UK Photo TR: Derek's version

[DerekRx]

I took over 1800 photos of the entire trip, over 100 photos a day. I've selected the best for either quality or random story to share. I figure others will cover similar stuff.

 

Before the trip officially started, a few of us headed up to Skegness. I'll leave those photos for someone else to post, as the weather wasn't really photogenic. The following day, was the Legoland pre-trip add-on. It was my first Legoland, and was really worth the amount of time we spent there. It could have just been a credit run, but there is so much theming in the park that I didn't even notice some things until I went back and looked at my pictures.

But he was probably just happy to be on top

Not sure what this guy was advertising

And we took in a football game, complete with streaker

I found a bar!

John almost blew up the space shuttle by taking a picture of it during launch

Mini Brighton Pier

Miniland London was really cool, with working parts and everything

Looks like Nicole gets to see the London Eye after all

Badger, badger, badger, badger, mushroom, mushroom

Hey Barry, do you know whose hair this is?

I grabbed a Magnum Double Caramel, as they were really hard to find this time around

Lego theming is everywhere, even in the fish tanks

Cameron didn't mind though

Dan was not too pleased though when he agreed to ride the Aquazone ride

Jungle Coaster had little theming, but what it did have was pretty entertaining. The beer gods were pleased

Dragon's Apprentice was a pretty cool little kiddie coaster

I had to pee after looking at this lego statue

I'm a dragon, gimme some peasants!

I'm not sure if Will is trying to film the coaster or if he's making a documentary on Robb

This be taller than Disneyland's fer sure

Lots of cool theming, like these Easter Island dudes

Here we are at Legoland, the most popular thing in Windsor (at least to coaster enthusiasts)

[TheStig]

 

IS THAT EVER HAIR???? It looks like a dead bush or something! Nice pictures Derek, Lego land looks like a pretty cool place, you have to give props to the guys that had to put those statues and buildings together though, I would have gotten frustrated and kicked them all over if I had to do that!

 

Colin C[/img]

[Jon Sabo]

Awesome photos!

 

I wish I had most of those scenes in my backyard for the grandkids to play in (and charge them a fee of course..lol)

 

Looks like the weather is holding out there fairly well. Is it hot/humid?

[DerekRx]

The first official day of the trip was to Chessington World of Adventures. I'd been here before, back in 2002, but new to me was Dragon's Fury, as well as taking in a lot more of the park. Last time we were here was during a really crowded school day. Fortunately, this time it was a bit less crowded.

The log flume was nice and didn't get you too wet

Dragon's Fury even had an animatronic entrance dude who told you either ride the coaster or be fed to some hungry marsupials

Finally we found the monorail, after walking around the park twice and walking up and down like 9 flights of stairs

This way to House Bastard

Just monkeying around in the zoo

Yo, we're penguins. Don't try to take us home

I never learned this in Pharmacy School

Best darkride ever? Maybe to some, but to us its just House Bastard

And the baby Sea Lion was pretending he was Thunder Dolphin, but good

Turns out nothing in there was creepy. Here's some turtles doing their best Robb and James impressions

Mare is a bit concerned about what lies in the Creepy Caves

Dave was beyond excited to be in a soap themed darkride. See his excitement levels, they're off the charts!

Malaria Lake 2: Stagnant Pond

Someone told Dave Barry would be his roommate, so Dave tried to kill himself by eating the Cadbury Castle

Later on we'd catch up with Tommy and James again. and again, James was eating

Rattlesnake was still nicely themed, though seemed a bit more braked this time

Vampire was also ours during ERT. Hooray for not having to wait over an hour this time to ride

We kept yelling "90 degrees!"

This horseshoe curve was off the hinges

Dragon's Fury was one of the best coasters of the trip

The coaches were all made up with a strategic assigned seating that would last for 1 day.

At the hotel we saw Tommy and James. Of course James was eating breakfast!

[DerekRx]

Our surprise from Robb and Elissa was a stop at Coney Beach on the way to our hotel in Wales. Even I didn't know we'd be going here, so it was a nice little bonus 2 credits and memories to last a lifetime.

