Divv3k Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 (edited) Hi everyone! It's been a few months since I've been able to do a proper "Brit Crew update" so I'm happy to bring this totally biased and inaccurate telling of events of our recent weekend based out of Bristol. Originally this trip was planned as a journey to visit the Crystal Maze before it closed, but alas we were too late and it closed about a week after TPR visited in June. But still, we'd put together the framework of a good weekend and all we really wanted to do was get drunk so we went anyway! UPDATES: Part 1: OAKWOOD (Below) Part 2: CONEY BEACH Part 3: BARRY ISLAND Part 4: REFLEX! Part 5: BREAN LEISURE PARK My only previous visit to Oakwood was in 2008 when I found a really nice park with not a lot of people. That opinion really hasn't changed since this visit. They have two great coasters in Megafobia and Speed as well as a few other quirky attractions that make for quite a unique day. Now, if only this place was closer I'd visit more often! Here's the photos... Hello Oakwood! You're a lot brighter than my last visit! Here’s today’s heroic cast of Brit Crew characters who made the long journey to the south of Wales! There can only be one first stop at Oakwood – The Magician! Or Megafobia if the magician isn't around... Stop blocking out the sun, Anth! Megafobia was running really good today. Even better than my last visit in 2008! Megafobia will definitely move up a few spots in my rankings this year. While it’s not an amazing woodie by any means I can imagine there must have been an incredible ride in there when it first opened. Wow, Anth looks super excited for some Euro-fighter action! I’m pleased to report that Speed is STILL my favourite Euro-fighter in the world! Loopy, loop, loop, loop, loop. Aah, the rug is trying to escape! Sadly, the “Tea Trays”, one of Oakwood’s best attractions were closed today. You’ll just have to make do with the waterslide of death, Mr. Fudge! Everyone ready to frolic amongst the treetops? Good! Apparently iPhone is the official mobile phone of the Brit Crew. Bow down to the phallic icon, Sir Campsalot! Does Scottish Steve prefer beavers or balls? We’re not really sure! Zebra attack! TPFail. This is quite possibly the filthiest example of credit whoring in Brit Crew history. We had to find a ride op in the kiddie area and ask him to operate the coaster! TPDave being the fun-loving arse that he is already had the credit and persuaded the op to send us round nine times. TPTit. We're sad. Pathetic too. Everyone but Dave Fudge was brave enough to go down this slide. Truth. Steve: No Limits. Yay, Alpine Slide! Hurry up, Steve. You don't want Anth to block you out too! Steve’s rug is going to become athe scariest part of the Spooky 3D attraction for today only. Woohoo, we're about to ride Brer Rabbit’s acid trip! The ride essentially tells the story of the night when some drunken Southern Englishman with a mohican haircut invaded the burrow and started the craziest party known to rabbits. This has to be one of the most messed up kid’s dark rides ever built! Say goodbye to TPiPhone… As it is now PPiPhone! Ah, Hydro. Surely none of our group were stupid enough to ride this today! You would certainly need an armageddon coat to withstand this... Well done guys, it's only a two hour drive back to Bristol! Now go hug TPDave! Entire group photo! Thanks for an awesome day guys! Oakwood was really good once again! Even for a Saturday the place was really quiet, which worked out really well for us! There's some Welsh credit whoring action to come later! Edited September 26, 2010 by Divv3k Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chroniq Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 Awesome Trip Report Divv. It's cool how even in small groups you are on the ground in the group photo. I'm also happy to see that Oakwood repainted their entrance to match the Intimidatour shirts. Chris "Though this report could use a little more alcohol" Connolly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fudgey Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 A completely unbiased and realistic account of the first park of the weekend. I look forward to the next installment where such truths as 'Mike Fudge joins us at Barry Island' and 'Divv didn't boogie on down in Reflex' and 'OMG, it's only Dave Wilson'. I defeated the death slide and you bloody know it... The drinking is coming, trust me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moinab Posted September 22, 2010 Share Posted September 22, 2010 Looking forward to the next installment! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPDave Posted September 22, 2010 Share Posted September 22, 2010 I can hardly contain myself... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobra_roll06 Posted September 22, 2010 Share Posted September 22, 2010 ^OMG is that TPDave?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NathP Posted September 22, 2010 Share Posted September 22, 2010 Nice trip report Divv! Looking forward to the next part Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrygator Posted September 22, 2010 Share Posted September 22, 2010 Sorry, but I think the Brit Crew just jumped the shark! