After a quick loo stop, we ventured around the site to the Tower Coaster.  I could see three carts stopped on track with people sitting in the cars waving.  Not wanting to fear the worst after our 3-hour trip I followed the family into the entrance of the coaster building.  Inside all the carts were lined up and a Zip World employee was frantically pressing buttons on a computer screen.  The lights on the carts flicked on and off as he tried to reset the system.  After about 5 minutes another employee came across and told us that they had a technical fault and asked us to leave the building and come back in half an hour.  Where would we go?  What is wrong?  I thought.  There was no further direction and JJ looked a little panicked.  The staff seemed completely blasé about it.  The fact that it was a sweltering day around 33 degrees, and we had simply been told to go way did not sit well with me.  I grabbed a passing staff member and said, “We have just been sent out of the coaster as its broken.’’, the staff member asked back ‘’Is it broken?’ oh, if they don’t fix it, you will get a refund.’’ I said ‘’We have just travelled three hours to get here. ‘’ The staff member replied with ‘’Are you stopping local?’’ and was completely bemused when I said ‘’We have driven here for the coaster, we are not stopping local.’’ he replied with ‘’Most people come here for the Zip line, the coaster is a side hustle and not the main thing, you could do the zip line instead, I think its about £55 each.’’ I was taken aback by this non-caring attitude, it was as if they never have thought that people would take a day out to their location, just for the coaster.  Once of the reasons we did not book the Zip was not knowing if the kids would want to do it, and one of our party has a slight fear of tall zip lines.  Quietly seething I walked away, and we all decided to get out of the midday sun and grab some food in the bistro, all the time thinking if they give a refund, I want compensation for the £60 of fuel I put in to get us there!

The Bistro is in a heavily renovated former coal mine building, with remnants of its mining past still visible.  It was displaying a hygiene rating of four leading me to wonder what was wrong with it, as it was not the full 5 stars.  As is the trend since Covid, the Bistro is electronic ordering only – meaning that you must order via a QR code on the table.  Handily the table had a paper menu to choose from, but I was surprised to find out that all the options on the menu were not available on the online ordering system.  Still angry at the coaster situation this only added to my frustration.  Once ordered, the food and drink arrived promptly.  It was well cooked and portion sizes where fine. I had the minted lamb burger, and my only criticism is that it was a bit too salty.  While we were eating, we saw another customer raising his voice at one of the young employees, discussing missing drinks and food.  Just like my earlier interaction the employee did not seem fussed and wandered off to obtain the missing drink, with no rush or care in the world. What is with the staff I thought to myself?

While in the Bistro, I paid  visit to the toilets.  They could not be described as clean; it was obvious a lot of people had been in since the last cleaner.  JJ tells me that one of the women’s cubicles was out of order.  She knew because it had a scruffy A4 sized note with the words ‘Out of Order’ written on it four times.  It looked like the type of note a 15-year-old would write when made to write lines in detention! The entrance doors were also full of sticky fingerprints – yuk.  The men’s loos did not fare much better as many men seemed to have misjudged the distance between the massive urinal and the floor and my nephew complained that the tap water was too hot and scalding.

After lunch and still fearing the worst, I ventured out to check if the coaster was back on and I could see empty carts flying round the track being tested!  With that I grabbed the gang, and we went to the coaster and yes, the staff had managed to clear whatever fault it had, I could relax a little now.

While waiting our turn JJ noticed that they were letting two people onto a cart.  This was odd as Zip World Website clearly say’s that over 9’s would be individually seated.  When it was our turn, I asked the attendant if my nephew and JJ could go on together and the attendant gave a quick look and said ‘’looking at them, that will be fine’’.  This contradicted the website, but it made the kids happy, so we went with it.  When it was my turn, the attendant thanked me for coming back, as she had noticed me in the queue earlier  ‘’No problem.” I said thinking to myself ‘what else would I have done it’s not like I’ve travelled 3 hours or anything! Yes, I was still bitter about this morning’s experience!

The coaster is simply a 1km track on a hill, with no real theming other than the carts having a mining style to them.  A simple over the head lap bar keeps you in, and the cart is controlled with a joystick –  push forward to speed up, pull back to slow down.  ‘’Once ready push forward to go full speed.’’ said the attendant.  I pushed forward and what followed was around 60 seconds of pure fun!  The coaster twisting and turned along the track, whizzing through small tunnels and supplying a superb view of the surrounding hills as I careered down the track.  This was one of three runs included in the price and I was tentative in the speed control.  At the end of the run, I met up with the others and everyone had a massive grin on their faces.  Job done I thought, and I could relax and fully enjoy the day.  The second run went smoothly, and my niece and nephew had swapped to sit together.  We all decided to go faster for the third and final run so stick pushed firmly forward I rocketed down the track, it was an exhilarating experience.  At the end of my final run, we all met back up.  The kids were laughing, I asked what’s funny, and they said that the control handle on the cart had fallen off and the kart went full speed down the track!  My nephew seemed quite excited by this and when I enquired if he was ok, he simply replied with yes that was insane with a big grin on his face.  We mentioned the broken handle to the staff, and they said they would check it out.  JJ also enjoyed the Tower Coaster and when asked if three goes was enough ‘no she said, it should be five.’ I suspect that she would have stayed on it all day if they would let her.

So, with coaster adventure over it was time to decide what to do next.  Do we book onto the zip wire or do we go exploring a waterfall about 20 mins away from the site.  Having seen the zipwires both my niece and nephew seemed excited to go on.  It was decided my nephew and JJ would go on the smaller Tower Flyer – a series of 3 small zipwires perfect for younger ones or those who aren’t up for the larger zipwire.  Myself and my niece would go on the bigger zipwire called Phoenix.