Madrid, PWM & PAM, 5-6 April 2014
- Thread starter Ian
- Start date
nadroJ
CF Legend
So Saturday started off VERY stressfully for me. Conor left the passports at the hostel and only realised once we got all the way to the airport, so he had to get a cab back into the city centre whilst I hung around waiting for the others to arrive. Sue and Mike were apparently already there but I couldn't find them and started to think I was in the wrong place. After wandering around for a few minutes I finally found every and Conor reappeared aver passports shortly after. We then proceeded with car faff and got on the road to Parque Warner! From the way we approached the park a B&M appeared on the top of a mountain to the top right, it was quite epic!
Parque Warner entrance (looking in need of a little TLC)
We quickly met with the PAC members and exchanged pleasantries whilst waiting for the others to appear. Stunt Fall was running so we realllyyyy wanted to get into the park as the PAC members informed us that if it is running you should be on it.
Finally the others arrived and we sashayed into the park. The entranceway is VERY Six Flags. It's weird, because although the facades are clearly well kept and painted etc, the whole area still feels really tired and outdated. I personally feel the 'studio' theme died out in the early noughties and without constant investment it can become stale as movies are constantly changing with the times.
We rounded the corner to Stunt Fall, which again was themed with stunt cars from outdated movie franchises. Sadly, it had died =[[ Slightly upset but not deterred we enthusiastically pushed on towards the impending Superman! This is a coaster I've wanted to go on from my very early enthusiast days so it was slightly weird to finally be joining the queue for it. Annoyingly it was only running one train and from the looks of the other train had been for a while. This was our first taste of what I like to call 'Mediterranean Operations'. I have a theory that the further south one travels in Europe the less efficient the operations. I put this down to weather, the warner the climate the more of a *shrug* attitude people seem to have, and this has a direct effect on the efficiency of operations. We ended up waiting about 20 minutes for what should have been a 5 minute wait with two trains. Irritating but what are you going to do?
As for the coaster itself I'd give it an 8/10. On our first ride we sat in the middle of the train and still experienced lots of floaty airtime and lovely forces throughout. Not too intense, but in the same vein the floater airtime wasn't as sustained as it could have been. I have no idea why this coaster isn't raved about more? Oh wait, yes I can, because it exists in one of the most under-invested parks in Europe. If it lived in Europa or Alton it would be loved. So yeah, fabulous ride and a great kickstart to the weekend.
We sashayed on through Gotham towards the Batman clone, of which I am not a massive fan. The theming was fairly good for the one, the station had an Arkham Asylum facade and plenty of trees to add a layer of texture to the theming. It looked great. This time we rode in the back row
It was INTENSE. If it had been any warmer I would have felt unwell, but fortunately for us it was the perfect kind of climate for these forces and they went down really well with me. However they were still slightly too much for more than one ride. I'd give this an 8/10 as well, marked down for its lack of rerideability.
The Gotham area looked pretty fab but again for me it feels like a tired IP. The Batman represented in this area is more Jack Nicholson than Heath Ledger and because of that I feel it loses some of its effectiveness. We met some characters including sexy brooding Batman and blonde Catwoman. Batman made a grand exit by revving up the Batmobile and slowly reversing into a backstage area. It was all very underwhelming.
About now it was 3pm which we were informed was Spanish lunchtime. We went to a fast food place which upon first glance appeared to be very efficient. Go to machine, place your order, pay at machine, go to counter and collect. Simple. Wrong. Apparently whilst we were ordering the system suffered some kind of melt down and as a result we ended up waiting AGES for our food to arrive. More poor Spanish operations and faff =[[
Rounding the corner out of Gotham we approached the Wild West area where the water rides and the notorious Coaster Express live. We could hear music so sashayed over to a stage area where some mince cowboys were doing a thing. CF and PAC members were chosen to participate in some enforced fun, it was all very enjoyable and the sun decided to come out for a sesh.
The intention after this was to do Rio Bravo but it decided to spite so we decided to suck it up and ride Coaster Express. The queue was a bit crap because once again the coaster was on ONE TRAIN <//3 This did allow for a bit of a chat with PAC members so all was not lost.
The coaster was weird. It wasn't painful as such, it just wasn't smooth. It literally jumped along the track and bounced to the point of hilarity. It was actually enjoyably bad and I came off with tears in my eyes, warning the girls following me and Sue that they might want to hold on to their tits on this one! I'd give it 5/10, it's not as crap as people make it out to be, it IS fun but not in the way a coaster should be and so it loses points for that.
The last area for us to visit was the MASSIVE kiddies area, which is a mixture of Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry and Scooby Doo characters. Basically everything that's not Disney lives here. First up was Tom y Jerry, a standard Zierer Tivoli or 'vibrating bottom' coaster. It was unremarkable, can't be bothered to rate. It then felt like it was going to rain so we gathered under a tree and lolled at PAC members on the Scooby Doo teacup ride. Turns out the rain was just a few huge plops so we moved on to the next ride, the ACME Rapids.
I'd heard that these rapids were really wet, so was excited to ride them! The queue was extensively themed but, as is the theme with Parque Warner, things felt tired and outdated. The rapids are relentless! The boat is continuously spinning so there is pretty much no chance to avoid getting soaked. Everyone came off drenched (probably because we enjoyed it so much we went round again) and were generally hilarious. Definite highlight of the day so far.
I didn't take many photos after this, sorry bout it. Next up was the fab Mack kiddie thing. Forceless, but smooth as glass and provided many 'oooh' 'aaah' moments. Then it rained, big style, so we sat in a cafe and gaffed in some shops for a bit. The tatt was disappointing as it was basically Looney Tunes plushes and nothing else =[
Before reriding Superman we did the shot towers, which were predictably boring, the Scooby Doo shooter which was cute but uses the same crap shooting system as the LegoLand shooter with flat painted scenery. Not my favourite. Finally we did the madhouse which everyone else seemed to love but I thought was total turd. The windows were scratched so you could see the drum spinning, gash.
Our final rides on Superman were both back and front, with us on the last train of the train. The coaster is really excellent, it's such a shame that it lives at such a neglected outdated park =[
So after a dodgy, faff-filled start to the day the first day of the weekend was now over. Parque Warner is weird, I feel like if Superman wasn't there, and maybe the rapids, then it would be totally crap? I felt it lacked a lot of atmosphere and some of the themes were very 90s/00s. It's in dire need of being brought into the 21st century. I'm also a bit gutted we didn't get on the infamously temperamental Stunt Fall, mostly because it means I should probably go back to the mediocre park =/ Hopefully they'll invest in something before that time comes though.
Parque Warner entrance (looking in need of a little TLC)
We quickly met with the PAC members and exchanged pleasantries whilst waiting for the others to appear. Stunt Fall was running so we realllyyyy wanted to get into the park as the PAC members informed us that if it is running you should be on it.
Finally the others arrived and we sashayed into the park. The entranceway is VERY Six Flags. It's weird, because although the facades are clearly well kept and painted etc, the whole area still feels really tired and outdated. I personally feel the 'studio' theme died out in the early noughties and without constant investment it can become stale as movies are constantly changing with the times.
We rounded the corner to Stunt Fall, which again was themed with stunt cars from outdated movie franchises. Sadly, it had died =[[ Slightly upset but not deterred we enthusiastically pushed on towards the impending Superman! This is a coaster I've wanted to go on from my very early enthusiast days so it was slightly weird to finally be joining the queue for it. Annoyingly it was only running one train and from the looks of the other train had been for a while. This was our first taste of what I like to call 'Mediterranean Operations'. I have a theory that the further south one travels in Europe the less efficient the operations. I put this down to weather, the warner the climate the more of a *shrug* attitude people seem to have, and this has a direct effect on the efficiency of operations. We ended up waiting about 20 minutes for what should have been a 5 minute wait with two trains. Irritating but what are you going to do?
