I went to Blackpool Pleasure Beach last week for the first time in about 20 years. It hasn't changed a great deal in that time - it's still a bit shit!
But there are a few rides of note that I rode so I could pretend to be young again.
The Avalanche is good for a quick thrill - it's a free running bobsleigh simulation with some high speed sections and tight bends which the train rides unnervingly quite high on.
I rode The Big One for the first time. I was very impressed with this "hypercoaster." The train's initial ascent is chain powered through a climb of just over 200 feet - markers at 50ft intervals inform you of your current altitude. The view over the Fylde coast is impressive. The first drop is extremely fast and steep; 65 degrees and a speed of 70+ mph. The ride duration is just over 3 minutes and it doesn't let up until it has to. Close to the end of the run, the train thunders through a tunnel that doesn't look big enough - everybody ducked. All in all, an exciting experience. I rode it twice.
The Revolution, as the name suggests features a loop. The train departs from an elevated platform, reaching 40mph in a time short enough to induce 4.0g. It then goes through the loop and stops on the opposite platform before doing the whole thing again - backwards. Considering that it opened in 1979, The Revolution has still got the white knuckle thing going on.
I can't decide between The Big One and The Revolution. They are both excellent. The latter is a short, sharp shock; the former is protracted terror.
I love rides. I reckon my favourite is Nemesis at Alton Towers, purely for the speed of the thing. Best to sit on the front too.
Kumali at FlamingoLand. Go on it about four times at every visit.
Tower of Terror at Disneyland Paris is my favourite.
They do the whole build up of atmosphere so well.
The hotel reception
Twillight zone video in the library
The ghosts on one of the floors etc
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Love Nemesis but think Smiler has now topped it
I prefer that style without the big climb as I'm not good with heights.
Don't think that vid does Smiler justice but gives an idea
I've only been on 1 good one (Disneyland ones were rubbish), was always scared of them when younger. It was called "Speed" and it was somewhere in Wales, near Camarthen I think. Incredible and I screamed "I'mgoingtodie!!" all the way round.
But for real scary madness you can't beat 'The Eggs', a ferris wheel where the carriages spin all the way round. Made all the more scary by the fact they are at travelling fairs so the likelihood of death is vastly amplified...
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Love Nemesis but think Smiler has now topped it
I prefer that style without the big climb as I'm not good with heights.
Looks good! Must be newish, last time I was there 'Air' had only just opened. Know what you mean about the high ones. The only time I've ever chickened out was 'The Big One' at Blackpool. I had a raging hangover though, just standing there looking up and feeling sick...
The teacups at Paultons Park
in order,
Smiler
Air or Rita Queen of Speed
Nemesis
teacups
walking around the themepark
the bog
Oblivion
Stealth at Thorpe Park
0-80mph in 1.8s As the car takes off you feel the acceleration and you think it has to top out but it doesn't, it just keeps accelerating all the way to the curve at the bottom of the climb, where you reach 4.7g
Short but very sweet.
[That's not me in the vid, BTW]
Nemesis is brill. I remember a mates birthday when we all booked the Monday off work, when the schools weren't off, and turned up at Alton Towers when it opened. There was virtually no-one there, and we went on everything loads of times 😀
Best roller coaster video is obviously...
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-inbetweeners/videos/all/rollercoaster
johndoh - Member
But for real scary madness you can't beat 'The Eggs',
Indeed. Sometimes the eggs can be seen to be dripping [s]yolk[/s] vomit. Sometimes directly on to another egg below.
I love fairgrounds. Is it ok to love fairs and stuff in your 30's?
Jambourgie - I'm 45. Don't worry about it. If you enjoy it and it's legal then keep on doing it.
I am 47 and go with the kids to FlamingoLand two or three times a year but aways get an hour to myself to go on the rides with the other dad/s that go with us.
Ohh and The Eggs again [b]*TOP TIP*[/b] if you've spent all of your money (easy to do in travelling fairs and their £3 a ride ridiculousness) , just hang around behind the ride and catch all the money that constantly falls out of peoples pockets 🙂
@jambourgie Smiler opened last year just before i last went. It's really really good
Hate Air, it hurts my shoulders and I once got stuck on it for nearly half an hour when it broke
Oblivion is a bit meh
I loved one called the 'rotor' when I was a kid. It was basically a revolving drum with a rubber wall that you all stood inside of up against the wall. As the thing rotated the floor edged up and then after a while the floor fell away leaving everyone pinned to the wall by only the powers of centrifugal force.
[i]Stealth at Thorpe Park[/i]
Keerist. I don't think I could go on that. Speed was high enough and vertical enough!
[edit]It is Speed at the [url= http://www.oakwoodthemepark.co.uk/rides/speed/ ]Oakwood Theme Park[/url]
[edit/edit]Front seat [url=
It was called "Speed" and it was somewhere in Wales, near Camarthen I think. Incredible and I screamed "I'mgoingtodie!!" all the way round.
It's at Oakwood, Pembrokeshire and it's definitely one of my (and my son's ) favourites. Details (from Wikipedia):
The ride begins with a 115 foot vertical 90° chain lift hill, this is followed by a 110 foot beyond vertical 97° first drop. Cars then reach a speed of 59 miles per hour at the base of this drop, pulling 4.5 G, cars then crest over an airtime hill, pulling -1.3 G. This is followed by an overbanked turn at an angle of 110° and a vertical loop, cars then rise up into a set of brakes. Cars then descend a small dip, into a zero-G-roll and the ride ends with a double helix into the final brake run...
