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Oakwood Discussion

Interesting that they updated the map with that little quirk. My hope is that there’s an actual theme coming but that’s very optimistic. At least they could replace the photo booth shipping container with an actual building. It’s ridding horribly at the moment.

On a positive note Megafobia is ridding beautifully. Honestly they’ve done such a fab job - the airtime on it is insane.
 
It’s nice to hear some positivity about Oakwood following what sounds like an awful start to the season with only a handful of rides open. This new policy of having “events” in shoulder season and therefore closing a load of rides is really not a good move in my opinion. I’m visiting in October for Halloween and have no idea what’ll even be open rides wise.
 
I think the black and orange will look smart.

I usually lean towards vibrant colours on rollercoasters, but when they’re standing on quite barren ground away from other attractions, I feel like a vibrant colour scheme can somehow bring attention to the fact that it just looks “plonked” down. In my head, the darker colour scheme makes it’s a bit less obvious that it’s a bit bleak by itself.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
It’s nice to hear some positivity about Oakwood following what sounds like an awful start to the season with only a handful of rides open. This new policy of having “events” in shoulder season and therefore closing a load of rides is really not a good move in my opinion. I’m visiting in October for Halloween and have no idea what’ll even be open rides wise.
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They’ve always had a good Halloween season to be fair with usually a full ride line-up. I went in 2021 and all rides were available until 4 or 5 and then half the park shut at that time but then the mazes opened so it balances out. A very good Halloween event if I recall.
 
Oakwood have updated the website to confirm that Drenched will not be opening this season (although the map still says Summer 2023 🤦🏻‍♂️). A cynic might suggests it could be something to do with lower visitor numbers. They’re offering a sale at the moment - £80 for 4 tickets. Something was needed give that Merlin backs are fairly cheap at the moment. I can book a ticket for Alton Towers tomorrow for £39 while Oakwood would want £44. Alton Towers were also selling tickets for £35 until Monday. IMG_0126.png
 
I don't remember the last time I saw Drenched open, it has been closed on every one of my visits over the last few years, is it standard they only open in in August now even if it is working, or has it just had so much downtime in recent years?
 
pjanvil said:
I don't remember the last time I saw Drenched open, it has been closed on every one of my visits over the last few years, is it standard they only open in in August now even if it is working, or has it just had so much downtime in recent years?
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I did ride it during their Halloween event in 2021 so I believe it in theory should be open all year. That day the operator told me he’d only sent two boats out as they could rarely muster enough guests for the minimum number. It’s a fantastic ride but it was always an odd choice. The only reason I don’t want them to get rid of it is that it would not be replaced with anything of any note. It’s a very good plot of land so could be replaced with a major coaster but it’s just not going to happen so I’d rather keep it.
 
I rode Drenched last year. Got there for its opening at 2pm. It took 20 minutes to get the right number of people and correct weight distribution in the boat, then after one cycle, the restraint sensors had a hissy fit and the ride closed for the rest of the day.

It's an insane ride and I love how intense the drop is, but the restraint system is not fit for purpose. Hopefully this fixes that.
 
According to the latest Theme Park Worldwide vlog from Oakwood, Shawn states that he was told that Megafobia could be returning to 2-train operation next year:

(Go to 51:25)

That’s exciting news! I don’t think I’ve ever seen Megafobia run both trains before… I can’t really remember from my first visit in 2010, but I remember that the ride was only running one train in both 2016 and 2019.
 
Megafobia used to frequently run two trains right up until about 2015, after which point I guess they figured that the demand wasn’t there.

It used to be fairly standard to see Mega on a two train service during May half term, schools week and during After Dark in the summer. Outside of those times, the queue rarely topped 30 minutes and the park saw this as there not being demand for two trains (an argument which a lot of parks around the world make to justify one train operation, and an argument which always irritates me)
 
Megafobia is brilliant! Running so well yesterday, plenty of airtime, riding it in the pitch black was so good!

Best wooden coaster in the UK!

Enjoyed the park though with a 12 hour park day did go back to the car for a lie down for around 90 minutes.

Enjoyed Speed, Bounce, the bobsleigh, and tree tops. Creepy Crawler was horrible though.

