piers Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 So this weekend I went to London to visit a few good friends and to go ride the christmas rides and have lots of drinks, all of those things happened and it was a lot of fun, tiring but fun. A great way to end my coaster season anyway! Im pretty boring so I will just show you pictures... And here is 1 more terrible picture to end the report! Seriously get to Hyde Park before 3rd of January if you can because it was seriously an amazing event, my pics dont even nearly do it justice, it was huge and packed and full of fun! Bye bye. We walked through the intestines of an inflatable dinosaur which was nice but a little silly. You cant throw a stick in London without it hitting an icerink this time of year! Here is Hyde's. I had to put another picture of Spuk in here because I liked it so much! I was very impressed with the holiday layover for the Big Apple, I didnt ride though as Im still not that bothered about things. Here is another one of those ones. Winter Wonderland Express was very fun, even if it played terrible christmas songs! The strobe lights for 10 minutes easily made up for it. A lot of Haribo, I didnt have any as there was a bar next to it. Another of the drinking areas, this one had indoors and a lovely balcony area for me to do smoking on, and judge people from. These lovely girls sang there litttle hearts out for hours only to be upstaged by me and Denise dancing infront of the stage, they asked us to move over the microphone. Pirate Walkthrough attraction, this was another amazingly well done ride, much better than a lot of similar permanent attractions at other parks, I did get very wet though when I leaned on a waterfall for quite a while... Here is 3 of the 9 chillers at one bar area, bear in mind the bar area was surrounded by other bar areas, it was crazy, its a good job I decided to stay true to myself and not join AA or I would have been in hell! Some f the lovely christmas lights over one of the many many drinking areas. I was kind of like the same amount of alcohol as at HHN, if they added more! Im aware that it is sideways but I very wanted you all to see the ride penetrating the black (um yellow!) hole! It was pitch black inside so I took a picture with my flash on to see the trackwork, instead I saw the floor. Black Hole coaster, in a tent, I have no clue where they came up with the idea! The Chinese themeing was a nice touch and the ride was really good fun, we did this several times also! Lovely festive ferris wheel, we didnt ride as it put the fear of God into Denise but it looked very fancy. Fun House, this thing was huge, I have no clue how many trailers they would need to move it! This is how terrifying it was. One of the drop parts with another level and cars beneath. The biggest drop happens right after the initial lift, funny that... Spuk House with real fire was amazingly good fun over 3 levels, we rode this twice, meaning they got £16 from us as it was £4 each, most rides were the same, I didnt mind though as they were all amazing. There was a giant midway game area which was amazing but also a little annoying as they didnt take cash, you had to use ride tokens to play, I would have drunkenly wasted a lot of money if this wasnt the case. This was like a terrible giant snowflake that span whilst the cars span, it looked horrid so we walked far away from it. Oh, this is what the carriage looked like on the mouse. This cup could have contained anything, I tried so many new drinks this day, it was awesome! The line for this was huge but the guys operating it were insane and yelled a lot, I think we waited 10 minutes and didnt stop moving throughtout the whole wait! Ok, so the next day, and very hungover we headed to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park which was amazing! Our first ride was the Inverted Mouse, it was ass but also so much fun. I should point out it was late afternoon so ofcourse by this point I was drunk again. I then spent an hour playing Para Para Paradise on the only arcade machine I have ever seen! I have a lot of photos of this but they are being saved for 2 very special boys. The classy bar at the attractions end where we recieved our 'I survived certificate' which was really a flyer to become a fan on facebook. I made a new best friend, he was the most christmas themed part of Pasaje. Its the Pasaje del Terror haunted walkthrough! Its a slightly smaller clone of the Blackpool attraction with an added 3d movie, which was terrible but hilarious after a lot of drinking. This is how Denise and I looked when on it, I think I should trim my fringe.. After this we left the 02 as it just sucked terribly. We left to go to the most fun attraction in London though (if youre terrible like me!) This was incredibly fun and had really cool techno music whilst it went around, I did 'the Pointer'. I dont know what this is but it looked fun and had a juggling snowman on top. Pasi and Sakura on the inverted Ghost Train, it was pretty fun, Pasi was terrified. It was marketed as having Live actors, it wasnt a huge lie, when we were about to exit the ride the operator yelled at us whilst holding a puppet! Here it is, I like how it is neatly tucked away inside the Dome, in an area with 3 other rides, this is not the