We arrived at the park at 0910 after a walk through the fields from Liz’s Chained Oak B&B. After the chuckle of arriving at Britain’s biggest theme park via fields of sheep, we were through the turnstiles in no time and headed straight to The Smiler. The plan was to join the queue early so that we would be one of the first ones on, and being around 30th in the queue, all was going well. Unfortunately, they ended up running empty trains with dummies in until around 1030 so we didn’t ride until 1040. We were batched into the last row and boy was it fun! A little rough in places, especially the notorious 12th inversion but god I love The Smiler. The first drop inside always gets me!
The original plan was to then do Rita and Thirteen however Thirteen was closed all day and because of the delay in The Smiler opening, Rita had built up quite a queue and I didn’t want to leave my wife hanging around for ages whilst I queued (fastrack was sold out for it), so we went on Roller Disco which was surprisingly fun considering no one was spinning the cars.
We then headed to Nemesis which we fast tracked to try and get back on schedule, and we felt she was really showing her age. Compared to The Smiler, we found it really tame and there were no real highlights of the ride this time. A pity!
We then did Funk n Fly, Blade, Duel (which is a shadow of its former self and is embarrassing), RMT (which we got a bonus 3rd cycle due to no queue!!) and then CRR. I was glad that there were still some “rapidy” parts of the Rapids because it felt pretty dull in places. After Marauders Mayhem we grabbed a hot dog from Mutiny Bay and had a quick lunch stop on the lawns.
Then headed over to Wickerman which was on a 50 minute queue however we only ended up queuing 40 minutes. The operations are so slick! We were batched onto the back row which I was over the moon at and boy oh boy was this entertaining. Some great airtime, great speed and plenty of smoke and lighting fx, even in the first tunnel before the lift hill!
We then headed over to Spinball which is always a laugh and only waited 20 minutes for it. After this we headed over to Flavio’s and a general look around TWoDW, which whilst ticks a box it’s a shame to see so many mothballed buildings.
For our final few rides we headed back to X Sector to do Enterprise, Mixtape and Oblivion, which I fast tracked because my wife refused to ride it and didn’t want to wait the advertised 40 minute queue time.
After a very hectic day of route marching around the park, we finished the day with a pint at the Welcom-Inn.
All in all a great day and we managed plenty of rides on an usually busy day, but Christ it’s such a shame seeing so many mothballed catering units everywhere. Our last time at the park was in 2018 and I could really see the difference.
The original plan was to then do Rita and Thirteen however Thirteen was closed all day and because of the delay in The Smiler opening, Rita had built up quite a queue and I didn’t want to leave my wife hanging around for ages whilst I queued (fastrack was sold out for it), so we went on Roller Disco which was surprisingly fun considering no one was spinning the cars.
We then headed to Nemesis which we fast tracked to try and get back on schedule, and we felt she was really showing her age. Compared to The Smiler, we found it really tame and there were no real highlights of the ride this time. A pity!
We then did Funk n Fly, Blade, Duel (which is a shadow of its former self and is embarrassing), RMT (which we got a bonus 3rd cycle due to no queue!!) and then CRR. I was glad that there were still some “rapidy” parts of the Rapids because it felt pretty dull in places. After Marauders Mayhem we grabbed a hot dog from Mutiny Bay and had a quick lunch stop on the lawns.
Then headed over to Wickerman which was on a 50 minute queue however we only ended up queuing 40 minutes. The operations are so slick! We were batched onto the back row which I was over the moon at and boy oh boy was this entertaining. Some great airtime, great speed and plenty of smoke and lighting fx, even in the first tunnel before the lift hill!
We then headed over to Spinball which is always a laugh and only waited 20 minutes for it. After this we headed over to Flavio’s and a general look around TWoDW, which whilst ticks a box it’s a shame to see so many mothballed buildings.
For our final few rides we headed back to X Sector to do Enterprise, Mixtape and Oblivion, which I fast tracked because my wife refused to ride it and didn’t want to wait the advertised 40 minute queue time.
After a very hectic day of route marching around the park, we finished the day with a pint at the Welcom-Inn.
All in all a great day and we managed plenty of rides on an usually busy day, but Christ it’s such a shame seeing so many mothballed catering units everywhere. Our last time at the park was in 2018 and I could really see the difference.