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Vekoma Spited in the East: Part Two, Norfolk and Suffolk

Jordanovichy

Credit Whore 2016
A couple of weekends ago a few of us decided to mop up the creds in Lincolnshire (Dune's Leisure & Fantasy Island) and Norfolk (Hunstanton, Yarmouth, Pleasurewood Hills) with a few places in between. For me, the weekend promised a pretty 10 creds so I was up for it, I really wanted to finally ride Odyssey plus get to Pleasuewood hills, one of only 3 'major' UK parks left for me to visit.

Originally I was going to get the train down to London to stay with Jordan and Conor on the Friday night but work overrun so I got up stupidly early and got to their's for 9am. I was greeted at the door by a naked Conor. Excellent. Before long we piled into their Fiat and made our way north. First stop, Dune's Lesiure, Mablethorpe.

I had already got the cred, Miner Mike, in April last year but riding it meant 26 LoG points so I had to do it...and got back row. I'm going to steal Gavin's photo as I'm assuming he probably won't bother trip reporting ;)

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It even went backwards! Yay for +1. We then headed south to Fantasy Island. Again, I'd already been but needed to ride Odyssey as it was closed last time I was here. This was the cred I was most looking forward to. Shame the **** spited. I was watching it as we walked from the car park to the park and it didn't go around at all...Millennium only went around every 7 minutes. I asked a member of staff and apparently it was too windy, despite it being a warm, sunny day...something I didn't think 'the north' experienced. Spite. Ugh.

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On the way around the park someone spotted a travelling Runaway Train. To make up for the Odyssey spite I had to ride it.

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Initially I was refused but no way was I letting that happen. A little pleading later and the ride op gave in and let me on. MouseAT, the cheeky sod, crept in behind and joined me for the plus one. :p

Back in the park, the majority of people needed the other creds so they went off to ride Millennium. We stopped at Beast, the top scan, because MouseAT and I wanted to ride it (it was the only thing I rode). It's so much more relentless than Samurai at Thorpe, it goes on 3x longer and really throws you around. I don't often come off theme park rides feeling nauseous but I really did with this.

The other's then rode the other creds in the park. Once they'd ticked off the +1s, we all went to an inside area which is behind spiteful Jellykins. I'd never been in here before and it was, for the **** that is Fantasy Island, reasonably impressive. Just imagine a really really bad Wüze Town at Phantasialand, like really bad, and that's what it is.

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There was a water slide thing in the middle, as people came down, they were moving with lots of pace and getting really splashed. Conor and I looked at each other...we knew what needed to be done. It was £2.50 each. Conor went first and got soaked, nearly stacked it at the end. Then it was my turn. It starts off reasonably slow but soon gathers pace. The penultimate corner you really fly up the side and soak yourself, but the final turn I flew right up and came so close to flipping it over. I was soaked. Everyone found it hilarious. :roll:

Conor posted a video to Instagram.

https://instagram.com/p/5SEs0CwDUN/?tak ... lfastconor (I don't know how to embed Instagram videos...or even if you can!)

It was good fun. Afterwards we said a quick goodbye to the others, they were heading off to Botton's Amusements but Conor, Jordan and I had the creds so didn't bother and went straight to Hunstanton...two hours away even though, in a straight line, they're 16 miles apart -_-

We arrived half hour before everyone else so we had a quick look at the beach...

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And then wasted a few quid on the 2p machines. I won an awful sweet, a keyring and some skateboard thing...

The other's arrived and rode Sea Dragon which was my first ever cred, where all this began. Bloody thing.

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We went back to the car and met up at a nearby Brewer's Fayre. I'd never been to one (despite living 10 minutes away from one in Portsmouth) but it was pretty bleak. Conor bought an Olaf balloon which was fun. We had a great evening just chatting at the table for a couple of hours before leaving. Before setting off for the Travelodge, Conor attached Olaf to the back of the car, we turned one corner and it flew out wide. Olaf was brought inside for being dangerous.

Small amount of faff occurred at the Lodge before Jordan, Conor, Gavin and myself settled in for the night with many alcohols.

It was a good day, despite the Odyssey spite, of one expected cred I got one, but a different one to the expected one...

Thank you for reading, I'll add part two soon. If anyone else on the trip decided to report I'll change the title of this so it gets rid of what 'part' I'm on. :)
 

Martyn B

CF Legend
Re: Vekoma Spited in the East: Part One, Lincolnshire

Any other year, being spited by Odyssey would be norm, but they've been really good with its operations recently, so you definitely lucked out there!

