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Oakwood


Aarron P

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Sod it, I’m off to Kaatsheuvel!

 

Strangely there’s been a consecutive chain with the Dahl family detesting attractions based on their IP’s. First it happened to COTCF at Towers and now looks like it’s happened again here. 

 

Apparently they also disliked the 1971 Willy Wonka film too.

 

Fingers crosses this new attraction can add something to a park which has been badly struggling for years.

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Dahl was extremely strict with adaptions of his novels. He had the name of the 1971 CATCF changed to 'Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory' instead as he was disappointed with the adaption. He actively told fans not to watch The Witches and I dare say he'd be turning in his grave at what they did to Fantastic Mr Fox. 

It's not surprising that his estate have withdrawn the rights to these Oakwood rides. I doubt that he himself would have been a fan. 

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  • 3 months later...

Oakwood was amazing last Wednesday, the park was on a 10pm close yet was very quiet, and there were no fireworks meaning the rides stayed open until (nearly) 10pm.

 

Megafobia was belting round all day, securing its place well above Wicker Man (but still below the National and Mouse) in terms of my favourite wooden coasters.  Speed and Drenched are both very good rides and still some of my favourite in the UK.  Staff were very friendly and professional throughout the day, many of which I recognised from previous years.  Bounce looks sad left there SBNO, seems to be a common theme across UK theme parks unfortunately.  Spooky 3D was spookier than last year but still needs work.  Creepy Crawler has a nice new anamatronic in the queue.

 

The park and grounds were looking nice, it appears that a few areas have had some TLC/general aesthetic work which was good to see.

 

Oakwood is genuinely one of my favourite parks; the setting is lovely, rides fantastic and it's amazing to visit on a quiet day.  On a busy day however, it falls apart and I suspect the After Dark events will most likely be plagued with the same capacity issues as previous years.  My advice is pick one of the 10pm closes before After Dark starts if you're looking for a decent ridecount.

 

My ridecount for the day;

 

Megafobia x28

Speed x10

Drenched x7

Creepy Crawler x3

Bobsleigh x2

Spooky 3D x2

Snake River Falls x2

Waterfall x1

Treetops x1

Tinkerbell's Flying School x1

Skull Rock x1

Pirate Ship x1

Moon Landing x1

Taxi x1

Boating Lake x1

Witch Hunt (horror maze) x2

 

TOTAL: 64

 

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This is sad :(

 

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But this is AMAZING :D 

 

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After possibly the best day at Oakwood since 2006/7, I'd highly recommend visiting.

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10 hours ago, Nathanevans1010 said:

Such a shame that the park is so quiet especially in the summer holidays perhaps significant investment would help bring in the crowds ??‍♀️

 

@Coaster haven’t had a chance to experience Witch Hunt yet,was it any good? 

Yeah it was good fun, nothing groundbreaking but it had a narrative at the start, some good strobe effects etc.

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  • 7 months later...

Two good pieces of news from Oakwood;

 

1. The park will open a Zamperla Disk-O (named Dizzy Disk) for 2019, which I believe is replacing the Clown Coaster.

 

2. Bounce has been re-added onto the park's website and park map, with the following text;

Quote

Please be aware that Bounce is currently undergoing a major refurbishment and is closed to all guests.

 

Works on Bounce are scheduled for completion this summer, however you can follow progress on the completion of works on both our website and social media channels.

https://www.oakwoodthemepark.co.uk/at-the-park/thrill-rides/


The park map also shows the ride as "returning in 2019".


Excellent news! ?

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
Oakwood was very quiet today, we visited and I don't think there can have been more than 100 people on park.
 
Staff were amazing and friendly throughout the day and the reride policy on Megafobia is awesome, allowing us to get the following ridecount;
 
Megafobia x25
Speed x5
Drenched x2
Bobsleigh x2
Creepy Crawler x2
Snake River Falls x2
Skull Rock x1
Treetops x1
Spooky 3D x1
Flying School x1
Neverland Chase x1
Pirate Ship x1
Witch Hunt (scare maze) x1
 
Megafobia was as good as ever, some amazing airtime in the back row and I'd say it felt smoother in places where it had been retracked/had wood replaced.
 
