J.S217

October is behind us, taking with it potentially the biggest time of the year for events all over the country! Each year I have slowly been doing more trips relating to Halloween events and this year was no different.
Like previously, it's great to start off at Tulleys on the first Saturday of the month. Tulleys is a great, well established Halloween event and really shows where you can end up from starting with selling pumpkins (this seems to be a recurring story, more on that later!). Providing 8 haunts, 4 of which were new, one changed and 3 well knowns remaining untouched. They have such a mix, Colony which uses length, suspense, darkness, exterior and interior, just about everything. Hayride which mixes comedy with fear, Hellements which tries to be unique but is just bad, Haunted House which is a classic. Then there's probably the best conga maze going, The Cellar. Volt was different, the circus good and Chop Shop okay. But they constantly change their line up with fresh, new ideas. No story feels the same, they're all unique each year.
Following week Thorpe's preview night arrived. Roll up roll up to an event that wasn't ready in time, filled with glitches and problems all over. It did get better over the week, Big Top was less of a flop, Containment a good concept just not a lot going for it especially at £10 a go, and the other mazes just felt repetitive with jump scares and screaming. I know people talk about cheap tactics, but Thorpe is one of the worst for this with simple tactics, no stories and rushed scenes. Big Top has so much potential, MBV is always a rush, Cabin is nice but can get old quite quick, BWP is the best improvement on park and Saw Alive was pretty good this year too (or maybe the others had got worse...) Either way, Thorpe needs a huge shake up next year for Fright Nights. It's a hugely successful event, they should boom with it, let it grow, go crazy! Not do the same old stuff. A maze with a really good unique story please next year.



Park is pretty though (or should I say Stealth is).

Was finally time for Scarefest!!!!! I'd been wanting to go here for a good 8 years but had never made it. And what a year I chose to go!
Sub Species is the highlight of the Halloween season for me and I'm sure it is for many others. It pushed the limits, many different tactics of scares, suspense, great length. It was just fab in every way! Park looked great as well, Nemesis in the dark was worth the 3 hour drive alone. Scare zones were cool, Ancestors great and the kids stuff looked pretty neat too.

Perfect

Great event! Especially considering what the park is going through.
Was time to round up the Merlin trio of Halloween events, Chessington and Howloween. Urm. Right, this event used to be great in every way, magical mazes, a brilliant park atmosphere. This year though, they might as well have just let the meerkats loose, that'd been scarier. Trick Or Treat wood is just dire. So surreal, but you don't come out laughing like some bad things, you come out thinking why. Just why. Maybe laughing at the fact people are doing it. Curse of Lost tomb was well, people hated on Krypt. You ain't seen nothing then. This was shockingly bad, story was building momentum and just died. We were told it'd be a 12 minute experience, 5 at most it was. Just oh. Chessington.

Best thing about the event, this projection in the hotel lobby.
It was time to end the Halloween season, ScareCon: Aftershock based at the Broadwitch Halloween event in Broadditch. The first half of the day was talks from other scare events such as Twisted Attractions and the Screamland team. Their events look great and are definitely on the hit list for next season. Also a few independent events that just take place over the half term week in one location with maybe a maze or two. Was quite cool as lots of these were just a small group of friends with a bit of spare money.
Broadwitch started like Tulleys, selling pumpkins! That's it kids, sell some pumpkins and in 7 or so years you'll have award winning mazes. They do an event in the day for kids with two little walkthroughs, a corn maze and a tractor ride. We got to go through them all which was fun and showed an often forgotten about side of the Halloween season. But then it was time for the bigger stuff. 5 mazes, Spooky Castle which is their first like the Haunted House at Tulleys, Thirteen, Massacre, Edge which is new for this year and the SCAR award winning Biometrix. We got to go through them all bar Biometrix without actors to have a nosey at them and the sets, and Spooky Castle and Thirteen were already great in this format. Then the show lighting came on and the actors unleashed.
Spooky Castle: Great maze with many many different rooms from this castle, lots of clever effects and smells.
The Edge: Based on vampires, set in shipping containers, it utilised its tiny footprint brilliantly and there were some good scares. Theming was topnotch.
Massacre: Set in the corn field, you are in the incestous hillbilly town or something. Pretty good, different from everything else.
Thirteen: Based on 13 fears, some are quite funny like walking under ladders, a dentist room, plane crash, dirty toilets. Definitely a different take on fears, and it had some good scares but was more action based than scare based I felt.
Biometrix: This maze is like Sub Species' test subject. Very physical, very different. Just brilliant and how touch mazes should be with larger groups. Not one of us was left out.
So Broadwitch is great, only niggle is the actors are very scripted making it hard to reride without it being repetitive. They struggle to improvise and interact as we found out. Other than that a great event and great way to end the scare season!

Lots of people always go on about wanting to go to the greats of Florida for Disney and Universal. More people are able to visit DLP but there's a little place in this country that makes you feel like you're at Disney or Universal. Thing is, I couldn't quite work out which company clearly secretly owns this park. Of course, it is the one and only Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach. So let me show you why I'm not sure if it's Disney or Universal.

From the outskirts it doesn't look great. But hey, Universal don't theme their rides all the way around when they don't have too. And this path was cold along the beach so you wouldn't want to go there anyway. Think of it as a cast members rat run!

Oh yes, Splash Metal Mountain! 3 lift hills, 3 drops in a metal mountain frame!

Heck, that could even become the Universal globe on top of the structure.

Cattlepen to deal with the huge crowds!

And timed maintenance on off peak days so it can have full throughput for those busy summer days.

Argh!!!! Watch out for Jaws in Amity!

Right next to the land of Frozen! Hi there Olaf

Oh my favourite the vehicles from automobile and automobile 2! It's the finale of the the FORMULE 1 between Thunder McKing and Chuck Hicks!

Nice to see Universal using the old school Simpson characters again! You could learn a thing or two Orlando.

There was a fun house! Probably Minion related.

It's just like an inside version of Wishes or Dreams!

Disney needs to use the Mulan IP more, glad to see it being used here.

Truly a high quality ride by Disney

Surprise!

Ah Phantom Manor

Frankenstein's Monster from Beetlejuice's Graveyard Revue!

Wacky Disney kids coaster. It's like Heimlich... or maybe it is!

What's this down here

Twister! Will be a sad day when it leaves Orlando but here at Great Yarmouth it keeps going strong

As well as other Universal THRILL rides.

Monorail to get you from one place back to that place

With a Dr Seuss like tunnel.
Lunch approached so we decided to take a walk from one park to find another

It had a rollercoaster called Spook Express. Was in a mountain, had dark bits, basically space spook mountain!

So nicely themed!

And more minions!

On ride photos taken by someone with a camera. True quality!

Look at the little snail they had!

Snails love airtime! I've no idea what Disney feed them but they love it!

Clearly waiting the Puss In Boots layover for the Goose in the beanstalk.

So Farm Cruise

Watch out for the Pirates of the Yarmouth!

Zoo Cruise.

Pinocchio dark ride section with It's A Small world playing. So urm It's a small boy?

Peter Pans not flying flight

Evolution.

Like the film as you can see.

They also had a roller coaster with a flame spitting tower thing at the top (flame wasn't working)

Prehistoric Twirl.

So whilst you all scratch your heads wondering if Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach is Disney or Universal I'll leave you with some pictures of Roller Coaster




Snail Always.

Alton Towers finally happened!
SCB can tell you, we've had a countdown going for ages and finally we went, so I am no longer an AT 'virgin' as some would put it.
When it came to actually going I was nervous, as a lot of hate had been spread around about low standards and operations and the like compared with last season; however this time I once again found myself in the position I was in at CWoA, not knowing what to expect so practically being an ordinary punter.
So, day one.
We started the day at TP, as there were a few rides I wanted to compare to those at AT (namely Colossus and Smiler, Nemesis Inferno and the original Nemesis, Stealth and Rita, and yeah you get the picture). Got everything we wanted done plus a few extras within an hour and a half; bar Inferno which was already in it's full extension with only one train running... Yeah so as we wanted to get to AT at some point that day we decided it was best to not.
Arrived at Towers at around 2pm to find the car park practically empty. We definitely chose a good week to go, up North aren't on their Easter break yet, so it was mostly families and adults there, which helped a lot with both the atmosphere and the queue times for the types of rides we wanted to go on.
First thing we walked straight on to Smiler, despite the signs saying it had a 15 minute queue (still would have been good), and I really didn't get what everyone was on about it being rough. Yes I am a fan of Colossus and the fact that it's rough (even though it has gotten notably worse this season) but I will at least admit that it is rough. With Smiler, I don't know if it was the rain or that they'd done some work, but I found it as smooth as I knew Inferno to be.

Did all the big rides except Nemesis and Air, we had them on ERT the next day anyway and as I've been struggling with walking recently walking all the way over there wouldn't be great. So just to taunt SCB we took the monorail over Nemmy twice.
Found the staff all very friendly, after going round some areas multiple times (SMILER) some of them even started to recognise us, which made the atmosphere seem a lot lighter. Those staff with roles stayed in them well, and there was this one ride op on the Smiler who was pulling faces at everyone and waving through the glass.
Day two was much the same, started in Forbidden Valley and worked our way back round the park to the X-Sector, as SCB had booked a surprise lift hill walk and behind the scenes tour on the Smiler. It was awkward how they had Nemmy and Air on ERT, however two other rides over there so far out of the way that didn't open until 11. Still as we knew this we planned around it and didn't end up having to wait long.

Then it came to our behind the scenes tour. Earlier that day we had spoken to the awesome Smiler op in the bag room where he made some joke about giving him $0 for the wristband (the code on it was $0) to get our bag back. We discovered his name was Dave and as we waited for our BST we found ourselves wishing it would be him to show us around. Lo and behold a few minutes later over the tanoy came "Dave can you please go to the ride entrance" Yay!
Dave showed us around and showed that the ride staff all really know their stuff, telling us all about the ride systems and what they have to do in the winter maintenance - the amount they do is crazy. All the staff were joking around and chatting and made us feel really at ease, encouraging us to ask any questions we wanted, no matter how stupid. The other ride op Matt and a Smile Assistant called Anna took us up the lift hill and were really helpful, and then we toured the dark section of the ride down below the station learning one particular secret that SCB will go into more detail about in his blog all about the tour... It's hilarious. Watch this space, but for now here's a few photos I took...
Evening checks from the op box

The whole of the lift hill

The 'Smile' taken from the pit beneath the ride

The rest of the ride from the pit

What the inside of the dark section really looks like


Couldn't get over the view from the top of the Smiler... I think I found my next drawing project.

