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Ever been on a school trip to a theme park?

Matt N

Matt N

CF Legend
Hi guys. Sorry if there's already a topic like this, but I was inspired to make this topic because as some of you may know, it is currently school trip season in UK theme parks, and I had first-hand experience of this at Thorpe Park yesterday. So, as the title implies; have you ever been to a theme park on a school trip or been on a theme park-related school trip before? If so, describe what you can recall of your experience.

I'll get the ball rolling with my two experiences of theme parks during school trip season.

My first experience of a theme park school trip was Oakwood in July 2016. Now, considering it was school trip season, the park actually wasn't too crowded, and I got 6 rides in in total, including 2 on Speed and 1 on Megafobia! I did queue a long time for some attractions, however; I queued around 90 minutes for Speed both times, despite the queue not looking too long, however I don't know whether this was down to crowds or Oakwood's operations/fastrack policy. This was my first visit to Oakwood in 6 or 7 years, and I really enjoyed it, however Oakwood's operations were a potential area for improvement, in my opinion. The park seemed to sell a lot of Fastracks, so much so that they were filling every other train with Fastrackers on both Megafobia and Speed. Both of these were also running only one train, so the main queue moved quite slowly. I don't really know whether Oakwood ever gets busy enough to warrant running two trains, though. Overall, I had a really nice experience at Oakwood!

My second and most recent experience of a theme park school trip was Thorpe Park in July 2018; yesterday, actually! Now, Thorpe seemed a lot busier than Oakwood did, with at least 10 other schools being at Thorpe, compared with only 1 or 2 others at Oakwood. However, fair play to Thorpe, they seemed to have everything in check where admission was concerned; each school was assigned a staff member in a high vis jacket to lead them into special switchbacks to wait in just for schools. There were also staff members handing out special offer sheets for students; one of whom was CF's @nadroJ (I think...)! Anyway, when we got into the park, we headed for The Swarm, but the sign out front instantly advertised a 75-80 minute queue, so we instead headed for Rush, which had a 40 minute queue. Now, this was a new experience for me and my group, and we all really enjoyed it! We then decided to try Saw, but it had a 90 minute queue, so we instead queued up for Samurai, which had a 40 minute queue. Yet again, our group all seemed to enjoy this! After that, we had lunch and then decided to look at Stealth, but that had a 90 minute queue, so we kind of ambled around for a bit. Then, however, one of the queue time boards advertised what we thought to be a 60 minute queue for Saw, but later turned out to be 80 minutes once we got there. We just got in line and waited for this, though. However, the ride broke down when we were in the station, and it was nearing meetup time, so I reclaimed my bag and headed to our meet up point. The rest of my group followed as the ride showed no signs of reopening. Overall, I did have a nice day at Thorpe, despite it being busy and the low ride count. I'm not sure about the rest of my group, though, as some of them did seem a bit fed up towards the end of the day. I do have a trip report, if any of you want more detail.

So, have you guys had any theme park school trip experiences?
P.S. Sorry for the long post.
 
I've been to Lightwater Valley once, Blackpool PB 3 times, and will be going to Alton Towers with school in September.

I have a strong memory though if my first visit to Blackpool with school. It was a really busy day, queueing 2 hours for the Big One, and everything else wasn't much better. Valhalla was down for the first part of the day, but I walked past it and the ride ops out front said the ride would open very shortly. A a HUGE queue formed outside Valhalla's entrance (but was about tenth from front) and then about 50 or so kids started to gather around the entrance, and tried to push in front of each other. So the ride ops had to get security to control the crowds, and had to use brute force to stop the line cutting. But despite this, I got linecut by about 10 kids, although I managed to get all of the them kicked off the ride. It was like a riot, and one of the craziest things I've experienced.
 
Oh dear @ATI! The BPB visit sounds a bit hectic, what with all those kids queue jumping! I hope that my first BPB visit in August isn't like that!

Hope you enjoy Alton in September, though! Should be quite quiet, as it's out of trip season!
 
