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Beasts in the East | Trip Reports
- Thread starter Hixee
- Start date
SilverArrow
Certified Ride Geek
So I guess I'll start. I only did the Saturday as I couldn't do the Sunday.
So the forecast was terrible and Daviddoc and I set off for a journey that pretty much consisted of rain the whole way. Things weren't looking good. The forecast said 44mph winds from around 11am-5pm which pretty much encompassed the entire time Fantasy Island was open so things weren't looking great. I still needed the Odyssey and Rhombus Rocket creds so I was mentally preparing for an Odyssey spite.
Everyone turned up in decent time and whilst gathering and collecting our awesome CF badges from Serena (yay thanks!) and banana bread from Sue (also yay thanks!) we noticed that both Odyssey and Millennium were testing. Game on. We decided to go straight for Odyssey as it was taller and most likely to get spited by the weather at any moment.
So we managed to get the Odyssey cred. Now Sue and I made the decision to go near the back. Big mistake. There's something about this coaster that I felt sort of unnerving to me. I think it's the height combined with the fact it's an SLC, it just seemed a bit dangerous. Now the first drop and vertical loop were good and pretty forceful near the back. Everything else was absolutely horrific. I closed my eyes for half of it due to the combination of pain/speed/height making it awful. Usually at that height you're on a B&M or an Intamin, I'm not sure an SLC should ever be that height. There was one moment of severe headbanging which horrendous, even whilst trying to brace and then it was over. Don't think I'll ever ride that again, at least not near the back. So so bad. One of the worst coasters I've done in the last couple of years, up there with bandit and blue streak (CL). Ew. But the cred has been got so I guess that's something.
The rest of the day was much more pleasant. Millennium stayed true to it's reputation of being unusually smooth for an old style Vekoma and we then did some other rides and played a sort of cred university challenge courtesy of Serena which was fun. Indoor options were a bit limited for lunch and after a bit of faff and scrambling around to find cash to pay (urgh) we managed to find a table. I had chicken nuggets and chips which were decent, but I think some others had varied luck with their food, which took so long to arrive for some unknown reason. We saw some of the projection mapping show and and some got too excited for their age about the fake snow.
We did some more rides after lunch, finally getting on Rhombus rocket after it closing twice for technical issues. Another cred got, finally! We did the dogems and most people did the huss magic, which was good but always felt on the brink of being a bit gross. Not sure I'd trust a fair version or one at Oktoberfest (although every flat their runs insanely) but it was something different. The way the gondolas spun meant that you intermittently saw all the other CFers on the ride, which caused much hilarity as we clung on for dear life.
For some reason Ice Mountain spun horrifically and by the time we rolled into the station we were spinning like mad. Bit gross. We played another fun game in the queue which was good though. Then it was time to get spited by jellikins, I'm not sure anyone would have fit in anyway but at least we tried haha.
We then said goodbye to some and the rest traversed hopefully to Mablethorpe to try and nab some shameful kiddie creds as a collective. We were spited due to the park being closed (not sure if there was another cred nearby but we gave up anyway) and the group returned to Skegness to see if Bottons was open and failing that to get food. Keeping to the trend Bottons was also closed (I had the creds anyway so personally wasn't that bothered) and we managed to find a relatively normal spoons-esque pub for a meal and catch up. It was then time to part ways as people made their way down to Great Yarmouth and the rest went separate ways. Special thanks to MouseAT for dropping me off in Leeds on his way back so I could get a train, saved me loads of faff!
All in all a really fun day. Fantasy Island is one of those park that is best done in a group as it's a bit tacky and crap, but is amusing with a group of geeks so it worked well for a chilled out day despite the weather. I don't think anyone actually got very wet as we managed to dodge some of the rain and our cred planning meant that we didn't get any large vekoma spite which I was fully expecting. Thanks to Serena for organising the live and hopefully see everyone again soon!
So the forecast was terrible and Daviddoc and I set off for a journey that pretty much consisted of rain the whole way. Things weren't looking good. The forecast said 44mph winds from around 11am-5pm which pretty much encompassed the entire time Fantasy Island was open so things weren't looking great. I still needed the Odyssey and Rhombus Rocket creds so I was mentally preparing for an Odyssey spite.
Everyone turned up in decent time and whilst gathering and collecting our awesome CF badges from Serena (yay thanks!) and banana bread from Sue (also yay thanks!) we noticed that both Odyssey and Millennium were testing. Game on. We decided to go straight for Odyssey as it was taller and most likely to get spited by the weather at any moment.
So we managed to get the Odyssey cred. Now Sue and I made the decision to go near the back. Big mistake. There's something about this coaster that I felt sort of unnerving to me. I think it's the height combined with the fact it's an SLC, it just seemed a bit dangerous. Now the first drop and vertical loop were good and pretty forceful near the back. Everything else was absolutely horrific. I closed my eyes for half of it due to the combination of pain/speed/height making it awful. Usually at that height you're on a B&M or an Intamin, I'm not sure an SLC should ever be that height. There was one moment of severe headbanging which horrendous, even whilst trying to brace and then it was over. Don't think I'll ever ride that again, at least not near the back. So so bad. One of the worst coasters I've done in the last couple of years, up there with bandit and blue streak (CL). Ew. But the cred has been got so I guess that's something.
The rest of the day was much more pleasant. Millennium stayed true to it's reputation of being unusually smooth for an old style Vekoma and we then did some other rides and played a sort of cred university challenge courtesy of Serena which was fun. Indoor options were a bit limited for lunch and after a bit of faff and scrambling around to find cash to pay (urgh) we managed to find a table. I had chicken nuggets and chips which were decent, but I think some others had varied luck with their food, which took so long to arrive for some unknown reason. We saw some of the projection mapping show and and some got too excited for their age about the fake snow.
We did some more rides after lunch, finally getting on Rhombus rocket after it closing twice for technical issues. Another cred got, finally! We did the dogems and most people did the huss magic, which was good but always felt on the brink of being a bit gross. Not sure I'd trust a fair version or one at Oktoberfest (although every flat their runs insanely) but it was something different. The way the gondolas spun meant that you intermittently saw all the other CFers on the ride, which caused much hilarity as we clung on for dear life.