As for the coaster itself I'd give it an 8/10. On our first ride we sat in the middle of the train and still experienced lots of floaty airtime and lovely forces throughout. Not too intense, but in the same vein the floater airtime wasn't as sustained as it could have been. I have no idea why this coaster isn't raved about more? Oh wait, yes I can, because it exists in one of the most under-invested parks in Europe. If it lived in Europa or Alton it would be loved. So yeah, fabulous ride and a great kickstart to the weekend.
We sashayed on through Gotham towards the Batman clone, of which I am not a massive fan. The theming was fairly good for the one, the station had an Arkham Asylum facade and plenty of trees to add a layer of texture to the theming. It looked great. This time we rode in the back row
It was INTENSE. If it had been any warmer I would have felt unwell, but fortunately for us it was the perfect kind of climate for these forces and they went down really well with me. However they were still slightly too much for more than one ride. I'd give this an 8/10 as well, marked down for its lack of rerideability.
The Gotham area looked pretty fab but again for me it feels like a tired IP. The Batman represented in this area is more Jack Nicholson than Heath Ledger and because of that I feel it loses some of its effectiveness. We met some characters including sexy brooding Batman and blonde Catwoman. Batman made a grand exit by revving up the Batmobile and slowly reversing into a backstage area. It was all very underwhelming.
About now it was 3pm which we were informed was Spanish lunchtime. We went to a fast food place which upon first glance appeared to be very efficient. Go to machine, place your order, pay at machine, go to counter and collect. Simple. Wrong. Apparently whilst we were ordering the system suffered some kind of melt down and as a result we ended up waiting AGES for our food to arrive. More poor Spanish operations and faff =[[
Rounding the corner out of Gotham we approached the Wild West area where the water rides and the notorious Coaster Express live. We could hear music so sashayed over to a stage area where some mince cowboys were doing a thing. CF and PAC members were chosen to participate in some enforced fun, it was all very enjoyable and the sun decided to come out for a sesh.
The intention after this was to do Rio Bravo but it decided to spite so we decided to suck it up and ride Coaster Express. The queue was a bit crap because once again the coaster was on ONE TRAIN <//3 This did allow for a bit of a chat with PAC members so all was not lost.
The coaster was weird. It wasn't painful as such, it just wasn't smooth. It literally jumped along the track and bounced to the point of hilarity. It was actually enjoyably bad and I came off with tears in my eyes, warning the girls following me and Sue that they might want to hold on to their tits on this one! I'd give it 5/10, it's not as crap as people make it out to be, it IS fun but not in the way a coaster should be and so it loses points for that.
The last area for us to visit was the MASSIVE kiddies area, which is a mixture of Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry and Scooby Doo characters. Basically everything that's not Disney lives here. First up was Tom y Jerry, a standard Zierer Tivoli or 'vibrating bottom' coaster. It was unremarkable, can't be bothered to rate. It then felt like it was going to rain so we gathered under a tree and lolled at PAC members on the Scooby Doo teacup ride. Turns out the rain was just a few huge plops so we moved on to the next ride, the ACME Rapids.
I'd heard that these rapids were really wet, so was excited to ride them! The queue was extensively themed but, as is the theme with Parque Warner, things felt tired and outdated. The rapids are relentless! The boat is continuously spinning so there is pretty much no chance to avoid getting soaked. Everyone came off drenched (probably because we enjoyed it so much we went round again) and were generally hilarious. Definite highlight of the day so far.
I didn't take many photos after this, sorry bout it. Next up was the fab Mack kiddie thing. Forceless, but smooth as glass and provided many 'oooh' 'aaah' moments. Then it rained, big style, so we sat in a cafe and gaffed in some shops for a bit. The tatt was disappointing as it was basically Looney Tunes plushes and nothing else =[
Before reriding Superman we did the shot towers, which were predictably boring, the Scooby Doo shooter which was cute but uses the same crap shooting system as the LegoLand shooter with flat painted scenery. Not my favourite. Finally we did the madhouse which everyone else seemed to love but I thought was total turd. The windows were scratched so you could see the drum spinning, gash.
Our final rides on Superman were both back and front, with us on the last train of the train. The coaster is really excellent, it's such a shame that it lives at such a neglected outdated park =[
So after a dodgy, faff-filled start to the day the first day of the weekend was now over. Parque Warner is weird, I feel like if Superman wasn't there, and maybe the rapids, then it would be totally crap? I felt it lacked a lot of atmosphere and some of the themes were very 90s/00s. It's in dire need of being brought into the 21st century. I'm also a bit gutted we didn't get on the infamously temperamental Stunt Fall, mostly because it means I should probably go back to the mediocre park =/ Hopefully they'll invest in something before that time comes though.
Nic said:
For most people who've been to the park, it does. Whenever there's a "favourite floorless" topic - admitedly there hasn't been one for a while - most people who've ridden Superman put it near, or at, the top. Like Jordan said though, the park hasn't been visited by a great number of people on here, which seems daft considering it's got two B&Ms, a GIB and is just outside a very accessible city with loads of cheap flight options.
But then I guess if people are going to Spain, they'd rather just sit in Port Aventura for a week.
Thanks to everyone from CF and PAC for a phenomenal weekend. These international trips always seem to bring out the best of CF, and these last few days have been no exception!
Trip highlights for me were:
- Getting to meet the PAC guys. I perhaps didn't talk to as many as I'd like to have, but those which I did talk to seemed like really cool guys.
- Hanging out with a great bunch of CFers. I say this after ever meet, but this group really was fantastic.
- Getting stuck upside down and valleying on Abismo. Ok, so maybe not a "high"light, but it was definitely a once in a lifetime experience!
- Superman and Batman. Both were a lot better than I was expecting. The weather and temperature were just right for the force of these coasters.
- The faffle. Conor's mimes for each prize were hilarious!
- Giving away my faffle prize to an overjoyed PAC member (the "fab lady") who nearly broke down in tears for it!
- Sunday's weather. Yes please!
- Hot Spanish girls. Yes please!
- Hanging out with Tom and Sue at the Tapas bar in the city on Sunday evening.
... And plenty more memories.
Roll on the next trip!
Trip highlights for me were:
- Getting to meet the PAC guys. I perhaps didn't talk to as many as I'd like to have, but those which I did talk to seemed like really cool guys.
- Hanging out with a great bunch of CFers. I say this after ever meet, but this group really was fantastic.
- Getting stuck upside down and valleying on Abismo. Ok, so maybe not a "high"light, but it was definitely a once in a lifetime experience!
- Superman and Batman. Both were a lot better than I was expecting. The weather and temperature were just right for the force of these coasters.
- The faffle. Conor's mimes for each prize were hilarious!
- Giving away my faffle prize to an overjoyed PAC member (the "fab lady") who nearly broke down in tears for it!
- Sunday's weather. Yes please!
- Hot Spanish girls. Yes please!
- Hanging out with Tom and Sue at the Tapas bar in the city on Sunday evening.
... And plenty more memories.
Roll on the next trip!
So, day 2.
I awoke after a well needed sleep feeling refreshed and ready for another day of theme park faff and thrills. Darren and I had a smoking room so we each smoked three cigarettes for breakfast. We were quite brave lighting the cigarettes because the room had a toxic atmosphere courtesy of Darren's arse.
I didn't learn from the day before and left my phone unattended whilst I had a shower.
We headed off for breakfast at the shopping centre with a cred. We didn't get the cred, but Vadge ordered breakfast for everybody. I have a strange look on my face because, for some unknown reason, my shirt smelt like Darren's Mum - and I'd recognise that smell anywhere.
We arrived at Parque de Atracciones de Madrid on time! Hurrah! Although my car was last there...probably because I had Sue in it.
