I keep hearing odd rumours that Oakwood is the UK park that has allegedly bought T3 from Kentucky Kingdom, so if there's even a hint of truth to that, they can't be doing that badly... it seems unlikely to me given recent reports and recent investments (or lack of) from Oakwood, but I'm happy to be proven wrong!
I've long blamed Oakwood's remote location for its predicament, but a recent visit to Folly Farm changed my mind somewhat. That attraction is located a stone's throw from Oakwood and draws upon the exact same local area, but it seems to be absolutely thriving by comparison. The zoo has come on leaps and bounds in recent years and is continuing to expand with new enclosures, they've invested in a new, reasonably well-themed tractor ride for young children, they've tarted up numerous parts, and overall, Folly Farm has a vibe of incredible prosperity. It has an almost Paultons Park-type feel of having an ever-improving product and a huge focus on quality and guest experience. Even in the 5 years since my last visit, I felt palpable improvement.
I've been holidaying in Pembrokeshire pretty much annually (sometimes more than once a year) since an extremely young age, and have been to the region countless times with family over the years (we once tried to count, and the count was getting on for 30 trips, at a conservative estimate...). I've been to Folly Farm with my family many times over the years, and it's a place we've always gladly returned to whenever we do (although admittedly my recent visit was my first in 5 years). How many times have I been to Oakwood? I make it three, one of which was on a school trip and not with my family. So out of all the times my family have been to Pembrokeshire, I have only visited Oakwood with my family twice; once in 2010 and once in 2019. And I should add that my 2019 visit was with my mum and nan only and in hindsight, I get the impression that they visited under some duress... my point, though, is that I think my family's lack of appetite to visit Oakwood despite having visited the area countless times perhaps proves that the issue isn't location. We don't exactly live that far from the park, either; we live in Gloucestershire, only 6 miles from the South Wales border, and it's around a 2h 15m, 120 mile drive from us, which is certainly within the realms of feasibility for a day trip. So had we really wanted to visit, we may even have made the day trip on occasions other than our Pembrokeshire holidays!
We tried to visit in 2024, as we had my grandad in tow and he fancied visiting a theme park other than Alton Towers, but the park was closed for the entirety of our time in the area... so we went to Folly Farm instead.
It's such a shame to see Oakwood like this, as I think the park is a hidden gem with real potential. It's a charming park in places, and I think rides like Megafobia and Speed are incredibly impressive headline thrills for a park of Oakwood's calibre. Had the park continued the strong investment from the 1990s and 2000s and had a similar focus on quality, guest experience and constant improvement to Folly Farm, I think we could have been looking at a really, really solid and successful park by this point.
