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Aug/Oct/Nov 2021: East Coast Adventures (Part 4/2)

Rob Coasters

Hyper Poster
It was finally time for my first ever trip where I would be hitting several parks over several days. To be more specific this would be 5 parks over 4 days, the majority of them being fairly small 15-minute jobs. This trip would take place over the East Coast of the UK.

What makes this trip even more special is that I'm returning to a couple old parks I haven't seen for years, and I would snag my 100th credit.

Day 0: Hemsby Fun Park

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The first park I arrived at 8:40pm and left at 8:50pm, tying for the shortest time I've ever spent in a park (the other being South Parade Pier). During those ten minutes I eyed upon #96 Caterpillar which ended up in my friend bursting into laughter after looking at the miniscule size of the thing. But soon we were on, and by far the oldest people on the train. We sat at the back thinking "good little sit down" while the toddlers at the front were freaking out as the ride hit a blistering pace of 'just above average walking speed'. As we got off the toddlers jumped into the arms of extremely proud parents (hopefully they're anticipating them to be future enthusiasts) while we just made our merry way back to where we were staying. There was an incredible looking Waltzer but my friend can't stomach those, so skip.

Day 1: Pleasurewood Hills

I last visited this place eight years ago in 2013 where I enjoyed roller coasters but it didn't really go any further than that. I rode their Boomerang, Kite Flyer, watched a magic show, rode a Chairlift then abruptly left. Their Jumbo V was down for the day and I didn't really care about the fact I missed three coasters.

Fast forward and I'm not thinking that - I will go to this park, I will get the three credits, and I will be happy. Mission start.

Things practically come to a screeching halt within seconds of entering the park - their Schwarzkopf Jumbo V, Cannonball Express, is closed. Again. There's an op outside watching me make a beeline for the ride and tells me "It's closed right now". "Alright mate, I'll check back in a bit."

Change of plan, I'll do the drop tower instead. Jolly Roger both has a surprisingly forceful drop and a great view of a big red closed roller coaster. Instantly one of my favourite drop towers.

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It's been five minutes - checking Cannonball's availability again would just be nagging so it's straight to #97 Marble Madness which was a fairly miserable hour long queue. I saw the trims hit. Hard. Several times. And I thought to myself "this isn't going to be very good, is it?" And I'd be correct. While the hairpins and the not-airtime hills are fun, the trims ruin the whole experience and drag the thing down pretty far. At least the trims didn't full-on stop the train for me like it did for an unlucky family. That would have been terrible.

With Cannonball still closed I headed for Wipeout for my token lap. Lucky me managed to walk straight past an entire group of 12-ish people to fill the last row. That thing is damn intense, and much more intense than I can remember. And I have no (good) photos of it.

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You know what we're doing now. We're doing the Tivoli now. We're doing #98 Egg-Spress now. And it might be my personal favourite Tivoli, along with Green Scream. I love these things to death, I always have, and row 16 of a 20 car train is a massive bonus in my book.

With that over and done with I had one more token lap on Wipeout, held a bird, then looked into the trees to the right of the park entrance. With unfathomable timing I've managed to catch the tiny singular train of Cannonball Express testing. I was in shock and I was over within the minute. Since they were still prepping things up I decided for one more lap of Jolly Roger which admittedly wasn't as good as the first. Probably because I got stapled.

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I'm unreasonably excited for #99 Cannonball Express. I watch every train like a hawk while I'm in the ten minute queue. And then I'm in the station. The very back seat is free and I take it. The ride itself, was bloody fantastic. It absolutely shattered my expectations. After being spited eight years ago I'm finally on it. The drops are beautiful, the turns are perfect retro coaster, the whole experience was just carnage. I've watched it offride but never seen a POV so maybe that contributes. I fold into the brakerun in tears and laughter and straight into the top 10 it goes. The ride does things to you. Incredible things to you. I genuinely can't remember the last time I was thrown around like that. And if people brush off coasters like these as "just your average Jet Star, really" then I'm in for a treat and a half with this hobby.