[tweet]http://twitter.com/PACommunity/status/452732024865185792[/tweet]
We entered the park and I handed out sweets to everybody. I wanted this day to feel as much of a CF-Live as possible. The lovely Christina from PAM met us, took a few group photos (see first post of topic) and walked us over to Abismo where we had 30mins ERT.
After one ride, it broke down. It happens. After a few mins, it was working again and the second lot got on. It got stuck at the top of the lift hill for about 10 seconds.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgp1dNcY4xU[/youtube]
We then had to wait 10mins for it to valley to a complete stop. It was quiet funny watching it rol back and forth through the station. Not funny for those on it, but funny for those watching! I'm actually jealous that I wasn't on the valley train.
That was the end of Abismo (for now). Christina was so apologetic. No need to apologise, these things happen. She really made it up to us though - and she didn't have to - by giving us ERT on Tarantula and other perks. It was above and beyond what other parks would have done.
It's got a great entrance. Like a budget Nemesis.
It's one of the best spinners I've been on. It swoops in the right places and there are no annoying brakes. It has a great flow to it. It's quite long, too. Better than Dragon's Fury, that's for sure. 7/10.
After Tarantula, we headed to guest services to pay and collect our tickets. As a gesture of goodwill for the Abismo breakdown, on top of the already promised Speedy Passes, the burger meal tickets were upgraded to the all-you-can-eat tasty buffet and we were given free entry to the horror walk-thru. Like I said above, that was way too generous. I don't expect anything when I visit a park but it's lovely to be treated like a valuable guest. This took a while to sort so we were hanging around doing nothing. Faff. Darren and Vadge took lead and suggested the Rapidos, which about half of the group did.
After getting our tickets, we headed off to the next coaster, Vertigo. A spinning wild mouse. Urgh.
[tweet]http://twitter.com/PACommunity/status/452760457443409920[/tweet]
We joined the queue at the 30min wait mark (no Speedy Pass on this ride). In any other country, the 30min marker would be be set further back in the queue, but this is Spain where nobody seems to be in a rush.
I sat next to Sexy Carrot so I enjoyed this wild mouse more so than the others. 3/10
In other Vertigo news, the coaster had the honour of being Serena's 200th cred! In turn, she had the honour of shaking my hand and having her photo taken with a home made sign scribbled on the back of an envelope.
The Mine Train was our next stop. We hit it at the wrong time, they were adding a second train and cleaning it, which took FOREVER! We amused ourselves though!
Vadge approached PAC member Marc (I think that was his name) and told him that he looked like CF's peep - El Peep. I think somebody got a photo.
I liked the Mine Train. It's got a good overbaked turn and crosses over itself a lot. Not the best, not the worst but better than most. 6/10.
The area around the Mine Train looked fantastic. There's an old castle theme and it's well executed. Hiding behind the castle was the Shoot The Chute, which was the next ride. I didn't ride but those who did created the biggest splash of the day!
We walked over towards Tornado, the Intamin Invert. We stopped off for a toilet break. Guess who we stood around waiting for? Yes - Sue! Raulen from PAC made me laugh; "Are we waiting for Sue?" Yes, amigo, we are! When she returned, she was greeted by the usual round of applause. Not only from CF, but from PAC as well! Sue single handedly taught the Spanish a new word - Burdenous.
Tornado was juddery and unexciting. The only plus point is I've now been on both operating Intamin inverts and don't have to ride any more
4/10
It was nearing 3pm, which is time for lunch in Spain. Much later than I would like, but "when in Rome" as they say! We took advantage of the buffet that the management had kindly given us. This si where Jordan created her Chessington Theming poem (see League of Goons forum).
[tweet]http://twitter.com/PACommunity/status/452798578851717121[/tweet]
I also met Chris from South Parks (and now Towers Times). Always nice to catch up with fellow enthusiasts. Regardless what anybody thinks, rivalry between coaster groups is something dreamt up by insecure members, not proper enthusiasts or their leaders. We swapped pleasantries and agreed to the possibility of a meet up at some point in the future.
After lunch, I decided to bring a CoasterForce tradition to PAC - a Faffle!
[tweet]http://twitter.com/JesusSerr/status/452803204716429312[/tweet]
With Vadge as my sexy assistant and Conor as the tat model, I picked prizes from my Froglife bag <3
[tweet]http://twitter.com/javicoaster/status/452804088007491585[/tweet]
It went down well. Conor was a brilliant model, showing off each item in an over-the-top manner. The PAC members soon got the hang of it by cheering, "oooh-ing" and laughing at the prizes.
[tweet]http://twitter.com/PACommunity/status/452808723413491713[/tweet]
The Fab Lady (Maria?) really wanted the Parque Warner salt & pepper shakers. Even though she spoke no English, I understood her cut-throat action should she not win it. She didn't win. But she did win a Smiler shot glass. Mike from CF won the shakers and gave them to her. She was fab after all! The Fab Smoking Lady asked me to sign her raffle ticket! Best of all, Alex from PAC won the star prize, much to the shout of "cheat" (or "fix") from PAC!
The lunch session ended with a short speech from Conor and Vadge thanking me and Alex for organising the trip. I was touched. I don't do it for praise, I do it because I like to see people enjoy themselves. I'm sure Alex feels the same.
[tweet]http://twitter.com/PACommunity/status/452814403503546368[/tweet]
On that note, I'll conclude my trip report tomorrow!
I awoke after a well needed sleep feeling refreshed and ready for another day of theme park faff and thrills. Darren and I had a smoking room so we each smoked three cigarettes for breakfast. We were quite brave lighting the cigarettes because the room had a toxic atmosphere courtesy of Darren's arse.
I didn't learn from the day before and left my phone unattended whilst I had a shower.
We headed off for breakfast at the shopping centre with a cred. We didn't get the cred, but Vadge ordered breakfast for everybody. I have a strange look on my face because, for some unknown reason, my shirt smelt like Darren's Mum - and I'd recognise that smell anywhere.
We arrived at Parque de Atracciones de Madrid on time! Hurrah! Although my car was last there...probably because I had Sue in it.
[tweet]http://twitter.com/PACommunity/status/452732024865185792[/tweet]
We entered the park and I handed out sweets to everybody. I wanted this day to feel as much of a CF-Live as possible. The lovely Christina from PAM met us, took a few group photos (see first post of topic) and walked us over to Abismo where we had 30mins ERT.
After one ride, it broke down. It happens. After a few mins, it was working again and the second lot got on. It got stuck at the top of the lift hill for about 10 seconds.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgp1dNcY4xU[/youtube]
We then had to wait 10mins for it to valley to a complete stop. It was quiet funny watching it rol back and forth through the station. Not funny for those on it, but funny for those watching! I'm actually jealous that I wasn't on the valley train.
That was the end of Abismo (for now). Christina was so apologetic. No need to apologise, these things happen. She really made it up to us though - and she didn't have to - by giving us ERT on Tarantula and other perks. It was above and beyond what other parks would have done.
It's got a great entrance. Like a budget Nemesis.
It's one of the best spinners I've been on. It swoops in the right places and there are no annoying brakes. It has a great flow to it. It's quite long, too. Better than Dragon's Fury, that's for sure. 7/10.
After Tarantula, we headed to guest services to pay and collect our tickets. As a gesture of goodwill for the Abismo breakdown, on top of the already promised Speedy Passes, the burger meal tickets were upgraded to the all-you-can-eat tasty buffet and we were given free entry to the horror walk-thru. Like I said above, that was way too generous. I don't expect anything when I visit a park but it's lovely to be treated like a valuable guest. This took a while to sort so we were hanging around doing nothing. Faff. Darren and Vadge took lead and suggested the Rapidos, which about half of the group did.
After getting our tickets, we headed off to the next coaster, Vertigo. A spinning wild mouse. Urgh.
