Re: Paultons Park & Thorpe Park CF Live Trip Reports June 20
What a fab little trip this was! I couldn't ask for a better way to spend my birthday than wandering round the 'Found Kingdom' singing the Jurassic Park theme tune!
Started the day with Hixee driving down to Paultons, it was nice to finally meet him - especially as it turns out we actually live really close to each other!
Admired the grey leisure centre-esque vibes of the Paultons entrance. Wow...so drab. Furie made me eat a disgusting banana thing that nearly rivaled Delpieros old chili chocolate covered sprouts. Thanks for that! I swear I can still taste it now...
Once we got in, we headed straight for the NEW FOR 2016 creds. Both additions are perfect for the park, and I was really impressed with the detail they have put into the new area. I liked Flight of the Pterosaur (with an emphasis on pronouncing the P) best. I give it 3 dinosaurs out of 5. Some nice little forces if you ride in the back.
Velociraptor, the new boomerang...the newmerang, is less good. I don't like going backwards. It's VelociCRAPtor.
You'll be able to hear a more ind depth review of these creds on Roller Coaster Review Show....look out for furry dinosaurs in the background though!
(Thanks Richard and Neal)
I was one of the lucky ones who got to ride Magma pre-traumatic breakdown, leaving CFers stranded 2 centimeters off the ground. I swear Magma was better a few years ago? It felt super tame today.
Spent the Cobra queue trying to come up with a word for a medium sized queue. There's Queuge for when it's massive. Minisqueuele for when it's tiny. But what about when it's just a solid 45 minutes? Vadge and I couldn't come up with anything! Suggestions on a postcard please.
Had a lovely pub lunch in a place down the road from the park. (I think one of the best thing about Paultons is that they have a free car park and re-entry)
The rest of the day was spent mooching around Peppa Pig World, racing down water slides and being given a special birthday badge from a member of staff. Yay!
We rode Balder Dash. I have no idea how this ride makes it into so many people's top 10's?!
Although this ride could definitely make an enthralling episode of How Stuff Works.
Looks like the group photo was taken whilst I was in the toilet, damn
Joke of the day: Ali was lagging behind, Richard shouted "Come on Ali, don't dilly dAli!"
Sorry for falling asleep in your car on the way home Hixee!
Played the final show of my bands tour that eve and had a super late night. The chances of me getting up to make the 10am meet up at Thorpe were slim to none. I ended up rocking up to the park at 1.30pm, just in time to ride Saw...or maybe not.
Someone had lost a medical item on the ride. We all pondered what it could be, Furie commented "It's a contraceptive cap, they need to find it or she'll inevitably fall pregnant in the park!" Hahahaha! Turns out, it was an epi-pen. So the staff had a task that was literally looking for a needle in a haystack.
We left the queue and got fast passes. Headed to X, that was also down. As was Samurai. Thorpe Park On A Weekend!
The afternoon was passing quickly and I was starting to wonder if I would actually ride ANYTHING. How funny would that have been. Go to Thorpe and literally get to ride nothing. But damn old reliable B+M scarpered my plan and we rode Swarm, in the swarm weather. It's ok.
Thanks to Ian for all the intense staring whilst others rode the Flying Fish :lol:
Then we went in the NEW FOR 2016 attraction Derren Browns Gift Shop. It's quite a fab shop to be fair. I could hear the new ride music drifting through the area and that also sounds great. I'm still optimistic about this ride and will be heading back to Thorpe as soon as they set the date!
Speaking of NEW FOR 2016, have you seen they've put areas on the map now? There's "The Jungle" and err...can't remember any others. Phil and I noticed that Stealth didn't appear to fall into a catchment area. It was all by it's stealth.
Headed back to X, thank God we had fast passes because it had a 90 minute queue! I feel so sorry for those people who waited an hour and half to ride it! Wish the music were louder on the ride.
I think we went back to Saw; had a good sit down and chat on the floor in the sunshine with Chav Chris whilst some maniacs rode the torture device known as Colossus.
Finally got to ride Saw, and was happy that I managed to convince MMF to ride too, even though he was scared. He did really well, I would have chickened out at his age! Saw is probably my 2nd most-ridden coaster in the UK (first being Nemesis). I must have ridden Saw about 50/60 times and still never got any of the roughness people mention?! It's a fab coaster <3
We also rode Rush. "It's just....a little Rush" Rush is one of the few flat rides I genuinely like and provides some of the best airtime in the UK. Well done Rush.
Neo, MMF and I finished the day on Nemesis Inferno. Pleased to report there was mist in the tunnel!
It was lovely to see everyone over the weekend, thanks for all the laughs and fun.
Fab photos!
