As you would expect from Legoland the attraction boasts a huge amount of things to do for kids of all ages and adults with a 4d cinema showing a couple of films (I personally recommend Bob the Builder) an interactive dark ride, factory tour showing the lego making process which the kids help along with and numerous models on display and areas to build and test your own creations. The attraction also has cafe serving hot and cold drinks and snacks and for the little ones a soft play area. Model making classes/tutorials are held during the day with kids been taught by the professionals how to build a variety of models.

The exterior of Legoland discovery Centre.

The lego Factory Tour.

The host professor brick also gets the kids to help out with the lego making process.

At the end of the process lego blocks are produced and everyone given one to take home.

Legoland discovery Centre is full of models of which some of them took months to build.

Blackpool Tower, Winter Gardens and pleasure beach.

London attractions.

Oblivion at Alton Towers.

And the towers themselves.

They are quite dark but the scenes go from day to night every few minutes.

Various other models.

There’s allot more models at Legoland Discovery Centre than I haven’t shown here as well as the build areas and testing areas for kids. I would advice booking in advance unless you have an annual pass as the centre does get very busy.

Legoland Discovery Centre also has an on site lego shop selling the full range of models from duplo to technix.

If you would like to use any pictures from this post please get in touch paul@ridemad.com. Please don’t just steal them.

Thanks for reading.

After enjoying a great day at Drayton Manor last Christmas we repeated the experience again this year, the kids will shortly be coming to the age when Drayton Manor and Thomas land will no longer be cool so I intend to visit these Christmas events as much as possible.

The event changed slightly this year with the big top christmas pantomine show getting replaced by a show in Thomas land with singing and festive activities taking the center of this.

As with last year they had more snow and the children and adults in the audience really enjoyed this, the snow although synthetic made a great day even better and really gives you that festive wake up call that’s been missing the previous 11 months of the year.

The zoo, 4d cinema and Thomasland were open and unlike last year the amount of food available on site was varied and most tastes catered for.

As with last year the focus of the event was Thomas land.

This is home to a great model railway and although it wasnt running on the day it looked superb.

Thomas Land station.

Ive purposely not included a load of Thomas Land photographs as any regular visitors will already know what it looks like, but if you want to see what this event was like last year (2008) then take a look at my post from the time. Thomasland Christmas 2008

here’s a video to accompany this years trip.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you want to use any photographs then please dont steal them get in touch as im more than to share, I can be contacted paul@ridemad.com or via the contact form or comments box with each post.

Thanks for reading.

Ride tickets are £6 for adults and kids over 1.4m in height. £5 for concessions and £36 for a private gondola and for the really extravagant £40 for the private VIP gondola. Each gondola seats 6 people apart from the VIP one which only seats 4.

The wheel is 60 metres high but because of its elevated position it stands 80 metres about ground level.

The Wheel takes 10 riggers a week to build and is transported from site to site on 11 trucks.

On the day we rode it the wind was very strong and the gondolas do rock about a fair bit especially a height. but saying that we really enjoyed it and the great views of the city and would definitely ride again on my next visit to Liverpool.

Follow the post below and take a look at the rest of the photographs and video to accompany this.

Geek Shot.

Here’s a video to accompany the photographs.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you have any comment please use the comments below alternatively drop me an email using the contact form.

Thanks for reading

]]> http://www.ridemad.com/big-wheel-at-liverpool-one-liverpool/feed 0 http://www.ridemad.com/blackpool-pleasure-beach-2009-last-day-of-the-main-season http://www.ridemad.com/blackpool-pleasure-beach-2009-last-day-of-the-main-season#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:30:42 +0000 Admin http://ridemad.com/?p=328 November 8th 2009 the final day of the main season for Blackpool Pleasure beach. A season thats seen many up and downs with closed rides and rumours of a Beaver Creek takeover by Nickelodeon just for starters. This short video was put together on the final day at a trip I attended with Club Pleasure Beach.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks for reading.

Originally built by G.V. Llewellyn in 1911 the Southport lakeside miniature railway has been operating for nearly 100 years on the site alongside the marine lake in Southport. The first train ran on the 25th may 1911 when the railway was called Llewellyn’s miniature railway after the builder and creator, this was later renamed to the Southport lakeside miniature railway as it’s known today.

The original route was a straight line which was extended in 1938 to add a sharp turn under the pier into the second station on the line the Marine Parade Station. The original station at this end of the line was called Princess Park which was closed when the extension and Marine Parade stations were built.

The materials for the line were supplied by Bassett-lowke a toy company based in Northampton who was established in 1899, the bassett-lowke brand name was bought by the famous model company Corgi in 1996 and railway locomotive products were relaunched by Corgi in 1999 at which point Bassett-lowke would have been 100 years old.

I have lots of memories of this railway as a family we would visit Southport every summer and spend a few hours on Pleasureland and take a trip on the miniature railway.

Lets take a look at how the railway is looking today

The main station as viewed from Pleasureland. I can remember back to when you bought tickets for the railway from the turnstile on the right hand side, this has been closed for a number of years now and these days tickets for the railway are purchased on the train. The fare for 2009 is £1.50 one way and £2 return.

On the platform looking back at the entrance way above.

Today the signage around the area is looking a bit washed out.

The main platform. I haven’t seen the line on the left operate for some time, can anyone confirm if this is still used, it certainly doesn’t look overgrown.

Looking back to the entrance from the top of the platform.

One of the storage sheds on the left hand side.

The Southport Miniature railway also operate a second engine, which I can only assume runs when the Miniature railway is busy. The shots below were taken on a busy day for the railway the passenger carriages were extended to almost double the previous size.

Train in the second station

The Marine Parade Station.

Signals

A view from the roadside looking at the station.

Again another shot from the second station

A look down at the second station

This shot is taken from a footbridge over the track.

A shot taken from above showing the track going of toward the main station.

Bridge just before pulling into the Marine Parade station – which can be seen in the distance.

A longer range shot of the bridge above adorned with graffiti

A view from the train this time, going under the bridge shown in the above photographs.

I seem to have an obsession with this bridge.

At this point the train has cleared the bridge above and its in the distance of the shot below just around the corner.

Moving quickly toward the main station, this is a shot from the rear of the train.

\

Southport Marine left is on the right hand side of the shot below.

Coming into the main Pleasureland station.

A view from the Pleasureland station showing the trains maintenance areas on the left hand side.

One of the maintenance areas.

And the second.

I would recomend this railway to anyone who has some spare time while visting Southport as it really is a gem. If you would like to contribute to this article or have any amendments you feel are factually correct then please get in touch via the contact form I would love to hear from you. Im not a railway enthusiast so any additional information is more than welcome.

Thanks for reading

With a promise of snow and entertainment it was too hard to resist, plus my 7 year old daughter is a comeplete Thomas addict.

As a land themed around the popular childrens books written by Rev W Awdry Thomas Land is a superb addition to Drayton Manor with all the rides and the area (known as Island of Sodor in the books) themed around the adventures of the 6 wheeled train and his friends.

For Christmas the staff at Drayon Manor have really raided the piggy bank as the Christmas theming is superb with a great mixture of decorations and entertainment.

As we entered Thomas Land we were greated with the controller and entertainers singing and masses of snow coming out of two machines next to them.

The controller.

Thomas heading for the turntable.

Snow everywhere, my kids in the center of the photograph with the entertainers singing in the background.

Entrance to Thomasland.

Percy leaving the station.

A very festive looking station, wait until you see the inside.

Thomas in the station, ready to come out, turnaround and take the next train full of passengers.

The controller singing away.

Inside the station.

Station at night.

Percy heading back out with a train full of passengers.

Overhead look at the station from the footbridge crossing the track.

Inside the station, queue area.

Platform 1.

The Christmas Show.

As part of the admission all children under 9 get a free present as part of the Christmas show.

The show lasts about 30 minutes and our session was 4pm. Our trip was prebooked via telephone and we were allocated a 4pm slot. I wont go into detail about the show and spoil it for anyone, but its obviously aimed at children.

As this was a Thomas Land event the rest of Drayton Manor was closed only Thomas Land and the Carousel are open for these weekends.

Heres the rest of the photographs taken during this visit.

If you are thinking about visiting Thomas Land at Drayton Manor then I would really recomend it especially if you have young children. Please dont steal any photographs if you want copies of anything please get in touch via the contact form.

Thanks for reading

Is the third of the Disney theme parks built at Walt Disney World Resort Florida, opened in 1989 originally as Disney’s MGM studios and later renamed in January 2008 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios following a long running legal case with MGM.

The park is 135 acres in size and is layed out in several lands or themed areas around a central core which in this case is a huge sorcerers hat (belonging to Mickey).The park features some major ‘dont miss’ attractions like The Hollywood Tower Hotel and Rock ‘n’ Roller coaster featuring Aerosmith.

As usual with Disney they have a show in the evening this one is called Fantasmic which is described as a visual hydrotechnic show with fireworks, water and amazing lighting effects. The show last for about 20 minutes and can be quite spectacular. I wont give much away about the plot or the story but its an ideal way to relax after a day on the park. They also have live on stage beauty and the beast, although we didn’t catch this. The area around Fantasmic can become quite congested as its right next to The Hollywood Tower Hotel and Rock ‘n’ Roller coaster featuring Aerosmith.

I would advise anyone wanting to see this show to arrive early to make sure you get a seat especially in the busy periods.

Lights, motors, action extreme stunt show.

Brought over to Disney Hollywood studios from Disneyland Paris. Features a number of cars, motorbikes, jet ski’s and various static sets to create a car/chase stunt sequence with explosions, daredevil stunts, advanced driving techniques and tricks used in the movie industry. Its all done perfectly well and I know they must have done this a thousand times before but the driving precision is perfect.They use a number of cars during the filming of this live event each with their own special tricks. After each sequence is shot the announcer then spends a couple of minutes going through what they have done and explaining how various techniques are used.

The climax of the show is a crazy short sequence featuring fire, explosions, people jumping from buildings, motorbikes, jet skis and people on fire. Its a really top attraction at Disney Hollywood Studios.

The stadium holds a few thousand people but I would advise anyone wanting to see this to get in early, we arrived about 40 minutes prior to the show starting and were lucky with a great choice of seats.

The Hollywood Tower Hotel.

Located in the Sunset Boulevard area of the park you cant miss the huge hotel as it dominates the area with its scorched effect look.

