Tag: Henry Danter

Our second park visit for the holiday was another first time park, Barry Island Pleasure Park.

We stayed in a hotel by Cardiff airport the night before and we got there early so headed into Barry to have a look around.

First impressions weren’t too good as the area the park sits on is a little aged and well worn, and the amusement arcade gave similar feelings too.

While we were walking around the closed park though, it did give us time to tot up how many tokens we’d need as there wasn’t a list on the website or a board that listed all prices of each ride to be found. This is something the park could definitely do to improve on!

The next day we headed for some breakfast at the local pub and while I was there I thought I’d enquire about recording on the rides and potentially sending my drone over to take some more photos and videos.

I contacted Cardiff Airport who were more than happy with me flying as it was just outside their no fly zone, but only just! I then contacted the park for their permission and the number I called, to my surprise went through directly to the parks owner, Mr Henry Danter!

He was a lovely man who had no issues what so ever with me flying my drone over the park or taking videos around the place. We even had a discussion about his newly planned attractions, it almost felt like I was one of the big theme park press for just a brief moment!

Anyway, after I’d done with filming and aerial photos, we tried out some of the attractions at Barry Island, starting with Cyclone.

Cyclone is an SBF Visa Cyclone model (according to RCDB), and features 4 seater cars. The ride operator made this attraction stand out as he not only told us what to expect on the ride, but also chatted with us about the park and the other attractions too. A very nice man, which will be a theme at this park!

As for Cyclone, the ride was alright. It wasn’t too shaky or rattly like some of these models can be, and despite having a new brake run fitted days before we visited, it still slammed on before the final turn! This also happened on the one at Clarence Pier anyway so we’d already braced for it!

Next we went on their Ghost Train and once again, it was alright, nothing too sparkling but had all the usual elements of a very cheesy ghost train!

Following the ghost train, we tried Dragon Challange, a Pinfari family coaster. Very standard layout and a bit forceless, even at the back, but a nice sit-down none the less. A great first ride for kids though!

While we at the top end of the park we had a go round on the parks Ferris wheel, a ride by Technical Park. I can’t find any figures on how tall this is but I’d probably say it’s the tallest I’ve ever been on. The ride operator was lovely once again, and even apologised for us having to wait. We were only waiting for a minute or so as she was looking after another attraction at the same time!

The ferris wheel gives great views around the park and surrounding coastline, the gondolas are encased in plastic screens so even at the top, there’s very little wind gets in.

Our next stop was the parks dodgems, one of Tracy’s preferred attractions, and these were pretty decent as dodgems go! They picked up speed well and felt like that had a good too speed which meant inevitable collisions had a bit more punch than others we’ve ridden!

These were manufactured by Supercar so I may have to look out for more of their dodgems and see if they are just as good.

After that we headed down to the front of the park to try out their Hellraiser ride. This is a Sobema Matterhorn ride and one that I’ve seen before but never had a chance to ride.

Tracy was a bit apprehensive but the ride operator did a great job of telling her what the ride was going to do and that they can’t run it backwards due to local laws. He also said that the staff were all told not to push the rides too far as it makes guests sick and sick guests tend to not ride other rides or in the worst case, leave and not come back.

That was great to hear! It shows that the park actually do care about the comfort of their guests and want to show them as much fun as they can without going too far, excellent work there.

My penultimate ride here was on the parks Graviton ride.

Manufactured by Vekoma, this Rotor ride is fully enclosed and has you lying back against a slightly angled wall. The idea is that the whole room spins and thanks to centrifugal forces, you’re pushed slowly up the wall to feel zero gravity.

This was a very peculiar experience as the forces don’t seem to do much to you if you keep looking forward and just let the ride do its thing. I did feel much thinner during the ride which was quite funny and I didn’t know that the board you lie on actually slides up the wall to aid with the weightlessness too.

Interestingly this attraction seems to be the only one manufactured by Vekoma. It started life at Barry Island and had a spell at Alton Towers, Flamingo Land and Pleasure Island before returning to Barry Island once more under Henry Danters vision for the park.

Next we headed over to Disco Fever, the parks Miami ride. Tracy loves these, Space Screamers as she calls them, but they’re not for me. I’ve been on a few over the years and the sideways motion really make me feel ill. A similar type of ride called Surf Rider at Bottons Pleasure Beach is still the only ride to this day that has actually made me sick! I was about 9 at the time, and looking back as an adult, it is quite a large ride compared to the standard Miami style rides!

Our final ride was on the parks carousel called Gallopers. Not much to say about this one, it’s a standard carousel but doesn’t feature a central organ. A nice ride to finish the day on and reflect on the park as a whole.

Though we didn’t spend a full day at the park, primarily due to our own budget constraints, there was plenty to do here. I like the fact the Mr Danters vision for the park seems to be a to go toe to toe with the bigger boys, and host a large variety of different and rare attractions, at least in terms of the UK scene. This is the first park where I’ve seen a Gravitron and Bennet built Trabant ride, two staples from many of my Parkitect parks.

I also really like the fact that Mr Danter is looking to buy back a lot of the attractions that Barry Island has had over the years, at least that’s what some of the ride operators have said! I hope he does as that is certainly a unique thing about parks in the UK!

Though lacking in theming, and looking a little run down in places, we thoroughly enjoyed Barry Island Pleasure Park. Much like Oakwood however, I won’t be able to visit it as often as I’d like due to the distance the park is from us but I’d certainly like to head back.

I’ll definitely be back to ride the parks newest attraction, Aerospace. This will be a massive KGM built booster ride, capable of seating 32 riders and hurling you around at speeds well over 70 miles an hour! This sounds excellent!

Next stop Tenby and Oakwood!