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This is one of those peculiar rides where an amusement park takes it upon itself to do a bit of educating, and dabbles into local history.

The entrance (and indeed whole ride) of Tales of the Coast is so understated it would be quite easy to miss the fact that the ride even exists. Those who do find it will assume it to be small boat ride in the open, as its dark ride qualities are completely hidden. Despite its quaintness, a small sign outside bizarely warns that small children may not like the ride.

Anyway, once all are boarded onto the boat, we are dipped into one of the slowest moving water troughs around. All that you can see, all around is... grass. And absolutely nothing else. So much for being scenic! However, presently some rocks disguised as speakers crackle into life and a rich atmospheric voice grabs our attention.

"Isn't it nice for a lazy trip by the sea?" he asks before telling us how much he enjoys the surrounding sounds of children having fun. However - would you Adam and Eve it, this area wasn't always a theme park! Shock Horror! It was once home for people with rather less pleasant things on their mind. With that, we pass a very small jetty and inside a tunnel, doors opening to let us through. We now appear to be inside an air lock, where the narrator mutters about something or another, and another set of doors open transporting us into the past.

Pirates and Smugglers are abound, examining their loot and generally not being entirely pleasant. Our narrator returns to tell us a bit about them all. However, he reveals, there are worse things to be afraid of because we are now entering the world of the.... SUPERNATURAL!!!

Yes, its witches and ghouls time as our narrator quakes in his boots as we slalom through some scenes of the occult and dark magic. Still, we are soon outside passing a bamboo fence and back into the station. Rather rudely, our narrator doesn't return to say goodbye. Perhaps he got eaten by the witch. Perhaps we will never know.

This ride is unexpected in all sense of the word. Good on the park for having a bash at something different, and they have come up with some novel ways of achieving their goals. First of all, speakers are placed around the ride with various sounds and narration triggered as the boat passes. The only downside to this is that when the narration isn't playing, there is a horrible deathly silence while the animatronics do their thing. It has been known for various messages not to trigger, meaning that you may miss various bits of the narration.

The animatronics are simple, but well planned - and combined with excellent lighting, some of the scenes really have an atmospheric edge of them. The smuggler waving his lantern at oncoming boats is one of the best examples.

I enjoyed the ride. Its small and petite, and never forgets that it is the work of a small family park. For what you may expect of it, it delivers everything really well.