Ian, nadroJ, belfast_conor, Stone Cold and myself had flown into Belfast the night before and we stayed at Conor's ma's. I love flying at this time of night, it looks so pretty, plus I had a window seat
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To get to the park for the 9:15 Ian had insisted on meant we had to be up and out by 7:30 which was fun. We made the near-100 mile journey south to Ireland's biggest theme park, playing a 'guess the CFer' playlist on the way, the highlight was 'Milk' by in reference to Ploddish's love of the white stuff. The woodie looked beautiful in the early morning sun.
Small faff with paying in €s for the tickets and we were soon into the park and made a bee-line for Cú Chulainn (which I shall now refer to as CuCu) for our morning ERT.
I took my seat and the excitement of getting a new cred, and it looking phenomenal overtook me. I couldn't wait. I sat towards the back on my first go, the first drop had plenty of airtime and down into the tunnel before whooshing through the distant corner, some weaving around (which really reminded me of skiing, just the way you move your body) and into the overbanked turn. It's rough, yes, but I don't think it deserves the hate it receives, it doesn't feel as if it kills as much speed when you're in the back but it feels like it oddly slides left to right on the track, not my favourite element in the coaster!
The rest of the coaster spends itself racing over and under itself, up airtime hills offering plenty of it, shooting around tight corners. I was cheering it along, loving every second. The ERT then offered a further 9 rides, where I managed to get a front row and back row ride in. This coaster is phenomenal. It's just excellent. I prefer it back row, the airtime over the first hill is sensational and the overbanked turn isn't as unforgiving, at the front, whilst I enjoy being able to see the track right in front of me, doesn't offer as much airtime and the overbanked turn is...well reasonably disgusting. I applaud Tayto Park for having the balls to build this thing. It's amazing <3
The burdens who had decided to catch a delayed flight still hadn't arrived so we went over to the zip line.
We got suited and booted in our harnesses and helmets and walked to the other end of the zipline and up all of the stairs to the top. We chatted to Ben about his recent American trip before we took our places to jump. The hardest thing with this sort of attraction (absailing is the same) is that initial leap over the edge, once you manage that it's great...craic. I jumped and whooshed down to the other side. Ahh such fun.
Thanks to Peep for the photo
After that we headed over to the high ropes course.
I got chatting to Hixee who I hadn't met before, great to meet you bud!
Because we're manly(ish) men, Ben and I opted for the top course so had to negotiate the obstacles higher up. It was alright, I really liked how you could chop and change and decide which obstacle you wanted (one was easier, more rigid, others were less so...). Everyone below was laughing at my...erm...bulge.
Bulge. I would say zoom in but you really don't need to
By now the burdens who had the delayed flight had arrived so we headed over to Rotator.
[i}Excuse the massive pole ruining the pic[/i]
I'd never ridden one before so thought I'd give it a go. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting but the swing just before it goes upside down for the first time, and just after the time it goes upside down for the last time it leaves you hanging upside down for 5 seconds and that's just vile. No one needs that in their life.
We looked at the queue for the Air Race, realised we'd be there until Christmas and moved on to find lunch. We found a fab lodge place at the back of the part with anti-theme park food, it was great, I had a wonderful beef CARvery, it was so nice to be at a park with good food. Good job Tayto! The had a great chandelier...:
...and an odd bear scene...:
Next we headed into the Tayto Factory Tour.
I have no idea what I was expecting but I think I thought we'd get up close and personal with the crisps, as others have said, instead it was trying to squeeze in a small box and look out of grimy windows. Disappointing!
I think next we headed back over to the Air Race and decided the queue was still longer than Italy, so went to look at some animals instead. Ugh zoos. I stroked a goat...
You could hear them snore...it was quite sweet. Also saw a tiger.
But the best part was being able to see this beauty, also held in captivity, over the fields...
You could almost hear it call out for us to go and re-ride, so that's exactly what we did! We had to queue this time obviously :sadface:, but that's life!
