Mitchada04

Ah Heide, the weird red-headed step-child of the Merlin machine from my last visit, with its strange mixture of music and atmosphere seemingly stolen from other parks. It lured me back with the prospect of completing the European B&M collection (of course, until Garda and Efteling’s ones open next year), and an attempt to ride Colossos again to see if I can actually like it.

First thing was first though, and that was to collect our German MAPs. The reasons for this were for the free entry to Gardaland and the complimentary Q-Bot at both Heide and Legoland Germany. Considering how busy Heide was looking prior to opening, this was a good choice.



Passes and Q-Bot acquired, we moved straight over to Flug von Damenon. Unlike Swarm, this has a sensible queue-line, the splits just before the batching point, has enough space in the station for 2 trains worth of people AND most importantly has a rotating bag holder at each row. How this logic never made it to Thorpe I’ll never know, because it runs a lot more efficiently.
However, the ride itself is unfortunately lacklustre, and I’m still not sure if I place it above or below Swarm. The layout is quite good, and with a bit more speed might not have the sort of dead spots that you see in Swarm’s over-sized flat turnaround and the finale. But it is quite slow and lumbering, and even worse, has an awful, awful bounce already. The bounce is what ruins the ride really, it’s so strange that a brand new ride can have that so early in its life. Perhaps the design of the ride and the layout being quite tight (Raptor and Swarm are both drawn out) means that there are higher levels of force acting upon the train, and because of the vibration that naturally happens anyway on these train styles, it just becomes more noticeable under heavier force.
Either way, a bitter disappointment, and Raptor is still quite easily the best Wing-Rider I’ve experienced.










One positive for Flug is the single rider queue, which when combined with a reasonably epic batcher man, went quickly. After the second ride it was time to ride Krake with the finished boat section. I still liked it a lot from my first rides, especially as it amazed the Germans from the visual perspective. It still does that, and it delivers a fair whack of airtime after the inversion nowadays. They’ve also added a dedicated front row queue to it, which is a slight improvement, but a real improvement would have been to batch it all in, especially given how Q-Bots enter the station building in an awkward fashion.





We had some Crepes whilst we waited for our next booking, Colossos. I distinctly remember being completely non-plussed about this ride on my previous visit, soul-less rubbish I called it. After my recent enjoyment of Balder I thought however that this viewpoint could well change, and to see if it was accurate the back row was chosen.
My viewpoint on Colossos has not changed. The first drop is wonderful, but everything else just seems poor. Just found it extremely difficult to actually enjoy the hills, the corners are duller than Balder’s and that long helix is really rattly. It just simply doesn’t do anything for me and I doubt it ever will.





Grottenblitz was next, one of my least favourite Mack Powered coasters, before we broke for lunch at Pizza Pasta. I forget how much it was, but the pizza slices are quite simply ridiculous. I spent some time afterwards taking photos from the terrace outside.








Straight after lunch was time for Desert Race, the slightly better version of Rita (again, damning with faint praise), before it was time to see the Madagascar Circus Show.






Unlike Chessie’s version, this one is indoors, and as a result you need to acquire a ticket for the next showing. A good idea really, as it prevents mass crowds building up and then having to close off the building and disappointing guests. Also unlike Chessie’s version, this one is actually good, as it more appears to be a circus show that just so happens to have a Madagascar related storyline to tie it all together. It also had fire.
It was time to whore out the Q-Bot some more (although Heide have a rubbish tier system of either having select rides depending on your choice, but a decent idea in limiting the amount of times you can use it on each ride, so we had 2 goes on every major coaster but Flug). So we rode Krake, Flug and Schweizer Bobbahn, which wasn’t very good, before riding Desert Race again.






There was a long gap for Colossos so we used it riding the two water rides in the middle of the park. They were a well deserved rest in amongst the constant cred riding it must be said. Colossos was still a disappointment.





The random Pirate Show was next, which was extremely weird and random. Didn’t really get it so we ran away early for our Krake time slot before two last goes on Flug to finish off the day.


Heide is such a weird park, I don’t really know if I like it or not. The rides don’t really do that much for me (Krake being the best, Scream was closed all day) and the park is a weird mish-mash of half-arsed theming attempts and some completely closed off areas. They have started to get an unique identity to themselves with the addition of several IMAScore music dotted around the park to remove old Tussauds themes, but there’s still a lot of flaws around the park. Their ents budget has also seemingly been slashed to bits as one arena stood empty.

Here we are, the park home to Ultimate things like Raptor Attack, Angry Birds and some random stuff.

Here we see the Ultimate wheel that they have. It's so good that even on busy days they only load half the carriages.

Much like the annoying Drayton, LWV opens its gates at 10 but the main rides at 10:30. However, you can't even go down towards them from 10 so this happens. And with Ultimate things behind the man a queue of stampeding people formed!

So we went on the wheel which was opened and then RAN (for people who know me that is an ultimate thing!)

We ran, we saw, nothing Ultimate happening here. So did Raptor Attack which is Ultimate!

So we went mining.

This tunnel really is as small as it looks!

And this beam really is low! Ultimate theming here.

Raptor Attack is a generic coaster you find at fun fairs, however in the dark with a really well down internal queue and animatronic raptors throughout the ride it is pretty Ultimate!

Speaking of which...

They have a ladybird Zierer Tivoli!

And yes in the background is indeed a Reverchon spinner!

Ultimate green spin it was.

While we're talking about green...

The green Falls of Terror water slides!

With a blue sign

Like this man.

And parts of the sky! The sky is blue! Ultimate British weather!

This wall is blue too.

YAY ABAP AT LWV! YAY

All the space guys say hi

To the generic guys

Not a fan of oversized birds though. Ultimately they aren't real

Through the rings we go back to the real world

I will. If it's Ultimate that is.

Important sign there ensuring you have Ultimate fun. Oh and a meh wood sculpture.

This guy is a legend. He made a bird fly! Ultimate lad.

He approves.

Mr Ferret wasn't too sure though. His day clearly hadn't been Ultimate.

Urgh camera was facing the wrong way guys. Sorry let's get back to Ultimate things.

Like the insane Whirlwind.

And Ultimately awesome skate karts!

Weeee!

Ultimate failing going on here!

These are pretty good.

Do like their green though.

At least that way the rides are camouflaged.

