Trip Report
Pre-Background: I posted this on 'the other place' before I found out what happened. I was a long-time lurker there, but hadn't seen the stuff going off. This place seems more active, so I'm moving to lurk here instead!
Background: Went with girlfriend, and the only day we both had was Friday 20th July - in many places the last day of term. The park was open 10-5, and we arrived at about 9:55. The car park was pretty quiet, and we parked near the station. Weather forecast was a horror show for the day, but the radar on raintoday.co.uk seemed to suggest it would dry up by 10 - despite others saying it was a write off.
Monorail IN
Queued for 1 "zig" of the uphil zig zag, and for all of 2/3 mins. I wish they could improve the monorail window adverts so you could see out better. I noticed the one coach park only seemed to have about 15 coaches in it.
Tickets
Since it was all a bit last minute, our only option was one of the plentiful 2 for 1 deals, and we chose O2 priority purely because it meant we didn't need to print anything out.
The queues were well within the ticket office queuelines, and I was starting to get excited at how quiet it was! Despite the short queue, it moved slowly but eventually we had our tickets. No queue to get into the park.
Air - 10:45
Both of us had been once before separately, and my gf visited pre-Air. I'd been on before but remembered the queues being bad. We decided to get Air done before the queues built up as the park seemed dead as we walked in. We walked rather than taking the cable, and queued for about 15 mins.
Nemesis - 11:15
Gf had been wanting to go on the rapids, so we began to walk back towards them for 11 opening. However, Nemesis had a queue time of.. 10 mins so we did the beast first and had a nearly-walk on - prob about 5 mins. As amazing as ever - just so non-stop!
Duel - 11:30
For whatever reason my gf decided to hold off on the rapids and do Duel. This was a definite walk on, and there didn't seem to be anyone else either on the ride, or the queue lines or exit. Had fun and the guns worked to just before the end.
Runaway Mine Train - 11:55
Purely because we got to the entrance first, we decided to do the runaway train before rapids. Approx 5 min queue (one 2 lap ride waiting), and we were on. I think it's a bit under rated. Sure it's not a thrill ride but it's a good laugh!
Rapids - 12:05
So we found the rapids and it was another walk on. Good fun and managed to stay fairly dry. Didn't seem as.. Rapid as I remembered, but a good rest period!
We made a note to goto pizza/pasta and headed back towards the entrance, and potentially head towards x-sector or dark forest. By the time we got near, we couldn't be bothered with the walk and used the Chair lift.
Chair lift -12:20
Neither of us had used the sky ride before but it's really useful, especially when you get a car to yourself and walk straight on!
Ice Age 4 - 12:40
Neither of us can really remember why we went here as we were heading for the forest! We walked straight to the front door, via the seemingly pointless photo point. And then waited. And waited. And waited. I'm not sure what happened but we must have waited outside for 20 mins, and the queue built up. Another 5 mins inside and everyone was getting a bit bored. But the show is genuinely good, even for us adults and we enjoyed it.
Came back outside to a rain storm. Hid under the games/arcade outside Rita
Rita - 14:00. Despite it still raining, we joined the queue for Rita. We ignored the 'queue line now closed' because others were going in and the train was going round. It quickly stopped though, and we soon got bored of not moving. By this point there was an AT rep on the entrance and as we left he explained there was a technical fault, but they were about to send a test train around. He basically told us it was worth waiting - and he was right. 10 mins later we were on it and it's still one of my favourite coasters. Over too quick but it is what it is - and it's great!
Thirteen - 14:20
Despite ruining the drop surprise with too much research I really enjoyed this! It must push the limit of single lap restraint coasters?! I also had no idea it went backwards!
BK FOOD BREAK - 14:50
changed our mind about food. To be honest I could have skipped lunch so didn't care where we went. Got a seat easily and hand fed a chip to a duck.
Sealife - 15:15
I'd have probably given this a miss had I not read the good reviews on here. I thought it was pretty good and a lot bigger than expected. Some of the fish in the main pool are ridiculously tame!
Oblivion - 15:50
My gf had had enough of 'pushing herself' and didnt feel so good. So as any good boyfriend would... I went on the following rides myself, and via single rider. Walked straight onto Oblivion - first time on it as well. It's short and sweet but the drop really is just.. Wow!
We took the cross valley route to forbidden valley.
Air - 16:15
I told my gf I just wanted to do air and nemesis again and only if the queues were small. Via single rider, I walked straight onto air and enjoyed the rerun!
Nemesis - 16:40
To my final ride then (or so I thought) and there's not much to say - straight on, back row, awesome.
Nemesis Sub-Terra - 16:55
Heading out I noticed there was no single rider queue for Sub Terra and went for it. Unfortunately there was no one merging, which meant I, and some upset fastrackers got ignored. I should have just gone but waited. I wish I hadn't, as I thought it was really poor.
Off we went back on the monorail with only a minimal queue and didn't even queue to exit the car park.
Happiness: 9/10 - Almost faultless!
Reliability: 9/10 - short Rita strop, otherwise find
Queuing: 9/10 - amazingly quiet all day
Staff: 10/10 - always friendly, and informative
Ride of the day: Nemesis (used to love air, surprised myself at changing my mind!)
