I am pleased to report that despite the static train not being tarted up at all, some nice bark has been added along the remains of what was hyper drive, parrot show signage still in place and Marble Madness remains closed.
top of page
To see this working, head to your live site.
195 Comments
I've managed to contact McDonald's regarding the filth across the area, they claim they do a daily swoop down to the end of leisure way.... we shall see.. council also aware
I see not much improvement, such a mix bag of reviews yet mostly along the lines of this. I'd be surprised if they will even turn a profit this year. I've never known a season like it...
Damaging beyond words
The entire road from tesco roundabout into the park and then the main entrance into the park itself is littered side by side with McDonald's rubbish. Absolutely disgusting, never ever was there anything with a McDonald's wrapper on before this opened.
I've contacted the council about the highway yet the pic is taken from the actual road in the park to which they need to take action too
So the long grass and unkept look at the leisure way entrance I assumed was there only yet its also inside the park too.. here is tidalwave with the lovely landscaping next to it...
Plus this poll has appeared.... some very interesting points made from the wider community...
Take a look.... who gets your vote ?
https://towersstreet.com/talk/threads/oakwood-theme-park-or-pleasurewood-hills.7287/
So, I took my 6 year old son to Pleasurewood Hills on Friday to find out what he thought about the park in 2024!
He "Loved it soooo much" and asked "Can we go again next week?". We arrived at 10am and stayed until closing time.
I wanted to sample as much of the food offering as I could through the day, to see what it was all about.
I thought the burgers at Smokey Joe's were really tasty and seemed to be of a decent quality. Now that McDonalds is on their doorstep, they may decide to go fully "premium" on their burger offering in future.
My boy had a Yard of Slush in a branded bottle. It was £5 for the first one, which seemed a little steep but £2.50 for a refill, which didn't seem to bad.
Dispensed drinks also came in a solid, branded cup. I presume it was a souvenir I could take away with me... because I did!
I had loaded fries from Amigos, which were a bit disappointing. Very bland and flavourless.
I had a wander into Tony's hoping to find some pasta on offer, as per the board outside. However, it's just pizza now. They looked good, but my boy isn't a fan.
We found the staff throughout the park to be generally friendly and enthusiastic. In particular, the staff at Smokey Joe's, Wavebreaker and Giddy Up were very engaging.
Giddy Up is great fun for little ones and the theming around the ride and inside the station is really impressive.
The refurbishment must have been done to a good standard, as it doesn't look at all worn yet. The cars on Safari, however, are looking quite tired again. It definitely appears as though it only had a much more basic "lick of paint" last year.
Woody's Cub House gave us a welcome break from the midday sun and we particularly liked the ball-blasting game, which we hadn't noticed on previous visits.
However, Egg-Spress was the absolute favourite ride. We managed 6 rides on it through the course of the day. I'm so pleased that the park were able to resurrect this classic coaster!
We briefly saw Woody Bear outside the Gift Shop at the end of the day but hope to see more of him around the park on our next visit. (Maybe we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, on this visit!)
On the less positive side, the Carousel is looking exceptionally tired. In fact that whole area is one of the weakest in the park, in my opinion. The Go Kart area is obviously fenced off, the former tearooms closed, the games stalls appear to have been closed down again and the water blaster game is taped up and out of action.
I was a little disappointed with the condition of the soft play area too. It has a very noticeable musty/mouldy smell. When we walked in, there were crisp packets, leaves and food debris strewn all over the floor and discarded coffee cups etc on the tables. We stayed for about an hour and the same rubbish was still all there when we were leaving.
No activity was happening with Marble Madness on the day of our visit.
I don't think anything is happening on the old Tide Traveller site, it looks like they are just using the space for tools and materials etc, while sprucing up the Parrot area.
The former Hyperdrive area is clearly a big empty space, but they have made some effort to tidy it up. New visitors may not notice it at all.