For some reason Ice Mountain spun horrifically and by the time we rolled into the station we were spinning like mad. Bit gross. We played another fun game in the queue which was good though. Then it was time to get spited by jellikins, I'm not sure anyone would have fit in anyway but at least we tried haha.
We then said goodbye to some and the rest traversed hopefully to Mablethorpe to try and nab some shameful kiddie creds as a collective. We were spited due to the park being closed (not sure if there was another cred nearby but we gave up anyway) and the group returned to Skegness to see if Bottons was open and failing that to get food. Keeping to the trend Bottons was also closed (I had the creds anyway so personally wasn't that bothered) and we managed to find a relatively normal spoons-esque pub for a meal and catch up. It was then time to part ways as people made their way down to Great Yarmouth and the rest went separate ways. Special thanks to MouseAT for dropping me off in Leeds on his way back so I could get a train, saved me loads of faff!
All in all a really fun day. Fantasy Island is one of those park that is best done in a group as it's a bit tacky and crap, but is amusing with a group of geeks so it worked well for a chilled out day despite the weather. I don't think anyone actually got very wet as we managed to dodge some of the rain and our cred planning meant that we didn't get any large vekoma spite which I was fully expecting. Thanks to Serena for organising the live and hopefully see everyone again soon!
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SilverArrow
Certified Ride Geek
Had trouble embedding the photos into my post (seems like the system has changed since I last used it) so here are a couple of people photos in another post.
Thekingin64
Strata Poster
Has been a fantastic weekend. I could only make the Saturday at Fantasy Island but used the Friday and Saturday to claim the Bottons and Mablethorpe creds. Sat nav took me home via Cleethorpes so popped in for that beach cred as well as a brief look at the remains of Pleasure Island. First visit to the area for me so been a relatively easy +12 for me.
Surprised at how nice of a park Fantasy Island is. Expected a permanent funfair style feel to it (i.e. Bottons) but park is almost a smaller BPB! Odyssey and Millennium still feel out of place in the seaside location though. Glad weather held off so could get the Odyssey cred and still shocked at how smooth Millennium is.
May write a full trip report soon but in process of uploading all photos to FB (with captions), will try and share once complete.
Surprised at how nice of a park Fantasy Island is. Expected a permanent funfair style feel to it (i.e. Bottons) but park is almost a smaller BPB! Odyssey and Millennium still feel out of place in the seaside location though. Glad weather held off so could get the Odyssey cred and still shocked at how smooth Millennium is.
May write a full trip report soon but in process of uploading all photos to FB (with captions), will try and share once complete.
Thekingin64
Strata Poster
Further to last post, most of my photos from weekend can be found in FB album linked here: https://www.facebook.com/Thekingin64/media_set?set=a.2550397874991184&type=3
Some photos didn't upload into album so separate post can be seen here:
Posts should be public but let me know of links don't work. Some favourites shown below:
Still Surprised at how low the Millennium track got to the Public paths!
One of 2 rollbacks on Rhombus caused by the rain.
Some photos didn't upload into album so separate post can be seen here:
Posts should be public but let me know of links don't work. Some favourites shown below:
Still Surprised at how low the Millennium track got to the Public paths!
One of 2 rollbacks on Rhombus caused by the rain.
Super-sized Mumsie
Roller Poster
Hi, Mum of @Thekingin64 here. Glad to meet you all yesterday, loved the banana bread made by @Mysterious Sue and the welcome you all gave me. Can't claim to know much about rollercoasters but willing to participate in more events in future. Hope to meet up again soon when time and money allows.
.Ac.
Mega Poster
Enjoyable weekend on the east coast.
First off thank you to both Serena and Ian running each day, It is much appreciated.
However if we do double header in the future, could we have 2 parks a bit closer to each other please.
Day 1 - Fantasy Island
Haven't done many creds at all, it was nice to get on the likes of Odysey and Millennium however neither did much for me.
First drop and Inversion on Odysey was cool, but the experience was totally ruined from there on by head banging
Millennium was silky smooth however didn't seem to have much pace or force at all.
Serena put together a Coaster Quiz which was cool, however as i have basically zero knowledge i wasn't much use to team RMC, Sorry Guys.
Food was pretty awful, just like service and general operation of the the park in general.
We did both Rhombus Rocket and Ice Mountain after lunch. Rhombus never going set world alight being powered however it still +1.
Ice mountain was enjoyable enough, even if spins were bit fierce at time.
The through put on Ice mountain was shocking though, strange how it can be run quicker when it £7 quid a head in the center of London.
WTF moment has to go to market though and the fact you appear to be able to buy a gravestone underneath a massive coaster.
Once we were finished with Fantasy island, group of us went up to Maplethorpe and got spited by a closed park and then decided to head back to down Buttons and got spited again by second close park in half hour.
Not overly bothered at this stage as back in Skegness next weekend,saying that i doubt i will go on the kiddy creds on my tod as it will look somewhat strange when a 30+ year old male is riding alone.
Finished off the day in a spoons like pub. Food was fairly priced and edible ( lot better than turd in Fantasy ) and social was good.
It was only ruined by realisation that it was 7pm we hadn't even left Skegness yet.
Made a move shortly afterwards and got to Yarmouth around 10pm, by which time no one was good for anything.
Had a quick drink and went to bed shortly after.
Day 2 - Pleasure Wood Hills
After getting up and having breakfast, i had some time to kill.
Went for quick stroll on the beech and watched the world go by for little while
Was very peaceful way to start the day.
We made our way to pleasure wood hills shortly before 10am ( once sue had found her way out of her B&B! ) and meet up everyone inside the park shortly afterwards.
Wipeout was first up and it wasn't exactly great, rattling and jolting around the simple and short layout.
Egg-Spress was next up, theming in the area and station is well done. The Tivoli layout is good fun for family coaster, however the fact it has been SBNO in recent years hasn't done it any good at all. It vibrated quite badly all the way round the circuit.
After doing exactly same layout at plopsaland de panne in the last couple of weeks i got to say that rode 10 times better than Egg-Spress sadly.
Did Wavebreake next (a dingy slide ), which i got to say got a fair bit pace up going down slide however it was let down by fact only 1 of 2 slides open. ( Boo no chance of race ).
Next ride was Kite Flyer, which would be enjoyable enough if wasn't for fact it hasn't exactly got the best leg designed restraints.
