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My first experience of Blackpool started off before I had even arrived. Driving into the seaside town, the first thing you're greeted by are miles of banners for Icon. Blackpool is first and foremost a tourism hotspot and the Pleasure Beach is very much at the centre of this town. My first impressions of the promenade are not entirely positive. The street is quite tacky; donut stalls, arcades, casinos and pink horse rides are found along length of the street. The amazing views out to sea and sandy beaches redeem it somewhat. On my first day at the Pleasure Beach, I was pleasently surprised. There was no lengthy wait to get in yet the park was thriving with guests on Saturday. This continued with relatively short queues compared to rival UK parks. What I love most about BPB and what has driven me to visit are the unique rides and layout the park has. All of the coasters are intertwined within one another in a way like no other park I've visited before. The park maintains a diverse range of attractions with something for everyone to enjoy. Paired with very strong transport links, this makes BPB a great place to visit for anyone. Presentation & Service The park has a uniquely historical charm. I will say the main ticket office is quite grand inside, the staff here are well presented in classic suits. The office and the entrance were well staffed with more than enough people to handle larger crowds. Most of the staff in the park were cheerful apart from a few which can really make or break good a day out for guests. Fountains, fountains and more fountains were everywhere in this park. in the floor, on the coasters, ride areas, paths and are an attraction within their own right with a nice little show every 30 mins. Food & Drink Many of the Bars and the new Coasters restaurant have a modern, tasteful and clean look to them which I really liked. Most of them even served champagne. There were of course the standard fast food outlets too found at any park. We ate at the Coasters restaurant on the first day and I was very pleased with the quality and the price of the menu. I thought it was excellent value and I really hope to see more of this standard of food with similar affordable pricing at the park in the future. The Rides The Pleasure Beach has a number of historical rides with by far the best one for me being River Caves. This indoor boat ride feels untouched, all the effects and scenery still look to be in working order. There are no gimmicks, just gentle background music, some narration and great atmospheric sets that the boats sail through. It's just a really nice boat ride. Grand National is by far the worst historical ride at the park. This is a duelling wooden coaster that bounces and partially derails around the corners. It's set through a beautiful workshop behind Valhalla with tufts of grass growing through the tracks. The Big Dipper and the Velvet Streak are much better wooden coasters for their age. Steeplechase is the most unique and rare coaster at BPB being the only ride of it's kind still operating in the world. It consists of three horse shaped vehicles running on vertical track rails. The track moves freely over the terrain with minimal support structures and has the ability to tilt the horse vehicles around the bends by offsetting the lower rail. Forming part of the Blackpool skyline, The Big One is the second Hypercoaster I've ever been on and the tallest in the UK at just over 200ft high. The Hill and first half of the ride are the real highlights, you can see all of Blackpool at the top! The first airtime hills as of any hypercoaster are breathtaking and unlike any other coaster experience. The lower half of the ride feels more like a shopping trolley in a carpark however with a very jerky ride. A real shame that the station is literally a warehouse. No attempt at theming was made at all and frankly I've seen better industrial units. It's still worth riding for the experience. Infusion is highly regarded amongst many as a terrible ride. The theme of the ride is simple yet so dynamic with water jets crossing streams between the twisted steel, it almost looks like an engineering water sculpture. I want to end the negative hype and say that the ride is not as rough as people say it is. It's not smooth either but I've been on worse. I would ride it again if I returned. Revolution was a strange coaster for me. The station is at the top of the ride. As there are no airgates, there's a constant safety announcement on loop along with the original yet dated claim that it will be "the most thrilling ride of your life". It's a shuttle that sends you round a loop forwards and backwards, the backwards part being more nauseous than thrilling. The best thing about Revolution is the classic Arrow loop support structure. Notably the best dark ride at BPB is Wallace & Gromit's Thrill-o-matic. Each scene is beautifully crafted to look just like the films. The voice overs, audio, lighting, everything is spot on and the ride has a decent length. It's charming, funny, northern and colourful. "I've got patent pending on that", "You'll be hearing from my solicitor about this!", "Cheeese" 😄The ride cars are like giant slippers which is just fantastic. It brings back childhood memories for me too, For me it's easily the best dark ride in the UK. My gosh where do I start with Valhalla? It is an epic boat ride experience. The sets are impressive and the drops are brutally soaking wet. I started by submerging my shoes in a half filled boat. The flames were impressive, the steam was intense, the ice scene was frosty. It's really a one of a kind boat ride. A must do at BPB. The first Mack coaster at BPB; a bobsled called Avalanche twists and turns between Revolution and Icon. The station and surrounding area feel as close to Euopa Park at Blackpool as you can get. The Swiss music and chalet really have a similar atmosphere. Avalanche itself however is much better than it's Europa Park cousin. It has fast, snaking turns that pick up speed ending in two intense helix turns towards the bottom. Finally the newest Mack coaster, Icon is by far the best ride at the park. I'm still in a dilemma about where it ranks in my all time favourites as it is that good. Frankly I was overjoyed when I found out Pleasure Beach were building a Mack megacoaster in the UK. I loved Blue Fire at Europa Park and this is no exception. Mack launches are not entirely linear. The best way to describe it is like being pushed on a swing, it starts rolling and then builds up the momentum. If you expect an Intamin style launch, you will be disappointed. The airtime hills, swaying turns and punchy acceleration made it such a smooth and enjoyable ride. Riding on the front row, you get a very floaty and fun ride. On the back row, the ride is the most intense with forceful positive G's and sharp, quick pops of airtime. The momentum of the ride doesn't end until the last turn as the second launch takes you up and over probably the best designed immelman I've ever seen. The theme is minimal yet exremely well presented. The music is dramatic and catchy. The seats are open yet comfy, the OH restraints feel like lap bars and they swing down and spring up making dispatch lightning fast. The Mack bag flaps are convenient yet secure. It eats through the queue line so even waiting for the brand new ride is quick. All I can say is BPB have got something really special here. Overall, Icon is just a fantastic attraction. I think it's the best new coaster we have had in the UK this year and the one I've most been looking forward to. Conclusion Blackpool Pleasure Beach is a very well rounded, affordable park which is easy to get to with plenty of staff on hand and is home to several unique experiences in the UK. The very reasonable entry price along with the new ride Icon really gives main rival Merlin parks a run for their money this year. It also helps BPB that their operations are much better than Merlin's have been this year in general. I'd definately return just to ride Icon again but I'd stay for the charm of the undeniably british family run park.

