Expanding Oakwood

[Stu]

Oakwood Leisure park is currently adding a Flying Scooters ride for this year and is planning a custom designed Euro Fighter Coaster (like the one pictured below) with three inversions


source:coastersandawe!

but will it fit in?

I think oakwood has been very good at integrating rides in the past that are set very well into the natural landscape and making sure they don’t look out of place,

I think these additions will change that, in some respects Hydro already has, I don’t think it fits in as well as it could of done, and perhaps a different kind of water attraction like a terrain rapids or log flume would have suited the park more

I think it’s very difficult to make a decision to what would fit in well at Oakwood, and how to expand the park further,

Do you keep the park’s “leisure park” character and add more unusual family attractions, like the techniquest?

Or do you go for the more thrilling theme park rides (like the euro fighter) and if so would you pick the Euro Fighter?

Are there perhaps coasters or other rides that would have fitted in better, like a mine train, suspended swinging or another wooden coaster?

How do you add another wooden coaster to the park without overshadowing or making MegaFobia redundant?

I think it would be very tough to have to make those decisions, I think it’s a lot easier choosing rides for other parks, what does anybody else think?

[Graeme]

I’m not sure a Euro Fighter is a good idea, but at least it should easily be the best Euro Fighter so far. There are mixed reviews of Typhoon, whereas Vild-Svinet is largely praised, and the Oakwood one is basically an improved Vild-Svinet (which I’m sure is why you’ve pictured that one!) I’m glad it doesn’t have the loop immediately after the drop.

I don’t know what to think, really. Perhaps parks overestimate how excited teenagers get by inversions and the like? I enjoy inversions as part of a well-crafted ride (such as any B&M or Millennium Coaster), but does the thought of them alone get the pulse pounding, so much so that it’d be better than a large non-looper? For me it doesn’t. That said, this coaster certainly won’t be just about inversions. I would certainly prefer your suggestions of a mine train, swing coaster or another woodie, but let’s see. I hope it’s a success for them.

On the issue of how to add another woodie without making Megafobia redundant: easy! People would simply have two excellent, large coasters to ride instead of one! They'd still queue for both. If they were going to stop riding something, it'd probably be one of the lesser thrill rides. But of course, parks try to make rides stand out as different as much as possible, so I think the answer is to make an out & back. I think an out & back would be quite different. Add tunnels and better airtime and you already have features that stand out from Megafobia.

An alternative would be to make a real classic twister from GCI, with the Millennium Flyer trains. That would also stand out.

But I agree about the themed log flume and rapids over Hydro, and I also think a mine train, swing coaster etc are just the things that would fit at Oakwood.