Rootin Tootin Target Trail was OK interactive dark ride however i did wonder what the ghost train was like, that it replaced.
With making good time around the park we stopped and watched Sea lion show. It amazing what you can make a sealion do with a bit of bribery however it does raise the question of if making animal perform for entertainment is political correct or not.
Last cred of the the day was Marble Madness, which would be OK wild mouse ride if it was for fact that trim brakes are fierce and overkill, especially one mid course.
Adjacent to Marble Madness was Timberfall, Traveling style Log Fume. Whoever thought it was good idea to put 5 people in a boat needs shooting, as it was bit of a soaker and ran aground trying to get back in the station.
Due to spiteful Canonball express, the last ride of the day was Jolly Rodger. Enjoyable enough drop tower which had plenty of force for the size of the ride.
As it turned out it was easily best ride on the park and only one with any rerideabilty.
Overall impression of the park after first visit today is it is fun family focus park with some quite awful creds.
Park did feel like they tried to spread the ridse out as thin as possible to make the park look bigger than it is.
Saying that, for the £18 i paid to get in it wasn't excessively expensive but didn't exactly set world alight either.
As we had done the entire park and it was only just gone 1pm, It was decided as a group to call it a day and head back to Yarmouth for fun at Pleasure Beach and Joyland.
Wont comment to much on them as they weren't part of official live event, however 3 people in tub twist was interesting to say the least
( Pic credit of DavidDoc )
Overall another enjoyable weekend which weather did not ruin ( even though it tried! )
It was a good social and nice putting a face to some more names and managed to get +3 Saturday and +8 on Sunday as well ( Including my first big apple ? )
I apologies for lack of pictures, i couldn't be arsed to carry a DSLR around and using a camera phone never seems the same once you used SLR.
Lastly like to say thank you to Sue and JayJay for company in car, it made the time and miles fly pass.
First off thank you to both Serena and Ian running each day, It is much appreciated.
However if we do double header in the future, could we have 2 parks a bit closer to each other please.
Day 1 - Fantasy Island
Haven't done many creds at all, it was nice to get on the likes of Odysey and Millennium however neither did much for me.
First drop and Inversion on Odysey was cool, but the experience was totally ruined from there on by head banging
Millennium was silky smooth however didn't seem to have much pace or force at all.
Serena put together a Coaster Quiz which was cool, however as i have basically zero knowledge i wasn't much use to team RMC, Sorry Guys.
Food was pretty awful, just like service and general operation of the the park in general.
We did both Rhombus Rocket and Ice Mountain after lunch. Rhombus never going set world alight being powered however it still +1.
Ice mountain was enjoyable enough, even if spins were bit fierce at time.
The through put on Ice mountain was shocking though, strange how it can be run quicker when it £7 quid a head in the center of London.
WTF moment has to go to market though and the fact you appear to be able to buy a gravestone underneath a massive coaster.
Once we were finished with Fantasy island, group of us went up to Maplethorpe and got spited by a closed park and then decided to head back to down Buttons and got spited again by second close park in half hour.
Not overly bothered at this stage as back in Skegness next weekend,saying that i doubt i will go on the kiddy creds on my tod as it will look somewhat strange when a 30+ year old male is riding alone.
Finished off the day in a spoons like pub. Food was fairly priced and edible ( lot better than turd in Fantasy ) and social was good.
It was only ruined by realisation that it was 7pm we hadn't even left Skegness yet.
Made a move shortly afterwards and got to Yarmouth around 10pm, by which time no one was good for anything.
Had a quick drink and went to bed shortly after.
Day 2 - Pleasure Wood Hills
After getting up and having breakfast, i had some time to kill.
Went for quick stroll on the beech and watched the world go by for little while
Was very peaceful way to start the day.
We made our way to pleasure wood hills shortly before 10am ( once sue had found her way out of her B&B! ) and meet up everyone inside the park shortly afterwards.
Wipeout was first up and it wasn't exactly great, rattling and jolting around the simple and short layout.
Egg-Spress was next up, theming in the area and station is well done. The Tivoli layout is good fun for family coaster, however the fact it has been SBNO in recent years hasn't done it any good at all. It vibrated quite badly all the way round the circuit.
After doing exactly same layout at plopsaland de panne in the last couple of weeks i got to say that rode 10 times better than Egg-Spress sadly.
Did Wavebreake next (a dingy slide ), which i got to say got a fair bit pace up going down slide however it was let down by fact only 1 of 2 slides open. ( Boo no chance of race ).
Next ride was Kite Flyer, which would be enjoyable enough if wasn't for fact it hasn't exactly got the best leg designed restraints.
Rootin Tootin Target Trail was OK interactive dark ride however i did wonder what the ghost train was like, that it replaced.
With making good time around the park we stopped and watched Sea lion show. It amazing what you can make a sealion do with a bit of bribery however it does raise the question of if making animal perform for entertainment is political correct or not.
Last cred of the the day was Marble Madness, which would be OK wild mouse ride if it was for fact that trim brakes are fierce and overkill, especially one mid course.
Adjacent to Marble Madness was Timberfall, Traveling style Log Fume. Whoever thought it was good idea to put 5 people in a boat needs shooting, as it was bit of a soaker and ran aground trying to get back in the station.
Due to spiteful Canonball express, the last ride of the day was Jolly Rodger. Enjoyable enough drop tower which had plenty of force for the size of the ride.
As it turned out it was easily best ride on the park and only one with any rerideabilty.
Overall impression of the park after first visit today is it is fun family focus park with some quite awful creds.
Park did feel like they tried to spread the ridse out as thin as possible to make the park look bigger than it is.
Saying that, for the £18 i paid to get in it wasn't excessively expensive but didn't exactly set world alight either.
As we had done the entire park and it was only just gone 1pm, It was decided as a group to call it a day and head back to Yarmouth for fun at Pleasure Beach and Joyland.
Wont comment to much on them as they weren't part of official live event, however 3 people in tub twist was interesting to say the least
( Pic credit of DavidDoc )
Overall another enjoyable weekend which weather did not ruin ( even though it tried! )
It was a good social and nice putting a face to some more names and managed to get +3 Saturday and +8 on Sunday as well ( Including my first big apple ? )
I apologies for lack of pictures, i couldn't be arsed to carry a DSLR around and using a camera phone never seems the same once you used SLR.
