Paulton's Park - Official Meet Suggesiton

Thu Dec 01, 2011 1:47 am

Now Paulton's Park seem to have confirmed a major new ride for 2012, can we please include it in South Meet for next year?

Team Edit - Moved to TT News and Views

Craig · Thu Dec 01, 2011 9:27 am

I think as it stands at the moment, the park is a little too far out the way and not really suited in terms of ride lineup for an official meet to be held there. Mini meets would be more sensible at present, considering we don't even know what the new attraction will be yet! Be interesting to hear what other's think though, and we could possibly include it in future, although this year's meets in terms of parks are pretty much sorted.

DiogoJ42 · Thu Dec 01, 2011 9:36 am

Weeeell.... I can tell you that a Paultons meet is being discussed as a possibility for a certain other Merlin park forum... though nothing is official yet

Rowe · Thu Dec 01, 2011 11:58 am

I wouldn't say Paulton's Park warrants an official meet purely because of the park's size, the ride lineup and the dominant young family market. There really isn't much for a group of adults to do there and it would be a tight squeeze to get on most, let alone Cobra and The Edge!

Thu Dec 01, 2011 2:45 pm

Rowe wrote: I wouldn't say Paulton's Park warrants an official meet purely because of the park's size, the ride lineup and the dominant young family market. There really isn't much for a group of adults to do there and it would be a tight squeeze to get on most, let alone Cobra and The Edge!

May I remind you that we had an official trip to LegoLand this year? The rides at Paulton's arguably interest me much more from a thrill perspective. I really don't see why Paulton's isn't appropriate for an official meet but LegoBland is. If we're doing LegoLand again in 2012, I'd rather skip it and do Paulton's as an alternative.

DiogoJ42 · Thu Dec 01, 2011 3:12 pm

Have to agree TBH Sam, Paultons is a wonderful park, and I'd much rather go there than Legoland (I'm sure I don't need to repeat myself on that park). I'd also argue that it is far more suited to adults than Legoland could ever be.

Thu Dec 01, 2011 3:22 pm

The difference is the majority of us can get into Legoland for free thanks to the MAP, and is only 25 minutes from Thorpe Park so can easily be incorporated into south meet.

Looking at the Paultons Park website, nothing in the line up really appeals apart from Cobra - most of the other stuff I could ride elsewhere. I'd definitely choose Legoland in a straight choice, if only for the custom rides (and Wavesurfer)

Thu Dec 01, 2011 3:26 pm

I think it's going to depend on the quality and scale of this dark ride.

If it will be similar in quality or better than Duel or Bubbleworks or whatever, then I think it's clearly worth going.

Craig · Thu Dec 01, 2011 4:03 pm

As John said, Legoland was the sensible choice since we needed to fill a three day weekend, with the parks all being close by and being on the MAP it made sense. However, it's clear that the Legoland part of the meet wasn't as successful as the rest of the parks visited, so it's unlikely for 2012 that it'll be included.

I think a mini meet would be more sensible than going all out with an official meet. We did the same for other smaller parks such as LWV in past, with mini meets in prior seasons. That allowed people to see what the park was like for themselves and get a bit of feedback/hype on the forum before going all out and organising an official meet.

SpinballEdders · Thu Dec 01, 2011 4:32 pm

I say only have the meet if the 2012 attraction is really intresting

Rowe · Thu Dec 01, 2011 4:42 pm

Sam wrote:
Rowe wrote: I wouldn't say Paulton's Park warrants an official meet purely because of the park's size, the ride lineup and the dominant young family market. There really isn't much for a group of adults to do there and it would be a tight squeeze to get on most, let alone Cobra and The Edge!
May I remind you that we had an official trip to LegoLand this year? The rides at Paulton's arguably interest me much more from a thrill perspective. I really don't see why Paulton's isn't appropriate for an official meet but LegoBland is. If we're doing LegoLand again in 2012, I'd rather skip it and do Paulton's as an alternative.

That is true but then again I don't necessarily agree with Legoland being a official meet destination purely because it does not cater to our tastes and the same applies to Paulton's Park.

