Divv3k Posted July 18, 2010 Share Posted July 18, 2010 (edited) I wasn't going to post these but then I looked through them and thought there was some decent material for a TR here (actually just some opportunities to poke fun at Mike but I'll pad it out with a TR too). This was actually my first visit to Skegness (hereafter known only as The Skeg). But it wasn't through lack of trying to visit! I'd actually planned out visits to The Skeg three times before this visit and each time on the morning of the visit I'd call up the park and ask them if the SLC would be open that day. Every time the answer was no. So in steps TPR, and I figure if I'm ever going to get on the Giant SLC my best chance is with TPR and so I actually made the journey all the way to The Skeg. (It's not a nice journey!) Lo and behold the Giant SLC never opened and so no one on the trip got to ride. I'm taking the blame for this as the ride is obviously cursed when it comes to me. So I ahve to say sorry to everyone who didn't get to ride! You'll all be pleased to hear that I plan on never trying to get that credit again so I'm sure it'll run perfectly for all eternity! As for the rest of The Skeg. Well the less said, the better really. Fantasy Island itself is an absolute dive. It's actually just a load of markets that happen to have some rollercoasters and flat rides planted around. I will say that the other Vekoma coaster was very good though! Unbelievably smooth! The other park in The Skeg is Botton's Pleasure Beach. It's a far nicer place than Fantasy Island even if it is quite small. It really is just one of those typical seaside parks in the same vein as Great Yarmouth or Adventure Island. I really liked it! So whilst The Skeg didn't leave the greatest of impressions I really am glad I finally visited and got most of the credits. Even better I got to hang out with some great friends I hadn't seen in a while! (Although I still can't wash the last of that damn Skeg off me!) Okay, without any further ado I present to you, The Skeg. We’ve made it to The Skeg! The home of the market and scallywags. But before we go anywhere it’s time for Mike to CREAM UP!!! We start the morning out with some Millennium Coaster ERT. With it being a Vekoma everyone is preparing for the worst! But somehow this thing was SMOOTH!!! I mean REALLY smooth! Erik tells me that Arrow had nothing to do with this one. That must be it! Even the loop is smooth! Sadly, Jubilee Odyssey was not open on my fourth attempt at getting this credit. I will not be trying again! This coaster is dead to me! Fantasy Island take a really creative approach when it comes to naming their rides. It so simple too – you just take the ride type and add the word “Fantasy” before it and voila, your ride is named! But don’t forget – NO JAZZ HANDS!!! Ask Lou about how much she LOVES the Fantasy Mouse! Hi Larry. Hands up if you’re too fat for Bouncy Bouncy! Yes, Russ is tall. That’s the joke. Mike searches through Lou’s bag for his sunglasses whilst TPDave is actually wearing said sunglasses. It’s funny because it’s a joke at Mike’s expense. Does anyone want to ride with Craig? No? Sorry man! The Skeg is home to a number of these crazy flat rides that you wouldn’t get me on in a million years. I see a lot of regret on these faces! Now you may have thought that The Skeg and Fantasy Island is all about the rides, but you’d be wrong. The Skeg is about one thing only – THE MARKETS! Nice to see that the M&Ds empire isn’t just restricted to Scotland! Can I have some salad with my Fat Balls please? Wow, I think we may have just walked through a time portal into the 1980s! If one positive thing can be said about The Skeg, it’s that they make damn good cakes! Gotta love the markets in The Skeg, they cater for everyone. Cheese bags, they help ALL cheese say fresh longer! Anyone want to go get their picture taken with this evil looking owl? No, didn’t think so! Fantasy Island does have a dark ride, The Magical Seaquarium. (Larry, I think you need this sign!) It features tiny raft boats and other random sea-stuff. This is Bob the Lobster. He keeps his eyes in his binoculars. so that they stay dry After a horrendously long wait for our food we were finally able to make it out of the ghetto part of The Skeg! That’s right there’s a part of The Skeg that is not ghetto! (well not as ghetto as Fantasy Island at least!) And that part is Botton’s Pleasure