Come day three the Sun remembered the Earth existed and decided to come out a bit, which mean so did the people. Still AT reacted to this quickly and we hardly noticed at all. We knew Dave and Matt would be opping Oblivion so we went up to see them, and Dave called out to us over the tanoy (remembering both of our names, which was more than we expected) and had a little chat to us after. We'd found out the day before that Oblivion was his favourite ride in the world and he'd ridden it over 2,500 times! Wow. So he wanted to know how we found it and made a joke about having words with us later when we said it was a bit meh.
Went on Enterprise next and the member of staff there recognised us from the night before and asked how we'd enjoyed the lift hill which was really nice and made us feel really special, as he held the car for us to get out and everything. Saw Dave again later in the day opping Enterprise covering this guy's break, and he made some joke about it being my "16th" birthday and got all the people in the queue to sing for me, he also made some joke to SCB about if he felt sick my hood was right in front of him...
Also we felt a little adventurous, so decided to explore the Towers themselves. They were amazing and it's surprising how much you are allowed around, plus you get some brilliant views from the roof. My only problem was at the front by the exit for Hex there is a huge stained glass window that is in brilliant condition, however you can only see it from the outside which is disappointing. It would look much better from the inside; however after extensive checks every single entrance to this particular room is blocked off. So then we went back to the Smiler

Went back to Oblivion last thing to say bye to Dave and Matt and to say thanks before we went home, and Dave once again drew attention to me over the tanoy and we sang again, except this time I was 14. Typical. I do NOT look 14! He came to talk to us after and wished us a good journey back and asked us if we had any more questions, and then we went on our way.
It all just proved how much the staff make a difference, and how a few personal touches really can make your trip even if it's just them talking to you a bit before the ride, rather than ignoring you like they do at TP. Before this I hadn't been to a park that was huge on theming, as both Thorpe and Chessie have gone a bit downhill in that area recently, and the difference it made was huge. The atmosphere of each area was different and the stories were clear, unlike parks down here.
Meh, one can hope this might improve soon in these so called theme parks, but it seems recently all they've cared about is IPs and "world's first"s.
I guess we'll see.
PS, Sorry Colossus... I have a new favourite <3

Sup nerds,
Before last August I'd been to a theme park a maximum of probably 10 times.
Then in August I'm dragged on Stealth for the first time.
December I'm taken to Winter Wonderland.
January I get bought a Merlin Annual Pass for my birthday (thanks SCB!)
February I go to Thorpe Park's early opening.
And this month I dash to the proper opening day of Thorpe Park after college, narrowly missed out on a spur-of-the-moment jaunt on the London Eye, and go to Chessington' Annual Pass Preview day.
Oh and did I mention in the rest of this month I'm going to TPM's Thorpe opening meet, the opening of the I'm a Celebrity maze, and am dashing to Thorpe Park on the morning of the 31st for a last-minute go on Colossus before going up to Alton Towers for the first time for a three day break. And next month I'm going to the TPM Chessington meet.
Busy month, isn't it?
Winter Wonderland was great (expensive but great). MY impressions of travelling rides were something along the lines of Carter's Steam Fair, nothing particularly big, and NOTHING on the scale of a theme park.
Yes okay so I've never been to a travelling funfair in Europe.
Obviously what I saw completely spat on my expectations, and even though ice skating was cancelled and refunded instead I got to see my first proper circus (awesome by the way!)
Thorpe's opening in February was a bit meh. Six rides open was a bit anti-climatic but the queues were short enough to make up for it. Me and SCB managed to get a ride on every row on Stealth, and more than half of the forward-facing Swarm rows. Oh and two dodgems battles as well.
That was only half of my Valentines Day. As well as the added bonus of not having to listen to SCB going on about his withdrawal symptoms and the peak times of off-season.
Proper opening was better but there was still a lot closed. Arrived at half two, left at five, got five rides on Colossus and a few on Nemesis and some others, including one or two on X. I forgot how much I had an absolute LOVE of thumping dance music... Nah it's not that bad.
Got close to going on the London Eye during a trip to London for an important interview, until I realised I'd left my wallet (and pass) at home. Anyway the evening ended up with me and SCB walking down the Merlin South Bank at half seven in the evening, wondering where the new Shrek thingy was going and looking at all the attractions there that I hadn't yet been to. This is going to be a busy summer.
As for Chessington... Where do I start. I hadn't been for years so couldn't remember what I'd been on before and what I hadn't out of all the rides that existed last time I was there. It was a bit sad seeing how so many familiar pieces of theming I remembered had been taken down, leaving some areas looking like some of the unis I visited last year. Industrial. Not being much of a Chessington geek yet I don't know what's expected to go soon or stay a while, or what new is being bought in. So (on this occasion practically being an ordinary punter) I was left a little disappointed. Also with so many rides closed for it's supposed 'opening' and with Dragon's Fury running just as if it was open but with no people on it, it was slightly as if the park was teasing me. As were the ride boards, with several rides that were closed listed as having queues of 5 minutes. I'm not going to go on about it. People do enough of that on here.
On a more positive note, I'm so excited about Alton Towers. It's one of those parks I always wanted to visit as a child, but not having parents who had a particular interest in theme parks there wasn't really a possibility until I became old enough to get myself more mobile and go without them. Now it's actually happening I'm so excited XD
I guess I'll write again about Towers and how it goes.
Later nerds! See you at the next meet!

I went skiing this week with my Explorer unit. (yay)
now, you can stop reading there, or you can continue reading about how everything went.
Day 1.
I spent 14 hours on a train with 3 of my mates, and 16 13 year olds. It was great, because I just sat there, watched movies, and threw food at them, but also bad because they'd throw it back, continue to ask me questions about the scout leader (who was, my mum. Ergh.) and it was 14 hours, on trains, for 700 miles.
Although, in this time, we did pass through several cultural captials, the likes of Burn, Paris and London. I definitely liked the small slice of paris (the walk from Gare du nord to gare Du L'est or whatever)
Now, the best thing on the journey was learning about the new vending machines in french and swiss stations. Its utterly fabulous.
I went to buy a kinder bar, because, well, I was hungry. And then, when it went to eject the bar, it got stuck. So I was standing at this vending machine, as our train pulled in, thinking 'oh bollocks, I'm about to get yelled at'. Then I pressed the change button, and it gave me all my money back. So not only did I get my money back, I got 2 kinders, for the price of one.
My friend looked it up, and it's something to do with lasers in the bottom of the vending machine that sense whether or not an object has fallen. If it hasn't, then you'll get all your money back, rather then running off angrily to the guy in the nearest ticket booth and swearing at them because they are foreign and have no idea whats happened. Absolute logic, and customer satisfaction at 100%
We got to Kandersteg at about 9PM local time. The food we were introduced by was one of the greatest mountain dishes to say hi with, and I went to sleep almost immediately....
Day 2
To be woken up by my little brothers dodgey pop music, and slamming my head against the timber pillar above my bed.
So the first day we were fully in Switzerland, it snowed about half a foot (which is not that much in the terms of things locally, but made most of us go insane.)
We walked up and down for a bit, fell down a 5 ft ledge, and then had lunch looking down at a frozen lake where REAGA (the voluntary search and rescue swiss team) were doing hypothermia training, and it was great fun watching grown men jump into literally frozen waters.
this was followed by piste sledging. So normal sledging, you go 5 miles an hour tops on wooden scaffolding on snow that seems like it wants to bury you and glue you and never let you move. Piste sleding uses metal sleds, down flattened and icey slopes, some up to 40 degrees in steepness.
Yeah, mental. According to our guide we reached about 35km on these things.

Finally, we went curling. We were all rubbish at it and just ended up watching the ice hockey match going on next door.
Day 3.
WE FINALLY STARTED SKIING YaY.
For those of you who don't know, skiing is one of those sports I was actually good at. It's a little boast of a thing I can talk about.
My mum skied for England, and I started skiing when I was 6, and from then on skied almost every week until I was 11. Annually we did holidays to France rather then going away in the summer, and I got into the county race team at some point.
Anyway, a couple years ago I had a big crash racing and it put me off, so I turned to ski cross, where I since have had many more, and far worse crashes, but couldn't care less.

What is ski cross? I hear you mumble. It's like a slalom, where you are given a set amount of gates to go around, but the corners are banked, you are given up to 12 bumps and jumps to ski over, and you race head to head with up to 5 other people.

Aaaand I picked up my first injury, skiing into a tree
Day 4
We went skiing again..! But to a different place.
This one had a really good ski cross, so I was happy. And then it had some nice off piste too, then I twisted my leg a little bit and had to ski 'cautiously' for the rest of the day.

IN THE EVENING we had a massive snow ball fight. This was great because it meant I could pour snow down my brothers back and it be deemed okay. But then the ice started getting thrown.... Injury 3!
Day 5
OMG more skiing woaw.
I hit about 65 km on this day. Which is pretty bloody quick.

Also, there were lots of little jumpy bits so that was fun

SKI CROSS

Evening activity was cooking bananas. I hate bananas, as do one the rest of the explorers who were there, so we had a massive banana fight and then got told off a little.
DAY 6
Final Day of skiing. Nooo D:
But... SKI CROSS.
Here, have a running commentary thingy of me skiing an olyimpic quality one:
and we're off!

Round the first S bend

Round the second and he slips into 2nd place

Round the left quarter turn

Over the 1st air time hill (they exist out of coasters as well you know)

Second & third airtime hills (and into 1st!)

Double camelback and finish!

The only thing that could've made the day better was if the slalom course was open... and if I didn't tare some muscle in my knee.
How?
This:

That's what happens if you get cocky kids.
To finish off the trip, we went night tobogganing. It's super dooper fun, especially when it was as icy as it was:


So yeah my leg is in a rubber thing and I have loads of homework to catch up on.
If any of you read this, thanks for taking to the time to read something entirely not coaster related. Maybe I'll do one of those things soon.