The scorched front incidentally comes from the story that the hotel was hit by lightening in 1939 and a number of guests mysteriously vanished after this. The ride queue starts outside in the brilliantly themed gardens, the queue line follows a path until you reach the hotel reception which is gloomy and covered with fake cobwebs (as if it hasnt been touched since been hit by lightening). Once through reception you are greeted by two ride ops dressed in 1930′s style bell boys suits and they shuffle you all through to the pre show area. Once in the pre-show area a TV with the Twilight zone music starts up and the shows presenter Rod Serling greets you and tells the tale of the missing guests. This only last a couple of minutes and the doors are open and you walk into the hotel basement.Its at this point you realize how much Disney put into theming even the smells in the basement seem to be authentic as is the machinery that is scattered around the dimly lit area.Theres 3 lifts in total each with a separate queue line and you are called to stand on a spot for loading. They have a very odd loading sequence which seems to work really well back row left and right first followed by the middle and front rows. Loading is seemless and a seatbelt is all thats required to hold you in.Once strapped in the ‘trying’ to be scary bell boy or girl check every is restrained and the doors close.The doors shut and the lift goes up what sees like one floor and the doors open again onto an endless corridor which is lit by wall lighting.

Reception

Suddenly an apparition appears in front of the lift which is the 5 people that vanished on the night of the storm and the corridor lights switch off. At the end of the corridor you can make out a spinning door and the lift doors are closed again.

Going even higher this time the next time the doors are open you are in the 4th dimension and the lift suddenly starts to move forward, it doesnt go far but this is the ‘so called’ 4th dimension.

You hear a clicking sound and the next thing you know the lift is engaged onto the drop part of the ride.They say each ride on the Hollywood Tower Hotel is different and I can well believe this, we rode a few times one evening and each time was definately different from the last, some go up slow and drop, others go up quick and drop. What is for certain is at the highest point of the ride the doors open and your ride picture is taken, you also suddenly realise just how high up you are.

I’m not a drop ride fan and I tend to stay clear of most of them but as a dark ride fan I couldn’t really turn this offer down. Its a brilliant attraction in my opinion and I could ride it over and over again without any problem.

Indiana Jones extreme stunt show.

This is another huge attraction at Disney Hollywood Studios containing seating for what seems like a couple of thousand people. Again if you want to visit ensure you arrive with plenty of time to get a decent seat.

This is another attraction that gives you a great insight into the movie making business. We start of with Indiana Jones dropping from the ceiling and trying to avoid some spikes (as in the film if you have seen it) As you can see from the picture Indy is looking for some clues so he can steal an ancient statue.

You can guess the next bit, big ball comes rolling down for Indy to avoid.

They start to introduce some volunteers here and have them act out various scenes from the film including a fighting scene and a truck getting blown up.It was a great show and its something the whole family can enjoy, it lasts for about 30 minutes in total and for me it was a welcome rest.

I think they change this show slightly as when we saw it the rain had just stopped and allot of the set was wet. I can imagine some of the stunts in the wet weather can be dangerous. I would also imagine over time they could change the content or refresh it slightly.

Muppets 3d

Another huge attraction at Disney Hollywood Studios, featuring all your favourite Muppet characters in a 3d film, It wont tell the story but its introduced my kermit and all the characters are involved at some point. Look out to the balcony seating to catch Statlor and Waldorf heckling the show and characters. Its a another great show to be enjoyed by all the family.

Backlot Tour.

Another insight into the moving making business this time the backlot tour. The tour starts in a huge water tank where demonstrations of bullets and bombs attacking ships is shown, again this is a great insight and also has some audience participation when someone acts out a scene trying to steer a ship through rough seea before a thousand litres of water is tipped over him. After these first scenes you walk through some prop buildings that are full of items and then you board the tram and continue the tour.

The tram takes you around various parts of the lot and items from the movies are scattered all over the place including models from Con-Air and Pirates.

The next part of the tour is the most impressive, im sure most people have seen this sequence of events before i know i certainly have a number of times. Its where the tram arrives at a innocent looking mountain with a truck perched on it, once you are level with the truck all hell breaks loose, flames, the truck dropping and thousands of gallons of water come pouring down towards you, if you sit on the left of the tram you get a very slight splash nothing more, its quite a spectacular sequence.

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster staring Aerosmith.

A really well themed looping coaster. The rides main focus is an after hours party with Aerosmith. You are invited to a party by your host Aerosmith and you need to get through the city as fast as possible to attend it.

This is a rockin, rolling and fast ride which features a loop and moments of complete darkness. I found this a bit rough especially around my ears, my daughter who rode with me had no problem with it, i guess it depends on where you sit and your size.

Star Tours.

Firmly based on the star wars film star tours is quite a big attraction, you cant fail to hear star tours, anywhere within a hundred metres you can here the laser blasters shooting. Its a simulation ride based loosely on some events in the film and lasts for about 10 minutes.

Drew Carey’s sounds dangerous.

I didnt really know what to make of this attraction, you are led into a theatre and you wear a set of headphones, the host comes out and reminds you that some of the show is in complete darkness (so beware if you have young children). You watch a few minutes of film and then nothing just sounds in your ears. Perhaps I went into this with the wrong frame of mind, i just didnt get it. If you did get it and you can enlighten me please get in touch via the contact form.

Other attractions.

Well to be honest theres quite a bit to keep you entertained for the day, some people I have spoke to loose track of which attractions are at which park, hopefully this post will answer some of those questions.

There’s plenty more at this park to keep everyone in the family occupied, this post was never going to show every detail but hopefully its captured some of the major attractions and may help people plan their day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Random Park photographs.

Greenery.

Characters of which theres plenty.

Random.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

Thanks for Reading.

Kennywood is located in Pittsburgh.

Before this trip I got in touch with a few people on the KP connection website and the PR people at the park to try and arrange a tour of the Ark, needless to say they were as helpful as can be and a tour was arranged with Gary Baker a ACE’r and Kennywood employee.First Day at Kennywood.

We arrived at the park just after opening, the weather was a bit overcast and was welcome after spending 5 days at Cedar Point in scorching heat previously.

The first couple of hours we spent riding the Jack Rabbit, Log jammer and just really taking in the parks atmosphere, the park has a lovely fun and friendly atmosphere.

Jack Rabbbit coaster.

Ive included a few videos in this post as they can give you a far better understanding of the rides than I can with words. I would advise any coaster fans to try the back seat – its amazing.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Log Jammer.

After riding these we spent some time sitting around the Lake waiting for Gary who was due to meet up with us at 2:45pm.

We met up with [Gary had a good chat and made our way over to the Ark.Gary has the most amazing knowledge about Kennywood and is a true ambassador for the park, the ideal person for giving some out of towners some much needed park information.

Noahs Ark

Before doing a tour of the Ark we went through the attraction with a group of other visitors, its completely different to the blackpool one.

You start off in a lift and Gary told us Pittsburgh has had 2 floods and each time its coincided with the ark been built and then later rebuilt, this gets a few nervous laughs from visitors.

While this is going on and you feel the lift is rising the lift actually turns around and you face the opposite direction.A Tannoy annoucement comes over to say they are having some electrical problems and suddenly the lift stops and you enter the attraction.

I wont spoil this for anyone who hasnt been in the ark but I would like to say its completely different and was a welcome change from what I have been used to at Blackpool.

After the walkthrough of the ark we were given a tour of the machine room and components that go into all the strunts the attraction employs, its a very large machine room compared to the small relatively cramped one at blackpool.

The rocking mechanism is almost identical to the blackpool one.

After the Ark we are given front seat access to all the coasters so we spend the new few hours walking around to all the coasters with Gary, bypassing the queues and choosing the seats we wanted, I was introduced to a number of staff during this half of which I cant remember sorry, but they were all very friendly.

We finished the day with a nice evening meal on the park and split up with Gary about 9pm and made our way back to the hotel.

Kennywood Day 2

Just outside the entrance is this little fountain with a carousel horse in it, in the background Phantoms revenge.

Back at the park for our second day, we arrived at park opening and went straight into the park. Garfields nightmare was first, this is a very old attraction and similar to the river caves (or old mill) that we have at blackpool, the ride is painted in very eloborate colours to create the 3d effect as you travel round.

Its not a bad ride for children and some of the humour is quite funny.Next up Turtles, I was dissapointed when the Blackpool one stopped operating a few years ago, At Kennywood it shows how much care they put into these vintage rides as this is a great example.

Its a great ride and for its age its ride very well.Next up we rode the thunderbolt, Ive seen this on some programs been voted the worlds top coaster, I wouldnt go that far personally but its a fantastic coaster, full of thrills and airtime.

Like the Jack Rabbit we rode the day before these coasters are maintained so well the ride quality is superb. Its a brilliant ride, full of suprises. Because of its location on the side of a hill its quite difficult to describe, I have included a youtube video showing the full ride from start to finish as video can speak a thousand words.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Phantoms revenge

Phantoms revenge is an arrow coaster that was redesigned by Morgan during the off season in 2000-2001 when the 4 loops we removed, the track made longer, height increased to 228ft and the cars were modified to remove the over shoulder restraints. Its a very smooth coaster and again because of the park location as a first time rider you can never guess whats going to happen next, the 2nd drop through the thunderbolt supports is fantastic

Click here to view the embedded video.

Kennywood Racer.

Kennywood racer is a racing coaster similar to the grand national in Blackpool, 2 trains come out of the station at the same time and race around the track, i didnt find this as thrilling as the grand national but its still a great coaster.

I dont have any pictures of this ride as its quite difficult to shoot so i have included another video showing the full ride.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The exterminator

The last of the coaster we rode at Kennywood the exterminator is an indoor spinning coaster in a completely dark building, I enjoyed this the thrill of not knowing whats coming next adds to this.

Once we got all the coasters out of the way we decided to ride the whip. I forgot how much fun these really are and the one at Kennywood is maintained to a very high level, it looks and rides great.

After riding the whip we took a walk over to the high dive show, this was performed by 4 stunt performers and very fun, lots of crowd shouting and everyone seemed to enjoy this.

At this time of the day we started to feel hungry and headed over to the potato patch for chips or fries (for the americans). I have never thought that having chips with cheese sauce and bacon would be nice, but let me tell you this is amazing – i have never tasted chips like this and probably never will again.

I had to take a picture.

We spent the rest of the day walking around soaking up the atmosphere taking in a few rides here and there. Heres some more photographs taken during this trip.

The Boating Lake.

Beautiful Carousel.

Lost Kennywood

Conclusion.If you have never visited Kennywood and would like to get a feel for a traditional amusement park then this is the place to go, its a fantastic park, not the easiest park to get to in the world but none the less a fantastic park with some great traditional rides, very friendly ride operators and staff. One thing about Kennywood that for me made it so much better than Cedar Point was the relaxing aura that seems to involve the park, everyone is in a good mood and happy, I could quite literally visit Kennywood just to take in the atmosphere its so relaxing.

If you are travelling from the UK and like Pleasure Beach, Blackpool you have to visit this park.

Id like to thank Gary Baker, Rob Henninger and Mary Lou Rosemeyer for helping to organize this tour, it was very much appreciated by the two of us. You have a fantastic park. Thanks

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

Thanks for Reading.

The park just a few minutes of junction 9 on the m62 has been running christmas events for a number of years now and can get really busy during this period, not to mention extremely cold.

