Pleasurewood Hills

[Scott]

Can't believe it's taken them this long to build a standard MS Mouse... And they haven't even advertised it at all...

In other news - Pleasurewood have a new website and it's rather nice...

www.pleasurewoodhills.com

 

[MattyH]

I think my profile picture is more advertisement than anywhere else.

Besides they had to repaint it Scott...

 

[Rob]

Marble Madness is scheduled to open on Friday 27th June. My initial reaction to that is about time. Here are a few photos from Pleasurewood Hills Facebook page:

The cars look nice and the track is freshly painted but apart from that this doesn't look anything special at all. I hope it does work for them but I really can't see it having a big impact.

 

[Scott]

It never was going to look special but they've done a nice in house job with track and train. More disappointingly is that there's been no construction updates or advertising for this until literally last week :/

It will do well though - the park has big draw in the local area and is very popular with locals. I think people can generally see the park is improving and new rides will always help that - even if it is just a MS mouse.

 

[Coaster]

Very impressed with what they have done with that. Looks like a brand new coaster and nobody (apart from people in the know) would realise that it was second hand IMO.
I really would like to visit PWH one day!

 

[MattyH]

Its a nice park, worth a visit if your nearby

 

[Benzin]

The park is more like Lightwater Valley, but without the stand-out ride to truly set it apart (I have no interest in Hob's Pit)...

Marble Madness looks pretty much like most Wild Mouse coasters, bland... Nothing really sets it out amongst the typical dull look, which is a shame...

 

[Lordy]

(I have no interest in Hob's Pit)...

And there's that typical enthusiast attitude that gives us all a bad name... no massive new B&M coaster= not interested.

I wouldn't really compare pleasurewood to lightwater valley if I'm honest, I feel that there's a bit more variety at pleasurewood . Dark rides, inverting coaster, shows, and some gokarts to name a few. Also PWH is lot a like brighter, and more vibrant. I've always found LWV to be a tad on the dull side, appearance wise.

I'd say Pleasure Island would be a better comparison; similar size, ride line up and price. But I guess their lack of Intamin Megalite's and GCI's means you've probably never been?

I think the new coaster looks neat. Its nice and bright/colourful, but the grey supports keep it from being tacky. The ugly support structure doesn't help the appearance, but it looks nice enough imo. I'm sure it will be a good addition to their line up.

 

[AstroDan]

Benzin has it spot on.

Pleasurewood does lack that single attraction to set it apart.

Lwv: Ultimate
Oakwood: Speed/Fobia
Gt. Yarmouth: Rollercoaster

It's similar abroad...

Holiday Park: Egf/Sky scream
Waly: Monster

Etc.

It's a shame because they're clearly trying these days. They just need something that sets them apart.

 

[Benzin]

And there's that typical enthusiast attitude that gives us all a bad name... no massive new B&M coaster= not interested.

I wouldn't really compare pleasurewood to lightwater valley if I'm honest, I feel that there's a bit more variety at pleasurewood . Dark rides, inverting coaster, shows, and some gokarts to name a few. Also PWH is lot a like brighter, and more vibrant. I've always found LWV to be a tad on the dull side, appearance wise.

I'd say Pleasure Island would be a better comparison; similar size, ride line up and price. But I guess their lack of Intamin Megalite's and GCI's means you've probably never been?

I think the new coaster looks neat. Its nice and bright/colourful, but the grey supports keep it from being tacky. The ugly support structure doesn't help the appearance, but it looks nice enough imo. I'm sure it will be a good addition to their line up.

Erm, actually my lack of interest in Hob's Pit stems from having no interest or joy in experiencing Scare based attractions, rather than thinking that a park needs a B&M to be good...

I also visited Pleasure Island earlier this year, didn't spend as much time as I wanted to be honest due to Odyssey being burdenous, so I can't really review the park in a proper way... But it appeared a lot smaller than PWH and is another park with no true iconic ride though, but at least it had a few odd older flat rides about, and a farmyard...

Of course, you clearly know me well enough to assume my opinions of parks are based upon there being B&Ms, Intamins or GCIs to be any good... So what does my opinion on PWH matter to you?


