What was the thing with The Antelope?
Entry posted by JoshC.
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Back when I was about 8 or 9, I visited Gulliver's World (Warrington). The trip was unplanned really, and only lasted a couple of hours (well, from 10 til after lunch). However, the one thing that has always made me remember this trip is The Antelope - one of only 2 wooden coasters to be built in the UK in the past 50 years.
At the time of riding, I'd never heard of Antelope before (heck, I'd only heard of Gulliver's Warrington a couple of days before my visit!), nor had I heard any reviews of it. I literally knew nothing about it, other than it was made from wood and "looked fun". I was given the front row, which excited me. After coming off, I must have had a huge smile on my face, as I really enjoyed it, and still remember it fondly to this day. Hey, it's even featured in my top 10 roller coasters in the past (though, bare in mind my roller coaster count stands at 22, all of them from the 4 UK Merlin Parks and Gulliver's...).
Now then, recently I searched the coaster up on Youtube, to find a POV of it. Seemingly I've been in luck, with Coasterforce very recently adding a front row POV:
(Credit to CF, of course)
If you watch that, and have never been on it before / haven't been on it for a few years, you'll probably have the same reaction as me - "what on earth is that!?". Even if you appreciate the fact that POVs don't show rides at their best, and that this is a family ride, the ride still looks rather poor. It's poorly paced, has an uninspiring layout and in general seems a bit weak. As the video description says, there was meant to be a water splash effect at the end, but the ride would not have completed the course, which to me suggests the ride as a whole was somewhat poorly designed as well.
So, why did I enjoy this ride so much? More importantly, why did I continue to rate this ride so highly for so many years?
Firstly, I guess you could say the circumstances were one reason for enjoying this. I was young, and went to a theme park unexpectedly. Being a fan of theme parks even then, it was a huge excitement for me. Not knowing anything about the ride, and being quite small, it looked so big, so intimidating and so exciting. Needless to say, I was going to enjoy everything I went on, regardless of the quality.
Furthermore, it was my first wooden roller coaster. I personally think that a person's first wooden coaster will always hold something 'special', as they are so different to steel coasters, and have a completely different experience. Had this layout been exactly the same but made from steel, I probably would have been, like most, unimpressed or, at best, disappointed. Also, as this to date remains the only woodie I've been on, I really have no comparisons to make between this and other wooden coasters. Perhaps this is the worst example of a woodie ever, but because it was a different experience which I'd say no steel coaster I've been on can replicate for me, I have a fond rating of it. This could quite possibly be why I've rated it highly for so long.
Finally, despite the uninspiring layout, from when you first look at it, I remember there being a small drop which you couldn't see from off ride; needless to say, it took me by surprise. Much like many coasters that use surprise drops you can't see, Antelope did have one of these. I remember talking about *that* moment after the ride, and it being the highlight of the ride. Now, I can't actually remember where exactly this was on the course, which is a shame, but at the same time, interesting.
Another thing I'd like to bring up now (and probably will mention in other entries / dedicate an entry to) is perhaps how this is an example of 'enthusiast snobbery'. Though I haven't ridden many coasters, or been to many parks, I would still consider myself as a theme park enthusiast to some respect. What that means exactly will be different to people, but to me personally, I see it as having an interest not only in riding rides and attractions, but an interest in the operations and running of them, the development of projects, manufacturing and designing rides and the quality of rides. This last point raises the issue which I perhaps worry about - rides are very subjective things; people enjoy different things and hence one person's good ride may be another's terrible ride (something which to a degree was highlighted in my previous entry about Saw), yet as an enthusiast, judging 'how good' a ride is is the norm it seems.
As I said earlier, the Coasterforce video shows a "ride...(which) looks rather poor. It's poorly paced, has an uninspiring layout and in general seems a bit weak.". These are the words of an enthusiast. However, from the eyes of the non-enthusiast child of me, it put "a huge smile on my face". Whilst I cannot pass any further judgement on the ride until I ride it again (if I ever get the chance, that is), it strikes me that as I've become more of an enthusiast, I've perhaps lost the very thing that made me an enthusiast in the first place - the innocent enjoyment of a ride. If this is the case, can I really say that all the views about The Antelope are in any way valid, or even worthwhile?
I won't leave you with a rating of the ride, due to reasons outlined above, but instead just that thought...
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