Ian said:
Where are the trip reports from everybody else?
My internet's been down for most of this week, the work's network sucks, YouLube & Facebook are blocked, and the fairly epic drive back knackered my dodgy wrist, so I've not seen or done 'owt yet! But if it's long you want...
Friday
My weekend began later than planned, rushing from a late meeting in work and collecting Leighton at about 5pm. Then it was off to sunny Brummie to get Rach (via the rubbery flyover
). We made good time and met up with WillIAm at the Doncaster 'Lodge about 9:30.
Quick trek over to McD's (via some secret hidden village route to avoid the A1), then back to the hotel to put the badges together before collapsing! (For the record, Ploddish did the design, I just added to it/messed it up, depending on your point of view
).
Saturday
Next morning, and it's SUNNY, finally a warm dry Live
. We got to Lightwater well early only to find a gaggle of CFers already there, including Marc & Mark - how fast is that Mini again?
Eventually we were allowed into the park, and everyone seemed to be arriving on time! Even the Furies
. Not bad for a park in the middle of nowhere.
The party bags were dished out (thanks Ian), I started on the slightly soapy Haribo, and remembering what happened at the meet last year had a sudden urge to get a hammer
. It had to be done!
Soon we were off to a spinny start on Eagle's Claw which is a really good Afterburner, and Hornet's Nest, my first Chaos - was fine once it started chucking us about but just spinning around gets me queasy. So was it Will who got his arm stuck? Was he doing a gibbon impression? Don't know why it took a ride-op in a golf cart to go and get a key to release him though!
Some more good spinning on the crazy mouse (once the ops had worked out how to balance a car), then on to the star attraction
. I was actually quite surprised at how "gentle" T'Ultimate was in the morning, but still a good wake-up call (despite managing to dislodge my brand new filling in the process!).
Onto the Rat, where I managed to avoid the Furiesoaking that everyone else got (I was a bit confused seeing how wet people were coming out!), then some skatecarting. Seeing the op make Mushroom walk around the track was hilarious :lol:. Followed by Mushroom accelerating Chaz into the ground, which looked painful (the op's expression was priceless) but thankfully only led to some trouser rippage!
I eventually discovered that skatecarting with my left leg stick out actually worked - don't ask me why! It was the only way I could get around the track.
We broke for lunch then, and remembering the dodgy food last time I decided to play safe with some pasta in the greenhouse tent. Had a wander about, almost got tempted into a drink with Sam and Harvey but fought it (I'd have probably fallen asleep), then ambled back to the Grizzly Bear. Maybe it's the lack of hair but I just love warm weather ^_^.
Couldn't really be bothered to ride Grizzly so took some video and faffed on the grass, and that kind of set the tone for the afternoon really, lots of relaxed riding and messing about! Stone Cold pwning Will on the pirate ship in the way only he can (much to the bemusement of the "normal" people), massive hammer fighting, Lain trying to fend off Ciaran and falling down the hill, Sam pleading for someone to get in his dinghy leading to my getting between Sam's legs for the first (and last) time and losing my cap in the water - all good memories
.
Thankfully by the afternoon T'Ultimate was back to its outrageous, pummelling best - when it's in that sort of mood I could ride it for hours, except I'd probaly haemorrhage!
They'd closed the T'Ultimate queueline though, so it was time to leave. End of an excellent day in the park, especially meeting Andy and Nic for the first time, more great peeps
.
I quite like Lightwater: it's trump card is T'Ultimate, but it's got some fun rides, it's a nice setting, and the staff are a lot friendlier these days than they used to be. It really needs better food though.
Back to the 'Lodge, after some technological struggles with mobile internet we headed into Doncaster to find a Tesco. We toured around the place but failed on the Tesco front (a large town that doesn't have at least 5 Tescos?
), but stumbled on a giant Asda instead. So we stank the 'Lodge out with roast meat
.
