Coaster

That's great to hear! Hopefully they'll keep them working this time.

Thorpe are becoming one of the worst operated parks in the country. The amount of downtime this year is horrific, I've never seen anything quite like it before - whilst they've never been the best with ride availability, I haven't ever seen such a poor first few months of a season (we are now nearing May and rides are still not open) and, in my opinion they are declining rapidly in terms of guest experience. Constantly saying "we have passed your comments onto the relevant department" and "rides are subject availability" doesn't cover the fact that something is not right.

I'm guessing it relies on wind resistance? If so, it should flip without evening trying most of the time at Blackpool!

I believe the ride will have a pre-show to explain how to do flips, which should help a bit.

Skyforce construction update: Control tower? The ORP building/shop looks good. Banner advertising the ride; May opening is looking likely for the ride, with the official opening date on the 25th which will feature an airshow from the red arrows themselves over the park. However it might soft open before that if it is ready, the same thing happened with W&G in 2013. Parts of the ride have arrived since I took these photos, here is the link to BPB's Facebook page where they have been shared: https://www.facebook.com/blackpoolpleasurebeach

Yet another brilliant week was spent in Blackpool, and as we have BPB season passes we spent most days in the park, which was great fun despite a few negatives which I will get to later in the trip report. BPB is still my favourite park, purely because it has my favourite rides, and the history and charm adds to it - my top three coasters are The Big One, Wild Mouse and Grand National as well as my overall favourite ride being Valhalla, so to have these and a fantastic collection of wooden coasters, steel coasters and dark rides is just amazing! There isn't one ride I get bored of (I don't go on Grand Prix, Dora or Impossible much ), they are all brilliant and in my opinion it still definitely has the best ride lineup in the UK. Big Dipper deserves it's own mention in my opinion. I have always enjoyed it, but this week it was running the best I've ever known it to! Never before have I actually been nearly standing up due to the fantastic airtime on the first two drops, add to that the battering the back row was getting on the turnaround and it was absolutely brilliant! Grand National and Wild Mouse are still superior to it however IMO, both were running well most of the time, and the airtime on the final drop on Mouse is probably my favourite of any ride! The Big One, nothing much to say that I haven't said in previous trip reports, still our favourite coaster and it was much enjoyed as usual. The first drop in the back is the highlight IMO. Valhalla was a mixed bag this time, but good overall. One day there was no fire whatsoever, and for the last three days the final explosion was off, as well as no projected face on the first few days, but we still really enjoyed it. Wish they'd turn the audio up in some places though! Once again we did the "no poncho challenge" on one of the days, which was just as hilarious as usual! I always say that you haven't had a good day out at BPB unless you have bruises to show for it, and after a week of riding the coasters we definitely do, I'd be disappointed if I didn't to be honest! The negative bit: There were however negatives to the trip this time. I'm not going to hold back, so if you don't want to read the negative comments then skip this section. Park operations were absolutely dire most days. On the Sunday, it closed at 5pm despite being advertised as a 6pm close on the website, this was still the case after it had closed. This is not acceptable, if people have paid for a 6pm close then it is wrong to change that. Further to this, on the following Sunday (19th) the park gates didn't open until 10:45am, with nothing open until 11am. Even then, both Wild Mouse and Grand National opened late. Add to this a 5pm close, I would not have been impressed if I had paid to get in or driven there for that specific day! On the first Saturday of our trip, we weren't allowed on Infusion or Nickelodeon Streak until 11am because the RCCGB were on them. This is not on, ERT events should take place outside of park opening hours. Guests who have paid for tickets (or season passes) and made the effort to visit should not be told they can't ride, yet the coasters are clearly going round in front of their eyes. Unacceptable. On some days this week they really let us down