Coaster

The most frustrating thing about the appalling operations is that Oakwood has some really great rides, and I have been visiting since I was about six whenever I went on holiday to Wales. As such, I am very saddened to see it go so far downhill and I think Aspro are to blame. I also forgot to mention, Brer Rabbit was also fenced off as a result of them giving up with their new investment, so technically that's another ride unavailable!

I'm not sure how busy Thorpe and Towers have been, but Blackpool Pleasure Beach certainly seems to be getting a good amount of guests in these summer holidays!

Nice to see 8pm closes again, it might be enough to get me to visit during the event this year!

I've always said that they should put some posters up in the station similar to the ones in The Sanctuary, but obviously bigger.

Wednesday 30th July PARK OPEN: 10am - 10pm RIDES CLOSED: Drenched, Bounce, Pirate Ship, Clown Coaster, Train BREAKDOWNS: Megafobia (about 30 mins), Skull Rock (twice, 10 mins each time), Vertigo (about an hour). Before visiting, I phoned up the park asking if there were any ride closures, and was told that the pirate ship was closed but that everything else is open. On arrival, we saw that Bounce was also closed, which was a disappointment. Naturally we went to Megafobia first after entering the park, which was running a one train service with an hour's worth of queue (which took 1hr 15mins), with the fast pass queue going down the exit. Once in the station we realised that several rows were blocked off. On some trains, 10 seats on a 24 seated train were fast pass which is frankly absurd. Also, fast pass holders get to choose their seats, so if you are there at the wrong time then wave bye bye to choosing a row. After this we did spooky 3D. Most of the effects were broken (no car horn, no jumping down figure etc). Also, the ride was running on two cars. Two. Therefore the queue on this took forever as well. After going on it, we headed over to Drenched which was stuck on the lifthill. This means that 3 major rides were now closed. We headed over to speed, which had a completely full queueline, full fast pass queueline going down the exit and yet it was running ONE CAR. We swiftly walked away from Speed in disgust and noticed that the Clown Coaster was closed, an Vertigo had also gone down. We went to reception to make a complaint, and there were about 30 families heading the same direction. We spoke to some of them, who described the day as "a complete waste of money", "outrageous" and "I don't know how they get away with it". The train to get out was also closed which was hilarious, as we heard someone say "the train is even closed, that just sums up this place!!" We spent about half an hour in reception, with other people making a very serious complaint. I mean why on earth are so many rides closing in the summer on a packed day, and why are the remaining rides on one train?!!! After highlighting the many issues, we were told that the park doesn't issue refunds. After much frustration we asked if we could have a return ticket, and, after explaining that we were on holiday in the local area, we were reluctantly given one. They also added a second car onto speed, but that was it. It should be on three cars as standard in school holidays anyway! At this point it was 6pm and most people had left the park in disgust. The only ride that reopened was Vertigo (what a surprise, they can fix the pay extra one!) and nobody was working on the other ones all day. However, we did manage six rides on Megafobia and five on Speed as most people had left. Although, even Megafobia got stuck on the lifthill (but was open again within half an hour). RIDECOUNT: Megafobia x6 Speed x5 Treetops x1 Skull Rock x1 Spooky 3D x1 Plane Crazy (or whatever stupid name it has now) x1 TOTAL: 15 Monday 4th July PARK OPEN: 10am - 6pm RIDES CLOSED: Drenched (all day), Pirate Ship (all day), Bounce (from 1pm onwards). BREAKDOWNS: Megafobia, Vertigo Overall a considerably better day, but only because the park was much quieter due to a very heavy downpour at exactly 10am! RIDECOUNT: Megafobia x10 Speed x5 Waterfall x4 Still terrifies me! Bounce x2 Spooky 3D x2 Bobsleigh x1 Treetops x1 Snake River Falls x1 (Cobra) This was hilarious as I nearly stopped, and my brother did stop halfway through the tunnel! Moon Landing Drop Slide x1 I planned to take lots more photos, but forgot my camera on the second day! Drenched has been like this since Weds 30th July! Speed; Thanks for reading, comments welcome.

Yep, I rode it on my own. Nearly stopped though

It was closing halfway through the day and could only do the second half of the ride (going up slowly).Just TYPICAL of my luck. As soon as I have visited things start working properly! If I find out that Drenched has reopened I might actually cry...

Speed is not in anyway rough.

I think they need to spend more money on maintenance before they even look at anything else so that their rides actually work!

