The missus kicked me out of the house last weekend. Not permanently of course, just for the weekend so that she could have some of her girley horsey friends over to do girley horsey things. Don't ask.
So anyway, I thought f*ck it, Imma go on a solo cred-run-of-shame, so I minced oop north to
Skeggy and
Mingo, by 'eck.
First port of call was Fantasy Island.
Despite persistent rain and fairly blustery winds, everything was open, surprisingly.
Odyssey
Technically not a new to me cred but I've only ever had one ride on this thing and it was over 20 years ago so I think it's worth a fresh review.
Good lord, it's a bit rough isn't it? I can't even pinpoint any particularly bad moments, pretty much the whole ride is shuffly and headbangy. Not quite to the point of being painful, me being the professional goon that I am I was bracing myself the entire time so managed to avoid any severe concussion, but yeah, this is one brutal ride. Add the fact that I was seated on the front row getting pelted in the face by sideways rain and this was an altogether uncomfortable experience. But you know what? I didn't hate it. It was definitely, uhm... memorable. In between the 'oofs' and the 'arghhs' I was actually laughing most of the way round. This thing pulls some good forces, the layout is actually pretty cool and the sheer size of it makes for a genuinely intimidating coaster. I went round for another go, the back this time. Even more forceful, first drop is legit terrifying, but some of the headbanging is even more noticeable in the back. Quite the endurance test, for sure.
I've got respect for some of these big old brutal Vekomas - Goudurix, Stunt Fall etc... I don't mind 'em, but yeah, two rides on Odyssey was enough for me.
The first and only time I ever came here was in 2004/2005 ish and it wasn't a proper visit, I was doing a bit of delivery driving at the time and was in the area so I literally just popped in, got the Odyssey cred and popped out again.
After all this time it was nice to be back here with enough time to explore the park properly for, effectively, the first time.
Millenium Coaster was, therefore, a new to me cred. It's pretty good actually. I'm not quite sure what they were thinking with the layout, there's some rather uneventful straight sections of track, but the three inversions pull some decent forces, the final helix is quite fun and there's even a couple of mild airtime moments, especially towards the back of the train. The best thing about it though is, of course, how
smooth it is. It might well be the smoothest, old skool Vekoma in existence, it really is quite remarkable. A very enjoyable ride overall, I had three goes - front, middle and back. Good stuff.
I also picked up the
Rhombus Express cred. Not much to say really, it's a powered family coaster that doesn't do very much but it was a bit bigger and more substantial than I imagined so at least it wasn't as shameful as I was expecting. Not bad for what it is. +1.
I didn't ride the wacky worm cos I ain't no ho, and I definitely didn't ride the Jellikins coaster (I mean, how does a grown adult even
fit into the Jellikins coaster??), instead opting to get my moneys worth out of the wristband by cocking about on the flat rides for a bit - the shot tower, the starflyer etc.. and some weird dark ride in the pyramid, before sliding down the road a couple of miles to
Bottons Pleasure Beach.
Cor blimey, it's a bit bleak here, isn't it?
Smeggy Skeggy.
This is where the real shame started.
Queen Bee was first. Yes, it's a kiddy cred and yes, it's crap but I feel as though it can be justified for it's rarity and for enabling me to complete the alphabet of coasters, being the only operating coaster (I think?) beginning with the letter Q. But yes, the shame was real. As for the ride, well... it's about as good as you'd expect an inverted wacky worm to be, ie, not very. +1.
They also have a Fabbri spinning mouse called
Rockin' Roller.
Sometimes these can be quite good - the old Batman one at Towyn for example was wild, and the one at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach is pretty good too - but this one, not so much. It has a smaller, less interesting layout, the presentation is a bit grotty and disappointingly, it didn't even spin very much.
Crap. +1.
More shame followed with the
Runaway Train. I don't think I can dress this one up in any way - it's a kiddy cred, pure and simple. Perhaps not quite as embarrassing as a wacky worm, but still 100% kiddy cred. As I watched the groups of young children lining up to ride, along with the proud dads taking little Sophie on her first coaster, I uhm'd and ahh'd a bit before actually committing, debating with myself whether a +1 was worth this amount of shame, opting to buy a milkshake and just loiter for a while instead, cos that looks a lot less shady, right?
In the end a group of four, twenty-something lads came to my rescue and joined the queue (I think they were goons, also collecting creds). Figuring there would be safety in numbers, I slithered in and discreetly attached myself to the back of their group hoping the presence of other grown men would dilute the attention away from a solitary, 51 year old bloke brandishing a milkshake.
It worked - got the cred and nobody batted an eyelid.
+1.
They also have an actual wacky worm here but after Queen Bee and the Runaway Train I decided I'd had my fill of shame for the day and skipped it.
Like Fantasy Island, I'd bought a wristband so to get my moneys worth I cocked around on the flat rides for a bit - an afterburner type thing, a swinging ship, another starflyer and a so-bad-it's-good ghost train. All good fun.
Had some fish n chips on the beach, wandered up to the end of the pier, and that was about it for my day at Skeggy.
Despite the typically bleak, British seaside town, the crappy creds and the grey, drizzly weather I had a pretty good time believe it or not. A cheeky lil +5, at least one of them actually quite good, a handful of reasonably thrilling flats, some nice views, an all round success I'd say.