They offer a number of different options for Christmas, I wont list them all but they offer the same each year, you can also choose to have a meal option included and a live show.From the feedback I have had from other parents the food is the biggest let down for the park. Im not having a go at Gulliver’s here but the food on offer throughout the park is awful and expensive, I like most parents I know would be only too happy to pay for food if its warm, served well and a reasonable price.

Only last week a colleague in work spent the Sunday at the park and couldnt even get a warm drink as the machines had broken.

Ok enough of the food the Christmas experience is allot better. As part of the trip to see father Christmas you board the Gulliver’s train near the entrance of the park and after a short journey you arrive at the grotto.

Gulliver’s boast the grotto is the largest in the north west and I can well imagine this as its huge. The grotto is full of Christmas trees and decorated extremely well, they have a flying father Christmas above the crowd and some snowmen on a chair lift which look great.

As you go deeper through the winding paths to get to see father Christmas the place is full of fluffy animals and very well designed Christmas themed sets. At the eventual end of the queue you are greeted by santa’s helper who then guides you into a maze of corridors to see the waiting father Christmas.

At this point the kids tell father Christmas what they want for Christmas and answer the usual questions like have you been good this year (my kids have the cheek to say yes) then a photograph is taken and the kids move into a toy shop.

In the toy shop the kids are allowed one present each to choose from. They normally have a good selection of toys for boys and girls, with items like coloring books, racing cars, pencil sets, teddy bears and many many more items to choose from. One of the difficulties is the choice as the kids don’t know what to choose.

In all the experience at Gulliver’s over the December period is magical, the kids really enjoy visiting father Christmas and the grotto is fantastic. When the kids first see the grotto their eyes light up, its moments like this you cherish.

Also bear in mind when planning a trip to Gulliver’s near Christmas only part of the park is open and you can usually go on all the rides in little over a hour, so if you book to see father Christmas at 5pm, i wouldn’t advise arriving at the park at midday – otherwise you will have a long wait.

The last time we visited we arrived early afternoon and probably did 2 or 3 laps of the park before boarding the train to see Father Christmas.

Heres a selection of photographs I took of the grotto – these were all taken December 2007.

Father Christmas working through his Christmas lists.

These look like the seven dwarfs.

Related Articles, Gulliver’s World Warrington trip report.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

Thanks for Reading.

The south side of the park (Pepsi max big one) is currently closed but nearly all attractions from the main entrance to the bridge over Watson road are open.

The one exception been the wild mouse which is currently covered in scaffolding and having some maintenance work done for next season.

So what attractions are open.

Noahs Ark
Ice Blast
Valhalla
Gold Mine
Superbowl Dodgems
Maxims flyers
Derby Racers
Grand National
Alice in Wonderland
Ghost Train
Trauma Towers
Impossible
River caves
4D cinema
and finally Infusion the new coaster for 2007.As well as a number of indoor (pay extra) for attractions. Pasaje de terror, Ripleys, horror crypt and Ice skating in hot ice from an additional £3.50.

To add to the attractions all food outlets in the north park are open. Admission is by ticket only which is £15 for adults, £10 for children with under 3′s free.Santa’s Grotto is also open, if you have children you get a free ticket when you buy your wristband. Take this over to the magnolia cafe (next to the Ghost train) where the kids meet santa and are given a bag of goodies and an optional (not sure of the cost) photograph. My kids 11 and 6yrs were made up with this.Wrap up well if your thinking of going over to Blackpool anytime soon, it was freezing cold.Some pictures taken this afternoon.

Ghost Train. virtually no queues all afternoon.The area around Alice.Santa’s GrottoMaxims Flyers.Infusion, the days only queue.Looking down from the Watson road bridge towards River Caves.Towards the Ghost Train.River caves.Most of the game stalls were very quiet.Christmas show and dance, with a front row dominated by dads. . The show is on every hour 1,2,3,4pm and lasts for about 15 minutes.They did all the usually christmas songs and dances, Bradley Beaver was also about strutting his stuff.Some guys doing some juggling which was very good.Valhalla.Main Entrance.Overall we had a really quiet afternoon with virtually no queues on any rides except Infusion with a 5 minute queue, most rides like the ghost train, alice etc were all walk on.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

Thanks for Reading.

I’ve been visiting amusement parks/theme parks and fairgrounds for a number of years now and like the majority of coaster/park fans in the UK the American shores have always been a place to look forward to visiting.

Putting aside the obvious Disney and Universal parks second on the list for me has always been Cedar Point, they claim its the “Best amusement park in the world”. Boasting 17 coasters and a wealth of other rides plus of course the sun shine and with the pound/dollar rates in our favour at the moment there has never been a better time to visit.

I’ll do this trip report by covering the rides and park first and then the travel details like Flights, Hotel, Car hire etc later. Most of the details will be aimed at UK visitors planning to take a trip to Cedar Point. All the information listed in the travel options are genuine questions that I had before visiting the park. Hopefully any questions any future visitors have will be answered below, if not register a comment or send me an email and I will update it.

Cedar Point the park.

The first thing you notice about this park is the sheer size of it, the park is huge and is very flat.

The park isnt themed as such, they have tried in a few areas for example Maverick is themed on the wild west and top thrill dragster is themed on a drag racing track complete with Grandstand. The rest of the park is just rides, rides and more rides.

Food/drinks in the park.

Theres pretty much everything you could think of available in the park from sit down diners to hotdogs, burgers. You definately wont go hungry visiting Cedar Point.

Merchandise.

Cedar Point seem to have the right idea when it comes to merchandising. Almost every ride has a t-shirt shop next to it. Most rides are available on t-shirts, fleeces, hoodies, ash trays, cups and basically anything you can stamp an image on. Most standard t-shirts are about $10 a little over £5, hoodies are $30 and Jackets about $30-$40 its extremely good value for money. The park clothes we brought back havent faded and all seem to be decent quality. I also brought back some teddys for the kids, these were about £4 each compared to £12-£13 you would pay at places Alton Towers for a similar size.

Smoking.

Smoking at Cedar Point is allowed in designated smoking areas only, although most of the locals seem to ignore this and it was quite common to see people smoking in queue lines. The park has a handful of designated smoking areas and you can normally smell them before you reach them. They are all covered on the park map and shouldnt be a problem to find.

Park Tickets.

If you book a package through one of the on site hotels two one 2 day tickets and 2 night tickets are included, you can also buy tickets from hotel receptions which are $32 each a saving of about $10 on the gate price. Night tickets allow admission after 5pm.

Early Park Admission.

As a hotel guest you are allowed to enter the park at 9am, the nearest entrance from breakers is about 200 metres, just follow the crowds. Guests typically queue from about 8:30/8:40, once it hits 9am the national anthem plays and the gates are open. During our visit there was a bit of a rush to get over to Maverick, usually dads and kids the mums lag behind carrying the days essentials. For our visit in June about 4 or 5 rides are availalbe for early riding before the parks main entrance opens. If you stay at Breakers a sandwich board displaying the rides open early is located in reception. Even though you get into the park early be prepared for some queues.

Ok lets look at the rides.

Ill start with the coasters, i wont go into any depth anyone who is interested in visiting the park will probably know about these anyway.

Maverick.

The newest of the 17 coasters at Cedar Point. At a cost of 21m USD Maverick was opened in 2007. Built by Intamin Maverick is 4450ft in length, has a 105ft first drop with a 95 degree angle and travels at speeds upto 70mph.

This is a fantastic coaster the launch up the the lift hill isnt as fast as it looks but once at the top the fun really starts.

Dropping down a 95 degree drop into a fast and speedy compact track, hugging the ground. Just when you think the fun is over your enter the tunnel for the second of the launches, its fantastic I dont know what else to say.

Some people complained they were getting battered about in the restraints but I felt fine. Im a short 5ft 4 large built bloke and didn’t have any discomfort.

I cant rave enough about this ride the amount of airtime on the hills and the ground hugging track really go to show you dont have to build the biggest to have a fantastic coaster.

Loading and unloading of trains is done in a really efficient way (2 at a time).

They also have a single rider queue but this doesnt become apparent until you are 20ft from the ride platform.

Top Thrill Dragster.

Built in 2003 by Intamin and costing 25m USD Top Thrill Dragster boasts an impressive 120mph (in 4 seconds) launch speed and a height of 420ft.

it cant fail to impresses. Its quite a comfortable ride and the view from the top of the tower over the park is amazing, the ride literally lasts about 20 seconds from start until finish.

As you go over the top and start down the 400ft drop you really come out of your seat and the ground seems to rush towards you. We rode on most seats and found them all equally as impressive.

Launching.

Over the top.

400ft Drop down.

Back into the station.

When we visited the park they seemed to be running about 5 trains and loading/unloading is done really quickly. Its worth remembering they dont have any bins for storage on this ride as you get off in a different part of the station, the staff encourage people to put hats etc down their tops.

A shot at dusk.

Millennium force.

Built by Intamin at a cost of 25m USD and opened in the year 2000 Millennium force is classed as a Giga coaster as it reaches over 300ft high. The lift hill is 310ft high and the first drop is 300ft at an 80 degree angle, follow this up with a 182ft hill and 169ft hill plus a couple of tunnels and you have one hell of a coaster. The lift itself travels fairly quickly and feels like its getting faster as you approach the crest.

coming back into the station

Ride Car

One for the coaster guys

I found this a fantastic coaster, the amount of airtime over the hills is fabulous and the speed going into tunnels is equally as good. The track is almost 6,660ft in length. The only downside is that during our stay we found the queues quite big and we waited an hour or more on all but one occasion.

Side of the station.

For me this was my favourite coaster at Cedar Point and I cant wait to ride it again. I’m not sure how many times we rode it but we did try allot of seat combinations.

Did I mention the crowds.

Magnum XL-200.

Built by Arrow at a cost of 8m USD and opened in 1989 Magnum is 205ft in height and has a top speed of 72mph. The first drop is 194ft and you get a great view of the lake when your riding, It has a few tunnels and some great bunny hills when going back into the station. I heard allot of stories about this coaster been rough but personally me and the guy I was riding with found it to be a great comfortable ride.

The queues werent too bad either. Loading is a bit of a free for all as people rush into the station but thats the only negative point about the ride I could find.

Raptor.

Built by B&M in 1994 at a cost of 11.5m USD Raptor is a inverted coaster.

I found this similar to Nemesis Inferno at Thorpe minus a couple of elements (Coaster guys please dont email about this ). The ride itself is comfortable and the back seats can become a bit intense on the final elements before coming back into the station. Track length is 3790ft, with a 137ft height and 119ft drop. The rides top speed is 57mph.

This ride offers an on ride video experience via some small cameras bolted in between the seats in front of you. The video quality is pretty good but I didnt stop to buy a video unfortunately.

Mantis.

