Your most memorable journeys to and/or from the parks

[Matt N]

Hi guys. As much as we’re all in this hobby for the theme parks themselves, some interesting moments can sometimes arise during the travel to and/or from the parks. As the old saying goes, “it’s the journey, not just the destination”! With this in mind, I’d be interested to know; what have been some of your most memorable journeys to and/or from the parks? What travel moments from journeys to or from theme parks have stuck in your mind?

Personally, I certainly have a few stories to share… some of the most memorable journeys I remember include:

• Alton Towers (June 2019) - This was the first time my mum ever drove to Alton Towers. When my dad has driven us, he’s always come off the M6 at Stoke-on-Trent, near to the football stadium, and driven us to Alton Towers via Stoke itself, past various villages, the JCB plant and then through Alton village itself. My mum, however, had a Ford Fiesta with a rather temperamental in-built satnav, so instead of the typical way, we were directed off the M6 at Stafford and sent around various rural towns and villages in North Staffordshire, ultimately coming at Alton Towers in a southbound direction despite driving 2.5 hours north to get there… I’m not sure I’ve ever seen my mum so angry as when the satnav was directing us around the rural backwoods of Staffordshire. The last 30 minutes to an hour of the drive was punctuated by my mum angrily yelling things like “Why is it sending me through f***ing Cheadle?”…
• Alton Towers (June 2022) - Yes, another Alton Towers drive makes the cut, and this was once again my mum driving. We had the same state of affairs driving up as the time before, but my mum was a little more at peace with it this time. However, the satnav really outdid itself on the way back; I fell asleep not long after we left Alton Towers… and when I woke up, I was greeted by more angry swearing from my mum, because the satnav had directed us towards Nottingham and East Midlands Airport. I’m sure Nottingham is perfectly nice, but when your destination is Gloucestershire, in the South West, it’s quite a considerable detour. That drive was also eventful because my nan was in the car with us while she had what was later discovered to be COVID, and was coughing and spluttering an awful lot…
• Blackpool Pleasure Beach (August 2019) - This was an interesting journey. It had the double blow of both August Bank Holiday traffic and road works in numerous places, meaning that what is ostensibly a 3.5 hour drive ultimately took 6-7 hours. However, that’s not the only reason why it was interesting… my dad was driving, and when we approached a roundabout in Gloucester that was undergoing roadworks, he got cut up or something by someone (well, someone did something that made him angry). In a moment that has gone down in legend in my family, this made him yell out, in the angriest voice imaginable, “MAKE UP YOUR MIND, YOU T*T!”. This then sent my mum into uncontrollable fits of laughter all the way up the M5 to about Birmingham… my dad remained rather angry for the rest of the drive, as the traffic was terrible and some of his least favourite elements of the motorway were out in full force. There was lots of angry ranting about “the queue makers” (smart motorways with variable speed limits) and “the fake police” (the Highways Agency)…
• Fun Spot Kissimmee (April 2019) - Our journey to Fun Spot Kissimmee is different from some of the others here because it was not made interesting by angry driving, but a place we passed on the way there. I was keen to go to Fun Spot to ride Mine Blower, but it’s fair to say that my family had some trepidation about going. On the way there, we passed an establishment called “Machine Gun America”, which my family were absolutely reeling at… I don’t think they’ve ever let me live that down!

But what have been some of your most memorable journeys to and/or from the parks? I’d be really interested to know!

 

[Jonathan]

Europa-Park 2012
It was my first-ever trip to Europa-Park, and I was very much looking forward to it. Caught an early-ish Eurostar from London St Pancras to Lille, where we'd change trains for a TGV to Strasbourg and then follow the classic route from there to EP (train to Offenburg, train to Ringsheim, bus to EP). When on the Eurostar, we were racing through northern France to Lille. I had the soundtrack to the London 2012 Opening Ceremony playing, as it was only a few days since the Olympics had concluded, and the CD of the soundtrack had thankfully arrived a few days before I was due to leave. The one abiding memory I have was when 'Caliban's Dream' came on, and I suddenly got this rather strange sensation come over me that I can't quite describe. Was a good sensation, for the record, and it rather set the tone for the next few days.

Junket 2014
As @Mike, @Kelpie, and @DiogoJ42 will all know too well, the journey out for Junket 2014 was memorable for all the wrong reasons. Getting stuck at Folkestone for hours with no information whatsoever was not fun, to the point where we seriously considered bailing to Hils' parents' place for the night and travelling out the following morning, skipping Walygator. We didn't get to the hotel in Reims until half 2 in the morning, and Kelpie's first time driving on the wrong side of the road involved a contraflow. Far from ideal. The journey back involved being stuck at Calais, and frustratingly, we got more information from @Dan (who was stuck in the tunnel) than we did from EuroTunnel themselves. The speedy drive from the terminal at Folkestone to Hils' parents' place was good fun, though.

