My Trip to the UK: Part 5 (Chessington)

[furie]

Not convinced. I think that Thom's one is the one on the path that skirts the edge of the gardens by Haunted Hollow, above the gardens heading for Forbidden Valley. The Swiss cottage is over the other side of the gardens.

I think anyway LOL There are lots of random buildings like that around there. Well, at least two

Could be this building?
https://farm6.static.flickr.com/5709/22799371069_74c4eeb035_b.jpg

If it is, I seem to remember it looking lived in about 15 years ago. I think maybe as a groundskeeper house or something?

 

[CookieCoasters]

Not convinced. I think that Thom's one is the one on the path that skirts the edge of the gardens by Haunted Hollow, above the gardens heading for Forbidden Valley.

Yep, the building in Thom's picture is on that route.

Edit: ^Yeah, it's that one

 

[ThomVD]

Day 5
Blackpool Pleasure Beach is next. I've always been intrigued by the park, since kinda looks like a much less classy Gröna Lund. Obviously I didn't expect it to be as good, but I was still very excited to go there. Also great to finally get a chance to ride some British woodies. It took us a 2,5 hour drive to get to the park. On the way we drove past (the remains of) Camelot along with Jetline's smaller brother. It was a perfect sunny day with blue skies and hardly anybody was there when the park opened. We rushed to the first coaster on the way.

Wild Mouse
We could pretty much walk onto it. As a first ride of the day, it was pretty weak. The first half was so slow that it almost went through the turns in walking pace. The second half was a bit better but nowhere near the ridiculous coaster that people always go on about. Thankfully we re-rode it multiple times later on and then it lived up to its reputation. I still don't think the first half is much crazier than most of the regular wild mice, but the second half is nuts! Violent pops of ejector and laters follow each other up so fast. I did get a bit of a headache due to it being a bit vibrate-y, but it's good fun! Best coaster in the park imo.

Grand National
Just like everything else during the whole day (aside from the last ride on The Big One), it was a complete walk on and we even had to wait for the trains to fill up more. I've heard so many horror stories about this coaster (these coasters?). We rode the second to last row, and I guess it was a good call because I didn't find it rough at all. I found the straight sections quite smooth for such an old woodie even. The turns are very shakey but so slow that they don't hurt. There were some nice pops of air scattered around on some of the hills, and it was decent enough. We re-rode it in the second row and that was quite fun too. I guess if you ride it in a row without wheels underneath and if you catch it on a good day, it really isn't that rough. For some reasons I didn't take any photos of it...

Infusion
It's a Vekoma SLC so we wanted to get it out of the way as fast as possible. I have to say that it's one of the more picturesque SLCs I've seen. We rode the front seat and it was pretty alright for an SLC. Not good by any means, but I think this is probably my least hated SLC. I found it equally smooth (or I should still say rough) as Vampire at Walibi Belgium and it being completely over water with the fab fountain at the first drop give it the edge over Vampire. It's still an SLC but it's not the worst coaster in the park for me.

Big Dipper
I believe this is the oldest coaster in the park? I liked it. The first two hills had some floater airtime in the front seat and the third hill even had a sudden pop of ejector. The rest of the layout didn't do much, but was still interesting. It was a bit rougher than Grand National but still nothing bad. Nothing exceptional, but decent enough.

The Big One
It's so GROSS! The first time we rode in the front. It was a completely dull experience (including the highly overrated first drop) and the tight and uncomfortable lapbars were the cause of some bruises. It wasn't anything offensive though and I liked the view over the sea and how it travels through the entire park. I feel that the layout is one of the worst I've ever seen on a coaster. It's like someone tried to make an Arrow hyper on No Limits and then failing to get the shaping right. The weird hills in the middle also got so repetitive and what is up with the helix where it nearly stalls? We re-rode it towards the back and that was just the most laughably BAD experience I've had on a coaster. Riding it towards the back, it literally had the worst first drop I've ever done. It was funny to see everybody getting slammed to the side during the twist in the drop and it was just awful. The rest of the coaster was one big torture machine. It isn't just bad because of its potential and size, it's bad period. One of the worst major coasters I've ever done. We got two rides in a row because it was the last ride of the day. Bah!

Nickelodeon Streak
I literally don't remember anything of this coaster. I guess I didn't get any airtime, and it wasn't very rough (otherwise I would've remembered more of it). All in all just incredibly forgettable and doesn't add anything to the coaster selection with stuff like Big Dipper and Grand National around. We also rode Blue Flyer right after it. Very cute little woodie. Better than the average kiddie coaster.

