Today was VIP day at Pleasurewood Hills and I was fortunate enough to get an invitation (Thanks again Laurence!)
I arrived at the park with my girlfriend and her little brother at around 10am and was looking forward to seeing the place for the first time this season. Many of the rides were closed for at least the first half hour, but the place got going fully soon after.
We started off on Tales of the Coast, which had all the doors propped open, squeaky anamatronics and an entirely static dog at the end. We knew it wasn't going to be a highlight of the day, but there was no queue!
Then it was on to Fireball. It is far tamer than in past seasons, but still worth a ride.
After a quick go on Wavebreaker etc it was almost 11.30am and time for the VIP show at the Castle Theatre. This was the usual Sean Alexander Show, but with a special intro from Alexis and Laurence. There was nothing in the way of new information for the likes of us, but Laurence gave a very polished and confident speech about the online presence and social networking side of the business. After a screening of the best of the PWN news videos (the one for Jolly Roger) it was on to the main show.
I was very impressed with how slick and engaging the show was. There's levitation, dancing girls, smoke, lighting effects and an impressive escapism finale. Well worth a watch!
For the rest of the day we took multiple rides on all the main attractions, with the exception of Tide Traveller which was still being worked on.
Our first go on Wipeout had to be abandoned. The ride was started but the brakes had locked on... the pulley tried to winch us up the hill but to no avail! We lurched backwards, heard a loud screech and then the emergency stop button was hit!
The ride was out of action for a bit, but was running fine for the rest of the day.
The only real disappointment was that the Pirate Ship had a fault for much of the day. It was out of action entirely in the morning, and when it did open it could not reach anywhere near the full height. A small issue really, and I can't fault any other aspect of the day.
The weather was great, every member of staff I met was cheerful and helpful, Woody was busy working the crowd all round the park and took a ride on the Chair lift, and my personal highlight of the day was the Jolly Roger... It may not be the best themed ride at the park, but it REALLY packs a punch! The anticipation at the top is enhanced by the fact that you are held up there for what seems like an eternity before the plummet. I was out of my seat for the duration of the drop which feels much higher than it looks. Great fun!
The park also looked very nicely presented. If they can fill the last few gaps around the place over the next few years, the park will be complete.
It was a shame to see that there were not many people at the park today, there were no queues for anything all day (even Enigma!!). I hope they can entice people back who have had disappointing visits over the last few years as they are now in a position to really deliver a decent day out.
Check out the attached images of the booklet given to all VIP guests.
I think someone did mention something like that in the past, yes. However, in this case the operator told us that we could ride it, but that there was a specific problem on that day with how high it would swing. It was probably only swinging to 50% of the usual height, so a definite problem.