Dan was hoping this would send him into an Insulin coma and he'd wake up when we got to a good park.

You know the place is bad when Dan doesn't even feel obligated to go into private to shoot up

If only the clientelle actually looked like this!

With boobage to boot!

Probably the best ride at Coney

But the others just seemed to go nowhere

Melanie enjoyed the powered coaster

At least they had a cool little trailer type funhouse

And Nessi, another cha-ching!

like Mega Blitz, a not too painful Pinfari...until the final brakes

Coney Beach, home to some of the vilest scum in Wales...

[DerekRx]

The next day would find us at a good park with a great new coaster, Speed: No Limits, a Gerstlauer Eurofighter. Definitely the best new for 2006 coaster in England.

Did I mention Speed has some vertical stuff, like this loop!?

We wanted to ride this, but didn't feel like being wet for the 4 hour drive to Alton

Hydro: Water's Revenge...on Dan!

Nicole rode her first skycoaster, but I was too busy popping her skycoaster cherry to take a picture of the event

The Clown Coaster was a hard credit to get on this trip, mainly because of a ride op who didn't want to work

Even the sheep have better queueing skills than most humans, single file, you'll all get your turn

They act like they've never been this close to a coaster before!

People seemed to enjoy this coaster

Oh yeah, the park's also got a CCI woodie, Megafobia

They've added some Larson flyers since my last visit. Not the best flyers ever, but at least they're working!

mmm, and a vertical slide. Is there nothing this park doesn't do vertical??

Ok, NOW its the best thing ever!

Yeah baby, this is pretty much the greatest thing ever. Only one thing is missing...

Vertical lift and beyond vertical drop, definitely Derek approved

[Tomizzle For Rizzle]

YEAH for House Bastard! Great pics!

 

Tommy

[Shockwave]

 

If I hadn't read the caption I wouldn't have a clue what that was!

 

Great to relive those awesome few days I spent with you guys again.

[DerekRx]

Next up was a day at Alton Towers, one of the most well known parks in England. Its a really odd park, but is really cool, and is freaking HUGE.

Nemesis makes us go "teehee"

And its got my favorite inversion stuck in the middle of it

With a layout really twisted and a really unique setting, its just awesome

This ride stole all the forces that Silver Bullet, Talon, Patriot, Nemesis Inferno, and Great Bear were supposed to have

But here's the reason I love Alton so much, Nemesis!

I found more than just pink and purple in the gardens. Here's a hint of yellow too!

Worst darkride ever!

Just ask Barry!

Oblivion isn't as good as Sheikra, but it'll still make you crap your pants!

w00t!

Though lying on your back is just odd and pointless

and its fun, not too extreme

Air, not one of my favorite rides, but at least you don't have to hang for 10 minutes while the other train is dispatched like at SFGAm and SFGAd

The haunted house was redone into a shooting darkride. It was really good

I may not count powered coasters, but I'll still ride them. And this one was sweet

The RCT rapids didn't get you very wet

Wettest flume ever!

They added power boats to the lake at the park entrance

Hex, one of the most elaborately themed Vekoma Haunted Swings is actually inside the castle

Sorry Dave, you're not allowed to eat until we get to Liseberg

Barry rides with a chick, now he's happy and pathetic

Yeah baby, the corkscrew. Why I rode this again, I have no idea. It must have been love

Spinball Whizzer was another spinning coaster, but wasn't as cool as Dragon's Fury

But it was fun and only beat up Elissa

Rita is their newest coaster, an Intamin Rocket. I think its like their junior rocket, or a launched rollerskater

The centerpiece of the park is a real live old castle which can hold like 23 Disneyland Castles

Our hotel, Splash Landings had an indoor waterpark that was opened for like 9 minutes a day

I said my first photo would be of something "flowery and stupid" so here's James!

[ParkTrips]

Has Barry ever been seen without a FLCC shirt?

