I would also like to add that I wouldn't normally do a trip report about this park but its one of the parks that is a part of the UK trip in June, so I thought I'd do this so all you that haven't been before, could get to know a bit better, and its my home park, infact it was my first ever theme park, thats why I love it so much!
Well the day with a bang, we got to the ticket kiosk and a little sign was being put up saying:
"We apologise but the Waltzers wont be opening today, so to make up for this mayhem, the Go-Karts today will be compltely FREE OF CHARGE"
My immediate thoughts, WOO HOO
because these Go-Karts here are the best I've ever been on, for starters its not just a plain egg shaped track, its more like a z shaped track, with lots of cool corners to wizz round, the karts are VERY fast and even if they weren't free today they are only £2 per kart(double + single), which is the cheapest that I know of in all parks in England that have Go-Karts(BPB £4.50, Adventure Island £5, Fantasy Island £4)
So that news had made my day already, but just as we were finishing are 20 laps on the Go-Karts, the heavens opened, but they slammed opened with a hurrendous downpour of rain(and just as thi happened my girfriends go-kart stopped, outside, far away, she got soaked through, haha), but the rain was go within a minute and the sun cam out and stayed out all day!
One thing I find unique about this little park is it hasn't been split up in themed area's, which is a good thing, because IMO, it should be left to the big parks, when little parks try it the result is bad(Eg Pleasure Island, its about as big as the Forbidden Vally at Alton and its split up into 6 different areas). Another thing unique about this park is one of its coasters, its nothing special but its unique because its the only one thats ever been made, its a Schwarzkopf,Jumbo V. Its an ok coaster, very compact with very twisty track, a few head hoppers and pulls quite a few +G's in the helix, I'd also say its quite fast compared to other compact coasters, but the bad thing is the capacity, it has 2 trains, and each train has 2 cars with 4 seats each, so thats 8 people per ride, and when you go into the brakes(and boy you do), theres a long strecth before the exit station, then it has to travel to the other side of the coaster to the entry station, but if its bust they will run 2 trains and it does make the difference!
POV of this Enigma, this 'one off' Schwarzkopf coaster at the bottom of this page!
Another thing about this park is its scenery, ok, no ride here is themed but everything looks great, its such a beautiful park, they take great care with all their trees,flower beds, bushes, water fountains etc, and there are benches everywhere, and eventhough its about 1/6 the size of Alton Towers, it has double the amount of park transport, ie Alton has the Sky Ride, but Pleasurewood has the Alpine Chairlift and the Annie Oakley Railway which has 3 stations scattered across the park and the chairlift takes you from one side to the other, this theme park is like a normal 'park' with rides scattered about but it works very well.
The park has recently been taken over by Grevin & Cie and they said they will relaunch the park, and they have and I thank them for that! Also please take in mind that this park has never had a big coaster, its biggest is Enigma, although it has had very intense flat rides(Mega Dance, The Tempest and my fav Megaspin Rollover(its like a Huss Frisbee but it just spins very fast and flips 360', its mental, and I've heard that not many of these were made, about 3 I think)) anyway the biggest change the new owners have done is currently in process, well 2005 was the last season for Mouse Trap(ever common spinning mouse coaster), but it was Pleasurewood's most popular ride but the owners sent it to one of their other parks in France, which really puzzled me but they are replacing it with a Vekoma Boomerang, in fact its the Missile that used to be at American Adventure, this is great news for Pleasurewood (even though virtually everyone hates them) because like i said before, they've never had a big coaster and this coaster will be massive for Pleasurewood! And as the new owners have spent loads of money on improving all their current rides, I was hoping that they would get oneof the new Vekoma trains(not the brand new ones,I mean like the Cokscrew at AT and the Millenium Coaster at FI) but they haven't, they've kept the same train that has been with the coaster since it opened in 1988, I have got some pics of the train and the track which was hidden behind a fence(well the train wasn't) and the track looks a rite old state, they have to at least paint it, its a manky grey colour! But I will judge when I've ridden it, its ment to be open in August!
To be honest, if you visit PWH with just friends or as a couple, you will find that you will end up leaving just after dinner, but if you take a little person with you, you'll be their all day, which is what I do now, I took my girlfriend and her 2 brothers, 1's very little (4) and I've got him into rides already and theres loads for little people to do here aswell! Its also one of the cheapest Parks in England, coast £14.50 for adults but you get a return ticket to come back for only £9.50, you get one everytime you visit, so you only pay the full price once!
Anyway I'm guna stop yabberin on now and let you (hopefully) enjoy the pics and the POV video, also sorry about the sound on the POV, I honestly don't know what happened!
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