PWH is very akin to LWV in that it has large areas of grassy based nothingness in between most rides... And if those areas are filled in it does tend to be generic rides... The only area that looks really decent in PWH is the entrance through to Hob's Pit (and the tea room)... Also the log flume had the worst looking water since Flamingoland's...

Did enjoy the shows, but there was still nothing particularly stand-outish of either of them... Which is what most of the park really seemed to be really, generic, not outstanding and a bit plain in places... They do need to clean up the now visible yard by Marble Madness as well, because it looked a mess... The pirate dark ride had broken down when we were gonna ride it as well, so cannot judge... Staff were a mix of pleasant to having loud conversations about the local gossip across pathways...

Overall, beyond Engima being quite cool, none of the coasters were interesting... Dull, vibratey and rough seems to quite each one quite well for the other 3...

 

[shawnoc]

I like this addition, after going last year I really liked PWH. Some of the park needs a bit of tlc but the charm of the park makes you oversee its faults. I feel something should go between wipeout and snake in the grass. I could see something stand out going there. As for Hobbs Pit I thought it was superb, if PWH carries on in that vein the place will be fantastic. Marble Madness will do really well there and looks great from the very little I have seen of it.

 

[MattyH]

PWH have a lot of restrictions on noise compared to other places.

 

[Scott]

I obviously have a soft spot for the place as I've been every year since I was small - but it just needs something outstanding to bring it into a bigger league.

It gets closer and closer and recently has definitely been punching above it's weight which is good. The park is on the rise, making a profit for the first time in over a decade and turning itself around from near closure too.

The new coaster will have a great draw from the local area and will do well from that.

If only the mega drop tower that permission was granted for had been built. That would have been PWHs stand out ride and would have put them on the map... The UKs tallest drop tower at a park like Pleasurewood? Would have been mad!!

 

[mattbailey]

I was at Pleasurewood Hills today. The park was looking very fresh and clean. All staff members were polite, well turned out and happy to help out (a stark contrast to some of the other small parks in the UK).

Marble Madness was a good addition, it offers moderate thrills and to be honest is probably the best standard mouse I've been on in the UK. It's lacking a bit of theming, but the cars look superb. Unfortunately, it broke down at about noon and wasn't up by the time I left the park at 2pm.

Otherwise, had a very enjoyable day, as the park was empty. If it is ever busy, it must be a nightmare as none of the rides today had anything approaching reasonable throughput. Enigma is a bit of a joke in that it's currently reduced to one 8 person train and wipeout was very slow on the dispatch with some rows out of use too. A number of smaller rides were closed today, but these weren't really of any significance (mini railway etc).

Overall, Pleasurewood Hills reminds me of Pontins Park more than anywhere else, it doesn't have the quirk of lightwater nor the "big" rides of Oakwood.

 

[Scott]

^ Throughput is appalling. Enigma has been on one train for a while now - it was supposed to have a closed season upgrade to allow more trains again but it was forgone in favour of buying Marble Madness (fair enough!)

As for Wipeout, it's always had rows unused but nobody has ever truly found out why!

 

[Scott]

Looks like Towers wasn't the only busy park today...

A nice return to the parks glory days!

(Pic from Facebook)

 

[Coaster]

Blimey! Nice to see smaller parks getting the custom they deserve.

 

[Scott]

Pleasurewood Chills is back for its second year - although with a more family-friendly feel to the branding. This hasn;t stopped them from doing scare attractions though! Once again there will be three - two of which are new for 2014. Here are the promo images from the park's Facebook Page:

NEW FOR 2014: "An experiment has gone horribly wrong but who will be lurking in the dark - there's only one way to escape INFECTIOUS! "

Returning again is Hobs Pit Live:

NEW FOE 2014: "Why not take a journey in 'CARRIAGE 13'. The destination will be the least of your worries! "

The park itself will be open alongside these horror attractions, and at park closing time the gorror attractions will remain open for a 'scarier' two hours.

I'm glad that the event is returning as it made a solid start last year - it's great to see small parks stepping up their game forend of season stuff... The "regions largest firework display" will also return on closing day (Nov 2nd) this year.

 

[Coaster]

This actually sounds very good! Shame that PWH is nowhere near me, as I always like to support smaller parks such as this.

 

[MattyH]

It's worth a visit if you've not been before it has a few good rides, it's trying to recover from years of decay.