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Paultons Park | Tornado Springs | New Area | 2021

JammyH said:
I'm actually too excited for this!

I can't believe Paultons have gone to all this effort of a radio station, website, numerous twitter accounts etc to push marketing and advertising for the new area. If the amount of effort they've put into the marketing is proportional to the amount of effort they're putting into the area, it's going to blow Lost Kingdom out of the water, and that's saying something as Lost Kingdom was a damn good investment, especially considering the relatively low budget they spent on it.
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Lost Kingdom was a fantastic area with great rides and theming, especially as they only spent 9 million on the whole area. I'm hoping Tornado Springs will be a higher budget version of Lost Kingdom with some more thrilling rides and if their past areas are anything to go by it will likely become one of the best themed areas in the UK and possibly Europe.
 
I bet the next area is Cobra, Edge and the Go Karts. They'll probs move or demolish the Go Karts and hopefully, a compact thrill coaster in that spot (Premier Sky Rocket II)
 
Benenen said:
What on earth are you two chatting? One of the best themed areas in Europe? A Sky Rocket II?!

I'm all for getting on the Paultons hype train but this isn't at all grounded in reality.
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Maybe Europe was an exaggeration but I do believe it will be one of the best themed areas in the UK
 
Europe? That's quite the high standard... Klugheim, Rookburgh, and most of Europa-Park would love to differ. Those three alone just came to the top of my head just now, so I'm confident there are several more than those that would be considered the best themed areas in Europe. Paulton's Park can - and most likely will - give Tornado Springs their best shot at a top-tier themed area.
 
However good you think it will be, I think the fact stands that Paultons is certainly leading the way in terms of 2020 openings in the UK. I can’t think of another UK theme park building an area on the scale of TS for 2020.
 
Yeah I agree with you there mate. In terms of expansion and improvements, Paultons is leading the UK pack at the moment. If they continue to add well themed areas with multiple major rides every few years it's going to be a solid, well rounded park in about a decade.

I visited last year and was underwhelmed. I know as a 24 year old I'm not the target audience but there was only 2-3 hours of stuff to do including rerides and some areas of the park looked rundown and like a temporary fair (although saying that Lost Kingdom, Peppa Pig and the garden areas were presented amazingly). In terms of the Southern UK family parks Paultons wins hands down in terms of operations, atmosphere and customer service but the ride offerings are much more expansive at Legoland and Chessington. The lack of dark rides at Paultons particularly stands out. It's a great children's park but in my opinion it's not quite there yet to compete with the big boys and get their customers. I can't wait to visit next year and see Tornado Springs though.
 
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Fair enough. I enjoy visiting Paultons but I would go with my younger siblings as they make me enjoy the rides more. For me, I like the park as it always feels very well kept and landscaped which many UK parks lack - especially the other southern theme parks eg Chessington. It could do with better rides for the thrill market and there are some areas of the park which need to be incorporated into more themed areas such as Cobra and Edge and Critter Creek should be expanded to include that area of fair ride attractions and it should border Peppa Pig World.
 
Paultons will never go “Boom. Thrill!”. A transformation to a thrill park would be very, very, snails-pace gradual that we wouldn’t even see it. They’re quite content with their target market and have successfully carved themselves a big and well respected chunk of the UK theme park pie.

Think of Paultons in the context in which it delivers; a child’s thrill park. It’s a perfect place to entertain and thrill children and when I visit, I feel like a big kid. I’m not over-hyping or expecting great things (like I would at Alton, Thorpe or Blackpool), I’m expecting to live 5-8 hours through the eyes of a five year old. That may sound weird, but I’ve been visiting the park since I was 5 (over 30 years ago!) so it takes me back to my childhood whilst satisfying an adult thrill-seeker whom appreciates what they’ve done to the park. It’s a park comfortable with its demographic and the direction it’s heading. The point is, they don’t need to build to the same extent as Phantisaland, PortAventura or Handapark (although Hansa is a good comparison...). They build to Paultons spec. It’s fab. When I drove near the park today, the queue to get in stretched half a mile away, so it’s still as popular as ever. They don’t need to change their winning formula.

Tornado Springs will be amazing. I imagine it’s going to have the same level of theme and fun that Lost Kingdom has and it’ll sit nicely amongst the parks other attractions.

Ranty, wishy-washy post, but I love a bit of Paultons love, me.
 
Is it a surprise that Duane from RCDB knows a little more about this project than everyone else? He confirmed to me that he knows exactly what the Mack Spinner will be like during an email conversation I had with him recently. I tried to get some info out of him but obviously I got nothing. But the fact the coaster's RCDB page still says something along the lines of "The ride could possibly be a Mack X-treme Spinner" could be of relevance, but I am likely overthinking this. I just want to know when the announcement day is.
 
Benenen said:
What on earth are you two chatting? One of the best themed areas in Europe? A Sky Rocket II?!

I'm all for getting on the Paultons hype train but this isn't at all grounded in reality.
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I think the hype and exaggeration mostly comes down to how much of a underdog Paultons are.
Its not easy for the non merlin parks in the UK- merlin practically owns the theme park industry in the UK.. Paultons and Blackpool are really the only parks that are still somewhat growing.. I think with that people (including myself) see Paulton as somewhat a symbol of hope for UK theme parks.
I think in ways if you take a broader view a mack cloned spinner would seem kinda meh, but in the context of the industry in the UK.. A fair sized coaster non merlin investment is exciting. This won't be Taron or Klugheim, but exciting nevertheless.
 
CrashCoaster said:
Is it a surprise that Duane from RCDB knows a little more about this project than everyone else? He confirmed to me that he knows exactly what the Mack Spinner will be like during an email conversation I had with him recently. I tried to get some info out of him but obviously I got nothing. But the fact the coaster's RCDB page still says something along the lines of "The ride could possibly be a Mack X-treme Spinner" could be of relevance, but I am likely overthinking this. I just want to know when the announcement day is.
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I believe the big announcement will be on 1st May at the May Day Festival.
 
@CrashCoaster - it's quite interesting that Duane Marsden already knows the scoop. But the sheer size and publisher acknowledgement of RCDB.com probably means that Duane most likely has many inside sources, and friends in the industry also in the know. I was initially doubting Paultons Park would go with such an extreme variation of a family-oriented coaster model; but if Duane himself acknowledges (and hints to) it, this instills great hope into my thoughts towards Tornado Springs - as if it wasn't going to already be exciting enough, a thrill coaster thrown into the mix will definitely draw the attention of many a coasterfan for 2020!
 
If it is an Xtreme spinning coaster then that could suggest Paultons are trying to attract older families as well which would be great for the park as many families have young and old kids so it would appeal to more families.
 
It's not a surprise that he knows more about this project than others, he has contacts within the industry, manufacturers, contractors etc., he's been doing it long enough.

There's a lot of people out there that know a lot about this project, just that they're not willing to let people know that they do? It is that whole 'I know something you don't know' thing that I've been called out for loads in the past (sorry bout it).

So, TLDR, no, it's not a surprise.
 
I just think that many people (like myself) just want to know as much as we can and we don’t like it when there are other people who know more than us (other than PP)
 
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