Hi, I've been following this forum for a while but i only registered recently so I thought that the best way to do my 1st post would be a trip report from the weekend.
We arrived at the park just before 11:00 to find a fairly full car park. It was around this time that we noticed something strange going on with wipeout. Once we had recieved our wristbands and entered the park, it became apparent that its train had stopped on the 1st lift. The whole train was fully out of the station, but there where maintenance people all over the lift inspecting the top of the winch and catch car (I didn't have a camera to take any photos). Bemused, we made an attempt to find out what was up with it and where told by the ops that it was down due to maintenance and would reopen some time later.
We then headed down to enigma, which was also closed. I have been to PWH 4 times already this year and for 3 of those times the same thing has happened with enigma at the start of the day. Anyway, we moved back up to Jolly Roger which had no queue and had a few rides and then because it was a nice day, had a go on timber falls. Moving down to marble madness, we had a go on hyperdrive. It looks out of place in it's position and has some real capacity issues. Most of the cars aren't working and the op had to cut the power about 4 times because of people spinning round and ending up facing forwards up against the central section. I honestly don't think its a worthwhile investment for the park, especially given the fact that they still have the old dodgems down by rattlesnake that I feel is arguably a superior ride.
After a couple of rides on MM, we headed to hobs pit which had just opened. Being the 1st time we managed to get on it this year I was glad to see that all of the effects where in full working order as well as there being some really good acting! Following our ride on Hobs pit we headed down to the other end of the park. The lighthouse was having some major work done to it with the whole area around it being fenced off and covered with scaffolding. We gave wave breaker a miss because given the weather and the fact that several school groups had arrived, the queue was a little excessive.
Wipeout was was still down but tide traveler was actually open to the public. It was only spinning on the ground (it wasn't really spinning at all, just dragging the gondolas around). We then moved down to fireballs end of the park and had good few rides on it given the fact that it was actually running in a good setting. While we where on fireball wipeout opened so we headed straight for it. Again, there was no queue so we where able to stay on a fair few times without queuing. Overall it gave a great ride and was much more forceful than I remember on the backwards section. The only reason I didn't carry on riding was because we sat at the very back and it seemed unusully rough compared to normal and I ended up with a headache from the cobra roll.
Enigma had also opened and had a fairly small queue but while waiting, it got stuck going round the corner coming out of the unloading station. Someone from maintenence came down and pushed it round to the friction wheels and following a test run it successfully made the corner. We boarded the train but just as we where about to be dispatched the train failed to leave the station. We where unloaded again and where informed that the ride would be down for an unknown amount of time. Fortunately the issue only took a little while to fix.
Having covered basically everything, we went over to tales of the coast which is a great little dark ride (that could do with some care) and had a few more rides on JR (when we found enigma was again down).
Overall we had a great day (despite all of the downtime) and I really think PWH had improved over the past few years with the likes of Hobs pit, Jolly Roger and marble madness meaning I will definitely be making a lot more visits over this season.
-- Edited by Josh on Monday 13th of July 2015 12:30:13 PM
Nice report Connor. It's a shame about Hyper Drive, such an odd decision! Glad you had a good day, I'm gonna go for the first time this season in a couple of weeks. Hopefully the weather improves.
BTW I edited your title to the correct date as you had 11th June in there.
Thanks a lot for that Connor, some really interesting observations!
I believe the issue with Tide Traveller related to the lifting mechanism and the difficulties in getting parts to fix it. Perhaps the ride will just be run this way from now on? I once rode it this way, and it was decent enough as a filler attraction.
I never thought we'd see the day that the old dodgems would be compared favourably to any other ride! Someone must have something positive to say about Hyper Drive, surely!?
It's a shame to hear about the issues with Enigma and Wipeout. Good to hear that the maintenance people were able to get them going for some of the day at least, though... I'm sure first time visitors would have been very disappointed if two of the main attractions were out of action for the entire day.
I'm really glad to hear that the park are continuing to use decent actors inside Hobs Pit. I feared that these would be phased out over the years.
The maintenance crew at PWH do not get enough credit (publicly) IMO, they do a super job, especially on Wipeout. Every time it's closed you always see them working on it and they always end up getting it open, regardless of the time of day. They are a credit to the park.
Enigma on other hand.... Please tell me this winter will be the one we've been waiting for....
And it's also great to hear that Hobs Pit is still full of actors and working effects! I just really hope they can sort the fire exits out and add some more 'jumps'.
I wonder what on earth is going on with that Lighthouse tower? This was possibly the ride in which the riders had to be evacuated from a few weeks back...
And I couldn't help but laugh when you said that the old Dodgems are superior to Hyper Drive!
Great report, and welcome to the Forum!
-- Edited by Martyn on Monday 13th of July 2015 07:13:00 PM
Enigma was like that when I last went. I really do worry that Enigma is well and truly on its last legs. It's a shame because it's the best roller coaster I've ridden (and it's not like I've only ever been to Pleasurewood either...).
I really do hope they give it an overhaul at some point, when I was there in May the ride operater said there was 'talks of another train, but whether there will be one is anyone's guess'. I don't know whether he was making that up or not, but at this stage, Enigma needs FAR more than just another train, and I can't see it getting the TLC it needs...
I think maintenance teams at all parks do so much more than many think. We have to remember that many of the rides are very old now and getting parts is not easy so credit where it's due.
Flat rides are simply not designed to work all day 7 days a week. That's why any theme park has issues over time with flats. Even the big boys.
^ It was confirmed on here that there was plans for a £150,000 overhaul of the coaster, adding a second train, replacing all the electrics and reverting back to the old Cannonball Express style theme. Hence why the original Enigma "?" train was repainted as a mine train a couple of years back.
Last we heard it was put back a year (then another) because of other investments (Hobs Pit and Marble Madness). Which makes sense I guess, but when they then open the god-awful Hyper Drive, with nothing happening to Enigma, it makes you wonder what they're thinking....
I'm not very optimistic about Enigmas future, and the rattlesnake is still a concern.
But they can't do everything at once.. which does question the thinking behind a crappy dodgem ride when they already had a crappy dodgem ride.
Park really went backwards this year, hopefully there is more to this story and it'll all make sense eventually.
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It's always the cracked ones that let the light in.
Thank you all for the welcome! Bubbles, there wasn't anything immediately obvious to see around the castle but then again I didn't stop to look in any detail.
I did ask one of the maintenance team about the lift mechanism on TTT and I was told they where hoping to acquire some new parts for it but they where struggling to get hold of them. I wouldn't really mind the lift mechanism not working so much if it wasn't for the fact that as I mentioned, it was bearly even spinning and the gondolas where just being dragged around in the same position.
In regards to the lighthouse, they where lifting the top section off with a portable crane so they where maybe trying to get into the inside mechanism.
I went down to the park the other day to see what it was like in peak season and I was impressed with what I saw! We got to the park at 10 and the car park rapidly filled up. No rides down for the whole of the day and the park had a very good atmosphere With a very good amount of guests. The only negatives that came from the day where waiting nearly half an hour for a relatively short queue on hyperdrive and TTT running really badly. The ops on wipeout, Jolly Roger and fireball where doing a really good job and no rides broke down (apart from wipeout being stuck on the 1st lift for 10 minutes and proceeding to test and re-open). Enigma was open the whole day and as far as I was aware wasn't closed in the morning like usual. Overall, i'd say that the park has drastically improved it's reliability and operations from the summer last year so hopefully if it continues the way it's going then we'll get a half decent attraction in the next few years.
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