Hello!
Who's ready for a double dose of seaside merriment? :}
Margate and Southend-on-Sea are the homes of today's parks, Dreamland and Adventure Island!
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| Beautiful Dreamland Margate is back from the dead and ready to make a statement! |
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| Dating back to the late 19th century, Dreamland experienced a decline in the 90s and closed its doors in 2006. Ten years later, Dreamland is back and its approach is strong! |
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| All over Dreamland are beautifully maintained attractions showcasing over 90 years of amusement ride history. One of Dreamland's oldest rides is this carousel, which was manufactured in 1922. :} |
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| The "Counter Culture Caterpillar Coaster" is less historically significant, but still quite well maintained. :} |
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| Dreamland's Food Truck Food Court is amazing. |
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| Look at these puns. Look at them. |
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| Monotopia is a beautiful little 60s-era Disney Tomorrowland microcosm. |
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| As you can see, Dreamland has a cozy, retro warmth about it. It's amazing how established the park feels after being open for less than a month. |
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| The ride operators at Dreamland are extremely friendly, lots of fun, and quite limber! |
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| Party like it's Roller Coaster Tycoon up in here! |
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| The Helter-Skelter at Dreamland is so slick that it might just send you into the midway! |
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| The Top Spin wasn't ready for action just yet, but it sure looks good! |
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| Our turn! |
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| Going up! |
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| The newly restored 1920 Scenic Railway looks amazing. |
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| It's slide time! Step 1: Let the cute ride attendant place the mat on the slide. |
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| Step 2: Situate yourself on the mat. |
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| Step 3: Enjoy your ride! |
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| The spinning mouse is nothing out of the ordinary, but it sure looks nice! |
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| The Helter Skelter is awesome. |
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| And, like everything else here, the paint scheme is on point! |
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| Uh oh! It's Rotor time! |
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| …for everyone else. I'll supervise. |
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| This isn't America, kids. This Rotor is aggressive. |
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| And the ride cycle is LONG. The more I watched, the more happy I was just to spectate. |
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| Even Dreamland's kiddie rides are restored classics! |
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| Alright! Time for the main reason we're here. Who's ready for a tour of the Scenic Railway? |
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| Dreamland was hoping to have the Scenic Railway ready for their June re-opening, but the ride was delayed until the following October. |
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| The silver lining was being given the chance to explore the ride on foot! |
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| Dreamland's maintenance department hosted several small tours to make sure everyone got some quality time with this amazing ride! |
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| Follow Bill Linkenheimer to the train chassis! |
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| Isn't it purdy? :} |
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| I guess this is the dispatch mechanism. Simple but effective.lol |
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| And yes, we did get to squeeze the hand brake. <3 |
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| #ridewithace |
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| Pretty much the entire Scenic Railway had to be rebuilt after ten years of dormancy, but everything was reconstructed (in installments) to its original specifications. :} |
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| Two years after the opening of the first new Flying Turns in over 70 years, the first "new" Scenic Railway in over 60 years opens! |
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| Let's take a look at the train shop! |
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| OOOOooooOOOOooooOOOOooo! Amazing. |
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| When building a roller coaster, always make sure to follow directions. :} |
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| Since there obviously aren't any companies specializing in building Scenic Railways, Dreamland has tackled this immense undertaking on their own! |
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| When Southport Pleasureland closed, Dreamland purchased the "King Solomon's Mine" wooden wild mouse with intentions of eventually reconstructing the ride. With the incredible success of the Scenic Railway, I think the future for King Solomon's Mine is looking bright! |
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| Building a Scenic Railway is actually more like building a crazy wooden deck than building a typical coaster. :} |
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| Dreamland had lots of associates on hand to answer any questions we had about the park. They were amazing hosts! |
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| I'm not sure I'll ever again have the chance to tour an under-construction Scenic Railway. Thank you Dreamland for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! |
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| After the tour, we took more time to admire all of Dreamland's amazing little touches. |
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| This pair of transportation rides is a winning combination! |
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| Also, check out this astroturf Scrambler with custom cars! Where do they come up with this stuff?? :} |
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| Those flats behind the park must be a fun place to live. |
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| Alright, let's take some time to appreciate this amazing attraction in action! It's Mayhew's Speedway! |
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| Let's also appreciate the Dreamland crew member who is JOGGING ON THE RIDE WHILE IT IS IN MOTION |
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| AND THEN HOPS ONTO ONE OF THE MOTORCYCLES LIKE NO BIG DEAL. |
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| ACE Vice Pres Dave Lipnicky is enjoying his ride on the Speedway! |
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| Meanwhile Kevin, Terry, and John look like something out of Reservoir Dogs. |
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| Btw, we're just biding our time in line for the Counter Culture Caterpillar Coaster. Fortunately there's lots of things to see. :} |
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| High-dive show! |
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| Wheeeeeee! |
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| That child is the happiest child I have ever seen. |
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| Yay credit! (Remember! Safe snaps and all that jazz) |
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| The best view of the park's central Ferris Wheel is from the Counter Culture Caterpillar Coaster. :} |
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| Shenanigans. |
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| OMG LOOK AT THE CUTENESS! |
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| Amazing. |
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| More slide time! |
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| View from the top! |
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| Some of the nearby buildings look a little rough, but hopefully new Dreamland will be the beginning of a revitalization of the area. |
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| Off they go! |
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| Look at that airtime! |
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| Time for our ride on the Speedway! |
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| It may not look like it, but Michael is having a great time! :} |
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| All of the motorcycles are named. :} |
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| >.< |
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| I'm riding Stuart. :} |
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| Every bike has a unique personality. :} |
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| Speedway doesn't play around! This thing goes fast! |
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| This ride operator brings me so much joy. |
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| YAAAAAAS! |
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| Dreamland's got a lot of indoor fun to offer too! |
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| It's not every day you see a roller rink that looks like this! |
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| Like the park's amazing midway, Dreamland's arcade is brimming with classics! |
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| Any pinball wizards out there??? |
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| Outstanding. |
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| I want to stay here forever. |
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| Alas! It's time for us to depart. |
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| Let's take a moment to appreciate this |
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| And also the AMAZING PIZZA THEY SERVE AT THE ROLLER DISCO! |
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| Again with the food puns. Can this place get any better? |
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| IT CAN! |
So yeah, Dreamland really delivered. It's at the top of my list of places to revisit on my next London excursion!
