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Adventure Island - Southend


Jamie_Hk

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Little trip report from today

Rage - lost count at least more than 20 times!

Claw - twice

Everything else at least once or twice

The staff were EXCELLENT! The rage crew were so funny and awesome! All the staff were chatty and ended up knowing me by name! The rage crew were doing thumbs up to me and nodding their heads and saying "you wanted it to come true!" when I went on Rage with Sam Callahan.

Adventure island is an amazing park. :)

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Time machine is amazing but horrible! I went on it in the pouring rain and it hurt so badly! My mums cousin came with me to make sure I was ok but he couldnt go on it and I stayed on for a third time. Bad idea. I also went on over the hill which is AMAZING! The exit part is awesome and very creepy with that guy saying"come back here I'm not done with you yet!"

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I don't get why everyone thinks the staff are so amazing, I remember going the same day as toofpikk and just not enjoying the park anymore fair enough it's worth the free entry and a free wristband as being an annual pass holder gets me a free ticket. There are some staff members that really should not be there. And to think I applied here not getting the job via Facebook. The last time I checked £4.08 an hour is below minimum wage. I will only now go down for the last day of the season and decide wether I want to go to adventure island anymore. It even makes thorpe park staff look so much better.

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The staff on the day I visited were all chatty and really kind. The rage staff were so funny and they let me leave my stuff on the platform since I went on it multiple times. We had a good laugh everytime I went on it. The over the hill ride operator was scaring the riders which was funny. The guy working on archelon was chatting to me about my day and talking to me about the fact I was going to see Sam that night. The staff were super friendly. Maybe this is not always the case but on the day I visited they were lovely and that was in the rain and they were still happy and enjoyable!

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  • 2 weeks later...

How comes rage no longer plays the announcement "RAGE FOR SUPERHEROS ONLY' anymore?

I go a lot and I'm pretty sure it's been gone for around two years, at the very least definitely a year. I haven't heard it once throughout the entire 2014 season and if I renember correctly also didn't hear it during 2013..

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Tell you what, I was impressed by AI when I visited Sunday...

 

It does rest upon the ride staff, who clearly do enjoy themselves there, and when there's interaction (or #banta) it doesn't feel forced or annoying in the same way that I've suffered stuff at places like Chessie (Fury staff and the 'flap your wings like a dragon to dispatch' debacle)...

 

The guy on Skateboarder especially was hilarious, as he used the height stick as both a guitar and microphone throughout the day...

 

Park was very clean, only disappointment was that Sky Drop was dead...

 

Would really like to see the park expand more in the future, especially given how the indoor area construction seems to have completely halted, which is strange...

 

If people moan about closed season this year, this will be one of the parks I recommend people visit during that time...

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Used to have a big sign outside 'Open every day except Christmas Day', but that went quite a few years ago and is now fully seasonal. Shame, but understandable.

 

I do believe for the past two years they have actually opened the park for christmas, however only a few small attractions are open, whilst a grotto type thing takes place in the building the scare maze is held in at Fright Fantastic..

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This is my opinion this year of Fright Night.

Ok, so I just went down to see how Fright Fantastic is this year.

You know, Adventure Island could do so much with this one week of the year. They could make it into the best family Halloween event in the region, they could compete with the big leagues, but something's stopping them. I don't know if it's a lack of willing to put money into it, or a lack of drive, passion and vision, but whatever it is, the event has regressed even further than last year and it's barely even noticeable now.

There are a couple of scenes around the park, though less than last year, and a few plastic pumpkins on the lamp posts. There are some spider web decorations on the ticket box. That's pretty much as far as it goes - if you didn't know the event was on, you wouldn't know by being there either. It's like an afterthought.

The park entrance music is no different to any other time of the year. The parkwide audio is Southend Radio. Why? Apparently senior management don't want it changed. There's no Halloween atmosphere at all. Some of the staff have put a cape on or drawn cat whiskers on their face, but people aren't making an effort with it, probably because the 'reward' of a few extra customer service assessment points isn't as enticing as an extra £1 an hour pay, with a cash prize at the end for the best one.

So whilst the park as a whole doesn't feel remotely Halloweeny, maybe the two attractions do? Erm... Maybe not. Trick or Treat was closed. Closed! An hour before the park closes, they close the attraction. No sign saying so, no forewarning of this online or anywhere else, I only found out because I asked at Customer Services. Most of the staff didn't know it was closed at all let alone why. The only clue was a barrier in front of the door. The audio was playing, but the door was fenced off.

Over to Black Scream. Let's start outside - there's a smoke machine (the only one I saw in the whole park) but it's set to fire for 15 seconds with a 200 second gap - I noticed this because the controller is sat on the wall in full reach of guests! So there's never any smoke, and in any case, the machine was out of fluid. I got there to find the chain across the entrance, because they were switching an actor for breaks. It took nearly ten minutes for them to reopen. I have no idea.

Last year it had a cast of four, maybe five if there was someone spare. That wasn't enough for a building that size - for perspective, Studio 13 at Thorpe is not a vast amount bigger but has a cast of 25 actors. This year Black Scream's dropped to three. One host, one in the cage and one at the end - but there's no big chase-out finale, it's a new character who slowly follows you carrying a music box. How does that fit into the story of a travelling wax museum?

This might sound like I'm being grumpy because I'm not involved this year, but I'm really not - I want to see the park succeed and I want to see an awesome Halloween event in my home town. But after seeing it grow and develop from 2009 to 2012, and then seeing how much it's fallen back down over the last couple of years, it doesn't look like that can be found here.

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I must confess to not having ever been to one of their Halloween events. Didn't even know they did them to be honest, which might be part of the problem - I only live 20 mins away but I've seen no promotion for it at all.

I can understand their apprehension in putting money into going all out for Halloween, because of the sort of park they are they are so massively reliant on the weather, and this late in the year the odds are stacked against them to hit a warm dry spell, that it'd probably make bad business sense to plan and pay for anything too extravagant. But then if they are going to do something they should do those things properly or they give themselves abad name, must be a fine line for them budget wise.

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  • 1 month later...

So then the construction of the new indoor play area has begun. The park has been releasing time lapse construction videos on their facebook page and have revealed that it is due to open for Spring 2015.

 

The area will be free to use for annual pass holders and admission is free for all like the rest of the park but I would assume that to go on the play equipment itself you will have to have a wristband of some sort.

 

"Second time lapse video of our new indoor fun park. 

the whole processes is being filmed with the final video being published on completion.

Opening Spring 2015, there will be rides, a large soft play area for toddlers and bigger kids, and a tunnel connecting it all to FeelgoodsPizza Pasta Play.
Admission is free if you just want to look round.

Free to use for annual pass holders with 20% off food, drink and Feelgoods prize arcade"

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Opening Spring 2015, there will be rides, a large soft play area for toddlers and bigger kids, and a tunnel connecting it all to Feelgoods Pizza Pasta Play.

Admission is free if you just want to look round.

Free to use for annual pass holders with 20% off food, drink and Feelgoods prize arcade

 

 

 

I'm sold.

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  • 2 months later...

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