[DerekRx]

The next day was spent at Drayton Manor after some morning ERT at Alton on Air and Nemesis. I don't know if it was the lack of ERT at Drayton, the rain, or the new management, but the park seemed to really be different than last time, and not in a good way. I had a much better time back in 2002, but rode less and was stuck in the park with loads of school kids. This time the park was empty, we rode pretty much everything in the park, and still didn't really feel like we were having a lot of fun.

James enjoys his 19th Rollover for the day before the bus departs early for Blackpool

"Quack! Take us with you, we won't poop on everything like we do here!"

Tommy and James enjoy the shooting darkride, one of the best rides in the park

Yeah, here's your vertical loop shot for the day

The Zamperla Buffalo Coaster wasn't a very thrilling powered coaster

Nicole was starting to get homesick

Still one of the best drop towers out there. Sadly it was running at really terrible capacity mode

Malaria Lake 3: Jacuzzi Springs

This ride was new since 2002

The hottest action this pirate has seen in quite a while. Oh to be that pirate

The Pirates of the Caribbean rip-off had no wait

But after the drenching ride at Alton and seeing this, I opted out

I was thinking about riding this...

The only standup zero-g roll. Not a painful element, or coaster for that matter, just not really thrilling

Shockwave, still being painted, but no longer sponsored by 7-up

I finally got to ride the Intamin version of a frisbee. Good stuff

Nicole scores the Super Dragon

The X-car was just painful with its constricting and restraining restraints

G Force was the newest coaster at the park, taking the place of the Pinfari looper. I wish the Pinfari was still there instead

[larrygator]

Has Barry ever been seen without a FLCC shirt?

 

Joe, unlike you he also has a TPR 2006 UK Trip shirt. Ouch that hurt!

[Hercules]

Has Barry ever been seen without a FLCC shirt?

 

Joe, unlike you he also has a TPR 2006 UK Trip shirt. Ouch that hurt!

 

I actually kind of felt that pain on that one...

[martinb]

Shockwave, still being painted

 

STILL??? That must be the longest paint job in the history of the World.

 

Poor old DM, seemed like knowone enjoyed their day there.#

 

Martyn

[DerekRx]

After Drayton Manor, the next day had a few hours at Southport before heading back to Blackpool. I was really looking forward to Southport, since it was so cool the last time I was there. Of course, a lot has changed in 4 years; the flying scooters were in pieces, the ghost train didn't spin anymore, the helter skelter slide and wacky indoor whip-like ride were removed, and 2 coasters were closed. The wheel in the funhouse was still there though, and I'm sure it was great, but I didn't wear socks that day, so I couldn't partake.

With 2 credits closed and little crowds, we devoured this park and still had time to go bowling

Very strange looking ride

Southport got a new rotating Ferris Wheel

Loaded to the gills with random theming and a photo drop

Nicole still managed to get a few credits, like this Wacky Worm

The Traumatizer was also closed. Too bad?

James forgot sunscreen, so he took this umbrella. No one expected the weather would be nice in England for once

The park had a few dark rides. Too bad the Ghost Train didn't spin anymore, and the haunted swing was closed

Looks like the lift was constructed by old Lazy Eye

Cyclone also gave us some ERT. Too bad it was running kinda sluggish

Guess we won't be riding any flyers today

The original dark dark dinosaur was filled with random oddities

Dave takes a dive filled with airtime

Ted and Catrina enjoyed their ride together on this wooden mouse

We had ERT on this bad boy

King Solomon's Mines was still really scary and fun, though the restraints hurt when 2 people ride together

Everyone died on the wheel, pretty much

[DerekRx]

After Southport, we headed back to Blackpool for some ERT on Big Dipper. After that was a credit run to South Pier for some people, where I finally experienced the evil super spinning Waltzer there. Riding when we did worked to our benefit, Nicole and I were the only ones on the ride and the ride ops were double teaming our tub, spinning it at unbelievable speeds. It was the most insane spinning ever, and my neck really hurt.

