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Alton/Oakie Trip! - OAKWOOD UP...

A-Kid

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Yep. We finally made it to Alton again after 2 years. And we added Oakwood in there to for something new to do :)

Though this trip was slightly changed as my dad was originally comming, but he wanted to do the coms for the Isle of Mull rally. So he went up there while me and my mum did this still. I am going to try and write this the best I can, instead of rushing it.

Day 1. The travel up.

1 van, one car. I can see a small penis from the M25. Its so small you can't even see it.

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We stayed at Stoke Talke. No photo. My dad split from us at 4am for the rest of his journey.


Alton Day 1.

We were running late by about 10 mins. So we got there at 9.10am and were greeted with about 6 cars in the car park. Got the train with bean things on.

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Went down to Oblivion. Noticed Spinball had no cars on the track, but then realized it wasn't on ERT.

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Oblivion is just how I remembered. Dam awesome! Really cold too with that mist!

After 3 goes, went to Rita.

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While walking to Rita we spotted James, the Thorpe Security guy that we were with on Saw Media. What are the chances!

Onto Rita. Now after Maverick I believe we were better prepared for the first corner than before. We did the front row first. All smooth except for that corner that would of past Corky. Way too overbanked. It just slams you into the left of the restraint. Rather annoying really. We then got back row as there wasn't anybody waiting. Weird shuffle it has. Just uncomfortable. It has the good old Intamin problem, being only front is smooth.

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After that I did Hex. Mother doesn't like it. I have only done it once before so I wanted to see how it affects me now. Totally unique. Good with only 3 other people aswell. I couldn't remember anything of it before, so it was almost like a first time. The octagon room is awesome. Actually, I love the preshows. The ride itself is so well themed. Its not really the quantity of themeing, its the quality.

So after feeling sick, we walked to Forbidden Valley. We decided a shortcut across the gardens would be best as it cuts the corner. We desided Air was better to be done first. And we saw James again in the front row queue! :D

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Air is what I'd imagin bondage feels like really. I like the lift, first drops, but I just can't breath! Its so tight to the chest. We went back around for back row and it gave a little air on a few dips. Was a little more fun. But its not what it used to be. I used to love the ride.

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Now sit back... its fright time ;) Yep. Nemesis next. I think we opted straight for front row. Memorys of Raptor started comming back (good and bad). It was hell rough. Everything gave a wopping headbang. But then I had forgot just how quick it is. It really is unique for that. We went around for another front row. This time we were prepared for how quick it is. That first flat spin is suprizing. That helix is mental! That 0G is fast (and quite pumpy). Suprizing that it maintains a reasonable amount of force pretty much everywhere. I think the Stall turn/Overbank actually helps it feel quicker. We rode many places in the train after. Was pretty epic. Dropping off the Stall turn feels like Raptors first drop. Apart from more intense.

We noticed the waterfalls were all off. But they had the top queue ripped up with water pipes everywhere. I did a hell of a lot of filming for the next half hour or so.

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We worked our way around Duel, Rapids, RMT. RMT had the funnyest ride op I have seen! Every ride, or constantly with the announcements shouting "cheeew cheew" in a dirty kinda way ;)

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She was fun! Got to te second lap, made it stop in the station, did the exit announcements and shocked everybody with suddenly doing the 3rd lap! Haha. Good times.

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Walked past Sharkbait, nearly not noticeing Mutiny. Quite nice themeing here though. Host on the gate didn't wanna photo!

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We were on our way to KFC X sector, but we stopped off noticing Spinball was walk-on. So we did that twise. Fury is still better. Whats with that huge bump on the straight drop? Sounds like it hits the track instead of rolling on it! :eek: Jolly good fun though :)

Then....Beastie. The most painfull little thing. No more needs to be said other that my mum had a massive bruse from it.

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So around to KFC: The Ride which was good. Probally the longest queue of the day, being 10 mins.

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After that was filming of Blivvy. Then ridding it twise more. Walk-ons at lunchtime. Brilliant. :D

Now a lap of the park was complete, it was time to mass ride.