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidmorton Posted September 22, 2010 Share Posted September 22, 2010 Hey I'm in one of your pics! I was in front of you on Megafobia - thought I recognised one of the faces but it wasn't until much later in the day did I work out from where! Anyway, just to prove it; heres a paparazzi style stalker shot... Whats going on here then? I'd like to point out that I did not lower myself to the kiddie-credit; some of us have (a little) self-respect. You might have clocked me later on I was trying to take some shots of Hydro, but they didn't really work. Speed from earlier in the day came out OK though; Nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jynx242 Posted September 22, 2010 Share Posted September 22, 2010 Thanks for the pics Divv. Good to see you are still doing the sexy manly pinup pose for all group photos. You've now set the Divv standard for such shots . David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hhappy Posted September 23, 2010 Share Posted September 23, 2010 Thanks for the report, one day i'll visit this park.. one day i will.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Divv3k Posted September 23, 2010 Author Share Posted September 23, 2010 Thanks guys! I really appreciate the comments. Hey I'm in one of your pics! I was in front of you on Megafobia - thought I recognised one of the faces but it wasn't until much later in the day did I work out from where! Anyway, just to prove it; heres a paparazzi style stalker shot... I wish you'd come up and said hey! Cool stalker photo though! Larry, I think we jumped the shark a LONG time ago! --- Part Two CONEY BEACH Seeing as there was no Crystal Maze for us to enjoy after our time in Oakwood we decided to take advantage of being on Wales' South coast and whore up some really ghetto parks. The first park was the infamous-on-TPR Coney Beach. Sadly there's only one kiddie coaster here now since the Pinfari Death Looper was removed but there's still plenty of ghetto death to go around (well there's a powered coaster too which we didn't ride, but I hear you don't even have to ride that one to count the credt. Right, Big Mike? ). I'm not sure I can say much more about this glorious, glorious place. here's the photos... Brace yourselves! We’ve arrived at one of TPR’s favourite ghetto, ghetto parks – Coney Beach!!! Hey, hey it's Hooka Anth! Whatever you do, don’t pull Scottish Steve’s finger. You WILL end up looking like Stewie. OMG, new attraction alert!!! I guess we;'ll need to plan another big Brit Crew weekend for next year! Dave’s got his cash ready to use Coney Beach’s state of the art lavatory facilities. Let’s check out Mega Blitz, the park’s Pinfari looper… Wow, this might be my favourite Pinfari looper ever! I’d say that this coaster has seen better days but I’m not entirely sure that would be true! Dave bought enough tokens so that he wouldn’t have to leave Coney Beach ever, ever again. OMG, it’s Nessie!!! It's only (another) sad and pathetic Brit Crew takeover! I think we’re on course for the most creepy and disturbing Brit Crew excursion yet! We tried to get in the funhouse but the op feared that we might trample all the kiddies. That was WAY more responsibility than I was ever expecting from this place! Dave’s a bit apprehensive about Coney Beach’s super scary ghost train. DEATH RIDE!!! Seriously Steve, you’d have loved this guy! "The naked monster only had one boob, but it was THIS big!" Coney Beach also has a VERY high quality haunted walkthrough! I could have swore I saw at least one of these guys at East Coast Bash. TPEmo. Yes, Dave. They’re hot. But they’re just paintings, and you’re engaged. Dodgem takeover! Mmmmmmm… Coney Beach cuisine! You won’t have to eat again for the rest of the weekend! Anth’s all about the baby love. Phew… It’s good to see that the Welsh seaside resorts are booming! With questionable seafood in hand we’re heading out of Coney Beach to somewhere which is, believe it or not, even MORE ghetto! The awe-inspiring Barry Island report will be up later! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPDave Posted September 23, 2010 Share Posted September 23, 2010 Divv, did you get video of the bumper cars? Behind Knobels they're probably the best ones I've been on! Well that of Power Park, but that wasn't because the cars themselves were anything special Dave "the one, the only" Wilson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chroniq Posted September 23, 2010 Share Posted September 23, 2010 That is seafood? Really? Really? Chris "is now dead from mercury poisoning but still thinks the report needs more alcohol" Connolly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPDave Posted September 23, 2010 Share Posted September 23, 2010 I'm not sure there are pictures of friday nights drinking, Saturday should be well covered though Patience, young cherub Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted September 24, 2010 Share Posted September 24, 2010 The excessive number of "fire exit" signs in the Ghost Train cracked me up in 2006. I guess safety is Coney Beachs's top priority. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disneyfan1313 Posted September 24, 2010 Share Posted September 24, 2010 I love the "here to stay" sign. It's so....British! Thanks for the great TR as always. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Divv3k Posted September 24, 2010 Author Share Posted September 24, 2010 Part Three: BARRY ISLAND So this was a park I knew pretty much nothing about. Other than the fact that RCDB said that it had a credit I knew it was a seaside park and nothing more. This was a real surreal park visit, we got tho the park and while it was totally open to the public as we walked up the midway we saw that pretty much every ride in the park had been abandoned and left to rot! Even crazier was that most of the rides weren't even boarded up or blocked off. You could walk up the entrance ramps and onto the loading bays if you wanted to. It was all a bit weird and pretty sad as some of the rides looked like they might have been pretty good in their day! Even weirder was this one corner of the park which had a few operating rides! So they let you walk through the abandoned portion of the park with all the cool looking rides only to let you walk to the crappy bit at the back with about three operating rides. Weird. I really am amazed this place is still open. I can't see it staying for long, so really I guess I should be glad I got to visit when I did! Photos probably tell the story better, so here you go... Okay so here we are at Barry Island. Looks quite nice and inviting, though a bit quiet… We're about to find that the words "Barry" and "Pleasure" don't really go well together! Oh look, a credit! But no, it’s closed… Well the entrance is open but there’s no one operating the ride… Looks like this one hasn’t operated in a while! Hold on everyone, I’ll operate this ride! It was just weird seeing a ride totally abandoned but without any kind of fencing or signs telling people to keep away! I mean I could have sat in the abandoned coaster if I’d wanted to! We actually had to restrain TPDave from pushing this car up the lifthill and riding it down himself! Just in case you ever need it, Larry! But wait, there ARE rides operating at Barry Island! This one looks a bit too grown up and mature for us. THIS is more our level! Yup we went all the way to the semi-abandoned amusement park and whored the place! Here’s the best part - it took two ride ops to STOP the ride at the end!!! These guys were just hammering and nailing the rotor the whole time we were there. They may have been employees or may just have been stripping it down for parts, I’m not quite sure. Well that’s all the operating rides covered, back to the abandoned ones! It's a closed and abandoned ghost train. Steve thinks they should all be like this! Cute AND depressing! This was about as stringent as the security around the abandoned stuff got. The rope didn’t even encompass the entire area that had crap in it! Dave’s pretty upset that the tow boat ride that he enjoyed as a kid is now all gone. Either that or he just saw a busted lamppost. Looks like some hobo’s set up a home in the old dark ride! Can you blame them? It looks like quite a safe home that even comes with an alligator and a moat to protect you. The whole place pretty much abandoned apart from that one corner. I don’t understand why they keep this part open to the public! These guys all picked the pink elephant log to pose in! Is anyone surprised? Looks like the log flume has seen better days. Anth’s got his two tickets and is ready to ride! Maybe not today, Anth! Like the coaster, the Log Flume entrance was open and you could just walk up the entrance and down to the loading platform. Okay, which one fills the trough? If you ever you forget where you are in the UK, just check the teacup. That’ll be an abandoned TV then. It was pretty freaky just walking around the abandoned place. Again, I don’t understand why they haven’t closed all this off! Cheer up guys, there’s still a food stall open! Freakiest Thomas ever! I think this pretty much sums it all up. Maybe they’re just gonna leave it like this another ten years so they can have that big 100 year bash! Of course Barry Island Pleasure Park only existed in the first palce because of the lovely, lovely beach next to it! There’s something very “TPR” about the bins here! Hi Erik! This summer’s number seller. Dave loves to play with Smelly Fun Balls! Okay guys, stop being emo, we’re gonna go drinking soon! Dave Fudge tries so hard to look hard but he still comes across as totally camp! Bye bye Barry Island! I look forward to reading the news report of 100 refugees found living in a Haunted Mine in South Wales. Boozy Reflex fun is up next! