A full gallery of photos from this trip are here

Zipper Dipper Takeover Photo: John Livesey

John Livesey

Well what a weekend!

First of all I'd like to thank Tony & Paula Pycroft, Jim Lawrence and Wendy Gamble for doing the trip registrations for me. A job well done!

Saturday

The Big One was running with one train (the fast one) due to the high winds. This was more than enough because by the time you got off the train and ran round again the car was pulling in again for your next ride. I managed 8 or 9 rides in the hour though I know some people managed double figures!

During the free time before lunch I rode the National, Mouse, Big Dipper, Revolution, Avalanche and Valhalla. All were running well although the National was a tad rough in places. Valhalla was wet but at least there were more effects working this time. It's a good ride but I'm not sure that the story is obvious... it just seems to be a bunch of rooms with effects in!

Lunch was in Coasters... a nice buffet style Tex-Mex affair. Brian Robinson (Sales Manager) turned up and spent some time chatting to us all. After lunch we went back to the Visitor Centre for merchandising and also to present Brian with some flowers for all his hard work.

We had our unofficial take-over of Valhalla at 14:30 which was fun. I was disappointed to see so many members wearing rainproof macs though! ;-) The ride's effects weren't as good as the morning session so it seems as though its still suffering a few problems.

During the afternoon a few of us joined up and did mini-ride takeovers of the Dodgems, Avalanche, Steeplechase and Zipper Dipper. Great fun!

At 18:00 the Rollercoaster ERS started. I must say that I love this ride and it's probably my second favourite woodie at BPB after the National. It's just so smooth and enjoyable to ride. Make sure you sit in the ejector seat (last seat in the front carriage) for a massive pop of airtime going into the final tunnel. On a number of occasions I was forced to stand up!

Sunday

I was late for registration (Ed: John is our Trips Co-Ordinator!)- oops!

Ice Blast was running well although they could only run with 10 seats rather than 12 due to weight problems! I'm not sure if that was us or the ride system! The coup-de-grace was the National riding. The trains were running really well and most of the races were really close run things, even dead heats!

After the ERS we went over the South Pier to ride the Sky Coaster. Two of the Dutch members had never done one before so I thought I'd introduce it to them! It was great fun and we even got a re-ride for an extra 5 pounds per person. I also managed to ride the Crazy Mouse which was running well. I was then talked in to going on the Waltzers by Steve and Martian and my God, these have got to be the best Waltzers in the world! It was 3 minutes of sheer spinning hell and after the ride had stopped it took me about 5 minutes to be able to walk in a line. Definitely a wise investment of 2 pounds!

We then made our way back to the Paradise Rooms for our final lunch which was enjoyable. We all made our own separate ways after that and it brought the end of what was (I hope) another great WKW.

Finally, I'd like to mention that the park's management were superb. They couldn't do enough for us!

Richard Griffiths

Here are my thoughts for WKW4, firstly I would like to thank John for once again organising a great trip.

Anyway, Saturday mornings Big-One ERS, we got onto the second train... what a great start to the day, it really does clear those cobwebs away, Sorry to Aidriene for clouting her on the head, im sure you have forgiven me now. I will however be watching out for you in the ballpool at next years 'hands-on' where I have a feeling you may be looking for revenge

From there we stumbled across the park to Valhalla, Now what can I say, this ride is now 99% better than last year, now all the stuff is finished in there, the water vortex is particularly nice, its a shame it wasn't working when we had our 'takeover' my one moan however is the ice room, which last year was the best effect in there, it now needs thawing out, the long-boat had disappeared under a blanket of ice and the only figure that you can actually see in there now is the woman on the final turn out of the room, the coolers in there must be left constantly on for it to get in that state.

Wild mouse is still brilliant and still made me laugh through the whole circuit, we took it easy for the rest of the morning, after a splendid dinner in Coasters the park had become much more busy, which was when we realised that we should have been riding the coasters in the morning and then taking it easy in the afternoon (D'oh!!!) still we managed Big Dipper, Steeplechase (We won), Avalanche (which makes me want to ride La Trace du Hourra (Ed: Parc Asterix's new Mack Bobsled) more and more) Space invader and the Ghost train, the only coaster we missed out on the whole weekend was the Revolution which after last years ERS we gave a miss.