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Did a bit more filming, before riding Rita twise more. From Rita you can see that SW6's Whole back end was erected. The helix, switch-track and building frameworks. You can also see the turn in the woods going up. Its quite tight actually. I wouldn't expect more than a 7 (2 per car) car train. There isn't much track room on the second switch.

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So now completing the second lap of the park. We walked through the gardens again to cut the corner.

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Had a few more rides on Air and Nemesis. Awesome thing was, ALL 5 waterfalls were operating on Nemesis!! I have never seen this before! The drop, queue, stall turn, helix, return track were all going! Proper chuffed with seeing that.

So that was an epic day one. On the way out we saw the girl on X Factor at the carpark. Added bonus.

Review of the park. Its still stunning. Parts are looking a bit worn out, but its not dramaticly needing much work. Operations were spot on. Everything was on a good capacity and trains were dispatched within the time the other cycled. EVEN with nobody waiting. Thorpe take note here please. Simple things.

Nearly forgot the ride count:

Oblivion x5
Nemesis x10 (2 front)
Air x4 (1 front)
Rita x5 (1 front)
Spinball x2
Beastie x1
Duel x1
Hex x1
Congo Rapids x1
RMT x1

31 rides with no real rushing about or planing!

Day 2 soon.
 
When did you go sometime in the week last week I guess? And that crazy lady on RMT is always like that, she just randomly sings down the microphone with the odd choo choooooo haha. I disagree that Nemesis is rough though, I think it is just really forceful and I don't really feel any kind of bump from it, but maybe that's because I've rode it too many times and got used to it. :p
 
On behalf of all the members on CF, I'd just like to say "****ING HELL! BEANS & A-KID WENT SOMEWHERE OTHER THAN THORPE!!"

Will comment further after your Oakwood report.
 
Beans on the Beans train - guffaw!

All sounds good and hunky dory so far - looking forward to your thoughts on Oakwood more. Not been for almost two years now, so I'm interested in hearing the reports...
 
Ian said:
On behalf of all the members on CF, I'd just like to say "<img> HELL! BEANS & A-KID WENT SOMEWHERE OTHER THAN THORPE!!"

Will comment further after your Oakwood report.

Thanks Ian!!

But we took a bit of it with us so we found out, meeting James one of the security guards was a shock to us on the Wednesday several times, and on Thursday bumping into a group of Thorpe staff in Forbidden Valley was too much, we couldn't believe it seeing faces we knew up there, they had a quick chat then we saw them again on front row on Nemmy. See we justt can't escape Thorpe.

I will let Leigh give a full report but Megaphobia was Awesome, few bruises but fun ones. Speed well didn't like it, gave me a splitting headache, loved the layout but to ride it was painfull, was chuffed Leighton joined us though. And Hydo well I am just glad we took Poncho's, even then we didn't escape a soaking, but that was really good as well.

We also did Stonehenge:The Ride on the way home, thought the rocks were bigger than they were....
 
I forgot to mention, we managed to steal some photo passes on day 1 ;)

Alton Day 2.

Planned this day a bit better. I.e got up a bit earlyer and got to little chef a bit quicker. We got to the park around 8.30am. Greeted with only 3 cars this time!

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This is the train we rode in.

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Lets start with an entrance shot.

Got to the entrance and went to the toilet. This was interesting. While doing what ya do, I hear rapid farting and talking from the 3 cubicles. So I shat myself because there wasn't anybody there! I didn't realize these bogs talk to you! :lol:

At about 10 to 9, they let us in. Chuffed about that. Obviously the first stop is Blivvy.

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We were the first riders of the day. Moist, yes. But lovely at the same time.

Went around to see the photo but it had condensation on the lazer, which stops it working.

Then walked back around for... another car to ourselfs. And repeated this another few times with cars to ourselfs!

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This point the photos started working and this was the best one of the bunch. Had to make do with 4 people on the car.

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We pretty much did the same thing today except Hex. So Rita next. Did her in the front twise over. Was fairly good. Especially when you dont get re-checked after the bars were released ;) So she gave good air!

The new ride had a few more red metal beems put up. Thats about it.

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This sign was obviously put up the wednesday night. It wasn't there through wednesday. It is massive.

