Right then, the serious stuff is on now.
Its Sunday, it must be;
A top day at a top park riding some top coasters - I've had a
nice time today!
Clearly one has to start at the big newbie (just seen an advert
on the local TV for the ride as well) - so at opening hour a
brisk walk (NB that Season Pass holders get to ride it 1/2 hour
early but that was not a problem) to the new ride (cunningly
hidden in the kiddie-zone !?!?!?).
And heres a hint for the Live-bound of you next week - there is a very
convienient single-rider entrance which meant I got to ride it 3 times in
the first 20 minutes of the day, on a busy Sunday with the rest of the
queue-line packed. The single-rider was not running all day, but when it
is I suggest you abuse it!
So what of this new popular ride... well it was OK, nothing revolutionary.
Certainly not a world-beater, but definately a crowd-pleaser. I think
that Nitro is better in terms of similar rides, but I prefer Apollo's
out of all the B&M hypers I've rode (not been on any of the recent
Goliath/behemoth ones tho')
The splash is a bit pointless when you are riding; unless you are on the
back row when you arm will get wet, and if you turn to look at the splash
from the back row, turn INWARDS for a good view because if you turn
OUTWARDS (like I did), then you get a wet face! ;-)
However the view form the queue line overlooks the splash zone, so it adds
to the queue experience (although I never queued for the ride really).
So a really good, big ride. But nothing earth-shattering. Shame.
I grabbed the other credits that had appeared since I was last here (and
a couple of the minor rides I missed last time I was here);
The not-Italian Job was fun but a bit lame (I've been on Wonderlands too
and this one seemed a bit better but that could be my imagination!)
Any ride that is themed after a multi-story car park is struggling a bit;
Next up was Firehawk (which I had rode as XFlight in a former life), this
was OK, but rather spoiled as it broke down while I was on it, basically
they could not re-right the train after we got back into the station!
So I was stuck in the "down" position in the station for about 20 minutes
while they tried to mend it, eventually they gave up and manually released
us all from our prison (which you can imagine is a bit of an experience
given the rather bizarre restraint system on these things). Anyway that
pi**ed me off for a while, especially as they didn't even apologise
after they realkeased us, thought I'd at least get an exit pass or
something, but they just let us go and sent us off down the exit. :-(
Anyway its still a pretty coaster;
After a bit of a stretch and recovery from my ordeal, I resumed on the mine
train Adventure Express, which is fun, then a bit of not-Top Gun, which is
cool too
And that had got me limbered up enough to attempt what was one of the most
painful coaster experiences ever for me on my previos visit... yes it was
time for the (loop-less) Son of Beast... perhaps its neutered Son of Beast?
Well it certainkly was not as bad as last time I went, but it is a bit of
a pointless ride IMHO, just big and fast with not a lot of fun.
Much better is its Daddy, which I really like. Probably my favourite ride
in the park! Not because its a great ride (its rough, has some awful trim
brakes on it), but its 30 years old and still great fun! Hard to take a
picture of though as its all out in the woods;
Next door to Beast is a mega looper (and mega painful) Vortex, back in the
day when lots of inversions were the vogue, this thing must have been the
business; 2 loops 2 corkscrews a bat wing thingy... today it looks its age
and hurts a bit!
Loads of other coasters were ridden (they have 14, and I rode all but the
tiny kiddy ride which I did consider for a moment; shame on me!)
Invertigo;
Swing thing;
Gyro-Drop (these do still scare me, not the drop but the climb)
(You might be able to tell that when I was done with the riding for the
day I went back to the car to pick up the good-camera rather than the
pocket-sized camera, then did a loop of the park with that - there are
some promising shots to come when I get home and sort through them. First
time I've been in a park with a decent camera (not that the pocket sized
one is rubbish though!))
So overall a great day at a great park! It was busy, but its a big place
and the longest I had to Q for was Firehawk at about 40 minutes (before I
broke it). So I am happy tonight!
More later...