Welcome to a bored, slightly humorous random blog post on a Sunday Evening!
*PRE-WARNING, THIS IS ALL A-BIT OF FUN, PLEASE READ THIS LIGHT HEARTED*
While watching some POV's, I was thinking about since Merlin took over, and how their four (I'm leaving Chessington out of this as they've not seen a new rollercoaster since 2004) theme parks have had rollercoaster investments in 'phases', much like the Marvel movies! Introducing, The Merlin Rollercoastermatic Universe;
There's been two main phases since Merlin's take over in (2007/08), the first one is named, hype;
The Hype Phase (2009-2011)
Saw - The Ride^ (Gerstlauer, Built in 2009) -
Labelled as 'the world's most terrifying coaster', the only terrifying thing was how many break downs it had when it opened and it's ability to stall very easily.
The hype very quickly died, when many riders found out, that this ride is really a death trap by knocking the sense out of them at the bottom of the drop.
Th13teen* (Intamin, Built in 2010) -
This rollercoaster was also labelled 'the world's most terrifying coaster', unfortunately the terror comes in the form of bad marketing, large trim breaks and the fact the only exciting element about it, was revealed on GMTV...
Raptor^* (B&M, Built in 2011) -
The only rollercoaster in this phase to live up to it's hype, Raptor was a prototype from B&M, the wing coaster, covered top to bottom in theming... it's long, it's themed, and it's a world first? What's not to love!
Krake^ (B&M, Built in 2011) -
Finally ending our hype phase, was this lovely Dive Machine that comes in the form of Krake, it was tall, looked fun, and was longer then our lovely Oblivion! The only problem?
Heide Park advertised the ride falling into the mouth of an Octopus! But when it opened, it seemed like the Octopus theming has disappeared, a public out-cry called out for this theming to be construction, and next season it was... the public gets what the public wants!
Next week, we'll discover the second phase, Unoriginal.
Key:
* - World's First
^ - Taller than 100ft

It's been a while as I've been preoccupied with a number of other things and a small write-up on BPB was at the very back of my mind, but it's finally time for a super in-depth* review or BPB. (This turned out longer than I thought because I'm bad so I have converted it into a poor blog TR, read at your peril).
Before I start I better just throw out there that I was going on rides with my cousin, who is 9, and a huge wimp- we had to convince him Valhalla was just a little water ride in a warehouse!
First ride of the day was the Big Dipper which I'm going to say was my first proper woodie (I did ride Colossus at Terra Mitica but disappointment is stopping me from counting that). The ride is filled with airtime and really lifts you off of your seat, when I went on for a second time I stood up twice and decided it really would be wise to hold onto the bars as it's advised, it's pretty insane backrow in particular! But I wouldn't recommend it if you suffer with back problems, the padded seats do help though, kind of.
We then headed over to Steeplechase which was fun but the braking at the end really launches you forward and can hurt! It threw you round a surprising amount though and I had to continually tighten up my seatbelt.
After this, I (somewhat reluctantly) headed over the Nickelodeon Land which, for what it is, is pretty good I must say. We only went on Nickelodeon Streak as that was the only ride which I wouldn't look ridiculous in or that wouldn't cripple me or make me faint *cough* Airbender *cough* and it's basically a smoother Big Dipper clone which I actually quite enjoyed in all fairness, but the fact that it is basically a bright orange (why!?!?!?!) Big Dipper clone had me scratching my head.
I then went on to Avalanche which I enjoyed mostly due to the fact it reminded me of my trips to Germany in which I would always pay a visit to the Hassenhorn Coaster and Steinwasen Park which contained a toboggan run. Not sure whether I enjoyed the ride or the nostalgia brought with it, but it was pretty great in it's own rights, not really something I would head straight for though.
We now enter the interlude in which my cousin and I were moaning at one another as he wouldn't go on any 'proper' rides (Revollution, PMBO, Infusion etc.) whilst I was refusing to re-ride things like Nickelodeon Streak or Steeplechase when there was much, much more to do. This cut a good 20 minutes out of our day (stubbornness is clearly a family trait) and my cousin went to re-ride Steeplechase alone.
We then dragged ourselves to have some lunch at Coasters. I must say I was disappointed. I liked the fact that you could see the Big Dipper station and Infusion if you sat at the right place, but the food seemed a bit extortionate for what it was. I ordered a chicken burger, expecting salad etc. within the burger- it was literally a well done breaded chicken fillet in a roll! It was okay though, the wedges were nice atleast. Trying to get a sachet of sauce with no cash on you after you have gotten your food is always fun.
I then actually went on Infusion with my Aunt's friend who kindly bought tickets so she could go on with me (she's petrified of heights so PMBO was a no-go). I started fangirling over the scale model of the ride but we kind of ended up sitting third from the back so I'll leave it at that.
Next up was Grand National which is probably one of my favourite rides now. We got to sit at the back and it was great! I'd heard you get thrown around a lot but you really do and it is so much fun! I was actually laughing the whole way round. But I think this is the ride in which I lost my phone, lol.
We then finally headed to Valhalla, now with all of the hype I'd heard and seen about this ride I was expecting to be underwhelmed as themed experiences- as much as I enjoy them and appreciate it- have never really made me think 'wow' so far... Until this ride! It was just so immersive and I could see the story and I love to be able to see stories within rides. I remember Peaj and Cameron discussing it and Peaj telling me 'it has a bit of everything' and I was a bit sceptical of this. But it literally has water, ice, snow, FIRE, a massive hammer (I didn't appreciate it at the time though ) and you really do get soaked- and I was training home the same day! But it is probably my favourite ride experience so far, and it has re-rideability and I'm sure you'd discover new things everytime, it's brilliant!
The park as a whole had so much ride interaction! Queue-wise I thought it was pretty good with the longest being probably half an hour for Avalanche which was at the entrance when we joined it (low throughput?) But I think I'd definitely visit again- to actually do PMBO and to ride Grand National and Valhalla again if anything. It'd be nice to spend a whole day there with those who actually like/share and interest in theme parks and the like, ha!
tl;dr- I like BPB, the food seemed a bit of a rip off and I'm disappointed I couldn't get on much but Valhalla etc. is great.
*this won't be 'super' or in-depth, I'll just be aimlessly rambling, probably a bit late to be telling you this now though, sorry.

Welcome to the theatre. Please take your seats, the show is about to begin!


This will definitely be the Big One.

Orchestra ready!

Water effects ready!

It's time to...

Immerse your senses in the biggest spectacular of all time!

The 4D experience with a Blackpool Tower Post Show!

It's a small world from up here. Only the most realistic effects are used within this show.

Quick the bad guys have arrived! (sorry I didn't have time to finish this set off)

Vikings are bad guys with a hatred for pirates.

A fight scene so early on you ask? The ending won't be that good so it's okay.

Take to your horses

And ride away like brave cowards.

Watch out for the flying dog though!

NOT SHAUN

Dora has finished exploring though and finally saves the day!

And all is calm in Lancashire Town Play once more.

Too quiet for Wallace and Gromit...

Streak away!

And no, this isn't a family friendly play.

Because we have the biggest big one

Impossible speed effects being used

But don't worry, we have lights

Waltzer

Pleasure!

Sorry about the lack of intervals. The show loses speed if it takes a break.

Like it's just trying to fill time

The interval would be boring anyway. Would definitely try and kill you.
Time for the sparkling dazzling all glitzing finale!

Tadah.

Here comes the staff bus to take all the alcoholics who wrote this beautiful production home.

BYE!

Come back next year or we'll come get you...

Yesterday we decided to take an important English man to a place of Lego. Mr Lego William Shakespeare. I'll hand him over to you for this report

Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind. And this hand is suspicious, but I'm not guilty.

Welcome to the very merry land of Lego. Let's not read that rubbish book though, lets read a few of my plays.

This life, which had been the tomb of his virtue and of his honour, is but a walking shadow.

Certainly a big walking shadow!

Look mum it's Darth Vader!

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? He's right next to you! It's like they've never seen the play.

OMG it's a train! Like a real train!

Though shall not ask.

Or pass.

My hair's bad in this one

How'd I get up here?

I'm full of words. You don't want to eat me.

If food be the food of food, eat on!

Oh hi there

I'm safe here... right? Don't want me dying for a second time!

His colour choice is amazing.

Do you think he's seen me? Hope not

RUN! (Look at that blur... so much speed!)

They'll never find me here.

Or here.

Definitely won't expect me here!

I settled in to my hotel room and got it ready for my new girl.

The course of true love never did run smooth. Especially not in Legoland.
Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.

Next month, Universal Studios Florida introduce their 'Diagon Alley' expansion to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It sees the headline attraction 'Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts', the Hogwarts Express, as well as numerous shops from the Harry Potter universe.
As to be expected, everyone is excited about the development. However, why should we be so excited? We've got a newly opened area which is much better than Diagon Alley ever could be - Angry Birds Land at Thorpe Park! Travelling all the way to America seems pointless when most of us on this forum can pop down to Thorpe in under a couple of hours to enjoy the delightful Angry Birds Land.
First of all, let's look at the rides and attractions in each area. Angry Birds Land has a 115ft drop tower, perfect for thrill seekers, some fun dodgems, which are perfect for everyone, and a 4D cinema experience, which again is perfect for everyone. So, here, we have a land which caters for all ages - we have a ride which is solely dedicated for a thrill audience.
As far as thrill rides go, Detonator: Bombs Away! is as thrilling as you can get; there's not many better drop towers around after all. Then there's a good set of dodgems. Okay, so dodgems aren't anything special, you can find them anywhere. But people like dodgems, and if people like something, you give it to them! Finally, the 4D experience is clearly something that's been designed for a younger audience, yet it works for everyone. What's most surprising about it is how immersive the attraction felt - it's a film about a set of cartoon birds, who don't speak, trying to get the precious eggs back from some bad pigs. Yet you feel a part of the film, you can create emotional bonds with the birds, and you feel like you're there with them. For a cartoon, that's pretty darn impressive.
Now, Diagon Alley. We have a headline attraction being ride about escaping from a bank. Escaping...from a bank. Just let that sink in for a moment. And this will have loads of goblins scattered about. Not gonna lie, those goblins looked pretty hideous in the films, I imagine they'll look even more hideous in real life. Not exactly a family-friendly thing to have is it? Especially considering this is already a ride about escaping from a bank that you've broken into (great moral values there!). Now, this ride is apparently some epic dark ride/coaster combo. These types of rides are always risks, since some people's expectations can really shape how they react to the ride. Expect a coaster, you may be left unthrilled. Expect a dark ride, you may be left unimmersed. It's a really, really big risk.
Then you've got a train ride linking two parks together. Now, it will of course be more like a 4D experience, and this all sounds well and good. But it's not going to be easy to create a 4D experience about a franchise which already has so much going for it; very difficult to create an emotional link to the story. I have so many concerns.
Then there's also theming. Okay, Angry Birds Land's theming isn't the greatest, and there's room for more. However, let's step back and look at what Diagon Alley's theming will entail. Firstly, there's a dragon that breaths fire. Fantastic. That's better than anything at Angry Birds Land. However, this dragon doesn't move, from the looks of it at least. Talk about unrealistic! What's the point in having a creature for theming if it doesn't move. You're meant to be in a world where a dragon has just escaped; it's not gonna stand still, lording it over everyone else puffing some fire occasionally. It's going to move.
Angry Birds Land's theming at least makes sense; you're in a snapshot of a game, where some birds have just been catapulted, others are about to be, and so forth. It makes perfect sense to the story. Diagon Alley's dragon does not. Then there's all the shop fronts. They're shop fronts from shops in a back alley in London. Where's the excitement in that? The transportation to a whole new world? You can't get that here. It's basically just like walking down a part of London with shops you've never seen before (which isn't exactly difficult). Poor theming really; it's taken realism a step too far.
There's other things as well. Harry Potter is an outdated IP. The last book was released 7 years ago. The last film 3 years ago. Even if it's still popular, and there's a spin off film series on the way, the main Harry Potter IP is outdated. It's got little more than nostalgia now. It's time to let go. Take away the nostalgia and all we have is a kid's story that finished many years ago, and whilst still memorable, should be left alone, instead of picked away until its dignity has gone away. Angry Birds is about to get its second wave of popularity. There's a major film to be released in 2016. Mobile gaming is still huge, and a new game could easily make it to the top in 24 hours. Now that's a popular and current IP for you.
I think that's all I need to get my point across. Harry Potter is an outdated IP, and Diagon Alley is shaping up to be an overhyped dark ride that teaches bad moral values and a 4D experience which could go really well or really badly. Perhaps not the best family area. Angry Birds, however, is a current, popular, IP, with Angry Birds Land having a quality 4D experience and rides for everyone, which everyone will enjoy. It also teaches good moral values (don't steal, fight for what you believe in, yadda yadda yadda). If that's not quality, I don't know what is.
So save your money. Avoid Diagon Alley. Save yourself the disappointment. Take a trip down to Thorpe Park and bask in the greatness that is Angry Birds Land, and smile to yourself that you're in a better place than some hocus pocus area set about robbing a bank. You deserve it.

