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Lightwater Valley - Future?

Leon said:
For anybody that has negative views on Mellors , have you actually been to fantasy island and seen what they have done with the park ? it is a million times better than it was before they took over especially the pyramid hands down best inside themed space in the country well theme park wise anyway.

I can only see this as a good thing for my once favourite park all I wish was they did it years ago and saved the ultimate I loved that thing .
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The thing with the Ultimate is that there would've come a point where something needed to happen.

The best case scenario would've likely been getting RMC, GCI or maybe Gravity Group to retrack and overhaul the ride.
 
Leon said:
For anybody that has negative views on Mellors , have you actually been to fantasy island and seen what they have done with the park
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Not since 2021, I'll admit that.

It wasn't a pleasant place to be - I accept it may have improved, but it felt like a travelling fair, which happened to have two big coasters, one of which occasionally operated.
 
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I feel like the travelling fair feel is partially down to Fantasy Islands location though. It is very much a seaside, cheap and cheerful park. It almost feels like a pier park, just not on a pier. The travelling rides don't really look amiss.

Lightwater Valley has an entirely different vibe altogether. I'm hoping Mellors purchasing it means they want to branch out into something that feels more akin to a theme park, rather than just extra space for their travelling rides? It's quite a big plot of land, and beautiful surroundings. It could just be me being hopeful though as I want to see it meet its potential, I might be looking at it through rose tinted glasses due to childhood nostalgia. However, reading Mellors statement, part of the reason for the purchase may also be their own childhood nostalgia. It may just be corporate comms speak, but if its true, hopefully they really have their hearts set on this. Whatever the case, this surely has to be better for the park than the Brighton Pier group ever was.

Next step they just need to change the colours of the damn website (it's so hard to look at), and look at installing something akin to Mahuka thats not too expensive, but unique and exciting enough to get people wanting to make the trip again... 😜
 
I wonder where they'll put the market stalls?

Went to Fantasy Island in 2023 and was greeted by a man threatening to beat up the person selling tickets because they were charging them full price. I can see the effort that's been put in, but it's still a sketchy place that doesn't inspire much comfort. Watching kids hide amongst people getting off Millennium Coaster so they can jump back into the train without the ops noticing didn't really fill me with hope that they're paying attention to other things!

On the bright side, the indoor darkride didn't totally suck? Maybe they'll pop a similar ride in the Raptor Attack space?
 
Dar said:
I wonder where they'll put the market stalls?

Went to Fantasy Island in 2023 and was greeted by a man threatening to beat up the person selling tickets because they were charging them full price. I can see the effort that's been put in, but it's still a sketchy place that doesn't inspire much comfort. Watching kids hide amongst people getting off Millennium Coaster so they can jump back into the train without the ops noticing didn't really fill me with hope that they're paying attention to other things!

On the bright side, the indoor darkride didn't totally suck? Maybe they'll pop a similar ride in the Raptor Attack space?
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Wild river rapids in the rat/raptor attack space would be awesome!

Fantasy island is a park like no other, so in some ways it's hard to gauge how Mellors have done, particularly having never visited pre Mellors.

What I would say though is this, the fact it still is running after flirting with going to the wall for years previously probably suggests they have at least made it sustainable.

A perhaps better case study would be the temporary theme park in the middle east which looking at videos of it on YouTube looked fun, professional and vibrant, and had a good number of rides that would fit seemlessly into either park.

LWV is a naturally beautiful park, and has a lot of flat land that could easily accommodate rides, and even if they did something as simple as install rides that would otherwise be in storage it's a win for both park and Mellors.

The truth is, in the north east and north Yorkshire market both of which are completely neglected by the likes of Merlin, they have so much opportunity to build themselves a fortress of fun, and take a guaranteed revenue stream, I wish them all the luck and good fortune in the world.
 
Great interview with James Mellor by LiftHillsAndThrills. Very excited to see what the Mellors do with the park over the coming years, bigger and permanent rides are on the horizon!

Playing Katie’s Dreamland in IRL

 
VonRolland said:
Any TLDR for that? Don't fancy watching that c*nts content
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Aiming for LWV to be a park for all ages, all the family can enjoy, similar to Paultons Model.

Going to build it up to a more thrilling level over many years so they don’t alienate their existing market. Will supplement with travelling rides before we see permanent rides but aiming to be different than FI and definitely a “theme park” than travelling rides with a permanent home.

