Oakwood Theme Park ?????? 7th August 2008
I discovered that my Mum had an old friend from high school that lived 2 miles away from Oakwood, in Pembrokeshire, Wales and so i persuaded my Mum and I to go on a trip, so she could see where her friend lived and so i could go to Oakwood!
We ended up staying in my Mum??????s friend??????s farmhouse! Which was kind of weird, because i am not used to the great outdoors / mud / chickens... :/
Anyway, we drove down on the the 6th August, which took 5 hours ... {snore} and then we went to Oakwood on the 7th.
Ok, onto the PTR... this is Hydro, which was totally out of place at Oakwood. It is a massive Intamin Mega Splash, similar to that of Perilous Plunge at Knotts, but i believe that ride has now been removed?
Me in front of Hydro. Most people will know about the accident on this ride which occurred back in 2003 i think. A woman fell out of Hydro too her death, the ride was closed for some time afterwards, the restraints were altered and now the ride has OTSRs and seatbelts. It??????s worth noting that you get VERY VERY WET.
In the distance, poking through the trees you can see Megafobia, a very highly rated woodie amongst enthusiasts.
Speed: No Limits... probably the best eurofighter in the world, and my 1st taste of a spectacular roller coaster style.
The fantastic 97 degree drop and the end helix.
The vertical ascent on these things is as scary as the drop itself. The drop is scariest in the back, i rode once on the front, twice on the back. Airtime is insane in the back, both on the drop and on the airtime hill which shortly follows.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee... into the brakes.
I was very impressed with the restraints on the EF. It felt like a lap bar because the OTSR did really touch your shoulders or body, it only really came into contact with your thighs. Also, the restraint didn??????t have the ??????clicks?????? you experience on say a B&M restraint and subsequently you returned to the station with a much tighter restraint where you had been pushed into your seat and the restraint had tightened more.
Best kiddie coaster EVER. No joke, this thing has airtime in the back on the 1st hill, its insane, twigs hit you and everything, Oakwood well needs to trim the trees.
Tree hitting action on the Treetops Coaster!
These were the Snake River Falls, i didn??????t ride them because we were in Wales, i wasn??????t about to get wet and cold and i could hardly use my Sea World poncho on it...
Megafobia, i would rate it 2nd out of all the woodies i??????ve been on, after El Toro. It was a sweet mix of airtime, lats and classic woodie twists and turns. Pure CCI goodness.
One train operation, as the park was empty. Queue time 5-10 mins, rode it twice.
It was very hard to take photos of it because there are barely any paths or nearby rides that you can take photos from...
Get ready for it...
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooosssh!
Weirdo scary bobsled ride, you sit in a little car, go up the longest lift hill ever and get released at the top! You have a little stick to pull back when you need to brake. If you don??????t brake you tip over on the turns and injure yourself, or so i??????ve heard....
Waterfall; again you get a little boat thing, you go down the waterfall and skim across the top of the water right up until the end of the water trough thing!
A huss tower called ??????Bounce?????? which had a pretty neat sequence, it did the usual bungee sequence then took you back up to the top slowly, ready for a freefall.
I am actually in this picture, far left on the ride.
Awesome droppage.
Amazing on ride photo of me and my Mum on Speed
Summary:
Entrance Cost: ?????15 (approx $30)
Time in Park: 4 hours 30 mins approx.
Ride Count:
Speed ?????? 3
Megafobia ?????? 2
Hydro - 1
The Bounce ?????? 1
Bobsleigh ?????? 1
Spooky 3d ?????? 1
Treetops Coaster ?????? 1
Drayton Manor Park ?????? 14th September 2008
I finally managed to persuade some friends to come to a new theme park other than the usual Alton Towers!
As we walked in through the gates, we were greated by one of the most oddly shaped rollercoasters on the planet: G force, the X car coaster featuring that weird upside down lift thing J
After a short bathroom break, the 1st ride of the day was not G force, but it was in fact the random Intamin Stand up, built in 1994 called Shockwave.
Shockwave is the only stand up in the world to contain a Zero G Roll, which in my humble opinion is a GOOD thing. As it is definitely not a comfortable element. Shockwave also features a Vertical Loop, a long straight, a double corkscrew and a very forceless end turn. The max g force on this ride is however 4 G which is high for a stand up. JELLY LEGS.
Straight after Shockwave, we ran to G force. The element displayed here is the ??????Bent Cuban Eight?????? and what a mighty fine element it is too.
Up you go...
What goes up... must come down... upside down. The restraint system in place on these X cars is pretty comfy considering it hangs you upside down with no OTSR. The park had a test seat and they were calling them ??????Big Boi?????? restraints :S
Big Boi restraints in action!
Amazing -1G airtime!
Intamin Gyro Swing called Maelstrom.
I??????d never ridden one of these before, its pretty much just a large swinging ship, which has a lot of g force at the bottom of the valleys.
Troublesome Trucks Runaway Coaster in the brand new Thomas Land. It was a cool kiddie ride, not quite as good as treetops but better than Woody Woodpecker??????s Nuthouse Coaster.
Scenic photo. Here you can see Bounty (swinging ship) which was closed for the day. Stormforce 10, a flume ride with 3 drops, one backwards. It used water from the LAKE! :O So it smelt of piss and looked like piss and it was pretty wrank.
Mountain Buffalo Coaster ?????? lame. To this day i have no idea who it was made by, and i cant be bothered to look on RCDB.
This is the worst flat ride ever, and i mean ever. Never ever ride this, it is not a good ride for you. Its called Pandemonium and is manufactured by Fabbri.
The problem with the ride was, that when it the gondolas went over the top upside down. They slowed right down, so you were upside down for about 10 seconds then you would crash back down very quickly and very forcefully. This would have been fine, if you had gone over the top slowly once, i can deal with that. But when it goes over slowly 3 or 4 times it kills your head, i felt sick, nauseous and came off with a very bad headache.
Also, my friend Charlie had 2 bloodshot eyes where capillaries had burst and he also had a bad head and looked very pale.
STAY AWAY from Pandemonium.
Ferris Wheel, an excellent opportunity to have a rest after Pandemonium and take photos.
Like this one...
A variation on the old fashioned ??????Chairoplanes??????.
Cool view of Shockwave J
Overview of ??????Action Park??????
Scariest ride of my entire life: Apocalypse. You could ride sat down, stood up or stood up floorless. We chose to ride standing up and floorless. It was damn scary. On ride photo coming later
Me, Bex & Charlie stood by the Stormforce 10 waterfalls.
Back to Shockwave for the final ride of the day.
Vertical Loop
My last ride did not go well at all. I personally think that i was still lightheaded from Pandemonium earlier on, because when i rode it this time. I got insanely dizzy when i went through the 0g roll and the dizziness worsened through the final 2 corks L. I was then faced with the prospect of driving everyone 82 miles home! NOT GOOD.
OMG amazing photo! I love this one. (from left to right) Random Girl, Charlie, Lynz & Me.
Summary:
Entrance Cost: ?????18 (approx $36)
Time in Park: 6 hours 30 mins approx.
Ride Count:
Shockwave - 2
G force - 1
Maelstrom - 1
Stormforce 10 - 1
Troublesome Trucks Runaway Coaster - 1
Pandemonium ?????? 1 (NEVER AGAIN STAY AWAY)
Mountain Buffalo Coaster ?????? 1
Apocalypse ?????? 1
Ferris Wheel - 1
Splash Canyon - 1
Other Notes: The food at the park was shockingly bad, i suggest taking your own.