Matt N
CF Legend
I managed to see the land and experience Gangsta Granny for myself today. I was quite eager to see the land and ride Gangsta Granny, as I was a big fan of Walliams’ novels when I was a bit younger, and I must say; I think they’ve done an absolutely excellent job, on the whole!
Be warned; my review does contain spoilers of Gangsta Granny: The Ride.
The Land
I’d be lying if I said that the land as a whole looked unrecognisably different to how it did before, but I think they’ve done an absolutely fantastic job of sprucing it up! The area seems to have far more life than Cloud Cuckoo Land in its dying years did, and it all looks really nice and fresh; all of the buildings have been given fresh new colours and facades which look very nice and vibrant, and Gangsta Granny, Raj’s Shop and the old Theatre building are particularly nice, in my opinion! There’s also absolutely stacks of little details scattered around the area, particularly in areas such as Raj’s Shop, and on the whole, it seems to have had a surprising amount of thought put into it, and seems to absolutely ooze charm! So aesthetically, the area gets a thumbs up from me!
If I had one critique of the land, it’s that I do feel that some of the area’s rides are perhaps a little too juvenile for the target demographic, namely Royal Carousel and Raj’s Bouncy Bottom Burp. These are rides more suited to very small children than the slightly older children Walliams’ novels are aimed at. In fairness, though, this is a very minor criticism, and the park is only really advertising Gangsta Granny at present, so it’s a bit of a moot point; they could just have done the ride within CCL, so the fact that they’ve done the area too is surely a bonus that’s worth applauding? I’m probably being a bit harsh in this regard.
So overall, I think the area itself is really nice, and has had a lot of thought put into it! I hope it does well for the park!
![[IMG]](https://i.ibb.co/fFg735D/B6-AFD427-4730-4-FD6-9406-B76-E030-F50-FA.jpg "[IMG]")
The Ride
So onto Gangsta Granny: The Ride itself, then.
Your experience starts when you enter the outdoor switchback section of the queue. There’s not loads here in terms of physical theming, but you get a nice panoramic view of the area, and there’s also some nice little minor details and challenges here to keep you occupied, such as “royal riddles” and “find the 5 plastic crowns hidden around the area”. While we’re outside, I’d also like to mention the ride’s facade, which I think is really quite nice!
You then move into the indoor queue line, which I personally prefer. The indoor queue line is really well done, in my opinion; there’s loads of paintings on the wall depicting fake “royals”, some of whom are quite tongue-in-cheek in terms of their name. A couple of these paintings are also Easter eggs; for instance, there’s a painting of the 15th Earl of Shrewsbury and the Chained Oak in a nod to Hex. There’s also some other little details and really nice themed audio & announcements, as well as themed wallpaper and pillars and a green screen photo opportunity midway through. On the whole, I very much like the indoor queue; top job, Towers!
While we’re talking about the queue, I feel like I should bring up the speed of movement of the queue, or more the lack of it. If you are wanting to ride Gangsta Granny, I’m just going to warn you; the queue moves pretty slowly. Due to the current policy of only loading 1 group per car, capacity is quite severely inhibited, and the line moves at what feels like a glacial pace, meaning that what looks like a fairly short queue at face value actually ends up taking 1hr+. As such, I’d say that capacity is probably the ride’s biggest shortcoming, at least at present until the ride can fully load cars again. I’m probably being a bit harsh here, as GG is only intended to be a filler attraction, and the capacity will improve once cars can fully load, but I felt like I should just point out that the capacity at present is, or at least feels, pretty low.
In terms of the ride itself; I was very impressed! They’ve certainly made a lot out of not very much; in spite of the ride’s track itself not being particularly long, it feels like a pretty long ride, and every scene feels fantastically done! The stops are also executed differently to how I expected, as the ride car actually moves slightly during many of them, which I liked because it makes them seem more exciting than they look on video. I think there’s a really nice blend of screens and physical theming, every scene feels like it’s maximised and themed to its full potential, and on the whole, I’m really impressed with what the park has pulled off, especially given that the Wobble World building was fairly small!
I’ve got to say that in spite of having seen a POV, there were elements of the ride that surprised me; for instance, I was not expecting the seats to vibrate at numerous points, and the scene where Ben & Granny drop down into the sewers actually produced a surprisingly convincing effect of dropping! In fact, I’d actually go as far as to say that the cars move a lot more than I’d anticipated prior to riding! The ride was also quite jumpy in places, which I didn’t expect!
One minor thing I did notice about the ride is that you did have audio from certain scenes seeping into other parts of the building, so you can already hear what’s happening in other scenes before you reach them in some cases, or you hear a scene you’ve just bypassed in others. In fairness, that’s probably a very harsh criticism on my part, as the building is very compact and I’m not sure what they could have done to prevent this, but it was just something I noticed.
