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Oakwood Discussion

I agree with you - unless something radical happens, I can't see Oakwood lasting much longer either. I last went there must have been 6 years ago, and it was dire then. I have had no desire to return since. As for its location, yes maybe so, but, as with any park, if its good, people will travel - just look at Alton.

I hate to also say this, but its the only park where I havent felt totally safe on a ride. Last time I went Bounce was having issues with the brakes jamming on at the very top of the ride with us on it. In addition this I saw small kids under the minimum height being allowed on Speed, to which the ride op told me it was easier to do that than say no and have the parents complain at you. Talking of ride ops, the rides were woefully understaffed in all areas. Add to this the accident on Hydro years ago and the lack of investment in the place, it does still make me wonder if there will be another accident in the future.

So, I tend to stay clear of the place now. Shame because it had (and still has) so much potential.
 
I don't know any specifics about this project or have any inside information, but I suspect it's partly about their budget. They say in business you can do things cheaply, you can do things well or you can do things quickly. It's reasonably easy to meet one of these criteria. Trickier to meet two of them and extremely difficult to do a project that's cheap, quick and well executed.

I should imagine that Oakwood are working on a tight budget which probably means they're using smaller companies with a small team of staff, and perhaps doing some work in house (that's pure speculation. They might be using large companies to do the work. I don't know). For a park like Oakwood it's arguablly better to open the new land a bit later if it means they can get the work done more cheaply. Even ordering something off Amazon or posting something through the Royal Mail you pay extra if you want it sooner. When you're building a new area in a theme park there are all kinds of opportunities to spend more money to get the work done faster, but it's probably difficult for a park like Oakwood to justify it.

Of course it may be that there has been some more specific hold up behind the scenes. I doubt we'll ever know.
 
They've been having a bad season thus far in terms of ride availability. If they are doing some of the work in house it sounds as if a lot of resource is trying to keep their existing rides moving.
 
It's a shame that they missed the start of the summer holiday, but I like the look of what they've done with this. I think the marketing's quite distinctive with the artwork reminiscent of Quentin Blake and although I haven't seen pictures of the finished article the theming's good. When they opened Neverland in 2013 I think both the park and ethusiasts hoped that the next expansion would come a little sooner, and we had the false start with the Sleepy Hollow area that got cancelled. But I'm glad they persevered and I hope it pays off for them. It may well be that they will never get back to the golden years before the Hydro accident, but for where the park is now it's a decent development. A lot of enthusiasts have commented on the fact that the main ride is a second hand Pinfari, which is true, but I can see that some people have put some real effort into this, so I'd rather give them the encouragement to push forwards with the next development.
 
I love the fact that a travelling pinfari opens late. But in all fairness I wish oackwood well on this.
If they theme areas well on a budget and make the park look good then fair play.
 
The biggest problem with Oakwood was their investment stratgy a few years ago Drenched and Speed although great rides weren't the best investments for the park. Smaller parks in the U.K. Should target themselves to families like Paultons. This is where the money is. Also smaller parks can't real,y compete on thrills when Merlin and other big parks can afford to pay more for much bigger and more thrilling attractions.
There are romors that Aspro are trying to get ride of Oakwood not sure how true this is.
Oakwood as a bussiness also suffers from the fact that they are to reliant on school trips and a lot of schools are stooping them. Before school trips would make quite a large percentage of their overall attendance.
Oakwood is also massively out of the way for most people. I think they should add a camp site to the park and operate a bus to the beach and other attractions so they could make short breaks or holidays out of it.
 
Oakwood desperately needs a new owner who will inject some money into the park. The TripAdvisor reviews for the past 12 months are horrendous. Its obviously being run on a shoe string, and dare I say it, but I wouldnt trust my own personal safety on their rides anymore.
 
They do need new owners to invest in the park heavily. It's got a lot of potential and it's situated near a busy tourist area, so it has the potential to draw more guests in than it has currently.

I like their little efforts although you can tell it's more the efforts of individuals at the park, rather than a real backing from the company that owns the place.

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True - but at the same time, if they have some super dooper ride which no where else in the UK has then it will also attract the thrill seekers - look at the amount of people who still travel there just because of Megafobia
 
GaryH said:
True - but at the same time, if they have some super dooper ride which no where else in the UK has then it will also attract the thrill seekers - look at the amount of people who still travel there just because of Megafobia
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Yeah, the problem with that strategy is that it will wipe their finances out for a long time. It's better to have frequent additions to give people a reason to return.
 
From my last visit they can build whatever they want! Until they sort out operations the park will still be shambles.
 
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