• 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

dazza4783 said:
There is a lot of space near Cobra, Magma, and The Edge that would be ideal for a new area/rides. No need to do anything to the garden area from what I saw.
Click to expand...
Hopefully they will eventually re-theme that entire area and those rides, along with a major brand new attraction to complete the theme.
 
Personally, I'd be immensely surprised if Paultons' next big thing wasn't on that area by Cobra, Magma and Edge. There's an absolute ton of empty space back there, and it's also the least "themed" of the areas.

I'd also be immensely surprised if they touched the gardens any time soon; they look like the sort of thing that might be listed. I've got to say, I found them a very pleasantly surprising area; I never even knew they existed before setting foot into Paultons!
 
Matt N said:
Personally, I'd be immensely surprised if Paultons' next big thing wasn't on that area by Cobra, Magma and Edge. There's an absolute ton of empty space back there, and it's also the least "themed" of the areas.

I'd also be immensely surprised if they touched the gardens any time soon; they look like the sort of thing that might be listed. I've got to say, I found them a very pleasantly surprising area; I never even knew they existed before setting foot into Paultons!
Click to expand...

Two things might get in the way of this.
-that corner has had planning issues before. I don't fully know the details but there was a threat of Cobra being removed at one stage. Might not be the easiest area to develop .
- at the moment that whole side of the park opens late off peak. That works well and is a good way to control costs and as well as they are doing I think that'd remain necessary to make off peak work. Peppa Pig will always be the draw. It'd me messy having that side open, peppa open, and an area in the middle staggered, but you wouldn't want your new area staggered.
 
Ils said:
Went for the first time yesterday in the pouring rain. Very quiet day as you can expect.

First impressions of the park was I can see why it so highly rated in the way it is looked after and set out. Tornado Springs is a another level to anything else in this country and in Storm Chaser have a fantastic family coaster. As for Cyclonator, I tried my best to get out of it but as my youngest required an adult to go on with him and the wife's face said it all, on I went. As I have got older (38) I really struggle with motion sickness on certain rides and this was no different but not at the Forbidden Journey level. Probably took me a good 45 mins to feel back to normal before smashing a plate of pancakes in the Diner.

We moved across to Lost Kingdom which by now the rain was getting worse and a ride on Flight of Pterosaur was hilarious as rain was smashing us in the face. Again another good family coaster. My lads thought it would be hilarious to get five back to back rides on Dino chase without getting out as me and their mother stood there in the rain.

Cobra was a fun ride and they went off and did Edge which they all enjoyed. I felt Magma was a bit of letdown and very tame compared to other drop towers.

All in all, although we were drenched through and left the park just after 2pm we had a great time and just for Tornado Springs alone it was well worth the 5 hour round trip.

If they can add another themed area with maybe a GCI or Gravity woodie and a proper water ride, I think this Park will be even harder to compete with for ticking the boxes for a family day out.
Click to expand...

Sorry, bit late to this but really interested to read your write-up - we'd planned to be at Paulton's last Saturday as well but called it off at the last minute because of the torrential forecast - we've now rescheduled for this weekend. I've never been to the park before so looking forward to a slighly dryer day to be able to wander around and explore all the themed areas and the zoo gardens. Sounds as though your trip was a bit of a washout but good to hear that you still had a good time and were able to get on everything. Your experience on Flight of the Pterosaur sounds much like my first-ever ride on the Smiler; like free facial acupuncture! Something to be experienced at least once anyway!

Never been on a gyro-swing ride before so looking forward to trying Cyclonator - hopefully will find it less nauseating than you did! I'm getting on in years (34) but not too bad yet - weirdly it's swinging pirate ships that I just can't do these days!!
 
MattyH said:
While everyone was panicking about petrol Paultons appear to have done a good job in theming their new coaster. Hopefully this one will be without cattlepen queue.

Click to expand...

This massively puts Chessington to shame. One thing that interests me about Paultons is how they are able to add the back end of a crashed aircraft next to bright grass and blue track without it clashing.
 
Thameslink Rail said:
This massively puts Chessington to shame. One thing that interests me about Paultons is how they are able to add the back end of a crashed aircraft next to bright grass and blue track without it clashing.
Click to expand...

To be fair, it's a very heavily sanitised crash scene; not quite Swarm levels of horror - I mean there's a nesting chicken on the rear stabilizer...
 
I visited Paulton's Park last week for the first time in a few years, the sole reason being to see their brand new area: Tornado Springs.

