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Oakwood - 05/07/14

silenthillXD

Hyper Poster
So today I ended up heading to the deepest, darkest depths of wales, otherwise known as Oakwood. It was the first time I’ve ever been bothered to drive all the way down there, and I must say whilst I knew it wasn’t a massive park, I did think it was rather small.

No prizes for guessing which ride I ran to first.

Megafobia



First thing I will say is the one train operations at the park were kind of annoying, whilst the queues were never horrific, waiting 30 minutes without any theming, music or phone signal isn’t fun.

I ended up going on the third row, and I must say, my first ride was rather disappointing, whilst it wasn’t bad, it hardly lived up to the hype I’d been hearing about the ride.

I headed over to Speed: No limits to also find it running one train, so couldn’t be bothered to wait for something I knew would be pretty mediocre.

So I gave Megafobia a second chance and ended up giving the back row a chance.

Just wow. Talk about a completely different ride! The first drop was easily one of the best I have ever experienced, loved the freedom the lap bars gave combined with the intense airtime! The rest of the layout was just insane, relentless, well paced airtime madness. Definitely one of the best coasters I have ridden, up there alongside Oblivion!

Also considering it’s the first wooden coaster I have ever ridden, it was surprisingly different to what I expected, far more out of control, filled with more airtime and slightly rougher than I was expecting.

Afterwards I headed back over to Speed, and ended up riding it this time. I will say this; it’s got an interesting layout, just rather short. But like most gersts it has a horrible vibration through the ride, and the front row is brutally rough. (Though I found the back relatively smooth) The drop was fun and for some odd reason I loved the overbank, but the airtime hill was tame in comparison to saw and the loop onwards killed the pacing. It wasn’t as bad as people make it out to be, but it was kind of dull.





Seeing that treetops coaster had no queue I foolishly decided to ride it. I must say for a kids coaster, it had a relatively good layout, but as I expected it was dull, and seeing as I was on my own, the laterals had me sliding around the seat, which was uncomfortable.

I headed back for another back row ride on Megafobia, which was fab! And then went around for another Speed ride.

Drenched had finally opened (yay for staggered openings leaving Drenched closed till 2pm…) sarcasm I managed to get there as it opened, and sat on the far right of the back row. I was kind of worried as to how wet I’d get as it wasn’t all that warm. The drop was pretty fantasic for the standards of water rides, and did make the ride worthwhile, but the splash was ridiculously small, I have got more “Drenched” on loggers leap!



I rerode Megafobia a ton, all nearish the back, and every ride was fantastic, though I did end up pretty battered by being flung around by the lateral and negative G’s. I also managed to be spited by the interesting looking Huss drop tower. I love Detonator and Apocalypse, but this one looked potentially dull. I guess I am kind of disappointed, but did I really miss out on anything amazing?



I also rerode speed twice, once actually witnessing not a ride breakdown, but an air gate breakdown, which was pretty hilarious!

Overall it was a pretty interesting day. The park itself really didn’t meet my expectations, it’s a lot smaller, and generally more run down than I expected. I was anticipating something similar to Drayton in terms of quality and enjoyment, but there just wasn’t as much to do at Oakwood, which was a shame, especially as Megafobia is easily one of the best rides in the UK.
 

furie

SBOPD
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Did you do the tea trays? Death slide? Bobsleds? Best pirate ship in the UK?

I never have enough time at Oakwood to do what I want :(

Glad you enjoyed 'Fobia, I still really rank it even now - it's just a ton of fun.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
 

silenthillXD

Hyper Poster
Ha no I gave all of them a miss. Shame about the pirate ship being the best in the UK. I love them, but after riding the blade, I kind of gave up on pirate ships. Ha are the Tea trays and Bobsleds any good? Yeah 'fobia is amazing, it's shot up into second place, just below Oblivion on my top 10. The airtime and relentless pacing was amazing! Add to that it's relatively long, it's a brilliant ride! Shame it's miles away from me. Ha and now I have ridden my first woodie and loved it, I think I need to head over to BPB to ride Nash!
 

Martyn B

CF Legend
You didn't miss out on anything with the drop tower, they're awful. (And its a shot/drop tower, by the way)

And shame on you for missing out on the little things that make Oakwood what it is!

Did you not even bother with the new Neverland area?
 

silenthillXD

Hyper Poster
Yeah to be honest I did miss out on a ton! Watched the pov of the bobsleds and waterfall this morning and regret not doing the bobsleds! Ha, though I don't trust myself enough to ride waterfall, I just know I would fall into the water at the bottom! I did have a quick look at neverland, and thought it seemed to be amazingly themed, but none of the rides really stood out enough for me to ride them over a megafobia re-ride. I am now considering doing the CF live for Oakwood, so may end up going back and trying some of the rides I missed!
 

gavin

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
I don't really understand this report. You're saying that the park is small without much to do, but then admitting that you just didn't bother with anything other than the coasters. It's the small, quirky things that make parks like Oakwood what they are, and you didn't bother to try them? I'm not one of those people to do the whole "you should have done this, you should have done that" kind of thing, but it seems strange to make such a massive effort to get there and then to ignore most of the stuff they have while complaining there's not much to do.

You missed nothing with the drop tower though. I've been on the same model (not at Oakwood), and it's probably the worst tower I've been on. The launch is weak, and the drop feels too controlled; they're s**t basically.

Megafobia was my favourite coaster when I rode it, but that was back in its opening year and I haven't been back since. I'd love to go back and see what I think of it now. It's just such a massive ballache to get to though, so I can't see that I'll be making the effort anytime soon, at least not until they add something fairly substantial - Drenched and Speed are new since I went, but not enough to draw me back. I think they're more likely to close than for that to happen these days though.
 

silenthillXD

Hyper Poster
Fair point, admittedly I only really went there for 'Fobia in the first place. I hadn't been on a wooden coaster before so seeing as it's closer to me than Blackpool and more noteworthy than Gulliver's, I decided to go to Oakwood. The main problem I had was whilst it had all these small quirky rides, none of them really took my fancy, especially when I could re-ride 'Fobia all day.

I just feel the parks rather odd, it reminded me a lot of somewhere like the Creely/Woodlands parks in Devon, more adventure parks, than theme parks. I think I went in expecting completely the wrong thing, I was expecting something on the scale of Drayton (Ha, what was I thinking). Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed my day, but I just wasn't tempted by the smaller attractions. Looking back I wish I had done at least, the pirate ship, the bobsleigh, crocodile coaster and the skull rock log flume. Oh well, at least if I end up going to the live I have a to do list! (Obviously that's only if somebody can drag me off 'Fobia)

Shame about the drop tower, I saw it testing and it didn't look all that great, but I've never done a shot/drop so I was kind of excited. Mind you I doubt much could live up to Detonator and Apocalypse, they're fab! Also don't worry about missing out on Speed or Drenched. Speed is ok, but nothing you wouldn't expect from a Eurofighter, and Drenched has an amazing drop, but is obviously incredibly short, and surprisingly not very wet.
 
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