Our first big park would have been Oakwood theme park in Pembrokeshire, but the weather took a turn for the worse and though we had a couple of rides there, we ended up leaving as it was just too wet to enjoy anything.
We did still manage a ride on Treetops, Speed and Megaphobia, with Speed being the standout here but marred by the weather unfortunately.
Megaphobia should have been one to watch as it runs faster in the rain but we both found it to be quite uncomfortable nearer the back of the train. Such a disappointment as I’d looked forward to getting back to Oakwood and reriding the parks 2 big coasters as well as Bounce.
Speed was still good, a little jerky in places but nothing terrible. It gave me a great pop of ejector airtime over the first hill and ran the rest of it’s layout without much drama. I really want to give this attraction a few more rides as I really do think it’s better than Saw, but I’ve not ridden it enough to make that distinction yet!
The other ride we managed was the parks junior coaster, Treetops. The ride ops were brilliant and tried their best to cheer everyone up but there’s only so much you can do with a half empty train of drowned park goers! Shout-out here to the lady who was in the Treetops photo booth for being the very first person to ever recognise me by my blog name! Thank you very much once again!
We will get back to Oakwood in future as the park still has loads to offer, but it won’t be until next year now with it being such a long way from home though!
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!
For our holiday this year, we’ll once again be doing a UK road trip! This time however we won’t be visiting a single Merlin park, instead opting for a few new places!
Even though we’re only going away for a week this time, we’ll be covering just as much distance as we did last year. we’ll be visiting Crealy, Barry Island, Oakwood Theme Park, Southport Pleasureland, Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Flamingo Land!
A map of our travels!
As well as the parks, we’ll also be stopping off at Tankfest down in Bovington, seeing what the Centre for Alternative Technology can show us at Pantperthog and hopefully going up Mount Snowdon!
I don’t know what I’m looking forward to most, whether it’s seeing the tanks on show at Tankfest, riding Megaphobia and Speed or trying Drenched for the first time, or maybe seeing what Enso has to offer at Blackpool.
As with last year, I’ll have blogs up for each day, and a final conclusion with my thoughts on the attractions, new and old! Can’t wait for the 24th to roll around now!
Once we’d finished with Alton, we hit the road, heading to Hereford and the Three Horseshoes Inn. On the way, we got caught up in some heavy traffic following an accident, which made us quite late to the Inn, but the staff were fantastic. They kept the kitchen open for us so we could have a something proper to eat, which we both had Steak and Ale Pie which was out of this world!
The following morning we were on the road early as we’d got a 3 hour drive to visit Oakwood Theme park over in Wales. The staff at the Inn packed us up a breakfast sandwich which was very kind of them and off we went.
In queue to enter Oakwood!
We arrived at Oakwood at around 9:15 which gave me plenty of time to get the drone in the air to have a look around before we got in queue to enter the park. Park opened at 10 and the train wasn’t running due to Covid restrictions so we walked into the park and queued up to enter Spooky Street and have a ride on Creepy Crawler first.
Not much to say about Creepy Crawler, it was a decent little coaster, not too rough and ready, not too fast but quite pleasant. Though we were surprised to find it had a camera for on ride photos which was great to see!
After that we had a go on Witches Brew, a tea cups ride themed to witches cauldrons, and then onto Spooky 3D, which was interesting to say the least. I can’t be too harsh on it as it is 21 years old and looks to be running technology and theming from around the time, even though it was revamped in 2003. Certainly an experience but not the best dark ride out there!
Megaphobia!
Next we had a look in Megaphobia’s shop and found the ride parts section and bought a digipass. We found this to be good value at £20 for as many photos as you like, all day long. We then got in queue for Megaphobia.
This is what I thought a wooden coaster should be. It was rough around the edges, decently intense and a proper thrill to ride! We both agreed that even after riding it only once that its the best wooden coaster in the UK, just edging out Wickerman at Alton Towers.
Following on from Megaphobia, we had a wander around and eventually found Treetops, which is another fun junior coaster, with a camera! Decently forceful, and has plenty of hang time too!
After that we had a go on the shooting range which was an up-charge attraction, but a first time for both of us shooting air rifles at paper targets. Well worth the money for 40 shots. Next it was time for a go on Speed: No limits.
Speed: No Limits going up the hill
Personally I feel that Speed: No Limits is the best Euro fighter model in the UK for what it offers and how it rides. Saw the ride is much better themed and more intense which just puts it ahead for me but I still think Speed is the better ride, if you take away Saw’s theming. This was also Tracy’s first beyond vertical drop, and though she was terrified, she ended up trying other euro fighters later on in the trip!
We then decided to have a sit down and something to eat, in this case a burger meal from the main food court in the centre of the park. The food was good, plenty of choice and extras, and not too expensive either, we’d happily recommend the food here! There were plenty of areas to sit down and eat, we picked a nice bit of grass under a tree behind the restaurant, it was lovely and pleasant!
Once we’d finished our dinner, we had a wander about, taking photos and the like, before having a go on Waterfall, a water ride thats gaining fame for its unique idea. You climb the tower to board a ‘tea tray’ that is then dropped down a chute and the idea is that you then skim across the water trying not to fall in before then end.
When we were there, it was quite popular and there was always someone not making it to the end and falling in. Its a real crowd pleaser and an excellent little attraction for Oakwood to have. On my go I made it no problem, Tracy on the other hand toppled over about three quarters of the way across to fits of laughter from myself!
Waterfall, will you make it across?
Once we’d gotten dried and changed, we had a round of mini golf, which was in a pretty poor state, but it was only £1 so I’m not complaining! We then started to queue for the Bobsled, the parks oldest ride. The queue took a very long time and there wasn’t much cover from the sun in the queue line. The ride itself is quite fun, but I didn’t feel the queue time was worth the ride itself. Get on this one early if you can.
To round off our visit, we had a go on the boating lake before a second ride on Megafobia and a trip to the parks shops. I would just like to mention at this point that you can buy old, used ride parts in the Megaphobia shop and they are very well priced. I ended up with a gear mechanism from Megaphobia for £25, an absolute bargain in my eyes!
I should also mention that Oakwood does have a very good area for younger families, we had a look around but ultimately didn’t have quite enough time to ride some of the rides there, but it looked like it’ll be more fun to have at Oakwood! A second visit will certainly be coming!
Once we’d packed the car up, we headed off for an overnight stay in Bristol for a quiet day off, before a visit to Bovington Tank Museum!
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