Matt N
CF Legend
Hi guys. Two UK theme parks that are arguably quite similar in many ways are Oakwood Theme Park in Narberth, Wales and Pleasurewood Hills in Lowestoft, Suffolk. Both parks are near popular seaside holiday destinations (Oakwood is in Pembrokeshire, while Pleasurewood Hills is near to Great Yarmouth), both parks are on the smaller end of the scale with relatively modest ride selections, and if I’m being honest, both parks have a general reputation among enthusiasts of being a bit downtrodden and past their best, so to speak. With this in mind, I’d be intrigued to know; do you prefer Oakwood or Pleasurewood Hills? Of these smaller UK parks, which appeals to you more?
For context, I have been to Oakwood 3 times (or maybe it was 4? I can never remember if I went when the rest of my family did in 2009…), with my first logged visit in my spreadsheet being in 2010 and my most recent being in 2019. By comparison, I have only had the one visit to Pleasurewood Hills; that visit was on Monday, so the park is still fresh in my mind.
With this in mind, my vote would comfortably go to Oakwood Theme Park, based on my most recent visit.
Yes, the park is definitely run-down in areas, and it’s far from perfect. I think the operations can be very slow, my one experience there on a busy school trip day saw them horrifically oversell Fastrack in a way I’ve never seen before or since, and I think the park does suffer in some ways from having not been meaningfully invested in for a long time.
With that being said, I do have a little soft spot for it. I think parts of the park have a certain charm to them; I think bits of it, like Neverland and the little train to the entrance, are quite cute, and I find Treetops quite a charming family coaster. I’ve allano always found Oakwood to have incredibly decent roller coaster hardware for a park of its calibre. Megafobia is an excellent headline coaster (and I can only imagine that it’s even better now they’ve retracked it), and Speed is also a really impressive coaster for the park. For a park of Oakwood’s calibre, I’ve always really liked the one-two punch of Megafobia and Speed.
In comparison, I found Pleasurewood Hills a little more underwhelming. It is similar to Oakwood in many ways, and I’d argue that it’s not a badly kept park in some areas, with some bits of it looking fresher and better maintained. In some ways, there seems to be a little more ongoing effort being put into aesthetics than at Oakwood. I also acknowledge that I may be the wrong demographic for it, as there seemed to be quite a bit there for young children.
However, I had two main issues with Pleasurewood Hills. My first is that I didn’t think there was a lot to do there and it lacked a real standout draw. My favourite ride there was Jolly Roger, which was admittedly an excellent drop tower and one of the strongest in the UK for me, but I felt that Cannonball Express and Wipeout were a far weaker duo of standout coasters than Megafobia and Speed, and there wasn’t a huge amount else there to do aside from the coasters and Jolly Roger. My other issue with it, in spite of what I said above about there being marginally more effort being put into aesthetics in areas of the park than Oakwood, is that quite large swathes of Pleasurewood, more so than any other park I’ve ever visited including Oakwood, looked blatantly abandoned. I’ve never been to a park with quite so much blatant dereliction before, and while I acknowledge that this may be solved in time with the Looping Group’s focus on refurbishments, it does not currently leave a very good impression.
I don’t think either park is one that I could fill a full day in, but the key thing for me is that Oakwood just has those headline draws that Pleasurewood really lacks and it didn’t look quite so blatantly derelict in places last time I went there. Neither park is one that I’d revisit regularly, but I’d almost quite like to go back to Oakwood and try Megafobia again now that they’ve retracked it, whereas now I’ve been to Pleasurewood, I don’t have a huge amount of desire to return any time soon. I enjoyed my time there, don’t get me wrong, and I’m glad I went, but given I live 4.5 hours away on a good run, I’m not making any plans to return any time soon in the absence of new major investment.
But I’d be interested to know; do you prefer Oakwood or Pleasurewood Hills?
For context, I have been to Oakwood 3 times (or maybe it was 4? I can never remember if I went when the rest of my family did in 2009…), with my first logged visit in my spreadsheet being in 2010 and my most recent being in 2019. By comparison, I have only had the one visit to Pleasurewood Hills; that visit was on Monday, so the park is still fresh in my mind.
With this in mind, my vote would comfortably go to Oakwood Theme Park, based on my most recent visit.
Yes, the park is definitely run-down in areas, and it’s far from perfect. I think the operations can be very slow, my one experience there on a busy school trip day saw them horrifically oversell Fastrack in a way I’ve never seen before or since, and I think the park does suffer in some ways from having not been meaningfully invested in for a long time.
With that being said, I do have a little soft spot for it. I think parts of the park have a certain charm to them; I think bits of it, like Neverland and the little train to the entrance, are quite cute, and I find Treetops quite a charming family coaster. I’ve allano always found Oakwood to have incredibly decent roller coaster hardware for a park of its calibre. Megafobia is an excellent headline coaster (and I can only imagine that it’s even better now they’ve retracked it), and Speed is also a really impressive coaster for the park. For a park of Oakwood’s calibre, I’ve always really liked the one-two punch of Megafobia and Speed.
In comparison, I found Pleasurewood Hills a little more underwhelming. It is similar to Oakwood in many ways, and I’d argue that it’s not a badly kept park in some areas, with some bits of it looking fresher and better maintained. In some ways, there seems to be a little more ongoing effort being put into aesthetics than at Oakwood. I also acknowledge that I may be the wrong demographic for it, as there seemed to be quite a bit there for young children.
However, I had two main issues with Pleasurewood Hills. My first is that I didn’t think there was a lot to do there and it lacked a real standout draw. My favourite ride there was Jolly Roger, which was admittedly an excellent drop tower and one of the strongest in the UK for me, but I felt that Cannonball Express and Wipeout were a far weaker duo of standout coasters than Megafobia and Speed, and there wasn’t a huge amount else there to do aside from the coasters and Jolly Roger. My other issue with it, in spite of what I said above about there being marginally more effort being put into aesthetics in areas of the park than Oakwood, is that quite large swathes of Pleasurewood, more so than any other park I’ve ever visited including Oakwood, looked blatantly abandoned. I’ve never been to a park with quite so much blatant dereliction before, and while I acknowledge that this may be solved in time with the Looping Group’s focus on refurbishments, it does not currently leave a very good impression.
I don’t think either park is one that I could fill a full day in, but the key thing for me is that Oakwood just has those headline draws that Pleasurewood really lacks and it didn’t look quite so blatantly derelict in places last time I went there. Neither park is one that I’d revisit regularly, but I’d almost quite like to go back to Oakwood and try Megafobia again now that they’ve retracked it, whereas now I’ve been to Pleasurewood, I don’t have a huge amount of desire to return any time soon. I enjoyed my time there, don’t get me wrong, and I’m glad I went, but given I live 4.5 hours away on a good run, I’m not making any plans to return any time soon in the absence of new major investment.
But I’d be interested to know; do you prefer Oakwood or Pleasurewood Hills?
