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'Good' parks that you just don't vibe with

Sandman

Sandman

Giga Poster
Anyone else been to a reasonably highly regarded park and just not quite 'get' it?

I'm not talking about a park that most consider to be below average in general, but one which is supposed to be pretty decent, possibly due to the ride offering, thematic experience or both?

For example, Walibi Holland, on paper, has one of Europe's best rollercoasters and a good supporting line-up. Decent halloween events, highly regarded scare maze, and doesn't look particularly downtrodden or badly designed.

Yet, I just don't really like the park all that much. I'd probably go to Walibi Belgium over the place any day of the week, as much as I love Untamed and Goliath.
 
Sandman said:
For example, Walibi Holland,....
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Sandman said:
I just don't really like the park all that much.
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Is that because both your visits there have been tarnished by 'The Curse of Sandman'? 🤔

Phantasialand for me. Despite the world-class quality on offer across multiple attractions, there are one or two fundamental issues with the place - layout, location, topography etc - that will always prevent it from being a true favourite of mine.
 
Hersheypark. I can't fully put my finger on why but it felt so sterile, corporate and soulless. A lot of fault lies with myself as I assumed it was more of a theme park, for some reason I was expecting stuff like Western theming on Storm Runner and Great Bear having a station that looks like an observatory. But actually all there is visually is paintjobs and signage and you spend all day stood in chained cattle pens listening to announcements selling you sweets in that corporate American voice they took the piss out of in the Epcot Simpsons episode. Everything about the atmosphere and vibe of Djurs Sommerland that people rave about, Hersheypark is the opposite.

I did actually have a brilliant two days here, the coaster line up (well the upper quality half) is sublime and it's a clean well presented amusement park. It's a great place, I just thought something about the atmosphere was really weird in a way I hope I've managed to articulate.
 
Busch Gardens Tampa never vibes with me. I went once in 2006 after having done Disney and Universal for 2 weeks before. I enjoyed the rides there, but never thought it was that great.

I think I was anticipating a more luscious park like Animal Kingdom, when in reality it was not that at all.
 
I'd concur with @Heth and nominate Busch Gardens Tampa.

On paper, the park has everything you could possibly ask for, with an incredibly strong coaster selection and decent theming. But while I did very much enjoy my day there, something about the park didn't quite resonate with me, and I can't quite place my finger on what.

In fairness, though, I have only been once, that visit was 7 years ago, and there were various factors that could have made me enjoy that visit less than I'd hoped. I hope to revisit the park in June 2023, so my view on it might well change with a revisit.
 
Animal Kingdom.

For a top-tier Disney park, I just found it had surprisingly little to offer. Expedition Everest is brilliant, the safari tour is great and the addition of the Avatar rides helped, but apart from that there's sod all to do there. There's also the Dinosaur ride, the river rapids, and formely the DinoLand USA rides, plus the 4D cinema, but it all adds up to eight rides and a few stage shows, which is pretty bare for a supposedly top-tier park with a $150 entry fee. Other than those rides, it's practically a zoo, despite all the marketing insisting it's not. And for a zoo, it's very crowded and the animals are kept far out of sight.

I also didn't feel the themeing all that overwhelming. There's a lot of greenery, but so is there in a forest. The buildings are meant to represent villages of Asian and African "frontier towns", which means a fortune has been spent trying to mimic quite simple and weather-worn structures. Sure, there are brilliant exceptions like the Tree of Life, the mountain of Everest, or the archway of Pandora. But otherwise, the park is very "everyday" in its look. It's carefully crafted to resemble simple human settlements in the wilderness, and it tends to come across as simple human settlements in the wilderness - just with lots of people everywhere.

It's by no means a bad park. But I don't think it holds up to the experience of the other Disney parks. It's a zoo that tries very hard not to be, but which contains only a few (admittedly very elaborate) rides. It doesn't have quite the same magic as the other Disney parks, and doesn't quite feel like it justifies the price it asks. It's probably a great park for some, but I feel that it offers too few of the experiences you can't get elsewhere.
 
Plopsaland de Panne. I had a better time there in 2022 than I did in 2021, but man is that park just not handling large crowds very well. Horrid capacity on many of their major rides, slow ops, staggered openings that PortAventura would scoff at, and the park is generally more expensive than its Belgian peers to boot. The theming and atmosphere is all really nice and looked after, and the rides themselves are pretty alright, but it’s just a really frustrating park for me overall.
 