The parks only standup coaster. Built by B&M in 1996 at a cost of 12m USD.

Mantis is 3900ft in length and has a top speed of 60mph. Mantis has a huge 119ft loop that you enter just after the first drop which is 137ft.

119ft loop

I got knocked about on this a fair bit and had a terribly sore ear that evening from been banged into the restraints.

Diving loop

A shot at dusk

I rode it again a couple more times during our visit and still cant rave about it, the diving loop at 103ft is great though .

Wicked Twister.

Built by Intamin in 2002 Wicked twister is classed by as a twisted impulse coaster. It has a height of 205ft and a top speed of 72mph.

Inside the station.

Close up of the wheels

I found this a great ride and really looked forward to riding it, going backwards at 70mph and up a 200ft hill vertically is pretty cool.

Disaster Transport.

This is a coaster that was once in the open air, but changed to been enclosed into a huge building in 1990. The theme is supposed to me a city in disaster, i found this an awful ride with hardly nothing to see and just spent the 2 minutes looking into the darkness. From what I had read about it I expected lasers, huge screens with projected images and got nothing of that. I was very disappointed with this ride im just glad I didnt have to queue for it. The queue line is the strangest I have ever seen, most of it is dark with luminous writing on walls im sure you could get a headache if you had to queue for any length of time.

Blue Streak.

Blue streak is the parks oldest coaster built in 1964 by PTC. The coaster is a traditional woodie and it over 2500ft in length with a top speed of 40mph. For its age and having ridden other woodies I found this really smooth. It runs along the perimeter of the park and each time we went passed it never had much of a queue.

Mean Streak.

Another of the parks woodies. Mean streak was built in 1991 by the Dinn corporation its 5427ft in length and has a 161ft height.

The coaster boasts a 65mph top speed and a 52 degree first drop. From the outside and in the queue lines this looks one impressive coaster and it was one I was really looking forward to riding.

Its a great ride but really does knock you about a bit.

Gemini.

The parks racing coaster. This is a wooden framed steel roller coaster and one of the smoothest coasters ive ever had the pleasure of riding on, its almost silent as it hurries round the 3935ft of track.

The park has operated Gemini since 1978. Top speed is 60mph and the height is 125ft. Although Gemini will struggle to impress customers as much as Milennium force or top thrill dragster is certainly worth the few minutes queue time. The added element of racing makes this a great ride.

Corkscrew.

Corkscrew has been operating at Cedar point since 1976. Its 2050ft in length has a top speed of 48mph a height of 85ft with two corkscrews and a loop. One suprising element of this coaster is the duel corkscrews.

They go right over the top of peoples heads as they walk underneath. If you stay at Breakers Corkscrew is just across the car park and its quite common to see the trains half full.

Iron Dragon.

Iron Dragon buit in 1987 is one of a few suspended coasters in existance today. length is 2800ft and its top speed is 40mph.

Although this is a coaster Ive seen them referred to as monorails before, this doesn’t go fast, doesn’t have any airtime or fancy elements and well wasn’t that comfortable. It does offer a nice view of the park and this is enhanced by part of the ride been over water.

As you approach the water you go through clouds of mist, this wasn’t a bad and if you have a spare ten minutes to wait in line its worth riding.

Wild Cat.

Located just across from Iron Dragon is Wildcat a Schwarzkopf coaster thats been operating since 1978. I didn’t ride this so cant really comment. The ride trains are themed to look like cars. Wildcat is 50ft high and has a 1837ft length of track.

Cedar Creek mine ride.

The mine ride has been operating since 1969, Built by Arrow with a top speed of 42mph, its more a kiddie coaster than anything else. We rode this one evening when the park was about ready to close and found it pretty smooth without many thrills.

Additionally there are a couple of other coasters aimed mainly at children the Woodstock express and Jnr Gemini. I dont count ride credits and couldnt be bothered with them.

Ok, now for a look at some of the flat rides.

Power Tower.

Power tower is a drop tower built by S&S, the tower is split into 4 colums with each having a ride car on. Two ride cars go up slowly and drop you, the other 2 shoot you up. You decide on the car you want as you enter the ride. Im not a fan of these rides so we didnt ride it. The queues never seemed very large.

Demon Drop.
Text taken from Cedar Point website
Built in 1983, the Demon Drop at Cedar Point simulates a freefall from the top of a 10-story-tall building.

Passengers board four-person cars that move horizontally to the base of the 131-foot-tall tower. The car then ascends to the top of the tower in only six seconds. Once at the top, the car slowly inches forward into the drop area. Riders are suspended there for what seems like an eternity.

Then without warning, they plummet 60 feet in less than two seconds before entering a pull-out curve where a computerized braking system slowly stops the car. If you go around this area its fascinating to watch the trains unload after the drop. I cant explain it go see for yourself.

Maxair.

Max air located near wicked twister is a very impressive frisbee ride manufactured by huss.

it was introduced to the park in 2005

Skyhawk.

Located near Maverick Skyhawk is a swing ride from S&S power, similar to what we have over in the UK with Rush at Thorpe Park.

Chaos.

Introduced in 1997 Chaos manufactured by chance.

Cedar Downs.

Most people just walk past the Derby Racers. Anyone who has visited Blackpool with have no doubt rode these in the past.

The main difference is the Cedar Point ones have the racing element so the horses moved forwards and back as you are riding. I dont ever remember this happening at Blackpool although i have been assured it did.

Carousel.

The Cedar Point midway carousel is a traditional Carousel ride. Built in 1912, the Midway Carousel is one of the few Daniel Muller carousels in existence today. Its long history also makes it the oldest operating ride at Cedar Point.

Sky ride.

The sky ride is located on the midway towards the parks main entrance. This is Cedar Points very own cable car. Its not high or long but does give some impressive views of the park and midway.

Cedar Point and Lake Erie railroad.

The train operates from Mean Streak and does a stop near Milennium force before returning back to Mean Streak.

Dont forget to wave to the driver as he goes past . The track is 2 miles in length and the ride/trip lasts 15 minutes.

Thunder Canyon.

This is the wettest rapids ride I have ever been on (Anyone from the UK think Valhalla but wetter), the ride starts of like any other rapids ride, the occasional bump as one of the riders gets a splash. Then you suddenly enter some cliffs and come up against this waterfall which literally soaks the boats and riders, if your lucky enough to miss the first one a second guarentee’s to cover you. When the boat come back into the station I looked down and the water in the bottom of the boat was already above my ankles. It was a welcome soaking to cool down from the 90 degree heat.

Snake River Falls

Made by Arrow this is a 80+ ft water flume ride. Unfortunately we planned to ride this straight after the rapids one afternoon and due to a technical fault the ride wasnt operating.

Other Rides

Loads of them, I havent included half of whats available at Cedar Point and I havent really covered anything for the younger children either. Regardless of age Cedar Point has something for everyone. For a complete list of attractions check out the Cedar Point website.

How to get to Cedar Point, a Guide for Brits.

Cedar Point is located in Sandusky, Ohio. From the UK there are a number of flight options. I checked out most of these and eventually settled on flying BMI (from Manchester) to Chicago with a change to United Airlines for the short 45 minute flight onto Cleveland (Hopkins) international Airport.

Flying times from the UK are about 8hrs 30minutes but these can be as much as 13 hours depending on how and who you fly with. Our flight was 8 1/2 hours with a 1 hour wait at Chicago for the connecting flight. Flights were booked through expedia and the whole process very straight forward.

These days you are issued with e-tickets. This is basically an email from expedia with your booking reference. Take this and your passport to the check in desk on arrival at the airport.

Flight costs.

Return flights for 2 with a convertible (it was upgraded) car was just under £1300. This was economy seating, which wasnt too bad you can upgrade at the time of booking. To be honest when I go again I probably will. Im only small 5′ 4″ and although I had enough legroom I couldnt really get comfortable in the seats. This was made worse by some inconsiderate passengers in front of us who were determined to get their seats so far back they would staple us in. Food/drink on the flight was as you would expect. Soft drinks were free for the duration although they only come round twice.

Car hire.

We hired a car through Hertz and booked via Expedia back in the UK.

We hired a convertible which was £28 per day on top of the normal car hire charge. To add an additional driver is $10 a day and you are allowed to go to different states. I couldn’t get an answer from Hertz customer services in the UK about driving through different states as some rental companies have this rule. I just mentioned it to Hertz when we arrived and they were happy with this.

All the car rental companies are in the same location at Cleveland, you get a shuttle bus from just outside the airport to the car hire area. Buses run all the time so dont expect to wait more than 5 minutes for one. The waiting areas for buses are clearly sign posted. Once they drop you off you go into a concourse style area and every car hire company has a desk, its quite painless.

From Cleveland its about 1hr in a car to Cedar Point and is quite straight forward to find as its all freeway. We took a sat nav device with us and didnt have a single problem. I’ve heard you can book these as part of a hire car package – it will save you allot of time if you do. If you are bringing your own sat nav from the UK check it covers the US before travelling. I used a tom tom 910 and as like the UK its advisable to remove this from the car when your leaving it for some time.

Visa or not to Visa.

This is a common question when visiting the United States, basically if you have a machine readable password (mine is and was renewed in 2005) then you dont need to get a visa before you travel. Once on the plane you are given two small forms to fill in.

The questions on these forms are typically what you would expect. Have you ever been refused entry to the US before?, do you have any links to terrorist organisations? that type of thing. It takes literally 5 minutes to fill in. Once you land you have to queue to see an immigration officer, this is a very formal chat, reason for entering the US, duration etc.

At this point your finger prints are taken and youre allowed in. One of the forms you fill in has a detachable bottom which is removed and stapled into your passport. This is removed once you go through security on your return flights. Remember to take a pen with you and have details of the hotel name and zip code youre staying at. We stayed in two hotels but they only wanted the details of the first one.

Please check with US immigration before travelling as this is only accurate in June/July 2007.

Hotels.

Theres a number of options outside the resort, most of them offer shuttle buses and discounted park tickets to get into Cedar Point. There’s also a number of options at the resort from Camping to the Hotel Breakers. We stayed in Hotel breakers which is right in the heart of the action and is only a 2 minutes walk to the park entrance. We choose breakers over all the other hotels purely based on location. There is a cheaper Hotel “Breakers express” which is located about 1/2 mile from the park entrance. To see a complete list of hotels in Cedar Point checkout the resort link at the bottom of this post.

Hotel Breakers.

The oldest hotel in the resort. Hotel Breakers is a very comfortable hotel located 2 minutes from the park entrance and 20 seconds from the beach. The hotel has Pizza Hut express, an Italian restaurant and TGI Fridays on site, as well as the usual amenities like pools, spa, general store and clothes shop. Its a very nice hotel with large rooms and a bonus for me was a park view. My room was classed as non view which basically means I dont get to see the lake. Coasters or water hmm let me think

They also have people dressed up as Snoopy in the hotel; they visit at various times during the day. In the evening snoopy comes out in his dressing gown ready for bed which is a nice touch, they also have a TV and some kiddie size chairs in reception playing Snoopy cartons all day long.