A good park, they've also a got a great "old school" wooden coaster and a massive water-drop one. Also, one of the few with a coaster that reasonably small kids could go on, but still gave some decent thrills - worked as a "gateway drug" for our youngest (can't remember what it's called)..
Alton Towers - Nemesis, Rita. We thought Oblivion and Thirteen were overrated.
Blackpool - Big One and Revolution are hard to beat...
Ligh****er Valley has "The Ultimate" - the longest in Europe. Not that amazing to be frank, but worth experiencing.
Best to sit on the front too.
The perennial "where to sit" on train rollercoasters debate.. on the front for that "accelerate up the other side" sensation"? In the middle for speed-matching-terrain, or at the back for "accelerating down into the bottom of the dips"??
The answer? Clearly, it has to be ride at least three times, once in each position, and make your own mind up. Me, I prefer the back on most. If the train's long enough, you get a whiplashy burst right as you go over the edge and then accelerate hard down to the bottom of the dip.
Never too old..
Didn't like The Ultimate TBH. Train seemed to get held on the brake until well past the start of the drop, so it wasn't as fast as I expected. The twisty bit in the second half was OK.
Don't know which ones I've enjoyed the most. Vampire at Chessington was a good ride, Nemesis was good too, as was Air.
The only ride i can remember at Blackpool was The Wild Mouse. Tiny thing, but its ricketyness and metal fatiguing sharp turns scared the bejasus out of me.
The BunnyGirl Ride at Hefner World.
Expedition Everest at Disney Orlando, Spider-man, duelling dragons, bilge rat barges and the Simpsons ride at Universal Orlando, and another one for twilight zone tower of terror at Disney. Going back in four weeks, I canny wait man!
The 'Cyclone' Coney Island in NYC,
Should be renamed 'Wooden death trap' as thats exactly what it looks and feels like.
Didn't like The Ultimate TBH. Train seemed to get held on the brake until well past the start of the drop,
I'd bet on you having been sat at/near the front for that experience..
Have been on this bad boy a couple of times. 90mph with just a lap bar. Epic.
[url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leviathan_(roller_coaster) ]Leviathan[/url]
The mouse at Blackpool has been running since 1948. Get some weight in those little cars and that ride is a lot of fun, possibly the best as I'm sure there's a real chance it will just collapse one day...
I actually quite like The Ultimate at Ligh****er Valley, though. Mind you, we stopped off there on way back from Le Tour and it was earily quiet: was like walking around that funfair in Pripyat.
Rachel
I'd bet on you having been sat at/near the front for that experience..
A couple of rows back. Not something I'd noticed on any other coaster, not to that extent, anyhow.
The mouse at Blackpool has been running since 1948. Get some weight in those little cars and that ride is a lot of fun, possibly the best as I'm sure there's a real chance it will just collapse one day...
I once *very* nearly got thrown out of one of the cars after being clever and trying to go round without holding on. I held on *very* tightly for the remainder of the ride 🙂
The Steeplechase ride is also great fun.
Summit plummet and the slush gusher at blizzard beach in Florida, not rides but as water slides are pretty scary! Beat any rollercoaster I've been on any way more painful!!!
In the UK it has to be Stealth. Launch rollercoasters are amazing and are very much considered to be the best in our family: Stealth the top one followed by Rita and Rock n Roll (Eurodisney)
All started for me with the launch rollercoaster Thunder looper at Alton towers years ago....brilliant but broke down a lot. Its still going apparently having been shipped off to a theme park in Brazil
Back to the Future with Marty Mcfly and Doc Universal Studios Florida
Or that one at the Christmas park in Dorset that got shut down
Leviathan in Toronto. Proper shit-yourself scary.
I spent a lost summer working at Flamingoland the season before they got rid of the Bullet and Magnum Force (before they tried to make it a bit more upmarket). A lot of the rides then were effectively travelling fairground rides that had been put in permanently, there used to be a LOT more but most have gone now.
I spent most of it operating Magnum Force which by the end of the summer was falling to pieces. They stopped maintaining it as they were selling it on, I think it went to Mexico. It had a tyre driven lift and I had to walk up it every morning to check they were okay, if not they had to be changed, the ones at the top were the worst especially on a windy day. It also had a habit of breaking the 'tyres' on the trains as they were a hard plastic over a metal wheel. Best one was when one split and wedged itself between the wheel and carriage, the whole train stopped on the second lift and everyone had to be evacuated by cherry picker. Ride was down for about 3 hours while they figured out what to do so I sat around drinking tea.
+1 for the Cyclone on Coney Island. Not sure if it's open again but if it is and you're visiting NYC then you just have to go. It's so old and rickety you'll be convinced it's going to collapse. Great fun though (and then to Nathan's on Coney Island for a hotdog).
Next, The Hulk at Universal Islands of Adventure. It's the most loop-the-loopiest roller coaster I've ever been on, and yet also the smoothest.
Then, seeing as you're in Florida, already mentioned, Everest at Disney Animal Kingdom.