Wipeout got stuck halfway up the first hill while we were queueing for an ice cream nearby. However, I have decided to leave it to someone else to alert the media 🤣
There is a review and trip report over in towers Street...
There is a photo of marble madness fully assembled yet sbno of course...
I feel his review of the place is very accurate and fair, even asking if sealions are fair these days...
Yet particularly these points he makes are valid... I will also attach a link to the report which has more photos, peak season, beautiful hot day and the place is empty... there's no one around...
As ever first impressions count...
New day and new story...
We use to pop or open ourselves years ago...
The 15 min car park grace period has been reduced to 10 mins...
A nasty raft of comments already forming....
A now and then is shown here for the once upon a time fountains.
This has appeared this evening, the usual post about car park, more alarmingly are the photos that were taken ( granted it was june and a cloudy day ) yet look at the state of it all...
Described as the set of the walking dead... and they won't visit again regardless of the car park fiasco due to "the state the park has got in"
There are some interesting comments and photos about the car park charge included on this post, particularly how much signage is installed which as I've previously ranted looks awful...
Yet no getting away from the rot in the photos attached to the post....
Comments rolling in as we speak.
Just WHAT has gone so badly wrong these last few years....
Heartbreaking and quite simply criminal
A review from today ...
My guess is to cut costs perhaps the parrots were deemed no longer viable, yet I should imagine that some of them were quite old.
So another empty unit.....we really don't have much left to be empty now...
Still no movement on MM as we approach the 3rd week of the main season, what on earth went wrong there!
In semi-related news, Drayton Manor have just increased their parking charge to £9.50, making it the most expensive car park at a theme park in the UK.
And so it continues...
People here never returning again....
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cldyper1ng5o?at_link_origin=BBC_Suffolk&at_medium=social&at_format=link&at_link_type=web_link&at_ptr_name=facebook_page&at_bbc_team=editorial&at_campaign_type=owned&at_link_id=ED289C60-4A4D-11EF-8C9B-8F70D0D42DEF&at_campaign=Social_Flow&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0MJ1GRvZ9iMKp7gwbw6Yhy5SlomWq194OO5ZYvb6NeZZnxuTV5pjy-RKY_aem_9h7TtiEx1qAAvfUEreu5Fw
Here's the latest progress on Marble Madness. They're building a new queue line.
I think I prefer the new colours!
And here's the Tide Traveller site... I think that's a new fence? Not sure what they're doing
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1BZLUyq490
I'm no fan of the new car parking charge. However, it is good to see that the park have made some changes in recent days:
You can now pre-pay for parking when you book your tickets online.
On the recent marketing email I received, there was a clear reminder of the new parking charges. (See below)
Possibly more unwanted publicity for Pleasurewood Hills incoming?
They need to stop comments on their official posts... their latest post regarding discounted tickets until end of July has only attracted endless criticism, they are doing their best to defend yet its too far gone now into the community.
This is utter carnage.
Just a couple...
Reading some of the comments on the pleasurewood chat fb page is rather alarming to say the least yet also a lot of short sighted folk who are not educated...
In other news the park have said the camera was not installed to deter people going back and forth to McDonald's....which they clearly are...
This parking issue will rumble on till season close yet its got to be sorted by east coast truckers day...imagine the backlash then if any of them get fines.. people have already commented on the East Coast truckers news story out today about having to pay to park... ooops
Every day including today ( 18/7 ) there are multiple posts in various different lowestoft and surrounding area groups about the fines and car park charge. Man has this backfired bad.
Loopings really have no idea just how much damage this has and will continue to do...
And as for trip advisor... look if you dare
So a promotional video of the park for the summer period has appeared via its Facebook page, quickly attracted a raft of comments all about the parking...
They have responded to some and deleted others...
And so it continues...
Marble Madness is fully built up, according to a friend that visited the other day.
The local press have published another story with an official statement from the park included: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/tfSLwe1fPY2cb2um/
A new day and a new post...