Cardiff International Pool - Saturday 4 January 2014

Date: Saturday 4 January 2014
Venue: Cardiff International Pool
Who Went: Just me

Rationale For Trip

For the fourth year running I wanted to start the year with a visit to Cardiff International Pool to enjoy the fun pool and water slides. During Christmas 2013 I set my mind firmly on going to Cardiff International Pool on Saturday 4 January 2014. It's a wonder it was sensible going to Cardiff at all that day following flooding in certain parts of south east Wales the day before. Anyway that morning I discovered that trains were running between Bath Spa and Cardiff Central, and also phoned Cardiff International Pool to check it was open. From the phone call I found out it was open, and there hadn't had any flooding in the immediate vicinity, so I decided to go.

Getting To Cardiff

I got up fairly early in order to catch the 08:30 train from Bath Spa to Cardiff Central. Having reached Cardiff Central at 9:38, I had a small Americano at Upper Crust in the station concourse before catching a bus to the Sports Village.

Cardiff International Pool

Cardiff International Pool is located at the Sports Village. I finally got there around 10:20. Being my fifth visit to-date, the place was already familiar to me.

The leisure pool area has the following features:

Red flume

Starts by taking sliders around a bend to the left, into a clockwise spiral. This is followed by an anticlockwise spiral, and you land in catch tray. Slow.

Orange flume

This begins with an anticlockwise spiral, followed by a clockwise u-bend, to land in a catch tray. Faster.

Yellow flume

Starts with a bend to the right, into an anticlockwise spiral, and finally a straight drop (fairly steep but not vertical), landing in catch tray. Faster still.

The above three flumes are closed tubes all the way down. They don't have names, unlike the flumes at Splashdown Poole.

Space Bowl (blue)

A short flume takes you round an anticlockwise loop into space bowl. After whirling around, you fall into a 2.5 metre deep landing pool, which you must swim out of as quickly as possible. For that reason you must be able to swim to be allowed on this.

Children's Play Structure

A multi-level play structure. This includes a short green water slide (closed tube), but that slide is for children only, just like the rest of the play structure.

Leisure Pool

This includes a river run.

There's no roller coaster water slide (as in the Master Blaster at certain other water parks I've visited), but then again, you can't have everything I suppose.

The slides were made by Aqua Leisure International, and commissioned in December 2007. Labels on the catch trays of the red, orange and yellow flumes show the following information:
Red flume: 850 Series Ride A
Orange flume: 850 Series Ride B
Yellow flume: 850 Series Ride C

Session Overview

I entered the leisure pool at 10:40 and headed straight to the slides. The staircase leading to the slides was still chained off, so I just waited. Shortly afterwards the slides opened, I was the first member of the public to go on any of the slides that day. My first go of the day was on the red flume. Afterwards I went down the orange and yellow flumes once each. Next I wanted to go on the space bowl. Just before my first go on the space bowl, the lifeguard asked me if I can swim. I told the lifeguard I can, and had been on this particular space bowl on previous visits, as well as space bowls elsewhere, so I was allowed to go down it. The queues were getting longer, but anyway I enjoyed the red flume, orange flume, yellow flume and space bowl in sequence twice more.

Just as I was about to return to the red flume, the queue for the red, orange and yellow flumes was quite long but the space bowl queue was really short, so instead I went on the space bowl again. After that the space bowl queue remained short, so I enjoyed four more goes on the space bowl.

My cumulative totals so far were red flume 3, orange flume 3, yellow flume 3 and space bowl 8. During my remaining time in the pool area, I enjoyed the red flume, orange flume and yellow flume in sequence five more times. That took my cumulative totals for the red flume, orange flume, yellow flume and space bowl to 8 each. I finally left the leisure pool and slides area at 14:55.

Summary of my sliding in actual order:

Red flume, Orange flume, Yellow flume, Space bowl in sequence 3 times over
Space bowl 5
Red flume, Orange flume, Yellow flume in sequence 5 times over

Cumulative summary of slides:

Slide	Total
Red flume	8
Orange flume	8
Yellow flume	8
Space bowl	8
TOTAL	32

Mid Afternoon Snack

Having dressed I left Cardiff International Pool building and walked to nearby Morrisons to have a mid-afternoon snack at their café. There I had prawn mayonnaise sandwiches, a portion of chips and a cappuccino coffee.

Remaining Time In Cardiff

Having left Morrisons, I caught the next bus to Cardiff city centre. Without further ado I headed for St David's Centre, whereupon I had a Festive Truffle doughnut and a regular Americano at Krispy Kreme. Afterwards I wandered around St David's Centre and Queen Street for a bit.

Journey Home

Around 18:20 I was back at Cardiff Central station. The 18:30 Portsmouth Harbour train, which I hoped to catch, was cancelled. However the 18:25 London Paddington train was on time. From my own instinct I decided to catch the 18:25 London Paddington train. An announcement was made shortly afterwards telling customers for the 18:30 Portsmouth Harbour train to join the 18:25 London Paddington train and change at Newport. Having reached Newport at 18:44, I had a quick change for the Portsmouth Harbour train which, on this occasion, began its journey from Newport instead of Cardiff Central as originally scheduled. Having departed Newport at 18:47, I enjoyed a relaxing journey to Bath with no further problems, and arrived there at 19:33.

Outro

Highlights

Sliding the red flume, orange flume, yellow flume and space bowl at Cardiff International Pool again.
Good slide count considering how long the queues were.
Doughnut and coffee at Krispy Kreme, St David's Centre, Cardiff.

Lowlights

Slide queues longer than I would have liked for a substantial part of my visit.

Summing Up

Altogether a fun day out, my first outing for 2014, and my first time of going water sliding anywhere for 2014. It's a pity the place was busier than I than I'd have liked once again. Quite frankly, I was surprised the place was so busy on this occasion. I thought people might be deterred from going out after the previous day's weather, but evidently that wasn't the case. The coffee and doughnut at Krispy Kreme at St David's Centre was a delightful treat before catching my train home.