Lovely fireworks display at park close as well.
 
had my second visit of the Summer season on Saturday. I wanted to watch the fireworks and have a night ride on Megafobia. Seeing as I visited on a quiet day at the start of the Summer holiday and managed a hefty ride count, I wasn’t too concerned about getting that many rides done so I didn’t arrive until 5:15 pm. The car park was full and I was pleased to see this given how quiet the park was on my last visit. I managed to ride Creepy Crawler, Tink’s Flying School, Bobsleigh, Megafobia, Speed, Treetops, Bounce x2, Dizzy Disk and the Pirate Ship. I also had a sit down meal at the Oak Tree restaurants. After two visits here are some positives and negatives:



Positives



  1. The Megafobia retrack is stunning - restored the ride to its former glory and feels like a proper headline roller coaster again.
  2. The After Dark event - it’s insane that this small park in Wales is able to offer 10pm close with a 10 minute firework display twice a week. I know some parks don’t stay that busy when they open late but Oakwood goes to show that if you give people a reason to stay then they will. This is evident at Walt Disney Studios park at the moment - with no nighttime show people just aren’t staying until park close. Although I didn’t partake the UV paint idea is a stroke of genius on their part - the sales of paint must go some way to offset the cost of the fireworks.
  3. Staffing levels were generally much better this time with rides feeling appropriately staffed. Staff were also very polite and friendly.
  4. The lighting for the After Dark event is genuinely beautiful - best lit park in the UK (love this photo of Megafobia).
  5. The Oak Tree restaurant was a nice place to have a sitdown meal and offers a much better experience than any other eating establishment in the park with food at reasonable prices.


Negatives



  1. Rides that were running at full capacity had short waits. Megafobia and Speed were running one train and this resulted in queues of 40 minutes plus for both rides for most of the day. Guests in the Speed queue in particular were voicing their frustration at 8 guests per car. Compounded with fastpass and access passes and it made for a frustrating wait - especially given there weren’t that many people actually in the queueline. I looked up their access card system and it involves no actual waiting. Guests with the access card can ride every attraction twice without having to wait and no time space given between each ride. This doesn’t feel like a sensible system given one train operation on Speed.
  2. Speed started with two operators but quickly went down to one. This poor member of staff then had to climb over the train and guests to check all restrains. This is such a bad look.
  3. Oak Tree restaurant is not fulfilling its potential. The menu is limited to the same food offered at the fast food outlets (albeit in a better setting) with the addition of chicken goujons. I wish they were a bit more ambitious with their offering. Also they were serving fizzy drinks in paper cups, which is not a good look for a restaurant.
  4. The park really needs to shake things up with their ride lineup. I live in Cardiff and many of my friends grew up in south / southwest Wales and none of them will accompany me to Oakwood because the lineup is no different to when they last visited nearly twenty years ago.
  5. The above hopefully will be rectified with new investments for next year - but the area behind the hoardings hasn’t been touched. The cynic in me thinks they boarded it up much earlier than required to avoid having to maintain that patch of land (you can easily tell it’s overgrown).
  6. It’s not been a great year for ride availability with Drenched and Spooky 3D being down for a whole season and the late opening of other rides. While I’m looking forward to seeing what they do with Spooky 3D I can’t imagine it’s needed a year and a half to do what they will do.
  7. The maintenance and upkeep of the park has drastically improved but there’s a way to go - especially at the price point Oakwood had put itself. You need to have booked 3 days in advanced to pay less than £44 - and I imagine people do pay that if holidaymakers decide to make and impromptu visit.


I know I seem negative but I genuinely love Oakwood and it has SO MUCH potential. It has a massive holiday resort on its doorstep and a catchment area of people that have to drive to Drayton or Thorpe for another theme park. It has four solid thrill rides that parks of a similar size would kill to have in its lineup. I’m quietly optimistic d that 2024 will be a good year for Oakwood. Not that I’m writing this season off - I plan on returning for their Halloween event, which is usually good.
 

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We made a visit to the park the weekend before last for After Dark. I'm probably a bit biased as I've been going to the park since the early 90's and always have a soft spot for it, but it was the first time since the pandemic and was a bit worried about what condition it would be in with all the comments you see online.

