ben199

Headphones, I like taking in the world around me when listening to music. RMC or hyper at Thorpe?

When did the Colossus music take over the rest of the area? As much as I like it I wouldn't want it playing round half the park! Does Quantum still have its very grand soundtrack?

Absolutely hands down Colossus. It's just so distinctive and even though it's about ten minutes long it never repeats itself too much. And while technically not a theme park soundtrack, I love the music that plays in the Jurassic Park section of IOA, it sets the tone for the area and ride so well and just feels magical

I used to work on Dino Safari at Legoland where there's a similar smoke effect at the volcano bit. The amount of people who reported that to me as a fire or malfunction when they got off was actually frightening. People are really thick sometimesSent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

So yesterday I visited Oakwood, a park I'd read and heard a lot about but hadn't actually been to yet. I was really excited about the two main coasters but curious as to what the rest of the park would be like. First off this park is a nightmare to get to. I'm a student in Swansea so got a direct train from there to Narberth then from there you can either get a taxi or walk five miles to the park. I figured out that if I got a taxi both ways it would cost almost as much as my train and park ticket combined so I bit the bullet and walked. The first few miles I had a great time, it was a sunny morning and the countryside was lush but the final mile was down a busy A road with no pavement or grassy verves at the side so I had to walk on the actual road against the flow of traffic the whole way. After a bit Drenched and Speed loomed up in the distance and the excitement kicked in and soon enough I was at the entrance. Outside there was a sign informing that Drenched would be closed all day then when I bought my ticket the man in the booth also told me this just to be sure I still wanted to come in. I was really surprised at this and it shows great transparency by the park. Considering the closed ride was a soaker and the temperature that day never went above ten degrees yet the park still made such an effort to communicate this to guests was great. I'm fairly certain Towers don't even have any signs up by the entrance and they have about seven rides closed! I was also informed upon buying my ticket that Megafobia was currently down and would be up within the next hour (it opened about twenty minutes after I entered the park), again great communication Scorecard: Speed x 3 Megafobia x 5 Bobsleigh x 2 Bounce x 1 Spooky 3D x 1 Onto the ride reviews! Megafobia - This was by far the ride I was most excited about, I'd heard so many good things about how it's possibly the best coaster in the UK so while going up the lift hill for the first time about 20% of me was expecting this to be better and as intense as Nemesis. And yeah, it's not. But that's not the point of the ride which I soon realised. I managed to get on the first ride of the day in the front seat and came off really disappointed. In the front there's only about two pops of decent airtime and no floater at all over the camelbacks. I'd heard it also takes time to warm up and get faster so I went and did some other stuff and came back a bit later for a back seat ride and **** me, this ride is nuts in a decent seat! In the back you get sucked down the first drop and all the ones after the turnarounds so fast. As soon as you begin to crest the drops your whole body shoots up against the lapbar and stays there most of the way down and the camelbacks give some fairly decent floater. On the final out and back there's also some nice bits where you start to bank and turn mid hill which throws you off guard (and against the lap bars and the side of the train!) as the rest of the ride before it is mainly straight hills followed by a turnaround. It's got a good pace to it too, it's pretty much constant action the whole way round and it lasts a really long time compared to most UK coasters. It's rough too but not uncomfortably so, just as much as you'd expect for a woodie really. I'd go as far to say it's the best family coaster in the country. While there's lots of airtime I don't think the whole experience is that intense and over the course of the day I saw a lot of elderly and young people leave with huge grins. I definitely set my expectations too high for this, it's a brilliant ride but not really a white knuckle, intense AF thrill machine. Spooky 3D - Now this was the complete opposite of my experience on Megafobia. When I heard this ride was a ghost train with 3D elements I assumed it would just be a load of corridors splattered with UV paint. And yeah, it kind of is but there's some cool effects in there and I jumped