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Oakwood Discussion

The park isn't failing because of its location...it is in a holiday area with large numbers of visitors, week in, week out, through the season.
The reason the park is failing is quite simple, a lack of investment in new, decent, attractions.
They haven't, so people stop visiting.
Very simple really.
Death spiral is correct, seen half a dozen now, this will be next in line.
 
Reviews of the place have been awful for many years now. Think I last went about 8/9 years ago and it wasn’t great then. I haven’t seen much investment over the past years that’s made me want to visit again so no wonder visitor numbers are down.

I foresee it closing completely in the not too distant future.
 
TimedInversions said:
How is it a "strange investment" do you even know how good Oakwood was doing when McNamara was owning it? Back in the early 00's that would be seen as the next new big ride for a theme park in the UK even more than what It would be seen as nowadays, people travel for new additions like that, it was a good summer offering aswell.
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I used to love Oakwood. I do remember how good it was back in the days when Nutty Jakes Mine was open and the McNamaras owned the place.

Even back then the suggestion of a park, in Wales, opening a huge water flume ride like that was daft. Impressive yes, the most sensible way to spend their limited budgets? Probably not.
 
MaxPower said:
I used to love Oakwood. I do remember how good it was back in the days when Nutty Jakes Mine was open and the McNamaras owned the place.

Even back then the suggestion park, in Wales, opening a huge water flume ride like that was daft. Impressive yes, the most sensible way to spend their limited budgets? Probably not.
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I think getting in a secondhand Pinfari from M&Ds isn't the most sensible choice either.

That and a Disko that's not manufactured by Zamperla. It turns out they went with DINIS Amusement Equipment instead.

If a park is looking at a Disko, surely you'd go with Zamperla for it.
 
When did Drenched last operate? It was closed on both my last two visits. So seems like a couple of years unless I was just unlucky
 
Last season they said it was shut as they were waiting a part for the boats from the manufacturer which was delayed. Wherever they was true or not I guess we’ll never know now.
 
I remember going on drenched when it first opened and before the accident. I remember being surprised at how steep the drop was and how wet we got.

Then the accident and things never really recovered after that. Given the weather in Wales hydro probably wasn’t the best use of money for the park. A simple log flume would have sufficed and the remaining money used on improvements or a coaster. While the road network to get to the park wasn’t the best it’s probably even worse now with the lack of investment in Welsh roads and the daft 20mph roads everywhere (that’s another topic) which puts some people off visiting.

The Wild West area where nutty Jake’s Gold Mine was used to be really well themed but when they closed the ride this area went to the toilet. Trying to re theme it as a spooky area just didn’t work either.

It’s really sad as in the early days Oakwood was a great day out and it has still to this day so much potential. But it needs a lot of money now. I hate to say it but maybe Merlin could make something of it given the potential of the area (accommodation etc) but I don’t see that happening.
 
There were rumours for years of them building another wooden coaster going back 20 years or so. Don't know how true that was, but it would've been a better investment even if it was a more family friendly version of Megafobia.

Jakes Town was a great little area. Even when it changed to New Orleans there was still parades and stuff going on in the summer although it was never as good.
 
GaryH said:
While the road network to get to the park wasn’t the best it’s probably even worse now with the lack of investment in Welsh roads and the daft 20mph roads everywhere (that’s another topic) which puts some people off visiting.
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I honestly think what could give them a boost is if a bus service got set up to go to or via Oakwood. It doesn't have to be frequent but it should at least have a journey to and from Oakwood.

GaryH said:
A simple log flume would have sufficed and the remaining money used on improvements or a coaster.
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I definitely think a that instead of Drenched/Hydro, a simpler water ride would've been better for Oakwood.

Even a Intamin Spillwater or a Mack Water Coaster would've been perfect.

One of those Intamin Mega Splashes were maintenance nightmares in hindsight.

MaxPower said:
There were rumours for years of them building another wooden coaster going back 20 years or so. Don't know how true that was, but it would've been a better investment even if it was a more family friendly version of Megafobia.

Jakes Town was a great little area. Even when it changed to New Orleans there was still parades and stuff going on in the summer although it was never as good.
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That would've been fantastic if they did that. Whether that was 100ft plus or even a smaller wooden coaster.

If Oakwood were still doing the investments they did 20 years ago, I'd have imagined an RMC Hybrid showing up there.

A launch coaster would've been a certainty too. Edit: Did the alleged rumour that Rita was originally for Oakwood as Speed turn out to be true?
 
Hydro was always very popular during the summer holidays; I used to visit annually, and in the pre-Aspro days it usually had crowd waiting for it to open, and then a queue to the gate (admittedly that was partly due to the poor throughput as well).
 
The lack of investment is what is killing off this park. Given the remote location (relative to other UK parks), it needs steady investment every year to draw people in from outside of Wales. The park has the benefit of being near a local holiday spot, but that limits visitation to the summer months (but again, lack of investment may not get people buying tickets). I stayed in Tenby about two years ago and didn't bother with Oakwood simply because I've been on the rides there, and there's not much to see. There are better attractions in the area, such as Folly Farm.

I can see the coasters being removed in the long run and the park becoming a small local park aimed at a smaller audience.
 
I think the cheap flights to Spain hasn't helped, people don't holiday to Tenby and south Wales as much as 30 years ago, because you can get overseas easier. Oakwood used to be an OK park in the 90s, I remember loving the assault courses they had, the toboggan run, the dingy ride etc. The park worked as a smaller family style park with fun attractions. Drench and Speed wasn't the right thing, if they had gone more of the route Emerald park is doing with smaller high quality stuff it might have worked for them.
 
as much as I hate the idea I think they could do with a couple Chinese rides such as those from golden horse (most chinese ride manufactures got where they are today by copying rides built in China 1:1, they have B&M track, intimins high stress track, B&M flying coasters, golden horse got kicked out of IAPPA due to intellectual property theft literally stealing one of zamperlas motorcycle ride design 1:1 down to the track and support layout)
For what you get they are really cheap in comparison to B&M, Intamin etc, and the more trusted brands are reliable and safe and a lower cost investment they could be justified and manage to turn around the ship.

also Chinese ride manufactures love SLC's if I recall correctly they have made more than vekoma made to the point you had a copy of a copy of an SLC and it was as bad as you could imagine, this was one of the transitions into an Immelmann:
1738974946750.png
 
flyingguitar said:
as much as I hate the idea I think they could do with a couple Chinese rides such as those from golden horse (most chinese ride manufactures got where they are today by copying rides built in China 1:1, they have B&M track, intimins high stress track, B&M flying coasters, golden horse got kicked out of IAPPA due to intellectual property theft literally stealing one of zamperlas motorcycle ride design 1:1 down to the track and support layout)
For what you get they are really cheap in comparison to B&M, Intamin etc,
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There is "Really cheap" and "What the company is willing to invest".
Big difference.
There will be no new big coasters, as, if they were coming, they would have happened at any point over the last decade.
Another local park dies due to lack of investment over time...add it to the list.
 
rob666 said:
There is "Really cheap" and "What the company is willing to invest".
Big difference.
There will be no new big coasters, as, if they were coming, they would have happened at any point over the last decade.
Another local park dies due to lack of investment over time...add it to the list.
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true, but also it is only in recent years that the Chinese ride market has became relevant, you look 5 years ago and they were much worse than they currently are. 5 years ago the smallest invest meant you had to make may have been £2m, but now it is less then half that (for a flat ride)
 
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