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Mopping up UK credits- Great Yarmouth, PWH, Oakwood, Brean, West Midlands and more

SilverArrow

Certified Ride Geek
Various other combinations of people have been doing some weekend up cred mopping trips so I thought I'd start a thread that people can contribute to! The server keeps giving me errors with the photos so that's why they're smaller than they could be.

First up Great Yarmouth!

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Tubs is fab! So vintage and had been on my bucket list forever. It seemed to smash into each corner a bit (not sure if that was just the cars I went in or not) but that's to be expected with old style rides. So glad to finally get on it. Snails. erm, they're very close to being a cred but I didn't count it. The spook express was something a bit different and the undersea dark ride had cute, old school seahorse cars.

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Joyland is a really cute little park, the cartoon mountain is a fab touch and looks almost as if it would be at home in Japan as it's got that quirky cartoon vibe.
Afterwards we obviously got ice cream as that's what you do when you're at the seaside.

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Then gawped at a waterslide that had seen betters days.

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Before heading to Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach!
 

SilverArrow

Certified Ride Geek
Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach!

We had wristbands booked for the afternoon session as they're running 2 or 3 sessions everyday to allow for cleaning between rides.
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Obviously Roller Coaster was the highlight. Unfortunately due to assigned seating we didn't get the backseat but had a variety of other seats and it was a nice ride. A bit more to it than Dreamland's scenic and an all-round enjoyable experience! We mopped up various creds (I already had the wacky worm from Alton but did it again anyway) and did some of the other rides as well. We enjoyed a bit of the it's a small world soundtrack on the snails ride which was suspiciously dark inside. I did wonder if they had forgotten to turn the lights on as it was pretty creepy inside! Weird. The new ride Lightning 360 (which has since gone down for extended maintenance) was quite something. You manually control your spin but if you hit it wrong you can end up stuck half or fully upside down which is quite something! Also recommend spinning inwards instead of outwards as that is much, much more comfortable! Ghost train was ok, monorail was very scenic but also a bit precarious! Overall I enjoyed this park and think they've done a good job with their old rides which is nice to see. Once again pleased to have finally got here.

Next up, a rather awkward kiddie cred ride.
 

SilverArrow

Certified Ride Geek
I honestly thought I was going to fall over with dizziness while climbing out of the tub at the end. It's quite a ride.

Yeah they're quite something, especially with no restraint! We tried 3 adults at first which was a big squish, but 2 was just as bumpy just with a bit more personal space! ?
 

SilverArrow

Certified Ride Geek
We arrived at Hemsby Fun Park in the rain, as it has started raining as we left GYPB, but were undeterred in our quest for creds as were assured that the Caterpillar ride was in fact, running. Turns out things didn't entirely go to plan! Note the train lights flickering off as we ventured into the apple!


The ride is supposed to go round more than once but this was the only circuit we (barely) got! Once we returning to the station it wouldn't move an inch and we sat there whilst what seemed like the entire staff crew came to fiddle with the electrics and debated amongst themselves what was wrong until they finally gave up and we were offered a ride on the dogems as compensation for our incomplete kiddie cred ride! The shame! ?
 

SilverArrow

Certified Ride Geek
Next was Pettitts Adventure Park. This wasn't on the original plan but having seen a few enthusiasts visit without children and give decent reviews we decided it was worth it for the +2 and to see some animals.
I made a little montage video here:

The park was super cute, really well-kept and had lots to do, even for a group of adults!

We met the sassiest of little ponies, saw a very glammed up wacky worm, rode the little mine train coaster that barely made it up the lifthill and enjoyed the wonderfully budget gnome garden.collage.jpg

The park also has a nice train ride (as seen in the video) that only just opened before we left. The tickets also include free mini golf but we ran out of time for that as we had to get to Pleasurewood Hills.
 

