Simon's Summer Adventures

My first travel this year was to England namely Stoke-On-Trent. Nearby Alton Towers is easily reachable from Stoke and Hanley by bus - which to my surprise took quite a while to reach the park. The bus drivers gladly used some little known roads to avoid the traffic jams to and from the park. Quite surprised a park quite far from any freeway got that big.

 

The park itself is huge, nicely landscaped and has tons of greens. The ride areas are quite seperated and in reaching them the Skyway is a must, which not only looks nice like in most other parks but spares you hours of walking during the day. Sadly on my day visiting the park the Skyway was down until midday which reduced my ridecount.

 

The day started out quite slow but around noon the park started to get packed and major rides topped with waits at around 20-30 minutes with Smiler topping at 120 minutes.

 

Mine Train - nice Mack Powered Coaster, liked the interaction with the rafting inside a cave.

 

Nemesis - my new fav Invert. Great pacing and forces and tons of fun. Got in 4 rides in the morning when this was still a walk-on.

 

Air - well done Flyer, not having any real inversions as in head over heels, but following the terrain nicely and having some unique elements mostly not found on taller Flyers. 2x when it was a walk-on

 

Thriteen - cool family coaster with a freefall element. Some light air in the back on the camelback. 2x

 

Rita - Intamin accelerator quite similar to Desert Race at Heide-Park, fun ride but nothing special. 1x

 

Sonic Spinball - Fun Maurer spinner, in the middle of this coaster type size range. 2x walk-on as single rider.

 

Oblivion - Diver prototype with nice cave to dive in. Tame compared to newer and taller Divers.

 

The Smiler - Huge thing with lost of twisty inversions, second half a little bumpy at times. Waits all day were crazy. Got in 2 rides - once as single rider with a 40 mins wait and once with a GBP 10 fastpass. Clearly a unique experience but rate this coaster nevertheless only in my TOP 20.

Finally arrived. This how I like a Arrow/Vekoma looper!

Having my e-Ticket at least here no waits

Entering you would not at once recognize Alton Towers as a theme park - more like a private garden

Rafting - fitting for the English weather - not overly wet, but nicely done

Mack powered coaster with a not very twisty but quite spacious layout

Doing its track twice with nice interaction with the rafting

Nemesis, new favorite Invert with Phantasialand's Black Mamba coming in second

More happy Nemesis riders

Best coaster in the park

Ripsaw was down running empty - but the program was boring anyhow: no multi-spins.

Unique Flyer with elements seldom found on similar coasters

No park is complete without a HUSS Pirate

Finally Skyride was up and running and I could reach the other coasters

The Towers - sadly had no time to explore the ruins

Rita - fun and well paced but nothing special today

Happy Rita-Riders

Hello Smiler!!!

Obligatory multi train shot 1

Obligatory multi train shot 2

Not much airtime but lots of twisty inversions

The weird video messages, the wacky music and the water spray jets make you all fuzzy on and off the ride - cool overall experience.

Oblivion running good but this coaster literally only consists of the first drop - which is cool

Final spins on the Maurer Spinner which spins well

 

Next up: Blackpool Pleasure Beach

Edited July 1, 2014 by simon8899

Cool shots! It's a shame that The Smiler doesn't have lap bars as that would have minimised the roughness issues.

The next day I went off to Blackpool Pleasure Beach on a very nice and sunny day. Even while the park has a local train station nearby I recommend going to Blackpool North - the long range train station - walk from there to the beach and take the tram to Pleasure Beach.

 

Blackpool itself is a marvelous historic tourist trap with everything you come to expect like Madame Tussauds or Ripley's Believe It Or Not all blinking with lots of lights and some looking a little shabby in the daylight. The beach promenade looks freshly restored - restoration is also on the way for the Blackpool Tower, a historic iron observation tower built in kudos to the Eiffel Tower with a Plexiglass floor as a nice twist.

 

Pleasure Beach is mostly for historic wooden coasters of which the park offers five, the steel coasters are not top of the line with Avalanche - a Mack Bobsled - being by far the best steel coaster. Revolution was down on my day of visit as the only ride in the park.

