What's new
By:
FORUMS - COASTERFORCE

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Paultons Park | Serpents Curse | Mack Water Coaster | 2027

Pleased to see Serpent’s Curse has a decent length of the coaster section.
Will be exciting to experience it next season, was partially hoping for a launched version, but will be good addition to the UK theme park scene.
 
Not gonna lie, I'm very disappointed with the lack of theming and creativity in the ride area. It's just flat grass and a couple of small props. So much wasted space there.

No rock structures? No giant serpent? Waterfalls? Pathways interacting with the ride?

They've only themed the station.
 
Jamesss said:
Not gonna lie, I'm very disappointed with the lack of theming and creativity in the ride area. It's just flat grass and a couple of small props. So much wasted space there.

No rock structures? No giant serpent? Waterfalls? Pathways interacting with the ride?

They've only themed the station.
Click to expand...
You have to be taking the p*ss otherwise you sound like a spoiled entitled child
 
Last edited:
I personally feel like Paultons are really making me want to fly from Scotland to visit!

Drakon seems like fun, but I was a bit disappointed that we were getting a OTSR EuroFighter, like we don't already have Saw to bang our heads out with.

Despite this, it's still probably a strong addition, and a year later they're adding this, a pretty unique coaster to the UK. First proper Water Coaster in the UK, layout looks like fun, and back to back years!

It feels like Paultons while probably not perfect really want to expand this park to a bigger audience and potential, man with Storm Chaser too, I hope this Park takes off big. Merlin can learn a thing! I guess Universal will be a fair distance away as well, so hopefully it won't feel the same pressure.

But yeah the expansion pace is making Merlin look sluggish!
 
Last edited:
Ehhh, I'm not feeling this.

It looks fine (I promise my vocabulary extends beyond this word after also describing Drakon as fine). The coaster section is relatively short and doesn't seem to offer much, and Mack Water Coasters rarely offer slick ride experiences.

My biggest bugbear is that the whole ride is not over water. It's more a personal preference, but the whole coaster is over land, then you have a final splashdown into water and meander in a trough to the station. It doesn't feel like a water coaster, or even the water ride the park desperately needs. It's a coaster with a splashdown. And given the theme/story, of being out at sea, again I'd have wanted more water in the area.

It sounds like they've thought the splashdown through, and it'll be a good key visual for the area with lots of interaction. That's good.

But for me, this doesn't tick any of the boxes I'd want for a water coaster, and particularly this water coaster.
 
JoshC. said:
Ehhh, I'm not feeling this.

It looks fine (I promise my vocabulary extends beyond this word after also describing Drakon as fine). The coaster section is relatively short and doesn't seem to offer much, and Mack Water Coasters rarely offer slick ride experiences.

My biggest bugbear is that the whole ride is not over water. It's more a personal preference, but the whole coaster is over land, then you have a final splashdown into water and meander in a trough to the station. It doesn't feel like a water coaster, or even the water ride the park desperately needs. It's a coaster with a splashdown. And given the theme/story, of being out at sea, again I'd have wanted more water in the area.

It sounds like they've thought the splashdown through, and it'll be a good key visual for the area with lots of interaction. That's good.

But for me, this doesn't tick any of the boxes I'd want for a water coaster, and particularly this water coaster.
Click to expand...
I'm sorry hardly any water coasters are in fact completely over water especially the new ones
 
VonRolland said:
I'm sorry hardly any water coasters are in fact completely over water especially the new ones
Click to expand...

Yeah I recognise that. It's very much a personal preference which I've come to notice recently after having ridden a couple more.

The thing that stood out most to me with this one was that the water area feels like a relatively small part of the ride's area. Similar for other water coasters, yes, but it just misses the mark for me.
 
Though I was a bit whiney about Drakon, I do think as Enthusiasts we are a bit nitpicky. It's not got enough theming, it's over water, it's not launched.

The layout looks more interesting than your average Water Coaster, way more exciting than Poseidon's rattly turns lol. I presume the newer ones ride a bit better (Poseidon is 26 years old I guess). Looks like a really fun family coaster in a park that already has a new toy that just opened.

6 new coasters in a 11 year period or so, I know the coasters are on a family/smaller scale, but that's pretty wild.

Edit: Just wanted to add that for comparison

Alton since 2016: 3
Thorpe: 1 (Hyperia Though)
Legoland: 3
Chessington: 3
 
The average family will think it’s cool and appreciate it. Being a thoosie.. yeah sure the layout looks boring and plain like Drakon. But we are not the target audience.
 
It's great to see this park adding another coaster in literally a year after their newest addition, and I can certainly agree that the amount of care and investment going into this park puts the other UK parks to shame. But I have to agree with others - whilst I'm fully aware that us enthusiasts are not the main target audience, I'm still not yet interested in visiting this park anytime soon as their line-up really isn't any special unfortunately (travelling to Paulton's would take a long time considering I live up in the North East). The amount of detail they've been putting in lately is amazing, however it does look like Serpent's Curse is looking a bit lacklustre in terms of theming compared to the latest additions.