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Liseberg

I can't put my finger on it, but Liseberg just didn't do it for me. My visit was in 2017, so no Kanonen or Valkyria, but that doesn't really make a difference. I loved Helix and Balder. I enjoyed their year round scare maze. They have decent food too.

At first I thought it was to do with the fact it was a city park. But then I enjoyed Legendia and Linnanmäki. I wondered if it was due to the fact my trip to Liseberg was solely for the park, plus a little bit of culture, as opposed to a larger, multi-park trip. But again, Linnanmäki and Helsinki was a great trip.

So really, I can't put my finger on why I didn't vibe with it. I do look forward to going back, so I can experience Helix and Balder again if nothing else. But I'm really curious if I'd vibe with it on a revisit, or if I could pinpoint why it just didn't click for me.
 
Liseberg popped to mind first for me as well.

It's a park that looks pretty and has a good ride line-up on paper.

But for me every single ride was underwhelming apart from Helix. And even that I would argue is a tad overrated.

I have little desire to go back there until they build another big coaster.
 
Plopsaland De Panne is this kind of park that doesn't do it for me. It has two great coasters, but that is about it. Operations are terrible and the staff is grumpy. Besides these two great coasters there is nothing else but copy paste rides from their other parks. And the overall music in the park drives me insane after a couple of hours.

Walibi Holland is a park that is great on paper, but in reality it is actually one of tbe ugliest parks around. Even grey Bobbejaanland has more charm than this park that makes you feel like you are on a bad trip in some kind of getto that exists of containers, tires, scrapmetal and corrugated sheet.
 
Alton Towers springs to mind. Getting the major coasters crossed off on a busy day with a 5pm close IN JUNE gave me a bad taste, with Galactica trains being sent out half-empty because everyone wanted the VR seats but still developed a horrendous queue because the split-off point was so late. Arriving for 12pm I had to fastrack every coaster in the park, and got 8/10 creds by the time the park shut, missing out on the mine train and didn't care for Octonauts at the time. The Skyride was closed due to the heat.

Two weeks later we had a revisit where we got there for 12, fastracked everything, the Skyride was open, we rode the train. The park had extended opening times by half an hour but by that time I was done with the rides.

My parents on the other hand loved how nice the park was and didn't share my opinions. While I'm really not happy with what I think about Towers I'm hesitant to give it a second chance as a) the park has gotten extortionately expensive in recent times, b) the extensive walk from the car park to the entrance unless you pay up more or take the monorail, c) the park's dwindling ride lineup and lack of urgency to put in permanent flat rides - while the Retrosquad rides are fun models they have no place in a park like Towers, d) the opening times are absolutely appalling for a park as big and busy as this, and e) its public transport links are miserable, rendering the park stupidly faffy to get to without having to fall back on getting a car. We've since learned that Towers is a two day minimum park, but I don't think it has to be like that. I've been growing increasingly unhappy with how Merlin's been treating their parks.
 
Heth said:
Busch Gardens Tampa never vibes with me. I went once in 2006 after having done Disney and Universal for 2 weeks before. I enjoyed the rides there, but never thought it was that great.

I think I was anticipating a more luscious park like Animal Kingdom, when in reality it was not that at all.
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I really enjoy Busch Gardens Tampa - mainly I think because I go with the intention of hotting the coasters/major rides and then trying to beat any traffic out. However, I can see why after Disney and Universal it feels so disappointing. Also, I feel they would be better off calling it a day as a zoo. I' not a massive fan of zoo's (AK is bearable as the exhibits seem sizeable and well made) but I always feel depressed seeing the animals here in such small enclosures. the elephants in particular really look like their exhibit is just a dust pit. While I'm sure they're well looked after I think it's just not where they should be. I feel very similarly about Chessington in the UK.
 
Fårup Sommerland

The main problem isn't how it's being operated. Operations were generally good when I went.

It's not the pricing. It's slightly more expensive than Djurs, but I would still call it fair.

It's not the rides. Fonix is the best coaster in Denmark by a considerable margin. Falken despite its reputation isn't that bad. The other coasters are all solid.