[tweet]http://twitter.com/PACommunity/status/452760457443409920[/tweet]
We joined the queue at the 30min wait mark (no Speedy Pass on this ride). In any other country, the 30min marker would be be set further back in the queue, but this is Spain where nobody seems to be in a rush.
I sat next to Sexy Carrot so I enjoyed this wild mouse more so than the others. 3/10
In other Vertigo news, the coaster had the honour of being Serena's 200th cred! In turn, she had the honour of shaking my hand and having her photo taken with a home made sign scribbled on the back of an envelope.
The Mine Train was our next stop. We hit it at the wrong time, they were adding a second train and cleaning it, which took FOREVER! We amused ourselves though!
Vadge approached PAC member Marc (I think that was his name) and told him that he looked like CF's peep - El Peep. I think somebody got a photo.
I liked the Mine Train. It's got a good overbaked turn and crosses over itself a lot. Not the best, not the worst but better than most. 6/10.
The area around the Mine Train looked fantastic. There's an old castle theme and it's well executed. Hiding behind the castle was the Shoot The Chute, which was the next ride. I didn't ride but those who did created the biggest splash of the day!
We walked over towards Tornado, the Intamin Invert. We stopped off for a toilet break. Guess who we stood around waiting for? Yes - Sue! Raulen from PAC made me laugh; "Are we waiting for Sue?" Yes, amigo, we are! When she returned, she was greeted by the usual round of applause. Not only from CF, but from PAC as well! Sue single handedly taught the Spanish a new word - Burdenous.
Tornado was juddery and unexciting. The only plus point is I've now been on both operating Intamin inverts and don't have to ride any more
4/10
It was nearing 3pm, which is time for lunch in Spain. Much later than I would like, but "when in Rome" as they say! We took advantage of the buffet that the management had kindly given us. This si where Jordan created her Chessington Theming poem (see League of Goons forum).
[tweet]http://twitter.com/PACommunity/status/452798578851717121[/tweet]
I also met Chris from South Parks (and now Towers Times). Always nice to catch up with fellow enthusiasts. Regardless what anybody thinks, rivalry between coaster groups is something dreamt up by insecure members, not proper enthusiasts or their leaders. We swapped pleasantries and agreed to the possibility of a meet up at some point in the future.
After lunch, I decided to bring a CoasterForce tradition to PAC - a Faffle!
[tweet]http://twitter.com/JesusSerr/status/452803204716429312[/tweet]
With Vadge as my sexy assistant and Conor as the tat model, I picked prizes from my Froglife bag <3
[tweet]http://twitter.com/javicoaster/status/452804088007491585[/tweet]
It went down well. Conor was a brilliant model, showing off each item in an over-the-top manner. The PAC members soon got the hang of it by cheering, "oooh-ing" and laughing at the prizes.
[tweet]http://twitter.com/PACommunity/status/452808723413491713[/tweet]
The Fab Lady (Maria?) really wanted the Parque Warner salt & pepper shakers. Even though she spoke no English, I understood her cut-throat action should she not win it. She didn't win. But she did win a Smiler shot glass. Mike from CF won the shakers and gave them to her. She was fab after all! The Fab Smoking Lady asked me to sign her raffle ticket! Best of all, Alex from PAC won the star prize, much to the shout of "cheat" (or "fix") from PAC!
The lunch session ended with a short speech from Conor and Vadge thanking me and Alex for organising the trip. I was touched. I don't do it for praise, I do it because I like to see people enjoy themselves. I'm sure Alex feels the same.
[tweet]http://twitter.com/PACommunity/status/452814403503546368[/tweet]
On that note, I'll conclude my trip report tomorrow!
Darren B
Giga Poster
I think the interaction with PAC has been fantastic. Most CF members made a fantastic effort, as did most PAC members. And although the weekend is over, the friendships we've made have continued with many CF members joining PAC and we've also kept in touch using social media. Hell, we've even been using translator apps to communicate with the non English speaking PAC members.
I really hope this isn't a one time event and that we can continue to meet with PAC and other international groups in the future. Well done to Ian and Alex for making all this happen!
I really hope this isn't a one time event and that we can continue to meet with PAC and other international groups in the future. Well done to Ian and Alex for making all this happen!
Scott88
Hyper Poster
nadroJ said:
Totally agree, the lack of investment in keeping the themes up to date is there for all to see with both the Superman and Batman 'areas' of the park which is a shame, but for some reason being a sad DC comic fan I still like the theme to them, just wish it was more up to date.
Great reports everyone, just a bit gutted I didn't make more of an effort to get involved with this trip.
caffeine_demon
Strata Poster
Gotta say - that T shirt is GREAT!!
Mysterious Sue
Strata Poster
Hun, even I didn't like it.
I got it years ago and can fit into it now. It's a medium but I thought it was a little small, but it makes me look "swole" according to Smithy, so I guess that's good.caffeine_demon said:
Joey designed some AGES ago and put them on cafepress, the link is found here: http://www.cafepress.com/coasterforce
It is the "old" track logo but it doesn't really matter.
What a fantastic weekend! Reading all these trip reports has put a big smile on my face, there were so many great moments <3
Day One:
Woke up at 3.30am on Saturday, after a nice evening spent scoffing Harvester Salad Bar and gooning out over 3D POV's at Ian's. Darren drove to the airport - his journey playlist featuring plenty of Enrique Iglesias to get us in the mood for Spain. We then met Nic at the airport, who was greeted by Darren and Ian in the sophisticated, continental way... of passports to the boobs!
Then we joined one of the longest queues of the entire weekend: the one for MacDonalds breakfast. Whilst other efficient MacDonald's staff ran around serving people, our queue stood perfectly still in the almighty presence of James Four Stars.
Despite being massively incompetent, he had four gold stars on his MacDonalds badge?! I wracked my brains and finally cracked this enigmatic code - each gold star represents his outstanding ability in the following fields:
1. Rudeness
2. Laziness
3. Inefficiency
4. Idiocy
After we had finally eaten, we had a giggle secretly filling up Ian's phone with some charming pics of ourselves; then met MouseAT and boarded the flight to Madrid.
Arrived in Spain, which was a new country cred for me, and there was faff aplenty with Conor having to dash back to central Madrid to get his and Jordan's passports, then the hire car only having 4 seats for 5 people.
Despite this, we still managed to arrive at Parque Warner an hour before Ian's car. Which gave us plenty of time to get chatting with the lovely people from P.A. Community.
Stunt Fall, the Vekoma G.I.B. was the first cred of call when we entered the park. It turned out to be more of a Stunt Fail - running the occasional test car, but refusing to open. (This strengthened my belief that Vekoma's are the diva's of the coaster world.)
For being so unreliable, this coaster rankes pretty highly on the MacDonald's Star Scale of Crapness. Each star represents the dissapointment it has given to goons throughout it's intermittent coaster career.
So, we marched onward to Superman instead. What an amazing coaster. It definitely puts the 'super' into Superman. You could even say it's a flawless floorless.
The drop, the dive loop, the zero G were all stunning, and it had a surprising amount of airtime for a B+M multi-looper too. One improvement would have been some music in the station, but who am I to expect themeing at a theme park.
Superman Atraccion De Acero doesn't have any stars on its MacDonalds badge, because it is actually good.
Next up was my first Batman: The [strike]Leak[/strike] Ride. The themeing in the Batman queue is more extensive than Superman's (ie: it actually exsists), I was quite impressed by it. The queue featured dark rooms with neon graffiti all over the walls, similar to the style of Tim Burton's Batman films. This did make the ride look a bit outdated in the context of Christopher Nolan's recent efforts; but I really liked it. Tacky > subtle > no theme at all. And they had used the CF font for the ride text! <3
Sat at the front, and the ride was a complete blur from the moment we left the lift hill. It's easily one of the most intense roller coasters I've ever ridden. I enjoyed it, but didn't have any urge to re-ride it.