Well now was time for a sea lion show which was pretty fun and oddly reminiscent of really every other sea lion show I've watched, but still felt strangely new at the same time. Overall I enjoyed it and got a photo with the star of the show (which was a sea lion called Claudia, I think).

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To end off the day I went for one more lap on Cannonball Express (which had a decent queue now) out of pure enjoyment, but also partially wondering "did I overrate it heav---" No I did not. It's still hauling ass and it's still an incredible ride. This is a lovely park too, I wish I had time to do more, I'd be more than happy to return.

Stay tuned for tomorrow where I get my 100th credit, revisit my first coaster, and go to a farm. Thank you for reading so far!
 
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Rob Coasters

Hyper Poster
Day 2: Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach

It's been over nine years since I last stepped foot in this place, and as you can tell from that, this was THE childhood park for me. It'll also be my first wooden coaster since 2018 (but a new woodie credit would have to wait). The plan would be to get on Family Star and Whirlwind, the former being my 100th credit, or so I called, "different rollercoasters".

Prebooking the trip I instantly knew this park was going to be a nightmare. It has timeslots. I understand why they'd have them in place but everything's been officially lifted now. What's going on?

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I enter the park, and since I'm waiting on friends who are arriving late, who want to do Family Star with me, I go for 4 rides on Roller Coaster. Still a good ride, old friend, still a good ride.

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With the friends' faff finished and they're finally ready, we walk straight past Family Star and onto Log Flume instead. Turns out we're still waiting for a couple more to show up. Turns out I forgot this flume is a bit of a drencher. I'm convinced that they pipe actual seawater into this ride. (I'm pretty sure they actually do)

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Still waiting, it's time for a 5th on Roller Coaster. I'm eyeing Reverse Time and Lightning 360 a fair amount but probably not today.

They finally arrive, and within seconds we're on #100 Family Star which has a pretty ironic name considering the 1.3m height restriction so half the families can't even get on. That and it wasn't a very eventful ride. The folks at Reverchon did it better. Still alright though, guess it's fine for its compact space.

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With that out of the way (and a celebration over the park's speaker which one person in our party arranged) it was time for #101 Whirlwind. S'alright, admittedly a little bit more forceful than I imagined. Like Wipeout I have a photo of it but it's not very good. But hey one's better than none right?

In the queue for our final ride on Roller Coaster we devise a plan as we only have a silly amount of time remaining in our timeslot and this is where things get bad. The first idea was to do Reverse Time, Lightning 360 then end the day on the flume, or maybe swap one out for the Waltzer, but with time harshly eating us alive we opted for me to do Lightning 360 solo and we all end the day on the flume.

So we ride Roller Coaster and while the party takes a leisurely stroll to the flume I bomb down the entire park to snag a ride on Lightning 360... or so I thought.

I entered the ride, sat in my seat, checked the time... "I can't do this". I was in the seat when I realised I won't have enough time for a final ride on the flume. I don't know how long this ride lasts, if it's 1 minute I'm all good, if it's 3 minutes I'm screwed, if it's 2 minutes then I'm in a grey area with a 5% chance of bulleting it to the flume just in time. I get out of my seat, "I don't have enough time left" to the op, and fastwalk away. I met back up with the party and we did the flume. As we entered the queue for it Lightning 360 was finishing up it's cycle, and as we left the ride after its soaking there were people at the entrance ready to get on.

I could've made it work but played it safe. What an amateur.

As we left the park we counted at least 7 groups get turned away because the poor souls had no clue they're still operating timeslots (with half an hour breaks) for no reason. I must've said "they'll open in 30 minutes" at least 10 times. At least during the downtime they noticed one of the conveyor lifts for the Log Flume had misaligned and was halfway coming off at the top (!) so they noticed that and were on it.