 

Next to the coasters the Flying Rockets and the Derby Racer are also notable.

 

What I found really weird that upon entering Pleasure Beach they screen you like on an airport. Complete with metal detectors and guards armed and with bulletproof vests. This is even beyond the security in US parks. Maybe some UK member can make a judgement here if Blackpool really is such a dangerous place to be.

 

Grand National: One of three remaining historic Möbius loop wooden coasters. Having a good amount of roughness due to its age but much fun in the front cars. 6x

 

Big Dipper: Also rough but still fun in the front which a huge impressive station. 6x

 

Blue Flyer: Small kiddie woodie I guess quite unique in the world with its size and audience. 1x

 

Nickelodeon Streak: IMO the most enjoyable of the wooden coasters, the smoothest in the park offering some floater in the back. 8x

 

Wild Mouse: This wooden gem is totally insane which is far, FAR more forceful than modern steel mouse coasters. Only a seatbelt holds you as ejector air catapults you out of your seat, whacks you from side to side. I guess no TÜV would allow this today anymore so ride this one while it lasts. "They do not built them like this anymore!!!" 6x

 

Avalanche: This Mack Bobsled coaster is by far the best steel coaster in the park. Unlike many other installations this one comes without trimming brake and zips down the turns at increasing speeds giving good laterals in the back car. 4x

 

InFusion: Coming to a park were you think that a Vekoma SLC is not the worst steel coaster says it all. 1x

 

The Big One: Boy this is a bad one. Its way rougher than Grand National and Big Dipper together - and in a bad way. At first they had the last car closed off with sandbag weights, later in the day the last two. 2x

Grand National is hard to photograph as the track is mostly outside the park perimeter. Good old woodie!

Happy Grand National riders coming back to the station with trains having reversed sides...

View into Nickelodeon Land. The flume has a tiny layout

YAY for Avalanche - BOO for Revolution being down

Blue Flyer is hard to photograph as riders enjoy this small kiddie woodie

Nickelodeon Streak the most enjoyable woodie in the park

Big Dipper - great historic woodies everywhere

Now this one is mean - in a bad way...

More Avalanche as its the only really enjoyable steel coaster here

Riders having made the right choice out of the coasters pictured

There are worse SLCs in the worlds, but this one hurts nevertheless

Guy in the first row seems to be one of us...

You can even have a Coasters meal here

[no comment]

Is that fun or pain showing???

Wallace and Gromit - quite basic darkride. But if you like the films like me...

Sadly the monorail looks long dismantled and only the station remains

Grand National station in classic Art Deco "upwards thrusting" style

Big Dipper station looking good from afar but needs an exterior paint job

Crazy wooden Wild Mouse

Words cannot explain how insanely good this coaster is. Worth the travel just riding it!

Any others of these around beside the one at Disney California Adventure?

Nickelodeon Disk'O

No pain no gain???

Feeling like at home!

Loved how the historic mechanical organ mostly played Beatles songs

The Big One in all its monstrosity

Big Dipper station must be one of the most beautiful stations around

 

Next: Zip to Oslo for TusenFryd

Nice pictures. I've never been there and didn't really know the Big One was that rough but, looking at some POVs, the ride just looks rather boring (plus I'm not a big fan of the turnaround support structure)

A short flight later I found myself in Oslo and after a day of city sightseeing I took the bus from Oslo Busterminal to TusenFryd. At first I thought it will become a busy day with many school classes waiting at the entrance but luckily later in the day they were content mostly with tanning and drinking. TusenFryd is a good midsize park offering all coaster basics. While they have the cool escalator through SpeedMonster's pretzel loop I found the way down to SuperSplash quite tiresome - hope they add an escalator or tram to that area soon.

 

The major flat is a Giant Frisbee which was down at first but returned to service midday. The other flats look like either quite old and/or bought used.

