rctneil Posted November 11, 2014 Share Posted November 11, 2014 (edited) Hey all! I thought I would do a quick post to outline all the theme parks and places of a similar nature that I have visited this year as an overview. First of all, it's been an amazing year, i've visited a ton of new parks, several ones i've visited previously, met up with old friends and new, participated in a variety of weird and wacky things and overall just had an amazing time. So first off, when the theme park season began (sort of, in February), I headed off for an early year visit to Alton Towers! Arrived and ready Ready for first coaster of the year, same as always, Nemesis! It's Fright Time The towers of Alton Wheeee! Vertical panorama of the flying machine in the Alton Towers Hotel At the beginning of March, I visited Thorpe Park for their Annual Pass preview day which turned out to be a very quiet day which was great for several rerides. Going down Swarm Bypassed this. Too cold for water rides Conveluted.nltrack Going down neil_2014_recap_00032.jpg[/attachment] neil_2014_recap_00043.jpg[/attachment] neil_2014_recap_00047.jpg[/attachment] neil_2014_recap_00050.jpg[/attachment] neil_2014_recap_00097.jpg[/attachment] The whole park was really nice. The day was quiet so very short lines for everything. The new for 2014 ride was Sky Scream. Excellent ride too, apart from the transition after the big launch was extremely sudden and took me by surprise. Dive! I think the ambulance needs a helping hand Smile! The designer of Nemesis ARGH Heeeelllp! Such an amazing little wooden coaster. Hidden away in Wales. Wish more people would travel to Oakwood to try it out. Delete, Delete, DELETE! Not terrible but not great. The ride op had to climb up to the hill after the first drop to push the car to ensure it didn't roll back and stall! This is one of those really fast Fabbri spinners. GET OFF MY CAR!!!! Hello new Postman Pat ride The Little Mermaid Get outta the photo! Loop-de-Loop This was such a fun ride. The lifthill takes you by surprise All ready to do some obstacle courses! What a pretty park. GGGGGGGGG's Small compact coaster but really fun ride. Henry the farting dog The worlds first Eurofighter A very strange boat ride Reactions as the top of the tilting drop tower, errrm, tilts You can never buy enough dog fart woopie cushions! The odd Bell ride Great fun and highly themed kiddie coaster! LEGOLAND! We got to ride the new Ghost attraction ROAR!!!! Two peoples birthday on the same day so they picked up their birthday badges! ARRRRRGH! This was a really fun non stop ride. Aaron takes his throne as Thor Very very intimidating I really enjoyed Orkanen and it's overbanked turn out of the tunnel. Wheeeee! I think this is the last photo of the sunglasses.... Beautiful views from the ferry Norwegian loop in Norway! Steve enjoying the launch of Speed Monster What can I say? I said GET OUT OF MY PHOTO!!!! OMG!!! THIS RIDE IS AMAZING!!!!!!! I did this. Robb did that. Helix was a great ride too, however a little rattly Drinks are good Oh no I'll be up there shortly Twisty on Twister I told you so We made it! The main deck on the overnight ferry Didn't quite break the speed record Did not like this. Torture contraption Watch out Michael! 10 green bottles hanging on the wall.... Roller Coaster at Wicksteed Park Cobra on an airtime hill Really smooth Galaxi coaster at Clarence Pier Excited! AMAZING!!!! Edited November 11, 2014 by robbalvey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rctneil Posted November 11, 2014 Author Share Posted November 11, 2014 So, after Holiday Park we headed down to Rust and spent the next two days at Europa Park. I have to say that Europa Park is my second favourite theme park. The park is stunning, has a HUGE variety of coasters and rides and everything is maintained perfectly. Wodan is another fantastic woodie and has the best themed queue of ANY wooden coaster. After Europa Park, we visited Tripsdrill in Cleebronn. The park last year opened Karacho, a Gerstlauer launched Infinity Coaster. I enjoyed it, best parts were the launch, lapbar only seating and the dive loop into the tunnel! Karacho Mammut wins the award this year for quietest wooden coaster! It sort of bounces along the track and gives a decent ride. The dark ride part at the beginning was cool too. Mammut Ok, so after the Germany trip, it was time to FINALLY head over to Fantasy Island in Skegness. After a very very early start I get to Skegness to find it cold, pretty windy and raining slightly so my chances of riding Jubileee Odyssey looked very slim indeed. Thankfully Odyssey did open and I rode it several times. It's not actually that bad apart from one rough spot. Pretty much EVERYTHING else in the park was totally closed. so only managed to ride one coaster, the Top Scan and the shot tower. I ahve to say I was very disappointed by Fantasy Island in general. Fantasy Island Jubilee Oddessey LOOK AT THE COLOUR OF THAT WATER!!!!!!!!! Halloween begins! Being a Merlin Annual Pass holder has it's benefits as I was invited to the Annual Pass preview event for Fright Nights at Thorpe Park. I spent the whole day there and then Fright Nights began at 6pm. I visited all 5 mazes: Studio 13 which was new for 2014, Cabin in the Woods, Blair Witch Project, My Bloody Valentine and Saw Alive. All of them were good fun but not too scary. I enjoyed getting split up from my group in My Bloody Valentine where I went alone and rejoined them later. The director is ready.... A few in the dark rides including the Swarm ended the evening. Night rides on the Swarm October also saw me getting