So after the Roller Coaster ERS, which in my opinion has to be the most under-rated coaster in the country, we headed back to the hotel to get changed for the Ice Show... This years show is very good, but I still feel that it lacks some sort of story, Me and Claire found ourselves asking each other 'Why?' and the programme doesnt help to elaborate either, but it is well worth a look in after a day 'on-park'.

Thanks to everyone for making it a great trip, it was good to see you all again and have a better chat with some more of you too (you know who you are ).

All in all a great weekend, the park and surrounding area is looking much more cleaner than last year, and we hardly encountered any loutish behaviour at all (which was a breath of fresh-air) I just hope that this is a sign of things to come for Blackpool and the Casino's etc, all go ahead as planned and make Blackpool something that we can all be proud of.

Simon Naylor

Many thanks to John, the park mangement and all others involved with the trip, another excellent trip.

Kev Winkley

First off both Annette & I would like to thank John & others involved from the club side for an excellent, well organised weekend. Also all the staff at BPB for bending over backwards to make us so welcome, special mentions to the catering Dept for feeding us so well - a particular passion of mine - and to Mark & Trevor, our Behind the Scenes guides who's banter to each other made for a both amusing & informative tour.

Behind The Scenes Photo: John Livesey

We did a few of the more gentle rides we'd normally skip on a spur of the moment visit from home, such as Alice in Wonderland, Noah's Ark, Gold Mine etc. It was then over to Valhalla, I was feeling a bit guilty of going on this ride and leaving Annette outside, but luckily as we arrived Carl, Mick, Crystal, Chris , Terry and others were joining the queue so I jumped in with them and Annette got a chance to sit and Natter with Liz, therefore stopping my guilt!

A bit more wandering followed before the excellent Lunch in Coasters and the chin wag back at the visitors centre. It was then off to the South Pier to have a nosey at the Scad tower and a go in the Mouse before heading for the Valhalla take over, Pity I have no photo of our boat with a particularly soaked Justin, but Annette left the lens cap on!

The Rollercoaster ERS was a highlight of the weekend for me, It seemed to be really flying, especially the last seat of the first car as John has already mentioned when I sat next to him there and he told me this I thought "hhmmmm" but as it flies into that tunnel I'm sure my backside was about 4feet in the air! excellent stuff! It's good for members of the public to see us all riding this often over looked ride, as any attention, and subsequent patronage it gets can only be a good thing.

Sunday morning began with Breakfast at the hotel with Richard G & Claire ( and a particularly vocal parrot!!) then it was over to BPB for the Behind the scenes tour..The back of the River Caves was interesting to see along this the Derby Racer guts... Thanks To Keith Allen for cranking it up to speed while we were down there - that thing really does fly round - Amazing!

Next I floated, high on Fibre Glass fumes from the model shop, to the Iceblast for the joint ERS, after a few goes on the Iceblast that was being temperamental with the weighing system it was over to the Grand national for some racing fun. The ride seemed to be very evenly matched with most rides being practical dead heats, I always enjoy this ERS the Holding hands on the lift, the slapping as we go round the bends - fantastic fun!

Then it was time for the Trauma Towers take-over, great fun with a few bemused members of the public wondering who this gang of Clapping, Cheering idiots were as we all applauded Brian Watson! All to soon it was lunch time and again a veritable feast from Catering Dept all too soon the end of the weekend was here with just Eclipse to see, A great show, with - more interesting for my professional standpoint -some fantastic laser and lighting effects, unfortunately Annette felt to hot so we only managed the first half, but I'll be back before season end to catch the rest - so it was back to the van for the drive home.

It was great to see so many familiar faces again and also put faces to those anonymous e-mail names on the list

Carl Dickson

Just a quick message to say how much I enjoyed the WKW trip. Excellent ERS', some good lunches at Coasters and the Paradise room, and an interesting behind-the-scenes tour.

After reading everyone's comments on how Valhalla is much improved, I have to agree wholeheartedly! I think Valhalla is now the finest indoor water ride in Europe. It is just spectacular! It is worth getting completely drenched just to see the effects. They are breathtaking. Especially the water vortex, and the lightning section (which was a lot more powerful than last year).

An excellent end to the trip aswell with the "Trauma Towers Takeover". The look on Brian Watson's face, when we all cheered as he walked in, was priceless!!!

Roll on Oakwood!!!

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