Lastly like to say thank you to Sue and JayJay for company in car, it made the time and miles fly pass.
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Rollercoaster David
Hyper Poster
I didnt take many photos or videos, but what I did I've thrown together in a video
witchfinder
Giga Poster
witchfinder
Giga Poster
I only did the Sunday of this Live as I was on holiday in Norfolk with my wife and dog, plus as we all know…
So not knowing if we’d get time on Sunday, I decided to go and get all the Great Yarmouth creds on Saturday, starting at the top with Joyland. The weather as you know was crap but it looked like the park was open so we paid £2.50 for an hour’s parking next to the pier and headed to Joyland, just as they were closing for the day due to the bad weather. Spite!
So back in the car we got and headed down to the other end of the Golden Mile to the Pleasure Beach. The most convenient parking was right by the entrance at a cost of £4.50 for up to 4 hours with no shorter duration/cost catered for. Pretty disgraceful.
The good news was at least this park was open, so I bought £10 worth of tokens and started by grabbing the park’s most recent cred, Whirlwind. Second SBF Visa Spinner of the year for me (there will be more) and the ride op ran it for about 5 shameful laps.
Next up was the main reason for visiting this park, the classic Roller Coaster. Managed to grab the back row and was treated to a surprisingly smooth ride given the age of this cred, with a few small pops of airtime on the drops. The turnarounds are pretty uneventful trundles but this thing does pack quite a punch on the drops and was more enjoyable than I expected.
I then passed the Big Apple, which in its former location at Alton Towers may well have been the first coaster I ever rode in the early 80s. A brief wave of nostalgia about re-riding one of my earliest creds was soon tempered by the fact that it’s only a wacky worm and I already have the credit.
So I moved on to the last remaining cred, the Family Star. But it was shut.
That meant I still had some tokens left over so I rode the Haunted Hotel, which was a better than average Ghost Train, then headed back to the Roller Coaster for a second ride, which again was on the back row. The brakeman was a different guy this time and he seemed to be less forceful with the brakes, resulting in a slightly more exciting ride with a bit more airtime.
That was it for GYPB as we then headed off to the model village just a bit further up the Prom. I was glad to get the Roller Coaster cred, pretty ambivalent about the rest of the park which mostly seems to be generic fairground rides plonked on a patch of tarmac. It would probably be better on a nicer day but there was no atmosphere while I was there, but maybe I’ll be back in this neck of the woods one day and pick up the spiteful spinner.
On to Sunday then and a massive improvement in the weather, promising a much more enjoyable day at Pleasurewood Hills with my fellow goons.
We all met up at the entrance and first headed to the biggest, baddest coaster on the East coast – Wipeout. At this point in the day it was walk-on and I grabbed the front row.
Not the worst Vekoma Boomerang I’ve been on, but that’s damning it with faint praise and it was still pretty crap. Next we headed to the area of the park that is currently being re-themed to a farmyard area, with the main attraction being Egg-Spress, the recently re-opened Tivoli. Not all of us got on together which gave Ian the chance to get the much-desired front row on the next train
It might be newly themed but it was one of the rougher Tivolis I’ve ridden and they don’t seem to have repainted to track either which was a bit sad. Also that zero car is just pathetic! Fair play though, they are doing their best with probably a miniscule budget to put some theming in an area, and the buildings looked quite nice.
With two creds done we headed back towards the centre of the park, but not before some more hardy members of the group took a ride on Fireball, where I tried to get some photos of them in action and mostly failed – you can see their feet in this pic:
Next up was the raft slide, Wavebreaker, which was only running one side meaning no races, and insisted on two riders per boat which meant poor @caffeine_demon had to miss out because an odd number of our group had joined the queue
We then rode something I had never seen before – Kite Flyer. This Zamperla ride is best described as a Waveswinger crossed with a Volare, with the ominous cage-like carriages of the latter. It was uncomfortable but otherwise inoffensive. I will probably never ride another one!
We then headed to probably the best-themed area of the park and the first sign of any significant life, the Western-style street which housed a number of shops plus the Rootin’ Tootin’ Target Trail.
This used to be Hob’s Pit, a horror-themed walkthrough and dark ride that was obviously out of place for the family focus of the park so got re-themed into this crappy dark ride shooter with naff guns, boring targets and a scoreboard at the end that gave no indication of which scores were yours! We all agreed it was terrible and those of us that had never visited the park before were sad to have missed out on Hob’s Pit which was supposedly pretty decent.
It was just past midday so we took a break from rides to watch the Sea Lion Show, which to be fair was probably the most impressive thing we’d experienced at the park up to that point! There will always be questions about the morality of training animals for entertainment but hopefully they are looking after these animals well and they do raise money for conservation projects so I don’t feel too bad about it. Plus the somersaults were pretty cool!
Back to rides then and next up was Marble Madness, the Maurer Wild Mouse that definitely doesn’t have cars inspired by Minions. Definitely not.
This had the longest queue we’d waited in all day (only about 10 mins) so we had a chance for a nice goony chat about coaster manufacturers and such. The ride was a pretty bog standard Wild Mouse. Not ridden one of these for a while other than the spinning ones so the layout was a refreshing change, but the brakes were pretty violent.
We then rode Timber Falls. Well, five of us did. It looked like a pretty crappy fairground log flume so nobody was expecting to get that wet but the combination of five fully-grown men in one fibreglass boat probably contributed to the soaking we got, which you can see in the video daviddoc linked to above.
We then headed down to the final cred, Cannonball Express, but we already knew it was closed for refurbishment. That was probably the most disappointing moment of the day as everyone loves an old Schwarzkopf and this is the only one of its type in the world. Depressingly spiteful.
That left The Jolly Roger, a decent drop tower that plummets 40 metres in under a second. Quite an impressively forceful ride actually, with nice views of the surrounding area when you’re at the top. What I didn’t enjoy was being smacked in the nose by the restraints when they popped open at the end of the ride – serves me right for not keeping my head back I suppose!
So that brought us to about 1pm and the whole park was done, and with no great desire to re-ride anything or revisit the rides we’d missed, we got the customary group photo and then began to head our separate ways, with the majority heading to Great Yarmouth for more creds.
