Oakwood Theme Park

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Oakwood park entrance

Oakwood Theme Park (formerly Oakwood Leisure Park or Oakwood Coaster Country) is a theme park in Pembrokeshire, Wales which attracts 400,000 visitors each year.

Oakwood opened in the late 1980s as a very small family park with BMXs, a wooden fort, a 3D-style cinema experience show, go-karts and a water chute ride. The park has done well to reach its current position, consistently rated in the top 10 UK theme parks, given that it is in a quiet, rural part of southwest Wales. The park is well-suited to both thrill-seekers and families; it now incorporates 5 large thrill rides: Megafobia (1996), Vertigo (1997), The Bounce (1999), Hydro (2002) and Speed (2006). A new family ride can be expected in 2007/2008, with a major ride probably being installed in 2009/2010.

Oakwood has opened its latest ride to the public: "Speed", a Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter roller coaster with a 97-degree drop. This ride has the steepest drop in the UK and is the tallest of its type in the world.

The 85ft-tall CCI-built wooden roller coaster "Megafobia" is consistently rated among the best in Europe by enthusiasts.

1 Ride Statistics
2 Previous attractions
3 Park Development since 1994
4 Future Development
5 Theming
6 Seasonal and holiday operation
7 Hydro Accident
8 External links

[edit] Ride Statistics

Speed - Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter (Custom) roller coaster

- Height (Total): 36 m (115 ft)
- Height (Drop): 35 m (110 ft)
- Drop Angle: 97 degrees
- Speed: 95 km/h (60 mph)
- Track length: 600 m (1970 ft)
- Ride time: 90 s
- Acceleration: −1.3 to +4.5 g (−13 to 44 m/s²)
- Elements: 97-degree drop, −1.3g camelback hill, 110-degree overbanked turn, vertical loop, heartline roll, helix
- Restraints: OTSR (Over-the-Shoulder Restraints)
- Trains: 4 x 2-section roll-articulated trains, 2 rows of 4 riders each
- Capacity: 800 riders per hour
- Opened: 13 April 2006

Megafobia - CCI wooden roller coaster
- Height (Total): 26 m (85 ft)
- Height (Drop): 25 m (82 ft)
- Drop Angle: 55 degrees
- Speed: quotes vary from 75 km/h (46 mph) to 88 km/h (55 mph); faster in wet weather
- Track length: 901 m (2956 ft)
- Ride time: 100 s
- Acceleration (max): +2.75g (27 m/s²)
- Trains: 2 x 6-car trains, Philadelphia Toboggan Co., 4 riders per car, total 24 riders per train
- Restraints: Lap bar and lap belt. NB: A little known fact is that Lap belts were retro-fitted around 1997/ 1998 and were not installed at the time of Megafobia's initial opening in 1996.
- Opened: 1996

The Bounce - HUSS shot-and-drop tower
- Height: 47 m (154 ft)
- Speed: 70 km/h (44 mph)
- Acceleration (max): +4g (39 m/s²)
- Restraints: OTSR
- Seats: 24
- Opened: 1999

Vertigo - skycoaster
- Height: 50 m (164 ft)
- Speed: 128 km/h (80 mph)
- Acceleration: 3g (30 m/s²)
- Opened: 1997

Hydro - Intamin River Plunge
- Height (total): 37 m (121 ft)
- Height (drop): 36 m (118 ft)
- Wave Height: 14 m (45 ft)
- Ride Length: 175 m (581 ft)
- Speed: 88 km/h (55 mph)
- Acceleration (max): 4g (40 m/s²)
- Restraints: OTSR (retrofitted; formerly lap-bar)
- Boats: 1
- Opened: 2002

Bobsleigh - toboggan ride
Treetops Roller coaster - Zierer Tivoli (Large) family roller coaster
- Height (total): 8 m (26 ft)
- Height (drop): 8 m (26 ft)
- Track length: 360 m (1181 ft)
- Speed: 35 km/h (22 mph)
- Ride time: 60 s
- Opened: 1989

Spooky 3-D - ghost-train
Brer Rabbit's Burrow
Plane Crazy
Pirate Ship
Snake River Falls
Waterfall
Boating Lake
Clown Coaster - children's roller coaster

[edit] Previous attractions

- Nutty Jakes' Gold mine: Riders were taken through a gold-mine themed tunnel in the then themed area of the park "Jake's Town". Since then the ride has become "Brer Rabbit's Burrow".
- Jake's Music Hall: an animatronic puppet show which opened in Jake's Town in the early 1990's.
- Also self-operated Go Karts ("The senior go-karts) were removed for the 2002 season. A rumour at the time alleged that this was originally planned to make way for Hydro which was then moved to its current location for reasons unknown. There has been some indication that the go-karts were becoming problematic for the park with fraudulent claims of personal injury from guests and also from individuals abusing the timing restraints on the ride. Since then the go-kart area has been used to house the Gerstlauer Euro-fighter Speed (2006).
- A smaller junior go-kart tracked was also removed for the 2002 season. The land vacated was used to house the Plane-crazy family ride which opened at the start of the 2004 season.
- An assault course originally existed in the mini-valley which is now the site of the Bounce tower coaster. The assault course was cleared to make way for the Bounce in 1999.
- A somewhat primitive 3D Cinema experience, the "Cinema 180" was one of the original park attractions which eventually faced the axe after an unsucceful attempt at moving the attraction from the front of the park (where Hydro currently sits) to a green space between the Pirate Ship and Snake River Falls water ride.

Oakwood has been accused by some of depleting its own unique character by removing some of its more individual and authentic attractions to make way for the park's development into a white-knuckle theme park. Whilst the park's development has been welcomed it is sometimes argued that original attractions should have remained in place so as not to forsake Oakwood's heritage as a family leisure park. The scrapping of Jake's Town, with its unique narrative theming based around the gold mine character of Nutty Jake, was a particularly regrettable move for some.

