Richard Bannister

I decided to drive up to Wild Adventures this morning (despite it being about four hours away from my hotel!) in order to ride the Viking Voyage, to date the only coaster to be rescued from the now defunct Celebration City. To be completely honest I'm not at all convinced that the relocation was worth the effort. My previous trip report chronicles my views on the former Jack Rabbit, and the only change in the move has been a new coat of paint. The ride could potentially be enjoyable if the cars were refitted with a massive amount of foam padding, but without same it qualifies more as an endurance test. It was quite telling that the operator who completed the morning test lap stated categorically that she did not want to have to do that again!

With my head throbbing slightly I decided to risk a lap on Cheetah, the wooden coaster which was close to unrideable on my last visit. Much to my surprise (and relief) the ride was running really well, with none of the unpleasant shuffling and jack-hammering that so marred it in previous years. On closer investigation it turned out that the park has invested a million dollars to renovate their star attraction for this year, and the result is fantastic. With plenty of time to spare I completed a number of laps in various seats, all of which were equally good.

Over the course of the next hour I wandered around the park with my camera. One of the staff on Hang Man tried to persuade me to ride, but it'd take some serious persuasion to get me to repeat any SLC that I don't need the credit on. In the end the only other ride that I tried today was Swamp Thing, predominantly because there was nobody waiting for it as I wandered past and the operators looked lonely.

My last trip to Wild Adventures was marred by an awful glasses policy implemented by rude and obnoxious staff. Since then management has clearly invested in some customer service training for their people, and the result has worked wonders. Though the lack of decent coasters is still a problem (Cheetah notwithstanding) I nevertheless left the park feeling that my admission ticket was money well spent. Thanks guys; I hope to see you again some time.

It was mid afternoon by the time I arrived at Lowry Park Zoo. The sun had disappeared behind the clouds, providing some respite from the stifling heat, but it was still an effort to leave the haven of my air conditioned rental car for the great outdoors. The staff reminded me before entry of the scheduled closing time, a nice touch, albeit not one augmented with a discount evening admission price!

The zoo has a small selection of amusement rides mixed in with the various animal exhibits. The one that really caught my eye was a large log flume located near the aligator exhibit. Unfortunately it was closed today, as was the sky ride. Fortunately the Tasmanian Tiger was open, with its bright blue paint looking much more appealing than the nondescript black it wore at its previous home. Coasters of this size generally don't win any awards, but it was fun to ride nevertheless.

I spent a pleasant hour wandering around the various animal enclosures. I'd have preferred if there wasn't an advertising placard at every enclosure, but like all such facilities Lowry Park Zoo has to raise money where it can. One particularly interesting feature was a manatee hospital where zoo staff tend to injured manatees, most often due to boat strikes et al.