Trip report time!
Saturday 15th May
I awoke later than planned but managed to get out of the house on time and ended up getting a lift off the mother too (hurrah!). I got to the station with plenty of time to spare. I got on the train, 20 mins later I get off in London, walk for 5 mins and then I'm on the train to Southend. Lovely.
I spend the long train journey (about an hour) reading, listening to music and I think I even spent part of my travels asleep
![Stick Out Tongue :p :p](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
. Anyways I got to Southend quite early so I grabbed some breakfast at Costa to kill some time.
After food I wandered down to the sea front where Adventure Island resides. It wasn't open but from the top of the staircase I could see a big group near one of the entrances, I assumed they be CFers, I was quite right.
I was then greeted by lots of familiar faces who had no idea I was turning up
![Stick Out Tongue :p :p](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
- Always a fun game to play. 11am soon came and we entered the park heading straight to the meet up point outside the ticket booths. After about 10 mins there was still no sign of the rest of the group (Mark, Marc, Ian, Vadge and co.) but as soon as we thought that they arrived
Ian sorted out our £10 wristbands (thank you to whoever organised this) and we headed straight on to Mighty mini mega.
It was pretty meh as usual but it's so weird with it now being on top of an arcade building. As everyone noted though, going through the arcade as part of the exit was very Merlin
The next ride was Ramba Zamba, the spinning disk-o ride with its silly seatbelts of fail. These just seem boring now compared to their bigger counterparts, Kobra and the Edge.
Pharoh's Fury was the next ride. Yet another spinny ride, oh there are so many of these things at Southend. It also looked painful for some...
Well after some peeps did that most of us went on the Gold Mine thingy. A train of little spinny cars that go round a track, joy, more spinning
It was good fun, trying to spin each others cars as we went round. How the hell Cial fit into the car next to mine and Martyn's car I have no idea, what with Peter and Mushy also in the car. Good times.
Everyone was in a good mood (the Sun coming out helped) and some of the group opted for the helter skelter.
^Sue opted to come down the slide in a weird position
As it was next to us part of the group decided to go on the American Whip. It looks painful...
After that we milled around a little. In his moment of frustration at something that was said, Richard threw a polo on the floor and began to use it as chalk to draw lines on the floor.
He calmed down and we moved on to Sk8borda. Very similar to a disk-o but your sitting on a skateboard, clever eh?
It was good fun and Richard and Neal spent most of the ride shouting about how they loathe the music playing (Avril Lavigne's sk8ter boi).
Some of the group then decided to ride the Dragons Claw, they obviously were oblivious to the amount of pain that occurs when riding said ride.
They all came off saying how painful it was
We all then made our way over to Barnstormer, a little kids coaster. However no one really knows why it was called Barnstormer. It features no barns or storms. If you know why it's called this, let us know
Oh looky here, a POV with Will times on the second lap
![Stick Out Tongue :p :p](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxzJTrPTO6k[/youtube]
(if you click the link there is a HD version)
Well that was fun. So we all gathered at the exit and moved on over to the Scorpion or whatever it's called. I stayed off this one too.
This is when lunch break was called. The majority of the group decided to head to McDonalds in the high street. It was fairly busy but we got served pretty quick. I love the Oasis on tap, I hope this spreads to more McDonalds. We all chatted for some time and laughed at Cial's facebook status about the female ride ops being 'omnomnom'
We all then made our way back to the park. Somehow the group got split quite a bit. Cial and I ended up doing Rage twice before going to the meeting point for the group. Some of the others also did Rage but due to a small queue we were never on the same car.
The group all met outside the go karts. It was that time of the day, the CF Grand Prix! It was good fun to watch, I think some took it way too seriously but hey, it was great entertainment.
![Big Grin :D :D](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
I filmed the first lot for Mushy but I took pics on the second go which had Cial, Ben, Neal and Leigh.
Well, the two races were over. Who was the winner?
In 3rd place was Sue!
In 2nd place was Cial!
But who was first?...
Peter!
Mushroom was awarded the worst position with a lovely pair of tits
After all the fun of the Grand Prix we then had pin the tail and dong on the donkey!
It was good fun with Will winning some bubbles for getting the tail closest to where it was meant to go and Enigma Shadow won £10 for getting the dong the closest to where it was meant to go. Congrats! Here, have some lovely photos...
We then spent ages faffing in the area. Cial tries on Mushrooms boobs and Vadge runs after Richard for reasons I can't remember...
We then rode Rage, some then did Sky drop and then we moved on to the snake slides...
Vortex was the next ride of choice which looked very spinny, I avoided.
Some peeps then did the water slides, I filmed for Mushy so no pics. The next ride was Over the hill, a great indoor dark ride. Vadge wasn't looking forward to it as she hates scary rides. It's not that scary but the end scene is pretty epic.
So yeah, good fun was had on Over the hill. Some of us then rode Archleon (or whatever its called). Basically a waveswinger. Good fun, especially with all the twirling in the seats and smacking into one another. It was then decided that golf times would occur. Some chose 9 holes and some chose the 18 holes, this was going to take some time. Lots of us just sat on the bench/wall but Will decided to be different...
The banter was good fun and after what seemed like ages the first group finished who just ended up standing outside the park having a fag
So we still had to wait around ages for the other two groups to finish their little games of golf.
After all the golf was finished Richard decided to leave. The group decided for spinny dragon of doom for the next ride. It looked horrible. We then rode the last coaster of the park, Green Scream. It's such a silly coaster with it's ridiculously long train but good fun. However a certain Mr Ian picked my bag from the side as he went past and then as he came back into the station dropped it off right at the end of the station, thanks Ian :roll:
So after all that we then did the fantastic Pirate boat show thing. It's so terrible its good
![Stick Out Tongue :p :p](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Gavin seemed to love it.
I can't remember how or why but we then ended back up at the yellow wall next to Rage. This is where silly times occurred. Vadge, Will and Mark became the parks new animatronics
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMneemupaZA[/youtube]
(Like the other vid, you can view it in HD if you click the link)
The group then split again for another break. This time a group of us went to a nearby pub for alcohol. We had a good laugh and watched you've been framed.
We headed back down to the park to meet up with the rest of the group. We all met by the stage in front of Rage. We all did Rage and then had group photo times on the stage much to the annoyance of the peeps who were sitting there when we arrived lol.
I think some of the group did Rage again while the rest of us listened to the jolly 80s tunes and sang along etc.
Ian and Vadge decided to put a few CFer's names in place of the original lyrics to one of the songs...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz8DolIja8o[/youtube]
More amusing times happened when we all sat on Neal's lap...
After this pic a few more of us joined in and peeps went all over the place after someone falling over or moving out of the way. We all had a good ol' laugh about it.
Vadge and Ian then decided to talk about Will's new look...
New shoes
Skinnier jeans
New shirt that isn't black
New haircut
Ian gives Will's new look a 7
Rage..
Mark called for end of the day as it was getting quite late and we were all tired and well, we had ridden everything. We all said our goodbyes and most of the group walked off.
Enigma shadow, Martyn H, Peter, Cial and myself stayed for a bit. We rode the disk-o and sky drop again. Afterwards we split, Enigma shadow and I went to the station and got our trains home.
It was an awesome day and thanks to everyone for amusing me a lot, really glad I came in the end even if it was a very late decision.
For all 395 photos the two albums can be found on the following links:
Album 1
Album 2