Hyde Park Winter Wonderland 2012/13

[Martyn B]

Yeah, it's still not worth going in the evening/afternoon. We turned up at 5pm and they were staggering the entry, which I guess is a good way of doing it, but it was just rammed around the ride areas.

Alpen Hotel was fun, so wasn't expecting that and Wilde Maus was ok, the extra drops weren't exactly exciting but the queue was fun!

I paid £4 for what must have been around 150ml of cider, **** robbing bastards!

 

[Ollie]

Yeah that's my Alpen Hotel video. I think it cost £3 each (might be £4) and it was one of the few rids where you came off not feeling you'd wasted your money as the whole thing from start to finish takes about 15-20 mins which is pretty decent.

The Pirate Adventure is quite fun but quite cheesy at the same time. Just different scenes with some fun effects.

The worst thing is how crowded it gets and it can take forever to walk to a ride. If they were having to close the entrance and stagger people coming in then it's even worse.

I assume I'll visit at some point around new year. Will probably just do the wild mouse though.

 

[Smithy]

Wilde Maus is brilliant. Like, really brilliant, smoother than most rides I've been on this year (most of the tat at Blackpool and half of TP's rides). Loved it.

Euro Coaster/Christmas Coaster was really ghetto, bit boring and rough but the first big drop after the mousey section has a real kick to it.

Both of those were £6.

Alpen Hotel was **** BRILLIANT. Like, it's huge. And there's so much there. We kept thinking that'd be it, only to find something else round the corner. £4.

Pirates Adventure was £4 also. Bit odd. Not a patch on Alpen but was still quite enjoyable too with a few jumpy moments.

Went on the wheel (pre-booked) and they were useless at running it, stood waiting for about 25 minutes as the guys on the ride were bored of going round after 3 rotations and actually joking about having to go round again. Luckily a fairly huge queue built whilst we were on it so we only went round the twice which was easily enough. Not really worth it unless it's quiet tbh.

As for the whole thing, I'm split. If you like that sort of thing and can spend the evening drinking, dancing and eating you'll love it. I'd already spent the day walking around London so wanted to get in, do the rides, grab a bite and then leave, so I was never really caught up in the whole christmas feel of it all. Was busy and cheerful without being crowded though.

 

[WildMouse]

Visited WW this morning/early afternoon (having cancelled Saturdays plans). The weather was perfect and the place was nice and quiet.
Wilde Maus XXL was decent enough. Alpine Coaster was pretty forgettable (like most Pinfari's). But at least I can now go to bed at night and no longer have a reoccurring nightmare about the day it spited me at LWV as Grizzly Bear. :wink:
Thriller (ghost train) wasn't really that 'thrilling' except for the

Spoiler

touchy feely ghost

! I wouldn't waste your money (£4) on this ride if I was you.
Didn't ride anything else and thankfully don't feel the need to go back. Just glad that I went before the main Xmas holidays start.

 

[Casio]

I popped in for an hour this afternoon, very pleasantly surprised. The mouse is decent (the queue is excellent), Alpen Hotel was very good, the Maurer Power Tower packs a surprising punch (and is very tall, it's taller than the Starflyer, about 220ft I'd imagine) and the Zierer Star Ship (called Air?) is absolutely brilliant, I hadn't been on one before, but I think I prefer them to Topscans, plus the ride cycle was very long. Overall well worth spending some time in the early afternoon there, very impressed.

 

[Jordanovichy]

Hoping to go this year, first time here, creds, creds and more creds!

 

[Ollie]

£6 for the Wild Mouse? Ouch.
WW is fun to visit. It's just so expensive to do things. You can go with £20 and only go on 3 rides.
Also what's so cool about the WM queue? Or is it so awesome it's not worth spoiling?

 

[Smithy]

It's like an Alpen Hotel-Lite

 

[vaugc002]

I went along last Saturday and the park was very busy - they were stopping people from leaving via certain tube stations (Hyde Park Corner)
Rides had fairly big queues - the Starflyer queue was probably about 25 minutes.

A word of warning - the rides were mostly operating on very short cycles - the Starflyer only complete a couple circuits at the top and Air completed three or so full loops also.

The Power Tower was running a three drop sequence however which was pretty good

And it is massive this year!

 

[Rachel]

Went here today, was pretty empty due to the awful weather. Did manage to get on a few rides once it cleared up.

The Wilde Maus was really good and the queue line was fun too, was unexpected and thought we were going on the wrong thing. The Christmas Coaster was okay, not alot happens though, also did the star flyer, which was a first for me, don't think I would do one again though, the wind was pretty strong and made me feel a bit sick.

As for the fun houses the pirate one wasn't as good as it looked from the outside, Alpen Hotel was fantastic and the North Pole one was okay, I liked the ending going down the slide.

Bloody expensive day out though!

 

[ciallkennett]

I've had a lot of people on my Facebook post statuses how much fun they're currently having at Winter Wonderland on their mobiles... and their mobile's have tagged them as being in Milton Keynes/at university...

Mongs.

 

[Martyn B]

Thanks for sharing that with us.

 

[marc]

Someone from work went and they also said it was really good, they went in the week.

At 4pm it was not that busy but they said by 7pm you could hardly move and people were queuing outside. This is during the week during a normal working week would hate to think what it's like at a weekend.

 

[nealbie]

I've had a lot of people on my Facebook post statuses how much fun they're currently having at Winter Wonderland on their mobiles... and their mobile's have tagged them as being in Milton Keynes/at university...

Mongs.

You do know the location thing doesn't always work, right? According to mine I usually post from the Shetlands or Aldershot. Obviously these friends probably are making it up, that's naturally what they'd all do on their Facebook.

I'm glad everyone else loves the queueline for Wild Maus XXL, was a real WTF moment xD

 

[gavin]

Winter Wonderland is **** ing vile. Seriously wanted to cut a bitch.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Jake]

Yeah, it wasn't fun at all.

Is there a reason they cram it into such a small space? I guess they're not allowed to spite the whole park, but come on, they could keep the same amount of attractions but double the amount of open space and it would still be fairly crowded. It was just so heaving I couldn't enjoy it whatsoever.

The Mouse was fab though.

 

[Tomatron]

I'm trying to update my coaster count, who is it that owns the Santa's Flying Sleigh ride?

 

[Lucy]

I believe it's Buwalda who also own two of the other coasters at Winter Wonderland (London City Coaster & Christmas Coaster (suspended Reverchon)

(Santa's Flying Sleigh) Wacky Worm Roller Coaster - Buwalda (The Netherlands)

- From All the Fun of The Fair's report of the event