I sat back row with DubaiDave I think and now it had warmed up it was even better! It felt pacier and was less burdenous through the overbank, I genuinely had to consider that it might be a top 10, but you just don't get as good a kick at the front, for me my top 10 isn't about one seat...if it was one seat on Swarm would be up there but the rest of the seats are meh (front outside right if you're interested), so it has settled at 14th. So ridiculously good though that we had another ride before checking the queue for Air Race, decided we'd be here until Chessington get a new cred, and headed to the 5D Cinema of tedium instead.
I always like to give these a go purely to watch the video. Ian broke out the cable ties and chaos ensued with tying invariable people to things and things to people. We entered a room which was hot and stuffy. We entered another room which was cold and chilly. (That's 1 D of the 5 right there!). Yeah the show was meh, lots of water-in-face, not enough fire-in-face...and by 'not enough fire-in-face, I mean 'no fire-in-face'. The film had NO mention of crisps or potato which was just a waste. THEY COULD HAVE THROWN CRISPS INTO THE AUDIENCE. UGH. There were bubbles though so it wasn't all bad.
We had a wander over to the Air Race but the queue was still slightly larger than my considerable bulge so headed to the Tiny Tater's Maze.
It was a lot of 'walking through bush', similar to a night out in continental Europe but we had fun all the same.
A photo of Nic and talking about 'bush' is purely coincidental
After that we were going to ride the porn ponies but gave up when there was another BURDENSOME queue. We headed back over to the Air Race and decided to just suck up the queue. The whole park was busy, we wouldn't be riding anything if we didn't wanna queue.
Christ knows why I rode it, I hated the one on Brighton Pier when I rode it last year...that flung me upside down 33 times so I was very grateful when this only did it 11 times, it made it much more bearable.
It was nearly time to meat the beautiful Mr. Coyle, so we had another ride on le CuChu, and waited patiently. There was some drama on the Air Race when we came off the woodie, someone had collapsed and there were paramedics and Mr. Coyle, whilst harassed by the whole charade, still looked mmmm. Only Ian spoke to him, I suppose he didn't want 25 enthusiasts, who were already drooling, harassing him further.
And that was that! Ah Tayto, you have a fab theme park in the making here, Cú Chulainn is world class, so so so good, there's a nice collection of flat rides, especially in the kids area, and a few filler things like the high ropes, zip line and climbing wall. I can't wait to see what this park is like in 5 years time, it will be fab.
I went to the tat shop whilst everyone left by a different exit and got free **** crisps. I was not overjoyed when everyone was stuffing their faces with cheese and onion whilst I just had a hole in my pocket. But there, my own fault for being a mong. Ben felt sorry for me (it's true guys, he has a heart), and shared his with me...he said he didn't like them but we all know what was going on
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We said our goodbyes to everyone else who was travelling back into Dublin via party bus. Stone Cold, Ian, nadroJ, Belfast_Conor and I headed into a town-of-class, Bettystown, to visit Funtasia which features Ireland's only 'cred-on-a-roof'!
To say it was bleak would be an impressive understatement. It was probably the bleakest place I've ever been to to get a cred...and the rain didn't help.
There were loads of caravans around as well...why the hell would you come here on your summer holiday? Unlucky sods :/
After that we drove up to Belfast, ordered some food before heading out and hitting the town. Conor took us to a couple of fab, traditionally Irish pubs. I had my first pint of Guinness, it was so smooth and tasty, I'm looking forward to seeing how Guinness over here compares. A great evening was had by all!
I'd like to express my thanks to Tayto Park for the ERT and discounted tickets, and to Ian especially for arranging it all and for doing all the driving for me, not just on this day but for the rest of the weekend which I'll get around to writing...eventually. You're fab <3
Also thanks to everyone who came for making the day great as you always do, I always get back from a Live and think how lucky I am to have gotten into this hobby (with thanks to ATTACKHAMMER, so blame him!
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Thanks for reading, I'll post the rest of my trip in a separate thread when I can be arsed.