On the MacDonalds Star Scale of Crapness, Batman only gets one star for it's lack of re-rideability.
Complicated fast food, and dancing around to the park's fab Western show followed. The log flume decided to spite us, so instead of crying over non-spilled water, we opted to ride the notorious woodie: Coaster Express. (No relation to Chessington's Scorpion Express, I'm told.)
There was a lot of talk in the lovely sunny queue about how rough this coaster was going to be. I think the sheer extent of it's roughness is what made me enjoy it so much.
Unlike Falken at Djurs or Grand Nash at B.P.B., Coaster Express has no nice moments that lull you into false sense of optimism. Coaster Express knows it's disgusting and tries it's very best to be disgusting 100% of the time.
Coaster Express also scores full marks on the MacDonalds Star Scale of Crapness, each star representing the millions of boobs it has caused to bounce as it relentlessly slams around the track.
But seriously, I can't remember the last time I've laughed so hard on a coaster. It really was something else <3 I kinda liked it, in a masochistic way.
Next up was the Tom Y Jerry Picnic coaster, which was the most pleasurable cred I've ridden Aside from offering sheer vibratory bliss, it also has lots of cute themeing in the form of giant food and ants.
It receives one star on the MacDonalds Star Scale of Crapness, for being over too quickly..
The afternoon was plagued with downpours, so we did the obvious thing and rode the ACME rapids. They were similar to Bluto's Barges at I.o.A., lot's of water pouring in the side and plenty dumped on unsuspecting heads too.
I rode with some non-English speaking members of P.A.C.; and the squeals of laughter this ride caused from all of us transcended any language barrier. So much fun!
Rain faff occurred, so we rode some dark rides: the unremarkable Scooby Doo shooter and the amazing Vekoma Madridhouse.
I couldn't contain my excitement as we entered the indoor queue for the excellent spooky-themed Madhouse, because they had the moving eye portraits on the walls! Just like the ones that the old Haunted House at Alton Towers had!
Candelabras, cobwebs and eerie music built up the atmosphere, before a fab pre-show with talking stone heads that reminded me of Knightmare (the tv series, not the dead cred.)
The fireplace exploded, and bookcases suddenly and mysteriously moved, but the story didn't end there.
The centerpiece of this Madhouse was a long dining table with a dead animatronic woman sat at the head of the table. (She was probably a member of the Earls family.) There were also screens at the side and gaps that were meant to look like cracked windows, but they ruined the illusion as you could see the drum spinning the room through these gaps.
I still thought it was a brilliant ride though.
Me and Sue then did the horror maze, which was a real mish-mash of characters and themes. It began with vampires, then had possessed-girl-on-bed, man in werewolf mask, a few more forgettable characters, and finished predictably with chainsaw man.
The highlight for me was that they have used the exact same sound effects as The Asylum at Thorpe for their own asylum rip-off corridor.
There were a few jumpy moments, but it certainly didn't put the maze into amazing.
We dashed over to Superman for one last ride, which was a great way to end the day.
In conclusion, Parque Warner looks very 90's, but they were the best decade (after the 80's...literally, and figuratively, speaking.) It's a fairly decent park, but I'm in no rush to return because the only outstanding rides were Superman and Batman.
Meeting P.A.C. was great, because they 'got' CF and they fitted right in with all the silly fun we have. (Like walking around the park singing the Colossus music!) All in all, it was a fab day <3
Day One:
Woke up at 3.30am on Saturday, after a nice evening spent scoffing Harvester Salad Bar and gooning out over 3D POV's at Ian's. Darren drove to the airport - his journey playlist featuring plenty of Enrique Iglesias to get us in the mood for Spain. We then met Nic at the airport, who was greeted by Darren and Ian in the sophisticated, continental way... of passports to the boobs!
Then we joined one of the longest queues of the entire weekend: the one for MacDonalds breakfast. Whilst other efficient MacDonald's staff ran around serving people, our queue stood perfectly still in the almighty presence of James Four Stars.
Despite being massively incompetent, he had four gold stars on his MacDonalds badge?! I wracked my brains and finally cracked this enigmatic code - each gold star represents his outstanding ability in the following fields:
1. Rudeness
2. Laziness
3. Inefficiency
4. Idiocy
After we had finally eaten, we had a giggle secretly filling up Ian's phone with some charming pics of ourselves; then met MouseAT and boarded the flight to Madrid.
Arrived in Spain, which was a new country cred for me, and there was faff aplenty with Conor having to dash back to central Madrid to get his and Jordan's passports, then the hire car only having 4 seats for 5 people.
Despite this, we still managed to arrive at Parque Warner an hour before Ian's car. Which gave us plenty of time to get chatting with the lovely people from P.A. Community.
Stunt Fall, the Vekoma G.I.B. was the first cred of call when we entered the park. It turned out to be more of a Stunt Fail - running the occasional test car, but refusing to open. (This strengthened my belief that Vekoma's are the diva's of the coaster world.)
For being so unreliable, this coaster rankes pretty highly on the MacDonald's Star Scale of Crapness. Each star represents the dissapointment it has given to goons throughout it's intermittent coaster career.
So, we marched onward to Superman instead. What an amazing coaster. It definitely puts the 'super' into Superman. You could even say it's a flawless floorless.
The drop, the dive loop, the zero G were all stunning, and it had a surprising amount of airtime for a B+M multi-looper too. One improvement would have been some music in the station, but who am I to expect themeing at a theme park.
Superman Atraccion De Acero doesn't have any stars on its MacDonalds badge, because it is actually good.
Next up was my first Batman: The [strike]Leak[/strike] Ride. The themeing in the Batman queue is more extensive than Superman's (ie: it actually exsists), I was quite impressed by it. The queue featured dark rooms with neon graffiti all over the walls, similar to the style of Tim Burton's Batman films. This did make the ride look a bit outdated in the context of Christopher Nolan's recent efforts; but I really liked it. Tacky > subtle > no theme at all. And they had used the CF font for the ride text! <3
Sat at the front, and the ride was a complete blur from the moment we left the lift hill. It's easily one of the most intense roller coasters I've ever ridden. I enjoyed it, but didn't have any urge to re-ride it.
On the MacDonalds Star Scale of Crapness, Batman only gets one star for it's lack of re-rideability.
Complicated fast food, and dancing around to the park's fab Western show followed. The log flume decided to spite us, so instead of crying over non-spilled water, we opted to ride the notorious woodie: Coaster Express. (No relation to Chessington's Scorpion Express, I'm told.)
There was a lot of talk in the lovely sunny queue about how rough this coaster was going to be. I think the sheer extent of it's roughness is what made me enjoy it so much.
Unlike Falken at Djurs or Grand Nash at B.P.B., Coaster Express has no nice moments that lull you into false sense of optimism. Coaster Express knows it's disgusting and tries it's very best to be disgusting 100% of the time.
Coaster Express also scores full marks on the MacDonalds Star Scale of Crapness, each star representing the millions of boobs it has caused to bounce as it relentlessly slams around the track.
But seriously, I can't remember the last time I've laughed so hard on a coaster. It really was something else <3 I kinda liked it, in a masochistic way.
Next up was the Tom Y Jerry Picnic coaster, which was the most pleasurable cred I've ridden
Aside from offering sheer vibratory bliss, it also has lots of cute themeing in the form of giant food and ants. It receives one star on the MacDonalds Star Scale of Crapness, for being over too quickly..
The afternoon was plagued with downpours, so we did the obvious thing and rode the ACME rapids. They were similar to Bluto's Barges at I.o.A., lot's of water pouring in the side and plenty dumped on unsuspecting heads too.
I rode with some non-English speaking members of P.A.C.; and the squeals of laughter this ride caused from all of us transcended any language barrier. So much fun!
