We set off on our last day of coastering to our north -- Lightwater Valley was our destination, home of "The Ultimate", the LONGEST coaster in the world, (about 50 feet longer than "The Beast"). We got to the park easily in time for our 9AM ERT, though we had to wake up ungodly early to do so (coaches left at 6:30am).
The coaster is a "terrain" coaster, with most of the ride only a foot or two off the ground! About all you can see of the ride are the two lift hills, each about 100ft tall.
The trains themselves are quite long -- holding 38 people each. The park has two trains running the circuit. We left the station, pulled by the chain taking us ever so slowly to the lift hill. I had heard that the lift hills on the Ultimate were quite slow, but they were REALLY slow. It seems to take *minutes* to climb this hill! In any case, we reach the drop and, if you're near the back, get whipped over the top and down the drop. The rest of the first 1/2 of the ride is an almost-straight speed ride, witha couple of airtime-inducing hills (really, "mounds of dirt") and then a few quirky tiny "caterpillar hop" hills immediately before the second lift hill.
The second lift hill is, timewise, interminable. You climb at the same, slow, leisurely pace as the first hill, but then you do *not* coast around the 90-degree left turn to the drop. No, you are further dragged by the lethargic chain around this bend, on a bit of a straightaway, and then, only after what seems like an eternity has passed, do you get to the second large drop.
In my opinion, the second half of The Ultimate is *fun*! A bunch of ACErs were complaining about the roughness, but I enjoyed it. The large 2nd drop puts you into a ravine where you do about 5 or 6 traversals of the ravine, criss-crossing back and forth, with fast 180-degree banked (positive-G) turns between each traversal. This is the best part of the ride. There is then more straight-away track leading to two 360-degree turns including a tunnel. For some bizarre reason the camera taking the riders' pictures is located in the tunnel. The train ambles ever so slowly back to the station, pulled in by yet another lift chain. Note that there are *no* brakes on the entire ride since the train loses plenty of energy on the 1 1/2 mile circuit. The whole thing, from the start of leaving the station until finally stopping again, is about 7 minutes long.
Now let's talk about THROUGHPUT ladies and gentlemen. Even taking into account two train operation, this ride has painfully LOW throughput! We did a quick calculation: 7 minute ride time plus a 3-minute unload/ load/check cycle equals 10 minutes cycle. This means one train leaving every 5 minutes with max capacity 38, for a 456 people-per-hour MAX capacity! Even if the unload/load/check cycle were reduced to 1 minute (unlikely!) That would still mean only 570 PPH. Quite a low capacity!
We left our ERT (I think I got 3 rides in, maybe 4) and headed to "The Rat", and underground coaster. The entrance is neatly themed, with you having to watch your head as you enter a downward-sloping sewer-pipe. After a pretty long walk you then descend a staircase circling falling water, then walk on a "catwalk" in another pipe over water rushing beneath you. The ride itself is a pretty standard "wildcat-esque coaster in the dark", with few special effects. The exit of the ride also goes through a sewer pipe!
I headed over to the "new for '96" Zyklen, a small Jumbo-jet style coaster. However, this had the dubious honor of having the SLOWEST line, since they were only running *1* train (holding 12 people)! Sure did take awhile.
They had another "new for '96" ride, the BatFlyer, which wasn't ready yet. It is like a "personal" suspended coaster. 1-person cars go down a twisting track with the person seated beneath the track.
Lightwater Valley also had the only 'free' installation of Orbitrons I've seen. An Orbitron is an exercise device with 3 free axes of rotation. You strap yourself in and shift your weight to spin like an astronaught. Most of the places I've seen are $3.00 or $5.00 for a few minutes. However, here they had about 4 each of the Large model and the Kid-sized model. Fun, though the cuffs were killing my ankles.
