GhosterForce X - Trip Reports

[MouseAT]

Well, I suppose it's trip report time. There are no photos from me this time around as I was busy shooting video, but on the plus side the video is nearly finished and is rendering as I write this.

Alton Towers

I think we managed to make the most of a really busy day at Alton. I think most of the general public probably started the day with The Smiler and then moved on to mazes in the afternoon. We started off with the Runaway Mine Train and Duel en-route to Forbidden Valley, got Nemesis and Air out of the way early on and then progressed to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Hex before things got too busy.

After Lunch, queues started to build up in the Dark Forest, which resulted in over and hour spent waiting for Th13teen. That was the only really burdneous wait of the day though, as later on after dark the queues for Oblivion and Nemesis were a lot more manageable.

The peg game started on Towers Street, quickly escalated to the point where I was fishing pegs out of my camera bag before the morning ride on Nemesis and then took on a life of its own once the general public got involved in the Th13teen queue. The pegs continued to feature throughout all four days of the Live, but day one was definitely the highlight in that regard.

After a couple of night rides on Nemesis, the group split and we went our separate ways. I had a while to wait until my taxi was due, so I ended up getting a night ride on Rita and then riding Hex again with a grand total of two other people in order to get out of the torrential rain. Afterwards, it was a quick taxi ride back to Stoke on Trent for an overnight stop before Drayton Manor.

Drayton Manor

I was a bit late arriving at Drayton due to the fact that trains are crap on Sundays mornings, but arrived at Drayton just in time to meet the other CFers faffing after coming off Apocalypse.

Drayton was absolutely dead all day. Most coasters had a 5 minute or so queue. Most flat rides were walk on, and the wait was because the ride ops were waiting for more people to board the rides before running a cycle. Annoyingly, Bat on a Stick was closed all day, much to my disappointment as it's something of a Drayton Manor Live staple.

Day two was very much a case of ploughing through the major rides, getting a few re-rides on Apocalypse and then calling it a day. Again I had a bit of time to kill waiting for Tomotron to arrive, but we were soon on our way down south, playing a load of tunes in the car and arriving in Tolworth in good time and good spirits before the storm hit.

The rest of the evening involved myself, Ciall, Serena, Tom and Ian grabbing food from a nearby Subway and then chilling out in the hotel room and having a laugh for a few hours.

Thorpe Park

Due to the bad weather, Thorpe Park didn't open until around midday. This worked in our favour to be honest. I was glad of the lie in, and once we reached Thorpe, it was fairly quiet. Clearly the weather was keeping people away. This time the burdenous queue was for Saw, with wait times for other rides being minimal.

Swarm was pretty bumpy in the back outside seat, but fun and smooth on an inside seat in the middle of the train. Inferno was running phenomenally well, giving its older cousin a run for its money. Stealth was amazing as always, but a lot more rattly than I remember it. X is interesting and much improved since its overhaul. Saw beat me to a pulp, but at least didn't leave me with a splitting headache this time around. Colossus was its usual self.

Afterwards, it was time for the usual Tolworth Travelodge party. I would write more, but what happens at Tolworth stays at Tolworth...

Chessington World of Adventures

Chessington was pretty much as it usually is at Ghosterforce - incredibly busy, light on rides and heavy on antics. Over the course of the day we managed to get on most of the major rides with the exception of Bubbleworks and Black Buccaneer. We also checked out the new Hocus Pocus Hall, which was quite impressive with some interesting scenes, effects and actors. It's definitely aimed at a younger audience, but entertaining nevertheless.

As for the antics, the Chessington day involved the annual faffle (where Ian "forgot" to bring the fleece... BOO!). The Lorikeets were on manic form, entertaining and terrifying CFers in equal measure. Ian's goon star competition led to seeing how many CFers could fit into a Tuk Tuk (to which the answer is "lots"), and the glow sticks certainly came out in force in the queue for Hocus Pocus hall, leading to a huge line of interconnected CFers.

After the obligatory night ride on Vampire at the end of the day, it was sadly time to say our goodbyes and go our own ways. In my case, that meant to the on site hotel at Chessington where I was able to crash out for around 12 hours and desperately catch up on some sleep.