Rain faff occurred, so we rode some dark rides: the unremarkable Scooby Doo shooter and the amazing Vekoma Madridhouse.
I couldn't contain my excitement as we entered the indoor queue for the excellent spooky-themed Madhouse, because they had the moving eye portraits on the walls! Just like the ones that the old Haunted House at Alton Towers had!
Candelabras, cobwebs and eerie music built up the atmosphere, before a fab pre-show with talking stone heads that reminded me of Knightmare (the tv series, not the dead cred.)
The fireplace exploded, and bookcases suddenly and mysteriously moved, but the story didn't end there.
The centerpiece of this Madhouse was a long dining table with a dead animatronic woman sat at the head of the table. (She was probably a member of the Earls family.) There were also screens at the side and gaps that were meant to look like cracked windows, but they ruined the illusion as you could see the drum spinning the room through these gaps.
I still thought it was a brilliant ride though.
Me and Sue then did the horror maze, which was a real mish-mash of characters and themes. It began with vampires, then had possessed-girl-on-bed, man in werewolf mask, a few more forgettable characters, and finished predictably with chainsaw man.
The highlight for me was that they have used the exact same sound effects as The Asylum at Thorpe for their own asylum rip-off corridor.
There were a few jumpy moments, but it certainly didn't put the maze into amazing.
We dashed over to Superman for one last ride, which was a great way to end the day.
In conclusion, Parque Warner looks very 90's, but they were the best decade (after the 80's...literally, and figuratively, speaking.) It's a fairly decent park, but I'm in no rush to return because the only outstanding rides were Superman and Batman.
Meeting P.A.C. was great, because they 'got' CF and they fitted right in with all the silly fun we have. (Like walking around the park singing the Colossus music!) All in all, it was a fab day <3
Madrid, PWM & PAM, 5-6 April 2014
Ignoring the music (bit drab from my taste), here's a fantastic video from PAC. I look a bit too serious in the thumbnail!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHae6AeeD0Y[/youtube]
What a fab weekend that was. Must conclude my trip report this evening. Hopefully others will do the same!
Ignoring the music (bit drab from my taste), here's a fantastic video from PAC. I look a bit too serious in the thumbnail!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHae6AeeD0Y[/youtube]
What a fab weekend that was. Must conclude my trip report this evening. Hopefully others will do the same!
Mysterious Sue
Strata Poster
What a great video! Really sums up the weekend.
The guys face on Coaster Express is priceless.
Also, the rapids <3
The guys face on Coaster Express is priceless.
Also, the rapids <3
Nic
Strata Poster
After waking up to apocalyptic fog, Sue failing to work the shower, confusing the staff of McDonalds at the cred mall and somehow driving past the entrance to the park, we eventually arrived! By the time we got there the sun had also arrived! Hurrah!
El Peep was waiting to get started!
We were let in early for our ERT on Abismo. The first train of Los Goons went and got round fine. On the way back into the station, they weren't lowered down properly at first, but on the 2nd attempt landed fine and the restraints opened. To make sure, the staff decided to run it empty - no problems at all. On jumped a mixture of PACos and CFers and off they went. The lift dragged them slowly to the top with the train in the horizontal position, then.... stopped! Eventually they were on their way again after what I'm sure felt to them like hours. However, their ordeal didn't end there! The breaks failed, leaving the train to valley back and forth for many minutes until eventually coming to a halt. The various looks on their faces and cries of pain as the car sped back and forth through the station were hilarious to us onlookers! Sorry guys!
That spelt the end of our ERT on Abismo. Luckily, the sexy lady from the park had managed to phone ahead and arrange for us to finish our ERT time on Tarantula, the MS Spinner. It looks HUGE. I rode it twice. I didn't find it that spinny, but it was a bit rough. It was a fairly interesting layout though.
Once the GP started to turn up, it was time for us to head back to the entrance for ticket faff. Wow, was there a lot of faff! We killed some of the time by getting our photos taken with Spongebob and Patrick <3 (SUE! Hurry up and upload the pics!) Some of us also went to ride the rapids - I ended up with literally a puddle of water sloshing around in my shoe from a single huge splash. Apart from that, the ride was rather dull. Eventually we were handed our speedy pass wristbands and collected our tickets for the horror maze and lunch.
We rode Vertigo, the wild mouse. It was going ok, and we didn't think it was too bad.... but it had lured us into a false sense of security. There was one unexpected corner that totally caught us out sending mine and Darren's full weight hurtling towards the side car's side restraints stopped only by my ribcage. Yay *sigh*
We went to ride the Gerst mine train. After an irritatingly long wait, it turned out to actually be rather lacklustre. Meh. Whilst in the queue, Sue suddenly announced "What are those?!" gesturing towards our speedy passes. "Where did you get those from? Why haven't I got one?" Queue many cries of "OH SUE!", "Burden!" and "FFS!". It was in this one moment that the PAC guys finally learnt the true meaning of the word Burdenous. Fortunately, Alex had hers in his bag, after wondering all along why there was a spare!
Some of the group then decided to go for a ride on the splash boat ride thing.
They produced by far the biggest splash we saw the whole time we were stood there
I think they enjoyed it?
That left us with one (and a half) big creds left to get. We decided to head for Tornado, the Intamin invert next. I've not done one of these before. I'd heard reasonable things about them so went in with a bit of optimism, but overall a fairly open mind. I pretty much bore a fairly convincing resemblance to trollface the whole way round. Whilst still nowhere near as bad as a Vekoma SLC, it was still a wholly unpleasant experience.
By this point, Abismo was back up and running, so I was keen to get over there and nab the cred for those of us who hadn't got on it earlier. As we arrived, it was experiencing further difficulties. Fortunately, these were only minor and it quickly re-opened! Hurrah! On we got, and off it went. Whilst I've ridden most other types of x-car before, I'd never done a skyloop. I really loved it. I love weird upside-down lift hills. I also really liked that it did a bit more after that too (a surprising amount, actually). I think I'd find the ones that are literally just the loop a bit dull now though.
From there it was time for lunch. For various reasons, the park had kindly upgraded us from a burger meal to a buffet with a free drink voucher included. It was a bit like a hotel buffet really. Very tasty (and actually pretty good value I think even if you were going to pay full price). Towards the end of lunch, Alex appeared with a plate of desert with a candle in it. After a rather loud rendition of Feliz Cumpleaños, a somewhat mortified PAC member (the guy with the video camera - so sorry but I can't remember your name!) blew out the candle. They thought that was it, but oh no! Ian suddenly appeared with his froglife bag and a Dollywood cap full of raffle tickets... yes, it was a special edition of los faffle!
With Conor as the sexy tat model, prizes were distributed to many an "oooh", "ahhhhhh" and shout of "cheat!" from the Spanish. This is where "fab lady" Mari really came into her own, gesturing at us to make sure we picked out her ticket every time she took a liking to the prize. As others have mentioned, PAC really got CF's stupid sense of humour, and at no point was it better demonstrated than here.
Many of the PAC lot emerged from the restaurant wearing straw hats that were being given out as a promotion with beer. I'd been coveting them all day, so was really pleased when someone gave me theirs!
Some of the group then rode the Starflyer, whilst some of us acted as Señora de Bolsa.
I took it as an opportunity to properly christen my Sombrero de Cerveza
Tom sat there being a Goon
and Darren attempted to be sexy
Jordan emerged with tales of how the building across the way housed a knock-off It's a Small World. Or El Pequeño Mondo as nobody in Spanish has ever said. It was brilliantly crap. As Jordan said, it's brilliant when parks have clearly poured a load of cash into something that still looks really cheap and nasty and crappy. <3
Next up was the Horror maze thing. I sat out whilst some of the CFers went in. Whilst they were in, the director of the maze arrived to give the PAC group a talk and tour
I was watching other people leave the maze running, screaming, in tears, looking like they were about to have a heart attack. I was eagerly awaiting CF's exit... then they all just sauntered out
We'd agreed to meet back up with PAC after they had finished, so whilst we waited we went ride one last attraction. Ian, Tom, Andy and I went on the drop tower. It felt a bit rough for an Intamin 2nd gen, but was overall pretty good as per usual.
