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Lightwater Valley
So many of these mid sized parks have closed (American Adventure, Camelot, Loudon Castle etc) I really hope things work out for them. Making money from Lightwater Valley won't be easy, but the new owners bought Flambards out of administration so presumably they know what they're letting themselves in for. It's been a long time since I went to Flambards, but I think the reaction was positive when they bought the Huss frisbee from Pleasure Island. It seems highly unlikely that LWV will add anything of international significance, but looking at what they're doing at Flambards they will make small sensible investments. Maybe I'm being naive, but I'd be inclined to give them a chance.
Spark
TS Member
“We are delighted to be able to add such a high profile and established theme park in to our existing leisure portfolio”
Like Birdland Park and Gardens in the Cotswolds.
belongstothesmiler
TS Member
Anyone know if Lightwater Valley will be doing a weekend of offers this year for people who live close by? Got in for £12 last summer for living in a TS postcode. Other than that are there any deals? think £60 for a family of three is expensive considering what is on offer.
Coaster
TS Member
Visited LWV again recently and it reminded me how much I love The Ultimate.
It's so brilliantly flawed in its design; the way it uses three lift chains to get round the corner after lift 2 is hilarious, as is using camelbacks as a brake run, and whoever thought up the idea to send those huge trains around ground-level turns directly after an 100 foot drop is a mad genius.
A ride of two halves, the pops of airtime in the front half of the train are fantastic during the first half, and the sheer insanity of the second half is one of my favourite moments of any coaster. It's brutal and my knees are still recovering, but that's why I rate it so highly.
Fantastic coaster, and a prime example of something we'll never see built again.
It's so brilliantly flawed in its design; the way it uses three lift chains to get round the corner after lift 2 is hilarious, as is using camelbacks as a brake run, and whoever thought up the idea to send those huge trains around ground-level turns directly after an 100 foot drop is a mad genius.
A ride of two halves, the pops of airtime in the front half of the train are fantastic during the first half, and the sheer insanity of the second half is one of my favourite moments of any coaster. It's brutal and my knees are still recovering, but that's why I rate it so highly.
Fantastic coaster, and a prime example of something we'll never see built again.
Dipper_Dave
TS Member
Amazingly I only went to Lightwater for the first time last Summer. On my birthday, which was nice. The Ultimate’s second half is absolutely bonkers, utterly insane. I’m not sure what I was expecting from the ride, but it certainly wasn’t for all hell to break loose at the bottom of that second drop! Those turns low to the ground through the woods, the train just goes berserk. This is a ride where I’d feel genuinely terrified on the back row. My body was aching the day after that ride like never before. It was certainly an experience riding it. 3 times was enough for me on the day, you’d have to be some sort of nutcase to ride this many times in a day
Only criticism of the ride really is the length of the wait on a one train operation. It’s a LONG time til that train returns to the station.
Diogo, that article is hilarious!
Only criticism of the ride really is the length of the wait on a one train operation. It’s a LONG time til that train returns to the station.
Diogo, that article is hilarious!
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Coaster
TS Member
I can vouch for this, having gone around the second low-to-ground turn with my arms up and being forced to grab onto the handrail for fear of being thrown out of the train!The way I sum up The Ultimate is this. It's a ride of two halves. The first is a perfectly normal and relatively decent section. The second leaves you clinging on for dear life.
It's so amazing, and so unlike anything that'll be built nowadays.
John
TS Member
Some of us waited an hour on the most recent TST trip there last year, queue was only to the door but when it's sending a train every 10 minutes it's an utter misery to wait for.
Love the ride though, easily my #1 in the UK. Back in about 2010 the park gave us an hour ERT on it. Many of us, but by no means all, braved the full hour.
Rob
TS Team
Hang on, Lightwater Valley is still going!? Should probably think about heading back at some point.
Can't say that I rate The Ultimate but it is certainly an experience, I'll give it that! And that ERT back in 2010 was crazy (although how has it been almost 8 years already)!
Can't say that I rate The Ultimate but it is certainly an experience, I'll give it that! And that ERT back in 2010 was crazy (although how has it been almost 8 years already)!
Dipper_Dave
TS Member
I was just thinking that it’s probably the only coaster I’ve been on where I actually felt like either the train would come off the track, or I would be thrown out, or possibly both, during those banked turns through the woods. Absolutely terrifying yet also fun in a sickening, knee bashing torturous way.
Interesting that ‘perceived danger’ has been cited as a negative for Wild Mouse and one of the many nails in its coffin. I mean some of the GP (wimps!) calling it ‘old, rickety, dangerous’ and saying they came off with bruised bodies and whiplash. The Ultimate ticks all the same boxes (apart from the ‘old’ one really) but doesn’t really LOOK that bad from the station.
I wonder how many people (about 99% I reckon) after only seeing the small amount of the ride that’s on show from within the park, were genuinely surprised at how wild, crazy and rough the second part of The Ultimate is, and how many of them (lots) never wanted to ride it again afterwards. Surely the definition of a Marmite ride!
Brad97
TS Member
I was completely unprepared for The Ultimate the first time I rode it about 10 years ago. I had no idea of the layout or how crazy the second half was, it was just so much more violent than anything I had ever ridden at the time. Safe to say I didn't particularly enjoy it! Would like to give it another go now I know what to expect.
DiogoJ42
TS Member
And some of us did it wearing full pirate garb on a super hot day!
..... much to the bewilderment of the staff.
I'll never forget the directions we had to the "secret" park entrance;
"Ignore the car park. Go down the overgrown single lane dirt track, and turn left after the barn."
...And then we all got photographed for the promo pictures of their topscan...
A classic meet.
Benzin
TS Member
Wouldn't those Japanese Jet Coasters be a decent shout for similarity (going over some hills and not doing a great deal)?
Interestingly, during the tender process for building the ride, the wooden coaster designer Curtis Summers' company gave the park a quote to build their version of the ride, only to be outbid by BCM.