• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Paultons Park: General Discussion

I remember visiting Paultons in April 2021 and it was pretty packed. The queue for Pterosaur for example was 45 mins and spilling out of the entrance, the queue for the Peppa boat ride was also spilling out of the entrance and stretched all the way back to the toilets. Cobra had a 50 minute queue as well.

I can only assume that, since 2021, Paultons have lowered their daily visitor cap? Whenever I look on the app, the queue times these days are pretty much non-existent on most days.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
I remember visiting Paultons in April 2021 and it was pretty packed. The queue for Pterosaur for example was 45 mins and spilling out of the entrance, the queue for the Peppa boat ride was also spilling out of the entrance and stretched all the way back to the toilets. Cobra had a 50 minute queue as well.

I can only assume that, since 2021, Paultons have lowered their daily visitor cap? Whenever I look on the app, the queue times these days are pretty much non-existent on most days.
Click to expand...

April 2021 would have been social distancing central I assume? So impact on throughputs would be messing with those queue times?
 
For what it's worth, I visited in July of the same year and do not personally remember crowds of the same level. Storm Chaser was on less than 10 minutes all day, and while rides like Cobra and the Lost Kingdom coasters got closer to 20-30 minutes as the day went on, I wouldn't have said that anything went beyond an advertised queue of about 30 minutes (among the bigger rides, at least), from memory, which I was not displeased with given that it was the summer holidays!

I will say, though, that the queues in Peppa Pig World seemed a bit longer, from memory. I didn't ride anything in there, but I seem to remember some of the more popular rides in there rattling up to 45 minutes or so at times.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
I remember visiting Paultons in April 2021 and it was pretty packed. The queue for Pterosaur for example was 45 mins and spilling out of the entrance, the queue for the Peppa boat ride was also spilling out of the entrance and stretched all the way back to the toilets. Cobra had a 50 minute queue as well.

I can only assume that, since 2021, Paultons have lowered their daily visitor cap? Whenever I look on the app, the queue times these days are pretty much non-existent on most days.
Click to expand...

I think the biggest change they made to feed into an overall lowering of their daily visitor numbers was the complete repositioning of the anual passes. They became much more expensive and much more restrictive during covid, it worked and thankfully it has stuck.

Now how do we get Merlin to bin off the £60 APs?
 
pluk said:
Now how do we get Merlin to bin off the £60 APs?
Click to expand...
What £60 Merlin APs? The dirt cheap season passes were also got rid of by Merlin during the pandemic.
The other Merlin passes are still too cheap, but at least the lowest price Discovery pass is very off-peak only. Then even for a single park pass it starts at £99 now. Which if not a huge improvement it’s at least back to the prices they were before the Smiler incident.
 
AT86 said:
April 2021 would have been social distancing central I assume? So impact on throughputs would be messing with those queue times?
Click to expand...
Nah there was no social distancing at that point, not on the rides themselves anyway. They were filling every seat, we just had to wear masks.

I think the days of Paultons getting these sorts of crowds are a thing of the past.
 
rob666 said:
I'm sure I was offered a discovery pass for eighty quid earlier in the year.
Click to expand...
But the discovery pass is pretty restricted to only being usable on off-peak days. Many of those weekdays it can be used on it it doesn't really cost the park any more if additional guests turn up as its quiet anyway. Its not like the period where they were giving away access on almost any day of the season for £60.

I think all the passes are still too cheap and Merlin should be charging closer to Paulton prices (where the equivalent to the discovery pass is £160, about 4-5 visits), but the low price of the discovery pass makes some sense as long as they keep it fairly restricted. Given the Merlin pass can be used at other attractions cheaper than the theme parks(like Sea Life) and many of the days it can be used at theme parks its £29 now, a £99 pass is around 4 visits too. But it probably should be £120-150 full price.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
Nah there was no social distancing at that point, not on the rides themselves anyway. They were filling every seat, we just had to wear masks.

