ACE U.K. Preservation Tour - July 5 - 14 TRIP REPORT by Dave Torok It was exhiliarating, exciting, and exhausting. It included hours and hours of riding on the bus (I played a lot of cards) and days of waking up at 4:30 AM to shower (before the roommate did), get dressed, eat breakfast, and be on the bus by 6 AM. And it included a lot of coasters. I personally went on 46 different coasters. Some people took side trips to parks not on the itinerary and added a dozen more. The ACE U.K. Preservation tour was, in my opinion, a resounding success and probably the most fun I've had on vacation yet. This report is from my daily, somewhat brief, notes. It contains opinions (of course) and also describes non-coaster items of interest. I hope you enjoy it! DAY 1: FRIDAY 5 JULY Chessington World of Adventures, Margate Dreamland Wake up time, 6:45 AM. Got on the bus (after a delivered-to-the room continental breakfast) for a reasonably short drive to Chessington World of Adventure. We were supposed to have ERT on the Vampire (Arrow Suspended coaster) but the park informed us that we would have ERT on four rides: Rameses Revenge (new for '96), Terrortomb (dark ride), Prof. Burps Bubbleworks (another dark ride), and of course the Vampire. I was one of the first in line to ride "Rameses Revenge", a Huss Top Spin ride. I was wondering about the sign that warned that this was a water ride. A Top Spin with water? The queue ran all over the place and finally we got on the ride, the first ride of the day (about 9am or so). A pool of water lay in front of the ride. We boarded, and the ride was about to begin when the ride operators turned on the fountain. Yes, that innocent- looking pool of water in front of the ride contained a 20-foot wide row of fountain spigots. Uh-Oh. So the ride went through its usual paces for a while (head-over-heel spins) -- lots of fun. Then, the real sadism started. The ride "locked" the swinging seat chassis at the top and slowly started going forward (so we were gradually starting to face the ground, right over the fountain). I saw the fountain running about 10 feet high, looking like our shoes were going to be completely soaked. I was wrong, it only completely soaked my calves, knees, and thighs, leaving my shoes untouched. The fountain turned off, we continued facing downward, and then all of a sudden FLOOSH the fountain gave us a HUGE shot of water in the face. Great, 9am in the cool English air and we were soaking wet. It was fun, but then again getting a faceful of water is not exactly pleasant first thing in the morning (BAD HAIR DAY). I left, dripping wet, and left towards the Vampire. The Vampire was a medium-level suspended. A bit better than Iron Dragon, but nowhere nearly as exciting as Big Bad Wolf. There is one good "flip" near the end entering the tunnel. All in all, an OK ride. Then on to Professor Burp's Bubbleworks. This is a "dark flume ride" in which you board a round tub which kind of spins while you go through the flume. The ride was humorous and excellently done, with lots of visual and written puns to consider, the theme having to do with how you get bubbles into soda (pop). The finale was fun, with a long S-shaped curve going through a tunnel of arching fountains (you don't get wet). Off to TerrorTomb. This was another dark ride, a bit strange. The train was about 8 or so cars holding 4 people each. Each car could rotate 90 degrees to either side so you face the various parts of the ride. The theme had to do with a Raiders-of-the-Lost-Ark adventurer finding a jewel and stirring up some spooks. Overall it was a bit of fun, with a great effect of the "Raiders"-style rolling boulder going over the train, a HUGE evil statue whose head followed the train, and a very strange rock-music finale. I also had my first really bad food at this park. "Sausage bites", rock hard supposed sausage deep fried. Tasted as bad as it sounds. Left Chessington at 2pm, arrived at Margate Dreamland at 4pm. Margate Dreamland is home to a Scenic Railway (circa 1920) and a Ladybird (junior steel) coaster. I have ridden a Scenic Railway coaster once before, the Hellamsvasut coaster in VidamPark, Budapest Hungary. They are usually pretty mild coasters with shallow hills, side friction tracks, and a brakeman riding in the middle of the train to control the speed. The one at Margate was fun, and unique in that it had two lift hills, right next to each other. From a distance, it almost looks like a racing coaster. The Ladybird coaster (one of several during the tour) was fun in the back seat, where you get whipped down the hills. Dreamland was quite hospitable to us, giving us complimentary coffee & biscuits. There was a soaking rain, so coffee was appreciated. I also got to try my first Waltzer, a spinning ride that seems unique to the UK. It is quite similar to a Tilt-a-Whirl, differing in about 3 aspects: 1 - the radius of the turning circle is a bit smaller. That is, the seats are closer to the center of turning. 