If you book a package through the hotel you also get a voucher booklet with 2 fundays admission tickets for the park, 2 starlight (after 5pm) admission tickets, a soak city ticket, a free game of Golf, $30 dollars of food vouchers and a couple of other offers, 2 for 1 etc. The food vouchers can be combined and all used at the same time; we took advantage of this in TGI Fridays and spent the full $60 worth.

As with most hotels coffee making facilities are in the rooms along with air conditioning, bath/shower, all towels and shampoo, soap etc. Both our rooms had 2 double beds. I think they will also supply an additional bed as each room can sleep 5.

Vending and ice machines are available on every floor selling bottles of carbonated drinks, water, crisps and chocolate etc.

Food.

As I mentioned earlier TGI-Fridays an Italian restaurant and pizza hut express are all located inside Breakers. Typical cost for a steak with fries or mash is about $17, approx £8 ish, don’t expect a huge portion though. Steaks are typical 8oz and come with 2 standard size dollops of mash potato flavoured with garlic. Pizza hut express do pizzas up to 16″ and all are available on room service for a small additional charge.

Food doesnt just have to be at the hotel; along the Marina (entrance near Raptor) is Famous Dave’s restaurant. Famous Daveís offer some amazing ribs and meat dishes all freshly cooked in a BBQ pit (I dont know what a bbq pit is). All tables come equipped with 6 different types of sauces and the server will go through each of these and advise which is best with chips (fries) etc. Typical cost for a decent meal for 2 with a couple of drinks is about $50. It really is good value and probably the best meal we had for the duration of the holiday. If you are celebrating whilst on holiday the staff come over and sing you a song – it must be very embarrassing but if this is your thing then go for it. TGI’s do the same.

// –>

Breakfast.

Breakfast is served from about 7:30-10:30 and is buffet style it works out at $8.99 for adults and that includes drinks and refills. If you like tea bring your own tea bags as the US ones arent the best.

You can choose not to have the buffet and instead settle for coffee/muffins etc. Most people have the buffet. The buffet is what you would expect but US style. The sausages are very thin and spicy; the bacon is usually crispy and very, very thin. They also do a scrambled egg with peppers/mushrooms which was very nice. Dont expect baked beans though. Heinz tomato ketchup is available everywhere you go.

Resort Passes.

All resort guests are issued with a pass that your supposed to carry with you all the time you are at the resort, this is never checked though and we were never approached or asked for passes. I think mine spent its life on the table in my room.

Parking.

Parking at Cedar Point is $10, if you are a hotel breakers guest you get a voucher that you show security who wave you in. When you first arrive you need to pay the $10 charge, but if you show the ticket to reception they will reimburse you when you check in.

Cost.

Five nights at Breakers with a park package as described above was just over £500 per room. A $244 deposit was taken at the time of booking and the remainder is cleared when you check out. The online booking system Cedar Point resorts use is a bit poor, I actually phoned them in the end and did everything this way. Check out is 11am.

Finally web access.

For anyone who cant bear to be away from work or wants to send greetings back home, they have wifi access in the hotel lobby, I dont think there is a charge for this as people just turn up with notebooks and login.

Credit/Debit cards, chip and pin.

During our stay (June 2007) nobody had chip and pin, they all seem to operate a machine with a screen that you sign. We didnt have any problems using UK cards at point of purchase or ATM machines.

Staff.

Very helpful, courteous polite and friendly. The ride ops have a great way of jeering up the crowds by talking to the queue lines and people boarding trains. Cries of “how was your ride” and “enjoy the rest of your day at Cedar Point, America’s rockin roller coast” can be heard all over the park. Even though it can get a tad annoying I found this a great touch. Manners and a smile cost nothing but can go a long way in giving you a better visitor experience.

Little things like telling you what bins to put your carry on baggage in are communicated well in advance of you boarding the trains. Before you enter the car you are given clear instructions about how to fasten yourself in. All little things but combined they add up to good customer service. Of course most of the customers dont listen. But thats not the point.

Hotel/Bar Staff
We had no problems with any of the staff, all very courteous and polite. The staff in TGI’s are a credit to the resort, nothing was too much for them.

Conclusion.

Well after spending a few days at Cedar point, does it live it up to their claim “the worlds best amusement park”, personally im struggling to find many faults. Its a fantastic huge park with a brilliant collection of coasters.

On the whole the resort offers the ideal family holiday with Soak city and the lake plus watersports you have everything you could ask for.

One thing which is lacking is a decent dark ride, disaster transport just wasnt up to much. You could do so much more with a building that size. I found the size of queues for some rides annoying but they can quite easily be compared to Alton towers/Thorpe Park on an average day.

The advantage of queues on bigger attractions like Top Thrill Dragster and Millennium force means the queues on smaller coasters are shorter. Fun coasters like Gemini never had a large queue during our visit, even Magnum XL never had a considerable queue.

The park has a mixture of everything for young, old and especially thrillseekers. Camp Snoopy and the attractions for the younger kids will keep them quite happy. Food and drink wise you cant go wrong almost every taste is catered for. The hotel Breakers makes an excellent base and in my mind worth paying that bit extra for. Lets face it if your travelling from the UK your already looking at spending about £1500pp why not pay the bit extra and enjoy breakers.

I’ll definately make a point of visiting Cedar Point again. Any regular readers will know my family usually visit parks with me, but on this occasion the flight times would have been to much for them as well as removing the kids from school for a week. Once the kids are older ill revisit, hopefully by then they may have coaster number 18 or 19.

I did 2 parks during this visit. We made the 3 hour trip to Pittsburgh and spent an additional 2 days at Kennywood. A report on Kennywood will follow in the next few weeks.

Credits.

Photographs – Paul Beesley and Andrew Holmes.

Header Postcard – Cedar Point.

Coaster stats – http://www.rcdb.com

Useful websites.

http://www.cedarpoint.com/ – The offical Cedar Point Website.

http://www.flybmi.com/ – BMI website

http://www.expeida.co.uk/ – Holiday company

http://www.hertz.com/ – Car hire

http://resorts.cedarpoint.com/public/resorts/index.cfm?resort_id=2 – Cedar Point resorts

http://resorts.cedarpoint.com/public/packages.cfm – Package holidays

http://www.famousdaves.com – Famous Daves.

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis – US immigration

http://astore.amazon.co.uk/cedarpoint-21 – Amazon books on Cedar point.

http://www.thepointol.com/board/ – Cedar Point Enthusiasts forum. Very helpful with some great posts.

Cedar Point related items on Amazon.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

Thanks for Reading.

I spent a few hours at Sherdley Park today for the 2007 St Helens festival. The fair was a similar size to usual and was represented by some fairly decent rides. The weather has been awful this week and getting around the showground was a bit heavy under foot. The area around the fairground full of puddles and deep trenches where the trucks have been. The festival is open the rest of today and tomorrow Sunday 8th July 2007. Here’s a handful of pictures I took.

Rock-in Tug.

Side Kick Miami ride.

Crazy Jungle fun house.

Tagada.

Freak Out.

Mexican Wave.

Booster.

Superbowl.

Twister. this was fast

Superbob.

Top Spin.

Quite a few juvenille rides to keep the younger ones happy to.

Pony Express.

Various kiddie rides.

My daughter Emma, enjoying one of the inflatable slides.

From what I gather some of these rides will be moving onto the Wirral fair next weekend.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

Thanks for Reading.

Rhyl Ocean beach fun fair has been rumoured to close for the last few years and everytime we think the fair is going to be flattened it bounces back for another season. Last season was no different the fair was a bit of a mess and the majority of rides outdated. To back this up news articles around the time were claiming the fun fair is no longer viable and the Ocean beach fun fair isnt part of the towns redevelopment plans.

Low and behold I write an article on my memories of the fun fair and they announce its open for the 2007 season. Typical

Ok so have things changed much in 2007 ?. For me my last visit in 2006 after the park closed for the season was surely the nail in the coffin for this fair, looking at the state of the fair and surrounding area you would have thought there is no way the fair will open again EVER.

But miracles do happen and an email from a local resident to the owner of the magic eye
website confirmed they were putting in rides for 2007. Further digging confirmed the park would be open for the easter holidays.

So whats left ?

The jet stream coaster

is still up and running, the last time I visited ocean beach during open season the ride had stalled and 3 operators (1 stood in the car and 2 acting as anti rollback devices) were stood on the track trying to push the car round.

I arrived today to here some clattering of steel and shouting to discover the ride had stalled again. They were working on this for most of the day, they seem to have lots of trouble with it.

As we were leaving it seemed to be going round on its own, I dont know if it was the ops or the paying public but people were riding it.

The pepsi looping coaster.

This was running fine all day and seemed to be taking a regular amount of customers

The terminator ride.

Open all day.

The Ski Jump.

Im not sure if this was open or not, I didnt see any ops about.

Ghost Train.

A very old ghost train, the ride had its frontage taken off when I visited last time. The frontage and signs are now back.

Its nice to see this was back and running well, they have introduced string and tennis balls this year to add to the scar factor. Its a classic, as a fan of dark rides its great

The Waltzers.

Open in the same location as last season, for an old ride it looks fantastic.

The Dodgems.

The Star wars ride.

The go Karts.

The Water chute.

This wasnt open today, I dont know if they have plans for opening or not, im sure it will open at some point nothing seems to have changed since last season with this ride. I recently wrote an article on the chute if you want to see it close up. Rhyls Water Chute I know the words “closed for the final time” need to be removed.

The twister.

Now im not a wimp but this thing made me feel sick, ive ridden hundreds of these in the past but I have never experienced the amount of G I got on this today, I could feel my face getting stretched. Even worse my 6yr old next to me was laughing away, perhaps at 37 im too old.

If anyone else rides it please give me some feedback.

Juvenille rides and general views of the park.

In all we had a good day in Rhyl today, had a nice meal in the centre of town and spent £20 on rides. The atmosphere in the fair was pretty good and I think most people would come away feeling they had a good time. On the downside the fair is looking a bit rough the amount of open space doesnt help. Perhaps they could invite Carol Smiley around for a make over.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

Thanks for Reading.

First impressions.

Gullivers Warrington is a small park situated less than 2 miles from junction 9 of the m62 and is nestled in between some housing estates. Not that you would know this when on the park as all you can see is greenery and trees. The size of the park is ideal for the audience Gullivers wants to attract – young children and families.

On entering the park, you pass through a walkthrough to have your tickets checked with a gift shop on one side and a restaurant on the other. Once through the turnstiles a stage is located on the left that usually has one of the gullivers characters dancing with a couple of young girls trying to teach the children various party dances.
Theres normally a couple of characters walking around hugging kids and having pictures taken by mum or dad.