As everyone has said, Megafobia is so so good following its retrack, definitely back to its original best, but maybe even a bit better than that as the new double-up and double-down are great little additions of airtime. Its a joy to have it being smooth again, as it is so re-rideable. I was worried about it being on a single train operation but we didn't wait more than 20mins, so it wasn't an issue in the end. Got on over 10 rides on it and we could of easily got on a lot more if that was our focus.

In terms of the wider park, I don't agree with comments I've seen around the internet saying that its looking the worst it ever has. To be honest it was actually pretty good compared to previous years. It's certainly not where it was when it was run by the McNamaras but I'd say proportionately it had no more tatty areas than Alton Towers did when I visited there early this year. Most of all there finally seems to be some investment in the place; megafobia obviously, new control and drive on pirate ship, bounce being back, speed being repainted, spooky 3d being redone, drenched boat being refurbished, much better staging than before on the main field, incredible new lighting for after dark and lots of landscaping works to clear overgrown areas. After Dark was great as well and set a fantastic atmosphere, with the only negative being Megafobia closing a bit early (I got the feeling with it on one train they were making sure the queue cleared before fireworks began). Staff were very friendly and had a chance to chat to quite a few, including the park director who was keen to know what everyone thought of the retrack. As has been said Megafobia's other train is being refurbished and should be back next year, which is welcome.

The park seemed to have a bit more buzz about it and you could over-hear people being incredibly positive about Megafobia. I really hope for the park's sake it drives in a bit more trade and the investment can continue. It certainly isn't the 'UK's worst park' as it is seemingly always gets called and it really needs positive word of mouth to get it thriving again like it was in the early 00s.

The cherry on the cake was the best bit of merch - managing to buy 1.5m of the original first drop track from Megafobia. Though its size and weight mean my plans for it have had to change, as it will have to become a garden feature now!

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Anyone got insight into what's going into the area earmarked for new investment. It's pretty large, could get a compact family/thrill coaster or a few decent flats in there.

Looking forward to seeing what they do with the spooky 3d building too. Its been out all year so you'd hope it was something reasonable.

With Megafobia starting the retrack in Jan and only opening not that long ago, drenched trains not yet on site etc. It sounds as though the capital only got unlocked for the new investment a bit late to fulfil all their intentions at once for this season.
 
dantheman38 said:
Anyone got insight into what's going into the area earmarked for new investment. It's pretty large, could get a compact family/thrill coaster or a few decent flats in there.

Looking forward to seeing what they do with the spooky 3d building too. Its been out all year so you'd hope it was something reasonable.

With Megafobia starting the retrack in Jan and only opening not that long ago, drenched trains not yet on site etc. It sounds as though the capital only got unlocked for the new investment a bit late to fulfil all their intentions at once for this season.
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I’ve heard nothing of the new investments - they’re staying very quiet on that front. It’s a decently sized plot of land so could host a compact coaster. The park definitely lacks a headline family coaster. If previous investments are anything to go by it’s likely to be a second hand ride(s) rethemed. Having said this the park owners are heavily investing out of nowhere so it might be something more exciting. I’m curious to know the reasoning behind this dramatic increase in spending - the park has been chronically underinvested over the years.
 
Visited for the first time in around 18 years last week. A few observations, some of which mirror others’ points: -

- Megafobia is absolutely outstanding, as good as I remember, if not better. There is ludicrous airtime on the back row and a ride that retains the fun jolts of a woodie whilst not being uncomfortable. Easily the best woodie in the UK, possibly the best coaster.

- The park itself is looking pretty shabby. There are spots of nice planting, but also uncut grass, weeds, flaking paint and abandoned areas all over.

- Expanding on that, the current closures of Drenched, Spooky 3D, the ugly OSB wall around the old crazy golf, the Neverland walkthrough etc all add to a feeling of a park in some trouble, whilst also leaving not much to do. We were told the walkthrough’s computer was kaput and it wouldn’t open again this year.

- Staff were nearly all superb. We encountered two who were terrible, which was a shame.

- The entry price is too high for the current ride offering.

- That high price seems to reflect in visitor numbers. There can’t have been more than 200 people there when we visited on a weekend. Contrast that to Folly Farm just down the road (which was immaculately kept and offers tons to see) and the offerings are reflected in the attendance.
 
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