My two experiences have been with my MS band to Kings Dominion.
On the first trip we all got in line for Volcano but ended up having to get out of line because it was time to compete in KD's band battle thingy. For some reason we got back in line and waited for more than 2 HOURS. It wasn't worth it at all, despite being my first inverted coaster. By then it was afternoon so we just rode Rebel Yell, Dominator, and a few others.
On my second trip the priority was Intimidator, which we rode a few times without much of a wait. It closed for the rest of the day though, so we rode Anaconda and got headaches for the rest of the day. :(
The morale is, don't go to a theme park with a giant group of band members. They waste your time. :D
 
Yes, my school were sensible and we had ours in September - it was supposed to be an educational physics trip rather than an end of term treat, which was amusing.
It was in 2003, but I've probably still got an old trip report from it somewhere.
Anyways, it wasn't that busy, which was OK, but Nemesis was down for seasonal maintenance, which I wasn't impressed with.

At around 9:55, our bus pulled into the car parks. Much waiting, complaining, being lectured and hanging around later, at about 10:40, we finally entered Alton Towers, for the long awaited fifth year Physics trip. However, we had already had an indication of how good the day would be, by way of the queue-time displays warning us that “Nemesis will be unavailable today”. With it being a quiet day, we decided to head for the sky ride to Air before it got too busy, but hanging around for certain teachers had given it time to busy up, especially as only one station, and one train were operating. However, the staff seemed to get their acts together as me and Boulton queued, and at one point, three trains were running (tricky with only one station). We queued for half an hour, but by the time we reached the ride, the queue was much longer. We sat on the back row, with Boulton wittering away, seemingly incapable of accepting that it is not scary. Eventually, we got on, and a few minutes later, persuaded our leg restraints to close! Then we were off. The ride actually seemed faster than usual, and possibly not as relaxing, and we were both disappointed to hit the brake run at the end (where we stayed for five minutes or so). Boulton had liked Air, but luckily, not enough to want to queue up to go on again, so we moved onto the next ride.


The next ride was Ripsaw, which Boulton refused to join me on. It was a walk on, so I didn’t have time to put my waterproofs on. BIG MISTAKE!! If possible, it was even wetter than last time, as we moved above the fountains, hung upside down and had water sprayed in our hair. Then, on the bit where we dropped vertically into the fountains, we all got a mouthful of water (yuck, chlorine). Decidedly wet, I rejoined Boulton, and we went to see if Dynamo was open, as I was in desperate need of spin-drying, and my usual method (Nemesis) was unavailable. It looked a bit dejected as we passed, with workmen faffing around the final corkscrew, and everywhere shut off, when I really wanted to go on it.


Anyway, Dynamo was open, but the sequence was dull. Boulton and me almost fell asleep, hoping the operative would notice, and speed us up a bit, but no such luck, it was nothing like as good as last time. Luckily, the sun was out, and I was already beginning to dry off after my unwanted shower courtesy of Ripsaw. Next up was Blade, another walk on, with only about 15-20 people on it. I easily got a back row seat, but Boulton sat in the middle, looking like a bit of a reject! The airtime was (as usual) good, but I started getting bored after a while, as we didn’t seem to go particularly high.


We got off Blade and had already done all the Forbidden Valley rides in under an hour. We decided on an early lunch (11:45), whilst the kiosks were still quiet, and I grabbed a quick McDonalds whilst Boulton ate his sweets and sandwich, overlooking Blade. Lunch took less than 15 minutes, and we were soon on the skyride to the Towers. Luckily, Boulton didn’t feel like Corkscrew, but he did feel like Hex, and whined loudly as we passed, before going on on his own, whilst I headed off to the 15 minute Oblivion queue.


One of the sides of the queue was closed, which meant that the announcements telling us to use both sides of the queue line were a bit weird, and there were loads of German people in the queue behind me. Eventually, I reached the ride, front row seat (for the first time) as well! Several girls from school were worrying behind me, and one of them seemed to really hate Oblivion! I think I was the only one to do it none-handed (as usual) but a few people screamed along with me, especially the girls behind! The tunnel was wet and we waited outside the station for a while. My photo was quite good, but, as usual not worth the money. I met Boulton outside Meltdown, and we joined the 10 minute (shortest ever) Black Hole queue. We got the front seat as well, putting me right at the front of the train, and as usual we got thrown around, Boulton exaggerated the G-forces and our photo was rubbish.


