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Paultons Park: General Discussion

Obviously Paultons had huge success and changed their fortunes with an IP, but given how much time and effort they've put into developing their own themes and style in the time since, it would be a shame to see them invest in crap brands like Hotel Transylvania.
 
I'd hope that they continue down the current trend of fairly familiar themes (Dinosaurs and Americana) with a fairly robust design and quality behind it.

They already have an IP the park is now synonymous with in the public eye. They don't really need another IP, and nor do they need to copy a poor looking dark ride that looks incredibly static and dull.

Something like Popcorn Revenge's ride system could be a shout as a starting dark ride attempt.
 
I'd hope that they continue down the current trend of fairly familiar themes (Dinosaurs and Americana) with a fairly robust design and quality behind it.

They already have an IP the park is now synonymous with in the public eye. They don't really need another IP, and nor do they need to copy a poor looking dark ride that looks incredibly static and dull.

Something like Popcorn Revenge's ride system could be a shout as a starting dark ride attempt.
Yeah they definitelly don't need another IP. A dark ride with an original theme would be great.
 
I’d personally be quite intrigued to see Paultons’ take on a pirate-themed area, personally.

I know that pirates sounds like a somewhat cliched theme, but I think it’s a theme that appeals to the whole family, and pirate theming would also lend itself quite nicely to both the water ride and dark ride people are asking for (they could do a water ride themed to a pirate sea expedition, for example, and something similar to Pirates of the Caribbean in style might work well for a dark ride theme). You could also blend Edge into a pirate theme quite nicely (you could make it be themed to riding a wave or something), Magma could be themed to a crow’s nest/lookout tower, and I’m sure they could even come up with something for Cobra, if they got creative!
 
I've always thought the other side would be pirate themed. Pirate ship, kontiki, Viking boats and tea cups already in the area and it runs adjacent to a large lake.

However, it is once again developing a side of the park already pretty much done. Cobra, log flume area really needs attention first
 
Out of interest, does Paultons tend to get long queues for the non-PPW rides during the summer holidays? Only asking because I’m going on 30th July, and I’m wondering whether to expect queues of 1hr+ for major rides like you’d get at one of the Merlin parks on a summer’s day.

I’ve been monitoring the queues for the past couple of days, and I’m cautiously optimistic, as nothing seems to be getting particularly long, but I wasn’t sure whether the summer holidays would be different.
 
Out of interest, does Paultons tend to get long queues for the non-PPW rides during the summer holidays? Only asking because I’m going on 30th July, and I’m wondering whether to expect queues of 1hr+ for major rides like you’d get at one of the Merlin parks on a summer’s day.

I’ve been monitoring the queues for the past couple of days, and I’m cautiously optimistic, as nothing seems to be getting particularly long, but I wasn’t sure whether the summer holidays would be different.
The non Peppa Pig rides rarely get queues longer than 40 minutes on even the busiest days
The longest ones at time of writing are
Flight of the Pterosaur 40
Trekking Tractors 30
Sky Swinger 30
Dinosaur Tour Co. 30
Buffalo Falls 30
 
You don’t have to worry about long queues at Paultons, except for the obvious PPW ones, but even some of those don’t get crazy long queues. For Grampy Rabbit’s Sailing Club for example, the entire queue like was full and over following into the pathways and it didn’t exceed half an hour.

Ones to look out for:

Flight of the Pterosaur is a popular coaster but low capacity (it only has one train) so can be a pretty slow moving queue, but even when overflowing out of the entrance it doesn’t top 40 mins.

Cobra can be slow because of current social distancing, if there are lots of groups of 2 in the queue, but given Paultons’ demographic this isn’t usually an issue.

Thankfully Paultons are now starting to install high capacity rides. Storm Chaser is their highest capacity coaster and, when running both trains, the queue will fly through. Looking at the app, despite it being their newest coaster it nearly always has the shortest queue times of all the coasters.
 
And Poultons don't have a fast track/speedy pass system, well not one that most people can afford anyway. So that is a big help in shifting queue lines.
 
I know this seems random, but I just want to take a second to hugely applaud Paultons on their marketing of Tornado Springs.

I must have seen umpteen different Tornado Springs adverts on TV over the last couple of weeks; the prevalence of Paultons adverts on TV at the moment seems to be rivalling the prevalence of adverts for the Merlin parks, which given Paultons doesn’t have the budgets and marketing might behind them that Merlin do is hugely remarkable, in my opinion! There have been a lot of theme park adverts on TV in general lately, but Paultons is probably the most common one I’m seeing, closely followed by Croc Drop at Chessington and Mythica at Legoland! I haven’t seen an awful lot of Alton or Thorpe for some reason… I think I’ve seen 1 Alton advert and none from Thorpe.

I’ve also seen loads of Tornado Springs adverts in other places; for instance, I saw a huge Tornado Springs advert on the billboard at a service station on the way back from Alton in April.

So yes; top job marketing Tornado Springs, Paultons! I’ll reserve full judgement until I visit for myself at the end of July, but from what I’ve seen and heard so far, the whole project sounds like a huge slam dunk for Paultons, and I really hope it’s successful for them!
 
Having a nearly 2 year old the tv never off Nick Jr or Nick Jr 2 so nearly every advert it’s Paulton’s new area, Croc drop at Chessington, New area at Legoland and Drayton Manor and I can see the marketing working very well as my daughter who nearly 9 wants to go to them all.
 
@Matt N what ITV region do you live in? If you are down south I would expect more Chessington and Paulton adverts. In the midlands you would probably get more Drayton Manor and Alton Towers.

I don’t think they need to advertise Thorpe Park either, there is nothing new worth advertising and the newest attractions need booked time slots too.
 
@Matt N what ITV region do you live in? If you are down south I would expect more Chessington and Paulton adverts. In the midlands you would probably get more Drayton Manor and Alton Towers.

I don’t think they need to advertise Thorpe Park either, there is nothing new worth advertising and the newest attractions need booked time slots too.
I’m in the South West.

Thorpe themselves put a myriad of TV adverts onto YouTube, with some advertising Black Mirror and some just advertising the park, but I’ve never seen any of them on TV. I found this odd given that I’ve seen a fair few for Chessington, Legoland and Paultons’ newest additions, and I’ve even seen 1 on TV for Alton/TWODW.
 
Black Mirror has such a low capacity at the moment they aren’t really pushing it. Plus the demographic for Thorpe is more likely to be watching YouTube than TV adverts so they can reach their audience that way.

Chessington and Paultons are marketing to parents who will be the ones who make the purchasing decision, so TV advertising makes more sense.
 
I’m in the South West.

Thorpe themselves put a myriad of TV adverts onto YouTube, with some advertising Black Mirror and some just advertising the park, but I’ve never seen any of them on TV. I found this odd given that I’ve seen a fair few for Chessington, Legoland and Paultons’ newest additions, and I’ve even seen 1 on TV for Alton/TWODW.
That makes sense then, you are seen as too far from Alton to be their main audience. They will advertise midlands and north more.
 
I live in the east of England by tv region, and I've not seen a single themepark advert on the TV this year.

Paultons online promotion for Tirnado Springs has been superb.
 
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