Far too quickly, it was time to find the rest of the group and say Adios. After many hugs and kisses, we bid our final fairwell with a quick rendition of the Macarena. After a quick spin round the tat shops, tt was eventually time for us to head for the "salad bar" (exit = salida en español)
I cannot say gracias enough to -
Muchas gracias a todos!
El Peep was waiting to get started!
We were let in early for our ERT on Abismo. The first train of Los Goons went and got round fine. On the way back into the station, they weren't lowered down properly at first, but on the 2nd attempt landed fine and the restraints opened. To make sure, the staff decided to run it empty - no problems at all. On jumped a mixture of PACos and CFers and off they went. The lift dragged them slowly to the top with the train in the horizontal position, then.... stopped! Eventually they were on their way again after what I'm sure felt to them like hours. However, their ordeal didn't end there! The breaks failed, leaving the train to valley back and forth for many minutes until eventually coming to a halt. The various looks on their faces and cries of pain as the car sped back and forth through the station were hilarious to us onlookers! Sorry guys!
That spelt the end of our ERT on Abismo. Luckily, the sexy lady from the park had managed to phone ahead and arrange for us to finish our ERT time on Tarantula, the MS Spinner. It looks HUGE. I rode it twice. I didn't find it that spinny, but it was a bit rough. It was a fairly interesting layout though.
Once the GP started to turn up, it was time for us to head back to the entrance for ticket faff. Wow, was there a lot of faff! We killed some of the time by getting our photos taken with Spongebob and Patrick <3 (SUE! Hurry up and upload the pics!) Some of us also went to ride the rapids - I ended up with literally a puddle of water sloshing around in my shoe from a single huge splash. Apart from that, the ride was rather dull. Eventually we were handed our speedy pass wristbands and collected our tickets for the horror maze and lunch.
We rode Vertigo, the wild mouse. It was going ok, and we didn't think it was too bad.... but it had lured us into a false sense of security. There was one unexpected corner that totally caught us out sending mine and Darren's full weight hurtling towards the side car's side restraints stopped only by my ribcage. Yay *sigh*
We went to ride the Gerst mine train. After an irritatingly long wait, it turned out to actually be rather lacklustre. Meh. Whilst in the queue, Sue suddenly announced "What are those?!" gesturing towards our speedy passes. "Where did you get those from? Why haven't I got one?" Queue many cries of "OH SUE!", "Burden!" and "FFS!". It was in this one moment that the PAC guys finally learnt the true meaning of the word Burdenous. Fortunately, Alex had hers in his bag, after wondering all along why there was a spare!
Some of the group then decided to go for a ride on the splash boat ride thing.
They produced by far the biggest splash we saw the whole time we were stood there
I think they enjoyed it?
That left us with one (and a half) big creds left to get. We decided to head for Tornado, the Intamin invert next. I've not done one of these before. I'd heard reasonable things about them so went in with a bit of optimism, but overall a fairly open mind. I pretty much bore a fairly convincing resemblance to trollface the whole way round. Whilst still nowhere near as bad as a Vekoma SLC, it was still a wholly unpleasant experience.
By this point, Abismo was back up and running, so I was keen to get over there and nab the cred for those of us who hadn't got on it earlier. As we arrived, it was experiencing further difficulties. Fortunately, these were only minor and it quickly re-opened! Hurrah! On we got, and off it went. Whilst I've ridden most other types of x-car before, I'd never done a skyloop. I really loved it. I love weird upside-down lift hills. I also really liked that it did a bit more after that too (a surprising amount, actually). I think I'd find the ones that are literally just the loop a bit dull now though.
From there it was time for lunch. For various reasons, the park had kindly upgraded us from a burger meal to a buffet with a free drink voucher included. It was a bit like a hotel buffet really. Very tasty (and actually pretty good value I think even if you were going to pay full price). Towards the end of lunch, Alex appeared with a plate of desert with a candle in it. After a rather loud rendition of Feliz Cumpleaños, a somewhat mortified PAC member (the guy with the video camera - so sorry but I can't remember your name!) blew out the candle. They thought that was it, but oh no! Ian suddenly appeared with his froglife bag and a Dollywood cap full of raffle tickets... yes, it was a special edition of los faffle!
With Conor as the sexy tat model, prizes were distributed to many an "oooh", "ahhhhhh" and shout of "cheat!" from the Spanish. This is where "fab lady" Mari really came into her own, gesturing at us to make sure we picked out her ticket every time she took a liking to the prize. As others have mentioned, PAC really got CF's stupid sense of humour, and at no point was it better demonstrated than here.
Many of the PAC lot emerged from the restaurant wearing straw hats that were being given out as a promotion with beer. I'd been coveting them all day, so was really pleased when someone gave me theirs!
Some of the group then rode the Starflyer, whilst some of us acted as Señora de Bolsa.
I took it as an opportunity to properly christen my Sombrero de Cerveza
Tom sat there being a Goon
and Darren attempted to be sexy
Jordan emerged with tales of how the building across the way housed a knock-off It's a Small World. Or El Pequeño Mondo as nobody in Spanish has ever said. It was brilliantly crap. As Jordan said, it's brilliant when parks have clearly poured a load of cash into something that still looks really cheap and nasty and crappy. <3
Next up was the Horror maze thing. I sat out whilst some of the CFers went in. Whilst they were in, the director of the maze arrived to give the PAC group a talk and tour
I was watching other people leave the maze running, screaming, in tears, looking like they were about to have a heart attack. I was eagerly awaiting CF's exit... then they all just sauntered out
We'd agreed to meet back up with PAC after they had finished, so whilst we waited we went ride one last attraction. Ian, Tom, Andy and I went on the drop tower. It felt a bit rough for an Intamin 2nd gen, but was overall pretty good as per usual.
Far too quickly, it was time to find the rest of the group and say Adios. After many hugs and kisses, we bid our final fairwell with a quick rendition of the Macarena. After a quick spin round the tat shops, tt was eventually time for us to head for the "salad bar" (exit = salida en español)
I cannot say gracias enough to -
- Alex and Ian for getting perks from the parks
both parks for looking after us
all of PAC for being lovely welcoming hosts, and a right laugh
the other CF participants for making it a great trip.
Muchas gracias a todos!
Concluding part of day 2....
After the faffle, the group left the buffet restaurant wearing free beer hats. I think 80% of the group were wearing one!
I've been to a several city parks. I'm not sure if I was high on fun or the warm sunshine had gone to my head, but I found PAM to be one of the prettiest parks I've ever visited.
Look at it!
The first ride after lunch was the Star Flyer. We skipped the queue using our speedy passes and soon enough we were hoisted 250 ft (ish) towards the sky.
It offers great views of the park. On one side is the sprawling city of Madrid. I sat next to Andy, somebody I rarely sit next next to (not intentional, it just works out that way), so it was nice to have a 80mtr chat! On the other side stretched countryside punctuated with snow-capped mountains. It was gorgeous.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzzGgvQuow4[/youtube]
Walking past a hotdog shaped car, we entered the Spanish version of It's a Small World. Something that Vadge insisted we ride.
[tweet]https://twitter.com/javicoaster/status/452818528727728128[/tweet]
Everybody gave it a go. It was ok. Not as bizarre or casually racist as I hoped it would be, but it was very stereotypical. I sat on the front row with Darren and Andy. Pablo, Sexy Carrot and Fab Smoking Lady were behind us. Not sure of the names of the people in the back row.
Us Brits gave a little cheer when it sailed past the UK scene.
