GhosterForce X - Trip Reports

[furie]

Right, time to get this topic started. I'm back now after day 2 of the Live, and it's been a bit wet and burdenous (Alton), but kind of fun and chilled too (Drayton).

I'll do proper reports when I've got images sorted and bit of time.

In the mean time, please feel free to post anything so far, and I'll leave you with this...

 

[Ian]

I think I've contacted everybody but if not, Thorpe isn't opening until at least midday due to to damage and staff unable to travel in.

Meet up is now 12-12:30. If this changes, I'll post in here.

 

[furie]

Good luck to everyone attending today - hopefully it'll open and be a good day still for you.

 

[Apu]

A Poo day at Alton Towers.

Hi everyone. It was so great to meet you all on Saturday, I had a superb time with everyone from the group. Sorry I couldn't ride everything, but it's a bit difficult at times with my disabilities. Anyway, I've decided to sign up and post a quick report of my day at Alton with you. I've been told I constantly talk crap, so I'll just keep it to images and a short description. I hope that's okay?

B&M Floater Coaster - what a turd!

Charlie and the Arse-Chocolate Factory.

Are you sure we're in Blackpoo Pleasure Beach?

The scary costume characters have come back to haunt us.

My babies!!! What are you doing in there?

I'm coming to get you!

Couldn't get them, so I made some more

Cloud Cockpoo Land

Getting cuddles with my daddy

Pile Of Ship

I'm a Poonicorn (my costume for the day)

Subturder

First, a mummy and daddy bun and burger love each other very much, then after six hours, a cable is laid, and that's where we come from.

Pooping out the pumpkin

Scared **** less by a skeleton.

Finally, I'm completely crap at this due to a lack of hands:

Poop.

Thanks for reading, and hopefully I'll be able to dump myself on you guys again one day. Until then, have a crap day at Thorpe, look out for wind that may follow through with a brief squirt of wetness.

 

[peep]

The hell? Lol.

I hope everyone has been having a great time, definitely sounds like it on Facebook and Twitter.

 

[NAPayne31]

I was thinking the same thing peep... Hope you all had fun, hoping once I get my license I can join some of you on the American lives!

 

[benjybobs]

Thanks everyone, for a fabulous, fantastic day, It's been a while, I had one of the most enjoyable days in a long time. I'm home now and totally shattered, I think i'll probably sleep all day.

 

[DelPiero]

Just did TP this year so will put this up now.
Had a great day yesterday, long but great.

Nice to see all the peeps I met at the Smiler live again, and also loads of others i'd not met before.

Few bits and bobs;
" **** that, it's about an hour and 25 minute queue" :lol:
OUTRAGE at the lack of KFC Gravy
Overwhelming love of the sausage rolls
Last ride on Swarm was fab
All three rides on Det were fab, and seeing first hand Scarlet's love of it. "Stealth's the best ride here, NO, Det is!"
Both Stealth runs were fab
You're Next guys roaming near Saw
Saw being rough as old boots
The shock on everyone's faces as Serena got 3rd in the costume competition
Choo Choo train speed
Finding the Secret Garden with Tom and gooning at nothing in particular
Joey's shoulder muscles getting a workout with the amount of bag carrying
Cabin in the Woods being great fun with 2 screaming girls sandwiched between me and Ciall
Endless banter with some great people
99th cred done, thanks fishy.

Had a brill time but was suffering last night, first time I've got in bed and the rooms spinning when I haven't been drinking, weird. Feeling rough today, but well worth it.

Thanks guys n gals, looking forward to the next one.

 

[roomraider]

Shattered but had a great time as always. Will write a proper report some time later but for now need to get these pics into the public domain

Sorry guys

 

[Ian]

Aidan, AJ, Ali, Andy, Ben, Ciall, Ciaran, Conor, Dan, Darren, Dave, Ed, Fraiser, James, Joey, John, Jordan, Jordan, Karen, Katie, Leigh, LoMo, Mark, Neal, Owain, Peter, Phil, Phil, Rach, Rebecca, Richard, Ruben, Sarah, Scarlet, Serena, Sharon, Sue, Tina, Tom, Tom, Tom, Thomas, Vadge and William - thank you very much for attending and bringing your share of the goonery, lols and faff.