Is that like where people leave their rubbish on tables and say 'well it's their job to clean up after me' as if thats an excuse to be an unreasonable, ignorant idiot.

Ah yes, DBGT. The future of theme parks. Currently on it's arse and the experience upkeep abandoned after two seasons. Turns out VR is just another short term fad stuck on a now very expensive, purpose built attraction.

Had a great day at Thorpe today! Queues were 5-30 minutes for most of the day for the main rides and the all the main coasters were on two trains! Stacking is still present on Colossus and a tad on Swarm, though it seemed much better than last time. I think after 3 rides on Saw today I have to say I think the Saw team deserve a medal, the batches were lightning quick and the queue moved really damn fast. All of the main coasters didn't break down/close throughout the day despite the horrible rain, overall very impressed.

Hey Nasher, less of the shouting yo. Mr Optimistic!

Anyway going back on topic, its bad to see Vortex having so much downtime as it does usually eat up the queues quite nicely and usually its one of the more reliable flats.. I really think Thorpe soon will need to do some work/replace some of their flats soon, Vortex might not make it for much longer at this rate.. Samurai is a even more drastic case.. Well at least they have flat rides unlike Alton I guess..

Went to Blackpool with the TPM lot and here’s the key things I got from my visit: Admissions staff friendly and efficient Most ride operations either good or excellent Ride staff seemed noticeably more friendly and efficient than last time (except Nash) Several vehicles on everything except Grand National, Streak and Flyer (the latters excusable) Grand National staff were awful, they only ran a train each side and then suddenly made everyone leave the queue without an explainable reason Big Dipper felt noticeably rougher however Infusion wasn’t as bad Big One felt very painful and somewhat less enjoyable this time, to the point I was happy to get off the ride Valhalla was still mightily impressive despite some effects being broken, Alice and Caves were in an adequate state for classic dark rides, but not sure I’m keen on the green LEDS for the Cheshire Cat The revamped Coasters looks a lot more classy, modern and bigger than the original. My Quesadillas were delicious although the Mac N Cheese others got was less acceptable. Do miss the Disney music though. Seeing the empty space of Mouse was saddening but the area didn’t look as lifeless as expected Oh and they’ve also opened some new ride. They call it Icon. Despite the mixed reviews coming across I actually strongly enjoyed this coaster a lot more than I expected and am proud to call it my second favourite U.K. coaster. It doesn’t beat Helix but is higher than Blue Fire (as far as layout is concerned). Regardless though, I’m very happy the UK now has a ride like this and I hope it only brings greater things to the Macks and Thompson’s.

