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Lightwater Valley
Burbs
TS Team
Today I visited Lightwater Valley for the first time.
Firstly, The Ultimate is like no other ride I've ever been on. Unbelievably brutal from the 2nd drop onwards. (I'm pretty sure the 1st half is only there to lull riders into a false sense of security.) Riding in the back car, at 4:30pm in 30-degree heat is bloody relentless.
As for the rest of the park... saying we'd done the vast majority of everything we wanted to do by 11.30am could easily sum it up. On a hot day it's nice to relax in the shade of the trees but there's simply not enough there to fill a day. It's during the most of the country's school summer holidays yet the park was extremely quiet. No more than 2 or 3 dispatches wait on The Ultimate all day, despite it running just 1 train all day.
I'm glad I've finally visited, but I can't envision returning.
Firstly, The Ultimate is like no other ride I've ever been on. Unbelievably brutal from the 2nd drop onwards. (I'm pretty sure the 1st half is only there to lull riders into a false sense of security.) Riding in the back car, at 4:30pm in 30-degree heat is bloody relentless.
As for the rest of the park... saying we'd done the vast majority of everything we wanted to do by 11.30am could easily sum it up. On a hot day it's nice to relax in the shade of the trees but there's simply not enough there to fill a day. It's during the most of the country's school summer holidays yet the park was extremely quiet. No more than 2 or 3 dispatches wait on The Ultimate all day, despite it running just 1 train all day.
I'm glad I've finally visited, but I can't envision returning.
Skyscraper
TS Member
What did you think of Raptor Attack?Today I visited Lightwater Valley for the first time.
Firstly, The Ultimate is like no other ride I've ever been on. Unbelievably brutal from the 2nd drop onwards. (I'm pretty sure the 1st half is only there to lull riders into a false sense of security.) Riding in the back car, at 4:30pm in 30-degree heat is bloody relentless.
As for the rest of the park... saying we'd done the vast majority of everything we wanted to do by 11.30am could easily sum it up. On a hot day it's nice to relax in the shade of the trees but there's simply not enough there to fill a day. It's during the most of the country's school summer holidays yet the park was extremely quiet. No more than 2 or 3 dispatches wait on The Ultimate all day, despite it running just 1 train all day.
I'm glad I've finally visited, but I can't envision returning.
Burbs
TS Team
I enjoyed it! The coaster isn’t anything special by any means but with it being pretty much pitch black in there it certainly adds to the ride experience. The theming of the whole experience is good too.What did you think of Raptor Attack?
Dipper_Dave
TS Member
The Ultimate is like no other ride I've ever been on. Unbelievably brutal from the 2nd drop onwards. (I'm pretty sure the 1st half is only there to lull riders into a false sense of security.) Riding in the back car, at 4:30pm in 30-degree heat is bloody relentless.
It is an absolutely insane roller coaster. Nothing prepares you for the second half. There is a well known trick about crossing your legs as you sit down, which supposedly protects you a bit from the bashing your knees take against the retraint’s bizarre metal casing. I’m not sure it makes a massive difference having tried it. What does make a difference is riding alone if possible, ie late in the day when it’s getting quieter. If you’re with a mate, take a row each and you can really spread your knees out, minimising said knee bashing. I say minimising as it’s virtually impossible not to get bashed at some point during the second half of the ride. I’m really tempted to put knee pads on next time I ride it! Also I can’t remember which side @rob666 can you? But apparently one side of the train has more leg room than the other
I was lucky enough to have half a dozen rides on it the other week and really wanted to try the front & back rows as on the previous visit I just sat round the middle. To me the front was more brutal than I expected though you do get the great views. Ended up having about 3 goes at the back and am convinced that’s bizarrely the LEAST vicious place to sit on that beast of a train. We talked to the staff about it; at the front, despite barely moving until you’re halfway down the main drops, you then get pushed around the rest of the way. At the back you get pulled around by the rest of the train but the effect is less than that of the back row on other coasters somehow. Because the train is so ridiculously long, the middle is kind of caught in the tension of the two extremes so doesn’t really know what it’s doing. This may sound silly but having now had numerous rides front, middle and back, I prefer the back out of them all easily!
Coaster
TS Member
The Ultimate is such a great roller coaster, I absolutely love it. A prime example of a ride we should be proud of, it's so different to anything else I've been on and something that could never be recreated in modern times.
The front is definitely the most brutal, in my experience. We were able to stay in the front carriage for a few rides in a row last year, absolutely brilliant.
The front is definitely the most brutal, in my experience. We were able to stay in the front carriage for a few rides in a row last year, absolutely brilliant.
AstroDan
TS Team
I got over The Ultimate 9 years ago. We had an ERT and I got bruising over my legs, making work a challenge in the following days. When I rode in 2018, it was on one train with a 4 or 5 train wait. Needless to say we left the park by 1pm.

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Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk
Skyscraper
TS Member
How on earth did you manage that?!The Ultimate is such a great roller coaster, I absolutely love it. A prime example of a ride we should be proud of, it's so different to anything else I've been on and something that could never be recreated in modern times.
The front is definitely the most brutal, in my experience. We were able to stay in the front carriage for a few rides in a row last year, absolutely brilliant.
Coaster
TS Member
It's so badly designed but that's what makes it brilliant IMO!I don't think proud is the right term to use about the Ultimate, since the ridiculous nature of it came about by pure luck and poor planning as opposed to it meaning to be completely utterly mental...
Benzin
TS Member
It's so badly designed but that's what makes it brilliant IMO!
I never said it wasn't brilliant, just that being proud of something only being good because it was an absolute mess isn't probably the right word...
Burbs
TS Team
Yes.Is The Ultimate an example of a ride that's "so bad it's good" so to speak?
This is a bit off topic, but as well as being a very long roller coaster, The Ultimate also unusually long trains that carry 40 riders. I was wondering whether there are any roller coasters out there with more than 40 seats? Which roller coaster has the biggest/longest trains?
Like Speedy, I’m not really into the ‘it’s so bad it’s good’ thing. For me it’s a great terrain coaster, with a good variety between the hills in the first section and the twisty second half. The second half of the ride is wilder than the first, and that’s how it should be, otherwise it’d be anticlimactic if you had the wilder half first. For me The Ultimate does a lot of things a top coaster should without feeling formulaic. It would be better if it were smoother, but it’s still a genuinely class ride.
Like Speedy, I’m not really into the ‘it’s so bad it’s good’ thing. For me it’s a great terrain coaster, with a good variety between the hills in the first section and the twisty second half. The second half of the ride is wilder than the first, and that’s how it should be, otherwise it’d be anticlimactic if you had the wilder half first. For me The Ultimate does a lot of things a top coaster should without feeling formulaic. It would be better if it were smoother, but it’s still a genuinely class ride.
Rick
TS Member
@Funcone Mount Mara (Revolution) comes to mind at Bobbejaanland. The trains seat 60 people in 30 cars. According to RCDB, its defunct sister ride Chaos had train that had 40 cars/80 seats(!)
Dipper_Dave
TS Member
The Ultimate is actually 19 rows, so 38 seats. Unless you want to sit clinging onto the train funnel. That would be fun