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My wife & I took a trip to Blackpool Pleasure Beach this week & I though I would take it as an opportunity to make my first trip report, so here goes.
We travelled to Blackpool from Yorkshire & opted to go by train so we could both have a cheeky beer or two. When we arrived we found that we pretty much had the whole of Blackpool & The Pleasure Beach to ourselves, as you'll see from the photo's. It's worrying how quiet it was for a nice sunny day at the back end of April, I hope for their sake that it's busier at the weekends and in Summer.
The Pleasure Beach will always have a place in my heart as it's where my Parents & Grand-Parents used to take me every year as part of our summer holidays.
As you can see, we really did have the place to ourselves and with such nice weather it made for a great "queue free" day on park. Park hours were 10:00am - 5:00pm (with staggered ride opening times from 10am). Our wirstbands for the day costs ??19 each (pre-booked on-line at least 24 hours in advance).
The park entrance is looking very clean and fresh and it's great that they have kept the old "Noah's Ark" as part of the entrance plaza even if it's not an actual attraction any more.
As we entered the park it was a relief to see The Big One running as it's always a bit "hit & miss" on whether it's open or not (usually due to the pretty grim & hostile weather that can frequent Blackpool Seafront). The back two cars ran all day with sandbags in the seats so there was no chance of a back seat ride for us this time!
We headed straight up to Valhalla for our first ride of the day & it was a very wet & fiery experience. It's not quite as good as it was in it's early years, before they reduced & started rotating the various fire & visual effects in operation, but it still has more than enough to go with the thrilling ride. We went on this a good number of times so took the poncho option to avoid being completely soaked!
From here we had a quick go on "Iceblast" (S&S Space Shot Tower) which offers great views of the park & Blackpool Promenade, & then it was onto some of the oldest ride at the Pleasure Beach (& probably the world);
Flying Machines (which made for quite a chilly ride after getting wet on Valhalla)
Derby Racer (Giant Carousel)
Alice in Wonderland
Ghost Train
Wild Mouse
River Caves
The Flying Machines: (the oldest ride in the park)
Alice in Wonderland - Family Dark Ride
The "Most Haunted Ghost Train in the World"!!
Hurray for the Crazy Skeletons on bicycles still being in the Ghost Train, I loved these guys as a kid!
There's a fountain show set to music every 30 mins throughout the day.
The Wild Mouse is a personal favourite of mine & gives an intense wild ride every time.
Making sure to not head-butt the person wedged inbetween your legs in front of you on the crazy hills & drops is always a challenge, lol!
The River Caves look like they have been refurbished recently, at least with new lighting and water mist effects. I'm glad that they seem to be keeping all the dark rides well maintained, there are so few places to experience these kinds of rides any more and they really are worth it in my opinion. ( I asked the Ride-Op if it was ok to take photo's on the ride & he looked genuinely happy that I wanted to & told me to go ahead & take as many as I wanted......so I did).
At this point we had covered pretty much everything in this area of the park but were wondering why the Grand National hadn't opened yet.
Probably something to do with the trains being stranded on the lift hill! It did finally open later in the day and provided an exhilarating ride in both the front and back seats, but the back seat ride was pretty painful!! It's still my favourite coaster on the park though.
So then we made our way up to the Mid-Concourse, home of The Big Dipper, Infusion & the Wallace & Grommit "Thrill-O-Matic" family dark ride.
Infusion (SLC) was quite a comfortable ride (with your head poked forward out of the restraint anyway, lol!) compared to what I can only describe as the worst ride of my life on The Big Dipper. To say it was extremely rough doesn't even come close. It's in serious need of some MAJOR work. It's so rough in the turns that after one ride it had put my back out. I had pain from my neck to my ass) I'm pretty sure that both the track & trains are dead. Probably the last time I'll go on this ride unless it gets refurbished. A few beers seemed to help numb the pain & carry on!
The Wallace & Grommit "Thrill-O-Matic" dark ride is a great family ride with lots of scenes based on the series & a good track layout with some well paced hills and drops between levels. I do miss the old "Mine Train" dark ride that this ride replaced though.
Moving on down through the park you get a good view of the empty area where the bumper boat used to be. You can see markings for what may be a new attraction now.
Although not completely clear on this photo, the word sprayed on the floor is "Track"
From here we headed down to Revolution & Avalanche. I'm not fond of Revolution's colour scheme these days, it's looking old & tired. But the ride is still fun & has some good forces.
Avalanche Train
I've ridden the Mack Bobsled coasters @ Europa Park, & Parc Asterix & I have to say that I think Avalanche @ the Pleasure Beach is the best out of the three. The pacing is great and the transitions are snappy with some good laterals. If it was a little bit longer it would be perfect in my opinion.
Next up was Nickelodeon Land via the Scenic Railway, which is a nice tranquil ride around the park on a sunny day.
The Nickelodeon Streak rollercoaster was our third & final wooden coaster of the day & was another fun but rough ride. Again I think they need to spend a bit of time & money on all their wooden coasters. There are some horrible track sections that are in desperate need of repair on this coaster.
Wonky Lift Hill!
Down to the final area, the lower concourse at the back of the park for the last of the rides.
The Steeplechase is as fun & scary as always. Your never a long way from being thrown off into a heap on the floor, lol!
This is my wifes favorite ride!
& Finally, "The Skyforce Red Arrows" & "The Big One". As I mentioned earlier, there was no chance of a back seat ride on The Big One so we had to make do with several front seat rides instead. The weather was nice, the wind wasn't too strong & The Big One gave a good ride. I've never been a huge fan of the layout, but it's still most enjoyable (especially with a 0 minute wait time for the front seats). I didn't try the Red Arrows as I'm sure my stomach would take it
So having made it around the park in 2 hours, we headed to the Pub for a few beers and then started all over again...& then again......& then...
Overall, a great day out at the Pleasure Beach. It would have been nice to have a few more guests on park to give it a bit more atmosphere, but we still had a great day and went on some great Coasters & Dark Rides (& a few very rough ones too!!)
Hope you enjoyed the Report & Photo's.
Glad you enjoyed yourself!