Revolution
Funny how you just have to climb so many stairs to get to the station. We rode in the front seat first. I like the coaster for its uniqueness. You get a decent pop of airtime after the loop when going forwards and then a weird pop of backwards airtime (I did hit my knee against the front of the train, ouch!) going back. The loop was reasonably forceful too. It's one of the better coasters in the park and better than most Vekoma Boomerangs, but still nothing I was dying to re-ride.

Steeplechase
We rode this interesting "coaster" next. Sadly they only had two of the three sides open, but oh well. It's very unique and gets points for its novelty, but it's not something I'd feel like re-riding. It is also the borderline of what I still consider a coaster. I won both rides, sorry James

Avalanche
The last cred of the day, and probably the one James was dreading most. He hates Mack Bobsleds with a passion. I've only done the one at Europa Park which is quite ****ty. This one was better though. It wasn't too vibrate-y and it seemed a bit quicker with snappier turns. Still very short and nothing memorable, but fun enough. The station building looks pretty nice.

So that was the coaster selection. In all honesty, it's quite crappy. I'd put it on a similar level as something like Wiener Prater, though that park has nothing quite as good as Wild Mouse or even Grand National. I do quite like the atmosphere of the park itself though, but I'll come back to that later. On to the non-coaster selection then.

Valhalla
Oh man! I was so hyped up for this, and scared of getting completely drenched. But I ****ing LOVED it! Especially the first time was so suspenseful after all the talk about how wet this ride is. It's not as consistent as something like Chiapas theming-wise, but when it gets good, it gets GOOOOOD. The wetness just adds to the madness of the whole thing. Then there's the epic music, the effects and the complete randomness that BPB was capable of building something this amazing. If it wasn't for this ride, I'd feel that BPB has one of the worst ride selections of any major park I've done, but this exists so yay <3 Thank god for the sun so that we could get dry fast. Especially the second ride in the front left us completely soaked.

The Ghost Train
So is this a cred? I'm almost tempted to say yes, but meh, it's not on coaster count and just so annoying to keep track of it otherwise. It has a chain lift and a coaster drop. That was also the most exciting thing about it, because as a ghost train it was very static and dull. I know I'm spoiled with riding stuff like Blå Tåget and the Psycho Hotel at Wiener Prater, but still. This was turd.

Impossible
What is this ride even? We went through to queue just to find out that the actual ride was closed off. A minute of silence for those who actually bought tickets to get in. The most exciting part is this typo in the queue. Unbeleivable...

The rest of the rides then.
-Ice Blast was the worst S&S tower I've done. It goes up so slowly, it almost seems pointless.
-The majority of the Wallace & Gromit ride went over my head because I haven't seen the show. So random.
-The Alice in Wonderland dark ride was kinda cute but meh.
-The Avatar themed Disk-o had tighter restraints than usual, blegh.
-The Derby Racer carrousel was quite fast and fun for what it is.
-The Sky Fly ride is as dull as they always are. Too much effort to get it to be even remotely interesting.
-River Caves was a lovely little dark ride. The Egyptian themed part was fab.

HAHAHAHAHAHAH.

Despite all that negativety I just want to say that I had a great time in the park. Everything was a walk-on and I loved the sea-side atmosphere and how many rides were crammed into the park. It's just a fab place to have a good time. At least if you visit it once in a while, because it's severely lacks re-ridable rides. The park was only open from 11 till 5 but we still got a bit bored towards the end of the day. As amazing as Valhalla is, due to the wetness it's not something you want to ride over and over. I wouldn't be rushing back for the rides if it wasn't for the new Mack launched coaster, which is EXACTLY what the park needs. Fab place, ****ty ride selection. Gröna Lund, it is not. Not even remotely close to being anywhere as good in any way. Blackpool isn't exactly Stockholm either

Thanks for reading!!!! Thorpe Park (on a weekday) is next!

 

[jayjay]

-The Sky Fly ride is as dull as they always are. Too much effort to get it to be even remotely interesting.

I think the part that makes them interesting is the opening year of 1904 (assuming we're talking Hiram Maxim's Flying Machines). While researching that year, I found this article, that claims that he was disappointed in 1900s health and safety for not letting him make them controllable

http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/sir-hiram-maxim-s-captive-flying-machines

 

[Mysterious Sue]

@jayjay I think he means Sky Force.

Loving these reports Thom. Relieved you like Grand National but kinda sad you think the park is as boring as Prater. It's a bit bland, yes, but I don't think the rides are that bad! I mean there's variation and height and other things that Prater doesn't have!

