witchfinder
Hyper Poster
This is my first trip report, covering two Scottish parks that don’t look to have had a lot of coverage on here recently. I’m fully aware these aren’t the greatest parks in the world (or even the UK!) but thought I’d try and give a balanced review of both parks…
So these trips were part of a 10-day holiday for my wife and I, touring around Scotland. Early in this trip was a visit to see some friends in Aberdeen so I took the opportunity to pick up the two creds at Codona’s Amusement Park.
The park is sandwiched between Aberdeen’s beachfront and a large retail complex. The main building features a large amusement arcade, tenpin bowling, indoor mini golf and more, while outside there is a small selection of generic fairground type rides, another mini golf course and some other attractions.
We booked the ‘all day outdoor wristband’ package in advance, which cost £15 each. For this you get unlimited use of all rides, one game of outdoor mini golf, one admission to the ‘Dino Safari’ 6D motion ride, one go on the high ropes course and a game of bowling (which is only available if booked online in advance). So a pretty good package for the money! :--D
Just as we arrived it started raining, so we did the ‘Dino Safari’ motion ride first. It was billed as 6D but assuming the 4th ‘D’ was the limited environmental effects I’m not sure what the 5th and 6th ‘D’s were! It was nothing spectacular but a fun enough clone of Jurassic Park with some good sound and a lot of chair shaking. A good way to spend ten minutes until the rain passed over.
So with the weather looking brighter again, we headed outside to the rides. First up was the main reason for being there, the Looping Star. The main attraction of this ride is its location, three stories up on the top of one of the buildings!
It’s not a great coaster of course, but since the park was pretty much empty I had five rides in a row (getting out each time to then get into the other train) and rode both trains front and back. The tip from the friendly ride operator was that the back row of the yellow train was fastest, but I didn’t notice much difference. It’s certainly more fun on the back than the front though I feel.
For an old Pinfari I didn’t think it was too rough, although the brakes seem to kick in way too early which leaves you trundling towards the exit station in an annoying fashion.
Next up was the only other cred, the less than spectacular Apple Coaster. Nothing more to be said really!
After this we wandered round some of the other outdoor attractions, including the Animal Barn with its giant rabbits…
We then played Pirate Island Mini Gold, which was really good, especially the hole that is located between a pirate ship and an island, which is motion activated so that a full scale battle ensues as you play the hole, with cannons booming and smoke billowing across the course. =D>
Following this we did a few more of the rides, including the astroglide, the generic fairground log flume (which got us reasonably wet) and a ride on the big wheel to get some better views of the Looping Star and the park as a whole.
I didn’t get chance to do the high ropes course (my wife wouldn’t have done it anyway) and I also skipped the Waltzers and Pirate Ship, but we had a go on the Skydeck Dodgems, which are located inside on a suspended floor above the arcade – nice idea!
The Dodgems were included in the wristband price, which is fairly unusual, and we got a good long ride, mainly because the operator decided midway through to jump in a car himself and join in the fun. There was definitely no restriction on bumping either – in fact it was encouraged.
Finally we had a few games in the arcade and had our game of bowling, along with my friend who had joined us by then.
So in summary, Codona’s is a small but fun park. None of the rides are spectacular but they’re all in reasonably good shape and the operators are friendly. The park is pretty clean too, so nothing to complain about really aside from it being incredibly hot in the arcade.
I don’t think there are many places in the UK that you can get unlimited rides plus one-shot admission to four other attractions for £15, so in terms of value for money I don’t think it can be beaten. I wouldn’t go out of my way to visit there but if you’re going to be in the vicinity anyway then it’s definitely worth checking out, and picking up the two creds of course! :wink:
Next up, M&D’s…
So these trips were part of a 10-day holiday for my wife and I, touring around Scotland. Early in this trip was a visit to see some friends in Aberdeen so I took the opportunity to pick up the two creds at Codona’s Amusement Park.
The park is sandwiched between Aberdeen’s beachfront and a large retail complex. The main building features a large amusement arcade, tenpin bowling, indoor mini golf and more, while outside there is a small selection of generic fairground type rides, another mini golf course and some other attractions.
We booked the ‘all day outdoor wristband’ package in advance, which cost £15 each. For this you get unlimited use of all rides, one game of outdoor mini golf, one admission to the ‘Dino Safari’ 6D motion ride, one go on the high ropes course and a game of bowling (which is only available if booked online in advance). So a pretty good package for the money! :--D
Just as we arrived it started raining, so we did the ‘Dino Safari’ motion ride first. It was billed as 6D but assuming the 4th ‘D’ was the limited environmental effects I’m not sure what the 5th and 6th ‘D’s were! It was nothing spectacular but a fun enough clone of Jurassic Park with some good sound and a lot of chair shaking. A good way to spend ten minutes until the rain passed over.
So with the weather looking brighter again, we headed outside to the rides. First up was the main reason for being there, the Looping Star. The main attraction of this ride is its location, three stories up on the top of one of the buildings!
It’s not a great coaster of course, but since the park was pretty much empty I had five rides in a row (getting out each time to then get into the other train) and rode both trains front and back. The tip from the friendly ride operator was that the back row of the yellow train was fastest, but I didn’t notice much difference. It’s certainly more fun on the back than the front though I feel.
For an old Pinfari I didn’t think it was too rough, although the brakes seem to kick in way too early which leaves you trundling towards the exit station in an annoying fashion.
Next up was the only other cred, the less than spectacular Apple Coaster. Nothing more to be said really!
After this we wandered round some of the other outdoor attractions, including the Animal Barn with its giant rabbits…
We then played Pirate Island Mini Gold, which was really good, especially the hole that is located between a pirate ship and an island, which is motion activated so that a full scale battle ensues as you play the hole, with cannons booming and smoke billowing across the course. =D>
Following this we did a few more of the rides, including the astroglide, the generic fairground log flume (which got us reasonably wet) and a ride on the big wheel to get some better views of the Looping Star and the park as a whole.
I didn’t get chance to do the high ropes course (my wife wouldn’t have done it anyway) and I also skipped the Waltzers and Pirate Ship, but we had a go on the Skydeck Dodgems, which are located inside on a suspended floor above the arcade – nice idea!
The Dodgems were included in the wristband price, which is fairly unusual, and we got a good long ride, mainly because the operator decided midway through to jump in a car himself and join in the fun. There was definitely no restriction on bumping either – in fact it was encouraged.
Finally we had a few games in the arcade and had our game of bowling, along with my friend who had joined us by then.
So in summary, Codona’s is a small but fun park. None of the rides are spectacular but they’re all in reasonably good shape and the operators are friendly. The park is pretty clean too, so nothing to complain about really aside from it being incredibly hot in the arcade.
I don’t think there are many places in the UK that you can get unlimited rides plus one-shot admission to four other attractions for £15, so in terms of value for money I don’t think it can be beaten. I wouldn’t go out of my way to visit there but if you’re going to be in the vicinity anyway then it’s definitely worth checking out, and picking up the two creds of course! :wink:
Next up, M&D’s…