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| Switching gears! The sun is out at Adventure Island, the happiest little park in Great Britain! |
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| This amazing little park is CRAMMED with rides and full of the friendliest, happiest staff! As uncanny as it seems, both Dreamland and Adventure Island tie for friendliest theme park staff in my book. Such a wonderful surprise! |
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| The views are nice too. :} |
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| First up: "Kiddi Koasta!" It's from Boston, apparently. |
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| This is a clone of the kiddie coaster at Luna Park. Fortunately we didn't break this one. :} |
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| Coaster #2 of Adventure Island is the "High & Mighty Mini Mega," perched atop the park's arcade. |
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| Coaster #3 is Barnstormer! |
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| The Adventure Island Workshop makes lots and lots of fiberglass scenery pieces for the park's rides. :} |
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| Everything here just has a little extra pep to it. :} |
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| Joel's ready to film Barnstormer! |
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| Gotta love the pilot dog at the tail! |
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| Okay, let's stop for a minute and talk about Donna Piper. :} |
In the middle of the above photo is Donna Piper, one of the most chipper and enthusiastic people I've ever met. Donna's motto is do everything 100%, full blast, give-it-your-all every day! There's no joy like enjoying a theme park with Donna!
We lost Donna on September 6th, only a month after the ACE UK Tour. Everyone that knew Donna was devastated at having to say "goodbye for now," but also so grateful to have ever known such a sensational individual.
We love you Donna!
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| <3 |
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| Cha-ching! Three credits just like that! |
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| Hi boys! (I have no idea what Mike is doing. Looks like he was in the middle of explaining something very important) |
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| Look at this! What a clever wheel this is. :} |
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| New this year is Adventure Island's impressive new indoor area! |
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| If I was a little kid I'd be chomping at the bit to explore that mess. |
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| Coaster #4 is Adventure Island's biggest and baddest! |
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| It's Rage, the superhero-themed Gerstlauer Eurofighter! |
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| An awesome and comfortable Gerstlauer Eurofighter, more importantly! |
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| Rage's sidekick is this fun drop tower. :} |
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| Rage is an exact clone of Untamed at Canobie Lake. For whatever reason, Rage is incredible and Untamed is unbearable. |
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| These drops never get old. |
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| Dat curvature. |
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| Adventure Island's 5th coaster is Green Scream! |
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| We'll be back for more Rage later. |
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| Fans of Knott's Berry Farm's Jaguar! will appreciate this giant custom Zierer Tivoli. :} |
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| Leading the charge on Green Scream is an alligator in a turtle neck who's up to no good. |
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| Speaking of up to no good... |
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| At Adventure Island, everyone is encouraged to high five the passing Green Scream train. Because Adventure Island is amazing. |
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| Rage from the air! |
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| One of the ride attendants for Green Scream was saying that this was the busiest day they'd ever seen. This surprised us, because the park had no trouble handling the crowds |
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| Adventure Island is definitely a flags-and-lights kind of park. :} |
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| WOOOOOOOOO! |
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| Local news was on hand to interview ACErs about the UK Tour and about our cause. We were all over the televisions of Essex that day. :} |
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| I had lots of fun talking to the reporter. After the shoot, everyone in attendance got ERT and free onride photos on Rage! :} |
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| I don't have any good pictures of it, but Adventure Island's spooky dark ride is awesome. LOTS of cool modern gags. |
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| Any fans of Bonbon-Land out there? :} |
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| Alright, let's talk about this Godforsaken attraction. |
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| It's called Time Machine. It spins, really, really, really fast. |
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| Meanwhile the seats slowly rotate. I gave it a shot, and it was NOT CUTE. |
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| Their Scorpion-themed Troika is very cute, however. :} |
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| Also this egg-themed model of Rage is EVERYTHING! |
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| Before we left, we had a fun group photo with the Adventure Island crew! |
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| Plaque ceremony! |
What a fun day! Two great seaside parks. :}
What's funny is we rode more roller coasters at Adventure Island than we did at the last three parks combined! x}
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I hope you're ready for tomorrow, because we might not make it out alive! ;}
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