See! You can't see the rides! Ultimate camouflaging skills!

Just watch out for the train.

They are living on the edge without train gates so remember to look both ways for an Ultimate day out.

Here are a few things that I find Ultimately sickening.







This is my type of thing!

Speedy tractor.

Just know it's going to be fast with a sign like that!

Camouflaged cherry picker. It's difficult to see I know but I'm Ultimate and can see it.

Real animals

This was my lunch the following day. After all, it was national hamburger day.

Not even going to ask. It's that Ultimate.

Something through the trees. Didn't look Ultimate enough though.

Few more Ultimate things.

Blur of Ultimateness.

No blur.

OOOOOO. Not bad.

Ultimate lad up there on the lift hill. Not sure what ride this was. Still wasn't Ultimate enough for us.

Yes Ultimate things

So with the Carousel done we'd been on everything bar one ride. They call it "The Ultimate." Don't know why.

It had a long queue.

Only one working train.

Boring signs.

Not running is boring.

Stupidly placed chains.

Safety features like air gates.

Lift hills everywhere which take an age to complete.

Stupid thing.

Just a shame it's so darn good! Ultimate is amazing! Relentlessly awesome! It has some gimmick too, not sure what but it doesn't need it! Best ride on park.

Well after this bad boy!

Here we are, the park home to Ultimate things like Raptor Attack, Angry Birds and some random stuff.

Here we see the Ultimate wheel that they have. It's so good that even on busy days they only load half the carriages.

Much like the annoying Drayton, LWV opens its gates at 10 but the main rides at 10:30. However, you can't even go down towards them from 10 so this happens. And with Ultimate things behind the man a queue of stampeding people formed!

So we went on the wheel which was opened and then RAN (for people who know me that is an ultimate thing!)

We ran, we saw, nothing Ultimate happening here. So did Raptor Attack which is Ultimate!

So we went mining.

This tunnel really is as small as it looks!

And this beam really is low! Ultimate theming here.

Raptor Attack is a generic coaster you find at fun fairs, however in the dark with a really well down internal queue and animatronic raptors throughout the ride it is pretty Ultimate!

Speaking of which...

They have a ladybird Zierer Tivoli!

And yes in the background is indeed a Reverchon spinner!

Ultimate green spin it was.

While we're talking about green...

The green Falls of Terror water slides!

With a blue sign

Like this man.

And parts of the sky! The sky is blue! Ultimate British weather!

This wall is blue too.

YAY ABAP AT LWV! YAY

All the space guys say hi

To the generic guys

Not a fan of oversized birds though. Ultimately they aren't real

Through the rings we go back to the real world

I will. If it's Ultimate that is.

Important sign there ensuring you have Ultimate fun. Oh and a meh wood sculpture.

This guy is a legend. He made a bird fly! Ultimate lad.

He approves.

Mr Ferret wasn't too sure though. His day clearly hadn't been Ultimate.

Urgh camera was facing the wrong way guys. Sorry let's get back to Ultimate things.

Like the insane Whirlwind.

And Ultimately awesome skate karts!

Weeee!

Ultimate failing going on here!

These are pretty good.

Do like their green though.

At least that way the rides are camouflaged.

See! You can't see the rides! Ultimate camouflaging skills!

Just watch out for the train.

They are living on the edge without train gates so remember to look both ways for an Ultimate day out.

Here are a few things that I find Ultimately sickening.







This is my type of thing!

Speedy tractor.

Just know it's going to be fast with a sign like that!

Camouflaged cherry picker. It's difficult to see I know but I'm Ultimate and can see it.

Real animals

This was my lunch the following day. After all, it was national hamburger day.

Not even going to ask. It's that Ultimate.

Something through the trees. Didn't look Ultimate enough though.

Few more Ultimate things.

Blur of Ultimateness.

No blur.

OOOOOO. Not bad.

Ultimate lad up there on the lift hill. Not sure what ride this was. Still wasn't Ultimate enough for us.

Yes Ultimate things

So with the Carousel done we'd been on everything bar one ride. They call it "The Ultimate." Don't know why.

It had a long queue.

Only one working train.

Boring signs.

Not running is boring.

Stupidly placed chains.

Safety features like air gates.

Lift hills everywhere which take an age to complete.

Stupid thing.

Just a shame it's so darn good! Ultimate is amazing! Relentlessly awesome! It has some gimmick too, not sure what but it doesn't need it! Best ride on park.

Well after this bad boy!

Here we are, the park home to Ultimate things like Raptor Attack, Angry Birds and some random stuff.

Here we see the Ultimate wheel that they have. It's so good that even on busy days they only load half the carriages.

Much like the annoying Drayton, LWV opens its gates at 10 but the main rides at 10:30. However, you can't even go down towards them from 10 so this happens. And with Ultimate things behind the man a queue of stampeding people formed!

So we went on the wheel which was opened and then RAN (for people who know me that is an ultimate thing!)

We ran, we saw, nothing Ultimate happening here. So did Raptor Attack which is Ultimate!

So we went mining.

This tunnel really is as small as it looks!

And this beam really is low! Ultimate theming here.

Raptor Attack is a generic coaster you find at fun fairs, however in the dark with a really well down internal queue and animatronic raptors throughout the ride it is pretty Ultimate!

Speaking of which...

They have a ladybird Zierer Tivoli!

And yes in the background is indeed a Reverchon spinner!

Ultimate green spin it was.

While we're talking about green...

The green Falls of Terror water slides!

With a blue sign

Like this man.

And parts of the sky! The sky is blue! Ultimate British weather!

This wall is blue too.

YAY ABAP AT LWV! YAY

All the space guys say hi

To the generic guys

Not a fan of oversized birds though. Ultimately they aren't real

Through the rings we go back to the real world

I will. If it's Ultimate that is.

Important sign there ensuring you have Ultimate fun. Oh and a meh wood sculpture.

This guy is a legend. He made a bird fly! Ultimate lad.

He approves.

Mr Ferret wasn't too sure though. His day clearly hadn't been Ultimate.

Urgh camera was facing the wrong way guys. Sorry let's get back to Ultimate things.

Like the insane Whirlwind.

And Ultimately awesome skate karts!

Weeee!

Ultimate failing going on here!

These are pretty good.

Do like their green though.

