29 October 2024
Pleasurewood Hills returns with their spooktacular Halloween event, Pleasurewood Chills. With their two returning live action scare mazes, Halloween entertainment for the children and some spooky additions around the park. Whilst nothing is new for 2024, the park itself continues to adapt what they have, improving it where possible, whether that’s the landscape, rides or Halloween additions.
Pleasurewood Hills is a theme park located on the far east side of England, found in Lowestoft, which is close by to Great Yarmouth, you can find this family friendly park perfect for those looking for a great value day out. Part of the Loopings Group which also owns parks like Drayton Manor, they have a few rollercoasters such as Wipeout and Cannonball Express, plus other fun rides such as a drop tower, a shooting dark ride and pirate ship. The park is currently doing works to one of their thrill coasters called Marble Madness, which will hopefully return in the 2025 season!
Ticket prices into the park cost a fantastic price from £17.75 on a dated visit. They do have flexible pricing and date tickets, so you do need to book directly to find the best deals. The park generally opens between 10am to 5pm, with the Halloween mazes being open from midday. Tickets to the mazes are separate, costing £5 each or both together for £8.
@thrillnation Chills takes over @pleasurewood_hills this Halloween! #pleasurewoodhills #pleasurewoodchills #halloween #family #fun #scaremaze #rollercoaster #themepark #lowestoft ♬ Blood and Bone - Paul Velchev
Our First thoughts…
On a lovely and surprisingly sunny Sunday, we decided to spend a few hours visiting Pleasurewood Hills to take a look around, before enjoying the Halloween mazes. The park itself was great to see on a gorgeous day and we managed to get on all the rides we wanted without any queues or delays. Whilst they don’t have the biggest or most thrilling rides around, you know you’ll always have a fun day, minimal waits and everybody is super friendly. With the cost of the park being great value also, there is just zero complaints from us. We loved getting back on Wipeout and Cannonball Express, plus setting the high score on the wild west dark ride.
Heading over to spookier side, the two mazes have been a part of the lineup for some time now but we were promised they would have surprises inside for 2024. With that said, collectively they both were slightly different, with additions and had more actors in than ever before. It’s also worth noting that you do go in small groups, and on our visit it was just ourselves in the mazes, which makes it even scarier!
We had a short wait for Hell Express but had no wait at all for Shaft 13. Whilst these mazes are a little more extreme for the parks audience, they do keep the actors out the way as much as possible to avoid any younger guests getting upset.
Below we go into more depth about the attractions, giving you our thoughts and rating. Our ratings are completely separate and allows us to give a fair unbiased rating of each attraction. To know more about the ratings before you read below, do click here!
Hell Express – Scare Score: 55%
Theming 55% | Storyline 35% | Screams 60% | Laughs 65% | Actors 60%
Step aboard the Hell Express and take on several train carriages of fears and frights. With the whole route being in the dark with confined spaces, there is nowhere to run whilst on your journey to hell. With limited space, the team have to be creative with the theme and scares they deliver on board. Therefore, they have a sinister conductor out the front of the maze which sets the scene and interacts with anybody who walks by, before you move into the darkness and lose all light. We managed to get a few jump scares and the cast managed to hide themselves in the shadows really well. If you don’t like the possessed coming out of nowhere, tight corridors, heavy smoke or the pitch black then you’ll find this very scary this year!
Shaft 13 – Scare Score: 89%
Theming 85% | Storyline 80% | Screams 95% | Laughs 85% | Actors 100%
As you step within the mine to find the miner that is lost within, you soon realize it was a bad idea. Pure terror ran down our faces in each and every corner, with the horrifying creatures appearing out in the fog and got us from all angles. This maze is super claustrophobic and you’ll have to crawl or duck down for multiple parts, giving that realistic cavern feel. It has some cool effects and a team dedicated in giving that pure terror you are wanting from a maze this Halloween. The ending was different than before and we ended up being locked in a “mine shaft”, which ended up being a prison, before being terrified from all angles and then getting only 3 seconds to escape before they came chasing us to the exit. A huge improvement to previous years and one of the most terrifying attractions we’ve done in 2024. Not bad for a family park!
Overall, Pleasurewood Chills is scarier than it looks from the outside. Whilst a family friendly park and looks spooky with its Halloween decorations, inside the mazes are dark and creepy, with some of the best jump frights we’ve had. With some original and unique moments and creativity to change them, so they aren’t the same entirely, the passion from the team shines through at this dark time of year.
A huge thank you to the team for working with us in 2024. They did provide us with free entry and maze tickets for 2, in return for our review. We weren’t allowed to film or take photos inside as they like to keep this a surprise, so you’ll have to be brave if you want to know what happens in the dark.
Maybe in 2025, we’ll see Marble Madness make its return and some new changes to the Halloween event itself. The park has lots going on, with their firework event to end the season coming up shortly. For all the most up to date information, you are best to directly head to their website.
Attractions 75%
Entertainment 45%
Atmosphere 55%
value for money 90%
uniqueness 80%
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