Cardiff International Pool - Saturday 3 January 2015

Date: Saturday 3 January 2015
Venue: Cardiff International Pool
Who Went: Just me

Rationale For Trip

For the fifth 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 2014 I set my mind firmly on going to Cardiff International Pool on Saturday 3 January 2015.

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 9:51, I had an Americano at J-J's Salad and Sandwich Bar in the city centre 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 10:45. Being my sixth 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 around 11:00 and headed straight for the slides, which were already open. My first go of the day was on the red flume. Next I went down the orange and yellow flumes once each. After that 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. By now the queue for the red, orange and yellow flumes, and the separate queue for the space bowl were both quite long, which meant I didn't set my hopes on getting many goes on any particular slide. During my remaining time in the pool area, I enjoyed the red flume, orange flume, yellow flume and space bowl in sequence six more times. I finally left the leisure pool and slides area at 15:05

Summary of my sliding in actual order:

Red flume, Orange flume, Yellow flume, Space bowl in sequence 7 times over

Cumulative summary of slides:

Slide	Total
Red flume	7
Orange flume	7
Yellow flume	7
Space bowl	7
TOTAL	28

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 sandwiches and a cup of 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 Caramel Crunch 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. From there I caught the 18:30 Portsmouth Harbour train, which left on time and arrived Bath Spa just over an hour later. A pleasant and relaxing journey to end the day out.

Outro

Highlights

Sliding the red flume, orange flume, yellow flume and space bowl at Cardiff International Pool again.
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.
Overall slide count lower than I'd have liked as a result of the long queues.

Summing Up

Altogether a fun day out, my first outing for 2015, and my first time of going water sliding anywhere for 2015. It's a pity the place was busier than I than I'd have liked once again, which meant having just seven goes on each slide, my lowest overall slide count to-date for one visit. The coffee and doughnut at Krispy Kreme at St David's Centre was a delightful treat before catching my train home.