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Next, the long walk to the valley. This time passing Battle Galleons. Went up haunted hallow and did Duel again. Got beat by my mother this time dam it! I believe my score was 42,000, hers was 45,000.

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Did Nemesis a fair few times in different places. After working on getting the photo right yesturday, we got it first time today.

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Then Air on front row. Fairly good fun today. In the above picture, you can see the effect Air's restraints has on women. The one on the left experienced "Jordan: The ride".

Now we wanted to do some "different" rides. But first it was to Spinball! 3 times over as it was walk-on again. Then KFC, and obviously near KFC was a big grey ride that we had to go on again :)

Now working backwards, we went to Sharkbait Reaf...

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^ Frank and Derick look friendly

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^ Shakespeare still going strong

I really like the theming to this. But overall it seemed way too short to me.

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Next was the flume. Nice little thing. Great fun. Its been years since I last done it. We both forgot it had 3 drops though! But atleased it was only a little damp.

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Next was RMT again. Only 2 laps, and the train missed the station! Which made it quite akward for the peeps in the airgates.

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Next. The walk up to FV for a few more rides on Nemesis before going on Blade. Buck is better IMO. This doesn't really get it up a much, so its not all that exciting.

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Now I went to Air to do back row. My mum refused to go on it again so she just took a picture of me on the lift while talking to a random person.

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I think we had another quick one on Nemesis before deciding to do the epic adventure into the gardens!

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The are red markers to follow to get to the towers. We didn't quite realize how far down the gardens actually go. But the scenery/landscape down there is fantastic. It was deffinatly work the treck.

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After we died climbing back up, the red arrows got us to the towers. We decided to grab a few shots on Rita while close. Then Blivvy again. You guys will think were mad, but now we wanted to get back to finish off on Nemesis! So yes, we got our excersize!

On the way to our amazement we saw a group of Thorpe staff! What are the chances of that! So we stopped and had a quick word. Then, we just maxed out on Nemesis. To our luck, the ride had so few riding, that back/front rows were the only used rows. With the no-reride rule, this allowed us to finish up on front row! What a nice way to end.

So now it was the long walk back to the entrance. On the way down we grabed a drink from the shop in Katanga, had a quick talk with a staff member that I kept spotting.

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So from here we just relaxed on Towers Street for about half hour. There was a great sunset starting. Then we made our way to the monorail of which we accidently spoke to a staff member, that ended up being a friend of Ewan at TP, which worked at an event with him not so long ago. Strange stuff.

Got back to the TravelLodge and found we actually have a great count!

Nemesis x15 (3 front)
Oblivion x12
Rita x4 (2 front)
Air x2 (1 front)
Spinball x3
Sharkbait x1
Flume x1
Duel x1
Blade x1
RMT x1

41 rides/attractions!

Last note. Nemesis gave my mother a brused face!! :lol:

Fantastic set of days at Alton!

Oakwood PTR soon as I can.
 
A-Kid said:
I forgot to mention, we managed to steal some photo passes on day 1

Are you sure you should be mentionin this, considering that Alton is run by a company that knows you pretty well?

Great reports though, and the ride count you amassed is truly superb.
 
Great report so far A-Kid and some pretty nice photos of Air and Nemesis in the report. Looking forward to seeing the Oakwood part.
 
jokerman said:
A-Kid said:
I forgot to mention, we managed to steal some photo passes on day 1

Are you sure you should be mentionin this, considering that Alton is run by a company that knows you pretty well?

Great reports though, and the ride count you amassed is truly superb.

What he meant is when we used our photopass to get our Air photo, the lady gave us some extras back. I hadn't realised I had put mine away and she gave us these 2 as well, only when we got a bit further out that we realised she had given us 2 lots back so gained 2 extra, so technically not stealing. Obviously didn't go back and tell her, as we benefitted from these. I actually felt guilty.
 
After that I did Hex. Mother doesn't like it. I have only done it once before so I wanted to see how it affects me now. Totally unique. Good with only 3 other people aswell.
Nawww, it's more interesting with a full load, seeing people opposite shutting their eyes and cringing, trying to deal with the motion.
 
