So I've abandoned the other blog, because it's embarrassing . "Monthly".
Today we visited LEGOLAND, to check out Ninjago and this post will be mainly about that. Firstly, though, OMG PIRATE FALLS. It was like having a bucket of water tipped over you from every angle. I didn't dry off properly until it was time to go home. I've actually got a cold on it every time I've been on it since last year. Also new smell pods in the Dragon (I think). The kitchen smells heavily like food, unless it was coming from the restaurant but I'd never smelt it before today.
Anyway, Ninjago. There will be spoilers. Be aware.
This ride is amazeballs. So amazeballs it may well be my favourite dark ride out there. Subject to change once I get to Europe.
Lets start with the queue. We used the RAP so I didn't experience the full queue, but the part I did experience was very quick moving (the trains move very quickly through the station), the videos that play are reminiscent of those weird news show cartoons, you know the sort (warning, very strange banner photo is quite NSFW), and it's very hot but it was quite well themed. You're given the 3D glasses (which I wasn't keen on as I don't really like 3D) and once seated the incredibly clunky lap bar which hosts the sensors and some sort of air conditioning which blows onto your arm. I think there are speakers in front of you too. So the ride starts and you are doing this training, the "shooting" system is quite frustrating, but what makes this ride amazing is that didn't affect my enjoyment at all. All of a sudden you're out of training and fighting some bad guys, it's quite confusing, but it may have been explained. Everyone was making alot of noise so I couldn't hear very well. At one point you're flying over lava and the room goes hot, then the room goes icy and you're blasted with air. It gets really immersive, when you fall on the screen it feels like you're actually falling, all of the effects match what's going on on the screen. There's a really nice smoke/mist effect, and some nice strobes too. At one point you go through what appears to be a mine, there's rockwork everywhere and wooden supports holding it up, as well as barrels, dynamite, and strangely fireworks. This was one of my favourite parts of the ride as this is where most of the physical theming is. The ride comes to an end and you see the ninjas celebrating before it's time to exit. You see the onride photo, which I didn't even know was taken, and then exit into the (very cramped) shop. The ride is almost perfect imo. The story could be a bit clearer and there's a bit of exposed warehouse from the front, but as others have said, when you come off you don't care about the score and you'd rather talk about the ride. At first, I wasn't keen. I thought it was too loud and too much going on, too realistic as it were. But once I got used to it, it instantly became my favourite ride at LEGOLAND. If you haven't already, get down there NOW! This >>>>>>>>> Gruffalo. 9.5/10 from me.
I don't think I need to tell you how much I love Chessington.
We must be in double figures for visits this year by now and no plans of stopping yet.
Today was a fantastic day at my beloved, with no closed rides, only one breakdown (and a delay on Dragon's Fury while we were on that wasn't a breakdown), two fantastic rides on the bigger coasters, however the sad news that Bubbleworks would be closing in September.
First things first I went on Dragons Fury via Single Rider queue, the weight in the car was unbalanced and span loads, it was brilliant. So brilliant that it turned Dragon's Fury into my favourite ride for about an hour. I actually came off shaking with adrenaline for the first time since my first ride on it.
Next we got the ride access pass and headed to Trail of the Kings and Hocus Pocus Hall. I personally didn't go in (my mum said I wouldn't have liked it in there anyway) instead sitting outside checking the forums and listening to "Hocusssss Pocussssssss!" Over and over again coming from the exit, which was annoying. Then we headed for lunch at Pizza Pasta, where I didnt eat much for once. Over lunch we made the plan for Tomb Blaster, Dragon Falls, Bubbleworks and Vampire.
Now, Tomb Blaster was... interesting. A few effects I didn't know about were working including some jumpscares (I don't think they were intentional... but scared the living daylight out of me) and all the audio was a bit louder. By the end of my ride me and my sister where nearly fearing for our lives. Fair to say Bubbleworks was interesting too (get on to that in a minute). Can't remember the exact scores but my sister came first (embarrassing, especially as I got a heavy lead at the start) I came second and mum came miles behind. So yeah, my heart was... faster than usual.
