| Ride Review - Latest Revision: September 2007 (WARNING! Will Spoil First Time Riders) |
 They say that
imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Whether this
applies to a blatant, whole-sale rip off job I am unsure
- but that is what we have here at Great Yarmouth. For
many a year down the road, the Snail ride at Joyland
entertained kids with its simple scenes and effects. Not
content with letting a favourite down the road have the
lime-light, Pleasure Beach created their own version of
the same thing, with arguably less finess. It does of
course mean that the country's only two dark rides themed
as snails are a ten minute walk away from each other.Entry is by way of one token, currently £1 a head - co-incidently the exact same price as the other snail ride. Boarding your snail, your lap bar comes down and your small milk-float of a snail is away. We head into a tunnel where the roof comes close to scraping adults' scalps off, then back outside for some un-animated scenes of - you've guessed it - fairytales! We head up and down various dips, the upward climbs inducing electronic screams as our snail gasps for breath. Around the base of the Roller Coaster, and finally to the indoor section. Some wholly un-impressive and badly lit scenes hiss around doing whatever it is they do (more often then not, nothing at all) as a rediculous techno-remix of Disney's "It's a Small World" plays from somewhere far away. The tunnel gets more compact towards the end, as as luminous arrows point the way, we bounce up and down some small dips that, judging by the noise from our snail, is fairly unwelcome to our shelled friends. Anyway, we are soon outside and bump into the rest of the snails waiting at the staton and we exit to our right. Rides that are gloriously cheesey and kitsch in their own way can be great fun, see Alice in Wonderland at Pleasure Beach Blackpool for evidence, but Snails and Fairy Tales is just plain boring - even for the kids. The worst crime though was that whole scenes went past unlit, not a common occurence I hope! |