You appear to have a very low tolerance! By this I mean you seem to think mucho is rough...when it isn't. Personally I reckon I'd get bored 2 days in an empty Alton Towers, but I bet if you haven't been in two years it's pretty much a blessing.

Look forward to Oakwood, I've never been so it'll be good to see some shots.
 
That is one big ride count! Plus you didn't have the skyride you must of done some serious walking!

Great report, makes me want to go back I love AT. Especially the early 'moist' rides in the morning at Alton, can't beat that feeling of the freezing air on Oblivion at 9am!
 
Righty. Thanks for the comments :)

^ Yeah legs were killing us after walking miles!

Day 4. Travel to Wales. We have never been here before and we decided on a country route instead of motoways. Which was a very good choice, because Wales dispite the weather, has a beautiful landscape.

Didn't actually get any photos of it sadly. We stuck TomTom on 'Shortest Route'. NOT a good idea. We ended up on what was basically farm tracks in the hills.

Also had to avoid sheep in the road. Which was funny as they don't seem to give one about cars. If they are comfortable, they wont move.

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Got to st. Clears, and were greeted with a cow?!

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Yeah, anyway heres the Travelodge. I guess its been upgraded, it was mostly very fresh, modern and very clean. So after a Maccy D's down in Carmarthen, we got an early night sleep.


Day 5. Oakwood.

Today was a lovely bright, sunny day!

TomTom managed to get us lost, due to new road layouts, but we got there eventually!

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So yeah. Thats the view from the carpark. First impressions were very good. Kinda reminded me of Paultons, but with bigger rides.

We were there with one other car. This is the point where we met up with Leighton.

We got into the park and went for the Bobsleigh first. Which was fun. If a little short. The only other one I've done is the one at robin hill.

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Next was the main reason for the visit...Megafobia!

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We decided on front row first. The first drop is a solid reminder of Ravine Flyer 2, apart from a tad rougher (not a bad thing in the case). But the rest is smooth as. Nice floater on the first hill, fun laterals on the corner. Again, more airtime and lateral force fun continues. I also love the 'suprize' hidden hill. You appear to go for a air hill before getting slammed around a corner. If this is what its like in the morning, I could not wait for it to walm up in the afternoon. We did the front again straight away ;)

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Next we did back car. Totaly different. Its a lot more wild, especially the first drop. We honestly thought we knew what to expect. No. The ejector was insane and took us by suprise! So as you can tell. I highly rate this ride :)

Next was the Spooky 3D which was strange to say the least. Then Brer Rabbit which was a total WTF ride.

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After was the Plane Crazy ride. Which was different. Fairly enjoyable.

Then was Bounce. Which was rather tame compared to Det or even Ice Blast/Power Tower.

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So now it was for the next coaster. Speed!

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Its pretty. But the area around it could do with something, anything, than a giant slab of concrete and a shed. Now, the ride.

I will say beforehand I really like Eurofighters. So I was expecting this to be good. We got the front row. 1 car op makes this a tedious wait. The first drop is better than Saw's. The airhill is very powerfull and a hell of a lot better than Saw's. The turn is odd, then the Loop was forceful but gave me 'brainshake'. It continued to do this for the rest of the ride. Was a tad dissapointed by it. There was still hope yet though. Leighton said it may run better later after its warmed up. So we left it.

Just waiting for Treetops to open, as it only runs now and then, we did Snake River Falls. Obviously fun ride. Got quite wet on the arse! :D

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Now Treetops had opened. We did the back row. Leighton warned us of just how close the trees are. And he wasn't wrong! God we came so dam close to hitting them. I had to duck for trees!

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Now we did another shot on Megafobia. Which was brilliant again.

Now lunch for about an hour of just relaxing, talking. We chose the place by Hydro. The chips were nice. The place itself seemed a little run down. Not too bad. Good enough I suppose.

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Next Leighton took me for a little wander around Hydro, (you can see us in the above picture) while my mum did the toilet. Up around the side and under the turn which was interesting. I learned a lot of things about the ride from that so thanks.