Aftermath

As I tend to get mid-afternoon trains back home from London, I spent a couple of hours on park at Chessington the following morning getting a re-ride on Dragon's Fury and rides on both Bubbleworks and Buccaneer before having a wander around the big cat enclosures and then finally heading home.

The post-Live downer quickly set in, and I miss everyone already, but spending this afternoon putting together the video and re-living some of the more entertaining antics has certainly helped offset that a bit.

To everyone who attended: Thank you! I know I say this almost every time, but it bears repeating. You're all amazing people, I miss you all already and I can't wait for next season to do it all again. Have a great off-season, and I'll see you all again in 2014 (if not before).

 

[MouseAT]

It's here!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayc78ARQayU[/youtube]

Once again, it's not playable on mobile devices because the record labels are being dicks.

 

[tks]

Just a quick thanks to everyone old/new that I met and spoke to. Had a really good chilled out 4 days with great company!

 

[Mike]

Sounds like everyone had a great time. Excellent video once again Andy!

I'm gutted I couldn't make it. One year I'll make it to a GF again.

 

[FaceYourNemesis]

I could only get to the Drayton meet unfortunately, but it was a brilliant day. Met some great new people and had a laugh. Thanks to everyone!

I think this needs posting TBH

 

[tks]

The best part about that photo is mushrooms cut offs!!

 

[furie]

I'm pretty sure CFers have uploaded their photos Facebook for everybody

I did finally this morning, ready to copy and paste into a report here today - which I've still failed to get around to doing. One step closer though

The tunnel past the rapids was lit up and bare - The Tunnel of Despair. It looked awful.

In a bizarre twist, the lights were turned off when it got dark...

 

[Ian]

I enjoyed the video, Andy! Thanks for creating.

DRAYTON MANOR

I was expecting a DMP to be the "best day" in terms of ride count, quietness and antics. I wasn't wrong.

I was disappointed that Bat On A Stick (The Haunting) wasn't open but I did chuckle when the wind blew the "Ride Closed" sign off the gates and other guests piled into the queue line and stood there for a while

The day started, as usual, with multiple rides on Apocalypse. I love this ride and was chuffed to force Serena on the sit down. She was scared after a a bit of hand holding and constantly babbling - on my behalf - my day started with a ride on the Shaft of Largness.

Chuff Nuggets was next. That's the shooting ride. Everything was work for a change and I thrashed Vadge.

Benjamin Dix was our first coaster of the day. Very poor batching by the ride staff but soon enough I was enjoying the best kind of Vekoma boomerang.

We were going to head to Shockwave but got diverted to the Pirate's Adventure ride. We politely organised ourself in order of weight and created the fattest boat ever! I've been relegated to row three. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not! The splash was enormous! We all ended sitting in a pool of water, there wasn't a dry eye or a dry arse in the boat. The rest of the ride was rubbish though. The fat boat didn't make it up the conveyor belt at the end.

Burdenous one-train operation on Ge-Force meant the group skipped it and went on Malestrom and Shockwave instead. I sat out taking selfies of myself wearing furie's amazing but large hat.

The rapids followed. I was a member of the "Fab Boat" with Jordan, Ed, James and AJ. Not only was a I happy to related to row 3 of a fat boat, I was also briefly considered "fab". I took advantage of this by dancing through the irritating panelled queue line. I got slightly moist. The rapids at Drayton are fairly underrated imo. They're tucked away and shown no love. I think they're fab.

We split for lunch. Most of us headed to the grill place outside the top entrance. Awful kitchen service, lovely waitress but she wasn't on top of her game and poorly cooked food (luke warm, came with dipping sauce not advertised). I honestly think I'd go for a vile Rollover next time!

I'm not entirely sure of the order after lunch. A few CFers did Pandemonium, we managed to get on the Muffalo coaster which was shut earlier in the day. The badge dots mystery was revealed when we rode the Thomas cred. Everybody has a partner who shared the same dot combination. If you sat next to that person on the cred, you were entered in a prize draw. Maxi-minor_furie insisted on pulling out the winner and he picked the most difficult name to pronounce (for an eight (?) year old) - Radaxian. Serena won an Ian Bell hand crafted "Park Bark Plaque" - No expense spared when it comes to CF prizes!

Hah! Just noticed that I left out the "D" in World of Fun. Tacky <3

Some people watched a juggling show before we did the Crank Crane drop tower. The ride op looked really cheesed off. I was disappointed that it didn't have as much "oooo" as Darren B promised.