It's that I honestly found the park dull. It could be a victim of expectations given I went to Djurs the day prior and had an absolute blast, but Djurs had such a great, vibrant atmosphere, and Fårup's atmosphere (or lack thereof) by contrast put me to sleep. Don't get me wrong, I love the wooded setting, but there's no audio whatsoever playing throughout the park outside of the main entrance, and every area more or less looks the same. That may have been less of a detriment if the park was more crowded, but a thunderstorm on Monday morning meant the park was barely more than a ghost town for most of the day, and so I blazed through all the major rides in just two hours, re-rides included. Now, I blazed through Djurs at a similar pace, but I kept circling the park just as excited as the first time around since the atmosphere was so good that I wanted to keep experiencing it over and over again.

I didn't get that with Fårup. Instead, I got increasingly bored even if the rides were tolerable at worst and fantastic at best. Fonix's area felt particularly dead despite it having the longest line in the park, and the lack of any real atmosphere to accompany it is the problem. Like, just some themed audio and a few extra bits of theming would've done so much to improve it, but instead it just felt like it was missing something.

I don't know if the park has noise restrictions that prevent them from adding audio around the park, but compare it with Djurs and it felt like night and day. I didn't even think it was possible for me to grow bored with such a large park so quickly, but the park was such a snoozefest it honestly became a grind for me to try and stay all day (mostly because I had already paid for my transport in advance), and for a park I'm visiting for the first time that wasn't a good sign. It's a shame too, because there's so much to admire about the park overall, but I was shocked by how underwhelmed it left me by the end.
 
I made my first visit to Kennywood on July 10 this year and it was bad vibes from the start... The start being weeks prior when it was discovered that the park would be closed on Tuesdays starting July 11 through the rest of the year. The plan was to do Kings Island on the 10th and Kennywood the 11th. I had to flip those days around which ended up adding several hours of drive time to my trip. Secondly, I parked at 11:30am, a half hour after opening and yet there was over a 30 minute wait to get thru security meaning I didn't get into the park until after 12pm. Thirdly, despite being a Monday, the park was slammed yet most coasters were on one train ops for most of the early afternoon. I felt that Phantoms Revenge and most other coasters had enough staffing for two train ops. Fourthly, either my most or 2nd most anticipated credit at the park, Steel Curtain, was closed for the day. Fifthly, most of the coasters disappointed. Phantoms Revenge is a good ride but I had higher expectations for it. The finale was great but the first half or even two-thirds left me underwhelmed.

Edit: I should add that the coasters may have been disappointing in part due to the other unfavorable experiences of the day.

Now the positives were that I thought the ride crews were good and the park has a cool setting and looks very nice. I'd like to give the park another shake sometime in the future but it will probably be a while before I get back.
 
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Agree with both votes on Busch Gardens Tampa and Animal Kingdom.

BGT - Like others have said, on paper, this should be a top tier park but to me it lacks quite a lot. Their coaster line-up is amazing and the setting of the park is really nice. But I feel like on both my visits here, this place lacks a good atmosphere and it always seems a bit....dead? I still have had a great time on both my visits but I wouldn't rank this as highly as I've seen others do. The staff friendliness doesn't help its case either and the food offering at this park is baaaad. Even though my #1 coaster is at BGT, I'd much rather go to SeaWorld.

Animal Kingdom - probably one of my least favourite parks. I honestly feel like Animal Kingdom doesn't feel like a Disney park at all. It lacks that 'magic' feeling that the others have and again, like others have said, has a very poor ride line-up. The only rides I'd genuinely be bothered about riding there are Everest and Dinosaur. Yeah, the world of Pandora didn't impress me at all besides how good the floating rocks were 😂 Maybe I'm just not a fan of those flying theatres but I definitely wouldn't wait over 10 minutes for that ride if I went again. I wish Everest was moved over to Magic Kingdom, and Dinosaur to Epcot, then I wouldn't even need to think about going to Animal Kingdom again!
 
I'm probably going to get massacred for this given that it's seemingly everyone's favourite park at the moment, so I apologise in advance, but I dare say that I'd possibly nominate Drayton Manor for this category.

There seems to be a lot of hype around the park at the moment, and while I admit that its future is very exciting and does look promising, I don't quite love the park like a lot of people seem to at the moment.