At least that way the rides are camouflaged.

See! You can't see the rides! Ultimate camouflaging skills!

Just watch out for the train.

They are living on the edge without train gates so remember to look both ways for an Ultimate day out.

Here are a few things that I find Ultimately sickening.







This is my type of thing!

Speedy tractor.

Just know it's going to be fast with a sign like that!

Camouflaged cherry picker. It's difficult to see I know but I'm Ultimate and can see it.

Real animals

This was my lunch the following day. After all, it was national hamburger day.

Not even going to ask. It's that Ultimate.

Something through the trees. Didn't look Ultimate enough though.

Few more Ultimate things.

Blur of Ultimateness.

No blur.

OOOOOO. Not bad.

Ultimate lad up there on the lift hill. Not sure what ride this was. Still wasn't Ultimate enough for us.

Yes Ultimate things

So with the Carousel done we'd been on everything bar one ride. They call it "The Ultimate." Don't know why.

It had a long queue.

Only one working train.

Boring signs.

Not running is boring.

Stupidly placed chains.

Safety features like air gates.

Lift hills everywhere which take an age to complete.

Stupid thing.

Just a shame it's so darn good! Ultimate is amazing! Relentlessly awesome! It has some gimmick too, not sure what but it doesn't need it! Best ride on park.

Well after this bad boy!

Here we are, the park home to Ultimate things like Raptor Attack, Angry Birds and some random stuff.

Here we see the Ultimate wheel that they have. It's so good that even on busy days they only load half the carriages.

Much like the annoying Drayton, LWV opens its gates at 10 but the main rides at 10:30. However, you can't even go down towards them from 10 so this happens. And with Ultimate things behind the man a queue of stampeding people formed!

So we went on the wheel which was opened and then RAN (for people who know me that is an ultimate thing!)

We ran, we saw, nothing Ultimate happening here. So did Raptor Attack which is Ultimate!

So we went mining.

This tunnel really is as small as it looks!

And this beam really is low! Ultimate theming here.

Raptor Attack is a generic coaster you find at fun fairs, however in the dark with a really well down internal queue and animatronic raptors throughout the ride it is pretty Ultimate!

Speaking of which...

They have a ladybird Zierer Tivoli!

And yes in the background is indeed a Reverchon spinner!

Ultimate green spin it was.

While we're talking about green...

The green Falls of Terror water slides!

With a blue sign

Like this man.

And parts of the sky! The sky is blue! Ultimate British weather!

This wall is blue too.

YAY ABAP AT LWV! YAY

All the space guys say hi

To the generic guys

Not a fan of oversized birds though. Ultimately they aren't real

Through the rings we go back to the real world

I will. If it's Ultimate that is.

Important sign there ensuring you have Ultimate fun. Oh and a meh wood sculpture.

This guy is a legend. He made a bird fly! Ultimate lad.

He approves.

Mr Ferret wasn't too sure though. His day clearly hadn't been Ultimate.

Urgh camera was facing the wrong way guys. Sorry let's get back to Ultimate things.

Like the insane Whirlwind.

And Ultimately awesome skate karts!

Weeee!

Ultimate failing going on here!

These are pretty good.

Do like their green though.

At least that way the rides are camouflaged.

See! You can't see the rides! Ultimate camouflaging skills!

Just watch out for the train.

They are living on the edge without train gates so remember to look both ways for an Ultimate day out.

Here are a few things that I find Ultimately sickening.







This is my type of thing!

Speedy tractor.

Just know it's going to be fast with a sign like that!

Camouflaged cherry picker. It's difficult to see I know but I'm Ultimate and can see it.

Real animals

This was my lunch the following day. After all, it was national hamburger day.

Not even going to ask. It's that Ultimate.

Something through the trees. Didn't look Ultimate enough though.

Few more Ultimate things.

Blur of Ultimateness.

No blur.

OOOOOO. Not bad.

Ultimate lad up there on the lift hill. Not sure what ride this was. Still wasn't Ultimate enough for us.

Yes Ultimate things

So with the Carousel done we'd been on everything bar one ride. They call it "The Ultimate." Don't know why.

It had a long queue.

Only one working train.

Boring signs.

Not running is boring.

Stupidly placed chains.

Safety features like air gates.

Lift hills everywhere which take an age to complete.

Stupid thing.

Just a shame it's so darn good! Ultimate is amazing! Relentlessly awesome! It has some gimmick too, not sure what but it doesn't need it! Best ride on park.

Well after this bad boy!

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.

Oddly placed sign in the trees

Odd water slide effect at the entrance.

"You calling my park odd?" Yes.

The Lynx didn't want to argue

That's a Fishing Cat. Odd that it wasn't fishing.

Odd chimp (because there's one of them ) looks at Appocalypse.

This seems more humpty bumpty

Compared to this. This is just weird.

But a good weird.

How odd.

BEST ENTRANCE EVER!!!

AND QUEUE!

This is odd.

But so much fun!

Rainy Shockwave

With odd straight bits.

Designed with a ruler.

Seats were a bit bumpty.

Odd dip before the lift hill.

Poor dinosaur. Clearly wan't a good enough oddity for the main park so got stuck on the train route.


What a strange looking cloud. How odd, it rained in England.

Slowest turn from lift to drop on any water ride. Wouldn't be Drayton if it didn't have an odd feature.

Free Radio dodgems were very odd! Especially as it took them longer to check all the cars were empty than load the ride. Odd procedures.

Urgh. Not odd, not humpty bumpty, just rubbish. Will be getting my vote for best UK ride

Something normal

Phew. Oddness best IP on a ride ever! It's literally the sign, that's it!

Odd, quirky, but great fun

YAY MORE THOMAS!

Percy loved this idea!

It means we'll get duelling bubble people

Back to the oddities. The bats are just weird.

Oddly placed lights.

The odd stand up with no floor wasn't working. So quite normal really.

So let's have some more humpty bumpty goodness!

No Merlin, this isn't a colour you seem to know of. It's green.


Lot's of green!

It has a splash zone, that doesn't get you wet. Really odd.

And just in case you'd forgotten where we were. The oddity makes it good fun, the weather made it interesting, if you made it to the end of this then the word odd will probably annoy you from now on. How odd.

