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Adventure Island - Southend


Jamie_Hk

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The old dock and quay area has been opened up as a bit of space with seating. As bland as it does look (clearly only temporary for the rest of the season) a bit of open space with seating is something missing from Adventure Island. But, I guess with little space available they want to develop rides/attractions on as much as possible.

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An idea has been thought up though.

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So whilst it is just an idea it's not a bad one at that and seems like it would utilise the space great and boost year round tourism to Southend. I think out of all the possibilities, this has the most potential as it would offer more than a thrill ride as such.

Images from Adventure Island Guide.

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  • 2 months later...

I visited AI on the last day of the season (wrist bands were half price) - was a lot better than I expected and the staff working there were really friendly.

Enjoyed Rage but it isn't a patch on Saw - I quite like the yellow track but the pink(ish) trains mixed with it reminds me of a batternburg cake!

They seem to have a lot of spin 'n' spew rides there - the only one I didn't do was Scorpion as it is very similar to Calgary Stampede which was at TP before Samurai and left me feeling really sick.

Vortex looks a lot worse than it actually is and Time Machine is the opposite - was stood watching it thinking "yeah that doesn't look too bad" - WRONG! If you have a strong stomach and don't mind looking up at the sky (I HATE looking at the sky - yes, I am odd) then you would enjoy it. I honestly thought I would either faint, vomit, or get catapulted out of the thing - could hardly walk after going on it. Glad that I experienced it but - never again :P

Was really impressed with their ghost train - "Over The Hill" - for a small park it is an excellent ride. I was just expecting a few sheets hanging around with holes poked out for eyes but was so wrong and I actually screamed at one point :ph34r:

Dragons Claw I really liked - it looks very much like a mini KMG Afterburner with very similar restraints and I was surprised that it didn't make me feel ill. Went on this twice although second time, the restraints refused to unlock after the ride had ended - there was a kid sat near me panicking but the staff sorted it out really quickly and got an engineer to sort it out within 5 minutes - I think had I been stuck in there for longer I would have started to panic.

All in all, really enjoyed Adventure Island - and hope to go back at some point in the future

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Time Machine is the opposite - was stood watching it thinking "yeah that doesn't look too bad" - WRONG! If you have a strong stomach and don't mind looking up at the sky (I HATE looking at the sky - yes, I am odd) then you would enjoy it. I honestly thought I would either faint, vomit, or get catapulted out of the thing - could hardly walk after going on it. Glad that I experienced it but - never again :P

Was really impressed with their ghost train - "Over The Hill" - for a small park it is an excellent ride. I was just expecting a few sheets hanging around with holes poked out for eyes but was so wrong and I actually screamed at one point :ph34r:

I want to say again how much I love Time Machine, probably my favourite un-themed flat ride! I haven't done Over the Hill for a couple of years, I'll assume they've tarted it up a bit if you thought it was excellent, it was looking pretty tired last time I rode even if some of the ideas and tricks are quite good.

For an amusement park I think Adventure Island punches above its weight and is a bit under rated, it has a good selection of rides and for the most part is well run and presented.

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Just thinking about Time Machine make me feel a little bit :bad: - I don't have the strongest of stomachs and the anti-sickness pills that I take just didn't cut it with that ride - I get dizzy quite easily which doesn't help BUT I do think if I didn't have the nausea and dizziness I would have probably loved it. It is pretty unique ride - although a tad difficult to get out of once the cycle has finished as you are almost horizontal. I think the bit that got me was when it starts sort of going backwards - I don't do going backwards extremely well :o

Totally agree that Adventure Island is under rated - it does have a nice selection of rides and caters for all ages. Bit of a bummer that you have to pay extra for the dodgems and go karts but hey ho.

Not sure if Over The Hill has had anything done to it over the past couple of years - am I right in thinking that it opened in 2008? I think I liked it so much because to be honest I was expecting a load of c**p - having been on several ghost trains when I was little which were about as scary as a basket of kittens. Went on it 4 times and one time it had quite a queue - favourite part is towards then end when you reach the "exit"

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  • 2 months later...

All I'll say is... I would rather be trapped on Furious Baco and forced to ride it all day long than go on Time Machine ever again.

Man up!

It is amazing, as long as you like that sort of thing. It must have been signed off so be within whatever rules there are to govern such things, but I would think it is right on the limit of the amount of sustained g's your are allowed to be subjected to. It is insane, in the best way possible.

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They knocked down a rather good (and not that small) log flume to make room for rage. I thought that was a bit of a shame, I know they are very tight on space but there were other things I'd have rathered they moved. But as a largely pay per ride place I guess the numbers didn't add up to make it pay, so I very much doubt we'll see one return.

Starflyers suck, especially in windy coastal places where it'd spend half it's time shut. I really hope that doesn't happen, along with the dull looking Southend Eye, and they come up with something much better instead.

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I think it's quite common that the Dragon Claw will only operate with four of its six arms connected during the winter months,whilst they do maintenance to the other two arms in the meantime.

I'm not sure if it's usually like this after half term, but remember Adventure Island Guide (AIG) used to show photos of the ride during its annual maintenance. Maybe they're behind schedule this year in relation to the bad weather we've recently received.

In sad news, Adventure Island guide, the only fan site to the park AFAIK who always gave major updates of the park is sadly shutting down, which is a great shame IMO.

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Thanks for your support, it's sad it has to close but the situation is what it is. The park don't want me to use their name or logo any more, I could argue it but there's no point, I don't want to keep a site going that won't be able to provide the same quality of updates as it has in the past.

If AI ever builds another big coaster I'm sure I'll take photos and put them online somewhere, so not all is lost!

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Has Adventure Island always had such happy and interactive staff?

Because they were pretty decent yesterday... That feeling of sincere questions of how your day is and just general enthusiasm is something that Merlin need to figure out how to do...

Perhaps the lack of people helped? But even so they were still rather efficient at their jobs, filling up rides and being generally decent staff...

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I've always found them to be like that Benin, it makes it such a great place to be. There are rarely queses but they always rattle through them while still keeping it friendly, the different mind set between pay per ride and pay per long queue I guess!

The only exception for some reason have been the ops on Rage, who seem to want to talk among themselves at every opportunity and interact with the guests as little as possible, maybe it is because they are on the biggest ride and are therefore the cool kids?

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