This is a general view when you enter the park, the pirate ship and antelope coaster can be seen in the distance. The lake isnt used for any water rides or activities, i dont know if they ever planned to use to the lake for anything. The fireworks event towards the end of the year has a bonfire burning on the opposite side of the lake.

Most theme parks these days are split into zones or themed areas and Gullivers Warrington is no different, theres a total of 9 zones in this park.

Main Entrance Plaza.

As soon as you enter the park through the main plaza you have the band stand with various activities through the day, A board next to the stand indicates the days events.

The Joker ride new for 2007

The Joker is new attraction for 2007 its a Mose Rides drop tower.

Gullivers World Railroad.

The main station for the park railway is located just outside the entrance plaza on the right, the railway runs around the park with the option of a stop at the lost world. Most people on this ride choose to stay on at the stop and do a complete loop of the circuit, arriving back in the main entrance plaza after a leisurely 5 minute trip around the park. Im a big fan of these rides it gives you a great oppurtunity to see the park and plan the days events.

Alices Wonderland.

Maze of cards.
This is a wooden maze and the outside of the maze is covered with playing cards, This attraction is for younger children and the walls of the maze are only about 4ft high so you dont loose your children.

Tea Cup Ride.

This is self explanatory, Tea cup rides are everywhere these days. Is there a starter pack for theme parks including the caterpillar coaster and tea cup ride.??

Veteran Cars.

Again most parks have these in one guise or another, they go round the circuit twice.

Western World.
A themed area based on the wild west.

Billy Bobs Bi-Planes.

This is a pretty large plane ride for children, you know the type with a control stick, push the stick to go higher etc..

Barrel Ride.

The barrel ride is similar to a waltzer/tea cup ride but you sit in barrels.

Flying raft.

normally seen as a flying carpet, you sit in a gondola facing forwards and the gondola is lifted up and span round, its quite gentle and like most things at Gullivers targetted at younger children, who adore it.

Play fort.

The play fort is what every 10 year old boy or girl would want in there garden a huge wooden structure to run around on with climbing nets, tunnels etc.. it could keep them entertained for a good hour.

Pony Ride.

Is a gentle pony ride on a elevated track, definately something for the pre 5yr olds.

Cowboy Town.

Cowboy Town is an attempt to create a cowboy town, to be fair to Gullivers they always do there best and im sure any young child in the area will love it.

It even comes complete with Sheriff’s office and jail.

Theres not much going on just a collection of buildings and one catering outlet doing flame grilled burgers. You can also use this building for packed lunches as they have a seating around for about 60 people. During the summer months they also perform Punch and Judy shows in this building for no extra charge.

Runaway Train.

Located in the fort area of western world.

Smugglers Wharf

Antelope.

Gullivers own creation, this is a wooden coaster made by the park. Its not a bad coaster but it can be a bit rough and has been for a number of seasons now, I really wish they would sort out the rough patches of track, it doesnt help with the seats not having any padding on. its like/well is like sitting on a wooden bench, especially the final hill going into the station above, im sure the track isnt meant to flex this much.

Comfort aside though my own children like this ride and its the ideal choice and stepping stone to larger coasters for the younger children.

Pirate ship.

A Pirate ship but a bit smaller than a full size one you see on most parks, the seats and restraints can be a bit tight for anyone with a large build – so be warned.

Circus World.

Circus Ride.

The Circus ride is located in a large marque, it consists of 2 cars which travel around whilst various puppets/models perform stunts, its the cheapest of cheap but the children do enjoy it. Im fascinated how a park can house a ride in a tent.

Clown School.

Various staff members teach children how to do things like juggle, spin a plate etc. Great for the younger children and a welcome rest for the parents.

Ladybird Ride.

Classic childrens ladybird ride we have all seen.

Loppies.

Small Bikes, kids steer with there arms – very odd

Mini rides.

Theres a selection of mini rides aimed at under 5′s

Counts Castle.

Dodgems.

Nothing much to say here, apart from its alwasy busy this ride, i have never seen the queue quiet.

Ghost house.

This is a walk through Ghost house, theres nothing scary in here really and the younger kids do enjoy it, be warned around halloween they start introducing staff into this attraction for some added scares – my eldest had nightmares about this.

Anyone for lunch ?. For any watchers of most haunted, NO they arent orbs just the reflection of the flash on the glass.

Carousel.

In the middle of the courtyard is a nice carousel based on two levels, loading and unloading on this ride takes an age for some reason.

Giant Slide.

A covered Giant slide, Collect your coconut matting race to the top and slide down, great fun.

Cycle Monorail.

This is a suspended monorail thats about 12ft above the ground, the cycles are 2 seater and you both pedal round, if your going on this with younger children be prepared, youll be knackered !!

Water world.

Loggers leap.

Is a play area which is suspended above water. It gets very wet and in the summer months its full of children.

Sand Area.
A small sand pit, ideal in the summer.

Log Flume.

A small log flume, dont expect to get soaked, its fun though especially for the younger riders.

Adventure World.

Wild Mine Ride.

My favourite ride in the park, similar to a wild mouse ride but you are in a mine train car.

Tree tops Swing.

This is a chairoplane, that doesnt swing too high becuase of the young audience. The operators encourage the kids to hold their arms out so they feel like they are flying.

Tarzans Climb.

This is a kids climbing frame, in the shape of a wigwam. I dont know where the tarzan reference come from.

Tractor Ride.

Tomb Raider – semi, nearly dark ride.

Tomb Raider is typical these days of a failing dark ride, when things dont work – throw on a couple of laser guns and chuck in a load of targets to shoot at. This is an awful dark ride, too slow, half the guns dont work, the targets are very poor and its very short. It is aimed at kids so I can’t be too harsh about it.

Ball Crawl – Ball pit, you quite often seen more dads in here than kids.

Jungle Shoot.

A children version of a drop tower, kids sit 6 abreast, it goes up about 20 feet and drops with a few bounces here and there, this version is actually two machines side by side.

Jeep Safari.

River Ride.

The river ride is nicely themed you sit in round boats holding 4 people and its a gentle lazy trip through some nice scenary, there is a possibility you could be sprayed but so far i have managed to stay dry.

Lost World – Jurrassic Themed area.

The Carousel of evolution – New for 2007.

Just introduced to the park for this season, Carousel of evolution is a standard carousel split into 4 rooms, you start on the loading room and the room turns around in the attraction to the next room and so on. Theres 3 additional rooms and they tell the story of evolution via a doctor on a plasma TV and Gully the parks mascot.

At one point you get covered in soap bubbles.

Its not a bad attraction and it does have some education value, my kids at 10 and 6 enjoyed it and the other children who come of the ride with us did too. The complete ride takes about 15 minutes in total.

Dino Safari.

Small cars go around a jurrassic themed area full of dinosaurs.

Flight of the pteranadon.

This is an odd looking ride/roundabout you lie down and a cage comes over the top of you which locks you in, the ride then lifts up slightly and spins around, its meant to give the feeling of flight which it does pretty well and the kids seem to enjoy it. The ride does have a height restrictions so the younger children wont be able to ride. Judging by the people on the ride 8+ will probably be ok.

Sky tours observation tower.

The obversation tower is pretty good, similar to ones we have all seen before, it seats about 20 people in a caged platform and rises slowly on level with the tree tops, you get a pretty decent view of the park, it doesnt last too long but its an ideal addition to the park.

Dinosaur walkway.

this is a suspended wooden walkway through the park with dinosaurs on either side, it can sometimes look a bit overgrown but I guess thats the intention anyway.

They also have a 3d cinema in the lost world which is pretty good, but please Gullivers if your reading this repaint the screen please.

Refreshments.

Gullivers Warrington has sufficient food, drink and picnic areas. The park normally opens for 10:30-11:00 if you arrive after 9:30 you can get an adequate breakfast and a chance to meet the characters who quite happily walk around the restaurant at the main entrance. Prices are also reasonable for theme park prices. New for 2007 in the main entrance the restauraunt has now changed to a dining area with waiter service, the day we visitied we were offered a few meat choices and veg etc. The price is a bit off putting £5.95 per adult and £3.95 for kids with drinks on top of that, the food wasnt bad quality but the local pub serve a far better choice.

The park also welcome people with pack lunches and its quite common to see groups of Brownies, Rainbows and scouts sitting in groups eating packed lunches – the shack over at Cowboy world is ideal for this. We normally dont eat on the park as there is a local pub the memphis belle less than a couple of miles away, it also helps to break the day up.

Staff.

To me staff on a park are key to having a good or bad day, ive visited 2 of the 3 gullivers parks and all the staff are excellent, they really go out of the way to fulfil your needs and are all very good with the children. The parks tend to employ allot of older people as ride ops which works really well. The staff are certainly a compliment to Gullivers.

One thing which really annoys me about parents visiting these parks and others is the attitude of some parents towards the staff, rides have height limits for a reason to protect your children, please dont try and abuse this. Small children arent allowed on rollercoasters because they cant be restrained no amount of talking, swearing and trying to convince the ride ops will change this, please dont expect the staff to break the rules. The rules arent created by the ride operators. Every ride at this park with height restrictions has a chart before you enter the queue lines please check this before entering the queue.

Overall.

Gullivers is a great family day out, with the emphasis firmly on family. The park also runs events at Halloween, bonfire night and Christmas. At Christmas time the park gets dressed up with lights and it really does look magical. Last years Santas grotto had kids stood queuing with there mouths open looking at all the lights waiting to see father christmas.

When they get in to see father christmas he spent a couple of minutes asking the kids what they want for christmas, have you been good etc and then a photograph is taken and they are allowed to choose any present from a well stocked toy shop.

They also provide packages which can include Christmas dinner. I have always liked the attitude of Gullivers and there attention to the younger visitors, they really do make the kids feel special.

This trip report was based on 5 or 6 trips during the 2006 season and one at the start of 2007, I have aimed to be as accurate as possible. If you want to use the photographs for any reason please contact me paul@ridemad.com, dont just copy them. I do have higher resolution copies of all photographs and i’m more than happy to share.

Related articles : Gullivers at Christmas 2007

To see all the photographs from this park please check out the ridemad gallery

Thanks for reading

Just got back from a long day walking around Alton Towers for this years adrenaline week event. Crowds as expected were low and queues for the majority of the big attractions were at a minimum for most of the day. It was a boys outing today, no families or partners just rides, rides and a few more rides.

First up was spinball whizzer one of the parks lowest capacity rides, queues were about 30 minutes which was expected and the staff were only sending half of the cars round with 2 people in.

Over at hex this was walk on as it was the weekend earlier.

Charlie and the Chocolate factory had no queues either, i love this ride it just gives you 10 minutes to relax after all the walking around.