 

[Jordanovichy]

I had such an awesome time on the three days I went, thank you all, I'll give a proper trip report ago soon, haven't done one before, thank you again

 

[ATTACKHAMMER]

Was an awesome few days! Thank you to everyone. I probably won't do a trip report but I'm going to have a go at a video!

Memorable moments:

Nemesis in the dark!
Pegging, especially in the Th13teen queue
Richard shouting at people in Hex
Cf reading out all the lines of Hex
The Skyride with Jordan (boy) being crushed by Furie and Richard

Flying Fish with the attempts to move Nic's bag over the yellow line
A kind of smooth ride on Saw
Colossus at night
Back row of Inferno with Darren, Jordan and Plod
The polo of death on roads, how that didn't cause an accident I'll never know
Exploring the Travelodge with Jordan and Plod
The lift doors closing on me

Riding Rattlesnake with Mushroom
Richard shouting on Pufari
The fab hocus locus hall maze thing
Glowsticks
Vampire front row!
Meeting new people and seeing those id met before!

 

[SaiyanHajime]

Thorpe and Chessington were fab. Small group of close knit CFers and a couple of fab people I'd never met. It was different. It didn't feel much like GF TBH, but in a good way.

BRING ON THE NEXT DECADE! LOL

Highlights:
Saw was running well on Monday lol wot?
Really enjoyed queuing for it too... Always the source of fun convos!
That approaching storm cloud in the Saw queue.
Tom's (delpiero1982) "cheeky det" and "...have you met Scarlet?"
Rainbow woe.
Saussage rolls.
Pegs. Specifically the Plod_Peacock peg incident. Whoever came up with the pegs thing is a genius.
Pigeon.
The faffle. <3
Hocus Pocus Hall's queue glowstick faff was fab. I think this needs to become a thing. Hand them out in a queue. Decreased faff, makes queuing fun.
The ENVIOUS children in the queue for Hocus whilst we played with glowsticks.
The Hocus actors "well you're a very bright bunch..."
Sue's giant glowstick STAKE? Clearly a weapon. Or a sex toy. Or both.
Pop badge collecting abuse and Connor's face when I handed one I'd found to Richard. That was the end of a friendship right there.
The child who brought a glow stick to us after Vampire asking if we'd lost it, aw.
My unexpectedly loud belch and the girls who turned around in disgust followed by my "sorry! D:"
Nic's farts.
Richard's Pufari ranting at the driver. "EVERY time I come on Zufari there's a bloody tree in the way!"
Post Chessington curry!
"Are you guys STILL talking about that?"
The standard annual pre Chessington queue faff and running between entrances to collect those without tickets.
DARREN IS FAB.

 

[Ben]

Why have I not seen anything of the costume competition -_-

 

[ciallkennett]

I can't remember who came third or second...

 

[SaiyanHajime]

Haha, there was only a single participant, Ben.

 

[Ian]

Yeah, I was quite disappointed that only Sernea bothered with the fancy dress. I could have dressed up I suppose but I could hardly win! I thought it was a good idea and would have been fab but obviously only Serena liked the idea! Next year we'll revert to a more general theme.

 

[ciallkennett]

Now that I have found some time/I am attempting to procrastinate from doing my dissertation, I'll write a more insightful post. I've probably missed out loads, but I'm sure somebody will fill in inbetween.

I had a wonderful time this year. Because of the length of the live, it didn't feel like a traditional Ghosterforce at all. Not to say that wasn't a bad thing at all, but I think this Ghosterforce unlike most others was very relaxed, very member-friendly and less ride orientated across all of the days which made it very enjoyable indeed. I didn't take any pictures and I don't think many other did, so images for this live might be thin on the ground.

Alton

Despite Alton being by far the busiest day, it was in my eyes the funnest. Pegging randomers to pass the time in the burdenous Th13teen queueline was genius and I managed to get 4 pegs on one guy in an hour without him noticing. It was great that the general public joined in as well, made for a very enjoyable hour and a half or so.

Quoting in Hex was brilliant. Normally when I'm at t'Towers and on Hex, it's just me quoting it by myself so having most of CF quoting at the same time was utterly brilliant!

