Myself and my girlfriend decided, at the last minute, to take a trip to Pleasurewood Hills on the 17th April and had a really good day with decent weather and very few queues. I only had my mobile phone with me as we hadn't really planned it in advance so the few photos I took are not of particularly high quality but will be popping up on the site over the coming weeks.
Our day started with a ride on Thunderstruck, which was terrifying for all the wrong reasons. As the ride reached maximum height, the car we were in made a horrendous clunking sound every time we reached a certain point in the spin...
We made it of in one piece thankfully, and wandered around to Enigma fully expecting to have to "try again later" because of a queue. We were surprised to find only a relatively small queue so joined the back of it. What seemed like a small queue did seem to take forever and the wait here turned out to be the longest of the day (about 25-30 minutes).
The Pirate Ship was being worked on at this point so we skipped it and wandered to the Go Karts next. Really enjoyed this and got decent speed up. Was really glad I remembered to take my sunglasses with me this time as I usually get an eyefull of grit without them.
We took a break for lunch next in the restaurtant next to the Chairlift and were quite impressed with the portion sizes and prices which we didn't feel were as expensive as you might expect in a place like this.
Hopped onto the chairlift next and rode Snake in the Grass. A five minute queue and we were on for three times around the track. The ride felt painfully slow and seemed to only manage to limp its way back into the station each time. The new "tunnel" was a huge let down at present. The structure is basically a metal frame with metal sheeting around it and was completely unthemed. Worse still, the tunnel ended short of the top of the hill meaning that at no point in the ascent was there any area of darkness whatsover. In the past, the loss of the second tunnel took something away from the experience, and now the loss of the dark section of the ride has totally ruined it for me. I really hope they make some significant changes to this in the future.
We walked down to Wipeout next for another five minute queue and really enjoyed the ride. The attraction still looks in immaculate condition and the themeing as a whole still looks pretty much as it did when it first opened.
By this point, the work had finished on the Pirate Ship so we went on this next. It did feel like it was running better than in previous years and the ride looked in excellent condition. The repainting has made it look very clean and new.
We went into the Castle Theatre for the show next, and while I didn't notice any changes to the building, I did enjoy the show much more than some of the previous years. BMX stunts, hula hooping and street dancing gave a good mixture of entertainment.
After re-riding some of our favourites, we went to Timber Falls for our last ride of the day. The attraction looks totally permanent now and is very well themed.
All in all we really enjoyed the day and as long as we see a few more good investments into additional rides over the next few years, the park will continue to improve.
There have been lot of comments about how good both Timber Falls and the Pirate ship. The investment in both seems to have paid off, now hopefully they can concentrate getting some new rides.
SING still looking bad? Don't worry- Stich said there were to be changes to the new lifthill soon after the holidays!
We took a break for lunch next in the restaurtant next to the Chairlift and were quite impressed with the portion sizes and prices which we didn't feel were as expensive as you might expect in a place like this.
I presume you mean the Merry Mariner? That is a nice little restraunt, I thought it was a bit pricey, though the food is really good! Pleasurewood is probably the only small park in the Country that has really good catering!
That's the one! The name escaped me... I wouldn't say the food is cheap as such, but you expect the prices to be jacked up massively inside theme parks and I felt that the prices were alright for the quality of food we received.
Yeah I had a burger from there back in 08 and it was pretty dire to be honest but I am unsure whether this has been addressed in the last couple of years. I have had a hot dog from Porkies Pantry which was fine to be honest.
I had a drink from the bar in the restaurant you talk of by the chairlift but didn't eat. That has been done up quite nicely in there, I don't know when it was done but I remember that in the late 90s it was pretty dingy.
Did you notice any more of this new painting that is mean't to come to the park? Datman said areas of Main Street had been done but did you see anything else that looked like it was getting a fresh lick...?
Did you notice any more of this new painting that is mean't to come to the park? Datman said areas of Main Street had been done but did you see anything else that looked like it was getting a fresh lick...?
Painting is currently ongoing at the moment around various areas of the park :)
I think the catering has improved dramatically in the last 5 to 10 years i think the only place that could have a little work is the railway tearooms at the end of main street.