On paper, I'll admit that it has a very well-rounded ride lineup, with lots of flat rides, some coasters, a couple of dark rides and a couple of water rides. However, if I'm being picky, it lacks a true headline draw for me, even compared to other parks of its calibre or aimed at the same demographic. I'd say that that is particularly the case now that Apocalypse, my personal favourite ride at the park, has been removed.

Even other than that, something about the park doesn't quite hook me like some other parks in the UK do, even non-Merlin ones. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad park by any means, and I've had very nice days there, but it doesn't quite appeal to me like some other UK parks do.
 
Matt N said:
I'm probably going to get massacred for this given that it's seemingly everyone's favourite park at the moment, so I apologise in advance, but I dare say that I'd possibly nominate Drayton Manor for this category.

There seems to be a lot of hype around the park at the moment, and while I admit that its future is very exciting and does look promising, I don't quite love the park like a lot of people seem to at the moment.

On paper, I'll admit that it has a very well-rounded ride lineup, with lots of flat rides, some coasters, a couple of dark rides and a couple of water rides. However, if I'm being picky, it lacks a true headline draw for me, even compared to other parks of its calibre or aimed at the same demographic. I'd say that that is particularly the case now that Apocalypse, my personal favourite ride at the park, has been removed.

Even other than that, something about the park doesn't quite hook me like some other parks in the UK do, even non-Merlin ones. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad park by any means, and I've had very nice days there, but it doesn't quite appeal to me like some other UK parks do.
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Don't you worry Matt, I don't think many will disagree with you here.

I'm not sure where you're seeing the hype for Drayton, perhaps I'm blind.

I've always thought the majority of people see it as a fairly adequate yet mundane park, somewhere in the middle of the pack in UK terms.
 
Sandman said:
Don't you worry Matt, I don't think many will disagree with you here.

I'm not sure where you're seeing the hype for Drayton, perhaps I'm blind.

I've always thought the majority of people see it as a fairly adequate yet mundane park, somewhere in the middle of the pack in UK terms.
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Perhaps I'm just watching too many vlogging channels and the like, as they in particular seem very infatuated with Drayton at the moment, but it feels like it and Paultons are both lauded as the parks to beat in the UK at the moment, with the Merlin parks generally being very beaten down upon and dismissed as abysmal by comparison. It feels like Drayton has suddenly become everyone's favourite park that can do no wrong, and while I accept that what they're doing is really good and the future looks promising, I don't seem to be quite as infatuated with the park as a lot of people are at the moment.

To a lesser degree, I perhaps hold a similar view about Paultons Park, but I overall liked that park notably more than I liked Drayton, and in fairness, that one is a very wholesome-feeling park with a really solid lineup of family rides and some excellent themed areas. Paultons is certainly a park befitting of praise.

However, I do, perhaps controversially, feel that Drayton, and to a lesser degree Paultons, are being a tad overhyped (for lack of a better term... I don't particularly like the phrase "overhyped", but I can't think of a better way to put it) at present while the Merlin parks are receiving a slightly unfair amount of criticism. I do still feel that more widely, the Merlin parks (or more specifically Alton and Thorpe) do still offer my favourite product in the UK overall, and I don't think Drayton and Paultons, while producing excellently executed products in many regards, are quite hitting the scale and impressiveness of themed experiences and attractions that Merlin have pulled off with the likes of Wicker Man and such yet.

Perhaps that's one more suited to the Least Common Opinion thread, and one that I can sense I'll probably get criticised for thinking, but that's just my honest view.
 
^ You can't get criticised for having your own opinion, you're entitled to it so don't worry about that.

I take your point there, perhaps it is some of the UK enthusiast vloggers that are paying particular attention to Drayton at the moment. I'd suggest that may simply be down to there finally being some positive signs of progress after a rather downtrodden few years for the park, with them removing several rides in addition to the impact of the terrible accident on the rapids.

The Merlin parks, in my view, get 'beaten down', as you say, primarily because they are the industry leaders; by far the most influential and successful entertainment company in the UK, so there is a higher level of expectation of the parks that they run. I'd expect that the vast majority of people would rate the likes of Alton Towers, Thorpe Park and Chessington well above Drayton Manor.
 
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