Helix, Liseberg and Mack’s 2014 project has been at the forefront of many an enthusiast’s mind during the past year or so. With Blue Fire being reasonably rated by the community, hopes were high for Helix when it was announced. Two launches, multiple inversions, a terrain based layout and the odd airtime hill meant that this ride was ticking all the right boxes for enthusiasts around the world.
The real proof though, was in the pudding of actually riding it. And this is a more detailed review on the attraction, so spoilers beware.

Helix lives at the top of Liseberg’s hill, sharing a building with Atmosfear, the Intamin Gyro Drop, and a few other bits and pieces. Indeed, it feels more that Helix is budging in on the pre-existing attractions in the building, as the Helix ‘side’ as it were is rather small and under-stated. Perhaps it was designed this way, but it is a slight shame that for all the rest of the ride’s majesty the entrance is literally a door in a wall.
However, from entering the queue, such understatement is forgotten. The queue-line itself is reminiscent of Westminster’s Jubilee Line area, with Escher references and the odd Goon-Window for goons to pry into the mechanical workings of the ride. It’s also a great example of how to do a concrete themed queueline, with lighting and rockwork complementing the style of the ride, as opposed to a theme.



There is also a Helix game app available on Apple and Android devices, which is actually a live competition amongst those in the queue. It’s a random set of mini-games with a loose theme to the ride itself, but great fun to play and watch others. Certainly an ingenious way to pass the time in the constantly moving queue.


Like Blue Fire and Alpina Blitz, the seats are incredibly comfortable; however the stapling from the ride ops is unfortunate to say the least. A considered warning for those planning to go in the future.
The understated dispatch of changing lights as the ride drops down with some considerable airtime in the back before the slow corkscrew to ease us into the ride before we turn a corner and into the first launch. Whilst not the most powerful or fastest launch ever, it fulfils the need of the ride’s mass market ability, and is still an incredibly fun launch anyway, as it whips you into the first zero-g of the ride.
A quick turn and airtime hill lead us back down to the base of the hill, and into the Snorwegian Loop, which was blatantly better than Speed Monster’s, mainly due to the speed at which it was taken here. Diving under Lisbergbanen’s lift-hill, we rise back up into a fantastic airtime hill. I’d adored Alpina Blitz’s ones, and Helix certainly topped them off for the level of quality, they’re even better when instantly followed by a zero-g. The final part of the first half of the ride involves a sharp overbanked turn into a diving helix, which ended up being my favourite part of the ride it must be said, because it again combines a sharp bit of airtime and transitioning in a way that Intamin can only dream about (unless lap-bars are involved).





The second launch which provides an extra boost of speed if nothing else into the inverted top hat, which featured some hangtime towards the front of the train. The best airtime hill of the ride follows, as the drop out of it seems to go on forever, before we turn out into the most terrain bit of the ride, the rising s-bends. Which are again fun for an element of a pure design to just enforce the train to lose speed. The typical Mack finish of the inline is just as good as Blue Fire’s, even without the near miss theming.





And that’s it. Although my first ride was in the middle, I still found that Helix fulfilled the hype for me. It does lots of things, and whilst it may not do any of these things in an overtly ridiculous fashion (say like, how Intamin do great first drops but everything else is poor comparatively), everything is done well. The pacing is pretty seemless, even with the second launch as the train still has a fair amount of speed going into it. And the use of interaction with the terrain (as little as there might be in the final form) and other rides (Upswingett and Lisebergbanen) allow it to gain extra brownie points.
Some people think it needs on-ride music, but I disagree, as I find on-ride music on anything but indoor coasters tend to get lost with the wind and general being outside times, however awesome the ride’s music is. The only true negative of the ride is that the merch is crap. I loved it from my first ride, and a front and back row ride afterwards pretty much confirmed it was top 10 for me.
At night, it’s a different beast as well. The lighting package with head and sidelights produces a different experience both on and off-ride. It makes the ride look even more beautiful.





Mack and Liseberg have truly struck gold with Helix. And I hope that more parks start to pick up this attraction (Towers can replace Rita with one going into the valley).

Oddly placed sign in the trees

Odd water slide effect at the entrance.

"You calling my park odd?" Yes.

The Lynx didn't want to argue

That's a Fishing Cat. Odd that it wasn't fishing.

Odd chimp (because there's one of them ) looks at Appocalypse.

This seems more humpty bumpty

Compared to this. This is just weird.

But a good weird.

How odd.

BEST ENTRANCE EVER!!!

AND QUEUE!

This is odd.

But so much fun!

Rainy Shockwave

With odd straight bits.

Designed with a ruler.

Seats were a bit bumpty.

Odd dip before the lift hill.

Poor dinosaur. Clearly wan't a good enough oddity for the main park so got stuck on the train route.


What a strange looking cloud. How odd, it rained in England.

Slowest turn from lift to drop on any water ride. Wouldn't be Drayton if it didn't have an odd feature.

Free Radio dodgems were very odd! Especially as it took them longer to check all the cars were empty than load the ride. Odd procedures.

Urgh. Not odd, not humpty bumpty, just rubbish. Will be getting my vote for best UK ride

Something normal

Phew. Oddness best IP on a ride ever! It's literally the sign, that's it!

Odd, quirky, but great fun

YAY MORE THOMAS!

Percy loved this idea!

It means we'll get duelling bubble people

Back to the oddities. The bats are just weird.

Oddly placed lights.

The odd stand up with no floor wasn't working. So quite normal really.

So let's have some more humpty bumpty goodness!

No Merlin, this isn't a colour you seem to know of. It's green.


Lot's of green!

It has a splash zone, that doesn't get you wet. Really odd.

And just in case you'd forgotten where we were. The oddity makes it good fun, the weather made it interesting, if you made it to the end of this then the word odd will probably annoy you from now on. How odd.

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.

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.

Oddly placed sign in the trees

Odd water slide effect at the entrance.

"You calling my park odd?" Yes.

The Lynx didn't want to argue

That's a Fishing Cat. Odd that it wasn't fishing.

Odd chimp (because there's one of them ) looks at Appocalypse.

This seems more humpty bumpty

Compared to this. This is just weird.

But a good weird.

How odd.

BEST ENTRANCE EVER!!!

AND QUEUE!

This is odd.

But so much fun!

Rainy Shockwave

With odd straight bits.

Designed with a ruler.

