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Which of these UK coastal parks do you prefer?

Which of these UK coastal parks do you prefer?

  • Fantasy Island Skegness

  • Adventure Island Southend

  • Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach

  • Dreamland Margate

  • Undecided


Results are only viewable after voting.

Rob Coasters

Hyper Poster
I've had generally mixed experiences across all of these parks; I don't necessarily like or dislike either of them, but if I had to decide I would go with Adventure Island. Fantasy Island takes second place, only brought down by the claustrophobic and easily crowding nature of the park. Which one is your favourite?

Blackpool Pleasure Beach would be the extremely obvious winner here which is why I haven't included it!
 
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Peet

Giga Poster
None of them are exactly "nice" parks are they, Dreamland is probably the nicest place to be since they did some landscaping a few years ago. But the only reason I visited any of them is for the roller coasters, and Fantasy Island has the best roller coasters (Odyssey being the most overlooked/underrated coaster in the UK IMO) so that gets my vote.
 

HeartlineCoaster

Theme Park Superhero
Adventure Island for me. I've enjoyed spending a day there on more than one occasion, even though the lineup would suggest otherwise. Staff always seemed particularly friendly and it's been the most pleasant overall to be in.

All the other parks have been treated as 'I want to get this over with as quickly as possible.'
 

Graeme

Roller Poster
I like them all, but Adventure Island is my least favourite of the four. It's a very solid park in many ways, but I think it needs a "thrill" coaster with steep drops and airtime. I regret I couldn't ride Cyclone at the Kursaal, so part of me has always hoped they'd get a woodie, or at least something that gives that kind of feeling - something like Wood Express at Parc Saint Paul would be great.

Next I'll put Dreamland, Margate. The "Bembom Brothers" days were something special, but I actually loved the park most during the 2001/2002 seasons when it had the Schwarzkopf Silver Arrow. It still has a lot of potential, but I've always believed it needs to be a well-rounded amusement park, not just a nostalgia/classic park.

I have more of a soft spot for Fantasy Island than many. Millennium Coaster is still one of my favourite rides - the place had a lot of ambition from the moment it started, but to suddenly gain a massive Vekoma encircling the complex was something special. Over the years, it's generally had better rides than most other seaside parks.

My favourite, though, is Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach, because of the fine balance of heritage and good rides. I used to love the Break Dance and Flying Carpet, and also remember the Water Chute. The star of the show is, of course, the Roller Coaster. Smooth and with five good drops (especially the 2nd one), to me it is the best woodie in England.
 
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Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
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Social Media Team
When this was posted I hadn't yet done all of these, but now I have...

So, my order would be:
1. Adventure Island Southend - Actually quite liked this park, more than I expected to. The atmosphere was great, ride operations were decent, it was fairly clean/tidy, and the rides were decent. Thought Southend was pretty nice too actually - had a decent enough little stroll around the town centre and promenade.
2. Dreamland Margate - Was a lovely place and I bet is pretty cool to hang out in in the evening. I was racing in and out pretty quickly in the morning, but I can imagine how it would shape up. Did quite like the woodie too.
3. Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach - Whilst the woodie was good, the rest of the park was a bit dumpy and I didn't feel like the rest of Great Yarmouth was up to very much.
4. Fantasy Island Skegness - Fair play, Odyssey was a lot better than I expected, but man I thought the rest of this park was rough. Couldn't wait to get out of there.
 

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
If you’d asked me before the takeover, fantasy island would have been bottom of my list, but since Mellors took over they really have improved it, and I’d prefer to spend a day here than any of the others, with one caveat, and that’s that I don’t have to go into the bloody market!!!

Fun fact, I worked at fantasy island the season after I left Towers. What a shell shock that was, from the professionalism and safety focused environment Tussauds had in place, to… Well… I wouldn’t have put my kids on those rides back in the day!!!
 

Bowser

Mega Poster
Looking for a bit of advice and wondered if anyone had been to Fantasy Island in the last few months since the new Harrington Flint Dark Ride opened?

Wondered if anyone had any insight to typical queue times and reliability of the ride? My son (who is disabled) loves sensory based rides such as Sky Lion and Gruffalo so this ride looks amazing for him but the park is a 3-4 hour drive away and doesn't have the information or accessibility options of the major theme parks so any first hand experience would be great!
 
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