![[IMG]](https://i.ibb.co/FBLY0sP/39-DD0-FDC-03-D3-448-C-9821-78998-DF6749-F.jpg "[IMG]")
![[IMG]](https://i.ibb.co/RpdtTZj/1-DA82-C71-BEEB-4245-AE36-D7-DFEB2310-D4.jpg "[IMG]")
On the whole, I’ll admit I was very impressed with both the land and the ride, and I think Towers have done a top job! I really hope it’s successful for them!
Be warned; my review does contain spoilers of Gangsta Granny: The Ride.
The Land
I’d be lying if I said that the land as a whole looked unrecognisably different to how it did before, but I think they’ve done an absolutely fantastic job of sprucing it up! The area seems to have far more life than Cloud Cuckoo Land in its dying years did, and it all looks really nice and fresh; all of the buildings have been given fresh new colours and facades which look very nice and vibrant, and Gangsta Granny, Raj’s Shop and the old Theatre building are particularly nice, in my opinion! There’s also absolutely stacks of little details scattered around the area, particularly in areas such as Raj’s Shop, and on the whole, it seems to have had a surprising amount of thought put into it, and seems to absolutely ooze charm! So aesthetically, the area gets a thumbs up from me!
If I had one critique of the land, it’s that I do feel that some of the area’s rides are perhaps a little too juvenile for the target demographic, namely Royal Carousel and Raj’s Bouncy Bottom Burp. These are rides more suited to very small children than the slightly older children Walliams’ novels are aimed at. In fairness, though, this is a very minor criticism, and the park is only really advertising Gangsta Granny at present, so it’s a bit of a moot point; they could just have done the ride within CCL, so the fact that they’ve done the area too is surely a bonus that’s worth applauding? I’m probably being a bit harsh in this regard.
So overall, I think the area itself is really nice, and has had a lot of thought put into it! I hope it does well for the park!
The Ride
So onto Gangsta Granny: The Ride itself, then.
Your experience starts when you enter the outdoor switchback section of the queue. There’s not loads here in terms of physical theming, but you get a nice panoramic view of the area, and there’s also some nice little minor details and challenges here to keep you occupied, such as “royal riddles” and “find the 5 plastic crowns hidden around the area”. While we’re outside, I’d also like to mention the ride’s facade, which I think is really quite nice!
You then move into the indoor queue line, which I personally prefer. The indoor queue line is really well done, in my opinion; there’s loads of paintings on the wall depicting fake “royals”, some of whom are quite tongue-in-cheek in terms of their name. A couple of these paintings are also Easter eggs; for instance, there’s a painting of the 15th Earl of Shrewsbury and the Chained Oak in a nod to Hex. There’s also some other little details and really nice themed audio & announcements, as well as themed wallpaper and pillars and a green screen photo opportunity midway through. On the whole, I very much like the indoor queue; top job, Towers!
While we’re talking about the queue, I feel like I should bring up the speed of movement of the queue, or more the lack of it. If you are wanting to ride Gangsta Granny, I’m just going to warn you; the queue moves pretty slowly. Due to the current policy of only loading 1 group per car, capacity is quite severely inhibited, and the line moves at what feels like a glacial pace, meaning that what looks like a fairly short queue at face value actually ends up taking 1hr+. As such, I’d say that capacity is probably the ride’s biggest shortcoming, at least at present until the ride can fully load cars again. I’m probably being a bit harsh here, as GG is only intended to be a filler attraction, and the capacity will improve once cars can fully load, but I felt like I should just point out that the capacity at present is, or at least feels, pretty low.
In terms of the ride itself; I was very impressed! They’ve certainly made a lot out of not very much; in spite of the ride’s track itself not being particularly long, it feels like a pretty long ride, and every scene feels fantastically done! The stops are also executed differently to how I expected, as the ride car actually moves slightly during many of them, which I liked because it makes them seem more exciting than they look on video. I think there’s a really nice blend of screens and physical theming, every scene feels like it’s maximised and themed to its full potential, and on the whole, I’m really impressed with what the park has pulled off, especially given that the Wobble World building was fairly small!
I’ve got to say that in spite of having seen a POV, there were elements of the ride that surprised me; for instance, I was not expecting the seats to vibrate at numerous points, and the scene where Ben & Granny drop down into the sewers actually produced a surprisingly convincing effect of dropping! In fact, I’d actually go as far as to say that the cars move a lot more than I’d anticipated prior to riding! The ride was also quite jumpy in places, which I didn’t expect!
One minor thing I did notice about the ride is that you did have audio from certain scenes seeping into other parts of the building, so you can already hear what’s happening in other scenes before you reach them in some cases, or you hear a scene you’ve just bypassed in others. In fairness, that’s probably a very harsh criticism on my part, as the building is very compact and I’m not sure what they could have done to prevent this, but it was just something I noticed.
On the whole, I’ll admit I was very impressed with both the land and the ride, and I think Towers have done a top job! I really hope it’s successful for them!
But apart from that, it was great!
It was decent aside from the breakdown. There was no bubble effect or water effects so I don't know if they are broken but yeah it was good