Now, Boulton went a bit nuts and dragged me off to Submission (which he chickened out of lat time), I had hoped he wouldn’t do Submission, as I don’t like it, but he dragged me on. My restraint was worryingly loose, yet still painful, we didn’t feel safe, so really a normal Submission. Unfortunately, Boulton loved it, but I dragged him off for his first go on Enterprise instead of suffering on another go! Enterprise was a bit of a disaster, as I lost my phone out of my pocket, then Boulton caught it under his foot and the rest of the ride was wasted worrying about it. Boulton liked Enterprise, as “The G-forces weren’t as bad as Black Hole” (he talks nearly as much rubbish as James sometimes).


With all the X-Sector rides done (despite his newfound thrill-seeking, Boulton wouldn’t do Oblivion), it was off to Gloomy Wood for Duel. We got lost on the way to Duel, and when we finally got there, it was a total walk on. I scored a measly 26,000, but Boulton totally ran away with it, scoring 51,000, winning the car (I think the row in front was full of first-timers). Runaway Mine-Train (another walk on) was next, and we sat on the front row. I did calculator countdown, which got us an excellent photo, except for my sunglasses, so I agreed to go on later without them. Boulton, still more adventurous had done it all none-handed!


Next, it was off to the Rapids. This was yet another walk on, of the 11 we were fortunate enough to have! We didn’t get too wet, and our photo was all right. The hosepipe almost hit Boulton, but, much to his disgust, it stopped just before he reached it. Now, it was back to Runaway Mine-Train, where we followed Biya, and she was almost as disgusted as me by the closure of Nemesis. Boulton and me queued a little extra to get the front seat again (the guy there was showing off his wristband, frequently), so it was about 5 minutes to the ride. We got three laps, and a ride photo (which we bought)


With just ½ an hour to go until we had to meet, it was back to Forbidden Valley. I had a look at Nemesis, but the workmen laughed and told us to come back on Sunday. Then I got a serious soaking on my second go on Ripsaw, with Iona looking on, laughing at me (she had had the sense to avoid it), and the walk on had not given me chance to put my coat on, so I had another unwanted shower and drink of chlorinated water. Dripping, I headed for a last (rather dull) go on Dynamo, which didn’t dry me off at all, and me and Boulton thought was even more boring than the one in the morning.


We got back to Towers Street, but just had time to go to the deserted Adventure Land, for a look at the Spinball Whizzer construction site, we also had a go on Beastie, which was very painful, as we got thrown around, and bashed on the sides of the car! Then after a quick look in the shop, it was 3:00 and time to get on the bus back to school.
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(Wow, there's some ****e on my old hard drives...)
 
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Kinda? Went with my best friends church group in 2003. On a bus, big group, kids.. etc.. just not with school. Funny story around that, it was shortly after TTD opened and that was a 5 hour wait for us. We ended up being the only two people on the whole bus to ride it (some 50 passengers). Felt quite proud/exhausted as it was 95 degrees.. lol
 
Snoo said:
Kinda? Went with my best friends church group in 2003. On a bus, big group, kids.. etc.. just not with school. Funny story around that, it was shortly after TTD opened and that was a 5 hour wait for us. We ended up being the only two people on the whole bus to ride it (some 50 passengers). Felt quite proud/exhausted as it was 95 degrees.. lol
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Ouch... a 5 hour queue in 95 degree (around 35 degrees Celsius, presumably?) heat sounds nasty! But at least you got on TTD!
 
Matt N said:
Ouch... a 5 hour queue in 95 degree (around 35 degrees Celsius, presumably?) heat sounds nasty! But at least you got on TTD!
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Yeah I was a sweaty mess. Worst part is that we mostly got stuck in the sun when the ride broke down too. For those who know TTD's queue.. right on the ramp for nearly 1.5 hours. And yep, around 35 Celsius. But yeah, not many could claim they've been on it due to the rides constant downage so we had a little trophy to hang our hats on until the ride stabilized.
 
