Ever since I watched the Kennywood memories DVD ive wanted to visit this park, im a great fan of traditional parks and my favourite park in the UK is as traditional as they get Pleasure Beach Blackpool.The Pleasure beach and Kennywood management have had a relationship going back many years and when I was researching some materials at the pleasure beach the correspondance between the two parks backed this up.Another reason for me visiting Kennywood was to see the only other Noahs Ark attraction in the world which is based at Kennywood.

Kennywood is located in Pittsburgh.

Just got back home after spending the afternoon at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. The park are currently running a limited number of Winter weekends through to 9th December 2007.

The south side of the park (Pepsi max big one) is currently closed but nearly all attractions from the main entrance to the bridge over Watson road are open.

The one exception been the wild mouse which is currently covered in scaffolding and having some maintenance work done for next season.

So what attractions are open.

I spent a few hours at Sherdley Park today for the 2007 St Helens festival. The fair was a similar size to usual and was represented by some fairly decent rides. The weather has been awful this week and getting around the showground was a bit heavy under foot. The area around the fairground full of puddles and deep trenches where the trucks have been. The festival is open the rest of today and tomorrow Sunday 8th July 2007. Here’s a handful of pictures I took.

First impressions.

Gullivers Warrington is a small park situated less than 2 miles from junction 9 of the m62 and is nestled in between some housing estates. Not that you would know this when on the park as all you can see is greenery and trees. The size of the park is ideal for the audience Gullivers wants to attract - young children and families.

On entering the park, you pass through a walkthrough to have your tickets checked with a gift shop on one side and a restaurant on the other. Once through the turnstiles a stage is located on the left that usually has one of the gullivers characters dancing with a couple of young girls trying to teach the children various party dances.
Theres normally a couple of characters walking around hugging kids and having pictures taken by mum or dad.

Gullivers have 3 parks in the UK, Warrington, Milton Keynes and Matlock. Of the 3 I have only visited 2 choosing not to take the extended journey down to Milton Keynes from the north west.

Matlock has to be the most photogenic of the parks due to its location in the lovely market town of Matlock. for those that dont know Matlock sits in a valley and has some lovely scenary all around. The park location is a bit odd as its built on a hill with various flat levels or stages leading to the top.

Having followed some web discussion about this event recently I thought it would be worth taking a day out of the office and giving the kids something to do for half term.

If travelling by car you are directed to the VIP parking area (no charge), walk straight through the entrance where you are given a leaflet describing whats open and how much the various attractions cost.

These range from 1 token for the smaller rides to 3 tokens to Oblivion (tokens are £1 each), you can buy the tokens at guest relations and the shop on the left of towers street. We bought £30 worth for 2 adults and 2 kids.

Well after 2 months of boredom and visiting “other” tourist destinations zoo’s, hidden nuclear bunkers etc, it was finally time for Blackpool to open its gates again. Normally winter weekends or supersaver weekends are extremely busy as the park reduce wristband prices which encourages people to visit. The recent bad weather in the country must have put allot of people off as Saturday was cold and dreary. It brightened up on Sunday with lovely blue skies.

Having heard nothing but good things about Oakwood we decided to take the 5 hour journey to south wales in the summer of 2006. We visited for the weekend leaving on Friday afternoon with the intention of visiting Oakwood on the Satrurday and Folly Farm on the Sunday. We stayed just outside Tenby in a Travel Lodge which was central to both attractions and cheap.

Unfortunately for us and other visitors to Oakwood this was the wettest day of the year by far and we ended up completely soaked through to the skin within about 1 hour of arriving at the park and we still had another 9 hours until the park was closed.

For anyone with an interest in vintage fairground rides a trip to Folly Farm is really a must. Not only is the farm packed with Animals it also houses the UK largest indoor traditional fun fair. The rides date back to the 1920’s and have all been lovingly restored and updated at the farm to meet current health and safety requirements.
Folly Farm is located in Pembrokeshire a short journey from Tenby and about 30 minutes drive from Oakwood.This article takes a quick look at some of the stunning attractions on offer at the farm and also looks at some of the history behind certain rides. I have got some of the history from a souvenir guide written by Brian Steptoe a leading fairground historian and the author of 2 books on the subject.

All the photographs are taken by me, but unfortunately I forgot to take a tripod, hence some of the pictures may be a little dark or over exposed. one problem with old fairground rides and the vast amount of lights is they play havoc with modern digital camera sensors ok so thats my excuse.

Lightwater valley theme park is located in North Yorkshire just of the A1 near Ripon. The park has to be one of the easiest parks to get to in terms of location as its motorway most of the way.

Its been a few years since my last visit and having seen some TV ads recently, I got the impression the park has bought a few more attractions so it was definately worth the 2 hour drive from Cheshire to see what has changed.

Date of Visit : 22nd October 2006, Party Size : 2 Adults, 2 Children, Cost of entry with a Bird of prey show £64.00. if you plan on visiting the bird of prey center I recommend buying your ticket with the theme park entrance to save money as its only £1.50 each with a park ticket.
Admission.

After getting parked up on a slightly muddy car park (bearing in mind this is October) we made our way over to the main entrance, if you dont already know the lightwater site also has some decent factory outlet shops as well as a bird of prey center on the premises. These are located just before you enter the main park. You can visit at anytime after getting a luminous stamp put on your right hand for easy access from the park to the retail outlets. On our way over to the main entrance we are greeted by a very friendly clown who makes a fuss of the kids and informs us about his upcoming magic show later on in the day.
On entering the main entrance only 2 of the kiosks were open which at the time was plenty as there was only us queueing up, after getting the tickets you make your way through a turnstile (bloke on a stool) and into the park.