Oakwood - Wednesday 24th August 2016 PTR

[Coaster]

PARK OPEN: 10am - 10pm
RIDES CLOSED: Drenched, Bounce, Tink's Flying School

 

We visited Oakwood for the After Dark event this year, which included fireworks and a colour party.  Over the years I've had mixed visits at Oakwood; some are brilliant, whereas others are not-so good.

 

The day started badly with Megafobia not opening on time, however we did manage to get a ride on Bobsleigh before the queue built up, and a few goes on Speed which was running two cars.  This is an improvement on previous years, where it has only been running one despite a large queue; it ran two cars all day which was great to see!

 

The park is much nicer kept than it has been for years, with grass cut back neatly everywhere, a really nice new queueline for Bobsleigh and various other improvements across the park.  This helped to create a great atmosphere and really feels as if they care about the park.  Top notch!

 

I would like to bring up operations here, as unfortunately with the exception of Speed they were a huge letdown.

 

Firstly, it was unfortunate that the biggest ride (Megafobia) was not ready for park opening, however it actually opened at 11:25, so nearly an hour and a half late!  To add to this, it was running on a one train service all day, they don't have a second train built up in the station which for the main summer season is far from ideal.  Combined with late opening this meant that a long, slow queue built up immediately after the ride opened.  The situation with Megafobia's queue got a lot worse later on in the day - I'll cover this in more detail further below.

 

Ride closing times weren't clear.  I contacted the park regarding the closing times, and was told that Megafobia closed at 9pm to prepare for the fireworks, but that everything else would be open until 10pm.  I was therefore not impressed when I went over to Speed at 9:15pm to find the queue closed.  This is extremely poor when we were told otherwise, and there were lots of people heading towards the ride only to turn away in disgust after seeing the gate closed.  In addition to this, Megafobia's queue closed ten minutes earlier than advertised at 8:50pm.

 

It was also a shame to see two of the park's "big four" closed on such a busy day, this didn't help with queues at all and it seems to be a regular occurrence at Oakwood for more than one big ride to be down all day.

 

This brings me to the worst thing all day.  After years of visiting theme parks I've finally found it, the worst queue management I have EVER seen!  By the afternoon, Megafobia had a huge Fastpass queue; it stretched down the entire exit ramp and was spilling out over the path underneath it at one point.  We were in the main queue from the 60 minutes board, where earlier the queue had taken 40.  85 minutes later we got on the ride!  Why?  Because of a complete lack of any competence at managing Fast Pass!  The park were literally sending one full train from the main queue, then a full train of Fastpass, then repeat.  So the already-low throughput due to one train has now been halfed, and slowed down more seeing as Fast Pass takes longer to load than the main queue.  Furthermore, on the 85 minute queue occasion, the Fast Pass train had been loaded but there were two seats left at the back, and we were queueing for the back row.  Did they fill up the seats from the main queue?  I'll leave you to guess that one!
To add insult to injury, the park now runs the system like Speedy Pass at BPB, in that you queue for a row and then have it taken from in front of you; previously Oakwood have had barriers which are put in the way of the airgates for the next ride to avoid this situation.
After standing in the 85 minute queue I made a complaint and was told that there is no limit to the amount of Fast Pass sold.  This is frankly appalling, and shows a complete disregard for the customer experience.

 

I spoke to a few members of the park's management regarding the Fast Pass issue, all of whom were very friendly and a pleasure to talk to.  They were also happy to listen to suggestions and take them onboard, and when I saw them around the park later on they asked me if everything was alright.  A simple thing such as communicating well with customers goes a long way, so well done to Oakwood for this!

 

On a more positive note, the After Dark event itself was really good!  New for this year was the Paint Party, an idea I was initally unsure about, but it was fantastic fun and it drew a large crowd of people joining in.  Basically, there's music playing, you buy powder from shop and then throw it up in the air.  I really think Oakwood are onto something with this idea, as it must be a huge money-spinner as well as extremely popular. 
The fireworks were also very good, the display lasted for a decent amount of time and the effect of the fireworks launching from behind Megafobia is very effective.

 

For the benefit of anyone who hasn't visited Oakwood, here are a few ride reviews;

 

Megafobia is a fantastic wooden roller coaster with some very intense airtime and fast turns, as well as plenty of near misses with the ride's support structure.  It wasn't running at its best on the day of my visit this year, however IMO it's still without question one of the best coasters in the UK.

 

Similarly to Megafobia, Speed is also very intense, with an outrageously good airtime hill, two inversions and a fast helix to finish.  For a point of comparison, I find it much better than Saw at Thorpe.

 

Having never done Vertigo I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  The initial incline is nerve racking to say the least, it's actually quite terrifying being pulled up that high facing the ground.  The initial drop was fantastic, after which it was quite fun but the fear factor wore off.

 

Treetops is a good family coaster, it's nothing spectacular but the near misses with the trees combined with a hidden layout make for a decent coaster.

 

Bobsleigh is great fun, it's rider interactive, unique to the UK and suits the location of Oakwood perfectly.  Only downside is the throughput!

 

Waterfall is also great, basically if you don't balance your weight perfectly then you get soaked!

 

Spooky 3D has had some restored effects, but overall it's still in need of some urgent TLC to bring it up to an acceptable standard.

 

 

RIDECOUNT:
Megafobia x7 (Some of which were due to complimentary exit passes given to us after making the complaint)
Speed x6
Treetops x2
Bobsleigh x1
Waterfall x1
Skull Rock x1
Snake River Falls x1
Spooky 3D x1
Pirate Ship x1
Moon Landing x1
Neverland walkthrough x1
Vertigo x1 (Upcharge)

 

TOTAL: 24

 

Highlights:
- Speed running two cars!
- The park looks much nicer this year
- Paint party was a great idea and very popular
- Fireworks were good
- Friendly management
- Nice to see the park celebrating 20 years of Megafobia

 

Lowlights:
- Worst queue/Fast Pass management EVER on Megafobia
- Too many rides closed
- Unclear ride closing times
- Late opening on Megafobia
- Ride capacity still poor overall

 

Megafobia;

 

 

 

Speed;

 

 

 

Skull Rock;

 

Really nice new queueline for Bobsleigh;

 

Shame to see two major rides closed;

 

 

The crowd for the paint party;

 

Thanks for reading

[Project LC]

5 hours ago, Coaster Jamie said:

- The park looks much nicer this year

Well I am very glad I didn't see it in previous years then.

[planenut]

Nice report Jamie, good set of pics, I was there a month ago. Being an old fogey I definitely don't like the paint throwing event which must be a fantastic money spinner for the park, though it leaves a mess for days after. Apart from the fact that as soon as someone throws their paint, it mixes with all the others and is just a  mass of dust, this will then be inhaled which I cannot imagine is good for the lungs.

 

The bobsleigh is great and as you point out, is governed by the speed (or not) of the riders and that is where it all slows down, and one needs to speak with staff to ensure you get a good space to do a fast run.

 

Waterfall is a great laugh and a must for the opportunity to try a hands up, with damp results.

 

Sad thing about Drenched which has been having problems with the brakes, therefore they reduce the load, and often don't open it; as it is they don't open until 2p.m. because "guests will have to be wet until they leave the park!" it doesn't seem to affect  those wanting to ride Tidal Wave at TP.

 

It's a great shame that you had bad queue experiences with Meggie, it's a brilliant ride.

 

Well done.