Tips for going to Theme Parks

Number 1 - If you are planning on going on any kind of water ride, DO NOT WEAR DENIM!!!

So Tuesday was our annual family day out to Drayton Manor Park and zoo. It was planned for months and everyone was looking forward to it and getting really excited.

We arrived at the park just after 10am before the rides had even opened. We had a plan, DS would go off with Ange and Rob around the younger area of the park and DD would come with me and Debz around the bigger rides.

Last year (As you may remember if you have been reading that long) we tried out the G-Force ride. It was a 3 hour wait for a 10 second ride. This year we had no desire to go on again and decided that we were going to go on the ShockWave. Now contrary to what JK and Joel might believe, The Shockwave has in fact been at Drayton for 14 years and is not - as they said on their show on Monday - new this year. Debz has in fact been on it the year it first arrived but I have never been on before.

Debz had persuaded DD that she should come on it and although she had been telling me for weeks that she would, when we got there she wasn't so sure. However we convinced her that she would regret it if she didn't and although it is really nerve wracking while you are waiting...It is all worth it and once you are on it goes in a flash.
We all felt a little sick while we were waiting but the queue wasn't very long and soon we found ourselves being trussed into our seats. DD was shaking severely but I was sure that she would be fine.
As I said, the ride is over in a flash and the adrenaline rush is well worth it. DD was in fact glad that she had followed us on the ride.

After the Shockwave we headed for the StormForce 10...A little more exciting twist on the LogFlume theme. Last year we went on and we hardly had to queue at all. This time we queued longer that we did for the Shockwave. We knew we would get wet as that is what it is all about but I wasn't quite prepared for what was to come.
I ended up sat in the back of the car next to a bloke who was with his girlfriend. As we were travelling up the first incline, we both realised that we were the ones that were going to feel the force of the water first. At the top, you are turned round and the boat comes down backwards.
As we fell backwards, we hit the water and I felt my back get soaked but then a huge tidal wave hit from the side and we were drowned. The water was so cold and I gasped in shock as I was soaked through to the skin. I struggled to get my breath and everone screamed as we seemed to have taken on a whole boat of water. At this point I wanted to get off because you might have guessed by now that I made made the stupid mistake of wearing my Jeans and my denim jacket.

The first thing I wanted to do when I got off of the boat was to take my inhaler...the second thing I would have liked to have done was change out of my clothes and wrapped myself in a nice big warm towel...I had to settle for paying £2 for 3 minutes in the human drier. I had never tried it before as I had never been wet enough. It was quite a nice experience. It is like a little tanning booth with infrared lights and a big drier...it did managed to dry my hair and make me look less of a drowned rat but my jeans were still sticking to me and my jacket was never going to get dry. The only draw back of the dryer is that everyone can see you - I thought they should maybe put a door on it so that you can dry in private and it would intensify the drying process too.

After that we didn't really want to go on anymore rides. We had had our thrills LOL

We met up with the others and had lunch then went round the zoo. We got to see the Penguins feeding time which was really cute as they had lots of baby penguins who are very enthusiastic at dinner time.







We also got to see the reindeer that they have not long welcomed to the Zoo. I think that made DD's day...



The reptile house was amazing and I got some great pics there too...





The rest of the afternoon seemed to fly by. Lots more rides were had by the kids and by 6 o'clock when the park was closing we were all exhausted. I could hardly walk as my feet were hurting so much and I was looking forward to sitting down on the train home.

The only bad part of the day (Apart from the fact that 6 hours later I was still very damp and very cold) was there was mix-up with ordering of taxis and although Ange and Rob got to the train station pretty early, the other 4 of us were left waiting another half an hour and the taxi driver had to go round at breakneck speed and run 2 red lights to get us there in time for the train.

In the taxi home DD said..."Can we go to Drayton Manor next year?"