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Lightwater Valley

IDB said:
Itā€™s a park model afterburner, which probably means it wonā€™t end up on the pier.

I do know of a park with a redundant Pirate Ship it could have replaced thoughā€¦
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Thinking about it, Brighton Pier does have a Zamperla Air Race which I'm sure is a park model. I'd say a Park Model Afterburner could realistically show up on the pier.

I'm pretty sure the Wizard wouldn't pick up a 20 year old Afterburner from park they don't run. I'm sure the pirate ship site there will be empty for a while knowing them šŸ¤”šŸ˜±
 
So many of LWVs problems are down to three things; the cost and overspend of the ultimate hurt the park for years, the accidents, and the fact that they had to rely on generators for everything because they didn't have the power infrastructure.

I always hoped it would be hoovered up by a bigger player, being a northern park it could have slotted into the likes of Merlin's portfolio, but it was never to be.

Perhaps when Mellors turned it down in favour of Fantasy island, that was the final chance to do something special. The sad thing is, in so many ways it's perfectly located to hoover up northern visitors, being as it is just off the A1.

I haven't been for probably 12-14 years, and given that it is both my local park and has more emotional ties than any other park, the fact that I can't bring myself to visit it says everything about the slow death spiral it finds itself going through. And it's a genuine shame.

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So far this year Iā€™ve taken my 6 year old to Alton Towers once and Lightwater Valley twice. She is at that height where for Alton thereā€™s not a vast amount for her as sheā€™s just under the 120cm marker and she is Lightwaters target audience. Iā€™ll start with last Saturdays visit as both visits were different experiences.

This came about due to Ā£17.50 entry tickets and it is quite close to me. Firstly the park itself is very clean despite being dated in places and compared to other parks the cleanliness really stands out. The staff that were there were brilliant, but this brings me into the first major issue with the park, the rides had 1 operator per two rides. How this works is the rides are paired up and the operators alternate running them each hour, so at any given point around half the rides are running due to staffing. The park itself was busy, their strategy seems to be really working for them and to be fair my 6 year old had a great time although queue times were inflated due to ride availability as mentioned above.

Staffing point number 2. Originally last Saturdays visit was meant to be earlier during the week as in the North East school easter holidays were a week later than other parts of the UK. The park was closed during the weekdays that week as they have a large number of student staff who couldnā€™t work as well, they were back at college/uni.

Now onto the second visit today. Entry was Ā£20 and all the rides were open all day which made a huge difference. The park was busier than last week yet most rides were minimal wait time due to the fact everything was open. Again the place was spotless but everyone I spoke to seemed to be having a good time and they had a fun little kids foam party at the end which the little one loved.

The ride offering is not that great though, and the themed areas really do need to be refurbished, obviously the kids that are their target audience wonā€™t notice this so for now they will get away with it. It wouldnā€™t actually take a lot to get this park rocking again as the foundations are there still and the setting is really beautiful.

It was heartbreaking to see the ultimate station standing there being used as a ā€œhall of mirrorsā€ and The Rat (Raptors Revenge i think it renamed to) now being a picnic area. I donā€™t think I could ever forgive them for this.

In summary it is very clear the park is now very profitable and itā€™s pretty clear efforts are starting to be made to bring some parts back up to standard and be looked after again. A few year ago I gave it possibly a few year before it closed. I think Brighton Pier Group bought it to asset strip and sell on but itā€™s managed a stay of execution due to its return to profitability and its performance surprising them a little bit.

I hate to say it but maybe stripping it back to bare bones and starting again was the only option to make it viable in the long term given the level of investment the place needed in its thrill rides department, and if it continues on its current trajectory we may see it start to slowly come back. That said when the little one hits 8 or 9 itā€™s likely I wonā€™t ever go back, as there just isnā€™t anything there beyond that point.
 
T'ultimate mighty station now a hall of mirrors.
I was there in the first summer, juggled a care home summer holiday in the Dales just so we could ride the nasty beast as a group.
The gaffer doing magic tricks for the queueline for hours.
Fantastic times.
Now a hall of mirrors.
Can't go back and see it, nobody likes to see an old man cry.
 
rob666 said:
T'ultimate mighty station now a hall of mirrors.
I was there in the first summer, juggled a care home summer holiday in the Dales just so we could ride the nasty beast as a group.
The gaffer doing magic tricks for the queueline for hours.
Fantastic times.
Now a hall of mirrors.
Can't go back and see it, nobody likes to see an old man cry.
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Honestly it was terrible, itā€™s quite a big station as well so it really stands out. I also noticed whilst at the top of the falls slides that devils cascade is still there all over grown and left to rot.

I cannot emphasise how naturally beautiful the place is though and if someone with actual money to invest came in the actual potential of the place is huge.

