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Lightwater Valley

Rob F said:
I have ridden the ultimateā€¦ it was ultimately nuts in so many ways it was designed .. thats what made the ride.

It wasnā€™t a particularly interesting layout or anything special, but just crazy rough and brutal. But amazing at the same time

RIP
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I rode it too, yes the layout looked dull on paper but it was made crazier due to its insane roughness. It literally tried to shake you senseless, it was that brutal. On my last ride in 2019, it was so bad that I genuinely worried I had concussion.
Surely though there's got to be more to it than just "it doesn't fit in anymore".
 
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I can't see that the second half is safe (in engineering terms). The forces going through what is a very bespoke, one off, old build is a disaster waiting to happen from an engineering perspective. Equally maintenance and inspection of all that track is likely expensive.
 
I'd buy a piece of the track. An utterly insane coaster, they did everything wrong you could imagine but it made something very special indeed.

John said:
No surprise there, I don't think anyone really expected them to reopen it.

Another UK top 5 coaster gone. I'm sure I'm not alone in saying I'd take Ultimate, Mouse and Knightmare over Wicker Man, Smiler and Icon any day.
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I never did Knightmare but I'd happily see plenty of UK coasters go to revive the rodent and Yorkshire's finest hell train. I'm just very, very glad I did it after the OTSRs were binned. That sounds like brain damage.
 
Ultimate was an awful ride for the majority of folk, too painful and extreme for the masses - but an iconic attraction it was.

The park is clearly on its dying legs - is there any sign of investment moving forwards in a new rollercoaster? Doubt it.
 
AstroDan said:
The park is clearly on its dying legs - is there any sign of investment moving forwards in a new rollercoaster? Doubt it.
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I think the park is doing better than you might expect; yes, they're not building big new thrill rides, but reports from last year suggest that the park was doing quite well in its new guise targeting under-12s!
 
I think the park is doing pretty well. They've had some busy days, what they are doing seems to be working and they're probably delivering the product at a fraction of the cost of what they were doing 5 years ago.
 
Well I hope so.

I would like to know what the long term investment plan is.

I mean, family parks can be awesome. Just look at Paultons.
 
AstroDan said:
Well I hope so.

I would like to know what the long term investment plan is.

I mean, family parks can be awesome. Just look at Paultons.
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I think the difference is that the Paultonā€™s Park owners actually enjoy creating a themed park that has a unique feel to its areas and permanent rides whereas I feel like the Blackpool Pier Group are just aiming to have a large funfair style amusement park with some off the shelf kids rides in a lovely setting and with some nice play areas.

I canā€™t recall where I read it but Iā€™m sure I saw some talk of them bringing in a Miami ride for this summer. If you look at the rides that theyā€™ve bought in since buying the park they have been off the shelf funfair kids flats (a flying dumbos, a hot air balloon ride, a jumping kangaroos, a Zamperla train ride, and a little junior drop tower) as well as adding dodgems, a scrambler, and an arcade. Of course I understand that they wanted to bring in some quick and inexpensive rides over the past two seasons to a park that was not only struggling but also in transition having lotā€™s of rides either removed or reaching the end of their life but I honestly donā€™t think that thereā€™s much ambition or desire there to look towards Paultonā€™s or Drayton but rather it feels like they just want to have it as seaside amusement park in the Yorkshire countryside. Iā€™d be shocked if we see anything there that isnā€™t essentially an off the shelf but but of course I guess itā€™s obvious thatā€™s what the owners will do. They are the Brighton Pier Group after all, a company that owns a pier amusement park, some bars, and some indoor crazy golf centres, they certainly arenā€™t a Looping Group with a history of theme parks and large attractions, their aims are more likely something much more modest unfortunately.
 
@Shaggy_Dog_ I think most if not all of the rides you mentioned were purchased by Livingstone (Flambards) who owned the park before Brighton.
 
It is a shame to hear of The Ultimate's demise, but it's not a real surprise. It just no longer fits in with the trajectory that the park is going in, and it probably costs a relative fortune to keep going.

Glad I got some final rides on it in 2019!
 
Ultimate was always on my Bucket List. But like Flamingo Land, it's just so geographically far away from me it wasn't really practical to drive 4 and a half hours for one coaster. I wish I'd popped up the road when I was visiting Bradford for work on and off a few years ago. Gutted I've left it so long and now I'll never get to ride it.
 
Probably been discussed before but did Lightwater Valley ever have any chance at being successful? I wouldā€™ve thought The Ultimate opening back then would have really got the ball rolling
 
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