Seats were a bit bumpty.

Odd dip before the lift hill.

Poor dinosaur. Clearly wan't a good enough oddity for the main park so got stuck on the train route.


What a strange looking cloud. How odd, it rained in England.

Slowest turn from lift to drop on any water ride. Wouldn't be Drayton if it didn't have an odd feature.

Free Radio dodgems were very odd! Especially as it took them longer to check all the cars were empty than load the ride. Odd procedures.

Urgh. Not odd, not humpty bumpty, just rubbish. Will be getting my vote for best UK ride

Something normal

Phew. Oddness best IP on a ride ever! It's literally the sign, that's it!

Odd, quirky, but great fun

YAY MORE THOMAS!

Percy loved this idea!

It means we'll get duelling bubble people

Back to the oddities. The bats are just weird.

Oddly placed lights.

The odd stand up with no floor wasn't working. So quite normal really.

So let's have some more humpty bumpty goodness!

No Merlin, this isn't a colour you seem to know of. It's green.


Lot's of green!

It has a splash zone, that doesn't get you wet. Really odd.

And just in case you'd forgotten where we were. The oddity makes it good fun, the weather made it interesting, if you made it to the end of this then the word odd will probably annoy you from now on. How odd.

Oddly placed sign in the trees

Odd water slide effect at the entrance.

"You calling my park odd?" Yes.

The Lynx didn't want to argue

That's a Fishing Cat. Odd that it wasn't fishing.

Odd chimp (because there's one of them ) looks at Appocalypse.

This seems more humpty bumpty

Compared to this. This is just weird.

But a good weird.

How odd.

BEST ENTRANCE EVER!!!

AND QUEUE!

This is odd.

But so much fun!

Rainy Shockwave

With odd straight bits.

Designed with a ruler.

Seats were a bit bumpty.

Odd dip before the lift hill.

Poor dinosaur. Clearly wan't a good enough oddity for the main park so got stuck on the train route.


What a strange looking cloud. How odd, it rained in England.

Slowest turn from lift to drop on any water ride. Wouldn't be Drayton if it didn't have an odd feature.

Free Radio dodgems were very odd! Especially as it took them longer to check all the cars were empty than load the ride. Odd procedures.

Urgh. Not odd, not humpty bumpty, just rubbish. Will be getting my vote for best UK ride

Something normal

Phew. Oddness best IP on a ride ever! It's literally the sign, that's it!

Odd, quirky, but great fun

YAY MORE THOMAS!

Percy loved this idea!

It means we'll get duelling bubble people

Back to the oddities. The bats are just weird.

Oddly placed lights.

The odd stand up with no floor wasn't working. So quite normal really.

So let's have some more humpty bumpty goodness!

No Merlin, this isn't a colour you seem to know of. It's green.


Lot's of green!

It has a splash zone, that doesn't get you wet. Really odd.

And just in case you'd forgotten where we were. The oddity makes it good fun, the weather made it interesting, if you made it to the end of this then the word odd will probably annoy you from now on. How odd.

Oddly placed sign in the trees

Odd water slide effect at the entrance.

"You calling my park odd?" Yes.

The Lynx didn't want to argue

That's a Fishing Cat. Odd that it wasn't fishing.

Odd chimp (because there's one of them ) looks at Appocalypse.

This seems more humpty bumpty

Compared to this. This is just weird.

But a good weird.

How odd.

BEST ENTRANCE EVER!!!

AND QUEUE!

This is odd.

But so much fun!

Rainy Shockwave

With odd straight bits.

Designed with a ruler.

Seats were a bit bumpty.

Odd dip before the lift hill.

Poor dinosaur. Clearly wan't a good enough oddity for the main park so got stuck on the train route.


What a strange looking cloud. How odd, it rained in England.

Slowest turn from lift to drop on any water ride. Wouldn't be Drayton if it didn't have an odd feature.

Free Radio dodgems were very odd! Especially as it took them longer to check all the cars were empty than load the ride. Odd procedures.

Urgh. Not odd, not humpty bumpty, just rubbish. Will be getting my vote for best UK ride

Something normal

Phew. Oddness best IP on a ride ever! It's literally the sign, that's it!

Odd, quirky, but great fun

YAY MORE THOMAS!

Percy loved this idea!

It means we'll get duelling bubble people

Back to the oddities. The bats are just weird.

Oddly placed lights.

The odd stand up with no floor wasn't working. So quite normal really.

So let's have some more humpty bumpty goodness!

No Merlin, this isn't a colour you seem to know of. It's green.


Lot's of green!

It has a splash zone, that doesn't get you wet. Really odd.

And just in case you'd forgotten where we were. The oddity makes it good fun, the weather made it interesting, if you made it to the end of this then the word odd will probably annoy you from now on. How odd.

After my weekend at Towers I thought I'd explain why Nemesis is my favourite.

Even before this point you can hear it roaring around its twisted layout which can be quite intimidating. It is the roar of a monster! An untamed alien that wants to escape!

The British weather was brilliant to help set the scene! But you can stand directly under element of Nemesis with no netting ruining your photos.

Unlike Smiler

Without the netting these photos would have been half decent!


Nemesis is full of force! It's relentless!

This is one drop. All be it forceful but not anything significant. The only bonus about Oblivion is the long ride time you get due to the stacking.

Nemesis may be a mix of a few colours but it looks good for the ride theme.

Due to height, the black sections on this look stupid.

Nemesis has never been rethemed.

This has (although I do really like Duel).

Some say it's rough, no just intense.

This was rough.

It has a cooler station.
This makes you look at blue lit concrete.

It's not trimmed.

Th13teen is.

It's never caught on fire.

The Skyride has.

It's fun all the time!

The Flume isn't.

And it's 100% photogenic!
Okay so maybe I've been a bit harsh on the other rides, but for me Nemesis is best! Some of you probably think I'm a sheep and just follow the herd of people who love it. No. My first experience of Nemesis was when I'd just hit 1.4. Never been to Alton Towers before hand and we went on the Monorail to the entrance. With our AP we went to Forbidden Valley for ERT and I heard the roar! No idea what it was until I saw it. And there it was, Nemesis! I remember my first ride and after many years it's still never disappointed! Sure it's not the fastest, or the biggest, but for me it holds a special place in my heart and has never let me down. I appreciate everyone is entitled to their opinion, but that is mine

Oddly placed sign in the trees

Odd water slide effect at the entrance.