Beach! Yes, that contraption up there is indeed an inverted Wacky Worm! The longer than normal benches allow for some very cosy threesomes! Yeah, it’s inverted! Don’t believe me? Then check the reflection in my sunglasses! This is the runaway train, except it didn’t so much “run away” as “meander slowly along”. Those Fudge brothers sure love to meander! Putting rollercoasters on top of arcades seems to be pretty popular at seaside parks these days. Don’t let Blackpool catch wind of this. They’d probably put up the arcade and “forget” to put the coaster back up! I’m liking this place a lot already! Little do we know but Rockin’ Roller is about to realign our insides! We see you, Wacky Worm! You’re next! Rockin’ Roller was my first experience with one of a Fabbri Wild Mouse. I can’t say I’m any more excited about these than I am about the Reverchon ones! It wouldn’t be a British park without a Wacky Worm now would it? And it wouldn’t be a proper visit unless there was a Brit Crew takeover of sad and pathetic proportions! Are you guys ready to have the beejesus spun out of you? I wouldn’t know for sure but this looked like the craziest waltzer I’ve ever seen! All that was missing was the crazy loud bass music! Scottish Steve, cover your eyes! Watch out, the Mad Hatter is ready to pounce! "Hello? Hello?" Random group photo! It was so great to meet up with so many old friends today and meet a few new ones! So with a Yorkie McFlurry in hand I’m getting the hell out of The Skeg, never to return! Thorpe Park is next! Edited July 23, 2010 by Divv3k Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fudgey Posted July 18, 2010 Share Posted July 18, 2010 Excellent as always Divv! The Skeg is like Herpes virus.... it will always be there in you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryancrash Posted July 18, 2010 Share Posted July 18, 2010 The Super Waltzer at Botton's was absolutely the best flat ride ever! (Unless you're not into spinny rides, of course...) Wasn't Skeggy where Robb picked up the inflatable love sheep? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Divv3k Posted July 23, 2010 Author Share Posted July 23, 2010 TPBash! This was a really cool day. It was a mishmash of the last day of the TPR UK trip, the first day of the Europe trip and a few Brit Crew meetups were thrown in too. The Brit Crew had been talking about this day for a while in the preceding months and had lovingly dubbed it "TPBash" in honour of our number one, ultimate Thorpe Park fanboy. Now let me just say that I've visited Thorpe Park a lot. I used to live close to it and have visited it probably more times than any other park and I really am a bit jaded when it comes to Thorpe Park because it doesn't have that many rides that I actually like to ride! Add in numerous issues in the past about operations and clientele I don't always think upon my visits too fondly. Today was a total exception, without question this was the absolute best day at Thorpe Park I've ever had. I'm sure the ERT and Fast Tracks played a huge roll but the place had a really great vibe this day and it really was great spending it with so many friends and watching people see the park for the first time! I don't need to say too much about the rides, I'm sure if you go through my past TRs you can get my thoughts on them. But I will say that whilst I liked Saw when I rode it originally I thought it was even better today! Yeah, there's still that issue that plagues all Eurofighters where the recently rehabbed cars run far better than the others but really Saw is probably my favourite ride at the park after Inferno. Okay, okay. Photos. I now present to you, TPBash... Today we’re at Thorpe Park for TPBash! We’re starting the morning off as the first riders of the day on Saw! But before any of that it’s time for Mike to CREAM UP!!! Saw in the morning without queuing is the best way to start any visit to Thorpe! GAME OVER! I have to say that Saw was running really good today. The ride really has grown on me quite a lot! It’s extra sizzly outside today so a normal cream up job just won’t do! Seems you can't put your hands anywhere in Thorpe without getting it stuck in a pile of syringes! New for 2010, just for Scottish Steve – The Saw Alive Horror Maze! I like it already! Whilst not the scariest walkthrough ever I got a real kick walking through all those different scenes from the movies! I really did like