Then we went on Dragon Falls which was normal. Thankfully no phones lost this time. We took a (not so short) detour because my sister wanted to ride Toadies, which I haven't been on for a year or two and it just worsens each year. The (possibly new) on board soundtrack was quite nice if a little annoying. Now, Bubbleworks. It's almost as if it's throwing a tantrum because it doesn't want to go. Broke down loads over the last few days being one of the only rides to do so today. It also really creaked at the start, and unless they have added a new sound effect creaked at the lift hill too, which scared me after the Tomb Blaster experience (I was a bit jumpy).
Now, onto Vampire. If you've read any one of my posts this season you'll know how much I adore this wonderful piece of machinery. After riding it on the fourth row, however, I began to lean towards Dragons Fury and after my first ride today Fury had well overtaken Vampy. This ride was set to undo that. Back left, seemed alot faster, alot more airtime on the second drop (my favourite part of Vampire), and apart from the usual jolts near the second lift hill and going into/inside the tunnel it was actually really smooth. I didn't hit my head once even if I hurt my shoulders somehow (think it was the way I pressed them up against the restraints, it went away as soon as I came off). Perfect and was enough to put it back on top again. After this we headed to Scorpion Express, YooHoo to pass the time before we could go on Rattlesnake via RAP, then Rattlesnake which my sister is somehow still not tall enough to ride! Loading was weird as they wouldn't put anyone on the back row unless they were in a group of 3 or 4. Overall it was normal. After this we headed to Dragon's Fury again, this time with mum, where the weight was unbalanced again meaning a great ride (we span loads on the bunny hop). We got stuck in the station for about 5 minutes, believe somebody wet themself...
After this came Griffins Galleon which has been reverted to its old soundtrack, then Black Bucaneer, my first ride on. Mum wouldn't come on with me so I queued. It was nearly walk on (got on the next ride) despite the board saying it was 45 minutes. I needed to join someone elses row so a nice family let me sit with them, they spoke to me (as did the woman on Dragons Fury the first time) asking if Id been on before and if I was scared. I was scared but loved it by the end and I'm dragging my dad on with me next time.
MERCH
Dragon's Fury Keyring (for me)
New Yellow Map Pen (for me)
Millions Tube (does that even count?) (for sister)
Next blog post will be tommorow at Cadbury World, then on Sunday at Gulliver's, then Alton Towers Monday, again Friday, the July round up thing on the 30th and probably LL Discovery Centre/Trafford Centre inbetween.
So my last blog lasted long. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up-to-date with this one.
This blog will be divided into three sections:
My News: Stuff I'm doing (theme park related)
UK Theme Park News (that you probably wouldn't have heard about)
International Theme Park News (that you proabably won't have heard about)
Anyway, on with proceedings.
MY NEWS
I'm going to Alton Towers in July!
We're going to be staying in the cottage I mentioned in the Places near Alton Towers topic and eating in the Rollercoaster Restaurant, as well as hopefully riding my first upside down coaster! Well also be going to Gullivers Land, Discovery Centre and probably Cadburys World too!
UK THEME PARK NEWS
LEGOLAND are at it again! If you don't love Miniland you don't love at all. This time they've thrown the Queen a miniature LEGO Birthday Party! http://royalcentral.co.uk/uk/thequeen/legoland-version-of-queens-birthday-took-650-hours-to-build-61395
INTERNATIONAL THEME PARK NEWS
Power outage in North Carolina leaves riders stranded hundreds of feet in air: http://abcnews.go.com/US/20-riders-stranded-theme-park-ride-nc/story?id=39753172
So thanks for reading! I should be going to LEGOLAND or Chessington, maybe Thorpe soon so will blog wherever we go!
Today, I was on park at LEGOLAND.
And before I say anything, today was one of the WORST DAYS I have had at LEGOLAND. So let me talk you through it.