Day 3: Joyland & Pettitts Animal Adventure Park

Joyland Children's Fun Park


Some of you might immediately hop on the fact that I didn't do Great Yarmouth and Joyland in the same day despite both of them being within a five minute walk of each other. That's because we had to watch cars destroy each other's arses instead of getting Spooked on the Express.

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Mmmmmm.

Anyway, back to the park. Tyrolean Tubtwist is, what I'm lead to believe, one of the first three coasters I've ever done and this old man is surprisingly violent. I thought it was going to be a leisurely old light spin down but turns out you get thrown all over the place. That's exactly how I like it.

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You may notice a pattern with these trips. For the fourth time, unfair time constraints (this time it's not the park's fault) caused me to miss out (a token lap) on the Snails. Devastated.

Instead I opt for a ride on Spook Express. S'alright. Here's the sticker the friendly man with a camera gave me.

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With no time for anything else we had to move on to the next park.

Pettitts Animal Adventure Park

Arriving with 40 minutes left of the day? Easy. But the second I enter the park I'm already lost and I'm more focused on finding animals than the rollercoasters. So let's take a look.

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Oh. Coasters. Right.

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#102 Rocky Roller Coaster was an oval mine train type thing I like to refer to as "The Airline Coaster" because it gives you not much legroom.

#103 Crazy Caterpillar was a Wacky Worm that folds you sideways Cannonball Express style (but this time it's on the drop) if you sit at the back. Sadly I didn't have the guts to ragdoll myself down, I braced for it all four laps. Turns out the operator was used to enthusiasts as we had a bit of a chat as I got off. He asked if I was in a coaster group, to I replied "sadly not mate" then asked if I was German because of my voice, to which I replied "sadly I'm British". Then we wished each other a good day and that was the end.

It's a nice park and despite my coaster enthusiasm the rides ended up feeling like they were kind of "a bonus" with the animals being the main focus of the park. I guess I know that when coaster enthusiasm turns to coaster desperation I'm gonna have to sacrifice everything that isn't a coaster when tripping. So it's a kind of nice 'use the time when you have it' type thing for now.

Summary

Hemsby Fun Park:
Caterpillar x1 (Most Shameful)

Pleasurewood Hills: Marble Madness x1 (Most Disappointing)
Egg-Spress x1
Wipeout x2 (Most Intense)
Jolly Roger x2
Cannonball Express x2 (Best New Cred)

Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach: Roller Coaster x5 (Best Token Laps)
Log Flume x2 (Best Non-Coaster)
Family Star x1
Whirlwind x1

Joyland Children's Fun Park: Tyrolean Tubtwist x1
Spook Express x1

Pettitts Animal Adventure Park: Rocky Roller Coaster x1
Crazy Caterpillar x1


That concludes my trip to the East Coast. Thank you for reading this trip report! I hope to improve my trip report writing as I highlight the goods and bads of any future endeavours I may have.
 
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EmmaUK

Mega Poster
Great trip report. Cannonball express didn’t do it for me, but it did have some of the best head choppers I’ve ever seen! I genuinely think if arms were up they’d have a chance of being hit on that!
 

Benenen

Hyper Poster
Awesome, what a fun read. Looking forward to hearing about your future adventures.

I was shocked by the log flume photo. A brutalist structure with no real theming surrounded by foamy, scummy water. Eye opening.
 

Rob Coasters

Hyper Poster
Awesome, what a fun read. Looking forward to hearing about your future adventures.

I was shocked by the log flume photo. A brutalist structure with no real theming surrounded by foamy, scummy water. Eye opening.
It's never been a looker to say the least! I've heard a rumour that there was originally supposed to be a mountain built around it but they didn't have the budget, but I saw that once then never again. Would explain the weird structuring though

Great trip report. Cannonball express didn’t do it for me, but it did have some of the best head choppers I’ve ever seen! I genuinely think if arms were up they’d have a chance of being hit on that!
I've heard a couple people say Cannonball wasn't too much, in fact I myself was expecting it to place in the low 30's. Needless to say it didn't (!)
I agree with the headchoppers too - they're excellent.
 

