Mini Photo TR: Winter Wonderland London

[andybarnes84]

Hi all,

 

Bringing you a look at 2012 Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park in London. Thought I'd stop by on my way through the area and take some photos for ya'll to enjoy.

 

Winter Wonderland is open everyday from 10am to 10pm (won't find that any normal theme park in the UK) and opens late November through to January. Free entry. It's worth checking out if you're ever here over the festive period, but it is a bit expensive to say the least. The main rides are 6 tokens (no wristbands here sorry) which equal £6 or $9, so you can see how quickly the costs can spiral. A few small coasters, a starflyer, a superb drop tower (the tallest mobile drop tower in the World they'll have you believe!), numerous flats, a zip line, big wheel, ice rink, circus, the list goes on and on. Not to mention the huge selection of eateries and drink(eries?), in some ways it's actually more of a food festival with some rides dotted around. I was really hoping in this *Olympic* year that Olympia Looping would make an appearance but that was very wishful thinking indeed.

 

It should really be called Winter Oktoberfest as it's very German, or so my naive little brain believes, and has a really good mix of attractions for a pop-up park in the center of one of the World's biggest cities. It's been running for a few years now so seems to be a very established attraction, the staff even have official Winter Wonderland jackets so it's all very legit. Long may it prosper, and if you visit on a weekend, you'll certainly get to experience how popular it can be. To be able to get photos of the rides without a thousand faces spoiling the shot, I visited at around 11am.

 

http://www.hydeparkwinterwonderland.com/

 

Anyways, enough yapping, here's a short tour of what you'll find:

 

"Welcome all!" bellows the crude animatronic Santa

Park map!

Mix of tat and more tat, such as...

WOODEN TIES!

Poor Norwegians...

Beer windmill number 3

Take your pick

Oktoberfest hall

Better theming than BGW?

This cafe looked nice enough...

...and then I saw the prices

Llama in a bun? Is this China???

Trippy!

Onto the attractions, this is the first you'll encounter

complete with one of these hysterical laughing zombies...

and a camp Lion of course!

Straight out of RCT

Next, Pirates Adventure, probably one of the most impressively themed and animated "mobile" attractions ever

Mr Pirate

The exterior, complete with many moving thaaangs

Choo choo baby!

The Alpen Hotel is one filthy place

Drunk dude running the place for a start

And then there's the 'entertainment'

BIG WHEEL!

Euro, sorry, Christmas Coaster

Staff member trying to have fun, why not when it's this quiet?

I say 'trying' as let's face it, this ain't too great

Wakey wakey!

So this is China after all!

Nice detail, albeit very familiar

Looks fantabulous at night, honest

When will we get 6D? Answers on a postcard to: The Future, Beijing

Wild Mouse x 1.5

Seriously, this is one big Wild Mouse

Looks like the Super 8 I stayed in near Philly

Same receptionist!

Cute detail, but another £6/ attraction (per ride) so I'd bloody well expect it, and real penguins operating the ride! And a penguin to take home afterwards.

Don't cope too well on these

Or these

I don't know why but I find this kinda depressing and melancholic

Yet another flippin walk through attraction fun house thing, if you want to get fit this is certainly the place

Sorry for the lifeless pictures but it had only been open for an hour, this place takes on a whole other vibe after dark but due to having a crappy camera on the phone thought it best to visit during daylight

This looks very cool and don't remember seeing one of these anywhere else, maybe at Hershey?

I got excited when I heard this was an "Ice Age 4" Ice Rink, when in fact it was just the same as last year but with ads for the DVD plastered everywhere

Still haven't tried one of these, too "washing machine nightmare" for me

VERY Piers friendly, and industrial size bins/trash cans to expell your multicolored yawn into! PART-AY!

Adios newly poor peoples!

[WildMouse]

Great photos! I popped along eariler today. I wondered where I could hear Brian Blessed's voice booming from! Now I know

[simon8899]

Funny to see an English carnival with mostly German attractions like the Schwarzwald Café, Irrgarten, Action and Wilde Maus XXL.

 

Notably as here in Germany it's still said to better not to say that you're coming from Germany when visiting England - as in "Don't talk about the war!" most Germans think we are not very popular in England...

[Trevannosaurus Rex]

Were the rides being run in proper German travelling fair mode? Or a tamed down UK version?

 

Notably as here in Germany it's still said to better not to say that you're coming from Germany when visiting England - as in "Don't talk about the war!" most Germans think we are not very popular in England...

I think these days it has more to do with the Germans being better at football more than anything else!

[Gutterflower]

Can't wait to head down here on the 23rd. I keep hearing good things about the ride "Air" down there but I have no idea what it is. Anyone have more insight?

 

As for the not saying your German thing. In my experience if you say your German around you'll be dragged to the pub. I generally find while travelling around Europe that the Germans along with the Aussies are one of the few nationalities that can go toe to toe with the British for excessive drinking . Although I'm not sure that's a "good" thing

[Jew]

The "This looks very cool and don't remember seeing one of these anywhere else, maybe at Hershey?" ride is a Wisdom Tornado. Some of the Jeepers have them. John's Incredible Pizza in Buena Park has one too if I remember correctly.