to use my birthday present of a 100mph zip line. This took place at a quarry in Wales and saw people flying over the quarry lake at blistering speeds: Wheeeee! In the afternoon I paid a visit to little known, GreenWood Forest Park. This is a nature park focusing on education. It is also home to the worlds only people powered roller coaster. Learning about potential and kinetic energy conversions. Then mid October was time for the yearly visit to Scarefest at Alton Towers. This year they had two mazes on offer, Terror of the Towers and The Sanctuary. Both were excellent and I preferred them both to the mazes at Thorpe Park. Alton also had two scare zones: ZOMBIES Scare Zone and Scary Tales. Ready to be marmalised in the Sanctuary On the 1st of November I took part in Zombie Earth with Holger, Bjorn and James in Birmingham. This took place at and around the Custard Factory. We were given a briefing and a map and had to run through zombie infested areas to locate coordinates to allow us to continue. Zombies were one of three types (Fast moving, Slow moving and sound activated.) It was a great event and very well set up. A couple of injuries happened but we all survived (just). Hmmmmm? Then, finally, this past weekend I visited Alton Towers for the final time to see the Ultimate Fireworks event. It was spectacular show (Video coming tommorrow) and a fantastic end to the theme park season. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA Don't Look Down Last rides on Nemesis for the year! and thanks for reading. So I just want thank everyone who has come along to some of these parks with me and to those who have organised the events I ahve participated in. It's been a fun packed year and I hope to see some of you next year! Thankyou! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasternate Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 Awesome trips. You traveled a LOT. I wish I could do that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattguyver Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 You had an amazing year! Glad we got to do Scandi together! Here's hoping 2015 is even more amazing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PKI Jizzman Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 I don't think I've ever seen that standalone one sided intamin Drop Tower before... how strange! Too funny to see it like that. Thanks for the photos, looks like a year that will be hard to follow up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mousch Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 Great Recap Neil, it was a pleasure to be able to share a lot of your theme park adventures with you, with plenty more in 2015 hopefully!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted November 15, 2014 Share Posted November 15, 2014 A walk-through haunt with Robb as a monster has to be your worst nightmare, Neil. Looks like you had a more interesting year than I did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rctneil Posted November 16, 2014 Author Share Posted November 16, 2014 A walk-through haunt with Robb as a monster has to be your worst nightmare, Neil. Looks like you had a more interesting year than I did. Yep. It certainly was! I managed quite a few scary attractions this year. The mazes at the Merlin attractions are ok normally as I know what style of scares to expect so it's the new stuff that gets me. One that also stands out was the ghost train at Bakken which I rode with Martin and as usual I had my head down and tried not to look at what was coming. Martin meanwhile was laughing and enjoying the ride as any person should be doing. Half way through the ride there was a ride op sat in a seat to the right hand side of the track who jumped out. He didn't seem to be wearing a costume, just standard clothes but boy did Martin shout out when he jumped out at us as we passed! It was hilarious! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted November 16, 2014 Share Posted November 16, 2014 Very cool report! Can't wait to hang out with my bestie again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azza29 Posted November 16, 2014 Share Posted November 16, 2014 An enjoyable read, and some great pics, Neil. I didn't realise there was any photographic evidence of my riding that tiny kiddie coaster in Norway! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rctneil Posted November 16, 2014 Author Share Posted November 16, 2014 An enjoyable read, and some great pics, Neil. I didn't realise there was any photographic evidence of my riding that tiny kiddie coaster in Norway! Haha yep. I have the evidence. You'll never be able to deny riding Teeny Weeny ever again! Sorry about that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werner Posted November 16, 2014 Share Posted November 16, 2014 Looks like you had a great year! And some great pics too! Let's see what 2015 will holds... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
technfxrick Posted November 18, 2014 Share Posted November 18, 2014 Great Report!!! Awesome we got to hang out on Scandi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rctneil Posted November 23, 2014 Author Share Posted November 23, 2014 Just wanted to post my mini video of the 2014 Ultimate Fireworks event at Alton Towers which rounded out the year and finished it off superbly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milst1 Posted December 25, 2014 Share Posted December 25, 2014 Great report, Neil! I really enjoyed it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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