Paultons Park 16th May 2026

16th May 2026: Paultons Park

After a quiet day at Thorpe Park on Tuesday, I had a day today that I was sensing would be busier; I attended the opening day of Valgard at Paultons Park! I was excited to see the area and ride Drakon for the first time, and also see an opening day for my first time!

We (me, my mum and my dad) left our home at a little before 7:30 this morning, and after a drive where we saw a bizarrely high number of Citroen 2CVs (it seemed like an oddly specific classic car to see a number of on the road) and a services stop, we arrived at Paultons Park at just after 9:30, with it looking as though we narrowly missed some sort of opening ceremony based on the coloured smoke I could see as we pulled into the car park:

Before I get into the meat of the day, I should say that I don’t think I’ve ever been to a park day where I’ve seen so many handheld GoPros in one place… it really was like playing spot the celebrity! I saw all kinds of vloggers and have inevitably appeared in the background of about 10,000 different vlogs… although I also saw some people I recognised from TowersStreet and CoasterForce wandering around, as well as lots of other people I didn’t recognise who seemed like enthusiasts! There were certainly a lot of enthusiasts on park today, put it that way.

After entering the park, we initially decided to head over to Valgard, although we didn’t start with Drakon as the advertised queue was considerable at 90 minutes. We instead started with…

Raven

Raven was on an advertised 5 minute queue, so while we’d done this coaster before, we decided to give it a go with its new theme. The new theming all looks very nice, and it certainly gives the area a lot more atmosphere than when it was Cobra! So, how was the ride? Well, I’ve never been a fan of wild mouse coasters, and I’m not a huge lover of the hairpin turns on there as a result, but the rest of it was definitely a more fun coaster than I’d remembered! It had some nice helixes, fun twists and turns and even some bits where it threatened some airtime! All in all, then, I thought Raven was a good way to start the day, and I think the new theming is definitely a good thing for the ride:

After we got off Raven, I headed to ride the new flat ride in the area…

Vild Swing

Vild Swing was on an advertised 25 minute queue time, so I decided to take a ride on there seeing as I’d never ridden one of these ART swings before. The queue took around 25 minutes as advertised, and although the ride did briefly break down, this was resolved quickly. So, how was it? Well, the ride was OK, with some fun swings and a mostly non-excessive level of intensity, although I’m not a massive fan of flat rides and would say I found the cycle a tad long for my tastes. For the families, though, it should be a fun flat ride:

After I got off Vild Swing, I met back up with my parents, who proudly showed me a “first” that our family managed to bag today; while we didn’t get on the first train of any of the rides in Valgard, my mum and dad did buy the first ever coffee order from the Feasting Hall. What a first!:

After that, we had a brief look at the 2027 construction site before heading out of Valgard to do our first ride elsewhere in the park…

Flight of the Pterosaur

Flight of the Pterosaur was on an advertised 20 minute queue time, so we decided to have a ride on there. The queue was slightly less than advertised, taking around 15 minutes, and me and my mum were batched onto row 7 and ready to go! But how was the ride? Well, I’ve always liked Pterosaur, and it was good fun! It’s smooth, has very comfortable trains and is surprisingly punchy for a family suspended coaster; that helix at the end is genuinely quite intense! My mum and dad also both liked it, with my dad saying the restraints were very comfortable and both of them being disappointed when I explained that Drakon had OTSRs. Overall, then, I really enjoyed Flight of the Pterosaur; I think it’s possibly still my favourite coaster on park:

After Pterosaur, we started to head over to the other side of the park, riding a ride that my parents hadn’t ridden before…

Ghostly Manor

Ghostly Manor was on an advertised 25 minute queue, so as my mum and dad hadn’t ridden it before, we decided to all take a ride on there together. The 25 minute queue was somewhat overstated, with the queue taking more like 10 minutes; I can never moan when that happens! So, how was it? Well, we all enjoyed it; as much as it’s nothing groundbreaking, I think it’s quite a nice little ride, with some nice scenes, a fun level of spooky for a young child audience and a fun shooting ride experience! On a side note, I also got a score of around 64,000, which I think might be the highest score I’ve ever managed on there:

After riding Ghostly Manor, we headed into Tornado Springs to ride our next coaster…