Snoo said:
Yeah I was a sweaty mess. Worst part is that we mostly got stuck in the sun when the ride broke down too. For those who know TTD's queue.. right on the ramp for nearly 1.5 hours. And yep, around 35 Celsius. But yeah, not many could claim they've been on it due to the rides constant downage so we had a little trophy to hang our hats on until the ride stabilized.
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I bet it felt good when you got on judging by your experience!
 
While I never did a school amusement park trip, my sister has.

I forget what it was exactly for, most likely an end-of-school trip to Kings Island. I remember seeing the permission slip and then asking my elementary teacher why we didn't do this.

Sent from my LG-TP260 using Tapatalk
 
Three times.

First in 2011 to Flamingo Land. It was very quiet, with a couple of other schools there. We walked round the zoo and visited the theme park in the afternoon.

Later that year we went to Codona's, it's a good day out as there's the rides, bowling and the vertigo (aerial assualt course).

A few years later I visited Alton Towers in May, we stayed in the splash landings. It was good, though long queues. Managed to get one ride on each major attraction.

Based on this thread, it sounds like I was lucky to have three good trips!
 
Went to Thorpe Park with my school in 2009 and had a pretty poor experience. Queued up for Saw first which took three hours due to two breakdowns and then the ride also went down because a lady in front of me puked in the indoor queue section. Then we hit the rapids which had an external queue then we waited nearly two hours for Stealth.

At the time I was loving it , I was buzzed to ride Saw on its opening year and 14 year old me was excited to spend the day dicking around with my mates instead of being in the classroom. But in hindsight it wasn't a great day out.
 
Edward M said:
I grew up in Mississippi so that is a resounding no. Our only field trip was to a literal field.
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Taking the term very literally, I suppose! Having grown up in Britain, I definitely would have taken the term "field trip" very literally!
 
Yup.

Thorpe in the mid 2000s. I was a strange child, loved the notion of parks but wouldn't ride anything. Just about braved Loggers, Rocky Express and Mr Banana.

Alton probably the next year. Still a strange child, stretched to Runaway Mine Train and Spinball, spited myself Corkscrew forever, then threw up on the coach home.

Disneyland Paris probably the next year. It was January, weather was terrible. Everything was closed bar Phantom Manor and Buzz.
It was meant to be 'educational' but they even cancelled the 'talks' due to high winds. 13 hour coach journeys for that...

I persisted.

Alton the year after that? Was for a different year group, but they opened up some extra slots and I had an Merlin Annual Pass like a pro (back in the days when they were like £90), so it was just a case of hop on the damn coach.
Got a one of everything fastrack on arrival (back in the days when it was like £30) and did everything.

Eww.
 
Yeah, went to Seabreeze a couple of times for science related field trips in elementary school and my high school had tradition of going to Darien Lake after graduation "practice". I say had as my year was the last year it happened...
 
High school loved their end-of-year theme park trips.
Year 7 - Camelot. They couldn't handle crowds, so it was rammed and we never got more than one ride on anything substantial.
Year 8 - Drayton Manor. Also couldn't handle crowds. I remember doing Apocalypse twice and absolutely bricking it. Then a few other flat rides.
Year 9 - Alton Towers. Since the last one, I'd become an enthusiast. School sadly didn't give me a discount for my Tussauds annual pass, and my friends spent the day whoring out the single rider queues (remember them?).
 
Once went on a coach trip to Towers with school in Yr 9 the year 13 opened. Like @Will , the trip was in September. Unfortunately, 13 was down all day so couldn't ride but naive, not-yet full enthusiast me thought the scaffolding on the station was the reason for the break-down, not theming!

Have also gone on numerous organised non-school coach trips to Blackpool, Southport, Thorpe, Towers and Drayton.
 
Went to Universal Orlando's "Grad Night" for high school seniors last year and it was a total waste of money. More packed than I had ever seen it during regular business hours and going to/from the buses and entering/exiting the park took forever and was so disorganized. Felt like every senior in Florida was there.
 
Went to SFNE with a school group and rode Bizarro to get over my fear of heights. That's when I started becoming more of an enthusiast.
 
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