MouseAT

Hyper Poster
Pettitts was just a quick in and out for a few of us when we visited a while back, as we literally just rode Rocky Roller Coaster before rushing off towards Hemsby and Great Yarmouth. In a way, it almost felt like a shame to cred run the place so quickly, as it the place looked like it was really well looked after, and that it'd had a lot of time and effort put into the place. At some point, I know I'll have to drag myself back down there for that second cred that they've decided to add, and I'd definitely like to set aside a few hours and check out the rest of the park when I do. It's one of those places that doesn't look ground breaking in any way, but just looks like it'd be a pleasant way to spend a morning or afternoon.
 

SilverArrow

Certified Ride Geek
Next up was Pleasurewood Hills!

A few of us (including me) had done this park before but it would have been rude not to pop in for some rides, especially during a year where smaller UK parks like this could probably do with the support. I actually missed the egg-spress cred on my last visit as it is tucked away so I got a nice +1 on my return visit.

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The egg-spress cred was as expected; pleasant, the boomerang, also as expected, avergage. The KMG Afterburner was running a really short cycle with only about two full swings, which is a shame because this one usually has quite a good cycle. Cannonball express is back up and running after a prolonged period of downtime, although has the usual slow throughput due to the small trains. Chainedbanana and Nathan got stuck at the top of Marble Madness in a breakdown ? and we had a nice, chilled afternoon at the park!

We decided to pop by Clacton on the way home in the hope that the creds were open, turns out we misread the website and they weren't but I had a nice time looking at the big gaping hole in the pier that was created earlier this year.
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Oh dear.
I was also impressed to see how much money the pier had spent on tarting up some areas, it looks quite flashy now and I believe they won pier of the year this year. One to return to, perhaps next year when they have a new cred instead of a hole.

Here is my blog post for this whole trip as part of my "road to 600 credits" series: https://retrorollercoasters.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-road-to-600-credits-part-3-great.html
 

Fi

Mega Poster
This was actually a really fab trip! I was in the area just last year with the cf live but between hearing the Schwarzkoft at PWH had reopened, a spite at PB, adults being allowed to Pettitts and a cheeky +1 decided there was more than enough to justify a repeat visit!

First stop was Joyland. They had set out a queuing area outside the park and were counting people in and out, and implemented one way system inside (so if you wanted another lap you needed to exit and rejoin the queue) this kept a good flow of people, they also had foot pedals for the hand sanitiser stations which is absolute genius but haven’t seen it anywhere else. The effort put into the measures suggest the owners actually care about the park and the guest experience, and I appreciated it! Enough rambling and onto the rides...
We started off with snails, it’s alright, a cute little ride and while it’s not the most coastery of coasters, there is one little drop that does feel like it Coasts so I reckon that taps it over to the Coaster side of the fence.

Next up is the star attraction. The tubs. Again not the most coastery of coasters, but this style is how it all began! These mini versions were not designed for 3 adults, but we made it work and squished our way round the course! The tub starts off with violently bashing from side to side but then picked up a fair bit of spin at some points! We went for a reride later that day, and I was sharing with just one other person which seemed to increase the spinning! So less is more when it comes to tubs.

Finally Spooky Express. It was alright. Not bad by any means but not a standout like the other 2 creds.

After about an hour or so we strolled down to the Pleasure Beach, for our prebooked slot. I think 3 hours was a good amount of time and excellent value at £12. We and everybody else started with the scenic railway. In case you hadn’t heard GYPB is immune to cover and social distancing isnt required. Was I the only one who missed the memo? It wasn’t the parks fault, but a bit disappointing when they’ve tried so hard to make it safe to reopen and it all gets ignored.

Rollercoaster was great, we rode it a few times and the further back you sit the better.

Next up was a ride of shame on the big Apple. There was a bit of a queue so we had to wait for it, then almost got a goon train to ourselves,
Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach!
...
(I already had the wacky worm from Alton but did it again anyway)
What?!? Did we all already have it and just did that ride of shame for the fun of it ?. I guess it’s not a cred run if there isn’t at least one wacky worm, so had to be done! This o one had an Apple so wins theming points.