I wish all the best for this park, and hope to see it constantly growing at the pace they are now...but man, I'd love for them to one day have a world-class attraction that's worth travelling down for!
 
We're all glad Paultons is investing heavily and I really enjoyed Vaalgard yesterday. I think it’s their best area yet.

That doesn’t stop us discussing the design though. This is an enthusiast forum! Good theming enhances the experience for all guests, not just hardcore fans.

The water coaster’s large ride area looks very minimal and flat by comparison to Paultons' own standards.

Perhaps I should simply pretend it looks perfect so we can resume the proper Paultons reverence? 😇
 
To be fair... I think we've all known for some time where Paultons strengths are theming wise... it's always been the case that they excel in applying smaller details and texturing their theming rather than simply building monolithic ride area structuress that are more akin to Merlin's efforts. They excel at texturing their queue lines, station buildings, on themed facades and around the themed worlds themselves. To be frank, not enough of the UK theme parks do this, and this is exactly where Paultons have been upstaging all of them. They quite rightly focus on the overall experience, not just a single/small number of bigger weinies. The ride area will look nice and lush if Drakon's and Storm Chaser's landscaping are anything to go by. The kind of theming that Paultons will be focusing on will undoubtably upstage the efforts of other parks and once again be very comparable to family parks in mainland Europe, which is what we should expect Paultons to do, and I praise them for always doing just that.
 
Last edited:
I think, however, that both approaches to theming are valid and have aspects of merit, and as much as nicely finished off things are brilliant, there is something to be said for impact and pizzazz. And this is where I think the likes of Merlin at their best still do better than Paultons on the whole, even if Paultons’ stuff is maybe more rounded in many cases. I don’t think Paultons quite do theatre and drama like some of Merlin’s best attractions, even if I will admit that Drakon is an improvement on prior Paultons rides in this sense.

One thing I did think about Drakon is that the ride area is slightly lacking in terms of overly visible theming from on ride. There are some nice details in the ride area, but I don’t think you really notice them when riding and it feels a bit more like you’re riding over some generic landscaping after you’ve initially interacted with Raven. It would be a shame if Serpent’s Curse was also like this; Paultons have done some really nice on-ride theming elsewhere, so I’d love to see this applied in Valgard.

The water coaster looks like it will be a fun addition, though!
 
The theming looks fine on this. The station building looks sizeable, there's a bridge over the splashdown (essential!), there seems to be some large element that looks like a sinking ship at the bottom of the first drop and the splashdown is in water. No doubt Paulton's will fill the grassy space with little details, trees and rockwork too.
 
Theming wise it looks a bit bare, interestingly looking at the original concept vs the current land they do seem to change a bit.

IMG-20260519-WA0002.jpg
IMG-20260519-WA0001.jpg

The grass roofs and the fire area for Drakon are gone but there is a lot of planting, looking at a POV of Drakon its well planted and once it grows it should fill the space nicely.

For Serpents Curse while the area under the coaster looks bare i think they would fill it in with some type of foliage and though there is just a little shipwreck i can see them adding a bit more round the layout.

IMG-20260519-WA0000.jpg

The ride building, bridge and splash down all look great so while i wish there was more water i hope they add some nice planting round the coaster to fill the space. Also the concept is definitely not fixed as the moved seal ride does not appear.

As for the layout im happy, its simple but its still unique for the UK and thats fine for them, with our weather im glad you get wet but wont be sitting too long to get back to the station.

This seems more Paultons, something simple yet tried and true while being unique for the UK. First SFC, Mack Spinner, Mack water coaster all great fits, a Mack Big Dipper Drakon would have been amazing but hay ho, im excited to see how they bring this all together.
 
The fire-area is still there, but it's now a collection of small huts and not a volcanic crater. The huts illuminate from the inside with smoke effects It'll be difficult to gauge what Serpent's Curse's theming will be really, it'll just have some nice smaller details in the queue line and in the station like most European parks and the rest of Paultons.
 
MackMan said:
6 new coasters in a 11 year period or so, I know the coasters are on a family/smaller scale, but that's pretty wild.

Edit: Just wanted to add that for comparison

Alton since 2016: 3
Thorpe: 1 (Hyperia Though)
Legoland: 3
Chessington: 3
Click to expand...

What I'd add mind is that some of the more recently added 'family rides' added across the UK are actually some of the most fun (and least painful) - spinning racer, storm chaser, and gold rush are all rides I enjoyed more than some of the big new ones.

The likes of Hyperia and Nemesis Reborn are obviously great rides in their own right, but sometimes queuing for hours for something that may last for seconds and beats you up, just doesn't hit like it used to.

Sent from my Pixel 8 Pro using Tapatalk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top