In 2012, I was assigned to write a feature for Colossus's tenth birthday. The article itself was my best work if I don't say so myself. It was my intention that I would be able to do a similar piece when it came to 2003's blisteringly hot but underwhelmingly* tepid Nemesis Inferno in 2013. But this did not happen. No matter what I wrote, constructed or thought about, inspiration abandoned me and I just couldn't put together a piece that would do Inferno justice. And the problem comes down to one sticking point;
There is just nothing special about Nemesis Inferno.

Nemesis Inferno, distinctly middle of the road.
But worry not fellow Thorpe fanboys and coaster nerds for the story doesn't end there. It is for that reason that for me, Nemesis Inferno is one of Thorpe's very best roller coasters and one that I get the most pleasure out of riding during a visit. Let me tell you a tale about a ride that was hyped to the max, but could never reach those lofty heights.
Back in 2002, Colossus had done unexpected things for Thorpe, it's visitor numbers rising and rising and the construction of a brand new Inverter would have been a spectacular thing indeed for English enthusiasts. Remember, we are talking about a time when Nemesis most definitely ruled the roost in the UK and unless you were up for travelling to America, Italy or Spain, chances are it was your only shot. The hype surrounding Inferno was definitely something different, particularly when it was associated with the Nemesis name. I can remember at the time, discussion on Inferno's finale helixes being discussed as potentially as intense as Nemesis's helix after its first inversion. Talk about building the hype.

Of course, come April 2003, Inferno opens and it isn't quite as good as it's predecessor. My favourite description at the time was a ride on Inferno's front row was not as intense as a ride on the Happy Halibuts of Octopus Garden. Talk about damning a product.
At the time, with only Colossus complimenting Inferno, it came under harsher criticism then it probably deserved. With only two major roller coasters** to keep customers happy, Inferno came under the limelight in a way that many rides do not. After all, inverters had really boomed in the 90's with the Batman clones being installed all across America and rides that dominated their respected parks like Katun, Montu and Alpengeist. By 2003, with new types of rides starting to dominate such as sky hogging mega coasters and Intamin's brand new launch technology breaking record after record it's easy to see why Inferno was not enough and why Inferno could actually be seen as a bit, old hat.

This is all hindsight of course. With the addition of Stealth, Saw: The Ride and The Swarm, things have increasingly changed at Thorpe and of course, so has Nemesis Inferno. As higher, faster and more attention grabbing rides have been added, Inferno has become more of a support roller coaster. When everything else goes to hell in a hand basket, Inferno is the old reliable. Always the ride with minimal queues, always the ride that eats through queues like it's going out of fashion and always the ride that delivers a smooth, intense experience. Never really pushing its customers too far but always delivering its promise of an enjoyable and satisfying ride. I know there are those that will disagree. A B&M inverter should be the absolute pinnacle of intensity, nothing should be considered more when riding this ride type. If that is the promise then Inferno doesn't deliver. Luckily, just up the M1 and left a bit is another roller coaster that does fulfil the necessary criteria.

At Thorpe however is a ride built on the tail end of a coaster boom, one that is loved by a small but vocal minority. And for me personally, it holds some very special memories. It was my very first B&M and by default my first B&M inverter, it was the first ride that I really followed construction of and I know full well that it is my most ridden ride thanks to many Single rider sessions in 2004.
More then most then, I can say that Inferno is an average ride at best. But even average is better then the majority of roller coasters out there. And that's good enough for me.
Thanks for reading, Mark9

*I made up a word just for this review. Now that is dedication for you
**I know people will say X:/ No Way Out was a major roller coaster. it just isn't OKAY!

On the 27th of July
I spent 12 - 13 hours at the "Nations Thrill Capital" I arrived at the park 9:00am since my train's getting to Stains were Early (about 40 minutes early) so I waited till 10:15 for the Brilliant Cornflakes to arrive then we entered the park. The first ride we went on was Rush because it was on the way to Colossus and Rush often gets around a 30-40 min queue in mid day. Rush is fantastic in the morning with 5 High swings we both said that it was the best cycle of Rush we have ever had. Then we headed for Colossus which to our surprise was on 2 train operation before 11:00 We had a rather smooth run On Colossus with not much Headbanging After our nice smooth run on "The Power of 10" we headed over to "Brave the Mighty Warrior" Samurai which was running brilliantly although it was taking around a Minute to Zero but the Setting was fantastic the best I have seen it run all year Followed we headed over to Loggers Leap which was closed but we saw a Engineer riding it and he said "it should be opening shortly" so we went off to the drink refill place so Cornflakes could fill his Reusable bottle right after he got his refill we headed over to Saw The Ride this was around 11:15-30 so there was a 30 minute queue which seemed much shorter because all 8 Cars were in operation so I believe we queued around 15 minutes we had quite a smooth ride which was nice. After our Smoothish run we headed for the good old Logflume which had reopened It was Loggers leap so a very enjoyable wet ride Stealth was next and Styles was batching (who we will meet later) we queued 15 minutes for it which was brilliant so we did it twice then it was time for lunch so we headed back over to Canada creek to eat at Calypso BBQ then at 1:00 we were joined by Scarycoasterboy. With all the day group here we headed over to X where we waited 30 mins because they were putting on a 3rd train then when we got on it was not the best experience On X I have had ( best one I have had was when all lasers were off the room was full of fog and only Strobe lights where used) Time to Brave it Backwards we queued around 30 mins for it sadly though my ride on it seemed very bumpy and hurt my back but The Swarm Redeemed it's self at night. Wait this is not time travel back to the present . after our go on the Swarm Cornflakes and Scarycoasterboy wanted to refill fill there Capsule< that is what it is called at the roast and relish which I think is the best place to fill up the capsule because it is a do it your self type thing It was time to Fly on the Fish where we got 4 cycles it was around 2-3 pm now so it was very hot so what did we do we stood in the Tidal wave Splash zone to cool off We wandered the park now till we ended up back at Stealth and at this time the queue was even shorter so what did we do we done it 2 times of course then at this time it was round 4:30 so we had 90 minutes till the park closed so we done a mini Detonator Marathon about 3 times in a row then we headed for Inferno which was walk on so we waited for the front then after our ride we noticed the station was empty so we headed for the back row and went round again . (Forgot to mention while we were on Detonator we noticed Rumba Rapids had reopened ) so after our 2 goes on Inferno we went on Rumba for a nice relaxing ride to close out our day we left the park at 5:45 so we would be first inline to collect our summer nights tickets which we were so now it was time for the waiting game. till Styles joined us then just after 7pm the gates opened for Summer nighters. the 3 of us ( we were still waiting for Styles) headed over to Colossus and when we got to Colossus it started to rain so it was delayed but to our delight Saw The ride had people already on it so that is where we went now joined by styles so we took our ride the first ride the car was going pain fully slow up the lift hill like it was going to break down....... but luckily we made it over the crest of the drop and it was again lovely and smooth so when the car arrived back in the station we got off , went straight back on this car was super it glided around the indoor section like it was a knife slicing warm butter. I was really looking forward to the rest of the ride then we came to the lift hill.... the car in front was not moving then we stopped so we had 40mins of being stationary in the poring rain so my jeans where absolutely soaking but the very kind ride attendants gave us complimentary Towels and ponchos to stop us from getting wet and a complimentary Hot drink. Which was ever so kind of them so we had to have our car pushed backwards off the transfer track so there was room for a ladder to get us off after a few minutes we were off and taken into the maintenance Shed which was another added Bonus because we could see all the diagrams of the wheel structures and the wheel assemblies and the cars which when under them they look huge. After our little excitement we retrieved our belongings and headed over to Colossus what a ride on Colossus so smooth and running brilliantly in the rain so we just stayed on for another go it was Time for X mainly to Warm up so we dived through Tunnels of light 3 times each ride was brilliant then it was time to Brave the Inferno after about 11 hours of it running so we stayed on the back row for all 3 cycles which was Super after our rather Intense Rides on Inferno we headed over to Stealth 3 Exhilarating times Stealth is a must do in the Dark as with Her neighbor The Swarm Oh yes The Swarm was next after entering the Station for The Swarm we noticed it was half full so we ended up doing it an astounding 6 times over and over once which was the front and another time was backwards the Reason the Swarm is so fantastic at night was because the Fire effects go off at every 3 Cycles which gives the billboard a fantastic look after our 6 Times on the Swarm it was time to head back home It was a fantastic day and night and with the rain the lovely people at thorpe park were saying if you keep hold of your ticket you will be able to visit Summer nights again for free which I did :D
3rd of August
After chatting with Han30 who was going to Summer nights with Mr Fish I asked if I could come along to since I had my free ticket so I was picked up by Mr fish from my house and before hitting the park we headed for The Harvester to have a meal before I just had seasoned fries and the refillable pepsi the fries were lovely and filling then we headed to Thorpe after arriving at around 6:00 we went inline to collect our summer nights tickets in which I just handed over last weeks ticket and they replaced it so there was no faf then we met up with Marc but while Me Fish and Han were in the line Marc waited because he was meeting his friend. so the gates opened just after 7pm so we headed for Saw we waited for 15 mins and it turned out it had broken down while we where in the queue we Said hi to Peaj,Michelle and Jay then we headed for Inferno which seemed to be the only ride working so we got in the station and it was a lot more busy than last week but was terribly busy so we got on the Back row got back in the station and stayed on again( It did not really have that pop it usually does but that changed later on in the night ) which was brilliant then we got off because we saw Saw was back in operation so we headed over . We got straight on the front of row one then it was rather smooth and enjoyable it had so much airtime on the camel back and indoor drop so we got off and went back on and while waiting for our second go we met up with Phill Pritchard ,Dan9 ,Mark9 Marc, Marc's Friend and TobyNBZ then after Our two times on Saw we headed for Colossus in which we waited a few minutes for a rather enjoyable run on Colossus then we headed over to X which was walk on so we had a take over ( this time with just lasers which was brilliant) Thanks Marc then after X we then did Storm Surge. Which was quite fun because the ride Attendants had Water guns and was getting riders drenched before even getting on board.
When we were on we had the lovely 1 Hour lift hill massage before having quite a decent run on Storm surge with quite a lot of spinning which was good but then we waited for another hour to get back to the platform and during our waiting we Saw Peaj again with Jay and Michelle and finally when we got back to the platform we headed over to Stealth (Stealth in the Dark is brilliant ) then a few of us had the crazy idea of doing Tidal wave after and those Crazy people were Me Marc Mark9 and Dan9 the first time round it was not that bad but Phill and Toby were waiting by the water cannons and got us soaked then the ride attendant said that our bars could not go up so we had to go round again this time I got drenched from Head to Toe. "After them Fixing the bars" we got off and met up with the rest of the group then Han and Fish went Off to the Swarm while me and the Others Headed for Inferno. This time it was running fantastic 3 times in a row we did it each time it was brilliant then I headed over to meet Han and Fish at the Swarm in which I got to ride it with Han then after our ride on the Swarm we had 25mins left till 10:30,
so Me Han and Fish ran to Saw and had 4 brilliant rides on it lots of airtime and just very smooth then after our final ride we all went to Bar 360 to have a little bit of Social time and Some drinks with every one
Over my two trips to Summer Nights Were Super I really hope it becomes a Yearly tradition and A huge Thank you to MR Fish for giving me a lift there and back it was fantastic and it was lovely seeing every one Thank you for reading
I promise that is it.
Jack Stevens
I hope it is easy to read my grammar is rather appalling