I was a bit disappointed that Smiler didn't happen, but that queue looked horrific and I'd rather see how it rides next season anyway.

Drayton

Since my first (and last visit) to Drayton many years ago, I vowed never to return unless there was a cred to be had. So I was strangely excited for Drayton as I had the Ben 10 cred to obtain.

After not eating that much at Alton had having a few bevvies the night before, I'd obtained quite an awful Guinness hangover which made me dread Apocalypse just a little. It was, however, as fab as always and always reridable.

The park was dead. Literally. Queues were non-existent, the park was bland (but at least clean, it seemed) and it was just nice to casually take in the park and some of the rides which last time I had skipped. Bat-on-a-Stick was closed which made us all feel very bitter.

The service for lunch at the restaurant just outside the park was abysmal. It took around 30 minutes for our tables food and even longer for everybody else. Then there was faff actually trying to pay. Very poor when there were hardly any people in the restaurant. The food was semi-decent though, although a touch more pricey than I would have liked to have paid.

But Drayton was nice. It was good to see Family Hankinson again too, it seems an age since I last saw you all!

Thorpe

Thorpe was actually a decent day. The 'storm' seemed to put off people and the park was a lot quieter than even I could have predicted, although it did open later than expected. Showery in the morning, but these cleared off and were few and far between by the afternoon and evening. Poor operations by Thorpe were the only major causes of queues (plus Saw being popular as always).

It was a very relaxed day and my personal highlights were Saw being absolutely wonderful to ride for the first time ever - it was pretty silky smooth all the way around on my train. If it always ran as well, I would place it as one of the best coasters in the park.

Mraws was very 'meh'.

X was fab but needed MORE lights to make it MORE epic <3

Ended up doing the Serena Rumba Rapids 3 times (twice during lunch). The best go around was the one with the group and the water bottle <3

Stealth was brilliant, as always.

Cabin in the Woods made a welcome change to the traditional mazes at Thorpe, but as always did not make me jump. The girls sandwiched in between myself and Tom were amazing and a highlight of the day. An actor kissed me by accident... why does that always happen to me on mazes...

Tolworth evening was brilliant with the glow sticks. Not laughed so hard in a long time! The Gay Escape was genius and I wish I was in the car park to witness as well as in the room helping to feed the glow sticks down. Thanks to everybody that night for cheering me up, I was feeling a bit down on Thorpe day so really needed a good laugh!

Chessie

Major faff at the start of the day was a bit burdenous, but all was good! Many thanks to Joey for saving the day!

Zufari was pretty fab. It's not one I could reride multiple times, but for a one-time ride I found it to be a nice addition to the park. Cramming us all into one picture and the expression of the face of the photo op was brilliant!

Thanks to Ian and everybody who submitted the wonderful array of tat in the Faffle!

Hocus Pocus Hall was amazing and the actors responding to our glowsticks was brilliant! A very good addition to the park and much better than it has ever been before.

Sorry I had to leave early and miss Vampire, but trains being annoying meant I had to give it a miss. Traveled back with Young Tom and Neal and had a good chat with them before heading to see the wonderful transformation that the King's Cross/St. Pancras area has had. Also got bumped into first class on my train back as they cocked up bookings for my seat and it was a busy service!

But many thanks to everybody who came, Ian for organising and providing sweets galore and everybody else who fed my sweet tooth across the four days. Was lovely meeting Conor who I think is absolutely fantastic and such a friendly, approachable and talkative guy. Was lovely to chat to benjybobs too at Thorpe.

According to my tracker app I walked 7 miles on Alton day, 2.7 miles on Drayton day, 5.6 miles on Thorpe day and 6.7 miles on Chessie day. Not that anybody cares.

Reality has been sinking back in slowly...

 

[gavin]

Great to see that we're continuing the tradition of not actually writing trip reports, but instead writing lists of "hilarious" moments from the trip, that nobody who wasn't there would get or appreciate.

Couple that with the "dress as another CFer" theme, which is in no way exclusionary to any possible newcomers, and I'm sure people will be booking tickets already to join in next year.