"You calling my park odd?" Yes.

The Lynx didn't want to argue

That's a Fishing Cat. Odd that it wasn't fishing.

Odd chimp (because there's one of them ) looks at Appocalypse.

This seems more humpty bumpty

Compared to this. This is just weird.

But a good weird.

How odd.

BEST ENTRANCE EVER!!!

AND QUEUE!

This is odd.

But so much fun!

Rainy Shockwave

With odd straight bits.

Designed with a ruler.

Seats were a bit bumpty.

Odd dip before the lift hill.

Poor dinosaur. Clearly wan't a good enough oddity for the main park so got stuck on the train route.


What a strange looking cloud. How odd, it rained in England.

Slowest turn from lift to drop on any water ride. Wouldn't be Drayton if it didn't have an odd feature.

Free Radio dodgems were very odd! Especially as it took them longer to check all the cars were empty than load the ride. Odd procedures.

Urgh. Not odd, not humpty bumpty, just rubbish. Will be getting my vote for best UK ride

Something normal

Phew. Oddness best IP on a ride ever! It's literally the sign, that's it!

Odd, quirky, but great fun

YAY MORE THOMAS!

Percy loved this idea!

It means we'll get duelling bubble people

Back to the oddities. The bats are just weird.

Oddly placed lights.

The odd stand up with no floor wasn't working. So quite normal really.

So let's have some more humpty bumpty goodness!

No Merlin, this isn't a colour you seem to know of. It's green.


Lot's of green!

It has a splash zone, that doesn't get you wet. Really odd.

And just in case you'd forgotten where we were. The oddity makes it good fun, the weather made it interesting, if you made it to the end of this then the word odd will probably annoy you from now on. How odd.

Oddly placed sign in the trees

Odd water slide effect at the entrance.

"You calling my park odd?" Yes.

The Lynx didn't want to argue

That's a Fishing Cat. Odd that it wasn't fishing.

Odd chimp (because there's one of them ) looks at Appocalypse.

This seems more humpty bumpty

Compared to this. This is just weird.

But a good weird.

How odd.

BEST ENTRANCE EVER!!!

AND QUEUE!

This is odd.

But so much fun!

Rainy Shockwave

With odd straight bits.

Designed with a ruler.

Seats were a bit bumpty.

Odd dip before the lift hill.

Poor dinosaur. Clearly wan't a good enough oddity for the main park so got stuck on the train route.


What a strange looking cloud. How odd, it rained in England.

Slowest turn from lift to drop on any water ride. Wouldn't be Drayton if it didn't have an odd feature.

Free Radio dodgems were very odd! Especially as it took them longer to check all the cars were empty than load the ride. Odd procedures.

Urgh. Not odd, not humpty bumpty, just rubbish. Will be getting my vote for best UK ride

Something normal

Phew. Oddness best IP on a ride ever! It's literally the sign, that's it!

Odd, quirky, but great fun

YAY MORE THOMAS!

Percy loved this idea!

It means we'll get duelling bubble people

Back to the oddities. The bats are just weird.

Oddly placed lights.

The odd stand up with no floor wasn't working. So quite normal really.

So let's have some more humpty bumpty goodness!

No Merlin, this isn't a colour you seem to know of. It's green.


Lot's of green!

It has a splash zone, that doesn't get you wet. Really odd.

And just in case you'd forgotten where we were. The oddity makes it good fun, the weather made it interesting, if you made it to the end of this then the word odd will probably annoy you from now on. How odd.

Oddly placed sign in the trees

Odd water slide effect at the entrance.

"You calling my park odd?" Yes.

The Lynx didn't want to argue

That's a Fishing Cat. Odd that it wasn't fishing.

Odd chimp (because there's one of them ) looks at Appocalypse.

This seems more humpty bumpty

Compared to this. This is just weird.

But a good weird.

How odd.

BEST ENTRANCE EVER!!!

AND QUEUE!

This is odd.

But so much fun!

Rainy Shockwave

With odd straight bits.

Designed with a ruler.

Seats were a bit bumpty.

Odd dip before the lift hill.

Poor dinosaur. Clearly wan't a good enough oddity for the main park so got stuck on the train route.


What a strange looking cloud. How odd, it rained in England.

Slowest turn from lift to drop on any water ride. Wouldn't be Drayton if it didn't have an odd feature.

Free Radio dodgems were very odd! Especially as it took them longer to check all the cars were empty than load the ride. Odd procedures.

Urgh. Not odd, not humpty bumpty, just rubbish. Will be getting my vote for best UK ride

Something normal

Phew. Oddness best IP on a ride ever! It's literally the sign, that's it!

Odd, quirky, but great fun

YAY MORE THOMAS!

Percy loved this idea!

It means we'll get duelling bubble people

Back to the oddities. The bats are just weird.

Oddly placed lights.

The odd stand up with no floor wasn't working. So quite normal really.

So let's have some more humpty bumpty goodness!

No Merlin, this isn't a colour you seem to know of. It's green.


Lot's of green!

It has a splash zone, that doesn't get you wet. Really odd.

And just in case you'd forgotten where we were. The oddity makes it good fun, the weather made it interesting, if you made it to the end of this then the word odd will probably annoy you from now on. How odd.

Oddly placed sign in the trees

Odd water slide effect at the entrance.

"You calling my park odd?" Yes.

The Lynx didn't want to argue

That's a Fishing Cat. Odd that it wasn't fishing.

Odd chimp (because there's one of them ) looks at Appocalypse.

This seems more humpty bumpty

Compared to this. This is just weird.

But a good weird.

How odd.

BEST ENTRANCE EVER!!!

AND QUEUE!

This is odd.

But so much fun!

Rainy Shockwave

With odd straight bits.

Designed with a ruler.

Seats were a bit bumpty.

Odd dip before the lift hill.

Poor dinosaur. Clearly wan't a good enough oddity for the main park so got stuck on the train route.


What a strange looking cloud. How odd, it rained in England.

Slowest turn from lift to drop on any water ride. Wouldn't be Drayton if it didn't have an odd feature.

Free Radio dodgems were very odd! Especially as it took them longer to check all the cars were empty than load the ride. Odd procedures.