 

The following day would take us back to Blackpool, a park I still can't seem to get enough of. Its so classic and historical, with ride upon ride upon ride. I pitied the people there for the first time who went off on their own, as even I was still having trouble remembering what was where. Blackpool is definitely in my top 3 parks in the world and has some great coasters and darkrides too.

Too bad the park closed so early, I could have so spent another 5 hours here

Tommy needs another ride on the Wild Mouse, solo for the best airtime

Before evening ERT, we just HAD to finally get our 99s

Next up, the Derby Racer. Too bad it doesn't actually race anymore

and offers a really nice view of the park

It dried us off nicely after Valhalla with its intense speed

Next we'll head to the Circle Swings

Don't forget the River Caves, a really nicely themed old mill

And Trauma Towers, complete with a secret ride at the end!

Time for the darkride tour, with goodies such as the Gold Mine

Next to Valhalla is the old Vikingar wooden shoot the chutes, or whats left of it...as the boneyard for Blackpool rides of yesteryear

And then we head to the greatest ride ever built, Valhalla!

The crew scores the last credit at Blackpool before lunchtime

It may be the only vertical loop in Blackpool, but I still love the park

James is preparing for next September's TPR trip to Japan

Lots of neat tricks and a long walkthru

Just one of the many darkrides, Noah's Ark is much better than the redo Kennywood did

Unique layout and awesome airtime

The Wild Mouse really impressed me this time

A few of us actually rode Space Invader 2 before it broke down, too bad its just a retheme of the original, with different trains

Finally, Avalanche opened to close out our ERT. This is the shortest but the most insane of the Mack Bobsleds

Big One wasn't too bad, and the first drop is fantastic

No one was interested in riding Tommy's Big One

The Big One was also a ERT gift. Would we have anything left to ride when the park actually opened?!

It didn't flip enough for my tastes, nor did it spin fast enough. Gimme a TopScan over this any day

Represent!

Bling was also opened for us. It looks better than it is

Roller coaster was also ours for ERT, shame they added seat belts

The following morning would give us ERT on Steeplechase, but only 2 sides were running

Here for 3 nights, so I got settled in with my beers

Our very posh hotel room at Big Blue. I could have slept on the floor with the heat on and it would have been better than Pontins

Dinner was held at Coasters, I got the salmon, which was awesome!

Ride ops would come from other rides just to spin people, but no one had a ride quite like Nicole and I

The ride ops really enjoy making you spin even more than you normally would

The best flatride experience ever!

Tommy and James enjoyed the "carousel spinny coaster" I mean Crazy Mouse at South Pier. Sadly the guy would not pull the pin for us

This trash can offered a warning to people like Dave and Bret "don't fall over me while gawking at all the dark rides"

Nicole liked the classic feel to the station with the fountains and such

The time at Blackpool started off with some ERT on Big Dipper

[niiicolaaah]

LOL!!! I look really angry in that Noah's Ark picture!!!!

[DerekRx]

The following day was split at 2 parks, Lightwater Valley and Flamingoland, both of whom offered us ERT sessions.

 

Lightwater Valley hadn't really changed since 2002, except they removed the Bat Flyer and log flume and replaced them with 2 other coasters, a Wacky Worm and a Pinfari Galaxi. Lightwater is a strange park, with lots of walking to actually get to rides, then lots of empty spaces. There's a nice wooded area, and then the rest of the park is essentially in a field. The big draw here is the Ultimate, an inhouse built terrain minetrain of randomness. What is it the ultimate of, waste of steel? oddity? combination of 2 extremes, sleep and insanity? Whatever it is, its messed up!

They also had one of these, but we didn't ride it because they loaded it slower than Gwazi

It left me more dumbfounded than the pseudo-hamburger we had for lunch that day

That ends up in this Malaria Lake 4: Toad Hole Basin

Its essentially a shuttle shoot the chutes

Now exactly WHAT is the Toad Hole?

That answers that question

"now where the heck is the Toad Hole?"

Rock on, Dave!