We may have only spent a few hours there but it was a lovely laid-back trip around the park, with no stress about getting on the rides, plenty of fun chat and a good chance to meet new CF members and catch up with those I’d met before. So all in all a very enjoyable morning in great weather.
The park itself is reminiscent of Oakwood, with a nice location, lots of space, not enough decent rides and an obvious lack of investment to freshen the park up. The problem here is that all the creds are pretty **** too, with the possible exception of the only one we didn’t get to ride. I’d really like to get the Schwarzkopf cred at some point but I’d struggle to justify paying to revisit PWH without more additions, and I’m not sure the park can afford them. That said, by the time we left the car park was pretty full so they’re probably doing well enough as a half-day attraction for the family audience they market the park to.
After reconvening with the wife/dog and grabbing some lunch, we headed back to Great Yarmouth to grab the Joyland creds, paying another £3 for parking in the process – that’s a total of £10 for less than 3 hours parking in Great Yarmouth over the two days - scandalous!
With such glorious weather there was no chance of it being closed and in fact it was buzzing with joyful children and their patient parents. Compare this picture with the one from the previous day – quite a difference, but is that the same seagull?
I grabbed my three tokens and rode Spook Express first. Nothing much to say about the ride as it’s a fairly straightforward kiddie coaster but I love the structure it’s built into with all the vibrant colours and funky characters.
Next was the Tyrolean Tubtwist, which is another funky attraction and unlike anything I’ve ever ridden before, but the twisting was very erratic and the whole experience was rather vomit-inducing.
I did notice some interesting typos on the sign outside the ride, particularly where they’d obviously spelled ‘spinning’ wrong and then stuck a sticker over it that still had it spelled wrong!
Finally I rode the legendary Snails. Again, a great heritage attraction still going strong after 70 years and a fun ride too. Is it a cred though? Not to my mind although I can see why some would count it.
Of the three parks I visited this was the best of the bunch in terms of character, atmosphere and outright quirkiness – I thought it was charming although the rides themselves aren’t amazing. It would be great if more seafront parks put this much effort into a small amount of space.
That was it for Joyland and also this report. Overall a fun weekend with great people and another 7 creds added to my count. Shame about the two spites but that’s goon life!
So not knowing if we’d get time on Sunday, I decided to go and get all the Great Yarmouth creds on Saturday, starting at the top with Joyland. The weather as you know was crap but it looked like the park was open so we paid £2.50 for an hour’s parking next to the pier and headed to Joyland, just as they were closing for the day due to the bad weather. Spite!
So back in the car we got and headed down to the other end of the Golden Mile to the Pleasure Beach. The most convenient parking was right by the entrance at a cost of £4.50 for up to 4 hours with no shorter duration/cost catered for. Pretty disgraceful.
The good news was at least this park was open, so I bought £10 worth of tokens and started by grabbing the park’s most recent cred, Whirlwind. Second SBF Visa Spinner of the year for me (there will be more) and the ride op ran it for about 5 shameful laps.
Next up was the main reason for visiting this park, the classic Roller Coaster. Managed to grab the back row and was treated to a surprisingly smooth ride given the age of this cred, with a few small pops of airtime on the drops. The turnarounds are pretty uneventful trundles but this thing does pack quite a punch on the drops and was more enjoyable than I expected.
I then passed the Big Apple, which in its former location at Alton Towers may well have been the first coaster I ever rode in the early 80s. A brief wave of nostalgia about re-riding one of my earliest creds was soon tempered by the fact that it’s only a wacky worm and I already have the credit.
So I moved on to the last remaining cred, the Family Star. But it was shut.
That meant I still had some tokens left over so I rode the Haunted Hotel, which was a better than average Ghost Train, then headed back to the Roller Coaster for a second ride, which again was on the back row. The brakeman was a different guy this time and he seemed to be less forceful with the brakes, resulting in a slightly more exciting ride with a bit more airtime.
That was it for GYPB as we then headed off to the model village just a bit further up the Prom. I was glad to get the Roller Coaster cred, pretty ambivalent about the rest of the park which mostly seems to be generic fairground rides plonked on a patch of tarmac. It would probably be better on a nicer day but there was no atmosphere while I was there, but maybe I’ll be back in this neck of the woods one day and pick up the spiteful spinner.
On to Sunday then and a massive improvement in the weather, promising a much more enjoyable day at Pleasurewood Hills with my fellow goons.
We all met up at the entrance and first headed to the biggest, baddest coaster on the East coast – Wipeout. At this point in the day it was walk-on and I grabbed the front row.
Not the worst Vekoma Boomerang I’ve been on, but that’s damning it with faint praise and it was still pretty crap. Next we headed to the area of the park that is currently being re-themed to a farmyard area, with the main attraction being Egg-Spress, the recently re-opened Tivoli. Not all of us got on together which gave Ian the chance to get the much-desired front row on the next train
It might be newly themed but it was one of the rougher Tivolis I’ve ridden and they don’t seem to have repainted to track either which was a bit sad. Also that zero car is just pathetic! Fair play though, they are doing their best with probably a miniscule budget to put some theming in an area, and the buildings looked quite nice.
With two creds done we headed back towards the centre of the park, but not before some more hardy members of the group took a ride on Fireball, where I tried to get some photos of them in action and mostly failed – you can see their feet in this pic:
Next up was the raft slide, Wavebreaker, which was only running one side meaning no races, and insisted on two riders per boat which meant poor @caffeine_demon had to miss out because an odd number of our group had joined the queue
We then rode something I had never seen before – Kite Flyer. This Zamperla ride is best described as a Waveswinger crossed with a Volare, with the ominous cage-like carriages of the latter. It was uncomfortable but otherwise inoffensive. I will probably never ride another one!
We then headed to probably the best-themed area of the park and the first sign of any significant life, the Western-style street which housed a number of shops plus the Rootin’ Tootin’ Target Trail.
This used to be Hob’s Pit, a horror-themed walkthrough and dark ride that was obviously out of place for the family focus of the park so got re-themed into this crappy dark ride shooter with naff guns, boring targets and a scoreboard at the end that gave no indication of which scores were yours! We all agreed it was terrible and those of us that had never visited the park before were sad to have missed out on Hob’s Pit which was supposedly pretty decent.
