Chuck's Shameless Nostalgia TR: TPR's 2006 UK Trip

This report is so much fun to read. I love the wild mouse there. I really thought I was going to fall out of that thing. Shame I went for the first time only a couple of years ago so I never got to experience the wacky dark rides.

^You can still experience the Ghost Train and Alice, at least. I'm intrigued by the park's new Wallace and Gromit ride.

The beaver walk around character is probably in jail somewhere for sexual harassment.

We have more videos and pictures of it thrusting in my direction.

^You can still experience the Ghost Train and Alice, at least. I'm intrigued by the park's new Wallace and Gromit ride.

Blackpool's dark rides have that kind of charm where the ride and theming really are not great but somehow the whole thing works in some awkward way. Alice, Ghost Train, Gold Mine and River Caves all seem to have it.

Wallace and Gromit is not the best dark ride in the world but for what Blackpool required it is perfect. W&G fit in so well at Blackpool so it's a perfect park to have this ride. The whole area around the renovations looks much nicer too and it always seems to have a queue when i've been.

The shop full of W&G merchandise is amazing. So much stuff I want to buy!

Oh and yes, The Wild Mouse at BP is still one of my most favourite rides in the UK. It's an insane crazy mish mash of mice and wood!

This day was the only time I've ever been to Blackpool. We had so much fun during our visit. And Valhalla is among the greatest things ever.

dt

^I think my favorite part about Valhalla is how it really plays with you and tries to kill you in many different ways.

- Oh you're too wet, let me blow 60mph winds on you!

- Oh, now you're cold, let me blow up this fire close enough to melt your poncho.

- Oh, you're still here, let me electrocute you with this bolt of electricity.

- Ugh, you're still alive, fine, let me send you down this final drop and try to drown you.

It is the most fiendish water ride ever built. Hell, I got stuck in the front of the boat and was nailed by a waterfall as we floated into the show building!

What Elissa posted above is why almost ten years later, I still consider Valhalla one of the best non-coaster attractions at any park anywhere. It's such an insane combination of stuff trying to kill you, and the amount of water is just nuts. I remember Mary & I riding it four times in a row, because we just could not believe how crazy the ride was.

I can't recall hearing anything about the ride recently, but I really hope all the effects are still working and such. Would be a shame if they didn't take care of this attraction.

dt

Didn't it undergo a big rehab a few years ago?

Didn't it undergo a big rehab a few years ago?

I thought it was just facade and structural fixes, but who knows.

I looked at the Blackpool discussion thread, and someone mentioned some new "internal" scenes, as well as the facade rehab. Guess we'll have to go back and ride it to be certain.

^

So awesome, Chuck. We were there a few years later, '09 I think. Great memories.

Didn't it undergo a big rehab a few years ago?

 

 

I thought it was just facade and structural fixes, but who knows.

The ride had a whole new facade, the ice scene was cleaned up a bit and features an entire new statue and the audio system got upgraded so now the awesome theme plays louder than ever and the constant "please remain seated, the ride will restart shortly" from the operator is clearer than ever!

Also great look back at Pleasure Beach. While Wallace and Grommit is awesome I do miss Goldmine as its one of the first dark rides I ever remember going on and as for Magic Mountain, well id rather not remember

-Craig

as for Magic Mountain, well id rather not remember

 

-Craig

Here ya go, Craig!

I swear if I end up singing this at work tomorrow im definitely blaming you

^^ I'm not going to watch and listen.

I've finally blocked it out. I think.

^^ I'm not going to watch and listen.

+1

WELCOME TO OUR WORLD OF TOYS!

Thanks, now I want to either go back to Blackpool or to FAO Schwarz. Though I'd rather die on Valhalla than the streets of NYC.

^Ah, but there are other ways to die at parks in the UK, Derek. Take, for example, Lightwater Valley, the next stop on the nostalgia trail.