And damn you for nabbing the cred over the road, I thought that was exclusively mine ;)
 

Ben

CF Legend
Re: Vekoma Spited in the East: Part One, Lincolnshire

I've got that cred over the road as well - we went on a family holiday to Cromer a few years ago (which was ****) and it was casually outside the house we were in.

Such a nice surprise <3
 

ATTACKHAMMER

Strata Poster
Re: Vekoma Spited in the East: Part One, Lincolnshire

Great report!

I'm in the cred over the road club too.

Looking forward to the next part!
 

cjbrandy

Hyper Poster
Re: Vekoma Spited in the East: Part One, Lincolnshire

Shame but not surprising that Odyssey spited, its a waste of bloody space at the coast even if it has been a bit better recently and would really benefit from being sold and relocated to a park somewhere in the midlands where wind is much less of a problem. After all I hear this coaster cost an insane £28million so it ought to be used more.
 

Jordanovichy

Credit Whore 2016
Re: Vekoma Spited in the East: Part One, Lincolnshire

I'm assuming no one is going to update so I'll finish this off.

We had set alarms to get up in time to meet everyone at Pettitts for 10am, we woke 45 minutes late so let the others know it'd be closer to 11am, excellent start :p. We found a McDonald's for a cultural breakfast, I find McDonald's breakfasts their most bleak offering but I was grateful of the grease with my tender head. We arrived at Pettitts where everyone was waiting and we marched off to the entrance.

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Entrance was £13. No thanks. We only wanted the one coaster. We nominated Rachel to approach the desk and blush and ask sweetly if we could get in at a discounted price, the woman behind the counter surprisingly didn't take much persuasion and ushered us in as long as we rushed to the cred and that was it.

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The park looked quite alright to be honest, as we hot footed our way to the back of the park to find the mine train thing.

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But we soon arrived at the Pettitts Rocky Roller Coaster Mine Train Ride, and it looked beautiful.

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It didn't really do much and we were soon off and running to the entrance. We ran into the gift shop, bought a couple of things as a thank you to the park. Rachel bought some shortbread (I think) for the woman at the entrance as a thank you. Aww.

We crammed back into the car and made our way to the second destination of the day, Hemsby. This hobby does take you to some utter **** holes, but this place really took the biscuit. Even the signs admit it.

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It was just bleak...on all levels.

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Who in their right mind would think that coming hear constitutes a summer holiday?! Anyway, once everyone arrived we paid for tokens and boarded this beauty.

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It's so green <3 apart from the track...which was blue...

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...and balanced precariously on bits of wood and brick...

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+1. Yay. Next.

Next up was Joyland which wasn't that far down the road. We were savvy with the parking, well Conor was, and he parked on a side road half way between Joyland and the Pleasure Beach. We went to Joyland first, next door was some classic (American?) car show, I quite liked the Cadillac but apart from that I find this sort of thing a turn off generally, so no pictures. Anywayz, Joyland!

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I used to come to Great Yarmouth quite often so have had the creds at Joyland for many years, they were my 2nd, 3rd and 4th creds as it goes, but as it had been such a long time and because the tokens were reasonably cheap, I decided to give all three a go.

First up, Spook Express, cred in a mountain!

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It's a fun little family coaster which whooshes in and out and around the small hill that Joyland is set in (and under), it's alright fun if you're little I suppose.

Next we rode the Tyrolean Tubtwist. I expect I've grown more susceptible to pain in my old age because I never remember it being so **** violent and tedious.

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I was chucked into MouseAT on several occasions so I apologise for that!

Next, The Snails!

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As there should be, there was the usual 'is it a cred, isn't it a cred', but it so is, I get where you're coming from if you say the Weymouth Snails aren't a cred because, let's be honest, they aren't. But the snails here at Joyland so are, they're fab fun, Gavin and I had a great time.

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I like Joyland. It's so unique in that it is so tiny yet almost double layered. It's great fun, feels somewhat nostalgic, and doesn't try to be anything to exceptional. Yeah, I liked it there.

But time was ticking on so we embarked on the mile walk down the promenade, towards the Pleasure Beach, stopping en route for some sausage and chips. Yay. I was surprised to see the old log flume still operating, it was falling apart 10 years ago, many happy times on this, have an ORP from around 8 years ago.

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Awww

But soon, Pleasure Beach Great Yarmouth!

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I'd ridden the Big Apple a few years ago (in my pre-enthusiast days), but was looking forward to riding the classing Roller Coaster (even my mother and grandmother have this cred!) and the two newbies. Everyone purchased their tokens. First stop, Family Star.