I think the days of Paultons getting these sorts of crowds are a thing of the past.
Click to expand...
I think everywhere got bigger crowds in 2021 as international travel was still hard, all the theme parks were busier than they have been in 2023-24.
 
jon81uk said:
What £60 Merlin APs? The dirt cheap season passes were also got rid of by Merlin during the pandemic.
The other Merlin passes are still too cheap, but at least the lowest price Discovery pass is very off-peak only. Then even for a single park pass it starts at £99 now. Which if not a huge improvement it’s at least back to the prices they were before the Smiler incident.
Click to expand...

Just last year I got an advertised £69 pass with a £10 off voucher. Madness.

IIRC Paultons put the AP price right up so there was a natural signficant drop in take up, but even then they operated a wait list so as to not oversell them.
Turning down that revenue stream to protect the value of their day ticket as a premium product is a great strategy and makes the park a pretty much 100% reliably enjoyable day that is worth the ticket price.
 
jon81uk said:
I think everywhere got bigger crowds in 2021 as international travel was still hard, all the theme parks were busier than they have been in 2023-24.
Click to expand...
Yeah very true. I’m wondering though, now that Paultons never get those sort of crowds anymore, have they deliberately lowered the cap since 2021, or is it more a case of the cap never being hit anymore, perhaps with people being put off by the high pricing structure.

Either way, the current lower crowd numbers seem to be working well for Paultons, they certainly aren’t a bums-on-seats type park.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
Yeah very true. I’m wondering though, now that Paultons never get those sort of crowds anymore, have they deliberately lowered the cap since 2021, or is it more a case of the cap never being hit anymore, perhaps with people being put off by the high pricing structure.

Either way, the current lower crowd numbers seem to be working well for Paultons, they certainly aren’t a bums-on-seats type park.
Click to expand...

As I understand it the valuable day ticket entries have increased while the poor value per person per day AP numbers have decreased massively by design.

Within the last year they have stopped sales as at capacity on some days, and queues on those days have remained minimal. Sub 20 mins.
 
On my visits (August 2020, June 2021) the only place constantly busy was Peppa Pig Land.
Everything else seemed to vary wildly based on were the crowds had headed, I remember Flight of the Pterosaur, Dino Chase, and The Dinosaur Tour Co. all having queues spilling out of the queue line at different times , but then later they were all walk on.
 
Flight of the Pterosaur has the worst ques outside Peppa Pig as it only has one train. Everything else usually has minimal wait times, always managed to get on what we wanted
 
Worth noting that 2021 was the park's first full year with Tornado Springs, although I think a lot of people go for Peppa Pig that must have drawn in extra visitors.

It was also the year of the staycation as travel abroad was virtually impossible for much of that year.

I'd expect to see a reduction in visitor numbers now travel abroad is the norm again and Tornado Springs is no longer a new area.
 
Relife said:
Flight of the Pterosaur has the worst ques outside Peppa Pig as it only has one train. Everything else usually has minimal wait times, always managed to get on what we wanted
Click to expand...

I still almost never see it above 20 minutes. It’s currently on 15 minutes (whilst the coasters at AT range from 65 to 150 minute and the other Merlin parks aren’t much better though generally lower in the south).

The average queue time for Pterosaur is listed as 13 minutes and the average maximum is 22 minutes.

The various Peppa Pig rides historically have the longest queues but even then nothing exceeds an average maximum of 29 minutes.

It’s the only UK theme park I can take my son without having to rely on RAP access.

New slogan suggestion: If you don’t want to queue, Paultons is for you!
 
I went in August 2021 and we queued off the big island and took nearly a hour to get into the park. Even the other way on our 2nd day even turning Left into the park was around 45 mins.
Both days this year straight in didn’t have to queue to park.

Getting into the park the queues outside was near the toilet block and took ages to get in.
This year we got there for opening and straight in no queues. The 2nd day was more busier but cause all the turnstiles were open only was roughly a 5 min wait.

The queues in 2021 in Peppa pig was 60 mins for some rides took us both todays to get on all the rides only once.
The queues this year was still bad but as my sons got Autism used the easy pass on most of the rides but at the end of the day 1 some were walk on.
The rest of the park in 2021 it took us both days to get on everything and only storm chaser we managed to get on twice.
This year outside of Peppa pig the only 3 rides that had a queue more than 5 but less than 15 mins was splash Lagoon, The flight of the Pterosaur and Buffalo falls and that was on both days.
The biggest wait was for our food.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top