by SuburbanHomeboy » 28 Mar 2015, 10:53
Although I agree about the drop tower and monotopia (is it like that ride at Flaming-O Land?) I think the Trust was put in a very awkward position when a number of key rides were "removed" and some of these rides are probably last-minute replacements rather than the planned attractions. The Twist, for example, looks like one of the ubiquitous fibreglass and metalflake modern machines, and the Chair-o-Plane is a modern WaveSwinger.
It's a four-hour round-trip for me, and once I've been to the opening day, I'm not sure I'll be heading back very often this season. Once more of the "proper" rides are in place, it'll be a different story, I hope. Plus, I'm still finding it hard to get over the ridiculous priority-for-locals stuff, which I feel was a truly bad move on behalf of the management - or was it the PR company's idea?
Some of the ride names are quite dreadful, I agree! The 'Counter Culture Caterpillar Coaster' you noted is simply ridiculous, but there are other aspects, such as the map saying "Hurricane Jets" when the ride in question is quite clearly painted as the "Zodiac Jets". Simple stuff like that can make the difference.
As for the pay-on-entry model - I never think this is appropriate for a seaside amusement park. In all my seaside holidays, we never planned on spending a whole day at the funfair. We'd pop in for a ride as we passed, or spend an hour there before going off to another attraction, and we probably ended up having more rides there (and spending more on individual rides) than if we had to make it a single day visit. It is appropriate for day-trippers, but that's about it. I think a better way would be to have a small admission charge and then pay-per-ride. The one benefit of a single admission fee is that the rides will be fuller more of the time, running more frequently and so attracting more people into the park. However, that will increase wear and tear as these are, on the whole, older rides. Non-riding adults will be there with children/grandchildren and will want to see them having fun, so more non-paying adults means more pockets that can be dipped into...
Looking forward to opening day!