Next up was the wild mouse. It spited me last year, so ticking it off was satisfying. The actual ride experience was your standard unsatisfying Wild Mouse.

I think there’s another cred here, but I’ve forgotten it so must have been ok, not memorable but I guess not traumatic either!

We did some other rides too, including their snails, this one didn’t really have a coasting drop so definitely not a coaster. I decided to film it on my phone because I’m going to be the next big YouTuber ? but from that could see that they must have some sort of uv paint as it looked much better on camera than it did in real life!

We also did the new lightning 360 ride. These spiny rides generally aren’t something I usually do, but decided to give it a try. I’m glad I did as the ride has been replaced already! The concept is good, you have a joystick and button to control the height and rotation. We tried out various ways which was sometimes hilarious and sometimes terrifying, inwards seemed less intense than outwards, though it can be quite slow to move into rotation we we thought we were stuck sideways at one point! So yeah, if you decide to rotate stick to going inwards and don’t change direction when you’re sideways!

We stayed until the end of the session at 5pm, then headed up the road to Hemsby Fun Park for the +1. It’s just a go gator, so I contacted the park in advance to check adults could ride without kids. Yes that’s fine they said. I got the impression we weren’t the first group of goons to go get it. So off we headed in the pouring rain to get the cred, we got there and there was no one else around but we hovered while the person in the booth finished her chat on the phone, got our tokens and the new flagged down someone to operate the coaster for us. Maybe it was the rain, but it struggled with 5 adults! But it struggled on and we made it round! Cred complete! I think it was supposed to be a 2 all special but it sprealky struggled, stalled and rolled back ? tbh we didn’t mind, we completed a lap so had the cred, and a rollback is a rarity! But they gave us a free ride on the dodgems to compensate for our broken go gator ride! That was fab of them so I’d say this is a good park! The dodgems were fun! We also got tokens for the haunted house, which was just pitch black. I’m not sure if that was the design or they just hadn’t switched on the lights/ effects, but it was just pitch black, including down a flight of stairs! I’d recommend Hemsby for the go gator (complete with Apple theming) and dodgems, but not the ghost train.

That completed our first day riding. We went back to GY for diner st the joyland diner, which was good, I’d recommend it if you go to Joyland. Top tip - they offerride tokens if you spend a certain amount, so eat there before heading into joyland!
 

Fi

Mega Poster
Pettitts was just a quick in and out for a few of us when we visited a while back, as we literally just rode Rocky Roller Coaster before rushing off towards Hemsby and Great Yarmouth. In a way, it almost felt like a shame to cred run the place so quickly, as it the place looked like it was really well looked after, and that it'd had a lot of time and effort put into the place. At some point, I know I'll have to drag myself back down there for that second cred that they've decided to add, and I'd definitely like to set aside a few hours and check out the rest of the park when I do. It's one of those places that doesn't look ground breaking in any way, but just looks like it'd be a pleasant way to spend a morning or afternoon.

When we were planning we hadn’t spoken about doing it as a cred Run, but having seen a couple of vlogs I thought it looked nice and I was not disappointed. Really glad we did t cred run it. Sure the rides are all kiddy coasters, but you can tell the park is well looked after, and between the various animals, little train, various rides and mini gold it’s a well rounded day out. It’s just a nice place and could quite easily spend a relaxed day here I think.

We didn’t spend the whole day there as we had PWH to get to! I didn’t love it on the live last year, possibility because I had assumed the Shwartzkoft would be open and it wasn’t, but thought the park just seemed a bit empty, like a big area but not many rides and nothing noteworthy really. But the schwartzkoft reopened and others in the group needed other creds so a revisit it was! First up was the egg-stress. I had a surprisingly long line, and the ride itself was fine, not particularly exciting but not bad either. Next up was the boomerang. This was your standard disgusting boomerang. Operations on it were even more vile and seemed to take forever, not sure if they were trying to fill every seat even when there was clearly no one in the vacinity wanting to ride! But we got it over and done with and then onto the star attraction, the recently reopened Cannonball Express. This also had quite a long line, possibly due to reduced capacity due to civic. This was my most anticipated coaster of the trip. It was find, not spectacular but a fun little ride.