it! Rivers? Where we're going, we don't need rivers! Looks like Mike’s suffering an inconvenience. Hey look, it’s Scottish Lou! I think Lou might be making a joke that pertains to Russ’s height. Is it too soon for Fabbri-tower-related captions? I think TP may be sizing up a scare-Steve opportunity. WOW! That’s a lot of Fast Tracks! Thanks to Robb and Elissa we didn’t have to wait for anything all day! Yup, we’re Fast Tracking it to the max! You’re doing it wrong! Nemesis Inferno remains my favourite coaster at Thorpe Park! It was running really good again today! I wasn’t going to post this. Then I looked at Larry. The Wizarding World comes to Thorpe Park for one day only! Nice! This actually makes X:\ WTF worth riding! (if only to satisfy your curiosity that it really is as messed up as you think it is!) Gotcha, Steve. Log Flume, getting eaten by the trees. The Lion Bar shake from this place was amazing! Thanks for putting in my order, Larry! OMG, in the bazillion or so visits to Thorpe Park I’ve made, this is the first time I’ve ever saw people on this beach!!! Both sides were open too! I still don’t understand why Thorpe don’t just get rid of this area but at least it’s existence was justified today! I better not say too much about this photo. All I will say is that it was totally worth getting whacked in the back of the head with an ice lolly. Thorpe has added this really cool new upcharge that lets friends beat the crap out each other! It’s basically a riff on Duel from Gladiators, very amusing to watch! It’s even funnier watching Scottish Steve get his arse kicked! Yep, Steve. You were pish. Oopsie!!! Better put some more coaster photos in… Is that enough coaster photos? I hope so! Truer words... As our day at Thorpe comes to a close we decide we should all go back in time one more time on the rapids! Fran joined us too! I almost forgot to mention that Beth met up with us today! I hadn’t seen Beth since the Midwest trip three years ago, it was really good to see you again Beth! It may be the evening but that doesn’t mean Mike can let up on the creaming up! How about a little Saw ERT to finish off TPBash? Works for me! Look at it being all… Eurofighter-y… Beth cherishes the extra special Fast Track she was given. Beth keeps it under her pillow and pets it every night. Brad happened to criticise one of the bathroom at Thorpe Park which resulted in the ultimate TPFanboy engaging in full-on attack mode! Oh dear… After an amazing day at Thorpe we got to make it even better with dinner (and lots of beer!) at Wagamama! Can anyone tell me what number this is? OMG, have you ever seen anything scarier in your life?!?! I don’t think Beth is gonna use her iPhone 4 ever again! I can’t let this TR pass without mentioning Andrew who was on his last full day in the UK today! It was amazing having Andrew over for those six months but man, how they flew by! Hope you get back here soon, Andrew! As for Thorpe Park, well I can honestly say this was the best day at the park I’ve ever had so a huge thank you to everyone who was involved! Thanks for reading! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coaster_dude2002 Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 Another great trip report Divv. I hope everyone has been treated or recovered from being covered in Skeg! I completely forgot about Steve and Dave on the gladiators thing. Brought back lot of fun memories from that day. A great way to finish my time with you guys in the UK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrygator Posted July 24, 2010 Share Posted July 24, 2010 Divv - I'm glad I could make your day at Thorpe so awesome. Thanks, for not puking in my luggage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobra_roll06 Posted July 25, 2010 Share Posted July 25, 2010 This was by far the best visit I've had at Thorpe. Both Nemesis & Saw were running great and I finally got to ride Samurai (which was awesome!). Oh, and what are you talking about? I clearly beat Dave at all 3 rounds with ease! Were you not watching? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecoasterkid Posted August 3, 2010 Share Posted August 3, 2010 Looked like a great day at Thorpe! I'll do my best to come out with Andrew for his next visit so I can meet the rest of the Brit Crew and see old friends again!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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