It was just past midday so we took a break from rides to watch the Sea Lion Show, which to be fair was probably the most impressive thing we’d experienced at the park up to that point! There will always be questions about the morality of training animals for entertainment but hopefully they are looking after these animals well and they do raise money for conservation projects so I don’t feel too bad about it. Plus the somersaults were pretty cool!
Back to rides then and next up was Marble Madness, the Maurer Wild Mouse that definitely doesn’t have cars inspired by Minions. Definitely not.
This had the longest queue we’d waited in all day (only about 10 mins) so we had a chance for a nice goony chat about coaster manufacturers and such. The ride was a pretty bog standard Wild Mouse. Not ridden one of these for a while other than the spinning ones so the layout was a refreshing change, but the brakes were pretty violent.
We then rode Timber Falls. Well, five of us did. It looked like a pretty crappy fairground log flume so nobody was expecting to get that wet but the combination of five fully-grown men in one fibreglass boat probably contributed to the soaking we got, which you can see in the video daviddoc linked to above.
We then headed down to the final cred, Cannonball Express, but we already knew it was closed for refurbishment. That was probably the most disappointing moment of the day as everyone loves an old Schwarzkopf and this is the only one of its type in the world. Depressingly spiteful.
That left The Jolly Roger, a decent drop tower that plummets 40 metres in under a second. Quite an impressively forceful ride actually, with nice views of the surrounding area when you’re at the top. What I didn’t enjoy was being smacked in the nose by the restraints when they popped open at the end of the ride – serves me right for not keeping my head back I suppose!
So that brought us to about 1pm and the whole park was done, and with no great desire to re-ride anything or revisit the rides we’d missed, we got the customary group photo and then began to head our separate ways, with the majority heading to Great Yarmouth for more creds.
We may have only spent a few hours there but it was a lovely laid-back trip around the park, with no stress about getting on the rides, plenty of fun chat and a good chance to meet new CF members and catch up with those I’d met before. So all in all a very enjoyable morning in great weather.
The park itself is reminiscent of Oakwood, with a nice location, lots of space, not enough decent rides and an obvious lack of investment to freshen the park up. The problem here is that all the creds are pretty **** too, with the possible exception of the only one we didn’t get to ride. I’d really like to get the Schwarzkopf cred at some point but I’d struggle to justify paying to revisit PWH without more additions, and I’m not sure the park can afford them. That said, by the time we left the car park was pretty full so they’re probably doing well enough as a half-day attraction for the family audience they market the park to.
After reconvening with the wife/dog and grabbing some lunch, we headed back to Great Yarmouth to grab the Joyland creds, paying another £3 for parking in the process – that’s a total of £10 for less than 3 hours parking in Great Yarmouth over the two days - scandalous!
With such glorious weather there was no chance of it being closed and in fact it was buzzing with joyful children and their patient parents. Compare this picture with the one from the previous day – quite a difference, but is that the same seagull?
I grabbed my three tokens and rode Spook Express first. Nothing much to say about the ride as it’s a fairly straightforward kiddie coaster but I love the structure it’s built into with all the vibrant colours and funky characters.
Next was the Tyrolean Tubtwist, which is another funky attraction and unlike anything I’ve ever ridden before, but the twisting was very erratic and the whole experience was rather vomit-inducing.
I did notice some interesting typos on the sign outside the ride, particularly where they’d obviously spelled ‘spinning’ wrong and then stuck a sticker over it that still had it spelled wrong!
Finally I rode the legendary Snails. Again, a great heritage attraction still going strong after 70 years and a fun ride too. Is it a cred though? Not to my mind although I can see why some would count it.
Of the three parks I visited this was the best of the bunch in terms of character, atmosphere and outright quirkiness – I thought it was charming although the rides themselves aren’t amazing. It would be great if more seafront parks put this much effort into a small amount of space.
That was it for Joyland and also this report. Overall a fun weekend with great people and another 7 creds added to my count. Shame about the two spites but that’s goon life!
Howie
Donkey in a hat
It was lovely to see you all again - I DO like hanging out with you guys, even if it's only for a few hours at a tin pot little park in a field behind Tesco in Lowestoft.
With the weather forecast being what it was and the risk of spite being high, me and me Julie decided to skip Fantasy Island and just head straight down to Great Yarmouth. The drive was long enough as it was without doing a 3 hour detour to Skegness for creds that may or may not open. As it turns out, they did open, so that was a huge fail on my part.
Still, we got to Great Yarmouth ok mid afternoon, checked into our dodgy b&b and wandered up the seafront.
Joyland was closed due to weather. Spite. Wasn't that arsed.
Mini village was closed due to weather. Spite. Wasn't that arsed.
Pleasure Beach was open though, so boom to that.
Spinning mouse was closed. Spite. Would have ridden this one too as it's a Fabbri one, and I haven't been on one of those. Word is that they're better (or is it worse?) than the Reverchon ones but overall it's still a JASSM and I wasn't too arsed.
Skipped the wacky worm. I may or may not have this cred already as it used to be at Alton Towers, can't remember for sure though. If I have it already, I didn't need it again, and if I didn't have it already then it's a wacky worm so I didn't need it full stop. Either way, wasn't arsed.
Skipped the SBF spinner. They're sh*t. Wasn't arsed.
I did enjoy Roller Coaster though, woo hoo! For its age it's actually quite remarkable how smooth it is and how nicely it rides. Loved the on-board brakeman thing - never seen anything like that before. Decent cred, well worth having.
Rode the little pirate ship, rode the little bounce tower, rode the carousel and then finished off by taking the missus up the log flume. All good fun.
Strolled along the beach, had a sh*t dinner on the pier, played in a few arcades, wandered back to the hotel for drinks and telly.
Day 2 was good. Not much to say that hasn't been said already. Weather was better. Took a few pictures but I'm currently locked out of my Flickr account so can't share them, but it was a lovely chilled day with goons.
Wipeout was ok for a boomerang. Been on worse. Egg-spress was ok I guess. Sealion show was cute.
Drop tower and flume were ok.
Rode the mouse for the cred without realising I'd already ridden it at Flamingo Land about 10 years ago. -1.
Schwarzkopf spited. Was very much arsed about this one, this was the main reason for me wanting to do Pleasurewood in the first place. Love a Schwarzkopf, me. Spite. Arsed.
Some of the gang headed back to Great Yarmouth afterwards to mop up missing creds and snails, but me and Julie weren't arsed, decided to make the long drive back to the Midlands instead.