Rob Coasters

Hyper Poster
Day Bonus!: Botton's Pleasure Beach & Fantasy Island

The first half of this report (up to Odyssey review) was written almost immediately after I got home - see if you can spot any grammatical mess-ups which are direct consequences of a combined total of 9 hours on trains! Thought I'd keep them in for the funnies.

--------

Early September, 2021


Who knew a trip report could continue two months after it ended? I didn't. In desperation of not wanting to remain in the "spited by Odyssey" gang any more, and to just ride some more roller coasters, And so began plans. But there was one issue in the way - it was about to become an incredibly burdensome streak of planning and failing. Turns out these parks are also on the East Coast. So why not add this too?

Shortly after I brought up plans to visit this dynamic duo, it was revealed that the travelling Spinning Racer left the park the second September started; I believe this was to do with Fear Island setup but I'm not entirely sure. Devastated. -1. But we still need to get these plans together, I need to ride Odyssey, I need to scrape up the +1s at Botton's, and I need the "I did 2 wacky worms in a day" award. Forget silly Spiting Racer.

Late September, 2021

The opportunity finally comes around to put this trip into play but one major roadblock stood in the way - getting to a train station that didn't decide to have to go to St Pancras International before going back off on the same line. At the time I thought getting to St Pancras involved changing across hundreds of lines which is why I oh so heavily avoided that alternative. Instead I settled down with a £25 taxi both ways to a "not the Underground" railway station - one that the train ACTUALLY decided to stop at.

Later September/Early October, 2021

With everything in place I started to book everything before it all came crashing down. The London area is suffering from what people are saying is a petrol shortage although others say the truth is that drivers can't be arsed to deliver fuel because they've been treated like bin juice. Which is perfectly justifiable. 'F*** around and find out!' Treat your workers like people! Trip delayed for the second time running. First weekend I didn't have it planned well enough.

7th October, 2021

It turns out that I'm a freshly cooked idiot. It turns out that St Pancras, with Kings Cross right next to it, has a direct connection (with no changes) from the line I'm getting on. Palm to the face. No £25 taxi both ways. It ended up being completely and entirely unnecessary. Well, good thing I didn't book THAT did I?!

9th October, 2021 (Happy 9+10=21 Day!)

Right - let's put this plan into motion. Enough faff and complaining about my p**s poor planning. But I now have everything I need to shift this into the next gear. The whole journey there goes pretty much exactly as intended so let's cut to the good stuff.

Botton's Pleasure Beach

After revealing these plans somewhere else I was quickly apologised to by a frequent user of this "somewhere else" for having to go to this park. I could tell immediately why he apologised. The site advertised an 11am opening but I was greeted to the park with closed gates and barely anyone there. Looking to my right I see a big blue sign saying "WEEKENDS OPEN 12PM". Great.

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After camping it out for an hour and discussing some Wacky Worm lore and head in and hit yet another roadblock. Rockin Roller was spitin and not rollin. So I bought enough tokens for the other three open coasters, the ghost train, and nothing else. Today just wasn't it for flat rides - the journey here was enough to put me off them. More on that soon. Guessing it's a bit of fatigue from four or five straight hours of trains trains trains.

#105 Queen Bee is a now-exclusive inverted not a Wacky Worm variant and is just as inoffensive as the original but the suspended aspect is pretty neat admittedly. I like how the top of the car was dripping several millimeters of water on my head and shoulders throughout the duration of the ride - it sounds like an inconvenience but I forgot how hot 16 degrees can be in the biggest hoodie you can find. So it was nice.

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#106 Runaway Train was an oval with a double helix and rocks in the middle. The "going over the roof" part gave me not-very-nice flashbacks of the hellspawn that is the Cavazza Diego Blizzard. The helix not trimming at all was pretty nice.

