by porterm » 03 Aug 2004, 10:52
Hello Cheryl,
I was also down for a short while on Saturday. Sadly had to be at work by 6pm in Maidstone. I just caught the second Scenic train being pulled out just before I reluctantly had to leave around 4.45pm. I believe it was Margate Carnival that weekend. I caught a Meridian TV News item last week re the controversy of a Spanish bull fighting theme. (I'm not sure if that was the carnival theme or a different event happening in Margate). I did see this featured on a local newspaper headline board outside a local store.
I thought the repositioning of the Rotor on the seafront was quite a good commercial opportunity, and also hopefully helped promote the park.
I attracted a couple of Crystal Palace fans from London to visit the park on Saturday, after posting a response to a "do you know what happened to Battersea Funfair?" item posted on their website message board. (I just happened to stumble across this "thread" via an internet search for the former, now sadly defunct park. Hopefully, we now have a couple of new members to this site; this guy, David, who responded to me via private message. Sadly, I only got to talk to him at the head of the Scenic queue, not realising it was actually him (he was trying to get a front seat to film the ride). I told him to take the opportunity whilst he still could. I couldn't speak long as Alan from Medway and myself were called forward to take the last seats on that particular train.
This guy said he'd visited the park about 20 years ago on a school trip when he was 10 and couldn't believe the Scenic was still there. He did return a final private message and it sounded like his girlfriend and himself had a fun day on the beach, shopping and in Dreamland. It was also great weather that day!
I just thought, if we could all try to encourage a few people to visit the park by any means it could all help to build up park visitor numbers.
Martin