Tomorrow I'd be meeting Dr Dave at Flamingo Land, a 2hr drive north so I'd booked a hotel for the night in Hull, about half way.
Seeing as I was alone and not particularly pressed for time I decided to take a slight detour so that I could drive along the A15 from Lincoln to S****horpe - Britain's straightest road.
*ha ha - I love how CF's swear filter blocks out the word Scun - thorpe.
Dead good it is - about 20 miles long, dead flat and straight as an arrow. OK, so it's not the grandest of bucket list items to tick off, I'll give you that, but hey, they all count.
Also got to drive over the Humber Bridge, which is always cool.
Hotel was alright, they served beer and food and it had a nice view of the bridge, so I was basically sorted for the night.
For any Americans reading, the Humber Bridge is a bit like your Golden Gate Bridge, only bigger.
FlamingoLand, then. S'alright.
Not my first time here, but I'm hardly what you'd call a regular visitor. First visit was way back in 2009 and I remember having a pretty good day. Second visit wasn't until 2021 and it was a disaster - high crowds, limited ride availability and dismal ops meant we only got on three rides all day, three! Mumbo Jumbo, Velocity and the Starflyer. Spent most of the day just mincing round the zoo to avoid the hoardes. Hopefully today would be better, but a sunny Sunday in the summer holidays? Hmm, I was preparing for the worst, let's put it that way.
However, my fears were unfounded. The park was actually pretty quiet, most things were open and waiting times were more than manageable all day. Getting the discounted entry ticket with ECC was quick, easy and faff free - a quick stop off at the guest services counter - and we were in the park by about 9.50am.
Kumali was closed on our last visit so this was a coaster I hadn't ridden in about 16 years, so we headed there first. 5 min wait, boom!
Ready for a hot take? Kumali is... quite good, actually. And I don't just mean it's 'quite good for a Vekoma SLC', I mean it's genuinely quite a good rollercoaster. I like the layout, a bit short perhaps, but waaaay better than the standard SLC layout, I noticed some good positive g's, especially on that low, sweeping first turn after the drop and overall it runs fairly smoothly. Bit jolty through the cobra roll perhaps, but nothing too horrendous and ten times smoother than that other, custom Vekoma SLC that I rode yesterday.
Worthy of a reride, so we had another go.
Did Mumbo Jumbo (meh), did Velocity (decent) and then decided to get a new-to-me cred,
Sik. 10 minute wait, no biggie.
In a nutshell, it's like Colossus isn't it, but with comfier restraints. I definitely prefer Sik's reprofiled first drop and most of the ride is much more enjoyable with the lapbar restraints except.. for the final heartline rolls. Without the shoulder restraints, these heartline rolls mean your getting proper hangtime with all your weight hanging off just the lapbar and if I'm honest, I found it a bit much. One or two heartline rolls woulda been fine, but 5? Nah man, no thanks. A shame, because otherwise Sik is a big improvement on it's Thorpe Park cousin, but the gross hangtime holds it back a few points. +1
As always when visiting Mingo, had lunch and a couple of beers in the Courtyard Pub. It's always been really good food here and very fairly priced, I can heartily recommend it. The chicken parmo is boss
Minced around the zoo for a bit, didn't take many photographs but here is one of some donkeys (no hats).
Then we headed back into the park for more rides.
Twistosaurus was a new to me cred with only a 10 minute wait so we hopped in line. For some reason I always thought this was a standard, crappy SBF Visa spinner so was pleasantly surprised to find that it's a slightly more substantial (and therefore slightly less shameful) Zamperla model. Still a bit crappy mind you. Didn't do much.
+1.
Didn't bother with Zooom, it looks like such a dull, pointless ride experience that I just couldn't be arsed, not even for the +1, which meant, oh dear lord, which meant the only cred left available to me was
Hero.
Haven't ridden one of these things since Time Warp at Canada's Wonderland back in 2012 and I swore then that I'd never ride another one... but here we are. Even though this qualifies as a legit thrill coaster, this somehow still felt more dirty and shameful than those kiddy creds at Botton's yesterday. I knew how awful it would be before going in and yet I did it anyway for nothing more than a lousy +1. Dirty, dirty boy.
A shocking, awful, hateful coaster,
definitely not riding another one. I mean it this time.
Cred whoring complete, we then had a blast on the newly revamped shot & drop tower (actually pretty good, both the shot and the drop have some real punch to them) and then finished the day with rerides on Kumali and Sik.
I'm gonna say it, I think Kumali is the best ride in the park and as of right now, I think it's running considerably smoother than Nemesis Reborn.
I know, right? Crazy times.
So that was Mingo. All in all a successful day, got on everything we wanted, got a cheeky lil +3, making a total of 8 for the weekend, decent weather and decent company as always thanks to
@Rollercoaster David , and most importantly, no wacky worms.
All that was left now was a 4 hour drive home.
The following weekend, me and Mrs Howie went to Ireland so I might post a cheeky little report from there next.
Maybe...
)
.
), this was a single day trip, which involved meeting up with five more goons at Folkestone and taking two cars through the Channel Tunnel.