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#107 Big Apple was a disappointly underwhelming Wacky Worm absolutely chock full of trims. Pettitts and South Parade Pier, you show 'em how it's done. But I guess when it's a Pinfari you gotta keep those ones alive somehow. Remember the "more on that soon"? That train stuff did me in so much, those three laps I got on the worm almost did me in. What an amateur. At least it's one to add to the "McDonald's Coaster" count.

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With those out of the way it was time for a ride on Ghost Train which looks like it's multi level but isn't. It's similar to the travelling fair ghost trains in the way that it's just kinda "yeah". You can see the effort though in some places.

And done. Freak Out, I'll have to come back for you later. I have a bus to catch.

Fantasy Island

This wasn't an ordinary bus. This was a roofless double decker bus that plays party songs. Tracks on the playlist include: 'Sleep, Spray, Superman, Ohhhh!', 'Dont Stop Me Now', 'Ah Pizza Hut Ah Pizza Hut', 'Ill Tell You What I Want', 'Roller Coaster'.

The Fantasy Island skyline coming in is a surreal experience. The caravans. The holiday parks. The 170ft Vekoma. Just insanity.

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I enter the park... and I'm lost. Starflyer's here, the Pyramid's there, and that's about the extent of what I know. I see people in the queue for Odyssey - I'm happy but priority is to find somewhere where you buy tickets. After being lost for several minutes I finally find one then bomb it (in this case, just casual walking) to Odyssey aaaaand they shut it for technical issues. I'm naturally devastated as this spited me six years ago for bad weather. This is literally perfect weather conditions to run Odyssey in now, guessing it threw a technical fault now.

Refusing to think about what just happened I instead go for my second Wacky Worm of the day, #108 Family Roller Coaster. Sadly this was also a pretty badly trimmed version (on the drop) but it had one massive redeeming factor which was the no station trims. I think I would've found it to be better if I didn't hog the front seat which was a very shameful thing for me to do.

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Now time for Mystical Dragon Mountain which was a very strong dinghy slide and it sends you to pretty far angles. I remember thinking to myself "I swear if this is the best ride of the trip..."

It's been a good 20ish minutes since I've seen a status update on Odyssey now so I go back to see what's happening. IT'S OPEN AGAIN!

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#109 The Odyssey. What I've heard is that it's a massive hunk of garbage with no redeeming factors. A layout that's "nothing but loops". A ride with deathly restraints and hideously uncomfortable seats...
...
...Hard disagree. Odyssey is bloody fantastic.. It absolutely surpassed my expectations. After being spited seven years ago I'm finally on it. The first drop is exhilarating, the inversions are ridiculous, the whole experience was just carnage. The restraints are cushioned and padded so on the offchance that the ride has a slight rattle (there was only really a bit of a bounce on the valleys of the first drop and loop and cobra anyway) I'd argue it might end up really not being that bad. When experiencing brand new restraints I sometimes do a gentle pinball to see how it would feel if it was rough, and those cushioned restraints and the headrest (!) really soften the impacts. From that point in the station I knew I was in for a treat.

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That was only row 7. What I've heard is that it was supposed to be bottom of the barrel garbage. But it was really fun! And I immediately entered the queue for a reride. Am I missing something here? It was really fun? It started out at #22 and then entered my top 20 after the reride? I don't know what I did right, but clearly it worked. I've heard the restraints are godawful pieces of s***e that need to be burnt in a fire but I genuinely can't see what was so wrong with them. Through the corkscrew I could just lean my head on the left side of the restraint and you just flow through the inversion oh so comfortably.

Throughout the day I rode Odyssey a total of four times, I really wanted a fifth but I had no time and I had to get the bus back to the station.

If I did have to fault Odyssey it's two things: it would've been nice if there was an extra helix at the end of the ride and it's a maintenance nightmare. It went down three separate times on my day but kudos to the maintenance team who got it back up and running within minutes. Oh, it also plays banger songs in the station. Rolling into the station hearing some top-level pop song is something else, as I'll relay later in the trip.