The day ended with more rides on Apocalypse and I took this poorly lit group photo.

The day at DMP felt a lot more relaxed and intimate than Alton Towers. I think the key to an enjoyable day at DMP is Apocalypse. Unlike the thrill rides and coasters at other parks that we've rode tonnes of times before, Apocalypse scares and thrills people each and every ride. It pumps fear and banter to the right places and keeps the group nicely topped up on adrenaline all day.

 

[tks]

Ahahaha I love that DMP group photo <3

 

[furie]

Ian's actually covered most things chronologically, so I'll just go through some motions - as it were

Alton
I don't think Alton makes a good live venue. It's not so much about how busy the park is when we go, it's the fact that everyone has been so many times, done the rides so many times and there's such a lot of downtime between rides (queuing or walking between them). I think people are generally a little jaded and there's no real kind of "oh, we must go on that" excitement.

Having said that, I think the day on the Saturday was successful. We beat the queues mostly on the early part of the day, and the latter queues for Thirteen etc were so filled with people being silly, it was great. Both Hex with the quoting and the Thirteen queue with the pegs were the kinds of things which make you feel great to be part of such a goony, ridiculous group

Of course, ending the day whoring Nemesis in the dark is a massive highlight

Family_Furie did split from the group numerous times - partly because I'm still not really riding much and partly because MMF still won't 'go upside down' - but I think we managed to keep up mostly. Though I also got separated from Madame_Furie, who found the group before MMF and myself, only to be confronted by an enormous **** :

Madame_Furie had apparently won it as a prize on a stall - she was after a pocket sized **** though as a Christmas present. Still, the turd seemed to have fun with us all day - here's a picture of it being born:

I can't believe the group went on Charlie, it's such an awful ride - maybe next time Ian should combine the passport trick with the lift?

Hex had a huge queue, but it really eats up the people.

And Tom and Serena were obnoxiously not bothered by my flash blinding them

While everyone else was having lunch, MMF went to see the bug show, and he got to hold this giant slug - much to his delight:

Stuff rushed through then I guess. I didn't really take many photos. Got a fair few in the Oblivion queue.

Jordan in the Oblivion queue - he's used this as his Facebook profile:

And a fun shot of Nic, post Passport orgasm

Dave Morton looking like a wicked witch in Snow White:

Can't believe Nic just munching away, she seemed to always have food in her hand.

Nic with her usual beautiful face:

ATTACKHAMMER being happy:

AJ and Ed posing in front of Oblivion

With over 23,000 on park, it was an amazing day considering the skeleton staff Alton had put on

All in all, we had a really good day. It was a shame we still haven't done The Smiler as a group, I don't know how much the dynamic may change the experience.

I finished the night on the Rapids, which were ridiculously rapid and wet for a change - really great fun then a long walk back to the car as the monorail queue was stupidly long.

Thanks to Ian for the organisation. Alton is a tough park to organise a live on, and he did a fantastic job all day

Edit: Just realised I got the photos mixed up, oh well

 

[furie]

Okay, it appears I have time to do more

Drayton
I enjoyed Drayton, in fact, it's very rare I have a "bad day" at Drayton. I don't think the park is great particularly, or has a great selection of rides, but I always have fun.

It was still great with CF for GFX

It certainly helped that the place was dead and everything was walk on. It's constant re-riding stuff which is actually really re-ridable. For the grown ups, Apocalypse, and at the same time the two kids whored Chuff Nuggets and Drunken Barrels. The group didn't really split either, it just worked really well.

I'm a big fan of Ben 10, though it's a bit lame backwards. It's nice and fun though. I did the rapids about half a dozen times while everyone else was on Shockwave and G-Force, then I did them again with the group

It was just constant riding and being all together (or only briefly apart), it worked so well. I know the place is a nightmare when it's busy, but that day was fab

I didn't have an issue with lunch either. I had pie, mash and peas which was NOM, cheap and served within minutes - so I got a second look around the zoo (we had a look at the start of the day while waiting for rides to start).