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrygator Posted September 24, 2010 Share Posted September 24, 2010 Thanks for bringing us this awesome park, I'll add it to the Park Index later tonight, before the park shuts down for good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derwood Posted September 25, 2010 Share Posted September 25, 2010 Thanks for bringing back memories of Megablitz. My favorite part was watching the bolts and nuts bounce around our feet while we rode. Great update Divv! -daron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrygator Posted September 25, 2010 Share Posted September 25, 2010 I think a look at the park's website is very telling. http://www.barryislandpleasurepark.co.uk/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Divv3k Posted September 26, 2010 Author Share Posted September 26, 2010 Well it wouldn't be a Brit Crew weekend without a little Wagamama and Reflex, would it?! Here we are at the Brit Crew's favourite chain restaurant in the UK - Wagamama!!! If you've never tried Wagamama before then you absolutely must! Go try it NOW!!! OMG, we're in TPFlat!!! TPRoom invasion! Yup, Bristol has a Reflex! Why else would we choose this city?! OMG, Anth's trying to squeeze one out on the dance floor! Bristol, meet The Rug. Hold on to that feeling!!! Steve's giving Bristol a huge eyeful of Rug tonight! Wrong chord, Steve. Unfortunately for Dave and Amy, they were NOT the best dancers in Reflex tonight. No, that honour goes to the weird, crazy guy who was hanging on the pole all night. Raz Ool! Words to live by! As always the Brit Crew had an absolute blast at Reflex! Another boozy night at Reflex comes to a close. Let's hope there aren't too many sore heads in the morning, as we're heading off to Brean! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fudgey Posted September 26, 2010 Share Posted September 26, 2010 And there was me expecting some horrendous photos of myself... Not too bad! Great weekend! Bring on the Brean! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Divv3k Posted September 26, 2010 Author Share Posted September 26, 2010 Part Five: BREAN LEISURE PARK The last park of our weekend was Brean Leisure Park. Pretty much this is just a static carnival much in the same vein as M&Ds. Though the good thing about this place is well,it's not M&Ds! It's not a huge place but there's a decent selection of rides. It also is home to one of the best carnie ghost trains I've ever rode! I really couldn't believe how messed up Terror Castle was! Don't miss it if you're ever at the park! The park is getting a new coaster next year, but I've rode it before so I can't see me rushing back any time soon. But with that said, it is totally worth a short visit if you're nearby! Here's some photos... The final park of our little excursion out of Bristol is Brean Leisure Park! Oh yeah, we can’t forget to say “Hi Erik!” Okay, let’s get into “Fun City” and find some rides. WIPEOUT!!! Check out all my shiny little nuggets of golden token! Kiddie coaster number FOUR of the weekend! This isn’t just any kiddie coaster though… This coaster goes straight through Mickey’s UK retreat! iNerd! Wow, double-hander. Uh oh, looks like Brad’s got a Fudge tumour coming out his ass. Oh dear lord. This can’t be fun. At all. Amy clearly doesn’t understand what is about to happen. She looks WAY too happy! TPFear. Now that’s HOT! Scottish Steve rode this Ghost Train and LOVED it! Who are we kidding, we couldn’t get him near the thing! Probably a good thing too because he would have died. Seriously, this was one of the BEST ghost trains I’ve ever rode! Terror Castle is not your usual carnie-style ghost train. It really was messed up! Steve’s probably lucky he read the sign before we even got a chance to convince him to ride! OMG, Anth’s being “erased from existence” Back to the Future style! These guys rule when it comes to playing with balls. It’s only bloody Dave Wilson. Sooty managed to crap out a pretty panther-friendly TPBracelet. All the main characters from the Brean stable were out on display today! I’d try to write a caption for this photo but I’d probably make an arse of it. Best themed Kentucky Derby ever! Steve’s special, so special. Anth’s just checking into Wendy’s house. One credit to go, and it’s a good one. Everyone ready for a couple of minutes of Reverchon bliss? (What the hell is Steve doing to that stuffed toy?!) NO JAZZ HANDS!!! This one spun. I didn’t like it. TPDave is such a nerd that he had to update his coaster count on the exit platform! Random flat ride. UNSACTIONED TPExpression! The market right outside Fun City has some really choice items for sale. What’s this? New coaster? Anth seems pretty excited about this one. I wonder why? It’s Space Invader 2 from Blackpool! Pretty soon this thing will be enclosed with the world’s largest pineapple or something like that. Geeky “train on the grass” photo. Looks like it’s just about ready for a roof and some walls! Truth. California – Florida – Tokyo – Paris – Hong Kong – Brean. Well this was an awesome weekend! Thanks to all my Brit Crew cohorts who joined in the fun! Hope you enjoyed this trip report. Thanks for reading! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrygator Posted September 27, 2010 Share Posted September 27, 2010 After a night at Reflex, I would have at least expected a better picture of Disco Fever at Brean for the Park Index. Thanks for the first look at the old Space Invader from Blackpool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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