Time for the other half of the park? Eh. Guess I have to. Log Flume creates a very impressive looking splash but the best it can do in the wetness department is a few droplets.

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Rhombus Rocket overtook Alton's Runaway Mine Train and became my new favourite powered coaster of all time. Some of the most fun I've had on a coaster in a very long time - it just gains so much speed and just keeps that speed going. Back to the pop songs playing, I returned to the station after my four laps to the station playing a remix of the world-famous Wellerman Shanty which was just something else, man. Couldn't get the smile off my face, after a fantastic ride and coming back to that powerhouse of a meme song. If only it played when I returned to the Odyssey station but I'll take this as well.

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Skipped almost every flat against my will except one because I'm still deflated from the five hours of trains - slightly disappointed with that to be honest. The Huss Magic looked like a blast.

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I did do Volcano (the Blast Tower) though which had a surprisingly punchy launch.

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With that done I rode StarFlyer. I'm not joking when I say this was by far the scariest ride of the trip. I was gripping those chains like the mythical stone grips the mythical sword. I did this at Winter Wonderland but it only did a cycle of "stay at the top for quite literally four seconds then come back down", I even had the guts to release my hands, but this cycle kept you at the top for I'd imagine over three minutes. It was genuinely terrifying, but oddly kind of nice. I liked the views of Odyssey and the rest of the park and the distant ocean, but not of the literal thousands of caravans everywhere else.

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I started the day at the park with two rides on Odyssey and I'm ending the day with two rides on Odyssey. I really do enjoy this ride.

And that was Fantasy Island. I skipped Millennium as the queue was backed out past the entrance and I've already done the ride. And Odyssey was open. I skipped the legendary Seaquarium because I was on my own and I wanted to experience it for the first time with a buddy. And Odyssey was open.

After being spited by the massive SLC back in 2014, it was nice to finally get some closure and, in the end, thoroughly enjoy it. If it was closed again I would've had a properly rough time with trying to enjoy really anything and that's almost an issue I have with the park. I feel like Odyssey carries the park, and the whole place becomes a huge disappointment if the main event is closed. Don't get me wrong the other rides are still really good especially the legendary Rhombus Rocket, but man. If Odyssey spited again that would've been a huge punch in the gut. When you're going solo, the status of Odyssey (Odysstatus?) will be a make-or-break for the trip whether you've already got the credit or not. (Odysspite?)

I'm tired and it's time to go home. I'm proud of you, you overwhelmingly massive Vekoma. Time to repeat the journey in reverse - train, change, train, off, Underground, home, bed.

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Rob Coasters

Hyper Poster
Guess I'll start doing this: here's a song I like that reminds me of the park, give it a whirl while reading if you have nothing in the background!

Day Super-Bonus!: One of two parks...

Here it is, the part 4 none of you have been expecting. I've been extending this trip report as kind of a joke ever since I realised "hey, Fantasy Island and BPB is also on the east coast" and here I am once again. Why not?

Before I disclose where I went, I was given two options for a birthday trip.

Option 1: Adventure Island. The park I visit at the end of the season every year as kind of a birthday tradition. Reride some of my favourite flats, do Rage a million times, and just nicely exist in one of my childhood parks. This park is on the east coast.

Option 2: Clacton Pier. Swoop down back to Clacton for a recently opened plus-one then leave. This park is on the east coast.

...

Where did I go?

Pavilion No-Fun Park

Of course I went to Clacton. As kind of a joke with the buddy I was going with I wanted to start off with Pavilion No-Fun Park to reride their SBF non-spinning figure 8. I guess I momentarily forgot the off season existed because I was surprised to be greeted with closed gates and clearly groundwork. Whatever, time for

Clacton Pier

Apologies for a lack of pictures. Instead I'll flood the report with photos of the only ride I took photos of.