Mellors aren’t corporate, background in travelling rides so know what works and doesn’t. LVW is sentimental to the Mellors, were very sad to see the ultimate get demolished by BPG. They looked at buying the park back in 2016 before buying FI.
 
Cheers for linking that interview. It’s kind of exactly what I expected, I think they want something a bit more family day out/theme park than Fantasy Island will ever be able to be due to its location and audience. Really excited to see what they do in the coming years!
 
I wonder if they will do some kind of multi park pass between LWV and Fantasy Island?

I am encouraged by so much that James had to say, about how they price fairly (and tbf a variant of the fantasy island one where there is one price for adventure seekers and another for thrill seekers would probably be the way to go.

I love the fact he can see the sheer potential of the place but is realistic and knows you can't just plonk things like a funfair or run it like a seaside resort.

Curious that he mentioned about the park being a day park, but did not say anything about the proposed holiday village. I wonder if they are exploring the idea of putting caravans in to give them a revenue team until they can put the holiday homes in?

I had a lot of faith before in Mellors to be the right bedfellows, but even more so now. By the time that Universal is built, there will be two types of park. Those who see the benefit and opportunity of the UK becoming a destination to visit as the likes of Parc Asterix did when Disney came to town, or those who will try to 'ride it out', and go the way of the tatty seaside towns.

If the model is Paultons, then I'm confident they fall into the former camp.

One last thought. He mentioned Peppa Pig world, and wonder if they are thinking about an IP that would fit the park perfectly. I would suggest the Mr Men as that IP. For no other reason than the Hargreaves responsible for them lived near the park, or Horrible Histories for similar reasons...
 
Fantastic interview there with James, could not be happier hearing what he had to say about the park and what direction they want to go! Happy to hear he understands that lwv is/was a theme park and that’s the way they are going to treat it.

In regards to the holiday village they do have planning for it still as planning was renewed last year, however James touched on the fact that lwv is a ‘day out’ and from the sounds of it he wants to change that so can imagine a couple years down the line after expanding the park a little it’s something they would look into.

Another intresting thing I think he mentioned is lwv has next to no attractions that are undercover, he referred to dark rides aswell. Can see the rat building be reused as something in the near future. And with the nostalgia he has for the place I could see them
Using that space and perhaps also building some type of attraction back where toad hole as he mentioned that ride in particular. The ride is actually mostly still there, rotting away under the overgrowth. The pond filled in aswell. It’s a nice space near front of the park left empty hopefully they’ll use it for something anyway.

I also hope but pretty confident they are going to have a general tidy up of the place, so many forgotten abandoned areas left unkept or left to rot, I have full faith in the mellors to turn this place around I eagerly await to see what they have planned in coming years.
 
What they have done with Fantasy Island is nothing short of incredible from where it was when they took over. Can't say enough positive things about that. (Although it's a shame that they cannot change some of the clientele.)

If they say that they consider that an amusement park (even though it's better themed than some so called 'theme parks') and that they consider LWV a theme park, and are planning to treat it as such, then I am very excited to see what they can pull off. It will take time though, it's almost a blank slate right now, let's be honest.
 
I only went to Fantasy island for the first time a couple of years ago, and enjoyed it, visiting again the subsequent year. On the face of it though I can't see many changes to what was there previously. How have they changed it?
 
Nicky Borrill said:
What they have done with Fantasy Island is nothing short of incredible from where it was when they took over. Can't say enough positive things about that. (Although it's a shame that they cannot change some of the clientele.)

If they say that they consider that an amusement park (even though it's better themed than some so called 'theme parks') and that they consider LWV a theme park, and are planning to treat it as such, then I am very excited to see what they can pull off. It will take time though, it's almost a blank slate right now, let's be honest.
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How is what they've done "Incredible"? For a start their headliner attractions are still the ones built 20+ years ago.

Most of the park is the same as it's been for donkeys years. They rotate different fair rides in and out because Mellors run lots of fair rides.

Lightwater Valley have already been doing the same thing for years...

Am I missing something?
 
AidanCKY said:
How is what they've done "Incredible"? For a start their headliner attractions are still the ones built 20+ years ago.

Most of the park is the same as it's been for donkeys years. They rotate different fair rides in and out because Mellors run lots of fair rides.

Lightwater Valley have already been doing the same thing for years...

