realise he had booked a twin until after the booking had gone through. We could at no extra charge.

Not wanting to pay an extra tenner to check in early, we parked the car and headed for the promenade. Peter and Martyn were already there as we stopped for a wee break on the M6, they were checking to see if Rollercoaster was open at Pleasure Beach before heading to Sea Life. It was not.

By this time, myself, Peep and Mushroom had made it to the Sea Life up the far end of Blackpool and was half way round. Peter phoned us as they had made it to the Sea Life and so we waited on some seats watching sharkies.

We ended up sitting in the café in the Sea Life for about half an hour while eating Kinder chocolate from Peter and drinking various drinks.

By now it was quarter to 3 and we thought we would go and check in to the hotel, as we left the Sea Life ready for the 25 minute walk back to the hotel, it started raining so we headed into Central Pier for 10 minutes and played on various 2p machines which were rather crap.

After wasting a bit more money in those arcades, we made our was back to the Travelodge to check in and chill for a bit as we were all already pretty knackered.

After chilling for a while, we decided to head back down to the promenade. While on our way down, we got a phone call from Peter asking whether we should eat then.
So we met up while we were walking back towards central pier, and after much 'I don't like the look of that place', we found a small shop just off the promenade where we sat down and had some foods.

After eating greasy fatty foods, we headed to the beach to burn off said food.
The beach was a fun experience!

I had brought a large inflatable ball with the intention of playing football. This, however, didn't happen as the wind was very strong and we spent most of the time running after the ball.

We had to negotiate a lot of 'mini seas' to get as close as possible to the actual sea.

Alan (Badger) phoned up John and said he was in Blackpool. We spent about 20 minutes looking for him and in the end ended up phoning him again to see them coming from under the pier.
Our technique to track Alan down was to hold up large inflatable ball and thus Alan should spot us easily.

Once we had negotiated a lot more mini seas, we found Alan and headed to the arcade across the road which advertised itself as a fun place. Which it was not as the machines sucked!
We all got a bit bored of that place and headed for a 40 minute walk to South Pier so that we could go on the Wild Mouse.

Wild Mouse was not open and therefore we were sad. Instead we went exploring around the side of Wild Mouse which scared me because all it was was wire flooring with gaps that you clearly see the beach/sea through.

We went to the arcades on South Pier then. Getting bored of the back bit, we moved onto the front bit where we emptied our 2ps and then played each other on the air hockey machines.

First of all was me paying the £1 and playing John.
After many long rallies, I eventually won 7-1.

Mushroom then said he would play the winner which was me. Mushroom was a bit tougher to beat than John, but I still managed it with a score of 7-6!

I was rather hot after that as it was fairly warm out as well.

Martyn and Peter then played on the kiddie toys.

We then left South Pier in agreement that we would meet Martyn and Peter at the Odeon cinema behind the Travelodge before 20:10 as that was the time of the film.

Peter and Martyn went to retrieve their car, while we walked back the other way for another half an hour.
It was a lovely evening to do this though, so we didn't mind.

We then got to the Travelodge where I asked for more bedding. As there was only supposed to be two people in the room, it was rather awkward. They still hadn't come 40 minutes later and thus ended up locking everything of John's and the spare bedding in the bathroom and shutting the door.

We then went to the cinema which was no more than 10 minutes walk away which was nice.
We met Peter and Martyn there who were playing 'it' around the listings board.
We got in there and we waited in a small queue where the woman was nice and sympathetic with us that the only seats she could get with 5 together was on row C.

We didn't mind and paid up and we next went to the food bar. We found 1 voucher entitling us to a free small popcorn and then Mushroom had one too with his hot dog.
So with one amused worker, he gave us the popcorn and then we went into the cinema and sat to watch the film.

The Hangover was hilarious. Seriously enjoyed that film and glad that the others didn't mind seeing it again or seeing it in the first place.
It had lots of LOL moments and a few head scratching moments. I still say that that fat bloke in it is just a fatter and less goonier Steven.
The pictures at the end seriously made me LOL and I was muchly amused for the rest of the night.

We then bid goodnight to Peter and Martyn as they stayed in a Lodge in Preston.
We spent the walk back to the Lodge chatting about the film and then again while in the Travelodge.