Is it sinking?

C'mon guys, lets hug it out and talk about the return of Loggers Leap for 2019.

MIGHT open next week (10th).

I think there should be more charges to solve other problems too. £10 fine if you sit on the queue fence, £20 fine for queue jumping, £25 (+eligibility) for a RAP , 20p turnstiles for the toilets, large lockers for £5 per use etc. It will make the park much better having all these extra charges!

It’s been like this a couple of weeks now - I’d be surprised if 2 pods were simply broken so I expect there’s something abit more complex causing it. Did it tonight actually - had an insane cycle on it, pods were doing full speed 360 flips, something I’ve only ever had on Top Buzz before never on samurai!

Not sure if anyone would agree with this, but I feel that a much simpler and actor-free dark ride like Hex would actually have been a better addition to the park. Sure DBGT could have worked brilliantly, and it did on the media night, but the lack of effort to maintain the experience has let the ride down.

I’m going to be controversial here and say that as much I love the themes music, there. Are definitely times in the season where the use of chart/general Music on the rides wouldn’t go a miss. For example the Ministry Of Sound and Love Island lates where it would give a different vibe to the park/areas and perhaps be advantage to both guests and staff.

Hi guys, I'm Alex, new here but a longtime themepark fan!

I preferred it in the days they used the midnight syndicate music. For several years every attraction had a different track. It's very generic audio wise now days and reduces the atmosphere greatly IMO. You couldn't beat humpty dumpty on Detonator! I still thoroughly enjoyed platform 15 and, Big Top last season and am still looking forward to FN this year.

Must have been a throughput day (Do they still do those??) Remember back in the day the had those and would play non themed music (chart) to motivate the staff to get through as many people as they could!!

I did enjoy The Walking Dead: The Ride. However, I didn't appreciate the loss of X, a decent family coaster, to enable this coaster to exist. It's a big shame as it was one of the most light-hearted rides there. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with the horror themes, but just not at the expense of a good family coaster. I actually had a go at designing a new 'Walking Dead' ride for the park myself, seeing what it could be like if it were a new coaster and not a retheme of X:

Oakwood was amazing last Wednesday, the park was on a 10pm close yet was very quiet, and there were no fireworks meaning the rides stayed open until (nearly) 10pm. Megafobia was belting round all day, securing its place well above Wicker Man (but still below the National and Mouse) in terms of my favourite wooden coasters. Speed and Drenched are both very good rides and still some of my favourite in the UK. Staff were very friendly and professional throughout the day, many of which I recognised from previous years. Bounce looks sad left there SBNO, seems to be a common theme across UK theme parks unfortunately. Spooky 3D was spookier than last year but still needs work. Creepy Crawler has a nice new anamatronic in the queue. The park and grounds were looking nice, it appears that a few areas have had some TLC/general aesthetic work which was good to see. Oakwood is genuinely one of my favourite parks; the setting is lovely, rides fantastic and it's amazing to visit on a quiet day. On a busy day however, it falls apart and I suspect the After Dark events will most likely be plagued with the same capacity issues as previous years. My advice is pick one of the 10pm closes before After Dark starts if you're looking for a decent ridecount. My ridecount for the day; Megafobia x28 Speed x10 Drenched x7 Creepy Crawler x3 Bobsleigh x2 Spooky 3D x2 Snake River Falls x2 Waterfall x1 Treetops x1 Tinkerbell's Flying School x1 Skull Rock x1 Pirate Ship x1 Moon Landing x1 Taxi x1 Boating Lake x1 Witch Hunt (horror maze) x2 TOTAL: 64 This is sad But this is AMAZING After possibly the best day at Oakwood since 2006/7, I'd highly recommend visiting.

I've been getting into photography recently so obviously Ive taken loads of pictures of rides because I'm a geek.

Thorpe don't need any more help having their rides breaking down...

You have no idea how much I love this.

It's mental that a company that LOVES parks having NEW things is so obsessed about needing an USP that basic flats don't get built... I imagine a lot of the park people end up screaming into cushions after meetings with Poole...

I understand that BPB have once again taken the decision to close two hours earlier than advertised today, due to weather. Their attitude frankly stinks and they aren't deserving of increased gate figures when they show such disregard for the paying customer. They never ever learn.