Fantasy Island (UK amusement park)

Fantasy Island is a family amusement park in Ingoldmells, near Skegness on the East Coast of England. It sits in the middle of one of the biggest spreads of holiday parks in the United Kingdom. Whilst entry to the park is free, guests either pay per ride or purchase an unlimited ride wristband. The pay-per-ride option uses a live ticket, which has a printed bar code that can be scanned to gain access to rides. This option allows credit to be added to the ticket to be able to ride rides in the park. Rides are priced at £1.50, £2.50, or £3.50 per ride depending on the ride type.^[1]

Wristbands with a printed barcode on are sold at cost £20 for adults. This code must be scanned by a bar code reader which unlocks the turnstile at each ride platform. The design technique means that riders are unable to access the ride unless having first scanned their specially printed day-code. Each day a new code is printed on the wristband, meaning wristbands from previous days become invalid.

Many of the smaller rides are indoors. Fantasy Island also premiered the IMAX ridefilm attraction "Fun House Express: Jimmy's Clown Chaos" in its IMAX ridefilm theatre. This attraction has since been closed, though "Fun House Express: Jimmy's Clown Chaos" has been show in IMAX ridefilm theatres around the world, including Las Vegas.

Attractions

White Knuckle

• Jubilee Odyssey was opened on 23 May 2002 by Amar Dhokia and is named to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. It is a custom, steel roller coaster made by Vekoma with five inversions; loop, cobra roll, sidewinder and corkscrew. Standing at 167' (50.9m) tall, it is the third tallest coaster in the UK after PMBO and Stealth. It has a drop of 141' (42.98m) and speeds of up to 68 mph are achieved with a G-force of 4.8. The ride has one train which seats riders in twos across ten cars with a maximum number of 20 passengers. Initial plans for Jubilee Odyssey in 2001 indicated an inverted roller coaster, 290' (88.39m) in height. These plans were rejected due to complaints from local residents; limiting the construction to a maximum of 180' (54.86m).
  

  Jubilee Odyssey
  Based on the plans, Jubilee Odyssey would have been the tallest inverted roller coaster and ranked 7th tallest roller coaster in the world. A year after Jubilee Odyssey opened; the cobra roll and the horse shoe were lowered. This was intended to prevent the train stalling; as it had done numerous times within the first year.^[2]
• Millennium Roller Coaster opened on 22 May 1999. It is a steel roller coaster made by Vekoma and was the first to feature a loop at Fantasy Island. The ride is 150' tall with a loop at 100'. The ride has three inversions; loop, sidewinder, loop and a speed of 55.9 mph.^[3]
• Volcanic Impact, a 200 ft S&S Space Shot which has been operating at the park since 1998. From 2003, the park equipped the ride with tilting seats. However, these were removed for the 2006 season due to the tilting mechanism causing several technical problems.^[4]
• Amazing Confusion, the world's first Mondial Ultra Max which opened at the park in 2003, this ride acts as a smaller frisbee ride but gains momentum and ends up swinging upside down several times before doing the same in the other direction.^[5]
  

  Millennium Roller Coaster
• The Beast, a Mondial Top Scan.^[6]

Administration

On August 5 2014, Fantasy Island announced that it had gone into administration, although the park continues to operate normally whilst the finances are being reviewed. Duff & Phelps Ltd was appointed as administrator

See also

• Incidents at European amusement parks

References

External links

• Fantasy Island official website
• Millennium Coaster on YouTube