 

[Ian]

^ I'm really glad that you're enjoying the reports! And by not posting something negative and sarcastic, people will see what a lovely bunch we are and be clambering to attend in 2014. I'm pretty sure CFers have uploaded their photos Facebook for everybody - expect me and people casually browsing this topic - to see!

Anyway, here's a brief TR.

ALTON TOWERS

The car park was the busiest I've ever seen it so I was expecting a faff filled day, but some well positioned pumpkins later and I was ready for the first day of GF10.

A few of us humoured Serena by doing Squirrel Nutty with her. Gave us a chance to see MUD happening for Cbeebies Land.

After dishing out the first batch of sweets and badges, we headed over to Forbidden valley. We didn't take the skyride because Serena is scared and Darren needed the Mine Train cred. First ride was the Mine Train. The tunnel past the rapids was lit up and bare - The Tunnel of Despair. It looked awful.

Duel was next. Quite uneventful. I still prefer to sit back and enjoy it as a ghost train than shoot at little LEDs.

Then we walked over to the UK's best coaster. That's Nemesis btw.

Air was next. This is where the "pegging" began. Somebody brought pegs along which were discreetly attached to CFers throughout the queue line. Ed went one step further and managed to peg a member of staff's hood. All harmless fun.

I got the usual dirty looks when I asked if anybody wanted to do Blade or Ripsaw, so we got the skyride over to Dark Forest. Ciall and I were stranded with four randoms. I had to bite my lip as they enthusiastically, yet incorrectly, described different rides at the park and Blackpool.

We did Charlie & TCF next. It's still awful but was made more entertaining by Vadge's bouncy boobs in the simulator.

Hex followed. This involved more pegging (I was chuffed to peg Lord Morton). Several CFers narrated the story out loud, which caused a titter amongst other guest. "A member of the Earl's family suddenly...and mysteriously...died!" Love it!

We split for lunch which was a generous 1h 15mins, but this was extended due to the AWFUL service at the pizza/pasta place.

After lunch, we met back at the Dark Forest. The queue for Rita was about 2.5 hrs, Th13teen was about 1.5hrs. I took a poll and Th13teen won so we entered the long queue line. Time was passed in the usual manner - sweets, lols and Chinese whispers; ""Lord Morton smears marmite on his scrotum and gets Ciall to lick it off"...or something to that effect! The pegging game came into it's own during this queue. Other guests started to join in by attaching them to Ciall. This then escalated in pegging other queueing guests. Watching a line of pegged hoods and jackets move through the cattle pens was hilarious. Everybody involved took it as the joke that it was and embraced the peg! Th13teen itself was meh.

We skipped Rita and headed to "X Factor". It was getting dark so the prospect of riding Oblivion and Smiler in the dark was tantalising.

My highlight of the Oblivion queue line was sharing the boob/passport thing that me and Vadge discovered a few years ago. A passport rubbed up and down a boob (apparently) feels fantastic. using Owain's passport, I demonstrated on Jordan and Serena - with their permission obviously, I'm not some kind of boob/passport perv. I tried it on my penis and nipples but it didn't have the same effect. Oblivion was fab in the dark. Oblivion is fab full stop.

We agreed that it would be quicker to ride Smiler using the single rider queue. However, Smiler has suddenly...and mysteriously...died. I took a group photo and asked if people wanted to wait or move on.

We moved on, through the looooooooong, darrrrrrrrrrrk creepy walkthru thing between the Battle galleons and Duel, ending the day with Nemesis in the dark.

I expected the Alton Towers day to be tiring, fafftastic and burdenous. It was all of these but, as always, the mixture of great people, good rides and spontaneous **** that CF does so well made the day enjoyable. I accomplished what I wanted to do. I got on Nemesis and Oblivion in the dark and I walked away with a smile on my face.

I'm not at all gutted that I didn't ride Smiler in the dark, no do I care that it was busy. Despite it being the busiest day of the Live, it also felt the most relaxed.

I was also tres impressed with the amount of awesome costumes many guests were wearing. People really made an effort. i don't think I've seen anything comparable in the UK before. I could quite happily make AT a permanent fixture of GhosterForce. It works!

Oh, and the Towers looked sexy at night.