Source: Fright Nights 2013

On the 27th of July
I spent 12 - 13 hours at the "Nations Thrill Capital" I arrived at the park 9:00am since my train's getting to Stains were Early (about 40 minutes early) so I waited till 10:15 for the Brilliant Cornflakes to arrive then we entered the park. The first ride we went on was Rush because it was on the way to Colossus and Rush often gets around a 30-40 min queue in mid day. Rush is fantastic in the morning with 5 High swings we both said that it was the best cycle of Rush we have ever had. Then we headed for Colossus which to our surprise was on 2 train operation before 11:00 We had a rather smooth run On Colossus with not much Headbanging After our nice smooth run on "The Power of 10" we headed over to "Brave the Mighty Warrior" Samurai which was running brilliantly although it was taking around a Minute to Zero but the Setting was fantastic the best I have seen it run all year Followed we headed over to Loggers Leap which was closed but we saw a Engineer riding it and he said "it should be opening shortly" so we went off to the drink refill place so Cornflakes could fill his Reusable bottle right after he got his refill we headed over to Saw The Ride this was around 11:15-30 so there was a 30 minute queue which seemed much shorter because all 8 Cars were in operation so I believe we queued around 15 minutes we had quite a smooth ride which was nice. After our Smoothish run we headed for the good old Logflume which had reopened It was Loggers leap so a very enjoyable wet ride Stealth was next and Styles was batching (who we will meet later) we queued 15 minutes for it which was brilliant so we did it twice then it was time for lunch so we headed back over to Canada creek to eat at Calypso BBQ then at 1:00 we were joined by Scarycoasterboy. With all the day group here we headed over to X where we waited 30 mins because they were putting on a 3rd train then when we got on it was not the best experience On X I have had ( best one I have had was when all lasers were off the room was full of fog and only Strobe lights where used) Time to Brave it Backwards we queued around 30 mins for it sadly though my ride on it seemed very bumpy and hurt my back but The Swarm Redeemed it's self at night. Wait this is not time travel back to the present . after our go on the Swarm Cornflakes and Scarycoasterboy wanted to refill fill there Capsule< that is what it is called at the roast and relish which I think is the best place to fill up the capsule because it is a do it your self type thing It was time to Fly on the Fish where we got 4 cycles it was around 2-3 pm now so it was very hot so what did we do we stood in the Tidal wave Splash zone to cool off We wandered the park now till we ended up back at Stealth and at this time the queue was even shorter so what did we do we done it 2 times of course then at this time it was round 4:30 so we had 90 minutes till the park closed so we done a mini Detonator Marathon about 3 times in a row then we headed for Inferno which was walk on so we waited for the front then after our ride we noticed the station was empty so we headed for the back row and went round again . (Forgot to mention while we were on Detonator we noticed Rumba Rapids had reopened ) so after our 2 goes on Inferno we went on Rumba for a nice relaxing ride to close out our day we left the park at 5:45 so we would be first inline to collect our summer nights tickets which we were so now it was time for the waiting game. till Styles joined us then just after 7pm the gates opened for Summer nighters. the 3 of us ( we were still waiting for Styles) headed over to Colossus and when we got to Colossus it started to rain so it was delayed but to our delight Saw The ride had people already on it so that is where we went now joined by styles so we took our ride the first ride the car was going pain fully slow up the lift hill like it was going to break down....... but luckily we made it over the crest of the drop and it was again lovely and smooth so when the car arrived back in the station we got off , went straight back on this car was super it glided around the indoor section like it was a knife slicing warm butter. I was really looking forward to the rest of the ride then we came to the lift hill.... the car in front was not moving then we stopped so we had 40mins of being stationary in the poring rain so my jeans where absolutely soaking but the very kind ride attendants gave us complimentary Towels and ponchos to stop us from getting wet and a complimentary Hot drink. Which was ever so kind of them so we had to have our car pushed backwards off the transfer track so there was room for a ladder to get us off after a few minutes we were off and taken into the maintenance Shed which was another added Bonus because we could see all the diagrams of the wheel structures and the wheel assemblies and the cars which when under them they look huge. After our little excitement we retrieved our belongings and headed over to Colossus what a ride on Colossus so smooth and running brilliantly in the rain so we just stayed on for another go it was Time for X mainly to Warm up so we dived through Tunnels of light 3 times each ride was brilliant then it was time to Brave the Inferno after about 11 hours of it running so we stayed on the back row for all 3 cycles which was Super after our rather Intense Rides on Inferno we headed over to Stealth 3 Exhilarating times Stealth is a must do in the Dark as with Her neighbor The Swarm Oh yes The Swarm was next after entering the Station for The Swarm we noticed it was half full so we ended up doing it an astounding 6 times over and over once which was the front and another time was backwards the Reason the Swarm is so fantastic at night was because the Fire effects go off at every 3 Cycles which gives the billboard a fantastic look after our 6 Times on the Swarm it was time to head back home It was a fantastic day and night and with the rain the lovely people at thorpe park were saying if you keep hold of your ticket you will be able to visit Summer nights again for free which I did :D
3rd of August
After chatting with Han30 who was going to Summer nights with Mr Fish I asked if I could come along to since I had my free ticket so I was picked up by Mr fish from my house and before hitting the park we headed for The Harvester to have a meal before I just had seasoned fries and the refillable pepsi the fries were lovely and filling then we headed to Thorpe after arriving at around 6:00 we went inline to collect our summer nights tickets in which I just handed over last weeks ticket and they replaced it so there was no faf then we met up with Marc but while Me Fish and Han were in the line Marc waited because he was meeting his friend. so the gates opened just after 7pm so we headed for Saw we waited for 15 mins and it turned out it had broken down while we where in the queue we Said hi to Peaj,Michelle and Jay then we headed for Inferno which seemed to be the only ride working so we got in the station and it was a lot more busy than last week but was terribly busy so we got on the Back row got back in the station and stayed on again( It did not really have that pop it usually does but that changed later on in the night ) which was brilliant then we got off because we saw Saw was back in operation so we headed over . We got straight on the front of row one then it was rather smooth and enjoyable it had so much airtime on the camel back and indoor drop so we got off and went back on and while waiting for our second go we met up with Phill Pritchard ,Dan9 ,Mark9 Marc, Marc's Friend and TobyNBZ then after Our two times on Saw we headed for Colossus in which we waited a few minutes for a rather enjoyable run on Colossus then we headed over to X which was walk on so we had a take over ( this time with just lasers which was brilliant) Thanks Marc then after X we then did Storm Surge. Which was quite fun because the ride Attendants had Water guns and was getting riders drenched before even getting on board.
When we were on we had the lovely 1 Hour lift hill massage before having quite a decent run on Storm surge with quite a lot of spinning which was good but then we waited for another hour to get back to the platform and during our waiting we Saw Peaj again with Jay and Michelle and finally when we got back to the platform we headed over to Stealth (Stealth in the Dark is brilliant ) then a few of us had the crazy idea of doing Tidal wave after and those Crazy people were Me Marc Mark9 and Dan9 the first time round it was not that bad but Phill and Toby were waiting by the water cannons and got us soaked then the ride attendant said that our bars could not go up so we had to go round again this time I got drenched from Head to Toe. "After them Fixing the bars" we got off and met up with the rest of the group then Han and Fish went Off to the Swarm while me and the Others Headed for Inferno. This time it was running fantastic 3 times in a row we did it each time it was brilliant then I headed over to meet Han and Fish at the Swarm in which I got to ride it with Han then after our ride on the Swarm we had 25mins left till 10:30,
so Me Han and Fish ran to Saw and had 4 brilliant rides on it lots of airtime and just very smooth then after our final ride we all went to Bar 360 to have a little bit of Social time and Some drinks with every one
Over my two trips to Summer Nights Were Super I really hope it becomes a Yearly tradition and A huge Thank you to MR Fish for giving me a lift there and back it was fantastic and it was lovely seeing every one Thank you for reading
I promise that is it.
Jack Stevens
I hope it is easy to read my grammar is rather appalling

