• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Oakwood Discussion

Unfortunately due to poor operations Oakwood is not worth visiting at the moment.
I am (sort of) looking forward to this investment, but if it is a coaster then it will likely be on one car/train all the time like the others are!
 
Lordy said:
So... any more news on this "new for 2014 now 2015 major ride"?
Click to expand...
I haven't heard anything since their last post on the Developer's Diary Facebook page. I wonder if it's happening still to be honest, it wouldn't surprise me if it was delayed again or even cancelled giving the park's current state.
 
Jamie said:
I haven't heard anything since their last post on the Developer's Diary Facebook page. I wonder if it's happening still to be honest, it wouldn't surprise me if it was delayed again or even cancelled giving the park's current state.
Click to expand...

So what is the park's "current state" Jamie? 2013 was one of their best seasons ever with the biggest investment in over a decade and the attendance considerably higher than the previous years. Yes ok this year the investment has been postponed and there has been alot of negative feedback but if you compare Oakwood now to how it was in 2010, things are nowhere near as bad, except for perhaps in the area of operations. Oakwood do have a long long way to go but I don't think it's fair to dismiss the park as an entirely negative attraction.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
So what is the park's "current state" Jamie? 2013 was one of their best seasons ever with the biggest investment in over a decade and the attendance considerably higher than the previous years. Yes ok this year the investment has been postponed and there has been alot of negative feedback but if you compare Oakwood now to how it was in 2010, things are nowhere near as bad, except for perhaps in the area of operations. Oakwood do have a long long way to go but I don't think it's fair to dismiss the park as an entirely negative attraction.
Click to expand...
In 2014 the park went downhill massively in almost every way.
Rides look uncared for (weeds growing out of them, rust, mould etc...), operations are absolutely dire - Megafobia and Speed on one train/car in the peak of summer with 2 hour queues, bear in mind that one car on Speed only seats 8 people!
Their maintenance is beyond dire (Bounce still only uses one of two compressors as the other one has been broken for almost 2 years, yet they haven't got it fixed), Hydro's lift chain snapped in August (I was there on the day), and the ride was still in exactly the same position (stuck on the lifthill) when the park closed for the winter, Pirate Ship was closed without any sign of life on my visit in the peak of summer and looked knackered, Clown Coaster was not operating a lot, the Train was closed most of the time, cleanliness standards in the park's eateries were awful, toilets were disgusting, and judging by their reviews on Tripadvisor and Facebook they have gone downhill further since August.
The park seems to be running off Fastpass sales, as on my visit the amount they sold was beyond disgraceful, as was how the system is managed and I have heard and seen numerous similar complaints to suggest that this is standard practice for the park.

I know they did invest in Neverland, but the investment has had a horrible backlash on the rest of the park, for reasons unknown to anyone known to Oakwood. They aren't past all hope - if they sorted out their operations and maintenance, as well as having a better attitude towards paying guests and removing Fastpass (or at least limiting the sales to an acceptalbe amount) then they would at least be on the right track. Before Aspro took over, Oakwood really cared about guest experience and all rides were run at maximum, no Fastpass, as it wasn't needed due to the fact that queues were shifted as quickly as possible.
 
It worries me that more and more park are being run in a way to increase fast pass sales.

This is very evident at the likes of Flamingo Land and Port Aventura.
 
I agree with most of that. Except the bit about capacity. Oakwood have never been great for adding two trains to Megafobia or two cars to Speed. The engineering team at Oakwood just flat out refuse to do it unless the queues get extremely long and management don't have the guts to stand up to them. Sadly it has always been this way. The current engineers are mostly the same team from before Aspro took over so little has changed in that respect.

The over sellign of fastrack is beyond a joke particularly as Oakwood seem to have no grasp of how capacity and throughputs work. It sounds like 2014 (admittedly I haven't visited this year) has seen the park go really downhill from 2013 when things were looking mostly positive. Neverland did brin in so many more visitors and this could have been a perfect opportunity for Oakwood to turn a new corner an really deliver an excellent service to their guests and get closer to becoming a big league park. Sadly it sounds like they weren't at all geared up for the volume of people they got and they blew it. They only really have themselves and their parent company to blame.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
I agree with most of that. Except the bit about capacity. Oakwood have never been great for adding two trains to Megafobia or two cars to Speed. The engineering team at Oakwood just flat out refuse to do it unless the queues get extremely long and management don't have the guts to stand up to them. Sadly it has always been this way. The current engineers are mostly the same team from before Aspro took over so little has changed in that respect.
Click to expand...
I'm sorry, but the management are the ones in control of the park and if the engineers aren't prepared to work then they need to be replaced.
 
They also had an improvement notice imposed by the Health and Safety Executive last year:

It said: "You have failed to adequately assess the risks of carrying out routine maintenance activity at height on the Treetop Rollercoaster Ride to ensure the risks are controlled and there is no risk of person(s) falling."
 
Tom said:
They also had an improvement notice imposed by the Health and Safety Executive last year:

It said: "You have failed to adequately assess the risks of carrying out routine maintenance activity at height on the Treetop Rollercoaster Ride to ensure the risks are controlled and there is no risk of person(s) falling."
Click to expand...
Well that's just great, that just proves down to a tee that they have no interest in maintaining their rides. I think the engineering team at the park need to be replaced, as they seem to be causing a lot of problems with the park.
Can I have the link to that please? (If it's online).
 
I was recently at Oakwood and got the chance to meet some of the maintenance team. Replacing the whole lot of them would be a disaster, as they have a huge wealth of accumulated knowledge of the rides that a new team would not have.

Clearly the park has a few underlying issues, as the long-term closure of Drenched demonstrates, but to blame everything on maintenance is unfair.
 
Oakwood really need new ownership. There's obviously a lot of things going on and no one is sorting the place out.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
I agree with most of that. Except the bit about capacity. Oakwood have never been great for adding two trains to Megafobia or two cars to Speed. The engineering team at Oakwood just flat out refuse to do it unless the queues get extremely long and management don't have the guts to stand up to them. Sadly it has always been this way. The current engineers are mostly the same team from before Aspro took over so little has changed in that respect.
Click to expand...
Maybe in the later years, but back in 2006/7 park operations were much, much better with Speed operating a minimum of three trains, and Megafobia running two (at one point it even ran three, however this required people to be seated very quickly which isn't always possible).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top