Heading back to the Ultimate to try to take some pictures, a friend & I noticed that one could play *GOLF* inside the coaster! Yes, there is a bona-fide 12-hole "pitch & putt" golf course inside the circuit of The Ultimate, with signs asking golfers to "Please take care not to hit balls towards the coaster". The cost was only 2 pounds ($3.00) -- a bargain, so I set off to play golf for the first time ever and take some photos while I was at it. An hour later, I had played some really bad golf and taken a few hopefully good photos. It was time for the 2PM departure for Flamingoland, our last park and home of a one-of-a-kind coaster.
Flamingoland was our last stop. From the bus I saw a ride running which was one of the coolest-looking "spin & barf" rides I have ever seen! It was called "The Terrorizer", and I was dying to ride it ASAP.
I'll try to describe this ride: Picture a "Looping Starship" ride (you know, the Pirate Ships that go the full 360-degrees, leaving riders hanging upside-down.). Replace the "pirate-ship" seating with an Enterprise-like circle, with all riders seated facing "outward". Each 'car' holds four people and can tilt under hydralic control so that the car faces either 'out' or 'up' (i.e. riders on their back facing the sky if the ride is in its loading position).
The ride isn't fast at all, but it combines the rotation of the Enterprise-wheel, the rotation of the pendulum, and the occasional tilting of the cars from one position to another to give a very strange motion. Of course, some people don't like hanging upside-down for a minute at a time. If that's the case, this ride isn't for you. When the ride is in the "full" up position, imagine yourself seated at a rotating restaurant but upside down -- you get an inverted panarama of the entire countryside.
I enjoyed it.
OK, so we then went to check off the coasters at the park. First off was "The Flying Trapeze" another small steel coaster, and another AGONIZINGLY SLOW line, since they were running *1* car which holds MAXIMUM 4 people. Ouch!
Off to Thunder Mountain, yet another "Wildcat in the dark". What is it about the UK and these enclosed coasters? Must be the rain.
A standard Vekoma Corkscrew was my next ride, followed by the obligatory kiddie coaster.
Lastly was our ERT on "The Bullet". This is a Schwartzkopf shuttle-loop originally called "Wiener Looping". I had heard it described as demented, insane, rough, and forceful. Many ACErs were saying that they would do their ONE ride on it and that would be enough.
But this is the only one in the world! I wanted to try it several times. And this shuttle-loop is definitly unique in many ways. First off, there is no lift hill. This shuttle is 'launched' by many sets of opposing rubber tires which presumably grab metal fins attached to the cars.
Secondly, you get launched *BACKWARDS* first, up a tower, slow to a stop, and then accelerated down and forwards through the station, around a 270-degree right turn, through a high-positive-G loop that completely encircles the loading station, then turn left 90-degrees and climb the second tower. You then go backwards through the loop and 270-degree turn before stopping. The two "towers" are adjacent and are similar in look to the Vekoma Boomerangs.
This coaster is definitely rough, though I think it's mostly due to the drive wheels and not the track. The positive G-forces in the loop and the 270-degree turn are Schwartzkopf-strong. And some of the cars in the station while you load are banked! Climbing into a tilted car is not as easy as it looks.
This coaster was enjoyable, but I could take only about 4 rides before the roughness got too me. But it was quite an intense coaster to end the trip with.
This was definitely one of the most fun vacations (if not THE most fun) I've had in a long time. It was superb as an ACE event. It was a bargain at only $160 which included admission/wristbands/tokens to all *twelve* parks and *six* catered lunches!!! Please, join ACE if you haven't already.
I got to ride 46 different coasters for the first time, though several people were able to ride more both at the officially- scheduled parks as well as some independent side-trips.
A BIG Kudos and thanks to Tim Baldwin for organizing the trip, to the four coach captains, to the four coach Drivers (who DID, by the way, come with us into several of the parks and ride coasters!), and to all the various new & recurring friends along the way.
And, of course, a BIG thank you to all the UK parks for their hospitality and enthusiasm in welcoming this rowdy coaster-ridin' horde of Americans.
-=$>Dave<$=-
