Rick
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Crux
Great job @nickhutson
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ℹ️ Heads up...
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Oakwood Discussion
- Thread starter Rob
- Start date
The theme park geek
TS Member
He111epard
TS Member
Anything happening for 2018
? Curious
? Curious
I thought the second car was just for showIf you're lucky, Speed and Megafobia might be running... two trains/cars!
least the bobsleigh won’t let us down
Coaster
TS Member
Don't be silly, I've seen Megafobia with an overflowing main queue & fastpass queue and they were still only running one train. Same applies to Speed, though they do occasionally go up to 2 cars - I was told only if the queue reaches 60 minutes by the ride staff.If you're lucky, Speed and Megafobia might be running... two trains/cars!
Oakwood's operations are terrible and let down what is otherwise a nice theme park.
Rojo
TS Member
I saw they tweeted their calendar for 2018 the other day. It only had something like 2 retweets and 6 likes. Their Facebook page had better luck but was still nowhere near 3 figures. My local shop has a better online reach
Even if something was happening, nobody would notice.
Matt N
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
Agreed. It is also the only park where I have seen visible overselling of Fastrack. For example, my friend and I were approaching Speed and I saw a small-ish line of people (about 50-100 people?) lining up outside the Speed station, so I said "Speed has a short queue, why don't we go and queue up?" Turned out that that was the Fastrack queue, so we then went and waited in the main queue, which didn't look too big, but turned out to be 90 minutes long, if not longer. That amount of people would probably have only taken a park like Alton Towers about 20-30 minutes maximum. I know that Speed has a lower throughput than anything at Alton Towers (Oakwood claims 850pph), but they were literally doing: one full train of Fastrackers, one full train of main queuers, repeat. The same procedure was in place on Megafobia, which was also running one train. The main queues for the two rides only moved about every 10 minutes due to this. Granted, I was on a school trip in July 2016, but their procedure was still awful.
Enter Valhalla
TS Member
The 800 throughout that they advertise on Speed is based on 3-4 cars running which is pretty rare.
It usually only runs the third car during schools week in July and even then it’s not guaranteed and often just runs two.
On one car operation it’ll usually get around 200 an hour, but I’m pretty sure that Oakwood don’t keep track of their throughputs (they don’t have clickers, turnstile counters or sensors of any kind) and with no target throughputs I guess they see no urgency in adding second trains or cars. It’s usually the decision of the Engineers unlike at most parks where the Ride Operations team make that call. Obviously engineers are going to be less keen to add vehicle as it means more work for them.
It’s a shame. From what I’ve seen, Oakwood just isn’t geared up to the volume of visitors they get during the busy summer months and if you visit during quiet periods, half of the rides seem to be closed or on rotation. It’s therefore actually quite difficult to “pick” a good day to visit the park.
It usually only runs the third car during schools week in July and even then it’s not guaranteed and often just runs two.
On one car operation it’ll usually get around 200 an hour, but I’m pretty sure that Oakwood don’t keep track of their throughputs (they don’t have clickers, turnstile counters or sensors of any kind) and with no target throughputs I guess they see no urgency in adding second trains or cars. It’s usually the decision of the Engineers unlike at most parks where the Ride Operations team make that call. Obviously engineers are going to be less keen to add vehicle as it means more work for them.
It’s a shame. From what I’ve seen, Oakwood just isn’t geared up to the volume of visitors they get during the busy summer months and if you visit during quiet periods, half of the rides seem to be closed or on rotation. It’s therefore actually quite difficult to “pick” a good day to visit the park.
Matt Creek
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
It’s certainly a shame to see the park being run so poorly of late.
I remember visiting in 2013 when the park had just opened their Neverland area, there seemed to be so much optimism around the park at that time and operations seemed adequate. Megafobia ran a two train Op and Speed a 2-3 one.
Skip ahead and rides seem to be closed or mothballed, the two main seems to be permanently on one train Op and that’s before considering their new paid queuing system. The Dahl area is an investment but how it took two years for a second hand pinifari to be operational remains astounding.
Unfortunately Oakwood has somewhat slipped of late and seems to have received mostly negative reviews now. It may be a case of being unprofitable and neglect from management.
I remember visiting in 2013 when the park had just opened their Neverland area, there seemed to be so much optimism around the park at that time and operations seemed adequate. Megafobia ran a two train Op and Speed a 2-3 one.
Skip ahead and rides seem to be closed or mothballed, the two main seems to be permanently on one train Op and that’s before considering their new paid queuing system. The Dahl area is an investment but how it took two years for a second hand pinifari to be operational remains astounding.
Unfortunately Oakwood has somewhat slipped of late and seems to have received mostly negative reviews now. It may be a case of being unprofitable and neglect from management.
This isn't exactly theme park news, but the Bluestone holiday camp next door is about to start building a £7 million area inside a dome. Bluestone was set up by William McNamera, who is one of the brothers who established Oakwood as a theme park. I've never been to Bluestone, but it's good to see the attraction doing so well. It'd be amazing if one day he was able to buy Oakwood back and make it into an integrated resort. I know it's unlikely, but I can dream.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/bluestone-resort-set-7million-indoor-14229356
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/bluestone-resort-set-7million-indoor-14229356
He111epard
TS Member
Just had a look at Oakwood's 2018 brochure and it's weak to say the least.
Nothing new on the map. And the map looks bare.
Nothing new on the map. And the map looks bare.
The theme park geek
TS Member
I think the park is really struggling and they might not be around in a few years time.
Skyscraper
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Nemesis
If that were to happen, what do you think would happen to the rides? Would they get sold off?
Croftybaby
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Nemesis
I think somebody would buy it no problem. The market for a park is there, you only have to look at Folly Farms success and it's only 5 minutes down the road. It's just really bad operations, marketing and investment thats holding it back.
Would love the park to get sold back to get sold back to the original owners. I think they've done a cracking job on Bluestone. They only sold it really i think because of the knock on effect of the Hydro incident and that's pretty much non existent now.
Would love the park to get sold back to get sold back to the original owners. I think they've done a cracking job on Bluestone. They only sold it really i think because of the knock on effect of the Hydro incident and that's pretty much non existent now.