When we got back to the Lodge, the nice staff had left the bedding we asked for in our room so I set to work making the beds.
We then chilled and got some much needed sleep, yet again I spent at least half an hour talking to John while Mushroom was snoring his head off.

With very little sleep for me that night (far too warm), we got up and got ready for Blackpool.

Balamory

BFC which was annoying as the construction restarted at about 6am!

And that is it! =]

 

[Peter]

Was a great way to start the live weekend! I was hoping that we wouldn't have the Gullivers problem and so would have actually spent a bit more than 30 mins in the park. At least we still managed to get some credits though.

Me and Martyn left Milton Keynes are some silly time of the morning for the 2.5 hour journey or so up to Gullivers. It was torrential rain for pretty much the whole journey which made the driving slightly more fun - eventually we ended up here!

We were first to arrive, and so tried to get tickets and get into the park. We were told that we couldn't enter, so I tried to explain the enthusiast thing and about the phone call Rach made a week before. Eventually we had the manager out and he wanted details of the call, so it was easiest to wait until the others arrived.

Eventually we were allowed in whilst being escorted around the park by the manager himself.

I only got one picture in Gullivers, mainly because it was raining and I didn't want to look like a pedophile.

Antelope looked really good from the outside - it was much larger than we all expected. Shame it rode like ****. :lol:

We did the mine ride wild mouse thing next before being escorted out of the park. The manager guy wouldn't let us ride the Runaway Train, apparently we were too big. Never!

Quick stop at Asda before heading up to Blackpool for the afternoon. Originally i'd planned to check into the Travelodge on the way into Blackpool, but since we only spent 30 mins in Gullivers it was still only lunch time so too early.

We parked up in some free roadside parking right next to PMBO and began to head on our way up to the Sealife. On the way past BPP main entrance I tried to find out if Rollercoaster was open/going to open since I still needed the credit. Half the staff there didn't understand English, some had never heard of the ride "Rollercoaster" and tried to point me to PMBO, and the rest gave conflicting information. :lol:

It was a much longer walk to the Sea Life centre than expected, but eventually we got there and Mark, Rach and John were already there waiting for us. We took a lazy look around the sealife.

Stopped for some slush and kinda chocolate in the cafe place there (and stole some foam balls for travelodge fun later ) Mark, Rach and John headed back to the Travelodge, so me and Martyn took a longer look around the Sealife centre and then came out to find it was now sunny!

Arcades next, where I won a Spiderman badge and a box of candy sticks on the 2p machines! Win!

Feeling hungry now, so we met back up with Rach/Mark/John and stopped at a chippie, before heading down to the beach.

Goon blocking my photo.

Mark shows us how to blow up a beach ball.

It was really windy, and it became a game of chase the beach ball.

We headed right down to the sea (which was a long way given that the tide was out!) before heading back to the prom to meet up with Alan.

Crossing the river of water.

Walked down to South Pier next so some people could get the credit there, only to find that all the cars were in pieces. No one was going to be riding that for some time! I wandered out to the edge over their dodgy wire mesh flooring, but no one else seemed to want to follow. :lol:

Good view of BPP from the end!

Some time (and money!) wasted in the arcades before we split again. We all decided to go and see a film (Hangover) in the evening, so me and Martyn went to grab my car and park it at the cinema whilst Mark, Rach and John went back to their lodge.

The film was good, especially with 2 boxes of free popcorn, even though 95% of one of the boxes ended up on me, then Martyn and finally on the floor. :lol:

It was getting late(ish) now, so to the travelodge to check in! I'd heard a lot of bad things about Preston Central travelodge so wasn't expecting anything special. The car park turned out to be a great challenge - just as well I have a small car! The room itself was actually excellent, probably the best lodge room i've had before - we were lucky and got one on the corner of the building, so it was about 50% bigger than a normal sized room.

I wish all CF-lives would start with a day like that one.

 

[Blaze]

You had to put a picture of a ****ing lion fish, didn't you.

 

[jayjay]

^What's wrong with lionfish? They're awesome.

Seems like a good time. And lol at that picture of Mushy blowing up a beach ball.