2 - Most of the Waltzers had a flat section without the hills. On a Tilt-a-whirl, the hills/valleys are continuous around the circuit. 3 - Most of the Waltzers had a person standing on the ride, spinning people's cars. Some of these operators were quite skillful in giving you one hell of a spin! During the course of the vacation, I rode many Waltzers (the best: Southport)! Dreamland was also home to a demented walk-through fun-house called "Hawaii Trip". This was the first of many rides I would encounter which I thoroughly enjoyed, yet do not exist (as far as I can tell) in the US due to the potential for lawsuits from stupid people who hurt themselves. The "Hawaii Trip" consisted of the Moving Ladder, (steep steps, where the right and left steps move up and down against each other). Normally no problem, but with the rain it was a bit slippery. Then a set of conveyer belts where you jump on and it takes you for about 15 feet before you jump off. The finale was hilarious to watch from outside: You go down a slide and land on a conveyer belt which goes up & down several "waves" about 3-feet high. From the outside, you see people's feet go into the air and then the person tumbles down the next wave, only to rise again feet-first. At long last you fall onto a padded mat. Great fun! After a delicious Hungarian meal, we left Margate at 9pm and got to the hotel at 11PM, a tiring but fun first day. DAY 2: SATURDAY, 6 JULY. Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach Woke up *way* too early, 5:30am. Breakfast was not delivered, so we had to go down to the lobby to get the same boring breakfast. It was about a 4 hour drive to Great Yarmouth, and we arrived about 11:30, half an hour behind schedule. However, our ERT was moved so we had one full hour for ERT on the Scenic Railway (called "Roller Coaster"). The coaster was a beautiful sight from the distance -- the normal trackwork support (wooden lattice) is covered with blue panels with stars on them, so it looks like a wall of blue, with stars tracing the path of the track. This was also an old coaster, but unlike the previous Scenic it had been modified to include one very large drop where you get a bit of airtime! However, the brakeman was still present, and there are still no upstops, so it is a generally mild ride. However, it was done very well and was quite enjoyable. We then received our four bags of 20 tokens (20 pounds' worth, about $30) which was quite heavy but would last for the afternoon. The major rides were 5 tokens, with lesser rides being 4 or even 3. Great Yarmouth also hade a walk-through which they called "Sheer Terror" requiring *6* tokens. It was very dark, and consisted of about 5 or 6 real people in costume banging on walls and bars. Not too thrilling, except for it being really dark and being bumped into by everyone else. Other rides: "The Terminator", a Waikiki Wave Super Flip (A Top Spin with the "wave" action) which they ran on the most wicked setting. "Flipper", which was very disappointing. It is a circular platform with "Breakdance"-style cars mounted on the perimeter. The platform rotates and then enterprise-style tilts up. However, there was very little flipping. Personally I think I'll like the Chance Chaos much better. A Chance Toboggan coaster, which I haven't ridden since I was 5 or so. Very cramped, such that I couldn't keep my head straight up (I'm 6-foot). The first dip was quite painful! Another Waltzer, with the operators spinning the individual cars. A fun "sack slide" in 3-foot-diameter tubes. We walked quite a distance to another pier with a kiddie park that had a Junior-sized Virginia Reel ride. This was quite unique, as I hadn't ever seen one. Quite a fun spinning ride! Once again, a pouring rain in the afternoon. This time I had my rainsuit ready, so it wasn't too bad. A bunch of people had leftover bags of tokens, but I managed to use up my allotment exactly!