Pirate Adventure is awful though. It was always naff, but with so much broken, my delight at finding it still operating soon left. Dreadful. The fat boat was stunning though, so much wet

My only real disappointment all day was a lacklustre ride on Maelstrom. I adore the ride usually, but I just didn't really find it doing anything for me. It may have been because I was a little distracted ensuring MMF was fine on his first go on it though, I don't know, but it just wasn't quite as fun as usual. Preferred Eagle's Claw at LWV this year.

Thoroughly enjoyable and full day at the park though. Anyone who thinks badly of Drayton needs to go on a day like that (with their seriousness and critical head in a bag) and you'll get a lot from the park, particularly with fun mates

Thanks to everyone who helped look after MMF at points (Ploddish taking him on Ben 10 etc) and thanks for the great company and making a superb two day end to the season for us

I only took a few photos at DMP:

Meerkats

Ian dropped all the badges, so I stood back and took a photo and laughed instead of helping him out

Kookaburra, not sitting in a tree at all, old or new...

All the photos from both days are here:
https://www.facebook.com/furiekins/medi ... 436&type=3

 

[Jordanovichy]

Love how you got in 'he used the pic as his facebook profile' It's cause it's excellent photography, Furie

 

[furie]

It's cause it's excellent photography, Furie

Good to see my talents are finally being recognised

 

[MouseAT]

It's nice to see some trip reports are finally starting to materialise. This thread seems to have been suspiciously quiet so far, although I suspect that's because a lot of people have been either working, away from home or both.

I'm glad people are enjoying the video. I though that the Yorkshire Tripper one would be a hard act to follow, but this one just seemed to fall into place so easily and is actually one of my favourite ones so far.

 

[Serena]

What a brilliant four days Ghosterforce X was. It's now over a week ago but I'm still smiling about it and finding the odd peg / glow stick in my bag!

Day One: Alton Towers

Got picked up at the early hour of Goon O' Clock by Darren and Ian, went to a lovely greasy spoon cafe to fuel ourselves for what we presumed would be a horrendously busy day at Alton. On a Saturday. In half term. Driving through the misty countryside with Chvrches playing on the stereo in Darren's car was a personal highlight of mine that day. No matter how many times I do it, I still find the last half hour of the drive to Alton really beautiful and atmospheric <3 especially with great music on in the car

Luckily, Alton wasn't as busy as we were expecting, so we managed to get quite a lot done in the morning - starting with the Squirrel Nutty ride (and the inevitable debate over whether it's a cred or not :roll: ) Whilst waiting for other CFers to arrive, the clowns from the Carnival of Screams maze appeared and started doing some hilarious dancing. This happy chappy was my fave:

Was relieved at the plan to walk over to Forbidden Valley via the Runaway Mine Train, because I am terrified of the Skyride. The pegs were already in circulation by this point, and the question "have I got pegs?" arose as though it's some kind of disease! (Premature Enthusiastic Goon Syndrome - a state of delusion where a goon spies mud / diggers in a theme park and believes it's for a B+M hyper)

Runaway Mine Train was re-themed all bleak for this years Scarefest with some stark lights illuminating the moldy tunnel of despair. It's always nice to see parks making an effort with Halloween.

Half of the animatronics in Dual appeared to not be working, and the music was too quiet. These terrible working conditions obviously affected my score to the low number that it was
Nemesis was awesome as always. Queued for Urrrrgh (Air), where myself and Tom coined the term 'Towerettes' - for the uncontrollable swearing that occurs on drop towers! By the time we reached the station for Air I was dying for a wee. Despite Toms great advice to 'peg it shut' I opted for the toilets instead of the Alton's dullest coaster.

Faced my fears on the Skyride over to the Drab Forest, thanks to those in my cable car for trying to make it sway when it just *had* to stop twice mid-air! Rode Charlie and The Chocolate Craptory and blew everyone away with my mega cool observation - that the sound for the airgates opening on Charlie is the same sound as the Swarms dispatch noise. Played the 'how many animatronics aren't working' game in our boat (the answer was 3); then the glass elevator was a rather pleasurable finale.

Caught a bit of Patch's Halloween show and was really excited that they used the fab pop classic 'Allstars - Things Go Bump In The Night' in their show!