Next up was the sea lion show, I thought this was really good considering the size of the park and adds a bit of variety which kind of compensates for the lacklustre ride selection.
After that we went to Marvle Madness, our group of 5 split up as 2 and then 3. The first 2 got on and made it to the top before the ride stopped, there were onlookers gasping that there were people stuck right at the top! Glad it was @chainedbanana and @NathP rather than me! But maintenence came and cleaned the sensor and the lived to tell the tale! I think a half day is plenty for this park, we got everything done at a relaxed pace and had a nice day, minus ride breakdowns!

A spontaneous trip to Clacton for some bonus creds sounded a great idea, shame that although the Pier was open the rides had closed long before we got there. But we had a wander round, the overall pier looks quite nice actually, you can tell they’ve invested some money into it, I think it had go karts and bowling indoors so could make a nice little day of it if you wanted to, maybe one for next year once their new cred opens.
 

SilverArrow

Certified Ride Geek
Next up was a ride of shame on the big Apple. There was a bit of a queue so we had to wait for it, then almost got a goon train to ourselves,

What?!? Did we all already have it and just did that ride of shame for the fun of it ?. I guess it’s not a cred run if there isn’t at least one wacky worm, so had to be done! This o one had an Apple so wins theming points.

I'm pretty sure someone needed the cred. We had a lovely nostalgic time anyway. I think seeing and riding that cred at Alton was one of my earliest cred memories so I kinda wanted to do it again just for that! ?
 
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SilverArrow

Certified Ride Geek
Next up was the trip to Oakwood.

I hadn't been to Oakwood so after putting off the burdenous journey for years it was finally time to take the plunge. It only took a global pandemic to get me there.

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First up was Speed which sounds very dodgy. Maybe they need to oil it more or something but it didn't give me great confidence that it was about to be a good ride. I was not wrong. Some others gave it decent reviews (looking at you Fi) but I found it pretty rough and unenjoyable.

Turns out it didn't like me either.
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I didn't notice until Chainedbanana pointed it out in the treetops queue. Yeah, don't wear earrings on eurofighters kids.

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Even the little coaster car on the fence couldn't redeem it.

I mean a cred's a cred and I'm sure it used to be better but yeah, didn't reride that one.

Treetops was the usual rumbly experience, always kinda enjoy these as they're sort of pleasant and relaxing and the UK doesn't have many of these so yeah, decent and it did not injure me so thumbs up.

Next was the main event; Megafobia! I was so fed up of not being able to rank UK coasters due to not having ridden this!! Finally it was time!

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Wahey finally!

Here is my review from my blog (cba to write it again):

"Back row was first on the menu and wow what a ride! This thing has some great moments of airtime, a fab first drop and is pretty violent in places! My main gripe was it was just a bit too rough. I found myself having to hold on halfway through to steady myself and avoid adding any further injuries from coasters to my day! I later rerode in the middle and found that this solved a lot of my issues, which was pleasing. I can see why some rank Megafobia so highly on the UK scene and I bet it was amazing back in the day. Maybe Oakwood can resurrect it a bit one day with a retrack? That would be awesome! "

The bug themed pinfari was quite frankly awful. The queue was gross and indoors and nobody was spacing themselves out so I decided to take a stand and passive aggressively leave a massive gap between the people infront of us and us to make a point and also just because cattlepens are gross. The ride was horrid and they seemed to have an interesting procedure where the staff had to walk around in the ride area to get to the offload platform whilst the ride was in motion which alarmed us slightly. I appreciated the lovely wild flower meadow that had going on outside the ride though. Best thing about it by far!