Overall, we quite enjoyed it.
I would have written a more in-depth trip report... but I couldn't be arsed.
With the weather forecast being what it was and the risk of spite being high, me and me Julie decided to skip Fantasy Island and just head straight down to Great Yarmouth. The drive was long enough as it was without doing a 3 hour detour to Skegness for creds that may or may not open. As it turns out, they did open, so that was a huge fail on my part.
Still, we got to Great Yarmouth ok mid afternoon, checked into our dodgy b&b and wandered up the seafront.
Joyland was closed due to weather. Spite. Wasn't that arsed.
Mini village was closed due to weather. Spite. Wasn't that arsed.
Pleasure Beach was open though, so boom to that.
Spinning mouse was closed. Spite. Would have ridden this one too as it's a Fabbri one, and I haven't been on one of those. Word is that they're better (or is it worse?) than the Reverchon ones but overall it's still a JASSM and I wasn't too arsed.
Skipped the wacky worm. I may or may not have this cred already as it used to be at Alton Towers, can't remember for sure though. If I have it already, I didn't need it again, and if I didn't have it already then it's a wacky worm so I didn't need it full stop. Either way, wasn't arsed.
Skipped the SBF spinner. They're sh*t. Wasn't arsed.
I did enjoy Roller Coaster though, woo hoo! For its age it's actually quite remarkable how smooth it is and how nicely it rides. Loved the on-board brakeman thing - never seen anything like that before. Decent cred, well worth having.
Rode the little pirate ship, rode the little bounce tower, rode the carousel and then finished off by taking the missus up the log flume. All good fun.
Strolled along the beach, had a sh*t dinner on the pier, played in a few arcades, wandered back to the hotel for drinks and telly.
Day 2 was good. Not much to say that hasn't been said already. Weather was better. Took a few pictures but I'm currently locked out of my Flickr account so can't share them, but it was a lovely chilled day with goons.
Wipeout was ok for a boomerang. Been on worse. Egg-spress was ok I guess. Sealion show was cute.
Drop tower and flume were ok.
Rode the mouse for the cred without realising I'd already ridden it at Flamingo Land about 10 years ago. -1.
Schwarzkopf spited. Was very much arsed about this one, this was the main reason for me wanting to do Pleasurewood in the first place. Love a Schwarzkopf, me. Spite. Arsed.
Some of the gang headed back to Great Yarmouth afterwards to mop up missing creds and snails, but me and Julie weren't arsed, decided to make the long drive back to the Midlands instead.
Overall, we quite enjoyed it.
I would have written a more in-depth trip report... but I couldn't be arsed.
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SilverArrow
Certified Ride Geek
I am a big Schwarzkopf fan and I didn't rate the pwh one so you didn't miss much. Think it's the worse one I've done.
DelPiero
Strata Poster
I agree with Emily, it's really awful compared to all the other Schwarz's I've ridden. Not something you should revisit for.
Thanks to everyone who came! I had a smashing, if slightly rain-soaked, time. Firstly, here are some photos (apologies for my terrible photo skills)
For context, I did a quiz called GOONIVERSITY CHALLENGE. Here are the respective teams, ready to answer my quick fire coaster questions:
(sorry about my thumb)
After a close call in the general knowledge round, it was down to the music round to decide the winner. This one was based off Never Mind The Buzzcocks, I give one team member some ride music to hum and the rest of their team mates had to guess what ride it was. This also ended in a tie! Nail biting stuff.
Finally, it was down to one last quick fire question, which Team Intamin answered correctly. They won some Steel Dragon 2000 crisps all the way from Nagashima Spa Land ("ooooooh!" "aaaaaaah!") *
*nb: reactions may be slightly exaggerated
And now for more games, in the form of Cred Head.
It's like Who Am I? but cred based. Always fun.
Time to go boating;
I liked this boat ride because it was pretty crap. Yay!
Out of the goodness of my heart, I decided to skip the weird Magic flat ride so I could take pics of Cfers err... "enjoying" it.
Anywho...the day! I got an open top bus to the Live which was probably my most novel way of arrival so far. Cred anxiety set in as a black rain cloud loomed overhead. We could see the Vekoma's testing, but would they hold out long enough for us to ride...?
YES! Finally, I have the Odyssey cred! It's...probably one of the least worst U.K. SLC's, but that doesn't mean it's good. It's a solid 4/10.
Millenium was well smooth, but it was also rather dull. If the most notable thing about a Vekoma is that it doesn't cause you pain then I don't think that bodes particularly well for the ride.
Ice Mountain was STUPIDLY spinny. I believe @MouseAT has a great photo of my disgusted face on ride.
Errr, what else is noteworthy about Fantasy Island? Oh yeah, the indoor projection mapping and fake snow show! That was nice. The food was not. But at least it was cheap.
Back in the day, I used to wonder why we never really did CF Lives at Fantasy Island. I mean...it's got some of the biggest coasters in the UK?! But now I see why.
It's not a *terrible* park, but there just doesn't feel like a lot there? I suppose the rain didn't help. Had it been sunny, we may have faffed on log flumes and flat rides for a few more hours.
Instead we decided to try our luck with the Mablethorpe and Bottons creds, which meant we ended the day on a double spite. Boo!
We consoled ourselves in a pub on the Skegness seafront which was nice. I particularly enjoyed being indoors and not chilly.
Thanks again to everyone who came and for keeping in high spirits despite the weather. Was lovely to see you all!
For context, I did a quiz called GOONIVERSITY CHALLENGE. Here are the respective teams, ready to answer my quick fire coaster questions:
(sorry about my thumb)
After a close call in the general knowledge round, it was down to the music round to decide the winner. This one was based off Never Mind The Buzzcocks, I give one team member some ride music to hum and the rest of their team mates had to guess what ride it was. This also ended in a tie! Nail biting stuff.
Finally, it was down to one last quick fire question, which Team Intamin answered correctly. They won some Steel Dragon 2000 crisps all the way from Nagashima Spa Land ("ooooooh!" "aaaaaaah!") *
*nb: reactions may be slightly exaggerated
And now for more games, in the form of Cred Head.
It's like Who Am I? but cred based. Always fun.
Time to go boating;
I liked this boat ride because it was pretty crap. Yay!