Speed wasn't so good (lifthill was terrifyingly slow and I'm sure it never used to be trimmed as much before the barrel roll) but the second hill is still brilliant.
 
Witch Hunt is pretty decent.
 
Spooky 3D was awful, the music loop was broken so there was hardly any audio whatsoever and quite a few effects broken.
 
Drenched was good but I miss the force on the drop in the back row :(
 
Parkwide audio has been changed to themed music for this year instead of the song loop, made for a very different atmosphere I found.  Speed's new soundtrack is cool and suits it well.
 
Didn't brave Waterfall today as the water level looked quite low and saw a few people get soaked.
 
Very pleased to see that work has started on Bounce with signage explaining what they're doing, am looking forward to getting back on this.
 
The Disko looks pretty good with the bright (but tasteful) colour scheme and I like the logo designs.
 
Overall a very good day with amazing staff and service.  It was a shame to see the park so quiet but the awful weather in the morning may have contributed a lot to this.
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  • 2 months later...

I too managed to catch a quiet day at Oakwood last Saturday; due to the weather, and it's forecast, evening fireworks had been cancelled and the park was to close at 6p.m., Speed and some other items were closed due to high winds.

Megaphobia is the biggie and in the damp she was flying, and lack of customers meant a run of 9 rides without getting off during the afternoon.

Bobsleigh I think is an entertaining ride when with each turn one tries to get that bit faster, without falling off, and there was a spell when me and colleague were able to ride again without going round the queueline as there was nobody there.

People do add to the atmosphere of a park but sometimes, lack of them is a bonus.

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  • 3 years later...

Is the Blair Rabbit’s Burrow ride that closed almost a decade ago SBNO? If it is retaining it is an utter waste. The ride could be rethemed or replaced with a large scale attraction. In other news Theme Park Worldwide posted a photo on Instagram of Bounce operational. This photograph was great to see the rides been SBNO for many years. 

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9 hours ago, Theme Park Fanatic said:

Is the Blair Rabbit’s Burrow ride that closed almost a decade ago SBNO? If it is retaining it is an utter waste. The ride could be rethemed or replaced with a large scale attraction. In other news Theme Park Worldwide posted a photo on Instagram of Bounce operational. This photograph was great to see the rides been SBNO for many years. 

That burrow stuff seemed to disappear a few years ago, and that corner of the park always appears run down. The small coaster in there, Witches Brew is a manically rough ride. Bounce was going through all sorts of weird cycles but worth it. Speed was good though oddly no queue late morning and really hot weather.

 

As always with Oakwood some areas seem neglected and the pedal boat ponds are almost covered in algae. The waters of drenched though were very clean and welcome.

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  • 2 months later...

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Oakwood was evacuated at 1pm today due to a “serious” (as per a BBC Wales source) incident on Treetops.

 

The incident happened this afternoon, the air ambulance were called, and one person has been taken to hospital. The HSE have already started an investigation.

 

There are eyewitness reports saying that someone was “ejected” from the ride, but these should be taken with a pinch of salt as there has been no official confirmation.

 

Live updates can be found here: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/live-updates-air-ambulance-called-25335338?utm_source=wales_online_newsletter&utm_campaign=breaking_daily_newsletter2&utm_medium=email&pure360.trackingid={~TrackingId~}

 

My thoughts go out to those affected.

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22 hours ago, Matt N said:

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Oakwood was evacuated at 1pm today due to a “serious” (as per a BBC Wales source) incident on Treetops.

 

The incident happened this afternoon, the air ambulance were called, and one person has been taken to hospital. The HSE have already started an investigation.

 

There are eyewitness reports saying that someone was “ejected” from the ride, but these should be taken with a pinch of salt as there has been no official confirmation.

 

Live updates can be found here: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/live-updates-air-ambulance-called-25335338?utm_source=wales_online_newsletter&utm_campaign=breaking_daily_newsletter2&utm_medium=email&pure360.trackingid={~TrackingId~}

 

My thoughts go out to those affected.

Fingers crossed for better news, hope the girl is uninjured though the stress will be bad enough.

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