 

Loopen: A standard Vekoma Loop-Corkscrew coaster still having its original Arrow rolling stock. IMO one of the better Vekoma loopers with only slight headbanging inside the corkscrew. 3x

 

ThunderCoaster: Cannot believe this is a Vekoma wooden coaster as its fun and re-rideable front and back. Yes it has roughness but ultra-padded seats so you will have no bruises. Some new track has been laid before the photo and that part rode the best. 6x

 

Western-Expressen: Vekoma Rollerskater, nothing special. 1x

 

SuperSplash: Mack SuperSplash watercoaster without the signature turntables. Like the flume not very wet - to get a descent amount of wetness sit in the front rows on the sides or place yourself into the splashzone. 2x

 

SpeedMonster: TusenFryd's main coaster with the prototype Norwegian Pretzel Loop. Forceful launch, nice layout on the shorter side. Very re-rideable. 10x

Escalator to coaster heaven?

Zierer Waveswinger a classic themepark must-have

Loopen, not toally bad and like the Arrow train

Loopen looking good

The Waveswinger was bought used from a German showmen and still has all German carnival signage

Happy SpeedMonster riders

Not very wet logflume

Surprisingly good Vekoma wooden coaster

Most of the SLKOOSH not wetting the riders - but splashzone well populated

YAY for the splashzone - guess at 27 degrees celsius it was one of the warmest days in south Norway

Quite harmless Rollerskater

Smaller Metallbau Emmeln (?) ship swing

This old Bakker Polyp is quite lame compared to the Schwarzkopf/Gerstlauer Monster

SkyCoaster in action

Giant Frisbee still undergoing repairs

Time for another run on Thunder Coaster

Giant Frisbee finally running again

Ending a great day with some spins on SpeedMonster

Coming up next: Two days of Liseberg for Helix, Helix and more Helix!

Speedmonster looks like a nice short ride.

And great to know vekoma can make some decent woodies!

Finally re-visiting one of my TOP 5 parks: Liseberg.

 

The first day was mostly for Helix which I did six times on the first day plus many rides on the also great Lisebergbanen.

 

Helix at the moment has right entered my TOP 3. The airtime is amazing, the layout and inversions twisty. As in complaining on a high level: The S-curves at the end of the ride are quite tame compared to those on Cheetah Hunt but the last inversion with negative Gs makes up for it. Also nice interactions with Lisebergbanen and Uppswinget. Most recommendet are the rear seats in the last two cars - if just for crazy airtime out of the station, its not really floater or ejector - it just makes a ton of fun. Overall a great coaster not to be missed. Lines were topping at 50 minutes with all three trains running and were down to 5-10 minutes in the later evening. In the queue Liseberg offers quality high-speed WLAN.

 

Lisebergbanen ran also well again with waits no longer than 10 minutes during the day and walk-on in the evening.

 

I did Balder and Kanonen on my second day intense in the morning and got in 6 rides on both. Fun as always waits were for both coasters were around 15-20 minutes later in the day.

 

Not to forget my win of a 2 kilo Marabou chocolate bar on one of the many sideway games - all offering different kind of sweets big packs.

Liseberg's Gerstlauer Monster

Kanonen doing its slow hangtime inversions

YAY: On the way to ride Helix

Also some love for Anton's great Lisebergbanen

One of the many hairtime inversions

Swinging high up with two coasters zipping around you

Atmosfear was mostly a walk-on both days

Helix is just plain fun!

Do I really want to wait two years before riding Helix again?

Most perfect ride name evar!

OMG - finally there!

Crazy twisty airtime inversions

Final inversion just wants to eject you - similar to Blue Fire

As you are up on the hill - why not taking another fall on Atmosfear between Helix rides

Some recreation time on Liseberg's big wheel

Helix and its small brother

First drop out of the station can only be fully enjoyed in the rear cars

Good hair day!

Balder on the loose

OMG! Helix!!!

Some nice historic pics on the escalator from/to Helix.

 

Up next: More Liseberg and Helix just because its so great!

Do I really want to wait two years before riding Helix again?

Well it could be worse. For me it's more like: Do I really want to wait two years before ever riding Helix?

Taking Liseberg's two-day deal I came back for a second day of fun and started by walking right to the back for Balder and Kanonen. As the crowds mostly went toward Helix both were walk-on during the first hour and got six rides on both.