Anyway, you need to watch Wallace and Gromit, it's fab.

Impossible is an original Victorian swing aka the precursor to Hex et. al. It's **** but it's equally fab because you can appreciate the history.

 

[jayjay]

Haha, I was thinking of the Star Flyer types and thought that's what you meant. Glad I looked it up though. Love little insights into history like that.

I still haven't done Impossible yet. Maybe next year. Glad you enjoyed Valhalla though. So fab!

 

[ThomVD]

@jayjay - Hah, I was talking about the Gerstlauer ride where you can flip it over. The Red Arrows ride. Sadly we got spited when we wanted to ride the one you meant. That's interesting though!

@Mysterious Sue - The comparison with Wiener Prater was only based on the coaster selection. BPB's coaster selection is still a bit better because it has two stand-outs and is a lot more "interesting", but overall it's not that much better to me quality-wise. I do prefer the atmosphere of BPB and the overall park, definitely. I'm a sucker for traditional amusement parks/Sea-side parks. Shame we missed out on the old school madhouse

 

[CookieCoasters]

I won the second Steeplechase! At least, I got to the brakes first

Apart from that, good report Thom. It was a great day, at a fairly average park with a fairly average coaster selection. At least The Nash was running well <3 Mouse was still crazy and Valhalla was still EPIC! Avalanche not being terrible was also a bonus.

 

[ThomVD]

Yes, you got to the brakes first, but then you braked a lot more than me so I passed you on the way back to the station and got into the station first. There's no finish sign, so the one who enters the station first is the winner. So sorry

 

[CookieCoasters]

You can't go from "there's no finish sign" to "the one who enters the station first is the winner." You do not have the authority to decide where the finish line is Most racing coasters with 'finish lines' have them at the final brakes, so I feel the precedent has been set, meaning that it's more justified to say that I won

 

[Smithy]

Never get tired of seeing pictures of Infusion, more so when they're taken on the one day of blue skies and sunlight Blackpool sees each year. Such a ridiculous feat of engineering fitting it in that gap.

 

[nadroJ]

I think maybe you hyped yourself out a little bit here by thinking Blackpool would be like Grona? I guess they're similar in some ways, but I'd say Grona is absolutely the more modern park. Blackpool relies a lot on that kitchy seaside stuff that I think would go over any non-Brit's head easily!

 

[ThomVD]

Oh, I didn't expect to love it anywhere near as much as I love Gröna. And I definitely agree that they're quite different in some ways. Especially when it comes to the ride selection.

I did get a bit of a Gröna Lund vibe from the park, mostly because it has so many rides crammed into a relatively small space and both parks being sea-side. And also because we had the nice weather/no queues combination that I'm used to from Gröna Lund by now, meaning loads of rides. You might be right though that non-Brits perceive the park quite differently than Brits, but I did really like the park! I would love to see it at night, but that seems nearly impossible in the UK

 

[Robbie]

Yay, some love for the River Caves. Like everything at Blackpool, it's objectively rubbish but actually pretty fun.

 

[Mysterious Sue]

The river caves date from 1905 as well, in case you didn't know.

 

[witchfinder]

Pretty fair assessment of the Pleasure Beach, though probably a little harsh on some of the coasters there. They may not be the greatest but there's certainly plenty of rare or unique coaster models there, and some great pieces of history.

Us Brits are probably more forgiving of the park's flaws though, due to the nostalgic memories of going there in our youth and the fact that it's the park with the most creds in the country!

 

[Pink Cadillac]

I'm very happy you like Valhalla, Wild Mouse and the Grand National. My fave 3 rides at the park too! The scale of Valhalla always gets me, I'm always surprised at how substantial the ride is.

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

As amazing as Valhalla is, due to the wetness it's not something you want to ride over and over.

But it's such a good test of stamina.

 

[Mysterious Sue]

I do hope Valhalla was working better on your visit. This weekend it was really poor. Only one side of the outer waterfalls were working. Inside, there was no arch of water corridor, only one side of steam/lights, no music up the final lift hill, and the big mallet that hits from the left hadn't had the reservoir filled so there was no giant splash.

 

[ThomVD]

Well, I wouldn't know if there were any effects missing, and to me it was great regardless. But I think some of those you mentioned were working for us at least (the arch of water thing was soaking!). James said a couple of small things weren't working but the important stuff was all fine. About the outside waterfall, I posted a photo in my report. Was it like that for you too?