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Paultons Park: General Discussion

You have to remember Paultons is near the coast and a lot of seaside resorts. Southampton n Bournemouth are very close by so hotels aren't exactly in short supply in the general area.

We stayed in a huge static caravan for the week last spring just outside Bournemouth. It was only a 20 min drive to the park and it was very relaxed drive too without any great big queues on the roads.

They'd be better investing into the park I think for what a hotel would cost.
 
I don't think Paulton's are actively looking at hotels, nor do I think it's something we will see anytime soon. However I think inevitably the extra-revenue stream will make sense and they may do it. However I think if we were to see a hotel it would be more of an exclusive, high end experience rather than a standard hotel experience like say Drayton's hotel. This would allow the park to keep the relationship with the current local hotels while offering something quite different to them. Making it less of a direct competitor as it offers something different as more of an experience.
 
The reason I don’t think Paultons will build a hotel is space also just looked at 30th to 1st May for both Drayton Manor and Paulton’s Based on 2 adults and 2 children with breakfast .
As long as you don’t mind driving 20 miles it’s £236. Drayton Manor for the same date £308. Both offer the 2nd day free.
 
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Granted its a different situation but it is somewhat arguable that Drayton building a hotel was one of the main factors in their slow financial demise.

Paultons needs to continue investing to ensure the park is of quality rather than pushing a resort. Things are working well for them and to change that could be problematic.
 
I was reading that the hotel was build so they could have revenue all year round. Like I went to my friends wedding there and on the same day there was another wedding in the hotel and another 2 in there older suites and all rooms were booked up.
With Paulton’s I had no problems driving from Southampton and with the park spending £2.5 million to help the traffic problems and been right next to the M27 it’s a easy route back to Birmingham.
 
Whilst it is great that Paultons are investing in traffic calming in the local area, I’m 99% sure that they have no choice.

When I used to work at a certain theme park, we would get fined every time traffic flow into the park built up on to the main road outside. On some days this was unavoidable, but this is the reason why a lot of theme parks have you driving for ages once you’re inside the park gates. It’s also why a lot of parks control the flow of traffic when leaving the park, so that traffic jams don’t build up on the main roads outside (sadly this is often through charging)

That road outside Paultons is desperately crying out for a roundabout, especially on peak days and the park has a duty to action it.
 
I just had my first ever visit to Paulton’s today and I was really impressed, it’s such a fun park. Tornado Springs looks absolutely fantastic and the theming across the area is superb. I don’t think it would be exaggerating to say that it could possibly be the finest themed area in the country, the attention to detail and quality of the theming is superb. I wasn’t sure how busy the park would be today being a half-term trip but whilst Peppa Pig Land was quite busy queues were very short in the other areas of the park, I was amazed that Storm Chaser was walk on all day, which for such a good new ride just seems crazy. It’s a lovely coaster, feels nice and fast, has great restraints, and the helix near the end, right down low to the ground, was surprisingly forceful. Flight of the Pterosaur was excellent as well (it was my kid’s first inverted coaster and we all had a blast on it) and Cobra is a good coaster as well. It’s such a nice fun park, the two themed areas have been so well done. It really reminded me of visiting Chessington when I was a kid right back in its first couple of years when it all seemed, well, just like a world of adventure going through all the various themed areas. It’s going to be absolutely fascinating to see what Paulton’s do next because what they’ve done in the past half decade has been absolutely fantastic.
 
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Looking ahead to next year, has there been any indication that something new could be coming (other than that new back of house building)?

Is the new building they are constructing actually confirmed to be back a of house building? The one thing that Paulton’s really needs is a dark ride, I wonder if there is any scope for one in their plans for the next couple of years?
 
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This area of the park really does stand out as needing work after the recent brilliant investments. There is plenty of space over that way as well, but clearly there are also planning issues to overcome.
 
Think they should move the drop tower and include it in a area that includes Edge and Cobra.
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Like it could go at the top or on the grass area with maybe a dark ride.
Then if they remove the go kart track and the building next to the drop tower and the ride next to it and you include the grass area as well it could have a complete new themed area which could include a water ride or dark ride
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The drop tower Magma is already themed to a volcano with an animatronic dinosaur in it so it would fit in perfectly with the Lost Kingdom if they could relocate it over to there. The wave swinger and the log flume could also both easily be relocated given the nature of the rides, though if they had a replacement water ride planned they might just get rid of the current flume.

If the park were also thinking of getting rid of the upcharge go-kart track then that’s a pretty decent area they’d have to work with, with Cobra and The Edge being at the corner of it. Obviously they’ve had planning issues before with that side of the park but there’s definitely a good size area that they could turn in to a new themed area. I’m thinking that a jungle or tropical theme could work well for them.


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The area around Edge and Cobra is a very touchy subject, which I’m sure is why we’ve not seen any development around there.

Back in 2009- 2010, the park were ordered to pull those two rides down because they’d never got planning permission, and hadn’t realised that this bit of their land isn’t defined as part of the theme park boundaries.

They actually lost their appeal and were told they had to remove those rides, they only got to keep them because they did noise studies to prove that if they put them in the ‘theme park’ section of their land, they would have been louder.

In any case, that area has a lot more regulation and protection around it. There’s no way the park will want to push their luck with that area, especially after being told twice to remove Cobra and Edge.
 
What new things i would like to see in the next 15 years at paultons(look at the photos in the order they are for them to make sense)
 

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Yeah maybe i just didn’t know what to think of cobra being stuck inbeetween the 2 areas, it could be included in one of them but if would definitely make the southern area very large maybe even too large. Would like to know what you would do with it though?
 
Yeah maybe i just didn’t know what to think of cobra being stuck inbeetween the 2 areas, it could be included in one of them but if would definitely make the southern area very large maybe even too large. Would like to know what you would do with it though?

I’d just leave Cobra as it is, perhaps give the station a little bit of a makeover to fit in with whatever the theme is of a new area they might be doing around it but essentially it’s fine as it is. It definitely shouldn’t be removed, as said above it’s a good family coaster.

Look at how DM rethemed the station of Shockwave to fit in with building Adventure Cove and help integrate it in to the area, that’s all you’d need to do with Cobra (or possibly retheming the headchopper barn as well).
 
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