• 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

pluk said:
Go nowhere near PPW until the last couple of hours of the day, it calms right down later on. But do do go in there and have no shame!
In PPW go on Windy Castle, it's genuinely excellent with or without kids, especially if you like spinning. Grampy Rabbits Boats and the monorail are both worth a go as relaxing distractions without kids.
Steal someons kid to get on Georges Dinosaur Adventure if you can. :laughing:

On quiet days the far left of the park (Magma, Cobra, etc) don't open until 12.

Have a slice of pie in the new Tornado Springs restaurant.

Cyclonator is INCREDIBLE. Go on it however scared you might be!
Click to expand...
After me and my mum nearly died of embarrassment riding Octonauts at Towers, I personally decided to never go on any kiddie rides again, so even if I do venture into PPW, I don’t think I’ll be riding anything.

We’re visiting at the height of the summer holidays (30th July), so I wouldn’t guess it‘ll exactly be a quiet day, but thanks for the heads up anyway; I’ll be sure to keep it in mind!

That pie sounds tasty! What flavours can you get? If there’s an apple pie or something, then I’ll admit that sounds delicious!

With regard to Cyclonator; as much as I don’t have an especially strong stomach when it comes to spinny rides, it’s something I’d definitely like to try given the rave reviews! As much as I mentioned above about not having the highest of nausea tolerances for spinny rides, Cyclonator also looks mildly similar to Rush at Thorpe Park, which I absolutely love, so hopefully the floatiness might outweigh the spinniness!

Cheers for the tips @pluk; from your past posts, you seem like somewhat of a Paultons regular!
 
Last edited:
Matt N said:
Cheers for the tips @pluk; from your past posts, you seem like somewhat of a Paultons regular!
Click to expand...

Not really! I live too far away to be a regular, but I take any opportunity and now my own daughter is in PPW range hopefully that'll be a bit more frequent.

Pies are apple and cinnamon, peacan and caramel and key lime. A couple of good looking cheesecakes I've not tried too.

Windy Castle is up high, no one can see you on it, don't worry what anyone else thinks!
 
Ooh, some of those pie flavours sound very nice; I may have to think about getting some pie on my visit, if I have time!

With my spin tolerance already not being the highest, though, it might not be something to eat directly before riding Cyclonator or Storm Chaser…
 
Don't worry yourself too much about spinning on Storm Chaser. Yes, the cars are free to spin, but they do so very leisurely. The sensation is more facing unusual ways on a coaster than actually spinning. Nothing like Spinball.
 
pluk said:
Don't worry yourself too much about spinning on Storm Chaser. Yes, the cars are free to spin, but they do so very leisurely. The sensation is more facing unusual ways on a coaster than actually spinning. Nothing like Spinball.
Click to expand...
Ah, that’s reassuring! I’ll admit that I often find things like those Reverchon spinners that spin absolutely deliriously quite nauseating (I genuinely struggled to walk in a straight line getting off Ice Mountain at HPWW), and I even found Spinball a little dizzying on my last ride, so it’s nice to hear that Storm Chaser isn’t too spinny!

The only other Mack spinner I’ve done is Cobra’s Curse at Busch Gardens, which I don’t remember being overly spinny, but I’ll admit that one isn’t the most memorable coaster I’ve ridden 5 years on from my first and last ride on it.

I have very much enjoyed some of the new Mack coasters I’ve done as of late, though; Icon is just sublime, in my opinion, and in terms of a ride of the same family thrill calibre as Storm Chaser, I’ll admit I found the often maligned Slinky Dog Dash at Hollywood Studios incredibly good fun for what it was, so I’m hoping I might really like Storm Chaser!
 
As others have definitely do the Dino tours ride as its a lot of fun.

Probably best starting with Tornado Springs and then heading back towards the other side of the park. Take the time to have a look round the gardens and the aviarys as well. It can be a peaceful distraction during the day.
 
I’d suggest going left to start with. Do Pterosaur and Magma, as its queue builds up later on. Once you’ve done that side, you can head to Tornado Springs and the queues are generally very reasonable by the afternoon. Yesterday Storm Chaser and Cyclonator were walk on by lunchtime.
 
Went today, Tornado Springs is lovely with lots to do across all ages.

Cyclonator is really intense. Like completely surprised by it, seemed fairly popular amongst the schoolkids who had descended upon the park so could be a good sign for the decision makers.

Storm Chaser is good, maybe I'd been badmouthing Sierra Sidewinder all these years. The station for the new coaster looks lovely too.

The older areas of the park look really bad compared to the newer ones. The main street and Cobra especially. Hopefully if the park continues on their current trend they'll fix it up.

Used their Access Pass, only got it signed off once all day. But then again didn't really go on anything that actually had a queue apart from the Lost Kingdom coasters. Seemed to be a disconnect between staff as to whether we needed it or not as we had a wheelchair (which was hired at park, but seems if you bring your own you don't get the card access pass? Could be problematic if it gets into Merlin levels of busyness for it).