Lightwater is the home of a coaster with the rather modest, unassuming name of THE ULTIMATE--one of the, well, most "interesting" rides I'd encountered up to that time. You could say it's two rides. The first half is a rather gentle, rather bouncy ride through the English countryside. Yes, if this ride were a person, it would be a kindly old gent who gives candy to children, stops to pat a dog on the head, and gives money to save baby seals.

Then you reach the second lift hill, and the ride undergoes a "surprising metamorphosis." The kindly old gent seizes his chest, howls in pain and fury, and starts to grow into a horrifying, misshapen, twisted mass! He becomes a lurching, vicious beast that eats children, bashes puppies, and throttles baby seals with its bare hands. He is a soul in pain--and he takes it out on you.

When it took a particularly sharp curve, I bashed my right elbow so hard on the side of the train that my entire arm went numb for about five minutes. This is not an exaggeration.

They really should rename this coaster "The Strange Ride of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."

This park is also the home of a bizarre "underground" coaster--Rat Ride (now called Raptor Attack, I understand). Yes, you ride in a "rat car" coaster (an old Schwarzkopf Wildcat) after making your way through a queue themed to a sewer, complete with water dripping on your head.

One other attraction of note, now gone, was the Toad Hole. This was (I think) a "homemade" Shoot the Chutes or Splash Boat ride that begins, strangely enough, in a hole inhabited by a toad. There was some goofy preshow that ended with a hobo mask popping up on a stick--right before you plunged to your doom into a pond of rather sketchy water.

Yes, Lightwater is a unique park.

I really don't remember where I took this photo. But if you're going to run a "garden shop," it may as well be a "studley royal" one.

Looks like we're in the right place.

So wrong on a number of levels.

Don't let the chirping birds and gentle country breeze fool you. This is a descent into madness.

It seems a lot longer.

Goodbye, dear friends! See you on the other side, I hope.

Hmm--this could be Rat Ride. Just a hunch.

OK, find the a) stoner, b) maniac, and c) psychotic.

Water! We're all doomed!

OK, I feel like I've just stepped into a game of RCT.

This was the first Ladybug coaster I'd ever ridden.

Look! It's Primeval Whirl in its primitive form!

Yes, I feel like I've been magically transported to Disney's Animal Kingdom.

I think this old Zyklon is gone now . . .

. . . and, you know, maybe that's not such a bad thing.

But, hey, Wacky Worms are eternal.

Er, OK. Not a problem.

"Crap! I swim in that frickin' water every day!"

I hope this water is a bit cleaner. That's all from Lightwater.

Lightwater seems like a really strange and unique park. I'm definitely enjoying this thread.

They really should rename this coaster "The Strange Ride of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."

Perfect, Chuck. I think we should petition the park to change the name to this one. They might go for it, lol.

That park was so overly spread out, even the map didn't make that much sense to it. It took a lot of us

forever to find that Wacky Worm, "in the woods over there somewhere..." I remember being told.

And the food. Well, enough said about that.

Toad Hole was undeniably The Wierd One of the park, which included Rat Ride coaster. The entrance "hole" was

questionable. It was a long, snaky, slightly smelly enclosed queue - and then, when we were in the boat, everything still felt cramped, around us. Cheesy pre-show I seem to remember, then WHAM! Shot out of that "hill", shooting downhill - towards - That Water.

A very wierd ride. Sorry it's gone.

Another unlucky group gets spewed out of Toad Hole.

Hurtling towards certain, toxic, death.

I think my knee still hurts from where I bashed it on the second half of The Ultimate. That ride is just wrong.

Wasn't the garden center right next to the park? Maybe they had better food.

dt

I loved the Mr Hyde part of The Ultimate, I know I was in the minority. I did ride it about 6 times and of course didn't have time to experience the Toad Hole. At one point by group was walking off the beaten path and we found a operating tower ride (can't remember if it was launch or drop) in what appeared to be plopped down in the middle of the woods. I remember after the UK trip asking if anyone had a picture of it and no one else remembered even seeing it.