Also fairly new is the Caterpillar Coaster, a kiddie

Everyone is smiles on this ride, unlike in 2002!

Ladybird is an RCT-type Tivoli

Casey doesn't look too sure about this, especially with the gas cans in the backseat

The Grizzly is one of the newest coasters, a Pinfari Galaxy

Rat Ride is an indoor Wildcat, built underground

You know its an inhouse creation when they need a "3rd lift" to get it back into the station

World's slowest lift

And here's the big draw to the park the Ultimate

After walking by the greenhouse, here's the park entrance

[Tomizzle For Rizzle]

Great photos Derek. LOL to Barry's dookey pants.

[DerekRx]

Flamingoland, on the other hand, changed a LOT since 2002. They got rid of 2 awesome Schwarzkopf coasters (not that anyone besides Joe would care anyway, and he was too busy filing papers to even go on the trip, so who cares about him ) as well as the indoor Pinfari Thunder Mountain. But at the same time they added a bunch of cool rides like the Disk-O, and 2 great Vekomas (is that even possible to say!?). The park's also been getting better and better theming.

A great end to a well planned and executed day at Lightwater and Flamingoland, unlike the ACE trip of 2002

Doesn't Nicole look hot in this picture? I'm thinking about getting her a motorcycle

With a quick stop at a very disappointing ride

Finally we took the skyride over to ERT

And we saw a random peacock wandering about

Of course, we had to find the infamous flamingos of Flamingoland

It was themed to monster guys, and even had the fartometer like BubbleWorks used to

See, I'm not lying!

We even stumbled upon a darkride

and the same can be done with sideloops too!

This is how you turn 1 vertical loop into 2, just add water

Yup, loop and sideloop!

"Hey, do you see what I see?"

I guess 2 good, smooth Vekomas in 1 park will open up a time vortex to the 1980s and suck a few patrons thru the portal

Kumali was the surprise coaster of the trip, it was actually baby's butt smooth!

The Disk-O was actually working, that's like the first time I've actually seen one working lately!

I tried to tell these ninjas they should beat the crap out of the Evilution, but they ignored me

The Evolution was the worst flatride of the trip, with lots of uncomfortable hang time

The oncologist in me didn't like the amount of red or the peeling back skin on this Brit, so I left her my business card

The Wild Mouse was on stealth braking death mode

I opted to sit this one out, thank you very much

The park wasn't crowded either, so it didn't take 45 minutes to ride this kiddie coaster

Even BIG girls could ride!

The booster bike, Velocity, was a really cool Vekoma coaster

Here we is, and not an hour late!

[DerekRx]

After 2 parks in 1 day, Robb and Elissa figured it was time to attempt 3 parks in 1 day, Pleasurewood Hills, Joyland, and Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach. The task was accomplished easily, with us only needing a walkback to Enigma to ensure it would all work on a tight schedule. We even managed to finish early and get to the hotel at a more reasonable hour.

We even had time to chill on the beach before catching the bus back to London

Complete with some more TPRers who also devoured the parks in 2 hours or less!

Wow, another working Disk-O!

Big Mike came thru with his promise of free treats for winning the UK trivia contest, more 99 Whippy

Who did a good job at not killing us

This time I sat right in front of the brakeman

Time for some more rides on the scenic railway

I'll pass on this after the experience at Flaming O land

With another goofy snails ride, this one themed to random fairy tales

Joyland took like 5 minutes, so we decided to take the horse drawn carriage back up to Pleasure Beach

Hey fishy, how's it going?

As was this darkride

Snails was just weird

And a pseudo-Virginia Reel, which was a lot of fun

Home of Spook Express, a really random themed kiddie coaster

Then we headed down to Joyland, a few blocks away

And the darkride, with a gag that got Nicole

We also did the 3D funhouse, which was pretty cool

But the cycle was short

It was a fun ride

Which was cool because it had a working canopy

With time to kill, we rode "Mulan"

"Hi, I'm Bill Paxton, you may remember me from such Scramblers as Twister"

And it sent Nicole into triple digits

The scenic railway was pretty good

So here we are at Great Yarmouth, where we were originally going to have like 4 hours here, then they tried to cut it down to 2, but some people wanted 3 (we were done in 1)

"must...obey...billboard..."