Next up was Hex, which was hexceptional in a large group. Everyone quoting the words along with the pre-show video was hexcellent fun, and the actual ride is one of the more hexciting Madhouses I've been on. Went to Courtyard Tavern for lunch in the hope of catching the show for the millionth time this year, but we managed to miss it by a few minutes While I was irate about the lack of Pirates, those delicious potato lattice fries cheered me up.
Visited Sharkbait Reef to see if one of the mantas would do a pretzel loop (they didn't, but they were very cute) and went on the Log Flume before meeting back up with everyone to ride Thirteen.
The queue for Thirteen was more fun than the ride itself, lots of pegging and Chinese whisper fun. Headed over to X-Factor where The Smiler had a massive queue, so we opted for Oblivion - where I was introduced to the pleasures of the passport thanks to Ian. As soon as we decided to ride The Smiler as single riders the coaster decided to break down. I feel pleased that this year that I have managed to experience The Smiler in all it's possible forms - broken down on opening day, broken down on bank holiday and now broken down in the dark.

Thankfully the Skyride was shut, so we had a great walk in the dark through Gloomy Wood before riding Nemesis a couple more times. Ian revealed the brilliant secret of 'Nemesis Wind', where you face the vertical loop in the queue and feel the rush of wind as the train goes past <3

Nothing gets better at Alton than Nemesis in the dark, so I was happy the day ended with that, then head down to Tamworth Travelodge for an evening of G&T and Travelols.


Day Two: Drayton Manor

Full of service station pasties, we headed to Drayton Manor and straight for Apocalypse. I was very scared, but Ian managed to coax me on and held my shaking hand like a true gentleman does on 180ft drop towers.
Next we rode the Golden Nuggets shooter where I was pleased to kick Rebels ass with a great score; and Pirate Adventure where there was a delay in our boat getting back to the station due to the fat boat in front having it's masses of excess water mopped out!
Ben 10 is a smooth coaster and has a well-themed queue line, I'd say it's one of the better Boomerangs I've ridden (but that's not really a compliment.)

I was sad that The Haunting was closed as I've never ridden it before and really wanted to see this infamous Bat on A Stick.
Shockwave was a bit rough, I was glad we didn't have to queue for it in that vile shack thing. The rapids were a pleasant surprise, just the right amount of wetness G-Force was disgusting, but I felt better when I saw 'Iandiana Jones' looking great in Furies hat.

Wasn't very impressed with the posh lunch we had, I've had much better food and service for a much cheaper price. But it was nice just to sit down in the warmth!

Visited Thomas Land for the first time (one of the joys of CF Lives is doing things in a park that you wouldn't normally do), Troublesome Trucks was a great kiddie coaster and it was where Ian's mysterious dots on the name badges came into effect. (Much to my benefit!)

After we all sat next to our dot-twin, the name badges got placed in a bag - whichever badge Mini Maxie Minor Furie drew out, won the prize... and it was me, yay! :--D

I won the amazing 'Park Bark' - a plaque hand made by Ian From Coasterforce with a piece of bark from 6 different theme parks: Chessie, Silver Dollar City, Power Park, Six Flags Over Texas, "Worls of Fun" and "Alton Towers" I love it. It is now sitting proudly on my nightstand of sentimental tat <3

Enjoyed having a sit down in the fab but schmaltzy 4D cinema, then managed to get my remaining Drayton Manor cred - "Buffalo Coaster, in the heart of the Drayton Manor." Finished up the day riding Apocalypse again, where I lost all my Drayton Manners and my Towerettes came out in full force. You can actually see the fear (much to the amusement of Lord Morton, MouseAT and Ciall!)

Once grounded, we had a good laugh watching (and listening to the high-pitched screams) of others on the stand up floorless side! Drayton was a great, relaxed day with minimal queues and maximum laughs. It's the kind of park I don't particularly rate, but when visiting with CF it's really good fun. The Ianflatable efforts on CF's behalf to theme the park for Halloween were fab, it was nice to visit a non-busy park ad midst all the Merlin Madness of Ghosterforce.

Time for a drive to Banbury with Darren, then another drive to Lolworth Travelodge with Ian, in some kind of nice car I think, but no one has ever mentioned what type of car is it... It was a fab journey talking about motorway creds and singing along to Meatloaf.

Went for a Subway with Tom, Ciall, Mouse and Ian and felt very confused as to how my 6" Subway ended up costing more than everyone elses' footlongs :? Then spent the evening hanging out at Tolworst, hearing amusing stories about Amsterdam and bananas...