Sunday
More sun! Lush. We made the slightly longer journey to Flamingoland, taking advantage of the "airtime hill" on the way - didn't realise Rach was answering her phone at the time as she bounced into the car roof! :lol:
More earlyness, so some mandatory faffing before we got going with Velocity! I really like it, now I've sussed out how to avoid crushing injuries
. The launch is sustained, it doesn't seem to break down much, and it's an unusual, fun coaster.
There's rather a tangle of coasters near the entrance to the park, which isn't an ideal layout but it did mean we covered 4 coasters in rapid time. The level of pain caused by Runaway Mine Train is hilarious, that final turn is lethal! The Corkscrew restraints box your ears too.
The Navigator was much more meh than last time I visited, I wonder if it's suffering a bit, was making a nasty whining noise. I also spotted an engineer clambering over Flip Flop, which wasn't a good sign, suspected it would be down for the day.
The "subtle" video cameras on the Wild Mouse were actually quite good, might have been tempted but not for £8. And they've definitely used-up the last of the paint from Velocity! It's interesting how much difference theming makes though, since Rattlesnake is a symmetrical layout but feels better to me.
Eventually the moment I'd been looking forward to the most, Splash Battle! This is such fun on a nice day, the entire Splosh! area was full of people laughing and splashing about, it's a great atmosphere. Even from the queue we could see Ciaran getting some practice in on the guns, and watching the expression on everyone's faces as they got drenched was fab! I think Julian saved me and Jayjay to a certain extent by getting the targets
.
I wasn't going for Pierre's pie & chips again for lunch, they were skank last time, so I headed for the fish & chips which were fine
. Although sounds like I should have gone for the Diner instead. Did a bit of Velocity whoring, then joined the group relaxing on the grass by Kumali.
Got my first front row on Kumali next, which is definitely more entertaining and smoother (distinctly non-zero-g roll though!). Seeing the video camera at the front shaking about was amusing.
I saw from the top of the lift hill that Flip Flop was now running, yay! I wasn't the only one who'd noticed and we made our way over to it. They've done a really good job of integrating it into the Splosh! area, and it has some lovely airtime, it's just a shame the water fountains don't do *something*, maybe the occasional spray into the air?
Next up was Cliffhanger, which scared the crap out of me as usual (although if anything Andy actually looked more terried!), then some larking about on the kiddie slide. Bongo Warriors followed - I hadn't seem the limbo one so it was fun - then Stone Cold switched his abuse to Lain on the pirate ship to hilarious effect. GET THAT MAN AWAY FROM HORNS! Maybe he needs a horn asbo
.
Hehe, Wild Green River Ride, OMG. That must have been the longest ride of my life! 20 mins
. We had a good laugh though, especially when it broke at the top of the drop! XD
Over to Velocity and then back to Kumali for the ERT. Wasn't sure if the ride ops were a bit peed off at first since they looked miserable (and gave me a good pinning), but a few more ops turned up and they seemed to cheer up. Think I got 5 rides in, was starting to lose my head by then and wasn't surprised the group was rapidly dwindling! Was still fun though, and a great way to end the weekend.
I've been to Flamingoland twice now, and had a great time on each occasion: it has a good selection of rides, it's being well looked after, and it's a fun place to be - I'd visit more often if it wasn't so far away!
So the CF convoy departed and headed straight into a traffic jam on the A64 :?. Thought I'd break the tedium with some Haribo target practice, bounced one into Mushroom's sun roof which I was pleased with
. Although they retaliated with Polos, which wasn't so good - Haribo's are squishy, Polo's ain't :?.
Broke through the traffic eventually and headed south west, the M42 seemed endless! Dropped Rach off and got home about 2am, rather tired.
Overall it was another great weekend with great people! Thanks Rob and Ian for the organisation
.
Stone Cold said:
if I'm not mistaken Furie, you got footage of Lain falling down the hill beside the train like and Chaz's epic crash on the Skate Karts and it's not in the video.
I have them too
. Now if I can just get my video out sometime this decade...
Mark said:
Slayed... In Germany, please, please, please read the signs.... NO LOOSE ARTICLES!
I don't read German
. It was only my cap, and I wasn't worried about securing it on the water slide! Plus it was lush putting it back on 8). I was VERY careful in Mingoland...