Burniel
Roller Poster
Preamble
Much like (I assume) many people, my love for coasters started in my early teens. At the time, I was stereotypically over-informed and over-opinionated for someone with a child's level of experience, although as part of a classic British "Merlin Pass family" I was very fortunate to rack up a few more credits than the average kid of my age. It was around five years ago that I found myself losing enthusiasm - I never "grew out of it" as such, I just found myself less interested as slightly more adult life events began.
Fast forward to this year and I found myself graduating university, moving back to the South London area, and hearing of a new B&M opening almost walking distance away. Obviously, I'd have to give it a go for old time's sake. And what about that record breaker coming to Thorpe next year, would be rude not to give that a go... before I knew it, I was back at both of my old home parks at every opportunity with shiny new pass in hand. A lot of what I wanted to do as a kid is more feasible now - time to give this enthusiast lark another shot.
Adventure Island - 20th August 2023
Deciding where to go for my first new park in over 6 years was made easier by limited options. A car is a luxury I'm yet to afford, so to ease myself in I figured it had to be somewhere day-trippable by public transport, with enough to do to guarantee it would feel worth it. Adventure Island became the option of choice, and 2 hours of trains (and suprisingly only 1 set of engineering works) later, I arrived in Southend.
On a sunny Sunday in mid August, Adventure Island has a great buzz. It's got that seafront vibe with compact rides crammed in every spare bit of floor (or indeed roof) space whilst clearly being operated with the facilities and capacity to handle peak summer crowds. I collected my pre-booked wristband (which I felt was reasonable value at £20) and found my way to the obvious first stop: Rage (#59).
I had assumed comparing Rage to my only other Eurofighter would be unfair, given how much larger and more themed Saw - The Ride is, but Rage ended up being a delight. It's hard to think of much I didn't get from the ride that I do from Saw, besides the latter's indoor section and inevitable thumping headache. It was great fun and nowhere near as rough as feared, prompting an immediate second go. It did become a little more violent when re-riding later in the day, but I had no issue getting 5 total laps on it across my visit, and would perhaps have done more had the queue not built up.
After a disappointing experience on the neighbouring Skydrop, I figured the crowds would likely build as the afternoon went on, and so began to hit the junior creds in quick succession. Green Scream (#60) is a pretty fun Zierer Tivoli, and I was glad to have a seat towards the back of its enormous train. Mighty Mini Mega (#61) became my first ever Pinfari coaster, and despite its horrendous name, the experience was fine, acting as a reasonably fun family coaster albeit with weird profiling and a distinct vibration which suggested it would be a lot less fun going any faster than 25mph.
I then became the only unaccompanied adult on Kiddi Koasta (#62) (a situation I suspect may become familiar if this hobby persists), whose tiny airtime hills at the bottom caught me by surprise, before rounding off the coasters on Barnstormer (#63), which was my favourite of the 4 purely due to the surprising force with which it takes the main helix.
(Some excellent camerawork on these ones, I'm sure you'll agree...)
Outside of the coasters, the bulk of the park's footprint is taken up by flat rides, the most interesting of which are probably Axis (an SBF inverting Frisbee) and The Screature (an orbiter). I found the former to be a bit style over substance and lacking in force, whereas the latter was fantastic and well worth another spin later in the day. I had known not to expect Time Machine, an infamous in-house creation, to be open, but it was encouraging to see signage promising its imminent return.
I also experienced two dark rides at the park. The first, Adventureville, I knew little about but seem to remember reading good things. The result was a perfectly adequate ride, but one which my initial expectations were a bit too high for, proved by the fact that I appreciated it "for what it was" a lot better on the second lap (each cycle comprises two circuits with different lighting). I enjoyed the slight tilt the cars do as they enter the spinning tunnel; it adds a lot to an otherwise standard effect. Similarly, Over The Hill 2: Spooksville is worth a go and is fine once you align your expectations to neon 2D theming and spooks aimed at kids.
In all, my visit to Adventure Island lasted 3-4 hours. If I'd just wanted the coasters, half of that would have sufficed. If I'd wanted to ride all the flats, another hour or two could have been spent. As it was, I was hot, growing slightly weary of over-enthusiastic announcements from superhero-costumed staff (who in all fairness deserve a lot of respect), and happy to get back on the rails. I found the park pleasant, clean, and friendly, with few negatives but equally nothing hugely impressive - though Rage was great fun. I would gladly return, but probably not before the rebirth of Time Machine or the installation of something else significant.