We got there 45 minutes after opening time, which isn't bad. We then queued up for a ride access pass, which took a long time. Isn't it slightly stupid making people who can't queue, well... queue?
Finally we got one, and we walked down the hill to the left, as the way down to Viking's was packed. The weather wasn't the best. Grey skies and very, VERY humid. By the time we got to LEGO City it was 11:20, so we decided to have lunch in the Pizza Pasta buffet, before it got busy. The Diet Coke tasted like water with a hint of Tesco Cola, and I hate Tesco Cola. I had normal Coke in the end, which tasted better than Diet and better than the last time I had regular, albeit that was due to a mix up in the Pizza Pasta at Chessie.
After three platefuls of Pizza and Garlic Bread (there was no Bolognese!), we headed to the Heartlake Express, where a group pushed in front of us in the Q-Bot queue, however we still got on the ride. Speaking of Heartlake Express, it had a 45 minute queue, as did at least one ride in every area of the park. What was strange about the queue times is on a day when the park is heaving, only one or two rides in each area had 20 mins-1 hour queue, the rest having 5 minutes. Anyway, I really do like what they did to Orient Expedition, as they managed to maintain the ride as it was, while improving it by adding the wonderful narration by Bertie, even if you can't hear it very well over the other people talking about the, albeit amazing, LEGO Models.
They also managed to improve the ride a lot since I last visited, which keep in mind, was only on the 21 July. For example, there is a cobra which I've never noticed before, which squirts water at you. Even if the cobra was there before, I never remembered it spraying water. Also, they've fixed some effects, such as when Sam Sinister stands with the TNT around him, he now pushes down on the lever. They also have fixed the gorilla that used to move towards you, but broke. Shame they haven't fixed the masks on the bridge though.
After Heartlake Express, we went on the also new (or, rethemed) Coastguard HQ. I very much like this ride, and I'm not sure what's better, the original Boating School or this one. You still drive, and it has a lot more of a story to it, as well as numerous effects (most of which involve water). After this we went on Atlantis. We were supposed to be in the Blue zone, which I vastly prefer as it is at the front of the sub, but the people in Red went in Blue anyway. Thanks.
In fact, we encountered a lot of people like this today, people who seemingly do their best to walk the opposite direction to you, but in your exact path, then wait for you to move out of the way. And people who either walk at around one mile per day, don't look where they're going, or stop every five nanoseconds. Then again, this is probably to be expected on a heaving day like this one.
It was on Atlantis that we somehow managed to lose the Ride Access Pass. What makes it worse is that we only noticed once we tried to get on Dino Safari. Once arriving at the Heartlake Guest Services they told us we could only have one with five tokens left. Eventually, they said we could have seven tokens.
After Dino Safari, we went on Squid Surfer. It was from here on that the day started to get a lot better. Squid Surfer is on my list of Top 10 rides at the park, and today was no different. In fact, it was made better, by the fact that the plug-like thing at the bottom of the gondola was slightly loose, meaning water sprayed up into our boat.
After this we headed for Spinning Spider, but was sidetracked when we saw the sign for Longboat Invader just before the entrance to Pirate Shores.
After an absolutely amazing ride on Invader, which seemed faster than usual and gave me a lot more airtime, we entered Loki's Labrynth, where we sorta kinda cheated by accident. Whoops.
After Loki's we rode Spinning Spider, which was also very good. We span a lot faster than usual. And the spider animatronic above the ride seemed to be running better today, which was a bonus. For some reason, I never get as dizzy on Spider as I do on, say, Marauder's Mayhem.
After Spider we got popcorn, rode the Hill Train back to the top, refilled our drinks vessels and headed home.
Today was a very different day at LEGOLAND, as we tried to avoid the rides we do every time, and focused more on the rides we normally bypass, and in the end I quite enjoyed it.
However, pre-Squid Surfer was a nightmare.
EDIT: I still haven't got on Mia's Riding Adventure yet. Broke down about four times first time I saw it, and it looked like it was off again today, too.