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The ghost train thing was ok, I think it had a horrid jump scare in it (a la Kennywood) if I am not mistaken, which gave me my now signature "ghost train neck cramp" from jumping (we did a load of ghost trains on this trip but I think this happened on this one).

Now for a ride I did not expect to see in the UK and one of my favourite flats!
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Yay for flying scooters!!! The op insisted on us loading two per car so I tried to show Fi how to snap them, almost got there but not quite. I think it's probably easier with a single person car and possibly a faster ride. Still fun though and a nice surprise! Could do one of these all day!

Next up was the final cred which Chainedbanana was clearly pumped for!
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The shame! (photo credits to MouseAT!) The op told us that they'd had 8 adults on it on a previous time so some other credwhores must have stopped by recently!

The log flume had an interesting indoor shed bit and the moon landing slide was good fun. We did a selection of some of the others things on offer including the drop slide, Moon Landing.I hadn't done one of these in years so it was great fun, if a little bit bumpy at the bottom. Think I threw myself over it a bit too much in eager anticipation!
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A speedy mouse!

The metal bobsled thing was fun, as they always are and MouseAT and Fi took on Waterfall as seen in the penultimate clip of this video. Fi wobbly a bit near the end but managed to avoid soaking successfully!


Drenched was closed due to the current circumstances but it looked a bit scary so nevermind!

All in all I think we had a fab time at Oakwood. Besides Megafobia, they have a lot of fun and quirky smaller attractions which make visiting with a group lots of fun!
 
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MouseAT

Hyper Poster
I’d been aware of the Norfolk/Suffolk trip whilst it was still in the planning stages, but decided against going. I already had most of the creds, bar the burdenous new +1 at Pettitts, hotels and restaurants were only just starting to open back up after lockdown, and it’s at least a four-and-a-half-hour drive down to the Great Yarmouth/Lowestoft area, assuming clear roads and no stops along the way. In hindsight, I actually wish I’d made the effort, as the two weekends away that I did make the effort for were amazing fun.

South Wales, on the other hand, was a whole different ballgame. I’d been to Oakwood once before, for the 2014 CF Live, and discovered that whilst Oakwood was a charming little park with a lot of potential for a fun day out, it was also home to some truly terrible operations, and therefore was ill-equipped to cope with anything resembling a crowd. I’d always wanted to go back at some point, preferably when the park was a little quieter, but there were always other, higher priority places I wanted to visit, and given how far out of the way Oakwood is, I’d never got around to making a return trip. Well, suddenly, a wonderful bunch of goons decided to throw out an invite, and all of a sudden, I’d found my excuse to trek all the way back down there. Thanks, you wonderful lot!

There are photographs from the weekend. I always take far too many to post inline in my reports, but you can find the full album online at http://mouseat.co.uk/albums/august-2020-oakwood-and-the-south-west, where they'll stay until I have to make space for newer pictures in a few years' time.

So, Oakwood with COVID precautions. That means no Drenched, no train at the entrance, no indoor restaurants, and assigned seating on trains, with separation between groups, staff all wearing masks, and trains being cleaned after each cycle. Ironically, due to the park being relatively quiet, this probably meant shorter queues than normal, as despite low throughputs, there wasn’t much of a queue for anything when we visited.

What else was unavailable? A couple of irrelevant indoor attractions that we’d probably never have bothered with, and Bounce, which appeared to be down for a major overhaul. Sure, it’s not amazing, but it’s a bit different, so it’s probably a toss-up between that and Drenched as to which I was more disappointed about missing out on.

On the plus side? Waterfall, present and accounted for. Oh yes!

So, rides. Speed to begin with. A perfect example of exactly why Eurofighters caught on with parks, and also a perfect example of most of us wish they hadn’t. ‘Nuff said.