Much like (I assume) many people, my love for coasters started in my early teens. At the time, I was stereotypically over-informed and over-opinionated for someone with a child's level of experience, although as part of a classic British "Merlin Pass family" I was very fortunate to rack up a few more credits than the average kid of my age. It was around five years ago that I found myself losing enthusiasm - I never "grew out of it" as such, I just found myself less interested as slightly more adult life events began.
Fast forward to this year and I found myself graduating university, moving back to the South London area, and hearing of a new B&M opening almost walking distance away. Obviously, I'd have to give it a go for old time's sake. And what about that record breaker coming to Thorpe next year, would be rude not to give that a go... before I knew it, I was back at both of my old home parks at every opportunity with shiny new pass in hand. A lot of what I wanted to do as a kid is more feasible now - time to give this enthusiast lark another shot.
Adventure Island - 20th August 2023
Deciding where to go for my first new park in over 6 years was made easier by limited options. A car is a luxury I'm yet to afford, so to ease myself in I figured it had to be somewhere day-trippable by public transport, with enough to do to guarantee it would feel worth it. Adventure Island became the option of choice, and 2 hours of trains (and suprisingly only 1 set of engineering works) later, I arrived in Southend.
On a sunny Sunday in mid August, Adventure Island has a great buzz. It's got that seafront vibe with compact rides crammed in every spare bit of floor (or indeed roof) space whilst clearly being operated with the facilities and capacity to handle peak summer crowds. I collected my pre-booked wristband (which I felt was reasonable value at £20) and found my way to the obvious first stop: Rage (#59).
I had assumed comparing Rage to my only other Eurofighter would be unfair, given how much larger and more themed Saw - The Ride is, but Rage ended up being a delight. It's hard to think of much I didn't get from the ride that I do from Saw, besides the latter's indoor section and inevitable thumping headache. It was great fun and nowhere near as rough as feared, prompting an immediate second go. It did become a little more violent when re-riding later in the day, but I had no issue getting 5 total laps on it across my visit, and would perhaps have done more had the queue not built up.
After a disappointing experience on the neighbouring Skydrop, I figured the crowds would likely build as the afternoon went on, and so began to hit the junior creds in quick succession. Green Scream (#60) is a pretty fun Zierer Tivoli, and I was glad to have a seat towards the back of its enormous train. Mighty Mini Mega (#61) became my first ever Pinfari coaster, and despite its horrendous name, the experience was fine, acting as a reasonably fun family coaster albeit with weird profiling and a distinct vibration which suggested it would be a lot less fun going any faster than 25mph.
I then became the only unaccompanied adult on Kiddi Koasta (#62) (a situation I suspect may become familiar if this hobby persists), whose tiny airtime hills at the bottom caught me by surprise, before rounding off the coasters on Barnstormer (#63), which was my favourite of the 4 purely due to the surprising force with which it takes the main helix.
(Some excellent camerawork on these ones, I'm sure you'll agree...)
Outside of the coasters, the bulk of the park's footprint is taken up by flat rides, the most interesting of which are probably Axis (an SBF inverting Frisbee) and The Screature (an orbiter). I found the former to be a bit style over substance and lacking in force, whereas the latter was fantastic and well worth another spin later in the day. I had known not to expect Time Machine, an infamous in-house creation, to be open, but it was encouraging to see signage promising its imminent return.
I also experienced two dark rides at the park. The first, Adventureville, I knew little about but seem to remember reading good things. The result was a perfectly adequate ride, but one which my initial expectations were a bit too high for, proved by the fact that I appreciated it "for what it was" a lot better on the second lap (each cycle comprises two circuits with different lighting). I enjoyed the slight tilt the cars do as they enter the spinning tunnel; it adds a lot to an otherwise standard effect. Similarly, Over The Hill 2: Spooksville is worth a go and is fine once you align your expectations to neon 2D theming and spooks aimed at kids.
In all, my visit to Adventure Island lasted 3-4 hours. If I'd just wanted the coasters, half of that would have sufficed. If I'd wanted to ride all the flats, another hour or two could have been spent. As it was, I was hot, growing slightly weary of over-enthusiastic announcements from superhero-costumed staff (who in all fairness deserve a lot of respect), and happy to get back on the rails. I found the park pleasant, clean, and friendly, with few negatives but equally nothing hugely impressive - though Rage was great fun. I would gladly return, but probably not before the rebirth of Time Machine or the installation of something else significant.
Pre-pandemic I used to work somewhere a similar distance away, so to avoid getting buses and arriving at awkward times, I would sometimes walk it and time how long it took. I soon got competitive with myself and before I knew it I'd got my time down from about an hour to just under 50 minutes. Earphones and the right music is a game changer!