Am I missing something?
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Nothing to do with the temp rides, and that park didn't 'need' a new headliner, it needed to get the basics right first. No, it's more a case of what they've done on the basic maintenance side of things that is in such stark contrast to how the park was being run before, as well as the general 'curb appeal' and also, the professionalism in general.

I'll start with Oddysee. Before they took over it was very rarely open, on the odd occasion that it was open, half of the seats on the train were condemned. It was rusty looked in bad shape. Every time I've been since they took over, I've been able to ride it. They've obviously painted it and made it look more appealing, and on my visits at least, all seats were also available.

Millenium coaster was always fairly reliable and ran well. But they have given it a coat of paint and moved the station inside, which is much more fitting than the old staircase outside. (Or was that move pre Mellors, can't remember now.)

Lots of smaller rides were in generally bad condition, and were not being maintained at all, Seaquarium is a particularly good example, not only have the done up what little theming was already there, I'm sure they've added more.

The inside of the Pyramid was starting to feel run down, almost derelict and generally a not nice place to be, now it looks much better and is full of life again like it was in the late 90s / early 00s. Their work in the Pyramid is what makes me excited to see what they do with somewhere they actually openly consider to be a 'theme park.'

Also, from experience, the previous management did not run the park very safely. On my first day there I was handed a manual and told to go run a ride with absolutely zero training or experience on rides at all, never mind that ride.

It's far from perfect now, but considering I thought it was about to close down at one point, it's much better now, they've done an incredible job turning it around. I thought Lightwater Valley was going to close down when they switched from families to focus on little kids a few years ago, I'm now hopeful that they will turn that place around too.

The on hand availability of many different ride types isn't going to hurt though either, is it? To the general public a new ride is a new ride, it's only goons that know X was at Winter Wonderland a few years ago, Y has previously been on the travelling circuit or Z was formerly at some other park... The public couldn't care less.
 
Nicky Borrill said:
Nothing to do with the temp rides, and that park didn't 'need' a new headliner, it needed to get the basics right first. No, it's more a case of what they've done on the basic maintenance side of things that is in such stark contrast to how the park was being run before, as well as the general 'curb appeal' and also, the professionalism in general.


It's far from perfect now, but considering I thought it was about to close down at one point, it's much better now, they've done an incredible job turning it around. I thought Lightwater Valley was going to close down when they switched from families to focus on little kids a few years ago, I'm now hopeful that they will turn that place around too.

The on hand availability of many different ride types isn't going to hurt though either, is it? To the general public a new ride is a new ride, it's only goons that know X was at Winter Wonderland a few years ago, Y has previously been on the travelling circuit or Z was formerly at some other park... The public couldn't care less.
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I guess i'd say having your rides open is just a bare minimum thing and not really "incredible" in any way. To me it just looks like the same park as it has been for 20+ years just with better operations. Of course thats important but it doesnt really impress me.

The public don't know where rides have been but when they visit and its yet more travelling rides with rattly temporary platforms and fairground signage and lighting, it doesnt scream a quality experience. Brighton Pier Group and their predecessors have been doing the fair rides at LWV thing basically since The Ultimate opened.

Can we have some proper rides?
 
I will say, Fantasy Island is not a park that was high up on my list as British parks go for the reason that aside from Odyssey and Millennium, it largely looks like a permanent travelling fair with a revolving door of flat rides. The two big coasters are probably the two most noteworthy UK coasters I have yet to ride, but when I’m over a 4 hour drive or 5.5 hour train ride away from FI, it’s a tough sell when I look at the rest of the lineup.

With this in mind, I hope Mellors pursues some things a tad more permanent in feel at Lightwater. It is very early days yet, so I don’t think we really know what direction they will take things in!
 
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Matt N said:
With this in mind, I hope Mellors pursues some things a tad more permanent in feel at Lightwater. It is very early days yet, so I don’t think we really know what direction they will take things in!
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I think one big issue to overcome is that I presume the Staveley Estate still owns the land. I dont know exactly how those contracts work but I would guess it makes these operators hesitant to invest massive amounts into the place permanently in case it doesnt work and they end up having to pull out and leave a lot of money invested into it.

It works for Merlin and Alton Towers because the place is so well-visited and has a solid lineup for GP to visit every year so they're willing to keep investing.

I assume these sort of things have very complicated contracts.
 
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