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It was alright, I do like a custom layout spinning coaster because you don't know how your car is going to react to the corners in terms of spinning. It spun reasonably quickly which was fun. I can't remember riding a cred before with a 2-stage lift hill. That was fun.

Next, the others rode the Big Apple for the +1.

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Next was the coaster I was most looking forward to on this trip, Roller Coaster!

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The train was yellow and bright and looked great!

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I knew brake-man coasters existed but never realised this was one. Imagine the League of Goon points he'd get! So the cred, for what it is, it's fab. A thoroughly enjoyable ride, it isn't rough, it is quite pacy and shoots around some of the corners and up some of the hills. There's a little slow, pointless meandering and the coaster experience itself isn't particularly exciting but for being 83 years old, I walked away contended.

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The last cred of the park was the new-for-2015, Whirlwind, yay for SBF Visa Group!

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It's bright, it's shiny, and it lightly spins. Pretty good fun but obviously, essentially a +1.

After that we said goodbye to the others and Jordan, Conor, Gavin and myself headed to Lowestoft ready for Pleasurewood Hills! It's only 10 minutes down the road.

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Only Gavin and I needed the creds so we left the others in the car park and headed to the desk, £20 each later (I forgot, I still owe Gavin £5, sorry!) we were in. We'd seen a sign on the way in explaining that Wipeout, the Vekoma Boomerang, was shut. The second Vekoma on this trip to spite me, out of a possible 2. Great.

We headed over to Engima, a Schwartzkopf, first.

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It was just bleugh. Too much roughness to enjoy it, just spanked around the endless track with head being bashed from side to side. Plus, as the exit station is separate from the entrance station, technically you don't get the full cred ;) [/pedantic].

Next we headed over to Marble Madness stopping to watch the sealion show on the way.

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We soon moved on to Marble Madness.

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Gavin already had the cred but queued with me to keep me company, thanks :). I hated the colour scheme, the track is a fab bright orange, but the supports are **** grey. How tedious.

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Its alright, nothing special, it's not as fun as Rattlesnake which darts in and out of things, plus it doesn't feel as pacy and as enjoyably violent, it's just full.

Next, thanks to recommendations from fellow goons, we decided to give Hobs Pit a go. The queue line is pitch black and not much fun with people jumping out. Great. Thankfully it was empty so once we'd navigated our way to the end we boarded the car and went around a series of pretty fab scenes, some animatronic, some visual, some using screens and noises. It was actually quite fab and really quite enjoyable.

We headed round to the other side of the park for the last cred that we'd get at Pleasurewood Hills, Rattlesnake.

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A standard Zierer Tivoli with plenty of head choppers in the trees and bum-vibrating happiness.

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It was closed when we first arrived and we both started panicking we'd get another spite but it soon opened and we were on. At the end of the day it's just a plus one but I do enjoy these.

After that we were done so made our way to the exit. I took an appropriate picture of Wipeout.

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We also found a diving, wild west themed show which had fire. Colour me interested!

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Yay fire.

But that really was it and we headed out to a hysterical Jordan and Conor. They found it hilarious that the boomerang, yet another Vekoma had spited. Cretins.

Pleasurewood Hills seems like a pretty basic park, quite how you'd fill a day here I don't know, none of the coasters I got to ride were particularly good, and I can't imagine Wipeout being much better. The dark ride, Hobs Pit, was quite fab and they clearly spent plenty of time theming it properly. The rest of the themed areas were just run down and pretty merg. Shame really.

We dropped Gavin off at Lowestoft station and Jordan, Conor and myself headed back to South Woodford. We watched a couple of films and went to bed.

Thank you very much for reading this report. I had a great weekend, with a beautiful 9 creds. Thanks to Conor and Jordan for your hospitality, Conor for all of your driving and everyone who came for making it fab!

I'll write a new trip report (eventually) with a slightly different angle from a revisit of a couple of parks...three guesses which!
 

Ben

CF Legend
Yeah, they'll always let you in to Pettitts for free if you ask, they're fab.

They let you into PWH for free as well, wounded.
 

Smithy

Strata Poster
haha bollocks if I'd have known I'd have made the effort to get the credit at Pettitts whilst I was down that way last week.
 

Mysterious Sue

Strata Poster
Just got round to reading this. Great report as always Jordan - can't believe you got the PWH creds before me! Sorry you were spited by Odyssey, that was some bad luck considering the time of year that you went.
 
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