Leaderboard

Can only echo what was said regarding Sunday there. It really was poor. I ended up leaving at 3pm, as I was fed up. Thinking positively, The Big One itself was on top top form and easily the best rides I have ever had on it. The Saturday post 10pm ride was truly amazing, with no wind, pure speed and even some unusual pops of airtime. One of my all time favourite coaster rides of all time.

Icon right now is utterly pointless to run three trains on. Endless stacking. I know many blame this on the seatbelt installed on the restraint, this however is not the issue. The issue is that the wristband/E ticket scanner is right at the boarding area to the ride. Which means guests are faffing around getting through the turnstile and being batched into their rows whilst the train in front is hitting the second launch. Icon historically when operated well is dispatching a train just as the train in front is hitting the second launch. So by the time you have got through the scanning turnstile, been sent to your row, had the gates open, placed your belongings in the loose articles area, had the restaint checked and given the all clear, the ride has two trains stacked up behind you. Which in turn takes an eternity to off load riders. Until they move the location of the turnstile, they should NOT be running it on three trains. No ifs no buts and no maybes about it.

Blackpool Pleasure Beach was atrocious on Sunday. Saturday was an excellent day helped by the 10pm close; we arrived in the morning to find Alice, Ice Blast, Nickelodeon Streak, Avalanche and Revolution on delayed opening, which wrecked our chances of riding the low capacity rides first, but fortunately things picked up later on and the rides ran excellently throughout the day. Icon was unfortunately still running very slowly once up to 3 trains, I waited earlier on 2 and the queue moved faster but some of my group ended up waiting over 90 minutes later on. Sunday however, was the worst day I have ever had at BPB. The park was busier than the Saturday, which I presume was due to the bank holiday, and yet there was no extension to the 6pm closing time. We arrived early again to find Ice Blast, Alice, Derby Racer and the entirety of Nickelodeon Land opening at 11am! Nick Land was completely fenced off until 11, which was utterly useless when you consider that getting on the Streak early is the only way to avoid waiting an eternity for it. The coasters due to open at 10:30am were closer to 11 by the time they actually opened, meaning that for the first hour, the only ride in the entire park open was Flying Machines! The Big One and Icon's operations were woefully slow on the Sunday, I have never seen such slow dispatch times in all my visits to the Pleasure Beach. Icon was stacking for 5 minutes each time, meaning it took us 10 minutes to get off the thing, since we had to wait in two places as the ride was on 3 trains. 450pph was calculated I believe which is just abysmal, also bearing in mind that the Speedy Pass queue was enormous. Icon had major capacity problems with it starting the day on 2 trains both times, at which point it was moving the queue reasonably, but they would then hold it up to add on the third train at around midday (which took them 20 minutes to do on the Sunday), after which operations slowed down to an absolute snail's pace. This caused the queue to overspill the extended queueline; past the entrance gate, all the way down the path next to it and back up, and overflowing out next to the Icon shop. It would then hardly move for the rest of the day making for some utterly horrible wait times. Despite the park being absolutely heaving, Grand National, Ghost Train and River Caves closed an hour early at 5pm due to a private event?! This was absolute madness given how busy the park was, and again, I have never seen anything like it. I've tried to see the good in the Pleasure Beach, but Sunday was an utter shambles and the worst day I've ever spend at BPB.