nealbie
CF Legend
A long, long time ago (in a galaxy far away blah, blah, blah), I went to Heide Park with CF and with the notable exceptions of the company of my fellow goons and a certain ridiculously tall wooden coaster, I absolutely hated it! So, when Del Piero and Darren organised a two day shindig at North Germany's largest theme park (now with two added B&Ms) at such an affordable price, the temptation was too great.
Got up nice and early (actually, that's a lie, I didn't go to sleep, summoning all my powers as a Scout Leader to do two days without any kip) and at around 4am I found myself outside Leyton train station in East London. It was an amusing experience. What could only be described as a very stoned, but friendly, man appeared before me asking if I had any cigarettes. Naturally I informed him that I didn't smoke, but every 10 or so minutes he'd come back and ask if I smoked yet so that he could have a cigarette. Whilst waiting (I'd somehow got the connecting bus at Canning Town, even though I should have missed it by 10 minutes) for the others to pick me up at 4:45, I had the perfect vantage point overlooking the 2012 Olympic Park as the sun started to come up, it was beautiful.
Got to the airport nice and early, went through security, bought pre-emptive aspirin from Boots and headed straight to Wetherspoons. Where I was disappointed it took them 15 minutes to microwave my breakfast, football and such was discussed, and we were complimented by 50 something year old woman about how well spoken we were for young lads. The plane was alright, GermanWings' female staff were pretty nice to look at, my seat even came with one when I arrived! I think Darren popped a stiffy over one of them, slyly moving his iPad over his crotch to avoid her gaze. The landing was horrendous, bouncing up and down more than an Amsterdam strumpet. But after minimal faff we were on our way in a pleasant and equally unexpected Renault Clio ESTATE (this wasn't ours, but this is what they look like, pretty nice tbh).
A short while later, we rocked up outside Serengeti Park. I had already made it clear I wasn't paying over 20 Euros for two creds and as we approached the entrance, AJ decided similar. So we got out and had a wander around the entrance area. Where there was a mysterious OAP dogger and a copy of Chessington's Wanyama Village only done to a higher standard...
After about half an hour, the others came back and we were headed to Heide Park. Home of half an hour faff to buy sparkling water, Germans with no concept of queuing, ridiculously tall slides, free champagne and Colossos!
Collected my shiny new German Annual Pass (includes Gardaland AND Legoland Billund), only to discover they give you a one-time only "free all-day fastpass card" for Heide and German Legoland, which was pretty fab. For 99 Euros, bargain.
As was the case in 2009, the enormous spite-time machine was up to its old tricks again and was closed with men walking the track (we would later find out that this was a two-day annual maintenance jobbie - completely unadvertised on their site). It started testing towards the end of our first day, upon interrogating a woman in management attire who was talking to a rather disappointed crowd of wood fans, she didn't hesitate to reply "YES!" to whether or not the ride would open tomorrow. Take note UK Merlin, the apocalypse doesn't happen if you're open and honest with your paying customers.
I didn't take any pictures today at Heide as we were having so much fun exploring all the corners of the park getting on pretty much everything except Colossos and Limit. Will review the rides later after someone uploads photos of them.
Still to come...
Got up nice and early (actually, that's a lie, I didn't go to sleep, summoning all my powers as a Scout Leader to do two days without any kip) and at around 4am I found myself outside Leyton train station in East London. It was an amusing experience. What could only be described as a very stoned, but friendly, man appeared before me asking if I had any cigarettes. Naturally I informed him that I didn't smoke, but every 10 or so minutes he'd come back and ask if I smoked yet so that he could have a cigarette. Whilst waiting (I'd somehow got the connecting bus at Canning Town, even though I should have missed it by 10 minutes) for the others to pick me up at 4:45, I had the perfect vantage point overlooking the 2012 Olympic Park as the sun started to come up, it was beautiful.
Got to the airport nice and early, went through security, bought pre-emptive aspirin from Boots and headed straight to Wetherspoons. Where I was disappointed it took them 15 minutes to microwave my breakfast, football and such was discussed, and we were complimented by 50 something year old woman about how well spoken we were for young lads. The plane was alright, GermanWings' female staff were pretty nice to look at, my seat even came with one when I arrived! I think Darren popped a stiffy over one of them, slyly moving his iPad over his crotch to avoid her gaze. The landing was horrendous, bouncing up and down more than an Amsterdam strumpet. But after minimal faff we were on our way in a pleasant and equally unexpected Renault Clio ESTATE (this wasn't ours, but this is what they look like, pretty nice tbh).
A short while later, we rocked up outside Serengeti Park. I had already made it clear I wasn't paying over 20 Euros for two creds and as we approached the entrance, AJ decided similar. So we got out and had a wander around the entrance area. Where there was a mysterious OAP dogger and a copy of Chessington's Wanyama Village only done to a higher standard...
After about half an hour, the others came back and we were headed to Heide Park. Home of half an hour faff to buy sparkling water, Germans with no concept of queuing, ridiculously tall slides, free champagne and Colossos!
Collected my shiny new German Annual Pass (includes Gardaland AND Legoland Billund), only to discover they give you a one-time only "free all-day fastpass card" for Heide and German Legoland, which was pretty fab. For 99 Euros, bargain.
As was the case in 2009, the enormous spite-time machine was up to its old tricks again and was closed with men walking the track (we would later find out that this was a two-day annual maintenance jobbie - completely unadvertised on their site). It started testing towards the end of our first day, upon interrogating a woman in management attire who was talking to a rather disappointed crowd of wood fans, she didn't hesitate to reply "YES!" to whether or not the ride would open tomorrow. Take note UK Merlin, the apocalypse doesn't happen if you're open and honest with your paying customers.
I didn't take any pictures today at Heide as we were having so much fun exploring all the corners of the park getting on pretty much everything except Colossos and Limit. Will review the rides later after someone uploads photos of them.
Still to come...
- Man vs. Food Challenge
- Mmmmmm, B&M
- Scream Screamie
- Crack or Krake
- Major Wood