Day Three: Thorpe Park

Got woken up the next morning by Ian braving the debris of last nights terrible storm to bring me some actual milk <3 Yay, none of that UHT 'tastes like fresh milk' rubbish for me today! Thorpe was closed for the morning, so me and Ciall watched an entire episode of Jeremy Kyle to prepare ourselves for Thorpe Park and it's charming clientele.

Had a lol with Nic and her 'best wee ever' whilst waiting for people to turn up, it was good to see Tom (Delpierro) again and lots more familiar faces arriving for the southern part of this Ghosterforce. It was quickly becoming evident that I was the only person who had dressed up for the costume competition! I wore ears, a tail, and - most importantly - a fleece to be MouseAT. (Which also meant I could quote Mean Girls "Duhh, I'm a mouse" at people all day )

First coaster was Swarm which was running much better than the previous week, less bumpy and sluggish. Then front row on Flying Fish with Mushroom "for the goon points!", and X://Brake Run Disco which was so exciting my tail managed to fall off mid-ride. (Probably because some stealthy CFers had attached 8 pegs to it)

Experienced another long-but-fun queue for Nemesis Inferno, where we came up with a new peg-based superhero - Pegasus! There were also some tasty sausage rolls knocking around, and Jordan using a massive leaf as her own personal shelter from the rain was ingenious. Nemesis Inferno was nice and forceful, but I was disappointed that Thorpe hadn't made any of the bleak Halloween efforts with Infernos tunnel as Alton did with the Mine Train this year.

Lunch involved a tasty baguette from Roast and Relish, washed down with multiple rides on the Serena Rumba Rapids as the ride was empty. Then we all congregated at Stealth, where the tension and suspense was high as Ian was about to announce the winner of the costume competition. Who would it be?! I was honored to come in 3rd, 2nd and 1st places this year :--D there's nothing more satisfying than winning by default!
I even think my costume was better than Thorpe's own not-very-scary You're Next roaming characters:

Bloused out on Stealth with the lovely Ali, before another hilarious ride on the rapids, where a water bottle suddenly and mysteriously appeared in our boat. It's the closest you will ever come to water on these rapids, so we decided to balance it on the edge of the boat and see if it would stay there for the entire ride. This proved that, if you make your own entertainment on this ride, it can actually be fun!

(It would have been even more amazing if it were a bottle of Ribena though!)

Rode Rocky Express for the first time, another one of those 'would never ride it if I weren't here with CF' moments. It was sickly, it seemed like it would never end.

But next up was one of my fave coasters, Saw. Was great to goon out in the horrendously long queue with David, Tom and Jordan - thanks to everyone who formed a human umbrella above me when it started to hammer down! After being the only person who seems to like Saw, I finally got a bad run on it this time and can see what everyone moans about. The jolt at the bottom of the beyond vertical drop was painful, and the majority of the outdoor section was rough. I seem to have been lucky with it all the countless other times I've ridden it, I just hope that luck hasn't changed..

Now feeling sore from Saw, it was time for some horror maze action with Fabin in the Woods. Despite doing this maze 3 times the previous week, I was looking forward to going back in as you can get a different scare every time. This time it was a clown sneaking quietly up behind me and following me down a corridor, I turned around and his face was an inch from mine... apologies to Tom for any hearing damage my scream caused!

It was time for Stealth in the dark, the queue went quickly as Rach told me all about her fab-sounding trip to Europa's Halloween nights. I must have eaten too much chicken that day, because I ended up not riding Stealth or Detonator. Sue arrived on time according to Standard Sue Time, it was lovely to see her and pictures of her adorable puppy <3

We finished the day on Swarm at night. Were the little red LEDs working on my row? No, but it was still a fun ride. I wondered aloud why Swarm was so much more enjoyable this week compared to last, and Ian reasoned that "everything's better with goons"- which we then sang to a Take That tune, of course

Defrosted myself in a lovely hot shower before we all met back up for some Lolworth times. What a fun night that was! The next morning I found a rogue glow stick in my bed..


Day Four: Chessington World of Adventures

Arrived early and had a stale muffin, but at least I won a gold star for having my Name Badge clearly visible at all times Noticed that Rebel had lost her name badge so she had drawn and sellotape-laminated a new one herself - brilliant! Rattlesnake was ok, it was nice to see Peep turn up unexpectedly afterwards. Zufari was better thanks to Richards shouting. I was relieved that I didn't get humped by a rhino after ignoring Chessington's new rule and wearing my leopard print skirt to the park!