However the park is very accessible and Storm Chaser has a separate ambulant and non-ambulant queue which is sensible. Some of the other attractions are a bit iffy for attracting staff member attention though.

The park itself looks so good though. Gardens all in fantastic condition and even some gardeners were about and fresh paint on a few bits. Here's to their future as it looks incredibly bright.
 
Benzin said:
Used their Access Pass, only got it signed off once all day. But then again didn't really go on anything that actually had a queue apart from the Lost Kingdom coasters. Seemed to be a disconnect between staff as to whether we needed it or not as we had a wheelchair (which was hired at park, but seems if you bring your own you don't get the card access pass? Could be problematic if it gets into Merlin levels of busyness for it).
Click to expand...
That's because the Access Pass is primarily intended for ambulant disabled guests (for example, those with learning disabilities like myself) . It allows them to bypass the main queue once for each ride, but they can use the regular entrances as much as they like. Those in a wheelchair can use the accessible entrances as many times as they like, considering that's the only way they can access the rides. I do agree that it would be an issue if the park was busier than it usually gets.
 
Benzin said:
Storm Chaser is good, maybe I'd been badmouthing Sierra Sidewinder all these years.
Click to expand...

I felt the same. I was a bit negative during planning when this turned out to be a Sidewinder clone, I have no good memory of it at all, but riding Stormchaser it's clear I was completely wrong. I suppose it is a bit weak when you are riding at alongside Ghost Rider and Xcelerator, but drop it into Paultons and it's perfect as their current headliner.
 
On the subject of potentially embarrassing rides, will I look silly doing Windmill Towers in Tornado Springs? I’ve heard that those Zierer family free fall towers are supposed to be fun, but I worry people would judge me for doing them, because they’re basically frog hoppers, aren’t they?
 
Matt N said:
On the subject of potentially embarrassing rides, will I look silly doing Windmill Towers in Tornado Springs? I’ve heard that those Zierer family free fall towers are supposed to be fun, but I worry people would judge me for doing them, because they’re basically frog hoppers, aren’t they?
Click to expand...
You won't feel silly Matt, I've seen plenty of adults riding them in videos I've watched! It's a family ride, not a kids ride. :)
 
Riding the Windmill Towers in an all-adult group is really no more embarrassing than visiting Paultons in an all-adult group.

You'd have to be a bit weird, passionate etc but it's not exactly humiliating.

Then again I ride every Caterpillar and Go Gator that gets put in front of me.
 
Matt N said:
On the subject of potentially embarrassing rides, will I look silly doing Windmill Towers in Tornado Springs? I’ve heard that those Zierer family free fall towers are supposed to be fun, but I worry people would judge me for doing them, because they’re basically frog hoppers, aren’t they?
Click to expand...
As long as you're not harming anyone, who gives a fart what anyone else thinks? Bearing mind you'd be in a family park anyway, who would be there to judge?

I look stupid on Frog Hopper, but it's clear from every time it gets mentioned on here that I'm one of the few amongst us who have ridden it. I don't have to go on with my daughter, but I choose to every visit.
 
Saw plenty of adult only groups there yesterday (I think a few theme park people as well judging by a few obvious details), it doesn't matter whatsoever.

Paulton is vastly more a family park than a kiddie park.

Skyscraper said:
That's because the Access Pass is primarily intended for ambulant disabled guests (for example, those with learning disabilities like myself) . It allows them to bypass the main queue once for each ride, but they can use the regular entrances as much as they like. Those in a wheelchair can use the accessible entrances as many times as they like, considering that's the only way they can access the rides. I do agree that it would be an issue if the park was busier than it usually gets.
Click to expand...

I think the confusion comes with that as we were hiring a wheelchair off them (ours is broken and we've been at my parents all week, Paulton was a last minute decision because Monkey World demands you wear a mask all day for obvious reasons but we didn't want to because uncomfortable), so the First Aider said we had to use it but the staff bar one didn't bother or seem to think we had to.

Might be worth them ironing that out in future cases. Though at the end of it the only ride we rode twice was Storm Chaser anyway.
 
I don't think anyone would really judge anyone for riding a ride that's not aimed at their age group, if you want to ride you want to ride. I've been on Octonauts, Get Set Go and Postman Pat in CBeebies Land - albeit because of my cousin the RAP user - but still, we were a group of 4 adults and no one seemed to bat an eyelid. You do you!
 
I was kind of put off doing kiddie rides after the host on Octonauts looked like he was trying incredibly hard not to laugh as he batched us into the ride, and a lot of other people seemed to give us quite judgmental looks.

I rode Gangsta Granny without issue in June, but I’d say that GG is more of a family ride; Alton themselves lists it under “Laughs & Frights” as opposed to “Young Fun & Imagination” like Octonauts is.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top