Recently we took a trip to Great Yarmouth for a visit to Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach, followed by Pleasurewood Hills. As we’d booked for a 2 night stay and 3 days off, we had a look at other things to do while we were in Norfolk.
There is a Sealife Centre to visit, many amusement arcades, mini golf courses to try and a model village too, but the attraction that stuck out was Joyland.
Situated at the top end of Great Yarmouth, it’s a decent walk away from the Pleasure Beach and houses 9 attractions, an arcade and diner.
Of the 9 attractions that Joyland has, the two most notable ones are Tyrolean Tub Twist and The Snails. There is also another small rollercoaster called Spook Express.
To the centre of the small park is a large themed mountain that houses 3 of the parks ride, almost stacked on top of each other. At the bottom is Jet Cars, a powered tracked ride that’s goes around the underside of the front of the mountain and Neptune’s Kingdom, that does the same but around the back side.
On top of the mountain is Spook Express and it’s somewhat fascinating how small the park is and how well the space is used! There isn’t any room for any new attractions inside the park walls but I don’t think expansion is on the list at all either.
All the rides here are very family friendly with the most intense being Tyrolean Tub Twist. As for the Tub Twist, what a great ride this is!
Though it’s definitely showing its age, and hasn’t had quite the attention that other venerable rides in the UK have had, it’s still a great, fun little ride.
The attraction has you sit in powered tub shaped cars that are powered along a channel using metal tracks in the base of the channel. The top part of the car is able to free spin and does so by catching the wooden walls surrounding the channel.
If you’ve ever experienced a spinning wild mouse at any funfair, then you’ll have some idea what to expect here. Though, due to its age and the way it was built, there is a bit more colliding with the sides, rather than rubbing, so some corners can be quite jarring, but certainly nothing too uncomfortable!
When we went, it had rained and it meant the metal running rails were soaked so it did mean the cars weren’t running quite as initially intended (and in some cases needed a good push) but that one of the quirks of its age. It is after all, pushing 72 years old!
Next up is The Snails ride, a powered track ride that takes you around some small themed sections and gardens. The ride features a few free wheeling drops that can take you by suprise if you’re not watching but overall it’s a lovely gentle ride around the edge of the park.
I should note as well that the park does have on ride photography and it’s handled very differently to other parks where there is an actual member of staff taking your photos with a handheld DSLR. When we went, there was just the one fellow covering The Snails, but we quickly popped in the next day and found a different member of staff covering Spook Express too.
As for the other rides here, Neptune’s Kingdom reminded me so much of Seaquarium at Fantasy Island as it has similar scenes and humor about the attraction. Another nice sit down, but not much to shout about here!
The same can be said for Jet Cars, there are some decent LEDs on the ride, so it has had a little modernising but the ride still remains identical to when it first opened in the 1970s. The attraction is very loud though! The cars trundle along powered track and the slight imperfections in the track cause the cars to rattle quite a bit as they make their way around!
Finally there is Spook Express which is possibly the shortest rollercoaster I’ve ever ridden! It’s length isn’t to its detriment though as it packs a very decent helix in and runs a couple of laps so it’s a bit longer than it looks.
I believe there is supposed to be some sort of theming element in the dark section of the coaster but on our ride, the room was just dark and nothing happened, but the helix in the dark was still fun!
We paid £15 for 12 tokens and each ride is 1 token, so I went on the 5 rides I’ve mentioned and Tracy did rerides on The Snails and Tub Twist. A very good price for the amount of fun we had here.
We only stayed for about half an hour, as that’s all that we needed but it was certainly memorable! I think £15 is very reasonable for 12 rides, and they only charge £1.50 per individual ride anyway!
Overall, if you find yourself with an hour or so to spare whilst in Great Yarmouth, you can’t go wrong with Joyland. It might be small and aimed a children, but we had a great time here so it’s highly recommended!
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