Europa-Park 2017
This was my first, and so far only, trip driving to EP. Only one direction due to various reasons. Picked the hire car up after landing at Stuttgart with @Danny, @Sam, and @Panda, and it was my first time driving an LHD manual car (my previous two times driving LHD were in automatics). The car was completely fine. The sat nav, however, sent us off-route for no reason on at least two occasions, which cost us at least 20 minutes. We ended up in queuing traffic on the Autobahn, which was frustrating, but nothing we could do. I tried to move off when the opportunity arose, and...I stalled the flipping car. When the story was relayed to others at Silver Lake Saloon while waiting for dinner that evening, I think it was @Craig who came up with the nickname 'Jonathan STALLSdon', which set the tone for the rest of the holiday, frankly.

Alton Towers Fireworks 2022
Mike had stayed at mine on the Friday night, and we drove to Towers from Congleton on the Saturday morning. While en route, 'Waving Through a Window' from Dear Evan Hansen came on via a playlist I'd curated for a longer road trip. Cue me turning the volume up and the pair of us belting it out. It was such a lovely start to a brilliant weekend.

 

[Alix]

Most memorable for me would have to be the time there were 3 canoes in the middle of the M4 on the way home to Bristol from Thorpe. I’m not the biggest fan of driving in the dark at the best of times, luckily the motorway was quiet so my evasive manoeuvre went without further incident. Woke me up a bit I can tell you,

 

[Shaggy_Dog_]

My most memorable was visiting Walibi Holland last year, it was my first visit to the park and it was to be my first RMC. My wife and I were staying at Hotel Dorhout Mees, a nice place situated on a golf course about 5 miles from the park. As we had arrived by public transport from Amsterdam we were wondering what the best way to get to the park would be so we hired a couple of bicycles from the hotel and cycled along. It was a lovely morning and we had a really nice chilled cycle along the paths by the woods to get to the park. The park was open late that day and cycling back as the sun was setting was a very memorable way to end the day. I always enjoy going to a park in that kind of way or by walking, it’s a great way to build up the anticipation by taking a stroll on a nice day rather than just driving straight in to a park.

 

[Jonathan]

I'd also mention my second day at Europa-Park 2013. We'd ended up booking to go on the midnight opening by a pure stroke of luck, and I spent the entire day on park with my younger brother. It was great fun, and my one abiding memory was getting on Fjord-Rafting after 11pm with a few Germans for what was arguably one of the most hilarious Rapids rides I've ever had in my life.

 

[Tim]

Get ready for this, I have a few travel stories that really are insane. Ever arrived a week late to a park before? I've limited myself to just 3. But I need to give an honorable mention to not just once but twice when I've boarded the Eurostar only to find part of my group hadn't made it.

Europa Bark 2022:
I did a full trip report that talked about my journey to Europa Park with our two dogs. Despite mentioning the journey I left out some of the quirky moments, and the two issues on the return journey that almost caused it to go catastrophically wrong.
The journey out was really enjoyable, with great weather. We did however make one mistake, by giving Marcey a fish stick to keep her calm. For half the journey that car stank to high heaven of fish!
What I didn't discover until we were about to leave is that the front left tire of my car had been damaged. I didn't find out the full damage until I got home (turned out I'd been doing 90mph down the Autobahn with a slice of my tire missing) but just knowing there was an issue made the return journey tense enough already. Then we got to France... we knew there had been a petrol strike earlier in the week when we made the outward journey, so we topped up before leaving Germany. But it had got far worse, and we didn't pass a single open petrol station on the return journey. About 2/3 of the way to Calais we realised we wouldn't make it and had to come off the motorway in search of any open petrol station. We managed to find one with just 12 miles of fuel left!

Gardaland 2020:
Now we are entering the strange world of work related Theme Park trips. This one was especially unusual, as we couldn't go directly to Gardaland. The contractor we were working with required us to get a special permit, which included a few days training in Ravenna (that's about a 2 hours drive away). But at this time flights were limited (we'll get to why soon) and our only option was to fly into Venice, also 2 hours away. We made it to Ravenna without issue but then things got serious. The UK announced it would be shutting its boarders. We didn't know it at the time but the second lockdown was coming. We had 24 hours to get back into the country or we had to enter quarantine on our return. We managed to book next day flights from Verona, which is just down the road from Gardaland and we went straight to the airport. As we were flying out I got my first glimps of Gardaland, right before the clouds blocked our view. It was over 6 months later before I would make it to Gardaland.
The cool thing I'll always remember about that flight is that after seeing Gardaland disappear through the clouds the first thing I saw as the clouds parted over the UK was LEGOLAND.

LEGOLAND Korea 2022:
What's crazier than having to evacuate a country? How about being stuck in one.
I'd flown out to Korea a few weeks ahead of the new LEGOLAND's soft opening. At the time they were still taking Covid very seriously, and everyone arriving in the country had to complete multiple tests before flying then take one final test after arriving. The test centre was a long way from the airport, actually opposite Everland, and I was hoping to briefly visit the park before continuing on.
I'd had no issue completing the tests in the UK, so you can imagine my shock when I got the positive test result. It was a horrible feeling of 'what now' and I now have a new appreciation for anyone that gets a serious medical diagnosis from a doctor, as that alone was bad enough.
I immediately started contacting anyone I new that could help. I'd been given the results by phone, and as they only spoke limited English all they'd said was "stay in your room, we'll come get you". I eventually was given some paperwork through the door explaining the process. There was a worrying moment when I thought they were going to destroy all the possessions I brought with me, but thankfully that never ended up being the case. Eventually an ambulance came to collect me and someone from France who had also tested positive. We were driven to a fitness facility In the middle of nowhere, at which I'd spend the next week in a small room I couldn't leave.
In all honesty it wasn't terrible. I had my laptop with me and was able to keep myself sane. I was fed well, too well actually. Hospital food isn't great in your own country but when it's not even like the food you grew up with it can be hard to stomach. I never want to eat or even see Kimchi again.
When it came time to leave they booked me a taxi and I did manage to complete the journey.