Having just done a search on Google Maps as to the location in tow with South Meet, Paulton's Park really isn't that bad a distance at just over an hour from Heathrow T5 Travelodge. That is essentially the same time it took for us at North Meet to move from Blackpool to Camelot this year. It IS plausible but at the same time for anybody travelling long distance, their travel terminal would have to be Southampton.

I'm not saying we shouldn't do Paulton's Park or that we eliminate another park just to do it, it would be better to do it as a mini meet at first (Like Craig said with LWV) and then the Team will decide whether it is worthy enough to be in a season schedule. Don't forget that the new ride hasn't even been properly announced or constructed yet!

Thu Dec 01, 2011 4:47 pm

How about delaying the decision on the South Meet schedule until this new ride is announced in a few weeks time?

Because obviously if it's a cheap ghost train, we won't be going, and if it's Harry Potter Part 2 we will be going on the official meet. Presumably it'll fall somewhere between those two, so there will be a certain quality that if this ride passes, we will be visiting the park on the official meet?

DiogoJ42 · Thu Dec 01, 2011 5:16 pm

Put it this way: I will be going to Paulton's at some point next year... All are welcome to join me. It doesn't have to be an official TTF meet for you to go to a park with TTF members, you know

SpinballEdders · Thu Dec 01, 2011 5:20 pm

The only reason why i wanna go Paultons is due to the fact that is a Theme Park in the South, i'm sorry im just getting bored of chessie and sick of visiting Thorpe, i want to try something new regardless whether the park is suitable for me or not.

Craig · Thu Dec 01, 2011 5:26 pm

Sam wrote: How about delaying the decision on the South Meet schedule until this new ride is announced in a few weeks time?

Because obviously if it's a cheap ghost train, we won't be going, and if it's Harry Potter Part 2 we will be going on the official meet. Presumably it'll fall somewhere between those two, so there will be a certain quality that if this ride passes, we will be visiting the park on the official meet?

Let's be realistic, Harry Potter Part 2 is a *little* ambitious :P. We may seem something semi decent, but does it really warrant an official meet there for one attraction? Adventure Island had a new/refurb'd dark ride and there wasn't a demand to head there for an official meet despite it being highly rated.

Even once we get an announcement, the bottom line is that no one will have been on the ride, and as we know marketing can massively overhype a ride. If I'm proved wrong off the back of mini meets next year, then perhaps we can consider it for future seasons, but I don't see a need for it to be on the calendar for next season just yet

.

Dormiens-Dave · Thu Dec 01, 2011 5:40 pm

The issue with Paultons is its an hour and a half from our usual base of operations for south meet (assuming no traffic), when you consider that a lot of members will have already traveled 2hr+ to get to London in the first place its a lot of Traveling and a lot of millage for an average park. A mini-meet sounds like a good idea though for those that can make it.

As for LegoLand its as Craig said been part of south because of the Merlin Pass, that doesn't mean it has to be included on the 2012 South meet line-up.

Thu Dec 01, 2011 8:50 pm

Obviously it won't be Harry Potter Mark II. But who knows, it could be something as good as Valhalla or Hex.

But you never know, they could surprise us. If they announce what will clearly be a major and very high investment/quality dark ride, then I think it would be foolish not to add it onto the meet.

Dormiens-Dave · Thu Dec 01, 2011 9:06 pm

The team (especially Astro) do a lot of homework when planning the meets (as i have found out being my first closed season on the team) Paultons has been considered but i think the big issue is the distance. You cant get much further south than paultons, its an hour and half on top of the distance people have already travelled.

Its a similar situation with Oakwood, we have to consider practicality for members as Paultons would add an extra £20 of petrol each car and the early start and late finish of the day. But i do strongly think a mini-meet should be considered if the dark ride is anything special.

AstroDan · Thu Dec 01, 2011 11:12 pm

The South Meet will be, as ever, over three days. On the non Thorpe and non Chessington day, if Paultons do pull something out of the bag, then I am sure it could be seen as an alternative to London or Legoland. We always like to keep one of the three South days flexible.

Although for now, there is no intention of adding PP to the list - I will keep an eye out.

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