Lightwater vally coaster crazy meet trip report

the first trip of 2011 for the ukcoaster crew took us to lightwater vally for the first time in the coaster crazy history.

10 am and we met outside the gates. it was a very sunny and loverly day (yes i have sunburn now). we had all brought tickets online to went into the collection office to get our tickets. upon entering the park the first thing you see is the chairswings. just a standered one but all the rides had a fairly long ride time so made a good ride (and for me a terrorfying one. i hate things on chains that spin). we also hit up the dodgems but they needed to be a little quicker but still a good ride.
time to head up the hill towards the first coaster of the day, the ultimate. not shure what to expect we entered the station. the station was pretty big and very long and like the rest of the park very very clean an tidey. its a very wierd coaster indeed. while waiting for the train to get back to the station (yes 1 train operation all day ) you get plenty of time to have a look. the track is not very wide and there are no drive wheels just lots of chain and a single break at the end of the station, not at a single point though does a break engage the train so this would make it the first gravity propeled coaster i have been on that dosent use any sort of breaking mechanism. the train pulls in and you sit in the very hard seats to be greated with possiably the best restaint system i have seen. its a shame that the whole thing is bodged together though. there is a seatbelt between your legs, you slide forward and you get to feel like a women. the bar itself came down and can then be adjusted backwards and forwards to cominsate for any size person, from petit little me to the huge girth of gouldy. so you feel pretty comfortable to begin with as you leave the station but this will not last for long. you reach the crest of the first lift hill slowly and the drop is smooth but then it all goes wrong from there on. the first hil is brutle in the front and back but nice in the middle. you then get a mix of small air hills and some banked and some unbanked hills. you hit the 2nd hill pretty quick and with no breaks but yet again your in for a little wait for the very slow lift hill and turn at the top to get you to the 2nd drop. at this point your thinking "well that wasent that bad" but ohh how wrong you are. the 2nd half will kick you from here to the drink of death. the corners are banked but everything is litrially like it was built in roller coaster tycoon. the lats are brutle, the transitions are flat and painfull and its all round not fun pain. the first time we rode it in the day was in the middle of the train and we laughed all the way round. none of us had laughed that hard on a coaster befor and it was very enjoyable, not because it was a fun coaster but just because it was that much of a failure that is was fantastic. the 2nd time me and stephen rode in the front and linny and gouldy rode in the back. the front was by far the worst part of the experience. we went on a 3rd time and came off that time saying why did we do that. never befor in a single day have i been on a coaster to have a fantastic ride and then a feeling of total dispar later in the day. it was long fun and very very painful and i have a bruse on each of my knees from it.
next we hit raptor attack. wow i have to say by far the best Schwarzkopf mini coaster i have ever been on. the entrance tunnel was well themed to a mine and built up the tention very well. the animated rapors through the ride were very well placed, could not be seen untill you passed them very closely and looked very very very cool. on the way out theres lots of screaming, flashing lights and loud noises to which you come out into a very well themed shop with lots of blood splats and claw scratchs everywhere. in total a very very well exicuted ride and a very good retheme of an old ride to give it a complete new ride experiece.
twister was a simple spinning wild mouse coaster you see everywhere but offered us a great ride with plenty of spinning. nothing more to say than just a good ride

thats it for the coasters there with the exception of the lady bird and the big apple coaster but you all know about them anyway
the new addition for this year is skellington cove. the area had alot of new rides for the park and really well themed area but at the same time a very simple area aswell. pretty much your basic names and theme for a pirate area but this now makes it a proper theme park. no park is complete withough a pirate themed area. the black pearl we didnt go on because it didnt look that much fun but we did go on the powerkegs, a small break dance type ride, it was fun for the breif period it lasted.
that pretty much completes the good part of the trip report now for the bad

the staff werent friendly in pretty much any case, none of them really wanted to be there and really didnt have a clue what they were doing. we had 3 breakdowns and all 3 of them were due to staff error and saftey. the 1st was on the powderkegs which they loaded people, got it running then i seen her hit the E-stop. oviously there was already somthing wrong as the mechanics were there. the 2nd was on the wild river rapids where they overloaded our boat and we stoped on the lift. first off they still despached the boats and didnt even notice the ride had stoped. they we seen one get out a MANUAL!!! to the ride and call the mechanics, then the mechanics asked us to disembark on the lift hill and as i stood up the ride started again and i nearly fell off. i then cmpleted the circuit on my own. so not only did they intiually make a mistake but they didnt even stop the ride from operating durein the disembark procedure. i have since E-mailed lightwater vally about this incident and expect a message back from them. im going back to yorkshire in 2 weeks time and if i havent had a reply from them by then i will be going there in person. the 3rd again was overloading raptor with the 4 of us which we overshot the final break run because there was 4 adults in the car. this just shows the staff respect for health and saftey is very very poor.

overall the day was a good day to experience some new things but i wont be going back in a hurry, its worth a revisit but not for a long while or if i want to get some cash from claims and composation from them.

anyway heres the video to entertain you all
[youtube]WNAGQ98PZik[/youtube]

[gouldy]

"from petit little me to the huge girth of gouldy."



Awesome meetup! Never been so surprised by a coaster as I was with The Ultimate, that thing was just crazy!

Great video btw!

Sounds like it was a great time. Nice vid as well.

Nice report as well i have not been enough knowledge about this Valley its good that you take train tour during the trip and its all crazy trip with the coaster..