Saturday was an early start - 3:30am wake up call. This was followed by a 75min journey to Gatwick and 35min wait at McDonalds. It's almost as if the sever (John Four Stars) was preparing us about slow operations we had to look forward to!
Before we boarded the plane, I went to the loo leaving my phone on charge with Darren, Vadge and Serena. They left me some wonderful photos.
A few hours later we were in Spain. It didn't take long before we had our first experience of Spanish inefficiency. I waited an HOUR to get the hire car. I've been to busier airports and rented from all over and it's never taken longer than 15mins. Terrible! This made us late for the meet-up with PAC at PWM.
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Sexy Carrot.
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Eventually we arrived to a round of applause. The Fab Lady (the "mother figure" of the PAC group shouted something at me in Spanish. I smiled shook the hands of a few.
After getting our tickets (which meant going to three different windows), we were in the park and on our way to the first ride - Stunt Fall. It was closed. Boooo! Slightly disappointed as I've never done a GIB and I had been travelling for 10 hours, we wandered over to Superman.
Spanish Peel (El Peep) in the middle.
During the queue I spoke to Alex from PAC and was please to learn that they have a professional approach to running the site. T-shirts, badges, roles for certain people and so on. Slightly different than my "make it up as I go along" approach, but hey, it works.
After 10 or so mins, we were on Superman. I loved it! Really lovely g's around the helix, some nice jumps of airtime and OMG
that dive loop <3 I'm quite surprised that the coaster isn't raved about as much as others.
9/10
Vadge loved it.
Batman was next. I got excited when I saw the CoasterForce font.
It was fab. I wasn't that bothered about the ride before i rode it because I Batmanned myself to death last year in the USA, but this one felt incredible. Not sure if it was due to my lack of sleep, low blood sugar level or what, the train flew around the track producing intense forces at the right times. Really good - a proper old school B&M Invert.
9/10
As we got off Batman, Batman and Batgirl were spotted so we minced over to get our photos taken.
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Darren and I were spited as they closed the queue for photos as we got to the front. Batman got into the Batmobile and reversed it into a shed. It sort of spoiled the illusion.
The Gotham City area façades were acceptable.
We headed to the Wild West area, which looked a lot better than Gotham City imo. We faffed for a while and watched a show. CF/PAC members were selected to join in the on-stage entertainment.
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The show was ok and the cheesy music (Cotton Eyed Joey etc) appealed to us CFers and soon enough we were dancing deliriously without a care in the world.
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Our lack of care soon became despair when we rode the woodie Coaster Express.
It was the first queue line where we both groups started to interact with each other properly. Laughing joking, talking about theme parks and general chit-chat.
The first train load came back looking a bit battered.
To be truthful, I didn't find it that rough. Despite looking impressive, the ride experience was lacklusre and juddery. It did hurt my neck turning around to perv at Vadge and Serena's bouncing boobs. Boobs aside, it was probably the worst coaster of the entire weekend.
2/10
We walked through the kids area and grabbed another cred, The Tom & Jerry Vibrating Bottom Coaster.
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It was fun. It's not going to set the goon world on fire, but it's got plenty of vibrating bottomness and a large orange juice carton so it's not too bad.
5/10
One of the PAC members (I think his name is Stunt, he wore matching t-shirt and trainers <3) impresssed everybody with his teacup spinning prowess. He got a massive round of applause when we staggered off the ride.
Some of the group did the Rapidos. I sat out. Being a Brit abroad, I was wearing (sensible) shorts and t-shirt and evil storm clouds were forming, so I decided I didn't want to be wetter than I had to be. Everybody who rode it said it was one of the wettest and best rapids ever. It certainly looked choppy from where I was standing.
Our next ride was "Bip Bip", the Road Runner coaster. Interesting sculptures in the queue line.
I sat in front row so I was staring at Road Runners arse throughout but I still had a chance to enjoy the headchoppers on offer. An ok family coaster.
5/10
Then it rained. **** me, did it rain. This lead to what seemed like an hours faff whilst everybody took shelter. I walked around the tat shop, some people got drinks and food and Darren was bummed by Daffy Duck. I don't think I've ever been to a theme park with Darren when he hasn't been bummed by a character.
Although the rain had left off slightly, I suggested we do a few of the dark rides. We did the Scooby Doo shooter. Typical sort of affair - use a laser gun to shoot targets and stuff moves. I think Tomatron got the highest score in our car.
The Mad House was next - Hotel Embrujado.
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This was exceptionally well themed. The queue line was a dark, cobweb-filled spooky hotel lobby. The pre-show wasn't as good as Hex at Alton Towers (probably because I didn't understand it). Two talking heads were going on about something, then a man appeared in a mirror, he disappeared and a large bang and gust of wind blew out from the fireplace. It made me jump. Ok, then...
It made more sense in the next room - the mad house room. Riders sat on church pews facing a large dining table with a animatronic woman in a wedding dress slumped at one end. When the ride began, the lights flickered, lightning and thunder effects happened and the woman sat upright to reveal a zombie face. The mad house then did it's thing (which is turn the room upside down and make me feel mildly nauseous). It then occurred to me that the story is of a bride who was due to get married at the hotel (possibly to the man who appeared in the mirror) but either she died, the groom died or she was left at the alter. I questioned Pablo from PAC about it and he confirmed that I was on the right lines. It was one of my favourite mad houses - all that was missing was a tree with eyes.
We decided to end our day on Superman. On the way we noticed that Stunt Fall was running so we ran over only be told it was testing and wouldn't be open. *sigh* So, as planned, we fished on Superman. I managed two more rides - on front and back. Back row was brilliant! Despite the trim slowing the train down, it still flew over the airtime hill and raised me from my seat. The ride made my eyes water. Loved it!
As the sun set, we made our way to the exit to take the same photo.
We parted company and then went our separate ways knowing we had another day of fun ahead of us.
Parque Warner Madrid has some excellent rides - Batman, Superman and Hotel Embrujado. I'm gutted that I didn't get on Stunt Fall but it is an excuse to return again. I'm not too keen on the façade type buildings and it did feel cramped in places but I loved the way the park had unique areas that worked well. They way it's designed is that you can't see a different themed area from the one you are in. The areas are subtly linked through "dead zones" that operate a bit like a maze. It's good.