It has little to no competition around it and is fairly close to the A1M so easy to get to which is probably the only reason it has survived this long.

The food was actually quite decent as well and not too overpriced (with the exception of drinks.) Alton should really take note on this point!

I reckon their next step should be to replace a few of their similar rides (they have a few that are the same but themed different) with medium sized ones that teens and adults can use. For example put a log flume in next to the old angry birds park as thereā€™s a tremendous site there for one. And maybe a well themed custom family coaster in the rats old site (Th13teen but with a lighter storyline) A few medium flats and they could increase the age offering and slowly claw back from there. They advertise up to age 12 but in reality the age cap is around 8 or 9 years old. They really need something for adults to do though as a lot of time is spent watching the kids on the rides.

Iā€™ll keep going back occasionally and report up until the little one gets bored with the place.
 
The Lynch Effect said:
I reckon their next step should be to replace a few of their similar rides (they have a few that are the same but themed different) with medium sized ones that teens and adults can use. For example put a log flume in next to the old angry birds park as thereā€™s a tremendous site there for one. And maybe a well themed custom family coaster in the rats old site (Th13teen but with a lighter storyline) A few medium flats and they could increase the age offering and slowly claw back from there. They advertise up to age 12 but in reality the age cap is around 8 or 9 years old. They really need something for adults to do though as a lot of time is spent watching the kids on the rides.
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That's what I'm thinking really, I'm surprised the park hasn't picked up one of those Reverchon flumes as that would be perfect for a family park.
 
Compared to their range of flats, flumes use a lot of power.
Lightwater is now a kiddie park for the area, simple.
What it now has, works.
What it had, didn't work.
 
rob666 said:
Compared to their range of flats, flumes use a lot of power.
Lightwater is now a kiddie park for the area, simple.
What it now has, works.
What it had, didn't work.
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How long can it keep working for them though? At the moment people like myself go because of what we remember it as, as our generation ages and the next generation has kids they will start seeing it as what it actually is and footfall will slowly fall off.

For the first time in years it is now finally profitable, so surely some of that can go into investment to keep families going there a few more years than they currently can. The problem I can see is for a family park there isnā€™t actually much you can do as a family, parents spend the day just watching their kids on the rides.

Gullivers is a great example of how to do this as we went there last year, they have slightly bigger rides that parents can enjoy with the kids.

In all honesty lightwater isnā€™t a million miles off from the gullivers experience, although gullivers does it much better in terms of ride offering. With the scenic setting that Lightwater has it could be so much more with minimal investment.

As a side note, the ultimate site would be an amazing place for an RMC, but I think we are well past the point of that ever happening.
 
It is now a small kiddie park for locals, simple as that.
I enjoyed supporting it right back from the lake/strawberry farm and pig farm... (real and actual).
Trying to run it as the next step up...like Gullivers, failed, it never actually made any real investment following t'Ultimate, lots of space, lots of bits, nothing big.
There is a big crowd of very young families within an hour, in a stunning area, they can make a modest living from that.
We had some amazing times there, right up to the big rides closing.
The next time I go will probably be when my mates kids have kids, if I last that long!
 
The difference being Lightwater has specifically changed its market though, and it seems to have pulled it off.
They knew they could not compete with the likes of Alton and Mingo, so simply dropped out of that market over three seasons pretty much.
They made it very plain on their website that the thrill rides were going.
Maybe what Camelot could have done, they did corner the local primary school trip market.
It seems most kids in the north west did Camelot at least once.
 
Camelot reached a point where they needed a big cash injection, new rides a a clear vision for the park none of which it got, the sale by Granada really was the starting point of the decline. There are similarities with Lightwater Valley, I do wonder how far they can go with the younger audience, it's certainly not somewhere you would go out of your way to get to. I'm still not convinced the park has a long term future
 
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Quantum said:
Camelot reached a point where they needed a big cash injection, new rides a a clear vision for the park none of which it got, the sale by Granada really was the starting point of the decline. There are similarities with Lightwater Valley, I do wonder how far they can go with the younger audience, it's certainly not somewhere you would go out of your way to get to. I'm still not convinced the park has a long term future
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Leeds and York as places in catchment for the park, it can be developed into somewhere to go to. I wouldn't be surprised if Gullivers or the owners of Twinlakes bought the place
 
Poisson said:
Paultons, Gullivers, Twinlakes/Wheelgate all operate as children's parks, it's not unprecedented
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I think there is a difference between Twinlakes, Gullivers and Lightwater Valley and Paultons

The first three are parks very much aimed at young children nowadays and whilst Gulliver's is including some more thrills, it doesn't allow anyone without children to enter.

Paultons I'd say is more like Drayton Manor or Chessington with their target market and the rides they operate which focuses more on the all ages market.
 
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