Impressed would be an understatement. The quality of this investement puts many other recent projects in the UK to shame. They have all bases covered; a wide range of attractions for the whole family, plenty of good theming with lot of little details, food options that improve on the pretty poor options in the rest of the park and so much beatifully presented and thought out planting (Paulton's are exceptional when it comes to this).

Storm Chaser is just great fun. I've ridden Sierra Sidewinder but I think Storm Chaser feels like a better coaster than that partly because of the park it is in and the company it shares. You are not suddenly going from a B&M Invert to a Mack Spinning Coaster. We were a group of three, which meant we got some seating configurations that led to a hell of a lot of spinning!

Cyclonator, well, this is intense! I was not expecting it to have so much power, certainly one of, if not the best, frisbee rides I have been one. Just a shame about the restraints which really aren't great at all.

I can't remember what they are called but the Poppy Towers are great fun as those rides always are. The tractor rides was there previously (I think, willing to be corrected) but it now goes through an abundance of fresh fruit and veg that they are growing. And the dingy slides, which were also there previously, provide some nice air and laughs!

Food wise we got burritos from the Hay Barn which were delicious. I'd eat here again.

I did go with high expecations of the new area and they were met. The new junior coaster for next year looks like another high quality investment, the theming is coming on very nicely.

As for the rest of the park, it was all just great fun! We were expecting to be done early, especially with the park being quiet, but stayed right up until close as ride's like Storm Chaser and Cobra are just great fun for going on over and over again! It is also blissful to walk around their stunningly beautiful gardens, and take a look at all of the exotic birds in the aviaries.

I strongly recommend you get to to Paulton's next year if you did not manage to get down to experience Tornado Springs this year!
 
The thing that stood out for me when I first went was just how clean everything was.

This new area is a perfect fit for the park, what they really need now is a decent dark ride and a proper log flume / rapids ride. I'm just pleased to see at least one park in the UK doing things properly and showing the rest how it should be done.
 
MaxPower said:
The thing that stood out for me when I first went was just how clean everything was.

This new area is a perfect fit for the park, what they really need now is a decent dark ride and a proper log flume / rapids ride. I'm just pleased to see at least one park in the UK doing things properly and showing the rest how it should be done.
Click to expand...

That was our reaction too in May on our first and only visit. Gobsmacked by how clean and well presented the park was. The gardeners in particular clearly love theirs jobs as every tree and bush is trimmed so neatly.

The next thing was the staff. We had a 5 min conversation with a park employee who wouldn't have been out of place as a Cast member at Disney.

We love the place and hope they continue to add more thrilling rides in the future to give us a reason to return. My son asks every weekend can we go back but we live in Manchester so it's not that easy. We will definitely be back for 2022 I would have thought.
 
Benjsh said:
Gobsmacked by how clean and well presented the park was.
Click to expand...
Absolutely, they put the Merlin parks to shame in this department.

I don't necessarily think they need more thrilling rides, just more family additions would saffice IMO. That's their key market audience so I don't see why they would try to appeal to thrill seekers when the current approach has been successful up to this point.
 
I think @Benjsh does raise a good point; might we see more thrilling additions in the future?

The park does seem to have gradually upped the ante of their major investments over time since Peppa Pig World (Tornado Springs is more thrilling than Lost Kingdom, Lost Kingdom is more thrilling than Critter Creek, and Critter Creek is more thrilling than Peppa Pig World), and the park themselves said that Cyclonator was a litmus test for the installation of more thrilling rides in the future.

With rumblings suggesting that Cyclonator exceeded the park’s expectations in terms of its popularity (I certainly heard that suggested somewhere), could this bode well for the installation of some slightly more thrilling rides at Paultons in the future?
 
Matt N said:
I think @Benjsh does raise a good point; might we see more thrilling additions in the future?

The park does seem to have gradually upped the ante of their major investments over time since Peppa Pig World (Tornado Springs is more thrilling than Lost Kingdom, Lost Kingdom is more thrilling than Critter Creek, and Critter Creek is more thrilling than Peppa Pig World), and the park themselves said that Cyclonator was a litmus test for the installation of more thrilling rides in the future.

With rumblings suggesting that Cyclonator exceeded the park’s expectations in terms of its popularity (I certainly heard that suggested somewhere), could this bode well for the installation of some slightly more thrilling rides at Paultons in the future?
Click to expand...
I think Paultons are aiming to become a proper family theme park- with rides for all ages from very young to adult. That is great if so! :)
 
Yeah a good family park caters to all audiences, no reason Paultons won’t head in that direction. They will be cautious as thrill rides are inherently more expensive and I don’t blame them for that, but I suspect they will dip their toe in more thrilling attractions.

A next gen vekoma invert would be a good fit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top