On the 27th of July
I spent 12 - 13 hours at the "Nations Thrill Capital" I arrived at the park 9:00am since my train's getting to Stains were Early (about 40 minutes early) so I waited till 10:15 for the Brilliant Cornflakes to arrive then we entered the park. The first ride we went on was Rush because it was on the way to Colossus and Rush often gets around a 30-40 min queue in mid day. Rush is fantastic in the morning with 5 High swings we both said that it was the best cycle of Rush we have ever had. Then we headed for Colossus which to our surprise was on 2 train operation before 11:00 We had a rather smooth run On Colossus with not much Headbanging After our nice smooth run on "The Power of 10" we headed over to "Brave the Mighty Warrior" Samurai which was running brilliantly although it was taking around a Minute to Zero but the Setting was fantastic the best I have seen it run all year Followed we headed over to Loggers Leap which was closed but we saw a Engineer riding it and he said "it should be opening shortly" so we went off to the drink refill place so Cornflakes could fill his Reusable bottle right after he got his refill we headed over to Saw The Ride this was around 11:15-30 so there was a 30 minute queue which seemed much shorter because all 8 Cars were in operation so I believe we queued around 15 minutes we had quite a smooth ride which was nice. After our Smoothish run we headed for the good old Logflume which had reopened It was Loggers leap so a very enjoyable wet ride Stealth was next and Styles was batching (who we will meet later) we queued 15 minutes for it which was brilliant so we did it twice then it was time for lunch so we headed back over to Canada creek to eat at Calypso BBQ then at 1:00 we were joined by Scarycoasterboy. With all the day group here we headed over to X where we waited 30 mins because they were putting on a 3rd train then when we got on it was not the best experience On X I have had ( best one I have had was when all lasers were off the room was full of fog and only Strobe lights where used) Time to Brave it Backwards we queued around 30 mins for it sadly though my ride on it seemed very bumpy and hurt my back but The Swarm Redeemed it's self at night. Wait this is not time travel back to the present . after our go on the Swarm Cornflakes and Scarycoasterboy wanted to refill fill there Capsule< that is what it is called at the roast and relish which I think is the best place to fill up the capsule because it is a do it your self type thing It was time to Fly on the Fish where we got 4 cycles it was around 2-3 pm now so it was very hot so what did we do we stood in the Tidal wave Splash zone to cool off We wandered the park now till we ended up back at Stealth and at this time the queue was even shorter so what did we do we done it 2 times of course then at this time it was round 4:30 so we had 90 minutes till the park closed so we done a mini Detonator Marathon about 3 times in a row then we headed for Inferno which was walk on so we waited for the front then after our ride we noticed the station was empty so we headed for the back row and went round again . (Forgot to mention while we were on Detonator we noticed Rumba Rapids had reopened ) so after our 2 goes on Inferno we went on Rumba for a nice relaxing ride to close out our day we left the park at 5:45 so we would be first inline to collect our summer nights tickets which we were so now it was time for the waiting game. till Styles joined us then just after 7pm the gates opened for Summer nighters. the 3 of us ( we were still waiting for Styles) headed over to Colossus and when we got to Colossus it started to rain so it was delayed but to our delight Saw The ride had people already on it so that is where we went now joined by styles so we took our ride the first ride the car was going pain fully slow up the lift hill like it was going to break down....... but luckily we made it over the crest of the drop and it was again lovely and smooth so when the car arrived back in the station we got off , went straight back on this car was super it glided around the indoor section like it was a knife slicing warm butter. I was really looking forward to the rest of the ride then we came to the lift hill.... the car in front was not moving then we stopped so we had 40mins of being stationary in the poring rain so my jeans where absolutely soaking but the very kind ride attendants gave us complimentary Towels and ponchos to stop us from getting wet and a complimentary Hot drink. Which was ever so kind of them so we had to have our car pushed backwards off the transfer track so there was room for a ladder to get us off after a few minutes we were off and taken into the maintenance Shed which was another added Bonus because we could see all the diagrams of the wheel structures and the wheel assemblies and the cars which when under them they look huge. After our little excitement we retrieved our belongings and headed over to Colossus what a ride on Colossus so smooth and running brilliantly in the rain so we just stayed on for another go it was Time for X mainly to Warm up so we dived through Tunnels of light 3 times each ride was brilliant then it was time to Brave the Inferno after about 11 hours of it running so we stayed on the back row for all 3 cycles which was Super after our rather Intense Rides on Inferno we headed over to Stealth 3 Exhilarating times Stealth is a must do in the Dark as with Her neighbor The Swarm Oh yes The Swarm was next after entering the Station for The Swarm we noticed it was half full so we ended up doing it an astounding 6 times over and over once which was the front and another time was backwards the Reason the Swarm is so fantastic at night was because the Fire effects go off at every 3 Cycles which gives the billboard a fantastic look after our 6 Times on the Swarm it was time to head back home It was a fantastic day and night and with the rain the lovely people at thorpe park were saying if you keep hold of your ticket you will be able to visit Summer nights again for free which I did :D
3rd of August
After chatting with Han30 who was going to Summer nights with Mr Fish I asked if I could come along to since I had my free ticket so I was picked up by Mr fish from my house and before hitting the park we headed for The Harvester to have a meal before I just had seasoned fries and the refillable pepsi the fries were lovely and filling then we headed to Thorpe after arriving at around 6:00 we went inline to collect our summer nights tickets in which I just handed over last weeks ticket and they replaced it so there was no faf then we met up with Marc but while Me Fish and Han were in the line Marc waited because he was meeting his friend. so the gates opened just after 7pm so we headed for Saw we waited for 15 mins and it turned out it had broken down while we where in the queue we Said hi to Peaj,Michelle and Jay then we headed for Inferno which seemed to be the only ride working so we got in the station and it was a lot more busy than last week but was terribly busy so we got on the Back row got back in the station and stayed on again( It did not really have that pop it usually does but that changed later on in the night ) which was brilliant then we got off because we saw Saw was back in operation so we headed over . We got straight on the front of row one then it was rather smooth and enjoyable it had so much airtime on the camel back and indoor drop so we got off and went back on and while waiting for our second go we met up with Phill Pritchard ,Dan9 ,Mark9 Marc, Marc's Friend and TobyNBZ then after Our two times on Saw we headed for Colossus in which we waited a few minutes for a rather enjoyable run on Colossus then we headed over to X which was walk on so we had a take over ( this time with just lasers which was brilliant) Thanks Marc then after X we then did Storm Surge. Which was quite fun because the ride Attendants had Water guns and was getting riders drenched before even getting on board.
When we were on we had the lovely 1 Hour lift hill massage before having quite a decent run on Storm surge with quite a lot of spinning which was good but then we waited for another hour to get back to the platform and during our waiting we Saw Peaj again with Jay and Michelle and finally when we got back to the platform we headed over to Stealth (Stealth in the Dark is brilliant ) then a few of us had the crazy idea of doing Tidal wave after and those Crazy people were Me Marc Mark9 and Dan9 the first time round it was not that bad but Phill and Toby were waiting by the water cannons and got us soaked then the ride attendant said that our bars could not go up so we had to go round again this time I got drenched from Head to Toe. "After them Fixing the bars" we got off and met up with the rest of the group then Han and Fish went Off to the Swarm while me and the Others Headed for Inferno. This time it was running fantastic 3 times in a row we did it each time it was brilliant then I headed over to meet Han and Fish at the Swarm in which I got to ride it with Han then after our ride on the Swarm we had 25mins left till 10:30,
so Me Han and Fish ran to Saw and had 4 brilliant rides on it lots of airtime and just very smooth then after our final ride we all went to Bar 360 to have a little bit of Social time and Some drinks with every one
Over my two trips to Summer Nights Were Super I really hope it becomes a Yearly tradition and A huge Thank you to MR Fish for giving me a lift there and back it was fantastic and it was lovely seeing every one Thank you for reading
I promise that is it.
Jack Stevens
I hope it is easy to read my grammar is rather appalling

