I think a refurb of this ride is the least they can do to be honest. It is a real let down to the park at the moment and needs to be addressed sooner rather than later. Pleasurewood Hills is on the up in my opinion, even looking at the changes from this year compared to last year are a big step in the right direction. The park is clean and tidy, the staff are friendly and professional and the shows are very good quality.

There are however some really big let downs and one of them is Enigma. Enigma could be a great ride but at the moment going on it is more of a chore to be honest. And that's not just to do with the throughput but also the lack of theming and lack of atmosphere around the ride.

Just while I'm at it the young children's rides around the park are also in need of updating. The Sky Hooks need to be replaced with a bigger Wave Swinger version of the ride (Like the one in the good ol' days), and also some easy installations like a Zamperla Rockin' Tug or S&S Frog Hopper would go down really well at a park like PH.

I like your idea Mr Brightside. I too have thought that enclosing Enigma would be a great way to reinvent the ride at not too much of a cost, marketing it as a new ride. The outside theming would have to be good (as in not just a tent) and indoor theming I could imagine as maybe an underwater adventure with fluorescent fish, jelly fish etc glowing as you whizz past.

^ If Pleasurewood ever doen anything to the standards of Crush's coaster, I'd faint, that is an AMAZING ride, well actually its an average ride made 100 times better by some spectacular theming.

Weirdly, your idea could really work for Pleasurewood, especially if they brought in a differen't ride manufacturer to sort the ride out, and give it some spinning cars? That could work, it has enough block sections for that.

Also planning wouldn't really be a problem (if they relocate, which they should for this idea) as it would be enclosed in a building.

And it also fits in with the nautical theme of the park...!

In fact, I LOVE this idea now. It should be relocated to where you mentioned Josh, on that little field behind Fireball.

mrbrightside wrote:

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I should totally run the place...

I mean, I'd be happy with just replacing the trains with spinny cars this summer... that would completely change the ride - and it has plenty enough curves and turns for it to work so well.

However, it is inevitable that nothing major will happen :p

Maybe we should all 'suggest' this idea to them ;)

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 If something major was in the pipeline for next year  surley the planning permission would have been put in to the council long ago???
(this would rule out a proper rapid ride as i would imagine that would need planning permission)
i have not heard anything about pleasurewood putting in planning permission for anything, so im thinking perhaps its going to be a smaller ride rather than something major like we are all hoping

does anyone know if a ride like wizzy dizzy would need planning permission>?
perhaps this new family attraction that has been mentioned before will turn out to be
another ride on the back of a lorry?? :(
personally i would like to see them get something like ligh****er valley has installed this year

http://www.ligh****ervalley.co.uk/wild_river_rapids.php

Link didnt appear correct due to certain swear word appearing in middle lol
copy the link below then delete the space between light  and watervalley
to get to link.

http://www.light watervalley.co.uk/wild_river_rapids.php

-- Edited by datman on Sunday 6th of September 2009 09:07:07 PM

-- Edited by datman on Sunday 6th of September 2009 09:07:39 PM

I would be happy with a travelling rapids ride like the one at Light Water Valley. Timber Falls is a travelling model log flume and that sits nicely in the park especially with a nice paint job and some theming to boot.

As for planning permission I am not sure if they need to apply for back of lorry type rides. I would imagine that they would would due to the time the ride would be in place.

Just looking at Light Water's line up it seems they have a permanent KMG Afterburner (Eagle's Claw) they just look so much better that the back of lorry versions!

As for Enigma..we can but dream of an immense overhaul.  To be honest I would just love to see it back to it's former glory - anything more would be a bonus!

-- Edited by Josh on Sunday 6th of September 2009 10:13:57 PM

You're right the coloured lights do scream travelling fairground ride. It does need a proper theme or nice paint job as it doesn't fit with the park at the moment. It is however the best flat ride on park though in my opinion.

Oh Thunderstruck. Yep, worst ride on park. I went on it once and haven't bothered since.

From Wiki...

"Eventually there was a change of ownership from a private family firm to Queensborough Holdings, who bought the park for £5.2 million in 1997. Queensborough Holdings were also in ownership of Pleasurewood Hills Theme Park at the time, which resulted in both parks sharing the same mascot Woody the Bear. The parks were somewhat 'sisters' and operated under Leisure Great Britain of which Queensborough Holdings financed. However, the new owners put the park back up for sale within 11 months of buying it as they decided to re-focus their business in the current market."

Another thing about these Rapids, I really dont no if they'd go for the ones that LWV got this year, as cool and fun as they are, they do look hidious and very tacky, and thats the something that CdA clearly dotn like. Look at when they took over, yeah they brought in Tundercrap, but they tried to cover up the fact that quite a few rides were 'travelling' rides, like Mouse Trap, Enigma and Fireball.

Its the same now with Timber Falls, it looks much more like a permanent attraction now.

Another thing, you notice alot of these large rapids slides are all in European parks, which is where all of CdA's other parks are located..... so.... ya just never know!! :)

It doesn't have to be a Reverchon travelling rapids ride to be compact.  Check out these rapids rides from ABC engineering.  They are permanent structures with a much smaller footprint than landscaped rapids with a unique vertical lift hill:





I can see something like this being at a park like Pleasurewood and it would also be unique to the UK. 

http://www.abc-engineering.ch/riversplash/index.html

Yeah I see what you mean Josh, but its not really too much different to the Reverchon models, apart form being more expensive.

Anyway, by the summer we're all likely to be dissapointed when we find out that the rumour we started about rapids isn't even true

Lol, the Rapids rumour has been floating around now for about 6 years!

The thing is though, they need a new ride next year, its been too long.

-- Edited by Martyn on Wednesday 9th of September 2009 05:20:32 PM

The ones I mentioned are unique though with the vertical lift being a good selling point. They also have the advantage of all being a different design and layout as opposed to the Reverchon which looks as though there is only one model and one layout. I would certainly like to see something of much higher quality at the hills than the reverchon model. *But I would be happy with a new ride...regardless.

According to Wiki they they have ceased trading but only as of last year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverchon_Industries

It annoys me when you think that park does have the other trains for Enigma, in working condition too, yet they still only use one train!

You dont need to spend any money on fixing the block brakes etc to have 2 trains running, just make sure there's only ever one train on the circuit.

That would still improve throughput drastically!

Timber Falls and the Pirate Ship both look great now apparently but Enigma just looks dire! Somebody from the park did say they were doing something to Enigma for this seasons I'm sure but that seems to have come to absoutley nothing... but apparently there are rumours of work being done at the end of the season... not sure of the extent...