The world's largest cruise ship, The Harmony of the Sea, was one of 4 docked in Southampton. That slide in the back is insane. I thought it was part of a water park but it's apparently a dry slide offering a convenient way of getting down from the top floor to the bottom.
We took the Red Jet Ferry which gets you over to the island in around 30 minutes.
After a 40 minute drive we made it across the island from Cowes to Blackgang. The large pirate smuggler welcomes you to the park.
The park has a single rollercoaster called Cliffhanger.
Some dinosaurs in the gift shop and littered around the park.
Before riding the coaster we were given an overview of the park and history talk from the park manager. He told us there was some issues with Tornado, the previous coaster, which resulted in some legal claims.
A small motif on the back of the rollercoaster makes you thankful the coaster only has a single train.
I like the "may" element in the sign at the entrance to the hall of mirrors.
When it originally opened in the Victorian times one of the most popular attraction was the blue whale skeleton which is still there today.
Outside that attraction is this whale walkthrough. The challenge is to get through it without getting wet. I failed getting shot within 2 steps of entering.
The park has puns, this is not a bad thing.
Even the gift shop has a pun.
There's a dinosaur enclosure running down the cliff edge.
This was actually really decent and they'd done a good job.
A few people missed the jokes like this.
A view over the cliff side. The park is suffering from erosion with the last major land slip being in 1994.
Giant slugs for no reason...
The crooked house is an old style lean in walkthrough.
The rooms were just odd. Why would we get a show like this, and why side-by-side toilets?
Smuggler's rest was part of a pirate themed part of the park.
The weather factory takes you through the 4-seasons.
The licorice factory, because why not?
The dragon was cool but he retreated extremely slowly.
Rumpus Manor is a great haunted walkthrough. They'd done a really good job here.
This apparently is my real self :)
I think a lot of work is done by the park, certainly this wasn't theming that was bought in. I'd like to think they did it themselves.
It takes a very special kind of park to call an attraction "The Mouth of Hell" but the eccentric Blackgang does it. It's just a little building to squeeze into.
I have no idea...
A nice touch to have a beaver that couldn't help himself gnawing the entrance to Cowboy Town.
More jokes!
Cowboy Town is the western part of the park. It was at this side of the park I realised that only the rollercoaster had an operator. Everything else was just a playground. The park's mission its to encourage imagination so just let the kids play and make their own fun.
In cowboy town there's a bank robbery going on.
There's a coffin shop where you're encouraged to try one for size.
Naughty goings on in the saloon. The swing doors were a nice touch.
Disabled cowboy toilets.
In fairy town there are a number of hidden fairies to find. I found 13.
A large parrot, which didn't do anything.
The final part of the park was the hilarious Valley of the Dodos. A small number of animatronic dodos and a series of buttons to make them move and say "dododododododo" in various different voices. I'm certain one of them featured the scouse "they do though, don't they though" and another featured the guy doing the voice corpsing and laughing, which they chose to keep in.
A really nice eccentric park, quintessentially English in that it's crap, but it somehow works. The park is unique, and definitely worth a visit if you can get here.
1 comment:
The park has gone through a major facelift and whilst it still relies on imagination a lot of the old attractions have been removed or reconfigured and whilst losing the nostalgia is sad it still makes it hugely interesting. I was in love with it as a child and still am. PS The parrot used to scream back whatever you said to it but it broke for a while but I can confirm it's back up and working.
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