On the 27th of July
I spent 12 - 13 hours at the "Nations Thrill Capital" I arrived at the park 9:00am since my train's getting to Stains were Early (about 40 minutes early) so I waited till 10:15 for the Brilliant Cornflakes to arrive then we entered the park. The first ride we went on was Rush because it was on the way to Colossus and Rush often gets around a 30-40 min queue in mid day. Rush is fantastic in the morning with 5 High swings we both said that it was the best cycle of Rush we have ever had. Then we headed for Colossus which to our surprise was on 2 train operation before 11:00 We had a rather smooth run On Colossus with not much Headbanging After our nice smooth run on "The Power of 10" we headed over to "Brave the Mighty Warrior" Samurai which was running brilliantly although it was taking around a Minute to Zero but the Setting was fantastic the best I have seen it run all year Followed we headed over to Loggers Leap which was closed but we saw a Engineer riding it and he said "it should be opening shortly" so we went off to the drink refill place so Cornflakes could fill his Reusable bottle right after he got his refill we headed over to Saw The Ride this was around 11:15-30 so there was a 30 minute queue which seemed much shorter because all 8 Cars were in operation so I believe we queued around 15 minutes we had quite a smooth ride which was nice. After our Smoothish run we headed for the good old Logflume which had reopened It was Loggers leap so a very enjoyable wet ride Stealth was next and Styles was batching (who we will meet later) we queued 15 minutes for it which was brilliant so we did it twice then it was time for lunch so we headed back over to Canada creek to eat at Calypso BBQ then at 1:00 we were joined by Scarycoasterboy. With all the day group here we headed over to X where we waited 30 mins because they were putting on a 3rd train then when we got on it was not the best experience On X I have had ( best one I have had was when all lasers were off the room was full of fog and only Strobe lights where used) Time to Brave it Backwards we queued around 30 mins for it sadly though my ride on it seemed very bumpy and hurt my back but The Swarm Redeemed it's self at night. Wait this is not time travel back to the present . after our go on the Swarm Cornflakes and Scarycoasterboy wanted to refill fill there Capsule< that is what it is called at the roast and relish which I think is the best place to fill up the capsule because it is a do it your self type thing It was time to Fly on the Fish where we got 4 cycles it was around 2-3 pm now so it was very hot so what did we do we stood in the Tidal wave Splash zone to cool off We wandered the park now till we ended up back at Stealth and at this time the queue was even shorter so what did we do we done it 2 times of course then at this time it was round 4:30 so we had 90 minutes till the park closed so we done a mini Detonator Marathon about 3 times in a row then we headed for Inferno which was walk on so we waited for the front then after our ride we noticed the station was empty so we headed for the back row and went round again . (Forgot to mention while we were on Detonator we noticed Rumba Rapids had reopened ) so after our 2 goes on Inferno we went on Rumba for a nice relaxing ride to close out our day we left the park at 5:45 so we would be first inline to collect our summer nights tickets which we were so now it was time for the waiting game. till Styles joined us then just after 7pm the gates opened for Summer nighters. the 3 of us ( we were still waiting for Styles) headed over to Colossus and when we got to Colossus it started to rain so it was delayed but to our delight Saw The ride had people already on it so that is where we went now joined by styles so we took our ride the first ride the car was going pain fully slow up the lift hill like it was going to break down....... but luckily we made it over the crest of the drop and it was again lovely and smooth so when the car arrived back in the station we got off , went straight back on this car was super it glided around the indoor section like it was a knife slicing warm butter. I was really looking forward to the rest of the ride then we came to the lift hill.... the car in front was not moving then we stopped so we had 40mins of being stationary in the poring rain so my jeans where absolutely soaking but the very kind ride attendants gave us complimentary Towels and ponchos to stop us from getting wet and a complimentary Hot drink. Which was ever so kind of them so we had to have our car pushed backwards off the transfer track so there was room for a ladder to get us off after a few minutes we were off and taken into the maintenance Shed which was another added Bonus because we could see all the diagrams of the wheel structures and the wheel assemblies and the cars which when under them they look huge. After our little excitement we retrieved our belongings and headed over to Colossus what a ride on Colossus so smooth and running brilliantly in the rain so we just stayed on for another go it was Time for X mainly to Warm up so we dived through Tunnels of light 3 times each ride was brilliant then it was time to Brave the Inferno after about 11 hours of it running so we stayed on the back row for all 3 cycles which was Super after our rather Intense Rides on Inferno we headed over to Stealth 3 Exhilarating times Stealth is a must do in the Dark as with Her neighbor The Swarm Oh yes The Swarm was next after entering the Station for The Swarm we noticed it was half full so we ended up doing it an astounding 6 times over and over once which was the front and another time was backwards the Reason the Swarm is so fantastic at night was because the Fire effects go off at every 3 Cycles which gives the billboard a fantastic look after our 6 Times on the Swarm it was time to head back home It was a fantastic day and night and with the rain the lovely people at thorpe park were saying if you keep hold of your ticket you will be able to visit Summer nights again for free which I did :D
3rd of August
After chatting with Han30 who was going to Summer nights with Mr Fish I asked if I could come along to since I had my free ticket so I was picked up by Mr fish from my house and before hitting the park we headed for The Harvester to have a meal before I just had seasoned fries and the refillable pepsi the fries were lovely and filling then we headed to Thorpe after arriving at around 6:00 we went inline to collect our summer nights tickets in which I just handed over last weeks ticket and they replaced it so there was no faf then we met up with Marc but while Me Fish and Han were in the line Marc waited because he was meeting his friend. so the gates opened just after 7pm so we headed for Saw we waited for 15 mins and it turned out it had broken down while we where in the queue we Said hi to Peaj,Michelle and Jay then we headed for Inferno which seemed to be the only ride working so we got in the station and it was a lot more busy than last week but was terribly busy so we got on the Back row got back in the station and stayed on again( It did not really have that pop it usually does but that changed later on in the night ) which was brilliant then we got off because we saw Saw was back in operation so we headed over . We got straight on the front of row one then it was rather smooth and enjoyable it had so much airtime on the camel back and indoor drop so we got off and went back on and while waiting for our second go we met up with Phill Pritchard ,Dan9 ,Mark9 Marc, Marc's Friend and TobyNBZ then after Our two times on Saw we headed for Colossus in which we waited a few minutes for a rather enjoyable run on Colossus then we headed over to X which was walk on so we had a take over ( this time with just lasers which was brilliant) Thanks Marc then after X we then did Storm Surge. Which was quite fun because the ride Attendants had Water guns and was getting riders drenched before even getting on board.
When we were on we had the lovely 1 Hour lift hill massage before having quite a decent run on Storm surge with quite a lot of spinning which was good but then we waited for another hour to get back to the platform and during our waiting we Saw Peaj again with Jay and Michelle and finally when we got back to the platform we headed over to Stealth (Stealth in the Dark is brilliant ) then a few of us had the crazy idea of doing Tidal wave after and those Crazy people were Me Marc Mark9 and Dan9 the first time round it was not that bad but Phill and Toby were waiting by the water cannons and got us soaked then the ride attendant said that our bars could not go up so we had to go round again this time I got drenched from Head to Toe. "After them Fixing the bars" we got off and met up with the rest of the group then Han and Fish went Off to the Swarm while me and the Others Headed for Inferno. This time it was running fantastic 3 times in a row we did it each time it was brilliant then I headed over to meet Han and Fish at the Swarm in which I got to ride it with Han then after our ride on the Swarm we had 25mins left till 10:30,
so Me Han and Fish ran to Saw and had 4 brilliant rides on it lots of airtime and just very smooth then after our final ride we all went to Bar 360 to have a little bit of Social time and Some drinks with every one
Over my two trips to Summer Nights Were Super I really hope it becomes a Yearly tradition and A huge Thank you to MR Fish for giving me a lift there and back it was fantastic and it was lovely seeing every one Thank you for reading
I promise that is it.
Jack Stevens
I hope it is easy to read my grammar is rather appalling

I was hoping to have something on the Ice Cream thing as well but that didn't seem to materialise so these two pictures of the only 'snowy' thing they had shall have to do.

Max and Jack are excited for Stealth to set of the snow...

But they are unimpressed when it doesn't happen and Max takes it out on poor Mr Snowman
After our wonderful picnic provided by Jack (no pictures because it was so amazing) we waited for Styles.

Max was going for the creepy look and doing it very well

And Jack's going for the "hey I'm Jack, please be my friend" look

In an attempt to not have to look at the Crash Pad Max uses his super cool shades and the backwards walk

And it worked so he celebrates. And hey Detty

Storm Surge ruining yet another picture to be taken at Thorpe.

But Stealth knows how to get out of its way

The Swarm in darkness

And how the queue looked (and was on all the rides)

And here's a nice group shot of Styles, Jack, and Max enjoying their free ponchos, towels, and hot chocolate.
It was a great afternoon/night with great people!
Thanks for reading

This is rather a strange Blog to start off with I have been dreading this day ever since my last Dental appointment before I Visited Malta.... Malta oh yeah stay Tuned. Wait where was I ah yes... the 18th of July 2013 was the Day I have been dreading why? well Today was the day I had my first ever filling! First off my Mum went in before me to have a deep clean. which lasted for half an hour and by this time I was shaking sweating feeling cold in other words very nervous. Then It was my turn I walked in the Dentist says to me "are you ready?" I replied "no not really feeling a bit nervous" then I sat down on the chair the Dentist asks the normal questions then It was time for the bit I was dreading the Anesthetic I am used to Injection all over my body but I have never had it in the gum before so I gritted my teeth to let the Dentist do his thing My right side of my mouth went numb in a matter of seconds. Then the filling began, could not really feel that much although the drill was horrid hearing it screech to make the hole really gave me the shivers. Discomfort arrived when the drill had reached my gum. The smell of what the drill had produced on my tooth reminds me how I file my nails down ( Yeah I don't like cutting them,I am strange) then they Inserted the Solution and before I knew it it was over although it felt like 10 hours rather than 10 Minuets. Over all I felt it went okay and It really has made me consider brushing a few Minuets longer I want to try and keep all my teeth.
Any way now onto the good well after the Dentist I walked down to the Help desk in my Mall and they had a sheet for Job Vacancies I also asked in a few other shops and they said just bring in your CV which I have finally done after putting it off for a rather long time so I have a feeling I may have a Job soon which is very good and will Help in the long run Over all these are the sort of main events that had happened today.

Trip report time!
After being picked up from East Croydon by Peaj, along with Jaymiee and Ben (TopsyTurvy), we set off to Chessie. But not without picking up from Han from Wimbledon station; she got the train there by herself! Well done Han!
Once arriving at the park, Peaj received a text from Mr Fish saying that “the car park is closed” – he’d gone to the wrong entrance, bless him While Peaj went to collect him, JamesC, Phill and Matt arrived! It was easy to tell that Matt was a TPM member with his annual pass and lanyard! However, Jaymiee had never met Phill before, so as he was arriving said “Who’s that man walking towards us?” Once Peaj returned with Fish, the entrance had opened and in we went, bumping into Adam (scarycoasterboy) on the way in! After initially losing James (his new MAP didn’t let him through the turnstiles at first!) we headed over to Hocus Pocus Hall and met up with Alex (ThrillseekerAlex), Jonny and Chris *I think* (TP1214). We did Hocus Pocus as we were right next to it and it was a good laugh, been ages since I’d done it! Han jumped a few times though bless her!
After this we had a bundle of laughs on Rattlesnake! I shared a car with Peaj, James and Matt and made sure we screamed the loudest! As the years have gone on I love this ride even more; not that I ever disliked it but every time I ride, I find it more and more fun! I also adore the queueline as it just reminds me of my first ever visit to the park, and Rattlesnake was my first ride (this was back when it had its original height restriction of 1m 17)!
While waiting for Jack and Ethan (EC!) to arrive, we had a ride on Safari Skyway. Nice way to chill and enjoy the views of the zoo. As you can see I was super excited to see the animals!

We then met Jack (and his mum) at the entrance and headed over toward Land of the Dragons to meet Ethan. Peaj got a nice photo of us 3 plus James in the sun here!