Nemesis was quiet for most of the day, the front row queue had a 3 train wait and for the couple of hours mid afternoon we spent in forbidden valley it was quite common to see some of the trains got round half empty.

Ripsaw was out for the day.

Air was running well most of the afternoon with similar queues to Nemesis

Duel was walk on straight into a car. such a shame they introduced those blasters, this is a fantastic ride, theres so many hidden gems for dark ride fans. By having a gun you miss most of it by concentrating on targets. ;-(

Rita had a steady 20-30 minute queue for most of the day, the ride was only running one train which probably caused the queues.

At first i didnt like Rita it was just a launch and then it was all over, but its growing on me some of the airtime is great.

Water Rides.

As you would expect for March the water rides were pretty quiet if not dead for most of the day, at one point i spent a couple of minutues looking at the log flume and every car over the final drop was empty.

Conclusion.
A great day out, fantastic ride count and great company. im looking forward to the next one.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com or via the contact form im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

Thanks for Reading.

Gullivers have 3 parks in the UK, Warrington, Milton Keynes and Matlock. Of the 3 I have only visited 2 choosing not to take the extended journey down to Milton Keynes from the north west.

Matlock has to be the most photogenic of the parks due to its location in the lovely market town of Matlock. for those that dont know Matlock sits in a valley and has some lovely scenary all around. The park location is a bit odd as its built on a hill with various flat levels or stages leading to the top.

As is the common theme with most parks these days Gullivers is divided into themed areas with various rides and attractions in each. They all share fantastic names like Fantasy Terrace, Lilliput Land, Little Switzerland, Party House, Palais Royale area and oh Bourbon Street ??. You would expect some areas to cater for smaller children given the names above, but generally its a free for all and the theming in each area is quite low key.

You enter the park at the bottom of the hill and Gullivers do try and force the public to start at the top of the hill and work your way down. This does make sense as some of the paths can be very steep to navigate especially for anyone visiting with wheelchairs or pushchairs/trams etc.

On entering the park you head over to the ski lift which takes you all the way to the top of the park, the lift is the type of ride that you stand and wait for once its behind you jump up and sit on the seat, the operator then flips down the hand rail and off you go with no stopping, the operator is quite capable at loading people especially the younger kids and even has a small wooden box for the vertically challenged. As with most ride ops at Gullivers the guy in question is very chatty and helpful and makes sure the people in the queue waiting for the lift are kept entertained, with a few one liners thrown in here and there.

The trip on the ski lift takes about 3-4 minutes and its a gentle climb up the hill, as it follows the countours of the hill you are never really any great height from the floor and it does give you some time to really appreciate the views. Once at the top you jump of and the lift goes back down for the next passengers.

Becuase of the location of Gullivers and the split levels its quite difficult to isolate various themed areas from each other, for this reason you should get a map or look at the parks website for some more detail. Gullivers Matlock

For the reason above, ill just cover our day out and the various attractions/rides that we enjoyed.

At one of the highest point of the park is a log flume, its only small but it travels very close to the edge of the hill so you get some great views of Matlock from this height.

the ride doesnt last long and before you know it your down the drop with a very light if any covering of water. You can see the water is a murky brown colour, i think this is just the mud from the hill thats causing it and nothing more severe. I wouldnt like to get any on a white tee-shirt though.

Also at this level of the park is a elephant ride, similar to what you see at disney but this is allot smaller – i think its the ride that was removed from Gullivers at Warrington early 2006.

Theres a small theatre here too with various shows throughout the day, the entertainer is stood outside trying to encourage people to come back later in the day. He would probably be allot busier if the theatre was nearer street level as I cant see many parents coming back up the hill just for the show.

Theres a few other attractions on this level, The Royal cave exhibition, Dancers Water show, Animal Farm and diggers.

Animal Farm.

Its a kind of interactive barn with various animals, push the buttons and each make a unique sound.

As with most attractions like this, kids arent happy pushing one button and before you know it every character/animatronic in the barn is singing or making a noise.

Its only a small attraction and the younger pre-school age children will really enjoy it.

New for 2007 to this area is mineral panning. the web site claims an additional charge. To me it sounds like the gold panning attraction with a new name.

Flights of Fantasy

This is a smaller version of the miami rides we see in allot of fairgrounds.

As you slowly begin to walk down the hill you come across a large indoor play area, you know the type with nets, spongy balls and bright plastic slides. This can get very busy and there is no supervision it wasnt long before we seen the first tears.

As you can see from the photograph above the park is on some very steep angles.

The Rio Grande Railway.

This is only a small train for the younger kids, the theme is cowboys and indians.

The switchback.

Not a bad coaster for young kids, it doesnt go high but the location means you get a great view of the park and countryside when climbing the lift.

Log Roller Coaster.

Also around this area is a nice two level carousel.

Balloons Ferris Wheel.

Fire Brigade Ride.

The Pirate Ship.

Lazy River Ride.

The lazy river ride is a gentle cruise through the lower part of gullivers, the boats/tubs travel very slow and i found this very relaxing.

food/catering.
Food provision at Gullivers is typical of what to expect at a theme park in this country. For anyone arriving early breakfast is available in the main entrance, if its busy be prepared to queue and everything is warmed up in a microwave, my breakfast took about 10 minutes to arrive and half of it was cold. Further into the park hot food is available half way up the hill next to the switchback coaster which we enjoyed, fresh food just cooked not a great choice but adequate and filling. They also have a number of anamtronic figures around the ceiling area of this restaurant that dance and sing at various points of the day.

Staff.
Great staff as always at Gullivers the ride ops can never do enough to ensure the kids have a good time.

Conclusion.
An enjoyable day at a park with the strangest of locations, ideal for any young families. The way Gullivers caters for younger children doesnt attract the teenage thrill seekers, so you never get gangs of kids hanging about. The atmosphere in the park is very relaxed and the queues for nearly all the attractions (even in summer) are always low.

Apologies for the detail in this trip report its such a difficult park to describe becuase of the location. I also suffered a technical (forgot to charge) problem with one of my cameras which only lasted for 2 shots so that was a bit frustrating, it didnt spoil the day though.

To see all the photographs from this park please check out the ridemad gallery

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch with me at paul@ridemad.com or fill in the contact form. Im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

Thanks for Reading.

Friendly staff dressed in costumes suiting the king Arthur theme are welcoming visitors at the entry gates. Entry to Camelot for the 2007 season is, Adult £18.00, Child £18.00, Family Ticket (valid for 4 guests £60 and Senior citizens £12.00, To save some money on ticket prices check out the link at the bottom of this article for a £6 discount. Its also worth mentioning at this point that some elderly or disabled visitors may find this park a bit hilly, you enter at one level, drop into a valley for some rides and entertainment, then come back out of the valley to a more level area for the additional rides, if you unsure about the suitability I would check with the park on 01257 455030 or check the Website.

Ok on into the park we decided to miss out all the attractions near the entrance and head of into the distance to ride the furthest away rides first and then work ourselves back to the main entrance later in the day, for once this worked the area furthest away from the park was almost empty and queue times minimal.

The Whirlwind Coaster.
Min height 1.2m, For the coaster buffs out there this is a Maurer Sohne SC 2000 coaster with spining cars. Built in 1999 the ride was initially a travelling coaster in Germany for some time before coming to Camelot.

Its not to easy to describe this ride, its a conventional coaster as far as the track goes, But the cars spin around on the track, so you could go up the lift hill facing forwards or sit backwards and look at the lift chain as you climb the hill. Once off the hill the cars are free to rotate in any direction, so you can find yourself in any number of angles as you weave through the twisted track.

The Rack.
Min Height 1.2m.

Similar to the magic carpet type rides that we see but the left and right supports are at different angles, the ride is never level. When the left hand side is high up the right is low to the ground. Another unique side of this ride is the carriages that face each other move apart.

The Gauntlet. Min height 1.2m
This is Pinfari, steel, sit down coaster, brought to Camelot in 2001. Length 1197ft, Height 36ft, 1 loop with 3 cars per train sitting 2 across in 2 rows. 12 Riders per train.

Not a bad ride for a small looping coaster, its never going to break any records and I doubt it will ever have the fondness that the tower of terror; did with me, But all the same a decent addition to Camelots ride count. Its definitely worth a couple of repeat rides if queues are moving quickly.

Excalibur 2. Min height 1.4m, Designed by Fabbri, This is a mulit dimensional spinning weightless, upside down type of ride.

I can’t make comment apart from yes it looks ok, its something I wont be trying anytime soon. For the thrill seekers trying this ride they all come off suitably impressed. it quite funny standing and watching the most cool teenager scream at the top of their voices when this thing is upside down. if anyone would like to comment on this ride please let me know and ill add your comments for the article

The Dragon Flyer, Children under 1m must be accompanied by an adult.

Ive never seen one of these deisel powered rides before, its a mix between a coaster without any serious drops and a monorail, it zooms around the valley side of the park and can be quite a shock for some people with its speed. A great ride in my opinion

Falcons Flight. Children under 1.2m need to be accompanied by an adult

The Galleon Ship, Children under 1.4m need to be accompanied by an adult.

Sir Lancelots Chargers, Children under 1.2m need to be accompanied by an adult.

Pendragons Plunge.
My Daughter loves this ride, you start of at the top of the Valley and choose one of three tubes to come down, pick up a dinghy and away you go, you drop 33ft over the length of the trip through bendy tubes.

Log Flume.
A small log flume, doesnt get you to wet.

Kingom in the clouds, Children under 1.2m need to be accompanied by an adult.

A great view of the arena from up here.

Cup and Sorcerer, Children under 1.2m need to be accompanied by an adult.

Dungeons of Doom, Children under 1.0m need to be accompanied by an adult.

Camelots one and only dark ride, its not scary but younger children may be bothered by it, the pictures below are taken using a flash as the ride can be quite dark. The attraction doesnt show any disturbing scenes.

The Farm.

The Farm is a small farm with a varied collection of farmyard animals, pigs, goats, horses and sheep, its a nice addition to the park. The kids love the younger goats who are addicted to eating they even try to open the doors to the feed room, im sure they must keep staff on there toes.

Younger Children.

Younger children are well catered for at Camelot, they have there own small area called Merlins playground which has a small but decent collection of rides including a mini paratrooper ride and carousel.

No park is complete without a caterpillar, this one is located near the main entrance.

Merlins Playground.

The kids also benefit from an indoor play area with soft play and a dodgem track.

Entertainment.

Throughout the day there are jousting and magic shows, The magic show last for about 20 minutes and is quite good, the theatre is small so I would advise anyone wanting to see this queue up 15 minutes earlier. The Jousting is a great show and the kids are encouraged to get involved booing and cheering the knights on their horses, theres also a few jokes/gags thrown in for the mums and dads. Be warned if you sit near the front in the jousting you could become part of the show as my partner found out for not cheering, ive never seen her so quiet.

The nasty one

Catering.