out my skin at least twice, especially one scene involving a well timed snake strike out of nowhere accompanied with a water jet. The 3D glasses are great too, unlike HPH at Chessington some of the stuff on the walls does actually look 3D. The best bit about this ride though is how trippy and confusing the glasses make everything. With them on everything goes a bit blurry and you can't really judge depth of view that well, especially in the dark so a lot of the time it's impossible to figure out what path the vehicle will take through the building. This is great for a ghost train, as well as not knowing where and what is going to jump out at you, you also have no clue whether the bit of darkness in front of you is a wall or the empty space in front of your car or when you're going to turn or go straight ahead into the dark blurryness. Reading back I really did not explain that clearly but yeah, great dark ride but without the glasses it would be awful. Speed - Absolutely loved this ride. I've got a real soft spot for Eurofighters, I love how exposed the tiny cars feel and there's always a great mix of inversions and airtime. This one's slightly taller than Saw and it's actually really noticeable as soon as you start climbing the hill but the drop feels pretty much identical. The camelback that follows is absolutely ridiculous, in terms of ejector air I'd say it's easily as strong as the speed hill on Shambhala after the ampersand, just not nearly as sustained. The overbank and loop that follow are decent and as you'd expect (I'm not a fan of loops but I liked how this one was completely circular and went quite slow round the top) then you hit the MCBR. From here it goes a bit slow and doesn't really kick into gear again until the last half of the final helix at which point you're only a few seconds away from the brakes anyway. Having now been on all 3 UK eurofighters, I reckon it goes Saw>Speed>Rage. Speed gains a load of points for the mental camelback (I cannot stress enough how amazing and powerful this element is) but Saw overall feels snappier and better paced. Speed beats Rage hands down though (and unsurprisingly so considering it's essentially the same layout but taller and with the camelback). Bounce - The one disappointing ride of the day was this, the parks shot tower. The initial launch was reasonably forceful but it slows down too gradually at the top so that there's no airtime whatsoever on the bounces. Then when this sequence is done the gondala rises slowly to the top, waits a second and then is shot down. Except it's not because it launches with the force of a frog hopper (sadly not even an exaggeration, there was just no force or airtime at all) then there's a few more bounces and you're done. By far the worst thrill flat ride I've ever done but it does have an awesome view from the top. Bobsleigh - I really enjoyed the bobsleigh. You sit in a tiny tray with no restraints by yourself, get hoisted up a lift hill by a cable then crest down a metal slide with turns. In the cart you have a brake handle, I think I made it round the first two turns full pelt before panicking and braking (there's a sign at the entrance saying to be careful not flip the carts over!). It's really nice to see a family ride that can also be thrilling if you make it so. Something like this would never exist in a Merlin park so well done Oakwood for keeping something open that could genuinely injure you. I was wondering at what point does a ride like this become a credit? On RCDB this doesn't come up yet something like Avalance does, is it to do with how the vehicles attach to the lift hill and station? Overall the park is a bit bare and there's virtually no theming outside of the Neverland bit but I don't think there needs to be as everything is clean and landscaped well to be presentable. The day I visited was absolutely dead, both coasters were on one train and going round half full more often than not which was great as they let you stay in your seat and reride as long as no one was waiting for your seat, something I wish every park allowed. The staff were all consistently friendly and helpful too which adds a lot to the day and even though there were no queues they were still checking restraints and dispatching the rides with a sense of urgency. At one point Megafobia was E stopped due to a stupid woman letting her kid play underneath the brake run and this was resolved with the ride back up and running within five minutes which I was impressed by, the maintenance guy popped up almost as soon as the operator put the phone down! So all in all this is a great park for the size that it is. I wouldn't recommend making a ridiculously long journey just for this but if you live fairly nearby or are in Wales this is definitely worth a visit. Thanks for reading everyone