What a farce. I phoned up the park asking if there were any ride closures, and was told that the pirate ship was closed but that everything else is open. On arrival, we saw that Bounce was also closed, which was a disappointment. Naturally we went to Megafobia first after entering the park, which was running a one train service with an hour's worth of queue (which took 1hr 15mins), with the fast pass queue going down the exit. Once in the station we realised that several rows were blocked off. On some trains, 10 seats on a 24 seated train were fast pass which is frankly absurd. Also, fast pass holders get to choose their seats, so if you are there at the wrong time then wave bye bye to choosing a row. After this we did spooky 3D. Most of the effects were broken (no car horn, no jumping down figure etc). Also, the ride was running on two cars. Two. Therefore the queue on this took forever as well. After going on it, we headed over to Drenched which was stuck on the lifthill. This means that 3 major rides were now closed. We headed over to speed, which had a full queueline, full fast pass queueline and was running ONE CAR. At this point, we noticed that the Clown Coaster was closed, an Vertigo had also gone down. We went to reception to make a complaint, and there were about 30 families heading the same direction. We spoke to some of them, who described the day as "a complete waste of money", "outrageous" and "I don't know how they get away with it". The train to get out was also closed which was hilarious, as we heard someone say "the train is even closed, that just sums up this place!!" We spent about half an hour in reception, with other people making a very serious complaint. I mean why on earth are so many rides closing in the summer on a packed day, and why are the remaining rides on one train?!!! After highlighting the many issues, we were told that the park doesn't issue refunds. After much frustration we asked if we could have a return ticket, and, after explaining that we were on holiday in the local area, we were reluctantly given one. They also added a second car onto speed, but that was it. It should be on three cars as standard in school holidays anyway! At this point it was 6pm and most people had left the park in disgust. The only ride that reopened was Vertigo (what a surprise, they can fix the pay extra one!) an nobody was working on the other ones all day. However, we did manage six rides on Mega and five on Speed as most people had left. Although, even Megafobia got stuck on the lifthill (but was open again within half an hour). I'm sorry, but if they don't start listening to guest feedback soon then they are going to lose business rapidly. What a disgrace.

I am visiting Oakwood today so I will be making a full judgement of the park's current state.

I got asked if I wanted to buy fastrack, needless to say that my reply was brusque.

Another thing with Slammer, why does the man in the control box keep calling it Samurai down the PA?

Yeah it was running 2 boats on Wednesday as well.

£49.99?!!! Surely that has to be a joke?! Oh come on, it is £50 now, I mean what is 1p?

I think they should just play the full entrance music. Like they used to.

The trouble is, all Tidal Wave does is go down a hill and get you soaked. There is nothing else to the ride, therefore I think that it would be pointless to have a covered boat as the only point of the ride is to soak you. On days where there is no queue, people who don't want to ride could easily wait a few minutes for other people to ride. On days with a long queue, everyone will probably want to ride it as the weather is most likely boiling!

My Bloody Valentine had some really good theming, when you could see it. It is just a huge shame that they often choose to hide well themed sets in pitch black darkness, as a bit of ambient lighting is much better IMO so you can actually see what you are supposed to see. Personally, I feel very disappointed if I queue for a maze and there is nothing but darkness. I did MBV several times over 5 separate days last year, and it ranged from fantastic to awful depending on lighting, audio and actor positioning. Consistency is the key.

In my opinion the only good seat on Rita is the back row, the rest are dull as hell IMO...

I thought that X was running a lot faster today.

That's a bit rubbish. The Smiler will have a huge queue already by the time day visitors can get to it, and no Nemesis

Saw the 4D experience today. Was quite impressed overall, and all the water sprays were refreshing considering the weather!

Wednesday 23rd July 2014 - Ridecount Slammer x4 X x3 Stealth x2 The Swarm x1 Nemesis Inferno x1 Rush x1 Tidal Wave x1 Loggers Leap x1 Rumba Rapids x1 Dodgems x1 Angry Birds 4D Experience x1 Breakdowns: Saw, Samurai. (Colossus opened late and was on limited capacity, Slammer also opened late). The park was quite busy but not as busy as I was expecting.

I remember coming across them a while ago, it's interesting to see what they look like with the lights on (usually better than with the show lighting). There are also Hellgate pictures: http://www.scareattractions.co.uk/thorpe-park-hellgate-exclusive-pics/

So do I. I am still of the opinion that fastrack is paid queue jumping, and to have it slow down the main queue really hacks me off. I'll just reiterate the way that BPB do it. They sell 200 a day at a premium price, you reserve the ride, wait for the amount of time that the queueline is and then ride. People in the main queue are not constantly slowed down, instead they might have to wait one train if the "speedy pass" people choose their row. Annoying? Yes. But downright ridiculous? No. The whole queue is not being impeded, it just affects you once or twice max throughout a day. By the sounds of it, Oakwood are running the system in the worst possible way, selling it to as many people people as possible on park and then completely stuffing up the main queue so that more people buy it. Why not charge a high price and sell a few? Same amount of money, and much less aggravation (and I will be complaining if it is really as bad as people are saying).