Storm Chaser

Storm Chaser was on an advertised queue time of 10 minutes, so my dad and I decided to give it a go, with my mum politely declining. The 10 minute queue time was, if anything, overstated, as my dad and I got on within 5 minutes. You can never moan about that! So, how was the ride? Well, we were sat in row 3, and despite not being the world’s biggest fan of spinning coasters in general, I always find Storm Chaser a good, fun ride, with a level of spinning that’s fun without being excessive and some nice speed and punchy corners. Similarly to Pterosaur, it has a surprisingly intense helix! My dad also enjoyed the ride more than he’d remembered, saying that he’d remembered the spinning being worse than it was (we did have a particularly spinny last ride in 2021, to be fair). While I’m talking about Storm Chaser, I also have to say that operations were excellent on there; with 2 trains running, throughputs of 800-900pph being attained and trains frequently not stacking:

After getting off Storm Chaser, the queue remained short, so I went straight back round for another go! I was once again seated in row 3, and the ride was once again great fun!

After my reride on Storm Chaser, I headed to do a flat ride in Tornado Springs…

Cyclonator

Cyclonator was on an advertised 20 minute queue time, so I decided to take a ride on there, with mum and dad politely declining. The 20 minute queue time was broadly accurate, which I can never moan about! So, how was it? Well, I remember giving a relatively scathing review of Cyclonator in 2021, citing it as “vile” or words to that effect, but in 2025, I found it a lot more palatable, if not an absolute favourite of mine. In 2026, my verdict is that I substantially overhated it in 2021 and my 2025 thoughts were something closer to my current sentiments. The ride has some good airtime and speed that I enjoy, but the spinning makes me feel a teensy bit nauseous and I controversially much prefer the non-spinning variants of these swinging pendulum rides. I also don’t particularly like the OTSRs on this ride, as I feel like they impede the airtime. I’ll admit my ride on Cyclonator today reaffirmed to me that I’m unsure whether I’ll necessarily get the hype for Aviktas at Blackpool Pleasure Beach; while it does have lap bars, it still spins, and I think I personally much favour the non-spinning variants like the S&S Screamin’ Swing:

After getting off Cyclonator, I met back up with my parents and we headed to ride…

Cat-O-Pillar

Cat-O-Pillar was on an advertised 5 minute queue, so me and my mum decided to ride it. The 5 minute queue was if anything overstated, as we waltzed straight onto row 4; I can never moan about that! So, how was the ride? Well, it was definitely a fun little ride; I always find the Tivolis quite charming, and this one is no exception! I’ll admit they are slightly more uncomfortable when you’re not the only adult in a row, but even still, the ride was good fun with some areas where it gained moderate speed and the charm that always comes with those long Tivoli trains!:

After getting off Cat-O-Pillar, we headed back over to the other side of the park with the original intent of riding Velociraptor, but we noticed that a certain draw had reopened following a breakdown on a shorter queue than earlier…

Drakon

Drakon was on an advertised 50 minute queue time, so as it was the main reason for our visiting and this was a shorter queue than earlier, we decided to bite the bullet and join the queue. The ride had a few “temporary delays” while we waited, but even with this, we were on in around 30 minutes, which I can’t moan about for a new ride on its opening day! Incidentally, I should add that we stopped towards the top of the vertical lift hill on our first ride… which we initially thought made us unique, but turned out that this was happening a fair amount! So, how was the ride? Well, I was quite critical of Paultons building a Euro-Fighter, so I was interested to see how I found it. I have to say that in isolation, it is undeniably a fun ride that suits the park and its market well, and while I maintain that a Euro-Fighter is a conservative hardware choice, I was perhaps unduly harsh on the choice in some regards. While perhaps not the most forceful or exciting ride, Drakon is a smooth ride by Euro-Fighter standards, the beyond-vertical drop on these is always good fun, and the stall is actually quite good (or would be… more on this in the next sentence). However… there’s a but coming, and that’s that I still think it would have been audibly better with lap bars. This may not have been helped by the fact that I was thoroughly stapled in by the operator, but I found that the OTSRs absolutely crushed my thighs and made the stall in particular somewhat uncomfortable. Away from the track and train, I also liked the theming of the ride; I loved little details like the sheep “powering” the lift hill, and I thought the pre-lift dark ride section was also a nice surprise! All in all, then, I think Drakon is a good, fun ride as a starter thrill coaster for the younger guests. I think it could have been a notably better ride with lap bars, and if I’m being picky, I maintain that this would not have been my personal first choice of coaster, but in isolation, I think it’s a fun ride that works well. I don’t think it’s my personal favourite coaster in the park (I’d still put Pterosaur and Storm Chaser ahead of it, at very least), but it’s a fun ride, it’s a welcome step up, and I hope it works well for them:

After getting off Drakon, me and my mum headed to ride our last new-for-the-day coaster…

Velociraptor

Velociraptor was on an advertised 5 minute queue time, so we decided to take a ride on there. The 5 minute advertised queue time was true to its word, with us being batched onto row 5 within 5 minutes (all the 5’s!). But how was the ride? Well, it was smooth and good fun, with the train carrying good speed through the layout, but I’ll admit I don’t rate it quite as highly as the park’s other family coasters, as I’m not the biggest fan of the backwards section. From memory, I would rank it slightly higher than Accelerator at Drayton Manor, however:

After Velociraptor, my mum and dad decided they’d ridden enough and deserted me to go and do peaceful things like riding the train and looking at the animals, so having been left to my own devices, I initially decided to get into the advertised 45 minute queue for another ride on Drakon. I only waited 25 minutes this time, and unlike some rides where my opinion notably improved with a second ride, my thoughts remained very similar to the first time around:

After getting off Drakon, I went for another ride on Raven, where I would later realise that I had been batched in the same car as at least two other members of TowersStreet Talk. Had I been sure of this in the queue or on the ride, I may have said something, but even still; hello to you two, if you’re reading! I’m sorry I didn’t say hello at the time! As with before, the ride itself was fun even if the hairpin turn section is a tad too sharp for my liking, and I like that the ride is now properly themed:

After getting off Raven, I went for another reride on Flight of the Pterosaur. I was seated in row 8 this time, and it was once again really good fun:

After getting off Flight of the Pterosaur, I headed over to Storm Chaser for another reride. I was in the back row this time, and it was once again good fun:

After getting off Storm Chaser, I headed over to Drakon for one final ride. My thoughts on it remained very similar to earlier, although it was raining a little this time, which made the vertical lift hill… interesting, to say the least:

After getting off Drakon, I met back up with my parents, and as it was 3:30pm, it was starting to rain more heavily, my parents were keen to escape said rain and I was quite content with what I’d ridden for the day, we decided to call it quits there and head on home:

So, that wraps up my day at Paultons Park for the opening day of Valgard! I had a really good day; it was interesting to experience an opening day (I’ve genuinely never seen so many handheld GoPros in one place in my life… I’ll be staggered if I’m not in the background of at least a few vlogs!), it was interesting to experience Paultons Park on a busier day than my last visit, and it was great to see the new area and coaster for the first time!

Valgard is a lovely area; it’s another resounding success for Paultons Park as far as I’m concerned, and I liked the inclusion of some additional show elements compared to some of their prior areas! As critical as I was (and to some degree remain) of Paultons building a Euro-Fighter, I do think Drakon is a fun coaster that the target audience will enjoy, even if it’s not threatening my personal top 10 and I do think it would have benefitted from lap bars rather than OTSRs, and I do applaud Paultons for upping the thrills.

As for the park more widely; while Drakon did have its teething issues, I thought the crowds were dealt with very well, on the whole. I got 15 rides in 6-ish hours, which I’m going to declare a huge success for the opening day of a major new area, and I’ll admit that Paultons have either upped their game operationally or I haven’t given them enough credit previously, as I thought operations across the park were excellent and very prompt! As much as it’s one that isn’t quite on my personal annual “must visit regardless of investment levels” list yet, the park remains a very pleasant one to visit and has an admirable focus on guest experience.

Thanks for reading; I hope you’ve enjoyed this report! I’m not too sure when my next trip report will be, but if not before, I’ll definitely be coming at you with a report at the end of June, which will likely be from my first ever visit to Parc Asterix in France!