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I think we took our next attempt on Speed again via the kids area to see if the other coaster worked which it didn't. This time Back row. Now I really liked it in the back. It was a lot more enjoyable. We re-rode front as it was running faster. It was brainshake city. Litrally every pit of a hill or element. Not fun. I have my rating, based on the back row. 7/10.

Now we went to Megafobia again. We decided to film it. Got a few nice shots of the ride after Leighton and I deciding on how/what to shoot. Then obviously riding the thang again ;)

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It was 2.30pm I think. Hydro opened. So we made sure we stuck our ponchos on! This ride takes about a month to load people. Which is a tad annoying. But anyway, we got front row and was then told, straped in what the holes in the front were for :eek:

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I have to say the drop is very impressive. Then, basically. You drown. The holes in the boat force water in your face. You have to wait before breathing again! Haha. Then we did it back row. More air on the drop, less drowning.

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Now we ended up doing the Pirate ship. Was better than Blade. Now, we were not happy with the ride op. He wasn't watching the ride. He was reading a Book!! There were kids on here, standing up nearly comming out the ride and he didn't notice, nor care.

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It was getting on a bit so we stayed with Megafobia to the end. Riding in many different seats. Epic ride now it was running fast. I love the way it brakes so hard, the cars lift from the track! It funny seeing them plonk back down to the track.

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Leighton had to leave us at 4.30pm. We continued with more 'fobia. Rode the front again before the back as we found the middle seats a bit weak. The ride op here was nice, he actually let us do another ride around after close. So that made for a great ending.

Ride count:

Megafobia x10 (3 front)
Speed x3
Hydro x2
Bounce x1
Spooky 3D x1
Brer Rabbit x1
Bobsleigh x1
Treetops x1
Pirate Ship x1
Snake river falls x1
Plane crazy x1

23 rides.

Overall. The park to me is good. It does have good rides. There is a reasonable, relaxed atmosphere. But it does seem rather run down. Many buildings are closed, empty or worn down. The staff mostly seemed dead bored. I would say, if your not one for re-rides there isn't enough to do really. I couldn't get bored of Megafobia. There is so much fun factor to it, which is what I mainly look for in rides. It has restored my faith in woodies and has a position in my top 10.

Thanks Leighton for showing us around and coming down to visit us.

Next was the long trip back the next day via Stonehenge, and the Severn Bridge. I'll probally have that up tomorrow. Thanks for reading!
 
That Travelodge looks awfully familiar...

Glad to hear that MegaP is running better than on my trip, but sad to hear that Speed isn't aging well.
 
A-Kid said:
Leighton took me for a little wander around Hydro, (you can see us in the above picture) while my mum did the toilet.
Poo or wee?

I didn't know that the Treetops coaster only runs "now and then", must be a out-of-peak-season thing to do.

Lovely report, glad you had enjoyed Megafobia - it's a superb ride which is wasted tucked away in a remote corner of a Wales!

Did you not attempt to get the kiddie coaster credit?
 
The Kiddie coaster wasn't open and yes some rides were open only for limited times, those opens all day were Megaphobia and Speed. Hydro didn't open until 2pm

And Ian it was a water run...LOL You know us females... and to say the bogs were very smelly was an understatement they closed the one by Speed for overflow probs.. Stinky..
 
Haha Carmarthen (where you had your MacDonald's is where I used to live. :)
I love Oakwood. Used to visit it a couple times a year. You should of done the Crystal maze next-door to the park as well that's god fun. It's got a great peaceful atmosphere and Fobia is amazing. Speed is good but my least favourite out of the UK ones. Spooky 3D was much better as Voodoo Mansion though and Brer Rabbits was better as the Goldmine.
Ah...memories. I've seen the park develop every year since as early as I can remember. It's a park that really made me enjoy coasters and I think really helped boost my enthusiasm to travel and ride new rides. :)
And why didn't you do Waterfall?
 
Thanks for comments :)

^ Waterfall looked a little too wet for my liking ;) I mean I would of probally been the one to fall in!

^^^ Haha, Lol Ian :lol: Yeah, Treetops was every half hour I think, Same with the pirate ship.
 
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