 

[Poisson]

Krakow to Legendia, first time driving a LHD car and the extra confusion with that, coupled with minimal sleep was an experience, then arriving at the ghost town that is Legendia

 

[MattyH]

My sat nav sending me round the twisty roads in the micra followed by it attempting to set fire as I drove up to alton towers in 2022.

Travelling to Blackpool pleasure beach from a cousins wedding. Lift to the station, train to London, train to halifax and then a train to blackpool.

A hen party joined at Halifax...

Things were going well until just after Preston when they decided they wanted to start smoking

Watched a fight break out and the british transport police met us at Blackpoo.

 

[NuttySquirrel]

Alton Towers 2009
Myself, @John and two uni friends once travelled to Alton Towers via canal boat, as part of a week long trip on the Trent & Mersey/Caldon canals to celebrate the end of uni. Though not originally part of the plan, we realised that it was very possible to do a day trip to the park from Froghall Wharf, the terminus of the Caldon.

This was back in the day that public buses actually ran to the park from various local villages, and we were able to hop onto a bus at Froghall that morning which took us to the entrance - making sure to check with the driver that the last bus departed after ride close - which he confirmed that it did. All good so far.

What the driver hadn't factored in was that the park opened for an extra hour in summer - so by the time we got out of the gates at the end of the day the last bus was long gone.

What would have been the sensible decision here? Pool what was left of our student loans for a taxi? Call a parent for a bailout? Nope. We decided to walk.

OK so it's not desperately far from Alton Towers to Froghall (5.4 miles by the most direct route), but when you only have a crude paper printout of the area from a very basic 2009 Google Maps and absolutely no knowledge of the local topology, and it is getting dark, it becomes a lot more difficult. The group was divided in opinion on whether to follow the main roads or attempt cross country - in the end the latter group won, only for us to be admonished for trespassing by an angry local farmer. We also ended up on the wrong side of the Churnet Valley heritage railway and ended up sliding down a steep muddy bank in order to cross it, before eventually finding ourselves back at the canal towpath well after dark. Furthermore, as we had not been running the boat at all that day there was almost no power in the batteries for lighting as we got ourselves ready for bed, and certainly none at all for cooking or showers.

I've been to the park many times since but never has the journey been quite so eventful or memorable - nor have I ever got so muddy in the process.

 

[John_P]

2012, 2019, 2022 - seeing Cedar Point and driving across the causeway to the park. Just an amazing site when you first see the park and then travel towards it.

June 2022, started the day in a Dennlys in Kemah, then visiting Johnson Space Centre by Houston, back on ourselves to Kemah Boardwalk for a few laps of the Boardwalk Bullet.
A 3+ hour drive to Seguin, Texas to ZDTs arriving an hour before park close to spend the time lapping Switchback.
After park close we drove into San Antonio for something to eat and was able to visit The Alamo, and see the River Walk.
A ridiculously busy, yet rewarding first full day of the holiday.

 

[DanJB]

Not happened yet, but I got off Galactica earlier to find that someone has absconded with my glasses. Can’t see a thing without them, so if they haven’t found their way to guest services by park close then I’m not going to be able to drive back

 

[Matt N]

Not happened yet, but I got off Galactica earlier to find that someone has absconded with my glasses. Can’t see a thing without them, so if they haven’t found their way to guest services by park close then I’m not going to be able to drive back

Oh dear; that’s not good. Have you spoken to any of the ride staff to see if they know where they might have gone?

 

[DanJB]

I’ve asked around, but no luck. Fortunately got a rescue mission arranged!

To rub salt in the wound though, it was only yesterday I was telling a colleague that I would never have laser eye surgery as I’ve never had any inconveniences with wearing glasses

 

[John_P]

Reminds me of the time I'd visited the park with my dad whilst I was learning to drive. He'd decided to go the Spa in the hotel in the afternoon and the heat in the sauna caused the glue on his glasses to expand and thus sort of make his glasses explode. Thankfully he was able to sellotape them back together or I'd have been trying to drive home.

 

[AT86]

Driving from EP to Calais in challenging December weather last year wasn’t ideal. French motorways were down to one lane and we were sliding all over the place.

 

[Jonathan]

I'm gonna add my drive to Towers on Saturday with @Mike. Was from Hillingdon Tube station (via Ickenham so as to get fuel and a few other bits), and it's safe to say that driving up the M1 was rather perwigglous due to the sheer amount of spray from the other vehicles. Far from ideal.

 

[DiogoJ42]

Will you quit stalking me already‽