 

Later on did four spins on Helix and cannot overstate how great this coaster is. Also multiple spins on Uppswinget, Lisebergabenen and Atmosfear. And the second was topped by the win of the 2 kilogram Marabou chocolate bar.

Good rafting with wet water jets

On to do some spins on Balder

Holy airtime, Batman!

Getting closer

Finally there

Good way to start day

Double pleasure!

Helix - Lights on

More airtime twistyness

Medium wet but best terrain logflume ever

Disk'O was quite popular both days

Lisebergbanen and Uppswinget

Triple the fun!

Wanna take a spin on the chocolate wheel-of-fortune?

Yes - we have a winner

 

Next up: Crowded Tivoli Gardens on a Saturday evening

The final day of my trip saw a very crowded visit to Tivoli Gardens on a sunny Saturday. But on my main mission this time - riding my first Zamperla AirRace I suceeded with 8 spins on this great inverting flat. Thinking that this ride is even family friendly as the inversions are very smooth - loved the upside down hangtime every now and then.

 

The AirRace also had the shortest waits at about 10-15 minutes all day. Next to that I only did 2 spins on Demonen and one on the beautifully restored Rutschebanen - also grabbing my "100 Years Rutschebanen" on ride photo.

 

Also enjoyed the funny pantomime shows at the historic theatre with the signature Peacock Curtain.

Welcome to Tivoli Hotel

Tivoli feeling so great. So guys: Spot the boobs!

Love the Zamperla AirRace. Hope for a portable version on German carnivals soon.

YAY for hanging upside down

Anyone up for Plane-On-A-Stick?

A day to polish the sun

A teen gymnast tournament was going on on the main stage during the day

Kids play area

Demonen running fine that day

Plane-On-A-Stick in manual mode

Can I buy one of these for my garden?

The HighFlyer had crazy lines all day - next time...

Baby peacocks!

Funny shows at the Pantomime Theatre

Mechanical Peacock Curtain

...and the real life version

Beautifully restored Rutschebanen

Welcome to the Alpenhof Bahnstation

Can one have a room at the Alpenhof?

Big Band music on the main stage in the evening

YAY for 100 years of most excellent fun

Lights on

These weird fellas look at you inside the toilet stalls

The last pic for now. thanks for following - and please comment!

What a great vacation and tripreport. I was thinking about hitting a few parks in Germany in July/August but all of a sudden I'm starting to think about England instead.

^also planned for Drayton Manor but guess its good luck to have 2 out of 3 days dry weather in England. Will do London with some friends in September and if weather permits visit Thorpe and Chessington - with Warner Studio Tour as bad weather alternative. Of course also two days for sights and pubs.

 

Googling you can find tons of great craft beer breweries and pubs...

Really awesome photos! Glad that you enjoyed Helix, I was just as you blown away by it!

We also seem to share the opinion that the Air Race is an awesome flat that is still a bit family friendly.

 

Your description of the Big One at BPB got me playing with the thought that an Intamin mega coaster with a start just like Skyrush would fit perfectly in it's place. 50 degree cable lift up to 80 meters with an awesome straight forward 85 degree drop into a tight 90 degree right turn and a shitload of crazy airtime hills in the same path as the Big One now have. Maybe a stengel dive in there as well. Oh well, one can dream...

^I hope some German showmen will buy one of the portable versions Zamperla offers on their website. And as it looks there is a portable Air-Race somewhere. But of course those cannot have the great theming Tivoli's have.

 

As for Helix I hope that Mack shows this ride potential buyers so we will see other great Mack Megacoaster.

I actually have real high hopes for this one, even though I will probably never ride it. But still, 60 meter tall and the world's tallest loop should really make it something special!

Yeah, as long as China does not downgrade their travel requirements as in doing it similar to the US with visa-waiver and online registration its also unlikely for me to visit China - cause that is the most hassle I am willing to do to travel. Going to some embassy and apply for a visa - getting service there like you are some kind of nauseance - well if they do not want me there are other countries who are happy to take my money.

It looks like you have a good few days! Nice reports, thanks for sharing