[edit] Park Development since 1994

1994: Snake River Falls Family Water Ride. At a time this was a rather substantial addition to the small leisure park. Arguably, the addition of Snake River Falls in 1994 marked the real beginning of the park's current expansion into a major attraction.

1995: Play Town Farm for children including tractor ride.

1996: Megafobia, at the time this was Europe's largest Wooden Roller Coaster and transformed the park's status as well as its fortunes. It remains the park's foremost attraction.

1997: Vertigo Sky Coaster. Kiddie Coaster (now Clown Coaster) in Play Town. General park face-lift.

1999: Assault Course is first of Oakwood's original attarctions to face the axe as part of the park's epansion. This makes way for the Bounce Tower Coaster, the park's third white-knucle attraction.

2000: Jake's Town is axed. Voodoo Mansion now occupies the site of Jake's Music Hall. Play Town is revamped with the launch of Kidz World and the addition of a number of new children's attractions such as the Wacky Factory.

2001: Jake's Gold Mine, already closed since 2000, is now transformed into Brer Rabbit's Burrow.

2002: Hydro becomes the biggst ride to arrive since Megafobia 6 years earlier. Both Senior and Junior go-karts are axed.

2003: Voodoo Mansion is revamped into "Spooky 3D" for Whitsun.

2004: Plane Crazy, the most substantial new family attraction for several years, is opened on the site of the old Junior go-karts.

2005: Speed does not arrive as intended due to the Hydro tragedy of the previous Easter. The Magic Factory is the new children's attraction for this year. Hydro is re-opened following closure through almost all of the 2004 season. It re-opens with a new boat interior with improved restraints and some degree of re-branding (primarily a new colour: red). Oakwoods after-dark show loses its famous laser-water screen; it is replaced by "dancing" fountains, a series of illuminated water-jets choreographed to music.

2006: Speed Euro-fighter is opened on the site of the old Senior go-karts. It arguably becomes the biggest thing to hit Oakwoood since Megafobia- a decade beforehand.

[edit] Future Development

Though Oakwood tends to refrain from disclosing future development information until the future attractions are nearing construction there is some speculation as to what lies in Oakwoods future.

2007: Though nothing official has been released; it is highly likely the park will focus on improving its family attractions; a white nuckle ride is extremely unlikely due to the construction of "Speed" in 2006. With no official leads on the mater, rumours are speculating including another refurbishment of "Brer rabbits burrow" or "Spooky 3D".

The usual pattern adopted by the park is to introduce a new white knuckle ride every third year: Megafobia (1996), The Bounce (1999), Hydro (2002). Speed broke this pattern when its opening was postponed to 2006. However it was originally planned to open a year earlier in 2005 which would have conformed to the usual pattern for park development. Vertigo (1997) can also be considered a one-off bonus attraction funded through the additional charge made on riders.

Based on the pattern adopted for Park development in the past it is safe to expect a new thrill ride addition in 2009, although there is no indication that the park will necessarily conform to its traditional rate of expansion in the future. There is rumoured talk of another Wooden Roller Coaster being installed in the park, but so far this has not been confirmed by the park and is only a rumour.

[edit] Theming

Although the park claims to be a "theme park" the only themed area is the small section of the park which now houses "Brer Rabbit's Burrow" and "Spooky 3D". (It is arguable that the park's section for young children, Kidz World, formerly known as Play Town, is also themed.) This section of the park was formerly known as "Jake's Town" and featured a "wild-west" type theme. After the closure of "Nutty Jake's Goldmine", the areas main attraction, and the closure of an animatronic stage-show also set to the "wild-west" theme, the area became known as "New Orleans". New Orleans featured a "ghost train" called Voodoo Mansion (2000) set in the original showbuilding for the animatronic stage show, and a children's "dark ride" known as "Brer Rabbit's Burrow" (2001). Shortly after the construction of voodoo mansion the ride was unexpectedly axed and rebranded as "Spooky 3D" (2003). While some argue that the ride was closed due to lack of interest fom the public this is unlikely as the ride essentially remains in place under the re-branding of Spooky 3D. Others argue that the ride was closed for ulterior reasons; namely the ride's politically incorrect portrayal of the voodoo religion. It is to be noted that even aside from political correctness the voodoo religion remains a controversial subject-matter. Since the ride's rebranding New Orleans seems to have lost its own distinctive deep south theme. The area in general now arguably suffers from a miss-match of theming with only a few western and New Orleans style buildings left.

[edit] Seasonal and holiday operation

The face and atmosphere of Oakwood changes throughout the year marking holidays and summer operation.

- Summer: Throughout the summer holidays Oakwood theme park opens until 10pm and features indoor entertainment in the "Premier Theatre", an outdoor dancing fountains display and nightly musical entertainment with a fireworks finale.
- Halloween: Oakwood no longer hold Halloween events
- Christmas: Oakwood no longer hold Xmas events.

[edit] Hydro Accident

In April 2004, 16-year-old Hayley Williams was killed after falling approximately 100 ft from the top of the Hydro ride. The accident was attributed to Intamin AG's lap bar system. The ride was closed until the next season, when it reopened with more secure over-the-shoulder restraints instead of lap bars. The incident was similar to an accident in 2003 involving the death of a guest on another Intamin River Plunge ride, Perilous Plunge at Knotts Berry Farm in California. A recent coroner's tribunal into the accident returned a narrative verdict on the death with some indication that the accident was more the result of the restraints being improperly secured by staff as opposed to fundamentally inadequate in and of themselves. The death presented a major PR disaster for Oakwood from which it has yet to fully recover and today there still remains an air of disbelief amongst many as to what occurred.