Out of the goodness of my heart, I decided to skip the weird Magic flat ride so I could take pics of Cfers err... "enjoying" it.
Anywho...the day! I got an open top bus to the Live which was probably my most novel way of arrival so far. Cred anxiety set in as a black rain cloud loomed overhead. We could see the Vekoma's testing, but would they hold out long enough for us to ride...?
YES! Finally, I have the Odyssey cred! It's...probably one of the least worst U.K. SLC's, but that doesn't mean it's good. It's a solid 4/10.
Millenium was well smooth, but it was also rather dull. If the most notable thing about a Vekoma is that it doesn't cause you pain then I don't think that bodes particularly well for the ride.
Ice Mountain was STUPIDLY spinny. I believe @MouseAT has a great photo of my disgusted face on ride.
Errr, what else is noteworthy about Fantasy Island? Oh yeah, the indoor projection mapping and fake snow show! That was nice. The food was not. But at least it was cheap.
Back in the day, I used to wonder why we never really did CF Lives at Fantasy Island. I mean...it's got some of the biggest coasters in the UK?! But now I see why.
It's not a *terrible* park, but there just doesn't feel like a lot there? I suppose the rain didn't help. Had it been sunny, we may have faffed on log flumes and flat rides for a few more hours.
Instead we decided to try our luck with the Mablethorpe and Bottons creds, which meant we ended the day on a double spite. Boo!
We consoled ourselves in a pub on the Skegness seafront which was nice. I particularly enjoyed being indoors and not chilly.
Thanks again to everyone who came and for keeping in high spirits despite the weather. Was lovely to see you all!
MouseAT
Hyper Poster
Well, I guess a trip report is long overdue. It's been a bit of a mental week, and I've not been particularly well for the first half of it, so it's taken me an age to get photos turned around.
Given that I already have all of the Great Yarmouth and Pleasurewood Hills creds, I was only present for the Saturday. As much as I'd have liked to spend more time with awesome CFers, I've made the drive back from Lowestoft once in the past, and it's not something I had any desire to repeat late on a Sunday afternoon/evening.
So, Fantasy Island then. The weather forecast looked awful, but wristbands were cheap and CFers were in attendance, so it was definitely worth the trip. As it turned out, the weather wasn't as bad as we though it might have been, the park wasn't too busy, and even Odyssey was operating for a while in the morning, so we got to ride all of the major stuff before the wind picked up and Odyssey closed.
In my head, I'd been concerned that loads of stuff wouldn't be operating, that we'd be done with the park in a couple of hours, and that everyone would subsequently go their own ways, with most people driving down to Norfolk/Suffolk on the Saturday. Instead, we spend a solid few hours at Fantasy Island, enjoying a wide variety of attractions, some good, some incredibly tacky, all accompanied by the usual CF camaraderie at its absolute best. It was mid afternoon before any of us left the park in search of the spiteful Mablethorpe creds.
After our failed Mablethorpe efforts, we decided to make a run for Skegness, and upon discovering that Bottons was also spiting, it was pub time. We must have spent a good couple of hours in a seafront pub, enjoying some surprisingly decent food, a few drinks, and a good chat amongst ourselves.
All good things must come to an end, however, and by 7pm, everyone needed to be hitting the roads, as regardless of whether we were heading north or south, most people had horribly long drives ahead of them. Given that it was getting late, I decided it would be best to drop SilverArrow off in Leeds, as it'd be far easier for her to get a train back to Manchester from there than anywhere else that was vaguely near my route home. Fortunately, the roads were fairly clear, we made decent time, and I was back home by around 11pm, tired, but thoroughly entertained.
Anyway, photos are now online at http://mouseat.co.uk/albums/june-2019-cf-live-fantasy-island-beasts-in-the-east/. Serena wasn't joking about her reaction to the ridiculously spinny Ice Mountain either - you'll find that photo on the second page. As usual, I'll try to keep photos online for as long as I can, but I'll probably have to rotate out older stuff in a year or so to make space for newer pictures, so if you want to keep some of the photos for your collection, save copies whilst you can.
Given that I already have all of the Great Yarmouth and Pleasurewood Hills creds, I was only present for the Saturday. As much as I'd have liked to spend more time with awesome CFers, I've made the drive back from Lowestoft once in the past, and it's not something I had any desire to repeat late on a Sunday afternoon/evening.
So, Fantasy Island then. The weather forecast looked awful, but wristbands were cheap and CFers were in attendance, so it was definitely worth the trip. As it turned out, the weather wasn't as bad as we though it might have been, the park wasn't too busy, and even Odyssey was operating for a while in the morning, so we got to ride all of the major stuff before the wind picked up and Odyssey closed.
In my head, I'd been concerned that loads of stuff wouldn't be operating, that we'd be done with the park in a couple of hours, and that everyone would subsequently go their own ways, with most people driving down to Norfolk/Suffolk on the Saturday. Instead, we spend a solid few hours at Fantasy Island, enjoying a wide variety of attractions, some good, some incredibly tacky, all accompanied by the usual CF camaraderie at its absolute best. It was mid afternoon before any of us left the park in search of the spiteful Mablethorpe creds.
After our failed Mablethorpe efforts, we decided to make a run for Skegness, and upon discovering that Bottons was also spiting, it was pub time. We must have spent a good couple of hours in a seafront pub, enjoying some surprisingly decent food, a few drinks, and a good chat amongst ourselves.
All good things must come to an end, however, and by 7pm, everyone needed to be hitting the roads, as regardless of whether we were heading north or south, most people had horribly long drives ahead of them. Given that it was getting late, I decided it would be best to drop SilverArrow off in Leeds, as it'd be far easier for her to get a train back to Manchester from there than anywhere else that was vaguely near my route home. Fortunately, the roads were fairly clear, we made decent time, and I was back home by around 11pm, tired, but thoroughly entertained.
Anyway, photos are now online at http://mouseat.co.uk/albums/june-2019-cf-live-fantasy-island-beasts-in-the-east/. Serena wasn't joking about her reaction to the ridiculously spinny Ice Mountain either - you'll find that photo on the second page. As usual, I'll try to keep photos online for as long as I can, but I'll probably have to rotate out older stuff in a year or so to make space for newer pictures, so if you want to keep some of the photos for your collection, save copies whilst you can.