We then headed over to Tomb Blaster where Peaj explained the rules of the game “Empire” and where we had one of our group photos. Then it was off to Tomb Blaster for some fun! Really enjoyed the ride, and also while walking through the queueline, I was reminded of how good it all is! Good fun ride, sat with Ethan, James, Han and Fish and I beat all of them with a score of 13900! Not sure what my highest score on this is but I tend to score higher on Duel. Overall, out of the whole group, I came fourth with my score, not bad at all!
Don’t we look good

The time then came to try out the new ride…ZUFARI! The queue wasn’t too bad and at this point the sun really came out, so off came the layers! There is a photo point in the queue where some of us were given hats and snakes to hold for the shot. It’s a bit of a shame to have something like that in the middle of a queue as in some ways it just screams out money making, plus causes some delays. Then again it did provide extra amusement and any income to the park is positive I guess.
Now, onto the ride itself. Let’s start with the preshow…errrm It’s great for interaction and the children seemed to enjoy it, but it was also quite cringey, especially Ghozi the lemur (who is apparently male but has a female voice?!). And the animation of its mouth is rather terrible! We did have a laugh though, even if it was for the wrong reasons! So then it was time for our adventure to begin! I must say it was nice to have a different experience to the usual rides by being in a vehicle driven by someone, something about it is good fun! Ethan thought so too!

We were lucky that we had nice weather too as it meant the animals were all out; flamingos, giraffes, zebras and white rhino. There’s not really much else I can say about those parts of the ride, other than that you can get nice photos of the animals if they’re out. And they seemed pretty happy too which is nice to see. But we soon arrived at the Danger Cave! Having heard about this from others (well the whole ride in general to be precise) I lowered my expectations. And I found it to be better than I expected! As others have said, for something in the UK it really isn’t bad at all. The water effects were good and the children were all screaming The waterfall as you exit provided a good laugh too! Everyone in the group came off smiling and saying it was good and better than they’d heard! Hurrah!
My happy mood after the ride quickly left me as I had a mini heart attack at the exit; my phone was missing! It had been in my jeans pocket but I checked my bag thoroughly incase I had put it in there and not remembered (yes, I do that). But it wasn’t there so I figured it had fallen out of my pocket into the vehicle. Now at this point the rest of the group were slowly disappearing from the exit. I did call after them but they didn’t hear, yet there was too much of a crowd to go after them, explain and then return to the ride; I didn’t want to risk someone finding my phone and taking it! As Sheepie would put it – I was flapping! I asked the staff members if they could look for my phone and luckily, they found it! Phew! But the bad news? The guy who found it then dropped it! I’ve only had it 6 months and up until now was in pristine condition, but it now has some lovely scuff marks on But I was flippin’ relieved that it wasn’t lost, and I guess if I’d had a cover on it, it would have helped
I breathed a huge sigh of relief, checked it still worked after its dramatic turn of events, and thought that by now, the group would realise they were missing one person and one or two might have come back to see where I was. But NO! Never fear, I did eventually catch up with them by Rameses and of course, I could’ve contacted Peaj or someone if I couldn’t find them. But it’s a bit disheartening when nobody realises you’ve disappeared I know I’m small but I’m not THAT small am I?
But never mind, it was time to ride an old, creaky top spin! The queue wasn’t too bad and I chose to sit on the edge as I just wasn’t in the mood for a face full of water. I’ve not ridden Rameses (or Ripsaw) for a few years as I just don’t find top spins that fun, plus the restraints try to knock the wind out of you! But this meant that I did enjoy it, and I’ll always remember my first trip to Chessie when I was too short to ride it, watching it and thinking how big and scary it looked!
We then went towards Mystic East as we had seen Dragon Falls running earlier on in the day. However we were greeted with a sign informing us that the area was closed off while they updated the theming, and the ride was empty of water. Mystic East is one of, if not the best, themed areas of the park and it was rather saddening to see its main ride in such a state
But as Peaj would say, “Hey ho!” And off to Wild Asia we went. We did Monkey Swinger first, taking advantage of its short queue. Speaking of Peaj, it was time for my traditional “Peaj Hug!”

Love how I’m being used as a head rest! It was going nicely until Ethan decided to start his evil kidney jabbing! Had a fun ride as always but the water jets weren’t on which was a shame, but it was fun waving at Han every time we whizzed past her. While we were in the mood for spinning we headed over to Kobra, which had quite a queue but as always when you’re with such a great bunch of people, it doesn’t matter. Had a lot of laughs in the queue – to the point where I ended up collapsing onto the floor! - with conversations ranging from saggy melons to soggy biscuits (!), to whacking one out Don’t worry – it was just my mind being dirty! And I was appropriately named a “Dirty minded individual.”
We had a good ride on Kobra, and after finding it uncomfortable previously (not the back rests, but the fact they pushed me into the front part, crushing my stomach) I was determined to not suffer again, however I think I made my leaning back a bit too obvious and the staff member asked me to lean forwards. As you can see, I was not impressed...

I did try to lean back as much as I could though, and I think I know why I have an issue but no one else does; my height! The bottom of my rib cage – so roughly where the diaphragm is – gets pushed into the front part of the seats. Whereas for others who are taller, the front part would push against their belly instead, thus causing less or no discomfort. But this leaves me wondering what it’s like for children. It’s not awful, I mean if I brace myself I can push myself back and be fine, but I would like to be able to put my arms and legs up without feeling suffocated!
After our ride, MarkC had finally arrived and was waiting with Han! And what better ride to do for our first one as a full group than Tuk Tuk Turmoil! I really do love this as a group ride, it is so fun and I could easily do it more than once purely for that reason!
Group photo time by the talking elephant tree thing (forgotten its name)! Won’t post it as you’ve already seen it in Peaj’s trip report.
Our bellies were rumbling so it was time to eat. It went well considering people went off separately, no faff or disagreements or standing around for a thousand years debating where to eat I went with some of the others to Creaky Café, which is a lovely little place and not bad for money. I literally walked in and exclaimed to James “OOOH this is nice!” We sat outside to eat, where the others who had gone elsewhere joined us. It was at this point that I felt even more happy and excited about the whole day and how awesome it had already been!
We paid a visit to Bubbleworks while our food went down and experienced the new music. I have to say, it was quite jolly and some of us were dancing/bobbing around to it! Me and Peaj got right into it, so much so that I ended up marmalised!


Joining me in my tub were Han, Jaymiee and Alex. Ooh cosy! I know this is so repetitive to say but I miss the original ride so much, it hurts to see how different it all is when all I can think of is how good it was! Particularly the fountain finale, gaah I miss those strobes! It made me so mad I turned rather demonic!


Jaymiee decided we should scream as loud as possible when going down the drop and see if Peaj’s boat did the same in competition – and sure enough, they did! God knows what the operator thought!
Vampire was up next Again, it’s such a shame to see it like it is when remembering how great it used to look. The queue was quite long but as usual we all made it good fun, and got some funny photos!

And our game of Empire finished with Adam winning the flag! It was also funny when MarkC asked if my name was Meryl I nearly collapsed onto the floor again! Was a fun ride as usual, and I’ll always love that lift hill noise and the roar of the trains
Time was running out so we decided to go on Black Buccaneer and make Dragon’s Fury our last ride of the day. Whilst chatting in the Buccaneer queueline, I discovered that Alex is from Horley. Horley! Somebody on TPM is from where I am from It might not seem much of a deal to some, but hardly anyone I know has heard of the place! Small world, eh? We soon got on the ride, where we could smell weed, which led to me and James trying to guess who it was I still say the lady on the opposite side wearing the pearls looked pretty out of it Got some good interaction on the ride too; the operator asked how we all knew each other due to our large group size, and we explained. The ride start announcement turned out to be “No standing up, no throwing up, no touching the cross bars if you are sat in the back rows, and if you plan on writing about this on the internet later, please say good things!” We certainly have!
So it was time for our last ride of the day (or so we thought…) on Dragon’s Fury. The queue was long-ish, made worse by Mark’s sugar addiction I hate to moan (and contradict my statement about positive feedback), but the operation of the ride was pretty dire, with cars stacking up outside the station – there were four stacked at one point! This man certainly wasn’t impressed:

Han, Fish and Chris look on in disgust:

Ooh er! We planned our seating arrangements strategically, and I shared with Peaj and Ethan. This resulted in some epic spinning on the first half of the ride! Not so much after the second lift hill, but then again I’ve noticed that cars never seem to spin as much on that part. But yeah, it was brilliant fun and probably the best ride I’ve ever had on Fury!
At this point, we had to say goodbye to Jack and Adam, and had found out that Zufari’s queue was still open! So there was only one option…LEG IT! Han wasn’t up for the mad sprint so decided to go for a mad spin on Rameses instead! We made it to Zufari in one piece, albeit breathless, and had another good ride on it. Some of us sat in the front for the preshow and JamesC was cheeky to Ghozi and got to do a monkey impression! We didn’t see as many animals this time around but it was still good.
We then made our way out of the area and said our goodbyes to those who weren’t coming to the meal. It really had been a fantastic meet and I was glad it still wasn’t yet over. Mark clearly didn’t want it to be over either; while walking back to Peaj’s car, he came after me for more hugs, bless him! This frightened Han so much she pooped bricks:

We had to sit outside at the Monkey Puzzle as there were no tables inside, and it was getting a tad chilly. Nevertheless, it was a nice meal, a nice way to relax after the day and to have a chat. I had paprika chicken and spicy chips which was yummy, although part of my breast was overdone

James and Ethan soon had to leave, and the rest of us headed inside to the warmth where we found some tables, and Peaj, Alex and Mr Fish found themselves eating an enormous sundae between them! We chilled for while then decided it was time to leave and end our day
And wow, what a day it was! Firstly, I’d like to say that it was a fantastic group of people that attended, as Peaj said. It was different, as there were quite a few newbies/new-ish to meets members, but it was great to see so many new faces and that everyone joined in and felt comfortable
Mark isn’t as bad as he is online (I’m sure he won’t mind me saying that as I said it to him in person and he admitted it ), he is adorable! Meryl indeed! Apologies to Matt, Adam, Jonny and Chris who I didn’t get round to speaking to that much, but as I said it was nice to meet you guys! The same goes to Alex although we did speak a bit at the meal, and also thank you for offering me a lift home I would have taken it but as you know, I had to stay in Peaj’s car and be a good friend James and Ethan are as lovely as they are online – James, you’re a total geek for walking around with your drinks capsule and Ethan, despite being an evil kidney jabbing gremlin, you did make me laugh when you said “For some reason I thought Mer would be taller.”
It was lovely as always to see everyone else again and that the whole group in general got on well and stuck together. So thank you all for being so awesome! This was definitely one of the best meets
Finally, as always, thank you to Peaj for organising this meet and running it so well. Empire was a great game to play throughout the day and really helped everyone get to know each other. The meets actually feel like meets again, which is how it should be I can’t thank you enough!
Thanks for reading! x