Wonderful Warwick Castle - Niles' Nostalgia Trips

[Niles]

A surprise trip to start the year, i was holding off for Hyperia to be my first and 350 milestone, however family wanted a day out and it turned out to be a fantastic day to go mainly because....


Max queue times


Never, have i ever, seen it this quiet. We never waited, with all rides being walk on apart from laser raiders which we had a horrible six minute wait for.

So arriving at 9:50 there were forty-ish cars in the lot, we went straight through turnstiles and headed for the new creds. While my last time was 2021 for my family its probably been 10+ years since there last visit.


So the +2 was up first, we were the only ones so we got to pick sides and seats. Throughout the day we got front and back row rides on both coasters so i got a great feel for them with 2/3 full trains being the max amount of people.

Red V Blue

So first off i like them, racing family is great fun, the interactions make this and the bilboard is a nice addition. Starting off you get a nice view over the park as you go up backwards, you get released getting a little pop of floater flying out the station then some nice twists and turns up to the lift. Blue is better so far as red has a slow hill just before the lift, but on the way back it gives a nice little pop of air so there is not much in it but i prefer red (barely).

Blue however is the faster/shorter? layout as it seems to win most of the time, red only one once and thats when we had 12 more people.

Either way, great addition, i believe some more planting has gone in but it is still sparse, queue is a bit bland but its fun to watch the coasters and we got the pre show once which is good for kids. Dragon is still no1 in park but still really like them.





Next up we walked on the boats, did some 360s and patted some very chill geese.


Then the ghost house, family found the ghost house silly especially compared to Hex, it also has a bit of a judder.

Finally got to ride Sky lion for the first time, we got three rides on each of the three middle rows, they only had these and a bottom one open.


Now its no soarin, you can see the top of the screen, the screen quality is a bit off, i once got no effects and another got over scented and sprayed but, its nice, while not perfect its a solid ride and Legoland has a good roster of dark rides. Family enjoyed it but i would not want to wait for long in that cattle pen queue.

We got on the spinny boat ride in the area which i love, some kid was having a blast hitting his sister with the water cannon over and over.

Went for a lap on the train and a shoot on laser raiders. Ninjago was next and a new one for the family, now i dont mean to brag but, hehehe i was No1 and 2 ninja of the day , tried to get third but family had got better and stole my points, watching ma and fa frantically throwing there arms around complaining the ride does not work was funny to .

Got on both dragons with no wait and got some rerides on the bigger one, it needs a dust but its a classic, still a fab ride.

We went for lunch and it was around 2pm, we wanted to get something to go with what we brought but dang its way overpriced, so we stuck with our pack lunch.

Now i love a log flume but my my this one drenches you, so many sprayers, only me and sis were silly enough to do it and we got soaked from head to toe, walking off i got giggled at by a school group with some instantly saying naaaaa i ain't doing it miss.

Thankfully the sun popped out and we did miniland, fairy trail brook (needs some tlc looks very shabby), we did speedway again but we had kind of done everything and multiple times. We looked at the rapids and other than walls nothings happend to that area so far.

You can see Minifigure speedway from quite a few areas in the park.

After a look round the shop we were done at 4:30, great day but we ran out of things to do, which i dont think would be a problem any other day and tbf we are not the target market.

Legoland is odd, some stuff looks so new while some clashes not changing since the 2000s, some areas are planted nice, some not. Theming is ok yet square show buildings stick out around the park. They get so much yet nothing is ever quite done with the old stuff needing some love.

All in all we had a great day however, being able to just get on anything straight away feels great as at bigger parks i dont really get this any more.

Next up (not sure when) i have the other 3 uk Merlin parks to do, with all the investments i think for the first time in 10+ years ill get a merlin pass.

Thanks for reading

 

[Niles]

For the first time in a few years i went to Warwick Castle, i went with a friend who has never been and we had a great time.



The castle is great both inside and out, the grounds and also lovely to look around.




There were loads of school trips but quiet otherwise so we just avoided them and we had the walks to ourselves.