On the way to Yarmouth, I saw this sign

And Nicole wanted to make out with the Vekoma track for the upcoming boomerang

We wanted to ride this, but the ride cycle was pretty long and we ran out of time

This little flume actually got you pretty wet

That ain't really 3D. And you thought Garfield's Nightmare was bad! (well, it still is!)

Oh wait, no, its just a "3D" boatride

Why is Nicole wearing these 3D glasses? Is she about to get on Dueling Dragons?

Spiral slides are fun

And that's where it goes! (as slow as possible!)

Heehee, straight

And the Snake in the Grass/Rattlesnake/Ladybird/probably 13 other names

The park also had a Huss Tri-Star

The main reason for the stop at Pleasurewood Hills was to ride the 1-of-a-kind Enigma (Cannonball Express) Schwarzkopf Jumbo V.

[DerekRx]

The final day of the official UK trip took us to Thorpe Park, the place where Robb and Elissa got engaged. The park added 2 big coasters since 2002, Nemesis Inferno and Stealth. Hitting this park on a weekend could have been disasterous, but Robb and Elissa thought of everything, not only did we get ERT on the 2 newest coasters, we also had express passes for all the other coasters as well as those 2, and some of the more popular flatrides. Even though the park was crowded, we managed to ride everything several times, and still have time to relax. It was a great end to the trip for those who didn't sign up for the add-on (those dumbasses).

But it didn't stop the ride...at least not for a few more days.

Until someone yelled "party fowl"

and had everyone running from the unloading train to the loading train. Quick and easy riding there

While not the best of the rockets, its not the worst either

The night ended with an hour on Stealth

Jeff, we tried to tell you!

We didn't get too wet on the log flume, and the double down surprised us

A lot of the flats had really short lines, but also really short cycles

With all the coaster credits obtained, we decided to ride some flats

Finally we wanted to hit Stealth while it was running. Thanks to our express passes, we were on and off again in less than 3 minutes

and some other cool inversions

Which means there's at least 1 vertical loop!

Next up, Colossus, the 10 inversion Intamin looper

And was fairly comfortable

The S&S Skyswatter was a lot cooler than I thought it would be

Detonator is a great drop tower, but sadly the soundtrack didn't work for us this time

And the interlocking corkscrews were a new thing for B&M to try on an invert

Inferno was cool with these water cannons under the loop

I could stare at this all day too

I could stare at this all day

First up was X:/No Way Out, but it wasn't opened yet, so we headed to Nemesis Inferno

Welcome to Thorpe. This does not look good

[coasterdude5]

Great pictures! I'm surprised Kumali turned out so smooth.

[OldJJman]

Great pics and captions Derek!

 

I was surprised not seeing more bar and beer pics. No, I didn't look in the "Beer" thread.

 

Maybe I'll get around to posting mine someday.

 

Since you didn't mention it in that last set of pics, I will-- Does Joe realize what he missed out on??

 

 

JJ

[Nrthwnd]

Great TR Derek!

 

"Merry Go Straight"

 

And ya know? The Mulan ride at Yarmouth. Looked like I missed a better caterpillar, than what I got in Southport, which ran.......forever.....and ever...... and on....and on... and eventually....... slowly.....raised it's...........cover.....then .... finally....slooooooowed down, stopped and then opened its FRIGGIN' COVER!!!!!

 

And after watching The Circulator at Flamingoland, decided it too was just..... not.....worth it. Until I saw the same version at Yarmouth - and saw it did indeed go muuuuch fasssster than that clodding thing at FlamLand.

 

Too bad I missed at both in Yarmouth. Had the time. Ah well.

 

And thanks for reminding me what I actually still did miss out on during this Awesome Amazing Trip of ours!!!

 

Thanks for sharing it all with us.