Thinking I might go this weekend, does anyone know if Megafobia and Bounce are back up? Really excited about Speed and Megafobia, from POVs they look like they probably have the best airtime in the UK so will be interesting to see how they deliver Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

I think the appeal of this park is it probably has the best mix of coasters, flats, water rides and dark rides in the country even though nothing is particularly outstanding other than the flats and possibly the water rides. I can definitely see why enthusiasts slate the coasters but for a park I rarely visit I love how weird and unique they are Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

Hello everyone! So today I had a spur of the moment trip to Drayton Manor and had a great time. I used to come here quite a lot as a kid but haven't visited since the day before G Force opened in 2005 (first ever spite! ) so it was interesting to see both how the park has changed and what it's like visiting as an adult. I didn't take any pictures so I'll give a rundown and my views of everything I went on Scorecard: G Force x4 Shockwave x4 Apocalypse x3 Maelstrom x6 Ben 10 x2 Pandemonium x1 Air Race x1 Having been to AT last weekend for the John Lewis event I decided to give the opening day a miss and head to Drayton instead. This decision definitely paid off as the place was dead! Even though both the coasters were only on one train I was always straight on the next one and a lot of the rides were even going round half empty. Unfortunately all three dark rides (Pirates, Golden Nuggets and Haunting) were down for maintenance which coupled with the terribly bleak weather meant I didn't do any dark or water rides but I knew this in advance so didn't mind too much. From my memories as a ten year old Pirates Adventure was as good as POTC at Disney so maybe it was for the best I didn't ride it again and tarnish that G Force: So after 11 years of waiting this was my moment! I headed here straight away knowing full well it would probably be rubbish but after longing so much to ride it on my last visit I had a glimmer of hope that it would actually be half decent. And to be honest it was. Now I'm not saying this is a great ride but it definitely doesn't deserve all the hate it gets. First off I actually really like the inverted lift hill, obviously I'm glad it hasn't caught on with other rides but as a one off it's a really unique way to start and to be honest I'd probably like the ride even less if it just had a regular first drop given how short the maximum height is. The feeling you get as you start sliding out of your seat when you're upside down only to be caught back by the train once you come down is great and the way the headrush from all the blood lasts right to the bottom of the drop makes the whole thing disorientating and even more intense but in a pleasant way as it clears as soon as you hit the camelback. As for the camelback itself I'm not a big fan of it, there's a glimmer of airtime in the front car as you crest the top of the hill but the rest of it is a complete non event wherever you sit. If they had made it a bit lower and allowed for a significant pop of airtime it would really have brought the averageness of the coaster up. Onto the immelman next and this is where the ride starts falling apart for me as it's just so dull I can barely remember it. You go upside down, it was alright, you move onto the next element. Bland and forceless. The next bit is fun though, is it an immelman? Is it an overbank? I have no clue but it's a funky little element but still a bit forceless. Then after this you reach the grand finale of two 180 degree turns back into the station, is that really it?! If this first turn was a bit lower to the ground and heavily overbanked I think it could be quite an exciting finish but then you'd still have the pleasant little meander up to the brakes because the station is so damn high up. But yeah, in conclusion, the lift hill is actually good but the main layout needs some work. And the whole thing is so hideously rough, that's actually my main gripe with this ride. Have any of you guys ridden it in it's opening few years and can confirm if it's always been like this? Apocalypse: This is one stonking ride. I'm a sucker for a drop tower and this is the ultimate one really. Unfortunately the stand up floorless was closed today but having been on the one on Hurakan Condor last year I know that it's a wonderfully exposed sense of freefall followed by possibly the most painful set of brakes on a ride. At Drayton stand up was my favourite, I love how it tilts you forward at the start of the ascent so you get an amazing view the whole way up. Looking down at your whole body and all the empty space below is exhilarating and makes the build up to the drop much more exciting than with the sit down. In terms of the drop I loved the length but found Detonator to be slightly more forceful, especially at the beginning. Is this because Detonator pushes the gondala down somehow or does the track have less friction? Shockwave: I really enjoyed Shockwave but I feel that it's a great idea poorly executed. When I was little I used to love bombing down hills on my roller blades; something that combines standing up, a sense of vulnerability, high speeds and adrenaline. This should translate perfectly to a coaster experience, however Shockwave is not that coaster. It starts great, the first drop is a lot like Nemesis' in that it gradually builds and doesn't really have a main part. There's even a nice pop of airtime in the back once it hits the straight bit. The loop is even better, feeling the positive G's travel all the way through your body right to your feet is a unique experience. It's enough to make you tense your legs to ensure you stay upright but not enough to worry about them buckling. All this is brilliant as it's so unique to a stand up coaster but the Zero G and corkscrews that follow demonstrate the stand up being really poorly utilised. If you've ever ridden Nemesis with your hands on your lap you'll know that it's a bit difficult to keep your upper body straight and tense the whole way round so you don't keep bashing yourself against the harness. On Shockwave as soon as you enter the elements that contain laterals (Zero G and corkscrews) you've not only got to keep your upper body in check but also your lower body so you don't get flung around too much. For me this just took too much concentration to enjoy the layout and flow of these elements (the constant rattle throughout doesn't help either). This is where I'll come back to the whole roller blading thing, it's in the moments where Shockwave is like roller blading down a hill (the drop, loop [to some extent], straight section and turn after the corkscrews) that it really comes alive and is a smooth, fun experience. The vulnerability you feel coasting along the track standing up at a high speed is exhilarating whereas the twistier sections I mentioned before just aren't as much fun and kill the flow. This all sounded a lot more concise in my head but I think I got down what I mean! I had a great time riding Shockwave today, it's a really enjoyable coaster and the fact it's the only one of its kind in the UK makes it even more special Air Race: This wasn't quite what I was expecting. In my mind I imagined the ride would consist of Sky Force style quick snappy inversions but in reality it was a lot slower and floatier. It's a decent flat but once was enough for me Maelstrom: This ride is the holy grail of Drayton Manor. Absolute flat ride perfection. I adore airtime on rides and this possibly has the most of any ride in the country. Another thing I loved was how every seat gives an equally perfect ride unlike Vortex where it's 50/50 whether you'll get to the high point of the swing or not Ben 10: Before I visited I wasn't sure whether I wanted to ride this or not but upon seeing the size of it (it's huge in real life compared to pictures) and watching a train absolutely storm through the first turn I was excited to jump in the queue. The queue itself is possibly the best one in the country theming wise so I was surprised when it ended and led me to a station building that was uglier and barer than Fury's. The ride itself was great for a family coaster, I loved the laser/explosion sound effect when the train reversed. It's little things like that which really make a ride stand out. Great stuff Pandemonium: Another ride that was much better than I thought it would be. Having no floors really made a difference when hanging upside down, you feel so free and exposed if you sit at the front and the whole thing is nicely intense without being too sickly. I think I preferred this to Air Race Thanks for reading my rambles and have a lovely evening everyone