Worst ride: Nemesis Sub Terra. Insult to the name IMO
Pre-Background: I posted this on 'the other place' before I found out what happened. I was a long-time lurker there, but hadn't seen the stuff going off. This place seems more active, so I'm moving to lurk here instead!
Background: Went with girlfriend, and the only day we both had was Friday 20th July - in many places the last day of term. The park was open 10-5, and we arrived at about 9:55. The car park was pretty quiet, and we parked near the station. Weather forecast was a horror show for the day, but the radar on raintoday.co.uk seemed to suggest it would dry up by 10 - despite others saying it was a write off.
Monorail IN
Queued for 1 "zig" of the uphil zig zag, and for all of 2/3 mins. I wish they could improve the monorail window adverts so you could see out better. I noticed the one coach park only seemed to have about 15 coaches in it.
Tickets
Since it was all a bit last minute, our only option was one of the plentiful 2 for 1 deals, and we chose O2 priority purely because it meant we didn't need to print anything out.
The queues were well within the ticket office queuelines, and I was starting to get excited at how quiet it was! Despite the short queue, it moved slowly but eventually we had our tickets. No queue to get into the park.
Air - 10:45
Both of us had been once before separately, and my gf visited pre-Air. I'd been on before but remembered the queues being bad. We decided to get Air done before the queues built up as the park seemed dead as we walked in. We walked rather than taking the cable, and queued for about 15 mins.
Nemesis - 11:15
Gf had been wanting to go on the rapids, so we began to walk back towards them for 11 opening. However, Nemesis had a queue time of.. 10 mins so we did the beast first and had a nearly-walk on - prob about 5 mins. As amazing as ever - just so non-stop!
Duel - 11:30
For whatever reason my gf decided to hold off on the rapids and do Duel. This was a definite walk on, and there didn't seem to be anyone else either on the ride, or the queue lines or exit. Had fun and the guns worked to just before the end.
Runaway Mine Train - 11:55
Purely because we got to the entrance first, we decided to do the runaway train before rapids. Approx 5 min queue (one 2 lap ride waiting), and we were on. I think it's a bit under rated. Sure it's not a thrill ride but it's a good laugh!
Rapids - 12:05
So we found the rapids and it was another walk on. Good fun and managed to stay fairly dry. Didn't seem as.. Rapid as I remembered, but a good rest period!
We made a note to goto pizza/pasta and headed back towards the entrance, and potentially head towards x-sector or dark forest. By the time we got near, we couldn't be bothered with the walk and used the Chair lift.
Chair lift -12:20
Neither of us had used the sky ride before but it's really useful, especially when you get a car to yourself and walk straight on!
Ice Age 4 - 12:40
Neither of us can really remember why we went here as we were heading for the forest! We walked straight to the front door, via the seemingly pointless photo point. And then waited. And waited. And waited. I'm not sure what happened but we must have waited outside for 20 mins, and the queue built up. Another 5 mins inside and everyone was getting a bit bored. But the show is genuinely good, even for us adults and we enjoyed it.
Came back outside to a rain storm. Hid under the games/arcade outside Rita
Rita - 14:00. Despite it still raining, we joined the queue for Rita. We ignored the 'queue line now closed' because others were going in and the train was going round. It quickly stopped though, and we soon got bored of not moving. By this point there was an AT rep on the entrance and as we left he explained there was a technical fault, but they were about to send a test train around. He basically told us it was worth waiting - and he was right. 10 mins later we were on it and it's still one of my favourite coasters. Over too quick but it is what it is - and it's great!
Thirteen - 14:20
Despite ruining the drop surprise with too much research I really enjoyed this! It must push the limit of single lap restraint coasters?! I also had no idea it went backwards!
BK FOOD BREAK - 14:50
changed our mind about food. To be honest I could have skipped lunch so didn't care where we went. Got a seat easily and hand fed a chip to a duck.
Sealife - 15:15
I'd have probably given this a miss had I not read the good reviews on here. I thought it was pretty good and a lot bigger than expected. Some of the fish in the main pool are ridiculously tame!
Oblivion - 15:50
My gf had had enough of 'pushing herself' and didnt feel so good. So as any good boyfriend would... I went on the following rides myself, and via single rider. Walked straight onto Oblivion - first time on it as well. It's short and sweet but the drop really is just.. Wow!
We took the cross valley route to forbidden valley.
Air - 16:15
I told my gf I just wanted to do air and nemesis again and only if the queues were small. Via single rider, I walked straight onto air and enjoyed the rerun!
Nemesis - 16:40
To my final ride then (or so I thought) and there's not much to say - straight on, back row, awesome.
Nemesis Sub-Terra - 16:55
Heading out I noticed there was no single rider queue for Sub Terra and went for it. Unfortunately there was no one merging, which meant I, and some upset fastrackers got ignored. I should have just gone but waited. I wish I hadn't, as I thought it was really poor.
Off we went back on the monorail with only a minimal queue and didn't even queue to exit the car park.
Happiness: 9/10 - Almost faultless!
Reliability: 9/10 - short Rita strop, otherwise find
Queuing: 9/10 - amazingly quiet all day
Staff: 10/10 - always friendly, and informative
Ride of the day: Nemesis (used to love air, surprised myself at changing my mind!)
Worst ride: Nemesis Sub Terra. Insult to the name IMO