The Spain section, understandably, was extensively themed with matadors, flamenco dancers and famous Spanish people such as Fernando Alonso and Rafael Nadal.
Time was starting to run out for the CoasterForce group so we headed to the haunted house walk-through, El Viejo Caserón. The PR lady gave us free tickets as compensation for the Abismo failure. I hadn't planned to do it but I rarely look a gift horse in the mouth.
[tweet]https://twitter.com/PACommunity/status/452823411006246913[/tweet]
The director of the attraction offered to give a talk. As the talk was in Spanish, PAC waited for that whilst half of CF did the attraction. I used the high beams in the queue line to work off some of the buffet
The scary bloke outside told us in perfect English the rules and we walked up the stairs, knocked the door three times and went inside.
What followed was a the typical horror walk-through. People jumping out, strobe lighting, sound effects etc. However, this was top quality. The woman contortionist on the bed scene was fantastic, as were the two butchers. Serena spent half the ride gripping hold me...she was waiting for her chance after witnessing my athletic prowess in the queue line :lol: The only let down was the finale. Yeah, it was a man with chainsaw (leaf blower). This didn't phase faze us and we strolled out nonchalantly with "meh" looks on our faces.
That was slightly embarrassing because the director was talking to PAC by the exit. Previous guests ran our screaming. We appeared looking bored. Was it any good? Yes, it was ok and it is worth an up-charge. Maybe not €4.50, but a least a few quid.
PAC went in El Viejo Caserón, CF wandered off to do the other cred. We sacked it off due to the long queue and opted for the drop tower and log flume instead.
We all met back up outside Tarantula for one last ride together only to discover it had a queue and the speedy passes aren't accepted. Boooo!
We waited for Sue to return from the toilet and the entire group gave her a round of applause.
At that point, CF did a quick rendition of the Macarena (I **** it up!) and said our goodbyes. I didn't want to say goodbye so I rushed through it. I shook everybody's hand, did the European cheek kisses and walked away to a warm round of applause from PAC.
We visited the tat shop where I got some GhosterForce Faffle tat. After a toilet break we went to made our way to the "salad bar" (that's "exit" in Spanish) taking one last group photo on the way.
[tweet]https://twitter.com/CoasterForce/status/452842738112036864[/tweet]
But the story didn't end there! We faffed around at the airport for a few hours with food and Duty Free Singalongs. You had to be there! By now we were used to Spanish operation and were not surprised to find our plane was delayed by 30mins :lol:
In conclusion, the Madrid trip was one of my favourite CF weekends ever. I felt lucky and proud to have a brilliant group representing CF. PAC were incredibly welcoming and have a similar mentality to CF; not once did I feel like CF were looked down upon like some groups do with us. I think the CFers felt comfortable to be themselves around the PACOS and vice-versa. Will me and Alex organise another joint trip? The answer is yes and I hope it is soon. Language is no barrier when it comes to frivolous theme park fun.
Weekends like this remind me why I **** love this hobby!
After the faffle, the group left the buffet restaurant wearing free beer hats. I think 80% of the group were wearing one!
I've been to a several city parks. I'm not sure if I was high on fun or the warm sunshine had gone to my head, but I found PAM to be one of the prettiest parks I've ever visited.
Look at it!
The first ride after lunch was the Star Flyer. We skipped the queue using our speedy passes and soon enough we were hoisted 250 ft (ish) towards the sky.
It offers great views of the park. On one side is the sprawling city of Madrid. I sat next to Andy, somebody I rarely sit next next to (not intentional, it just works out that way), so it was nice to have a 80mtr chat! On the other side stretched countryside punctuated with snow-capped mountains. It was gorgeous.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzzGgvQuow4[/youtube]
Walking past a hotdog shaped car, we entered the Spanish version of It's a Small World. Something that Vadge insisted we ride.
[tweet]https://twitter.com/javicoaster/status/452818528727728128[/tweet]
Everybody gave it a go. It was ok. Not as bizarre or casually racist as I hoped it would be, but it was very stereotypical. I sat on the front row with Darren and Andy. Pablo, Sexy Carrot and Fab Smoking Lady were behind us. Not sure of the names of the people in the back row.
Us Brits gave a little cheer when it sailed past the UK scene.
The Spain section, understandably, was extensively themed with matadors, flamenco dancers and famous Spanish people such as Fernando Alonso and Rafael Nadal.
Time was starting to run out for the CoasterForce group so we headed to the haunted house walk-through, El Viejo Caserón. The PR lady gave us free tickets as compensation for the Abismo failure. I hadn't planned to do it but I rarely look a gift horse in the mouth.
[tweet]https://twitter.com/PACommunity/status/452823411006246913[/tweet]
The director of the attraction offered to give a talk. As the talk was in Spanish, PAC waited for that whilst half of CF did the attraction. I used the high beams in the queue line to work off some of the buffet
The scary bloke outside told us in perfect English the rules and we walked up the stairs, knocked the door three times and went inside.
What followed was a the typical horror walk-through. People jumping out, strobe lighting, sound effects etc. However, this was top quality. The woman contortionist on the bed scene was fantastic, as were the two butchers. Serena spent half the ride gripping hold me...she was waiting for her chance after witnessing my athletic prowess in the queue line :lol: The only let down was the finale. Yeah, it was a man with chainsaw (leaf blower). This didn't phase faze us and we strolled out nonchalantly with "meh" looks on our faces.
That was slightly embarrassing because the director was talking to PAC by the exit. Previous guests ran our screaming. We appeared looking bored. Was it any good? Yes, it was ok and it is worth an up-charge. Maybe not €4.50, but a least a few quid.
PAC went in El Viejo Caserón, CF wandered off to do the other cred. We sacked it off due to the long queue and opted for the drop tower and log flume instead.
We all met back up outside Tarantula for one last ride together only to discover it had a queue and the speedy passes aren't accepted. Boooo!
We waited for Sue to return from the toilet and the entire group gave her a round of applause.
At that point, CF did a quick rendition of the Macarena (I **** it up!) and said our goodbyes. I didn't want to say goodbye so I rushed through it. I shook everybody's hand, did the European cheek kisses and walked away to a warm round of applause from PAC.
We visited the tat shop where I got some GhosterForce Faffle tat. After a toilet break we went to made our way to the "salad bar" (that's "exit" in Spanish) taking one last group photo on the way.
[tweet]https://twitter.com/CoasterForce/status/452842738112036864[/tweet]
But the story didn't end there! We faffed around at the airport for a few hours with food and Duty Free Singalongs. You had to be there! By now we were used to Spanish operation and were not surprised to find our plane was delayed by 30mins :lol:
In conclusion, the Madrid trip was one of my favourite CF weekends ever. I felt lucky and proud to have a brilliant group representing CF. PAC were incredibly welcoming and have a similar mentality to CF; not once did I feel like CF were looked down upon like some groups do with us. I think the CFers felt comfortable to be themselves around the PACOS and vice-versa. Will me and Alex organise another joint trip? The answer is yes and I hope it is soon. Language is no barrier when it comes to frivolous theme park fun.
Weekends like this remind me why I **** love this hobby!
Jordanovichy
Credit Whore 2016
Great report as per.
'Señora de Bolsa' has made my day, thank you
Darren, Sue and Conor look quite content but what the **** is going on in the row behind?! XD
Oh Ian, how rude of you to post while I'm writing my post
Great report from you too Ian, looks like such a stunning park, PAC seem like an amazing bunch of people, gutted I couldn't come, but next time!
'Señora de Bolsa' has made my day, thank you
Darren, Sue and Conor look quite content but what the **** is going on in the row behind?! XD
Oh Ian, how rude of you to post while I'm writing my post
Great report from you too Ian, looks like such a stunning park, PAC seem like an amazing bunch of people, gutted I couldn't come, but next time!