Roller Coasters, Rides and Theme Parks!

[QualityChimp]

What are the temperatures like in September.
We chose Easter to avoid the crazy temperatures of Summer.

One of my fave rides was The Mummy - it had everything!

[wakka]

Pretty hot apparently, average 27 up to 32. Not quite as bad as July/August though.

It will make pool time viable at least, as personally I need it friggin hot to bother lying by a pool.

I think you're probably going at the ideal time!

The Mummy looks awesome, I have never been on that. It's undergoing renovations at the moment though...fingers crossed it'll be open for when you're there. Not sure when you last went but there will be tons of new stuff I reckon - Universal are so much more aggressive about knocking old stuff down and building new stuff than Disney.

[QualityChimp]

Film list:

Islands of Adventure
Kong: Skull Island
Incredible Hulk
Spider-Man
Jurassic Park
Jurassic World
Cat in the Hat
Harry Potter

Universal Studios
Despicable Me
Transformers
The Mummy
Men in Black
Simpsons Movie
Back to the Future
Curious George
An American Tale
E.T.

Animal Kingdom
A Bug's Life
Avatar
The Lion King
Tarzan
The Jungle Book

Magic Kingdom
Jungle Cruise
Aladdin
Pirates of the Caribbean
Peter Pan
Haunted Mansion
Brave
Cinderalla
Dumbo
Snow White
Winnie the Pooh
The Little Mermaid
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Toy Story
Monsters Inc.
Tomorrowland
Tron
Lilo and Stitch

Epcot
Guardians of the Galaxy
Finding Nemo

Hollywood Studios
Star Wars
Indiana Jones
Frozen
The Muppets
Toy Story
Little Mermaid
Twilight Zone
Cars
Beauty and the Beast

(will tidy later)

[wakka]

Which Twilight Zone eps are you going to show your kids?

I'm really glad they've kept Tower of Terror in Orlando Twilight Zone themed, rather than bowdlerizing it as a Guardians of the Galaxy thing like in Disneyland.

Your kids are going to be the most knowledgeable about film on the playground by Easter, incidentally!

[QualityChimp]

Just a potential list for some ideas.

I think there must be some great early TZ eps to show my son.
I know there's a bunch I've been meaning to watch.
What's the movie like?

There's a new GotG ride coming to Epcot, but due to open in the summer.

Gutted the Tron lightcycle ride won't open until 2023.

[wakka]

I wouldn't bother with the movie. It's a quartet of unrelated stories but none are peak Twilight Zone and don't fully capture the spirit of the series. Not sure if they're suitable for your kids' age group either (can't remember one way or the other).

For real, proper Twilight Zone, it has to be the original Rod Serling version. A few recs:

Time Enough At Last (S1E8)
Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up? (S2E28)
Nick of Time (S2E7)

There are sooo many good ones but those three are great. I remember watching Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up? on the SciFi channel when I was probably about your son's age (they showed reruns of it daytime in the 90s) and being blown away by the twist. Still remember it vividly. Hopefully they won't be too spooky for your kids!

Yeah it's a bummer about Tron. I'm just gonna go ahead and brag and say I rode it in Shanghai a couple of years ago and it is a really fuppin cool ride. Good excuse to go back in 2025 once they've built Super Nintendo World, too, though!

[Soundwave]

I dimly remember you posting about them before Neil. Deffo put some up on here if you get the chance. Yeah, they look really, really fun. The price isn't too bad in September either, as it seems there's usually a pass which runs about ~$135 each which covers you for all the Horror Nights for a week or two.

Being a bit of a night owl I like that it extends the opening of everything as well, with the park closing at 2am it looks like a lot of bars and restaurants in the resort stay open till 3 or 4.

Yeah that's a good deal for the Tickets, think me & my bro will aim to do 2 nights this time...will only be us 2...Chloe too young & Katie hates horror so no interest in it

I'll sort the pics & vids
Any recommendations on where to upload them these days?
Still trying to find a good hosting service

What are the temperatures like in September.
We chose Easter to avoid the crazy temperatures of Summer.

One of my fave rides was The Mummy - it had everything!