Megaphobia then. I never rode it when it was at its best, so I can’t comment on how it used to be, but it certainly has the feel of a ride that’s lost a lot over the years. It’s a bit jolty in places, but not painfully so, and has a few moments of spectacular airtime, but it’s also got a whole bunch of dead spots where it feels like it’s just rattling along when it really should be doing something spectacular. With some TLC, it could probably be amazing. Right now? I think I described it something along the lines of “it has moments where it shows some of the brilliance that it probably once had”. It’s fun, if a little underwhelming.

I may as well comment a little on the ghost trains on this trip. I can’t remember exactly how many we ended up riding in total – I think I probably rode four, and everyone else probably rode a fifth at Brean. Classic ghost trains can be a real mixed bag. Some of them are quite impressive, whilst some are really bland. Many of them re-tread the same old ground, using the same old horror tropes, yet there’s nearly always something unique to each one that’s either really cool, or at least could be turned into a really great concept. It’s something that I’m really starting to appreciate as I ride more of them. I don’t remember much standing out about the Oakwood one, though.

Crocodile Coaster has already been mentioned. I rode it solo at Camelot, back in my early goon days, and rode it again at Oakwood in 2014 with CF, so I’ve got the cred, have already undergone the rite of ritual embarrassment, so decided to break out the camera, and capture all of my fellow delightful goons in their natural habitat.

From here on out, there was a clear trend that would extend to all of the remaining parks on this trip; Wherever we’d visit, we’d all end up riding loads of unusual, interesting and random flat rides. Oakwood is a great park for all of the little side attractions, so the scooters, flume (with a full boat, because hey, we can fit all five of us in there), vertical drop slide, and bobsled all on the to-do list, we were able to comfortably fill the rest of the day on park, and have a lot of fun doing so.

There’s a running joke amongst the PC gaming group I normally play with that whenever I’m driving a car in game, I don’t know when or how to apply brakes. Apparently, this carries over to the bobsled. I decided to go full speed, promptly fell sideways in the first corner, somehow managed to bounce myself back onto the ‘sled, gave a quick thumbs up to the ride op at the top of the lift hill to indicate “it’s good, the only thing hurt is my pride”, and then proceeded to be a little more cautious the rest of the way down. Fortunately, as the last one of our group to ride, there were no witnesses, nor does any photographic evidence of my mishap exist.

Finally, the day had to end with the one ride that most people had been avoiding: Waterfall. I’d come prepared with my Waterfall survival kit (otherwise known as a full change of clothes in the car), and was ready to brave the tea trays once again. Fiona was somehow persuaded to join me, and managed to at least avoid disaster, despite catching a lot of spray going down the trough. I, meanwhile, have pretty much no idea of what happened during my ride; I only know that I had a laser focus on the end of the waterway, and next to no peripheral awareness until I hit dry land at the end of it.

So that was Oakwood. Probably the most conventional park day when compared with any of the days that followed, as we all subsequently decided to abandon the idea of quick “in and out” cred runs from here on out, and embrace the tackiness of most of the places we’d subsequently visit. From here, it was onwards to Swansea for a chilled group meal at Dennys, and then over to Porthcawl for our first dose of crazy seaside flat rides… but that’s a story for another day.
 

HeartlineCoaster

Theme Park Superhero
I feel like we need this story.
Well I was going to claim that I was asking on behalf of a friend, but the evidence is already on here.

Highlight of the day – I broke Crocodile Coaster.
It completed the first lap without a hitch (that’s the +1 sorted), but as it was picking up some speed through the second lap, sparks began to fly and some black smoke wafted up in the vicinity of the trains contact with the power rail. Operator hit the E-stop upon seeing this and ran off to get a manager telling me to stay where I was. I thought to myself, sitting about 2 inches from the floor, 'if I see any more smoke I ain’t staying.'
He returned and had a quick chat about his procedures and what we thought had happened, can’t fault him at all for how the traumatising ordeal was handled. Manager and some engineers arrived shortly afterwards and coaxed it back into the station.
That was fun.
 
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