TLC was taking place on the roofs and in some of the rooms, they also have a new hotel being built that Thorpe could only dream of, it looks decent. Also a big stage was being set up in the castle courtyard for an event.



The shows are great here, first time seeing the jousting and not only do they do that but some sword fighting, cheesy acting, stunts and a bit of history on the the war of the roses. The school trips actually added to this as your on different sides there was quite a atmosphere when one team did better than the other. Way more fun than football




Bird show is amazing as ever, not everyday you see condors, owls and sea eagles fly just above your head.




And seeing the massive trebuchet launch is allways cool.



With the big four UK Merlin parks this to me sits along side them, a very different day out to them but just as good and unlike the others ive never had a bad day here, Merlin are lucky to have this and i hope they keep taking care of the castle and its grounds.

So far im happy with all my Merlin days since i got my pass, so Yey Merlin

 

[Matt N]

Nice report @Niles; I'm glad you and your friend had a good day!

This brings back memories for me, as we used to go to Warwick Castle quite a bit as kids. With it being our nearest Merlin attraction, it was always where we collected Merlin passes and got our photos taken, and I've also been during summer and at Christmas numerous times. I haven't been myself since 2017, though.

I always remember the jousting and the falconry shows being quite impressive, and I have odd memories of a few other shows they've done over the years. I remember one where they showed off various weapons, with the key line being "This... is a big axe!".

Did you go in any of the themed "towers" (the two towards the bottom of the courtyard as you enter)? When I was younger, we always used to go in the Princess Tower and the Merlin tower (themed to the BBC TV show of the same name), as they were known back then. Me and my sister were nervous kids, so we were always absolutely terrified of the Merlin tower! I think the Merlin tower might have become something different by some of my later trips (Time Tower?).

 

[Niles]

Thanks @Matt N , i dont remember a weapon show but i do remember a roaming actor that ran at you with fake dead ferrets (he scared me haha).

The themed tower that sits opposite the main castle entrence is the time tower, nice little bit of history on the castles timeline.

The princess tower is to the left and in the "main" building, i think it used to be in the time tower but i cannot remember. I only went in once when my sister was little and they had these mirrors that once the kids stood near them dressed as Princess it would say something, i was not paying attention and backed up onto one, not sure how but while the princess was talking i broke it and it just kept repeating "OoOoooo Look at eHerrrrr" and the princess had to radio someone to fix it.

After being embarrassed I never went back in there and skipped it this visit to

If you have a Merlin pass i would definitely recommend a day out, maybe at a quieter time of the year though, there is also a kiddy cred a small walk away to if you want a +1

 

[Graeme]

Enjoyed catching up with your TRs, Niles, especially my old favourites Great Yarmouth and Pleasurewood Hills. The coaster at the Big Sheep looks surprisingly good. I had a friend who used to tell me about his trips to Metro Centre and Spanish City (Whitley Bay), so it's interesting to see they have something from the former.

Actually, I particularly enjoyed the reports from the Eden Project, as I love the South-West (although I don't remember the machine that made a funny noise!) Once, I had a very enjoyable walk from Par Sands/St Austell Bay to Charleston, so it was nice to be reminded of that. That said, something stung me on the finger on the way back - I didn't actually see what it was, but the sting lasted for a while!

 

[Niles]

Thanks for having a read @Graeme, i was pleasantly surprised with Great Yarmouth, Joyland and Pleasurewood hills (hope the Looping Group give them something cool soon though). Rampage at the big sheep is a fab coaster, would have loved to have seen it in it's old home.

I love the Eden project, even went again this year and its just a nice chill day out (Great if they could add an alpine coaster though), you have to head back and catch some of the toots

It is a lovely part of England, as i can go to eden again for free i hope to throw in The Milky way as i have not been there in years, was going to do Flambards too but hay ho. Sorry you got stung but that is a nice walk, Charlestown is one of our faves, we had an odd animal experience when we were heading down the coast to eden when we went to a donkey sanctuary, considering they had 300+ donkeys we were surprised to see they kept so many together and all that was happening is they were making more donkeys