When we went in October we had a few days when it was still well into the 90's
I don't cope with the heat & on more than one occasion I didn't enjoy it, was too hot

Neil

[wakka]

Only if you get a chance on the photos Neil, no bother - Imgur is where I upload all my forum photos these days.

[Neon Ignition]

In case I'm never heard of again after this weekend, it's because I went here:

[QualityChimp]

Holy smokes, that looks amazing!
Even better than the preview you posted.

There are a few urban explorer videos on YouTube and it's creepy enough without the zombies.
It's like that Left4Dead level!



I did something similar once in Drakelow Tunnels, an abandoned military bunker (I think they made Spitfire engines there) and it was creepy AF.
I mean, this was the entrance...


Once inside, past the massive nuclear bomb-proof door, the temperature immediately dropped because it was completely without windows. It was also pitch black.

The first mission sees you walking down this long corridor full of dead scientists - the only light coming from a handful of lamps.



We got to the end of the tunnel and then we were told to turn around and head back, but as we stopped we started to hear a long mournful moan. Then another. Then another...

[Asura]

The existence of the Camelot theme park is like a Mandela Effect for me; I had no idea it existed.

[Neon Ignition]

It was 1989 and my mother and one of my numerous Auntie's took myself and my then two year old sister out for the day to the newest attraction to have opened up, Gulliver's World. It's a place I can barely remember, just some vague memories of the Liliput section, looking up at towering figures holding up monorail track. The other faint memory was of a discussion of going somewhere where there would be more to do and that's where we move on to likely no more than a month or two later in the Summer of '89 and a ride out to a theme park I would only ever go to once, Camelot Theme Park.




The park would go on to operate with only minimal changes made to it for another twenty four years. During the noughties word began to spread that the park was finding it increasingly difficult to remain profitable and closure was on the way, each year would later bring another year of service that no-one expected, the constant expectation of it shuttering its doors driving more and more people away until its gates finally closed for the final time in 2012.

There are only two parks I've ever held any affinity for. The main one being Disneyland because it frankly is amazing and completely lived up to what I had expected and hoped it would. The other was Camelot, not through some sort of childhood adoration though, more through impact as it was the first real theme park I ever went to and was the key reason I would be in my early twenties before I would spend time at one again.

As a child I was never a risk taker, never one to really be extroverted or push myself. I'd see a climbing frame and think more about how I would likely fall off it than go on it. The idea of rides made me too anxious. Once my mother paid for me to go on the carousel at Blackpool Pleasure Beach that faces the Alice in Wonderland ride. The ride eventually started and she panicked as she couldn't spot me on any of the horses, a minute later I emerged next to her. I'd been too nervous about it so climbed off and left the ride before it started. Before all this though came Camelot.

I remember snapshots of it. I couldn't tell you now the layout of it in my mind, it came just that little bit too early in life. I recall pulling up at the car park, paying for entry and walking through that initial white castle front. I can also remember riding a Caterpillar ride but I'd be stretching things to say I was sure it was at Camelot because those rides were once so common place. My next memory is of sitting in the stands at the jousting show, watching the actors play out matches and eventually the Black Knight came out to be faced down. I've always hated costumes, make up etc so I remember I had my face painted in the yellow tents, a tiger I think. After that I recall standing by a bench, the row of yellow tents on the right of the path in front of me and a white castle to the left. These are my memories of the place, these and one more.



My Aunt would have been around 24 at the time we went, I remember her and my mother trying to convince me to go on a ride with her and I was very reluctant. For many years I held a real hesitance to entertain any ride where I couldn't see it all before I entered and I think this is where it came from. The ride in question was the Tower of Terror.

If you google the park you'll find a lot of material about its ride titled Knightmare. It came after I'd been and I think as much of its appeal comes from it being largely the only ride they were unable to sell off leaving it standing derelict and visible for miles around until it was torn down in 2020. The Tower of Terror though was the defining Camelot ride to me, I remember being reluctantly taken onto its little train where it then climbed the first hill before swooping down and banking right to enter a castle structure that encased half the ride and hid a loop. The ride whipped in and out of the castle at speed before coming back into the station. My Aunt wanted a second go and there was no getting me back on it, no getting me on a rollercoaster again until my first trip to Alton Towers at the age of 20.



