Outside of South Wales, many families might not have heard of Oakwood – Wales’ biggest theme park in the beautiful Pembrokeshire countryside, but we think it’s a little hidden gem and it’s one of the girl’s favourite places to visit in South Wales.
It’s our first time visiting Oakwood Theme Park since summer 2019 and we wanted to see what the park is like since changes have been made following COVID-19.
It was great for the girls to have some normality and see the excitement on their faces as they found out we were visiting, they have so many good memories here from previous visits.
Whilst it’s no Disneyland or on the same scale as Alton Towers or as well themed or polished as the likes of Legoland Windsor, Paultons Park or Chessington, it offers a good range of rides for all the family.
As you enter the park a member of staff is there to ensure everyone uses the hand sanitisation stations (or you can use your own hand sanitiser).
The biggest difference post Covid were lots of yellow signs to advise 2m social distancing and white social distancing markers on the ground and for most of the time during our visit the rules were observed by guests and we felt safe. Each ride also has COVID-19 information boards to advise of changes to the rides and whether a mask was required.
The downside to these Covid-19 restrictions meant that the most popular attractions now have longer wait times with reduced ride capacity and staff wiping down rides after each guest.
There are around 30 rides and experiences at the park including some of our family favourites Megafobia – rated as one of the best wooden rollercoasters in Europe, the alpine bobsleigh run and the family friendly coaster Treetops.
One of our favourite parts of Oakwood is Neverland which I also think is one of the best themed areas of the park. The girls loved it here and it’s great for families as there is a range of family friendly rides available.
Our favourites were Tink’s Flying School (which is a unique flying sail boat ride that we haven’t seen at any other theme park) and Skull Rock (a water log flume ride) best of all fast passes were not needed here as wait times were hardly anything maybe because of the temperature being 12 degrees!
If you plan to go on Skull Rock you will get wet! so visit the shop opposite to get some ponchos – £2 for a child and £3 for adults! There are other water rides in Oakwood you could use these ponchos for (Snake River Falls and Waterfall) but at a chilly 12 degrees we gave these rides a miss.
One of our favourite family coasters is Treetops, a lovely coaster in the trees towards the back of the park – best of all there were hardly any wait times so the girls were able to ride this several times.
We visited the newest addition to Oakwood, Spooky Street at the end of the day and it was really quiet which meant we basically had the entire area to ourselves and could ride multiple times on the Creepy Crawler coaster, jump on the Cauldron trampolines and spin on the Witches Brew teacups. We did try to convince them to try Spooky 3D but failed to get them on this ghost train!
The price of entry can be expensive for a family at £107.50 (2 adults/2 children) but there are ways to reduce this.
If you are eligible for a Blue Light Card you can use this for discounted entry at 20% off full price ticket or one of the most popular ways is to use your Tesco Clubcard vouchers for full or part payment.
Oakwood Park also run special offers so look out for discounted entry days, for example there is a Toddler day on Friday 28th May which is £14.95 for an adult and toddler.