Womb Blaster was next, the queue passed quickly thanks to Nealbie's Pokemon game and sharing cheesy jokes about cheese with David, Ciall, Richard and Neal. Well, what else would you do in Cheeseington World of Adventures? "Cheese haters, you can Stilton back" was easily the best though.

Womb Blaster made my shooting finger hurt, so I gave up half way through. There was no way I was going to beat Neal's ridiculously high score anyway!
Then we headed over to Dragon's Fury, which is my fave Chessington ride. There was a massive puddle in the queue, so Ian picked me up and carried me over it - like a true gentleman does when queuing for a Maurer Sohne Spinning coaster
The ride was great fun, I was pleased it didn't have the off putting 2 1/2 hour queue that it did at last years Ghosterforce. Had a jacket potato for lunch as I was actually craving healthy food for once, thanks to the massive in take of sweets over the last 4 days! Took a quick look round the zoo to see the binturongs and the new Lynx - both really cute <3

Then came the brilliant Faffle - with lots of exotic, continental tat this year! We're a worldly bunch, us CFers Keeping with my tradition of winning, I won a Thirteen mug this time - which is great because those Merlin mugs are so thick that they keep tea warm for ages. Who cares if it's a rubbish coaster! In my opinion, Sue won the best prize - a fab key ring of Hello Kitty riding what could only be a Vekoma, judging by it's pain-filled facial expression!

Rode the now sparsely themed Dragon Falls after the Faffle, attempted to do the Y.M.C.A for the ORP despite having 5 people in the boat (with MouseAT being an exclamation mark at the end). Needless to say, it didn't work, but we all got very wet thanks to the elephant of doom!
Fed the Lorikeets for the first time ever, it was terrifying yet hilarious. Then there was a CF takeover on the Dodge Thems, and inside the Tuk Tuk

It was starting to get dark as we queued for the new Halloween version of Hocus Pocus Hall, so out came the glow sticks, which made a long, cold queue much more tolerable! My fave moment was Jordan turning her bunny ears into a unicorn horn, then adding my two round mouse ears behind it...heheh!
By the time we had reached the entrance, most of us had chained ourselves together with glow sticks to form one long line of Goon Slaves -this made for interesting interaction with the actors inside Hocus Pocus Hall!
I was impressed with the transformation of Hocus Pocus Hall from it's original day-glo disaster to it's new magical adventure - the first room with the green light flying around properly mesmerized me! I did the Vampire walk through last year, and that was also fangtastic; it seems Chessington are currently on a roll with making great family-friendly Halloween attractions.

Unfortunately, Ciall had to leave early so we said our goodbyes, then went over to Transylvania for the final ride of the trip - Vampire in the dark <3 I tried to buy an edible Bat on a Stick for the occassion, but AJ and Ed beat me to the last ones, grr!
Ian regaled me with his heroic story of the time he rescued everyone from a Vampfire in the Vampire queue, then Sarah made me feel very old by telling me and David all about what she's currently studying for her G.C.S.E.s! Vampire is one of those coasters that works so well in the dark, especially when it's lit with pretty red and blue lights. It was a great coaster to finish on.

The evening ended with Nic winning the fab gnome prize for having the most Gold Stars, then we all said our goodbyes.

If it's not obvious by the end of this trip report, I had a wonderful four days on Ghosterforce. Thanks to everyone for all the banter and fun times, thanks to Darren and Ian for the lifts; and more thanks to Ian for organising such a great trip... and for getting me on Apocalypse! I already can't wait for next year <3

 

[Jordanovichy]

I have to say Serena, I love your sarcasm. Laugh out loud moments

 

[Serena]

Thanks Jordan! Glad you enjoyed reading my essay

 

[Mike]

Brilliant report Serena.

If that doesn't win you the Punniest Member award, I don't know what will!..

 

[ATTACKHAMMER]

Awesome report! Loved it!

 

[caffeine_demon]

"Visited Sharkbait Reef to see if one of the mantas would do a pretzel loop(they didn't, but they were very cute) "

I know the feeling - I went to the reptile house at the zoo, hoping to see a cobra roll.