Pleasurewood Hills - Park visit 2022

Here in the UK we are blessed to have so many beautiful parks, some surrounded by countryside and others amongst beautiful seaside destinations. Today we are going to talk about our day trip to the lovely Pleasurewood Hills in Lowestoft in the UK.

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Lowestoft is quite a drive for me from where I’m based in the UK so we decided to make a weekend of it. During the weekend we got to visit Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach and Joyland both situated in Great Yarmouth a short distance from Pleasurewood Hills. You can read all about the trips to the Pleasure Beach and Joyland in my next article that will be here soon.

I decided not to do too much research about the park as I wanted to enjoy the day and find out everything the park has to offer as a surprise. I knew of course about Wipeout the rollercoaster and had heard about Hobbs pit which sadly is no longer is in the park. Other than this I was going in completely unaware of what the park had to offer.

The park itself is absolutely charming full of green areas and lots of colourful rides, It’s a really lovely family park! There are plenty of rides plenty of play areas, lots and lots to eat and drink, soft play areas, thrilling rides, kids rides and animal shows too. The staff were really welcoming, friendly, kind and helpful too which really makes the place even better.

If you are a die-hard cred collector, then you can find four coaster credits here at Pleasurewood Hills. If like me you’re just here for a good time then there was also lots of other stuff to enjoy. Let’s take a look at the roller coasters first.

Wipeout

We have to start with Wipeout, the parks pride and joy. Opened in 2007, this Boomerang built by the Vekoma has top speeds of 50 mph/80km. With a height of 37m/120 ft and a capacity of 760 riders per hour. Painted in a beautiful blue and with a surf style theming.

The rollercoaster started it’s life as the Coca-Cola Roller situated at Glasgow Garden Festival In 1988. That same year it was sold to American Adventure in Derbyshire but sadly in 2007 the park closed and all of its rides were sold. Wipeout as it would soon be known was moved to Pleasurewood Hills in 2005 and remained in situ in 2006 but opened in 2007 in the park.

The ride packs a particular punch especially going through the loop but my favourite element of the ride is definitely the cobra roll! From the ground it looks deceptive, don’t be fooled, this ride feels very fast and pulls some serious Gs!

Egg-spress

Next up we should talk about the Egg-spress which I absolutely loved. This cute farmyard themed coaster built by Zierer is a Tivoli large model. This coaster again packs a surprising punch a whips you right round the corners and through areas of overgrown grasses. As a family coaster I wasn’t expected much (especially after riding Wipeout) but it was really fun and was a lot faster than I expected. The first drop especially from the back row made the ride fun and speedy. The ride operators really made the ride enjoyable too by hyping the riders up for a second lap!!

Cannonball Express

The third coaster at the park is Cannonball Express, a Schwartzkopf Jumbo V. It’s the only model left in the world from this company who are also no longer in operation. It’s a pretty interesting ride but only operates with a single train, I can imagine it gains quite a queue In the summer, luckily for us it was walk on! The ride itself is another fast one, which again I was not expecting from a family park, their roller coasters definitely push the family park line! With banked turns and steep drops its fun for everyone to ride. I also loved the fact it was just lap bars which was amazing as it was quite rattily!

Marble Madness

Lastly we have Marble Madness a non spinning wild mouse coaster built by Maurer. The coaster is pretty fun and is exactly what you would expect from a wild mouse coaster. It opened here at Pleasurewood Hills in 2014 and was previously located at Flamingo Land. It has top speeds of 27mph/45 km/h just watch out for the brakes at the end!

The park is beautifully laid out with lots of lovely scenery and greenery. It contains a lot more than just roller coasters including a dark shooting ride, a wave swinger and a cute little chair lift. We got exceedingly soaked on the Water Fun Factory the parks log flume ride and got some great views from the top of the Jolly Roger the park’s drop Tower.

You can ride on two trains at Pleasurewood Hills, the Pleasurewood Express and the Woodland Express. Both will take you around the park for a ride. There’s teacups and dodgems and of course a traditional style carousel! There are plenty of play parks and indoor play spaces for small children too.

The park is home to a pretty unique ride credit, Kite Flyer! Built by Zamperla this flat ride gives a strange flying experience. Riders lay down and spin and tilt to give you the feeling of flying. This of course is designed for children and for adults can be a tad uncomfortable but it’s still worth the ride just for fun. The Kite flyer seems to be quite a popular ride all over the world but this is the first one I have seen.

The park is also home to two shows, a birds-of-paradise show and the sea lion Splash show. Both of which are performed at various times throughout the day. These are a great addition to the park when you’re finished riding the rides and having a walk around you can enjoy about both of the shows.

Back in 1996 the park was home to Crinkley Bottom Castle. For those of you old enough (like me) to remember Mr. Blobby and Noel Edmonds, this was where they filmed some of the TV show Noel’s House Party. Sadly this only lasted a year but I spotted a nod to Mr. Blobby in the reception area!

The park has lots of exciting things coming up especially for Halloween this year! The castle Theatre will be home to an exciting scare maze taking you down to the dark depths below the castle.

One thing I hate about visiting theme parks is paying for parking, but at Pleasurewood Hills the parking is free! There are plenty of toilets and places to eat, from pizza to burgers to ice cream to doughnuts! All of the theme park favourites. The gift shop also has a lot of Pleasurewood Hills merchandise too!

There really is so much to do a Pleasurewood Hills and with a family you could certainly be there for a couple of days to really get the most out of the theme park. As an adult who was visiting to get the roller coaster credits the park is charming and sweet and very welcoming. The staff are really friendly and you can really have a great day out.