Urgh. Not odd, not humpty bumpty, just rubbish. Will be getting my vote for best UK ride

Something normal

Phew. Oddness best IP on a ride ever! It's literally the sign, that's it!

Odd, quirky, but great fun

YAY MORE THOMAS!

Percy loved this idea!

It means we'll get duelling bubble people

Back to the oddities. The bats are just weird.

Oddly placed lights.

The odd stand up with no floor wasn't working. So quite normal really.

So let's have some more humpty bumpty goodness!

No Merlin, this isn't a colour you seem to know of. It's green.


Lot's of green!

It has a splash zone, that doesn't get you wet. Really odd.

And just in case you'd forgotten where we were. The oddity makes it good fun, the weather made it interesting, if you made it to the end of this then the word odd will probably annoy you from now on. How odd.

Oddly placed sign in the trees

Odd water slide effect at the entrance.

"You calling my park odd?" Yes.

The Lynx didn't want to argue

That's a Fishing Cat. Odd that it wasn't fishing.

Odd chimp (because there's one of them ) looks at Appocalypse.

This seems more humpty bumpty

Compared to this. This is just weird.

But a good weird.

How odd.

BEST ENTRANCE EVER!!!

AND QUEUE!

This is odd.

But so much fun!

Rainy Shockwave

With odd straight bits.

Designed with a ruler.

Seats were a bit bumpty.

Odd dip before the lift hill.

Poor dinosaur. Clearly wan't a good enough oddity for the main park so got stuck on the train route.


What a strange looking cloud. How odd, it rained in England.

Slowest turn from lift to drop on any water ride. Wouldn't be Drayton if it didn't have an odd feature.

Free Radio dodgems were very odd! Especially as it took them longer to check all the cars were empty than load the ride. Odd procedures.

Urgh. Not odd, not humpty bumpty, just rubbish. Will be getting my vote for best UK ride

Something normal

Phew. Oddness best IP on a ride ever! It's literally the sign, that's it!

Odd, quirky, but great fun

YAY MORE THOMAS!

Percy loved this idea!

It means we'll get duelling bubble people

Back to the oddities. The bats are just weird.

Oddly placed lights.

The odd stand up with no floor wasn't working. So quite normal really.

So let's have some more humpty bumpty goodness!

No Merlin, this isn't a colour you seem to know of. It's green.


Lot's of green!

It has a splash zone, that doesn't get you wet. Really odd.

And just in case you'd forgotten where we were. The oddity makes it good fun, the weather made it interesting, if you made it to the end of this then the word odd will probably annoy you from now on. How odd.

For the first in about 10 or 11 years, I visited a non-Merlin theme park. It's been a long time coming, and anywhere was a start. And that start was to be Drayton Manor.
After such a beautiful week, Saturday decided to take a turn for the worst, and give us rain, thunder, lightning (though with a couple of breaks of sunshine during the day!). Adam picked me up and we arrived at Drayton around 9ish. Even though we were early, we could tell it was gonna be quiet day, and thank goodness, after some of the horror stories I'd heard about the park's operations.

We arrived to some sun, though we could tell dark times were ahead.
Half 9 came and the park opened. One of the first things which confuse me about the park is opening the park at 9:30, but not the rides until 10:30. There's not really enough to do for a whole hour, other than the small zoo, which we headed to straight away.

Tigers are a'coming.

A chimpanzee looks to Apocalypse in the distance.
Rides were testing so we headed over to G Force (which apparently had been closed for a couple of days) and we were pretty much first in the queue. 10:30 came and it opened; yay. This was my first coaster with inversions that had lap bars, and I'd heard some pretty poor things about it, but kept an open mind. And yeah, I thought it was quite fun. My first ride didn't give me any problems with the restraints, and it was a fun, fast-paced ride. I did get a bit of air time as well, which is nice. It's an odd ride (especially with the "humpety bumpety" lift) and seems to do all the best bits at the beginning, giving a week end, but hey-ho, it's a fun enough ride.

My G Force face.
Next up was the big, new thing - Air Race. I wasn't quite sure how it'd ride, what with the continual spinning and moving and stuff, but it was actually really good. The rocking start is very good, and then it just keeps spinning, round and round and round. It doesn't get boring, and there's some nice moments where you're left hanging upside down for quite a while. Near the end of the ride, we started spinning in the opposite direction. Would be nice if it did it sooner, just to mix it up a little, but hey ho. On a ride later on in the day, we counted that we went upside 18 times (sorry Smiler! ).

Air Race does have a nice entrance feature though.

Air Race's queue line is a nice cattlepen - like many of Drayton's queue - and has a TV playing annoying things.
Shockwave followed. Have to say, the station and theming in the queue line is quite nice actually. The seats and restraints on this thing though is very, erm, eurgh. Yeah, I'll go with eurgh. They're not comfortable and they just don't feel right. The ride itself has two highlights - a random little dip before going onto the lift, and the zero-g roll (which is actually incredible). The rest is uncomfortable, rattly or boring. There vertical loop was bleurgh, the double corkscrew is verging on painful and then the random straight bits are unimaginative (though, at least they don't try to castrate you). Now I see why so few stand ups have been built...

Found in Shockwave's queueline - made me chuckle...
Next up was Splash Canyon, the park's rapids. It was barely 11 o'clock, but we were already soaking wet, so water rides wouldn't make much difference. Fun little ride, not that wet really, though the indoor section did take me off guard.
Another water ride followed, and this time it was in the famous Stormforce 10. I'd heard a lot of good things about this, so I was excited. Have to say, the queue - which we once again walked through - is nicely themed and works really well. Onto the ride itself. The first drop is nice, and the way it's done was unexpected by me. Then wandering through the random waterfall is cool. The second drop, the backwards one, was a shock. We were sat at the very back, which meant we got the full force of water. For a split second, I thought I was on Tidal Wave I was that wet. Brilliant water ride. Not-so brilliant for when the weather is already chucking it down. Final drop is quite nice too. So yeah, a great water ride all in all, but I'll try to avoid the back next time...
A quick spin on Malestrom (nothing really to say about this, just a nice filler really) and drying off in one of the heater things (which was so worth it given how wet we were...), it was time to venture indoors for Pirate Adventure. It's an indoor boat ride which is basically a knock off of Pirates of the Caribbean. Have to say it's alright, though it seemed like a lot of the animatronics were broke. The ending was super anti-climatic too, which was a shame. For the record, this was probably our longest queue of the day at an amazingly long 15 minutes. Goes to show how quiet it was I guess. A go on the dodgems, sponsored by Free Radio, followed, and they were pretty decent.
Food followed in the Safari Pizza & Pasta:

Very nice indoors restaurant located by the zoo. Indoors there's loads of animal animatronics which move and stuff and it was quite a nice atmosphere in there. (By the way, unlike Merlin's Pizza / Pasta, this isn't all you can eat in case you're wondering. We just had a nice pizza and wedges meal).
We headed over to Ben 10: Ultimate Mission, the world's first Vekoma Junior Boomerang. It looked surprisingly tall and quick for a junior coaster, and I have to admit, it was one coaster I was really looking forward to. Again, there was next to no queue, which was great. The majority of the queue is indoors, and is very well themed, with aliens, loads of 'high tech' stuff, noises, lights, etc., and a false corridor which tricked Adam and I. Very, very good.

Aliens.
First ride gifted us with front row. Being lifted up backwards was a nice sensation, though the stop is very harsh and judders you around a bit. Then you're dropped down and you pick up a lot of speed very quickly, meander around a bit, then up a random wiggle. You hear the laser fire and do backward to the station. It's a short ride of course, but it's great. It has a bit of everything and left both of us happy. No doubt kids love the ride as well. It's certainly Drayton's most complete ride and is fun for everyone. What's even more impressive is how it takes up so little room. Given the lack of queue, we went straight back round to do it again, which is a testament to the ride's quality.

Look at that joy.
Afterwards, we ventured to what I'll nickname 'dark ride row'. We started off with The Haunting, a Vekoma madhouse. Much like Hex, it has two pre-shows before the ride. The first pre-show is very nicely done, with some TVs giving you an introduction, and one or two nice effects used. The second pre-show isn't as good I found, going on for a bit too long, and that you couldn't always hear what was being said. The actual madhouse itself is good, with a nice ending I thought. So all in all it is a nice ride, but it also showed by just how good Hex is as well. Haunting is great in its own right, but Hex is in a different league.
Next door was Golden Nugget - Wild West Shoot Out. As the name suggests, it's a gun-based ride where you shoot things for points. Other than the name and logo, there's no reference to the Golden Nugget cereal. It's a very cheap ride clearly, and to be honest, is quite laughable. It's nice that some things happen when you hit the target though. But still, not a great ride. We ended dark ride row with Drunken Barrels, the tilting teacups. They were good fun, and the plate actually tipped, but our cup was way too stiff to spin.
It was now time for the last major ride (in my opinion), Apocalypse. Decided to go in at the deep end and do stand up first (though, unfortunately, the floorless seating wasn't available today). The seats are okay - more comfortable than Shockwave's at least! - and the tilt is a great twist; did get me a little bit. However, the drop itself is okay at best. Just doesn't really get me as much as I'd hoped. Though the suddenness of the drop is a nice touch. Sit down followed straight away, and I think I prefer that seating arrangement due to the added comfort. One thing which disappointed me with this (and a lot of Drayton in general actually) was the lack of audio, apart from the occasional siren. No atmosphere, very little tension and it just felt like the ride could have been so much more intimidating with some sort of background noise.
We decided to get some other rides done, including Flying Dutchman - yet another odd Drayton ride - and Buffalo Coaster. Buffalo is quite possibly the weirdest coaster I've done, with an odd layout, monorail-like speeds, yet the occasional okay bit. It goes on forever as well. I feels like it's time should be nearly up, and the space and surrounding area would be great for a family coaster (hi there Mack!). Oh, one laughable thing about Buffalo - on our ride, the train overshot the station, meaning the people in the front row couldn't get out, and had to have another go (I feel for the poor souls).
I would do a list of all the things which are more useful than Buffalo, but I think I'd be here for too long...

Buffalo with Apocalypse in the background. The Buffalo should look a lot more sad though.
We then went to the other side of the park to venture round Thomas Land. Looks nice, and I know that my younger self would have exploded with excitement to be there. Only ride we did round here was Troublesome Trucks Runaway Coaster. For a ride set in Thomas Land, it was actually alright, and the ending on it was a specific highlight. Great ride for the younger market.

We saw Percy whilst queueing fro Troublesome Trucks.

NEW FOR 2015. Funnily enough, when you're in the park, you don't really recognise the construction going on. When you're outside the park, by the entrance, you see the site, but have no idea what it's for.
With basically everything done, it was time for rerides aplenty. Air Race, G Force and Shockwave were all done again, as was Ben 10. After a while, a storm came over, bringing more rain, thunder and lightning, bringing most rides to a close (as an interesting fact, Apocalypse was hit by lightning this past week ). One of the few rides which remained open was Polperro Express Train; a short train ride which goes round part of the park. It gave some nice views of Shockwave, Stormforce 10, G Force and the rapids, and it was a nice break from the rain.
Some rides slowly began reopening, so we were able to get a few more rides in (including on the Golden Nugget ride since it was indoors, and just so we could laugh at it's awfulness some more). We ended up riding Ben 10 five times during the day, which I think shows how it is indeed a good ride for the park. The day ended off with a ride on G Force, and it was the only one where I had an uncomfortable experience. However, I still stand by my views that it is a fun ride; just a shame the restraints can cause it to be otherwise.
Drayton Manor is a nice park all in all, and given it's a small park, it's done well for itself. But there's a few rides which are very cheap and laughable which need sorting out, I imagine on a busy day it's a bad place to be in (queue board times to some description would be nice for example), and there's some things lacking (audio on all rides for example). I don't want to end on a negative note, as I enjoyed the place and had a fabulous day out, and if you take it for what it is, it is good. I definitely would recommend people trying it out (especially if you have a voucher of some description), there are some good rides there which make it worth going there once.
Visiting has given me the extra incentive to try out other parks as well. It's not that I haven't wanted to, but it's more that I've been a been a bit blasé about it all. However, after yesterday's experience, I now have an urge to try parks new and different (and who knows, might even crack Europe next year!)
I'll leave with perhaps the best photo of the day; our last ride on Ben 10:

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.

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.

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.

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.