Inside the UK's ‘strangest' theme park – that's home to the biggest suspended looping roller coaster in the world
A lesser-known UK theme park is home to the world's tallest suspended looping coaster.
Fantasy Island, located in Ingoldmells on Lincolnshire's coast, is one of the country's more unique theme parks.
The quirky theme park has more than 30 rides but there's one that theme park junkies definitely won't want to miss.
Fantasy Island's The Odyssey coaster is the world's tallest suspended looping coaster, standing at 167 feet/51 m high.
The spine-tingling ride travels at 62mph and opened in 2002, the year of Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee. Prince Edward was one of the first people to ride The Odyssey.
It has five inversions (where riders are turned upside down) including a corkscrew roll and a 124 feet/ 37 m high vertical loop.
The Odyssey has a 4.6 rating out of five on Google Reviews with one rider describing it as 'unexpectedly good'.
Another rider says: 'I loved it. When I first tried it, it was an amazing ride, probably better than The Smiler in Alton Towers.'
The ride sits within Fantasy Island's 'Discovery' category which means it can only be ridden by those 1.1 m tall or above.
Fantasy Island adds: 'Hold on tight as you soar through the sky at amazing heights, through a whirlwind of inversions at great speeds.
'The Jubilee Odyssey is a truly terrifying experience and is not a Skegness rollercoaster for the faint hearted.'
But The Odyssey isn't Fantasy Island's only standout attraction.
The theme park is home to Europe's largest seven day market with more than 320 stalls.
Visitors can stop at Fantasy Foods for candy floss, then browse for wooden garden furniture or get a body piercing.
The market also has a huge toy shop, face painting, handbag stalls and a baby boutique.
On TikTok, @coastertog called it 'the strangest theme park in the UK', noting it's the only place you can go to 'ride the biggest SLC coaster in the world, and walk home with a wooden eagle, dog speaker and a three-piece outdoor furniture set'.
A tourist said in a review on Google Reviews: 'The market and all the shops around Fantasy Island are brilliant. You'll find some bargains.'
Another said: 'Great rides and a wonderful market makes this a good day out. We enjoyed the various food stalls and even had a cheeky tattoo to round off our visit.'
A one day Discovery wristband which allows visitors to access all the park's rides costs £28.80 if purchased online.
Visitors can also pay per ride if they get one of the park's iCards which can be topped up by Fantasy Island's cashiers.
MailOnline Travel recently revealed where Europe's best theme parks are located - and exactly how much it will cost to visit them.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
37 minutes ago
- BBC News
Decision on major Holyport Studios pushed back by government
A decision on whether one of the UK's biggest film and TV studios is granted planning permission should be made next company Greystoke Land submitted plans to build sound stages, offices and workshops near the village of Holyport, near Maidenhead, Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead refused the application last year, citing its impact on the green on behalf of Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said a decision on the plan was delayed until on or before 26 June. It had been expected by Thursday. The project, first announced in 2022, could create 1,500 would extend over 43 hectares (106 acres) of land on Gays Lane in three sound stages, workshops and offices would allow multiple film and TV productions to be shot on the same day and at the same time.A "media village" would include a virtual reality studio offering CGI creation, augmented and virtual reality and gaming, while there would also be an area for open-air Land appealed to the government's planning inspectorate after the council dismissed its application. The council previously said that the case for the studios was "overstated" as a number of others have already been built in the south east of cited statistics from the British Film Institute that film and TV production volumes fell by 25% between 2022 and 2024. You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Telegraph
38 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Peak District tourists could face entry fee
Visitors to the Peak District could be charged an entrance fee to help tackle the national park's funding crisis. Phil Mulligan, the chief executive of the Peak District National Park Authority, said it 'wouldn't need any government funding' if it could charge 10p per visitor. The park, which has around 13 million visitors per year, has cut 10 per cent of its staff in recent months because of what Mr Mulligan called 'declining funding'. He added that there had been a 50 per cent real terms funding cut over the last decade, while the park had grappled with problems such as wildfires and dangerous parking. 'Ever-declining' government funds Mr Mulligan told the BBC: 'We have the pressure of visitors, we have the pressure of delivering for the nation in terms of the ecological crisis, the climate crisis. 'I'm trying to do that with an ever-declining set of government funds, at a time when what's being asked of the national park is more and more. 'I think that [charging tourists fees] is a big discussion that government is going to need to have. But what would be the mechanism for that? I haven't got the powers.' The authority's financial troubles have been blamed on a fixed government grant that has not accounted for inflation or other costs such as the rise in the minimum wage. Mr Mulligan added: 'If [the Government] are going to keep cutting our funding, then there is going to need to be a different way of funding national parks.'
Telegraph
38 minutes ago
- Telegraph
You've never heard of the only Englishman to win Champions League with Inter Milan
The only British footballer in history to get a Champions League winners' medal while playing for Inter Milan would use it as a ball marker in the few years he spent as a professional golfer on the PGA circuit. Ben Greenhalgh laughs at the memory of the confusion it would spread in matchplay. 'That was my way of getting into an opponent's head, to let them know that I might be all right at golf but I had also done a bit in football,' he says. 'It would always throw them off for a few holes.' This is the unusual sporting career of a man who, at 17, won an Inter Milan contract in a TV talent show; became a professional golfer; and was a body double for Cristiano Ronaldo and Mesut Özil. When Greenhalgh drops into the conversation that he was a British steeplechase champion as a junior athlete, it is hard to believe that, at 33, he has packed so much in. Greenhalgh is currently the player-manager at Margate FC in the Isthmian League south-east division – the eighth tier of the pyramid. In a successful non-league career spent mainly in his native Kent, he has played around 750 games and says he has never missed a match through injury. For seven years he has run the academy at Dartford FC, one tier above Margate in the Isthmian Premier. He has already had one major success: Martial Godo who now, at 22, is a Premier League player with Fulham. But Greenhalgh is best known for winning the 2010 Sky One show Football's Next Star, a Britain's Got Talent for footballers. Presented by Jamie Redknapp and going head-to-head with Strictly Come Dancing in the scheduling over seven episodes it followed 10 young footballers competing to win a contract with Inter. Sadly the proposed second series – to feature Manchester City – never happened. That despite the show coinciding with Inter's 2010 Champions League triumph under Jose Mourinho.