Theres nothing special catering wise at Camelot over any other park. Fast food is served in a number of places and is typical of what you would expect anywhere else, Burgers, Chicken Burgers etc. There is one outlet that does Pasta and Jacket spuds but thats the healthiest you will get. There is adequate seating for eating.

Staff.

I found all the staff expect one at Camelot very cheery and friendly, the one member of staff that did put me off was looking after the childrens soft play area, for the majority of the time she had her back to the attraction and was staring into space. God knows what would have happened should an accident have occured or a small child got into trouble. I very much doubt she is still there as im sure a couple of other parents noticed this. To me staff play such a big part in making a day memorable at theme parks, especially the way they interact with the kids.

Overall.

Camelot is a nice, small and friendly park in a lovely area of countryside, the queues for rides are never that big even in the height of summer. The staff are friendly and cheery. Catering isnt brilliant but do we expect that from a theme park…no. we expect fast food and thats what we get. The Jousting on twice daily is a great show but it does get a bit tedious after about 20 times, the kids do enjoy it and any youngsters into knights or horses will love this show.

The Future.

For anyone that doesnt know the future of Camelot is somewhat bleak, theres been talk for a number of years about the land been sold and the area turned into a residential area, this still hasnt happened and the park are still investing each year.

They have recently announced knightmare as a new coaster for 2007. for more information see UK Rides

For additional pictures of the park visit my Gallery where theres an additional 285 pictures to accompany this article. Ridemad is not connected to Camelot or any other theme park, These are personal opinions from the editor and his family. If you want to use any photographs please dont just steal them, contact me on paul@ridemad.com as im more than happy to share and have higher resolution photographs available. All pictures taken for this article were took in the 2006 season, any 2007 updates will be applied when the park opens for the new season on 31st March 2007

Thanks for Reading.

To save 33% on 2007 prices click the link below to buy online.

Camelot Theme Park tickets

Having followed some web discussion about this event recently I thought it would be worth taking a day out of the office and giving the kids something to do for half term.

If travelling by car you are directed to the VIP parking area (no charge), walk straight through the entrance where you are given a leaflet describing whats open and how much the various attractions cost.

These range from 1 token for the smaller rides to 3 tokens to Oblivion (tokens are £1 each), you can buy the tokens at guest relations and the shop on the left of towers street. We bought £30 worth for 2 adults and 2 kids.

Ok so what is the steam fair.

This is a travelling steam fair owned and operated by Carter’s of Berkshire. For seven months of the year the fair travels throughout London and the south east, the rest of the year is spent maintaining the rides. Just by looking at the rides you can see the affection thats go into preserving these rides. Even the lorrys transporting the fair have been preserved.

What’s on offer an Alton Towers.

Ill start with the bigger attractions first.

Victory Dive Bomber (1958)

This is one ride where you definately need the restraints, theres no holding arms up in the air on this one, you try it and you come out of your seat.

Gallopers. believed to have been built around 1895.

Some closups.

A fantastic example. It also boasts a fantastic steam powered organ, which originated in Paris.

in this shot you can just about see the steam engine in the background.

The Ark. 1930′s

the detail on this ride is stunning.

Chair-O-Planes. 1920′s

Swingboats. 1920′s

Austin Car Ride. 1955

Toy Town Ride.

The Dodgems. 1975

Vintage Arcade, The arcade is a collection of old fruit machines, one arm bandits and skill games, they all operate on old pennies which you can get from the arcade operator. Sorry my camera ISO settings are all over the place here, before I noticed it was too late. Honest

one for the lorry anoraks

As well as all the rides above the steam fair also has some side stalls.

What else is going on.

Oblivion is open, 3 tokens (£3) to ride. When we arrived to ride it about 12:30pm it was walk on.

How often do we see this.

RANT
If your staying at the hotel then your issued with a wristband which covers you for as many goes as you want on the Alton attractions. So what do season pass holders get – remember the glossy brochures advertising the season pass, ride as long as you like, blah blah blah. sorry not allowed today – cheers Tussauds that was another £50 you extracted from me today. What is it with big companies and little people, surely as a loyal frequent visitor to the park and other attractions a couple of free goes on Oblivion isnt much to ask.

The farm area is open for the kids as is the squirrel ride, again hardly any queues on the farm.

Food.

Corner coffee is open for Sausage and bacon baps, pasties, sandwiches and muffins etc. If you want something more substantial then the courtyard tavern is open, i dont know what was on offer. I didnt see any mobile catering units either which im sure would have gone down well with the rest of the crowds.

Overall.
Well its half term and the kids get bored, the fair isnt big but it kept my 2 occupied for a couple of hours, it was nice to ride Obvlivion after the couple of months break. Although I dont think ill be going to a similar event next year. Roll on March 17th.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

Thanks for Reading.

I found this advert quite confusing last year as the rides in the picture promoting the event had nothing whatsoever to do with Blackpool. It was only today I realised what they actually meant was to bring some seaside fun into Warrington. As well as the rides they also had Punch and Judy, a small beach (indoors) promoted Donkey rides although i didnt see any but they did sell Blackpool Rock by the bucket load.

So what is this event all about then, basically its a travelling fairground, on the literature you get they promote it as a theme park although the absense of any theming would suggest otherwise, unless of course you take the theme of blackpool.

Anyway I took the family on the short journey to Warrington this afternoon. The event has free parking and is easy to find just of the A49 junction of the M62, opposite B&Q, parking is free and there is loads of it.

You enter through a marquee and are processed at a pay booth. £7.99 gets you a premuim (white knuckle) wristband and £4.99 a normal “kiddie one”, they also have a pensioners wristband which i think is about £3. You cannot enter the park and walk around without a wristband.

The marquee is pretty big inside with a number of catering trailers offering anything from steak sandwiches to burgers to corn on the cob, they also have a candy floss stall, an arcade and some seating – its worth pointing out at this point the marquee is heated and quite comfortable, theres seating for about 20 people.

The marquee is the only way to enter and exit the fair. Ok lets take a look at the fair.

Expreience.
One of the first rides to great you when entering the fair is a KMG Experience ride, its quite difficult to explain so ill leave that to the ride manufacture.

The Experience is an attraction consisting of a rotating pole with three arms attached that are than raised upwards. At the end of each arm there is a smaller rotating hub with 2 gondolas that somersault.

It starts of quite mellow, then really gets going.

Freak out.

A huge swinging flat ride manufactured by KMG, the ride rotates a huge pendulum and swings back and forward through the ride station at a near 70 degree angle.

Orbiter.

You cant be far from vertical looking straight down at the floor when the ride is running at full speed.

Super Star

and then upside down.

Rock and Roll Dodgems.

The Twister.

The ride went on and on, i thought at one point there was a problem with the control system, i must have been at least 5 minutes.

Giant Fun House.

Dads can go in this too. the ride exit is through a curly slide on the right of the picture, I wasnt going to go down this. One dad who was quite a bit bigger than me laughed when his daughter said she wanted to go down the slide first as he would break it.

A view from the funhouse looking at the rest of the fair.

There was quite a few rides for the younger kids too.

Crazy Mouse coaster.

Snow Patrol.
I found this a bit boring, just round and round. Grumpy old man mode now – It had young kids smoking while it was going round, someone stood up and nearly everyone was taking pictures with mobile phones – The ops should have done something about this, I suppose I was young once but i wouldnt have behaved like that. the world today

The big wheel.
I could have stayed on this for ages, it felt very stable and gave some great views.

The M62.

The Miami

A few other things i didnt photograph. mini chair-o-planes, teacups and gravity wheel.

Side shows, quite a few on offer from darts to hook a duck. I was suprised to see goldfish offered as prizes to I thought this was outlawed years ago.

And finally I love the artwork on some of these travelling rides.

So is it worth going, well yes is the honest answer. We only stayed a couple of hours but my daughter got full use of her premium wristband (£7.99) as she went on everything.

We didnt buy any food but it looked good enough, toilets etc are all provided on site.

If you want to visit the fair its now open every day until the 25th February. Check the offical website for more information. Clicky

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

Thanks for Reading.

Well after 2 months of boredom and visiting “other” tourist destinations zoo’s, hidden nuclear bunkers etc, it was finally time for Blackpool to open its gates again. Normally winter weekends or supersaver weekends are extremely busy as the park reduce wristband prices which encourages people to visit. The recent bad weather in the country must have put allot of people off as Saturday was cold and dreary. It brightened up on Sunday with lovely blue skies.

A few rides arent open at the moment but ill come back to those later. For anyone living under a stone for the last 6 months, Blackpools newest coaster Infusion is due to open around easter.

Infusion is the vekoma SLC (traumatizer) which was brought over from Southport Pleasureland after its closure a few months ago. The ride will be themed around water as the log flume before it. I must admitt im looking forward to riding this and seeing what the park come up with in terms of effects.

heres a press release from the parks website.

Get ready for a totally new age experience for white knuckle thrill seekers at Britain’s favourite tourist attraction with cascading walls of water and sky high, heart-stopping, fabulous fun!Five incredible loops and rolls, a looming lake glitters below, a deliciously wicked double line twist and awesome water effects all in one cool suspended looping coaster.

Make of it what you will.

The ride builders look on target for the opening, heres where they are currently upto 11.02.07

Further round the park all the big rides are open and running well the Big Dipper having had a section of track replaced was extremely smooth and ran well all weekend.

Pepsi Max Big One, queues pretty quite for the whole weekend. in this picture the people in the back of the car havent fell out, there using sandbags.

Bling, with my innocent (ye right) daughter on the end seat.

Ice Blast ride.

The entrance on Sunday morning before the crowds come in.

River caves with wonderfully blue coloured water.

Looking back to the park entrance from River Caves, you can see the numbers arent great for Saturday.

Ghost Train, with a couple of fixed effects for this season.

Swamp Buggies.

Revolution.

Beaver Creek was quiet for the weekend, with allot of the rides open Zipper Dipper and kiddies dodgems arent open yet, Zipper dipper has developed a fault and the dodgems just arent open at the moment.

Ok what else isnt open.

Maxims Flyers, is having some work done to one of the arms.

Roller Coaster, is having some work done to the top of the lift hill and track.

Deserted.

Derby Racers, is having a complete new roof, on my last visit we took a tour of the park and most of the roof was gone.

Formula one cars. Wheel less at the moment.

Steeplechase.

If your thinking of visiting before the park opens full time then I would definately recomend a visit one weekend, just to keep the kids happy for a few hours. If you want to check on the status of various rides please get in touch with the park or check the website for details. dont blame me if something is closed

Overall, me and the family had a great weekend, thanks to Club Pleasure Beach and Blackpool Pleasure Beach staff for arranging the breakfasts and fast track season pass process.

It was also nice to meet Gary who runs the excellent Magic eye and Sheila, Tim, Ryesha and Connor hope you had a good trip home.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

Thanks for Reading.