Eventually a spark set the castle alight and burnt it down, removing the key detail of the rides theming. In think the option to go back came up once and I wasn't keen because I didn't want to go on thrill rides and then in its twilight years we did as many did and veered to Pleasure Beach or Alton Towers instead even when my issues with rides was completely conquered. So, in time it closed, its rides sold off and it stood there decaying in the elements.

It still came to mind though, like many places left to rot rather than be torn down there's a mystique that that creates, especially if it's somewhere you had once been. A touch of mourning. Ten years after it closed, thirty two after leaving it behind, I never would have guessed I'd get one more chance to go back.



Camelot Rises. A drive thru experience set in the remaining ruins of the park, where the military have set up quarantine containment zones to manage an outbreak of the undead. We drove in and were guided to follow a small path that takes you on the staff back road into the park, it was very hilly and easy to have an accident on if you weren't paying attention. A couple of awkward hill starts in the queue later you emerge at the back staff and storage buildings that still stand and snake your way through to the rear entrance of the park. Staff actors dressed as soldiers act through checking your eyes and giving instructions, telling you to keep your windows down and doors unlocked. We didn't. Turning in the run down, grimy structure of a castle has spot lights swirling on it and you move down past some side bits and smashed cars.

This was the main odd bit, the missus was already tense waiting to see what might jump out but I was too distracted by the park. It's the moment your memory syncs with what you're seeing and as we got to the end of the path and you turn to head down a steep, twisty path you look to the side and see the run down castle to the left, facing where the tents used to be on the right. The exact spot my Mum had told me not to wipe the face paint off, where my Aunt had been convincing me to go on that ride.

You can't linger though, constantly moving forward and it's quite over grown with vehicles to avoid. The occasional concrete space where it's clear a ride used to be homed. From there on though you car is regularly leapt on and banged against by people dressed up as demon's and zombies. You pass a smoking motorhome by the stalls that are half collapsed, chased by zombie cheerleaders and creatures till you reach the 'safezone' and drive over where the entrance to the park used to be, under the screens, and into the car park pulling up into the very bays we had in 1989.



Portaloo's in a row, food and drink stands at the back and four screens in front. We were in a decent spot with a clear view and tuned in to the FM signal fine. When it was time for the film to begin the screen read Code Red and war sirens begin. Then the film begins, in our case Annabelle Comes Home. Halfway through the film the zombies run into the car park, banging on the cars, climbing through open windows and chasing those who happen to still be outside their vehicles. Then when the film ends you leave straight out onto the main road.

It's a great idea and a great choice of location for it, the only real shame is that it came about after so much of the park was taken down. Next to nothing is left standing so a lot of barricaded off to stop it looking too open and if anything like the jousting stands still remain you were veered away from that area. But the overall experience was great putting the park aside too.



It did leave me pondering the park again though, knowing what memories I had had did align with the little that's left. It turns out that several of the rides were bought and some still run at Southport's open air park. The park also ran its Caterpillar ride quite prominently, a ride that is still in operation at Gulliver's World meaning it's still possible to ride some Camelot Theme Park rides.

It's a shame too. I'm not sure why Camelot failed, from what I can tell UK theme park closures are actually quite a rare thing and considering the location etc it's hard to imagine that the park wasn't actually viable in some form considering the others that have survived. Looking at videos and information from its later years I think part of the issue is that it didn't adapt to change. It added new rides but ever remained pretty consistently the same. That fuels my regret that I never took the opportunity to go back in those later days but it clearly needed to update its theming and attractions as times changed but never did, maybe it would have survived like all the others in the region have.

And that most prominent memory of the Tower of Terror? No sign of it ever existed in what's left of the park now that I could see, likely the area is too cordoned off or overgrown. One of the key rides and none of the region parks bought it when it shut down. But, the theme this year is Camelot Rises and a bit of searching later revealed that Camelot was able to find a buyer, the ride was dismantled and shipped off for a new park. In 2017, the ride would be restored and rebuilt where it now still runs under the new name of Big Blue at a park in Bosnia.




Thirty two years later, Camelot Theme Park still going.

[wakka]

Thanks, I really enjoyed reading that!

[QualityChimp]

Yeah, that was great!
Thanks for taking the time to write about your memories and the new experience!

[QualityChimp]

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