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We started with #112 Looping Star which is literally the reason we came here. Did I forget how Pinfari ZL42's rode? Because...
1) Get in the queue.
2) Scan your card.
3) Go in an empty seat (lucky us got the very back).
4) Realise that the cars are criminally cramped like they put altered Go Gator trains on a ZL42.
5) Literally have to cross my legs to fit in the car comfortably.
6) Pull down the restraint.
7) Find what may as well be the shortest seatbelt I have ever seen (bear in mind I am essentially the definition of "average height size and weight").
8) Realise that you have to pull down the restraint almost as far as it goes, and pull the seatbelts as much as they go in order to connect the two.
9) Realise that it's not as uncomfortable as it sounds.

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I didn't even think about the restraints during the ride. It's ridiculously fun for some reason. The first drop is super punchy, the loop is the least intense part of the ride, the transition into the crest of the hill after was fun, and the helix was oddly intense but not "Storm Chaser facing downwards" intense.

Hit the brakes.

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1) Realise that the cars are criminally cramped like they put altered Go Gator trains on a ZL42.
2) Forget that the seatbelts require two buttons to be pushed to unlock them so I press down on one button and question "why isn't it unlocking" while the restraint is completely in the way of what I'm trying to look at.
3) Buddy reminds me that there are two buttons.
4) I'm an idiot.
5) Get off and laugh about it and discuss riding it again later.

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That was really funny. I know it sounds like a terrible ride but every part of it I enjoyed quite a bit. The restraint faff was a blast and I'm sure people got some "pffft"'s out of me being completely unable to get out of the seat.

It might be my second favourite Pinfari too, but nothing's gonna beat Crazy Loop let's be honest.

It was now time for the Go-Karts which the op gave us loads of laps on. I was dominating the race track so I decided to take a corner on the outside to let my buddy pass turns out I just let a random guy past and my buddy was slightly further back. So now I'm competitively trying my hardest to get back into first (which I succeed in doing). My buddy ended up having not a go-kart but a slo-kart and he was lagging behind pretty badly; I'm sure if I was given twice as many laps I would've lapped him eventually.

After a food break we did the Twister which ran an alright cycle, not "HPWW Winter Twist" levels of unfiltered chaos but not "small fair that I went to for their loop-o-plane, with a sizzler that did a five minute cycle at what felt like 20% speed" slow. The fun part is that with a buddy you can just talk about completely off-topic blab during the ride. That was fun.

We also did the Dockside Dodgems which were some of the most fun we've had on any Dodgems, and met a terrifying animatronic reindeer before sweating out a Piano Tiles arcade game and air hockey in the arcade. No golf - no time for golf. Devastated.

Going to the edge of the pier we found Waltzer cars and then after standing around for a bit questioning life we went back.

We rerode Looping Star which was just as faffy as the previous time but still good fun. Front seat is MORE intense than the back and I was surprised by that!

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And after being denied for a third ride (it was ten minutes before closing) we ended the day with another ride on Twister who had a more forgiving operator. We tried ending it on the wacky worm but I think they somehow managed to break it and it was unmanned for the last hour of the day.

So, it was good. As much as I complained about Looping Star's restraint system it really isn't that bad at all. If anything I overexaggerated it for comedic effect (but still somewhat loyal) and both times we came off the ride laughing with how short the seatbelts were. So it was more funny than annoying. I know I'm repeating myself over and over with this, but I wanted to make it clear that it is not a day-ruiner, just adds more flavour to the experience. I skipped the aquarium as my friend's done it before and we were ridiculously short on time, the Paratropper was straight-up gone, and the log flume wasn't running as it was undergoing winter maintenance.

Top 10 park for me.

And with that, I'm officially going to declare this trip report on the east coast as done. Going 2 parts over was funny but I'm not going to return to this part of the country until at least 2022 and at that point, the joke will have run its course. I hope you enjoyed reading through my adventures through the East of England and I hope to see you all next time!
 
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