idea the website gives you, the event was pretty much a huge letdown, I am very glad I went to here before Hyde Park the next day. So we found one of the few scattered around rides. I think it was a Galaxi or somethign like that, if you know me you will be aware that I dont really know about things, it was purple and yellow though. Here is the view as you walk towards the 02 christmas offerings. its blurry because Im terrible, and drunk... So we started at the 02 arena where we were welcomed by a very fancy cigarette bar, this came in very handy! Also, the cigarettes were very cheap, especially for London. Oh, and the gave me a free portable ashtray called a Stub Tidy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Divv3k Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 That was quality, Piers! I never realised there were quite so many credits at the different carnivals! If I realised that I would have went when I lived down there! I can sense a Brit Crew weekend in the capital next Christmas! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 Looks like fun! I can't believe you did a proper Photo TR!! So impressed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piers Posted December 14, 2009 Author Share Posted December 14, 2009 Looks like fun! I can't believe you did a proper Photo TR!! So impressed! I know right, its almost as if I like rides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteornotes Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 This report contains some of the most amazing photos and captions ever. I am in awe. Though it loses a point for not one utterance of "bitch please!". dt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukpete Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 the hyde park event look like they really pulled out the stops this year, never had more than one coaster previously I don't think. might actually go into the centre of the city I live in for once to visit the thing before it shuts. the o2 event is new this year so i can't really comment on that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwm1444 Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 I attempted to do the same events last week - I say 'attempted', 'cause nothing at the O2 was open. Hyde Park, however, was amazing. Loved the Suspended Mouse, Spuk was great (a bit 'touchy-feely', though!)..but the highlight was DEFINITELY Pirates Adventure. The rocking galley with only ropes to hold on to..the crap soundsystem..the unsynchronised animatronics..the final scene in general. Loved it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLIPDUDE Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 Jumping ride tokens, Batman! I had no idea London goes so all-out crazy during the holiday sseason! That looks AWESOME! Is the Galaxi new? I'm wondering where the one from my home park went. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robinschroder Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 Thanks for posting, Piers! The Hyde Park setup had totally passed me by... but now I know they've got a 220ft drop tower, I'm totally there as soon as I can be! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dandaman Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 Aaaaand my plane ticket is booked. Also, I think the following sentence sums up the TPR mindset in some strange way: We walked through the intestines of an inflatable dinosaur which was nice but a little silly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piers Posted December 14, 2009 Author Share Posted December 14, 2009 Thanks for posting, Piers! The Hyde Park setup had totally passed me by... but now I know they've got a 220ft drop tower, I'm totally there as soon as I can be! I would not go just for that, for some reason they are running it in like 'elevator mode'. It rises slowly then slowly drops half way and then does some other random slow stuff! It bothered me which is why I did not include pictures of it, lmao! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robinschroder Posted December 29, 2009 Share Posted December 29, 2009 (Hope you don't mind me hijacking your thread, Piers!) Well, I finally managed to go along to Hyde Park yesterday to ride Maurer Söhne's Power Tower 2. Whilst definitely not as forceful as an Intamin or an S&S drop tower (mainly due to the fact it doesn't technically freefall) it was a lot of fun, with several small pops of airtime! It was also really great to get such a unique view over Hyde Park, The Serpentine and the whole of London from up at the top. The programme they ran when I rode involved holding us at the top for a good 30 - 40 seconds followed by a drop, then back up to the top with an immediate drop, and then one more with a 2-stage lift up. Then they asked if we all wanted to ride again and we had a couple of bonus drops - the first a 2-stage drop, the second a normal drop. It was £6 a go (!) but I really enjoyed it. I rode nothing else, although it all looked like a lot of fun (if not a little expensive!). Here's a deliberately lo-fi video I shot on a Japanese toy camera with no LCD screen. Robin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OTomM0tObY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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