"We'll Leave When We're Done And I Think We're Done"

[Mega-Lite]

Just when you thought it was safe to get back on the forums, I'm back, back from Scarefest no less.

 

Our story begins with me dropping my friend off at the car hire place, so he could rent a spacious beast for all his work related crap, it turns out Merlin have acquired the place because it took us 45 unorganised minutes before we were ready to set off.

 

On route to our hotel in Stoke we decided to grab the cred at...

 

St Nicholas Park - https://rcdb.com/14020.htm

 

My f**k awful sat nav managed to take me a locked Victorian gate in the centre of Warwick high street, meaning my friend had to bail me out and manually direct me using a map over the phone, Garmin, you've just made my list.

 

Finally made my way into the correct car park, blaring the Helix theme of course and after paying for parking it was time to go.

 

On the way to the cred, several teens on bikes stared us down, if only they knew.

 

Upon entering the "fun park" we noticed "roller coaster" had been covered over on the pricing sign but we just assumed it had gone up in price. We were wrong of course and after walking the park twice and asking a member of staff it was clear the cred had gone, SPITE!

 

As of TODAY the cred is now listed as "defunct" on rcdb, I have a theory, Benin did this to spite me.

 

That night we eased the pain with Lemon & Slime cake bars.

 

Sunday now and time for Alton Towers. Had one of the best drives of my life to the park, God I love the Alton roads.

 

Walked straight onto The Staller, still a great coaster in my eyes and it was running smoother than I remember, beautiful.

 

Then went over to Bliv and walked (500 miles) straight onto it, they are dual loading again which is great but are still keeping you on the end blocks for far too long, which is s**t.

 

Hex next, pretty much the only reason I visit the park anymore and as expected it was fantastic.

 

Time for 13 now and the coaster itself was riding great but operations were awful, 2 trains during Scarefest, f**k off.

 

Walked past a broken down Rita on way to Burger Kitchen, food was fine.

 

Rita was now at 45 minutes and that wasn't going to happen.

 

Went to Duel via Pointless Weapon 8, still not doing it for me, sorry. Duel's always been a favourite of mine and this time was no exception, don't ever let Merlin "refurb" this.

 

Sit back, it's Nemesis time, the coaster that's sitting 10th on my top 10 list and is still making me question if it belongs there. It's an amazing roller coaster but I seem to be less blown away every time I go back, it's sad.

 

Craplactica next, was s**t. Flying Dinosaur is so insane it has killed B&M for me and more than anything makes Craplactica look like such a waste of time.

 

It was 2pm now and we had ridden everything we wanted. Instead of deciding to wait around for 5 hours to do the same rides again in the dark we opted to bail on Alton Towers and try for another new cred.

 

Clifton Park Amusements - https://rcdb.com/6129.htm

 

It was Rotherham or bust and we drove the hour and 20 minute drive towards Sheffield.

 

This time I followed my friend to avoid sat nav related incidents and it wasn't too long before we were all parked up.

 

Roller Coaster - https://rcdb.com/3869.htm

 

The cred was only a pound, has to be one of the cheapest pay per ride coasters in the country.

 

Drove back to the hotel in Stoke very happy with myself.

 

I was already planning to avoid Merlin UK parks for the first time in years next year (with the exception of Pointless Weapon) and this just helped me validate that more.

 

Alton Towers, a park I used to allow 2 days for, has become a park I can't spend a whole day at anymore. I believe a combination of too many amazing international park trips and a stark decline in Alton Towers as a park have led me to this, either way it's rather depressing.

[Benin]

Oh, well at least I can ignore St Nicholas Park's existence if the cred is dead...