in terms of their attitude to ride capacity. A few examples are: - Avalanche running one train with a full queue round the extensions on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. - The Big One running one train with a full station (apart from in the mornings and just before it closed), and often all the way down the ramp as well. To add to this, dispatch times were two and a half minutes (between the train stopping and dispatching again), which meant that even on one train it could have shifted the queue more than it was if the staff could be bothered. - Big Dipper on one. This wouldn't have been a problem, but when added to all the other coasters not being on capacity it was yet another slow moving queue. - Steeplechase only on two lanes unless the queue got down to the bottom of the stairs, at which point they would put three lanes on for a short amount of time and then go back down to two. - Incredibly slow dispatch times on Grand National, even when running four trains, there was a good five minutes sometimes between the trains arriving and the next ones being dispatched, even though they had been checked and were ready to go. - Only six boats on Valhalla until the final hour most days, leading to queues building up much earlier in the day. The only day ride capacity was what it should be was on Saturday 18th. The park was busy, and the atmosphere was fantastic with a great selection of songs from Holiday Rock FM, people just sitting enjoying the sun and most rides operating as they should be, aside from The Big One which was stacking on two trains far more often than it should have been. Furthermore, Grand National and Valhalla both opened at 11am, half an hour earlier than usual which was great! However Infusion opened half an hour late so not all good. The first Saturday was also quite good for capacity, but PMBO was on one due to wind (which was not the case the rest of the week, the wind didn't get above 11mph on some of the days it was running one). Whilst I have had much worse days at other UK parks, this is not the standard I expect from BPB, they have been much better in the past few years so I was quite disappointed by this. RIDECOUNTS! Saturday 11th April 2015: Valhalla x5 Grand National x4 Big Dipper x3 Wild Mouse x2 Avalanche x2 The Big One x1 Revolution x1 Nickelodeon Streak x1 Steeplechase x1 Infusion x1 Wallace and Gromit's Thrill O' Matic x1 Ghost Train x1 River Caves x1 Alice in Wonderland x1 Blue Flyer x1 TOTAL: 26 Sunday 12th April 2015: We only spent the last hour and a half in the park today, as we had done the Tower Dungeons and Circus as well. We would have had two and a half hours as planned if they hadn't closed an hour early! The Big One x2 Wild Mouse x2 Big Dipper x2 Infusion x2 Grand National x1 Valhalla x1 Ghost Train x1 TOTAL: 11 Monday 13th April 2015: Valhalla x7 The Big One x6 Wild Mouse x2 Revolution x2 Nickelodeon Streak x2 Wallace and Gromit's Thrill O' Matic x2 Ghost Train x2 Ice Blast x2 (This was about the only "thrill" ride I could cope with at the end of the day). Grand National x1 Big Dipper x1 Avalanche x1 Steeplechase x1 Infusion x1 Avatar Airbender x1 River Caves x1 Alice x1 Pleasure Beach Express x1 TOTAL: 34 Tuesday was spent in the Yorkshire dales which was really enjoyable once again. Wednesday 15th April 2015: The Big One x4 Valhalla x3 Wild Mouse x3 Grand National x2 Big Dipper x2 Nickelodeon Streak x2 Revolution x2 Wallace and Gromit x2 Avalanche x1 Steeplechase x1 Infusion x1 Ghost Train x1 Lost River x1 Alice x1 Dora x1 :lol: TOTAL: 26 Thursday 16th April 2015: We went in from 1pm onwards after spending the morning in Sandcastle Waterpark. Wild Mouse x2 Big Dipper x2 Valhalla x1 The Big one x1 Grand National x1 Revolution x1 Wallace and Gromit x1 Ghost Train x1 River Caves x1 TOTAL: 11 Friday 17th April 2015: Valhalla x7 The Big One x4 Grand National x2 Big Dipper x2 Steeplechase x2 Infusion x2 Wild Mouse x1 Nickelodeon Streak x1 Revolution x1 Avalanche x1 Wallace and Gromit x1 Ghost Train x1 Avatar Airbender x1 TOTAL: 25 Saturday 18th April: Grand National x6 (The park was packed but for some reason this had quite a short queue at times, and it was running well!) The Big One x5 (Today was a case of OMG it's on two trains!! ) Wild Mouse x4 Big Dipper x4 Valhalla x1 Nickelodeon Streak x1 Revolution x1 Avalanche x1 Infusion x1 Steeplechase x1 Wallace and Gromit x1 River Caves x1 Flying Machines x1 Ice Blast x1 TOTAL: 28 Sunday 19th April 2015: We just had a few rides and a Gourmet Burger before a long drive home. We wanted one last go on National but it hadn't opened by the time we left sadly. Big One x2 Wild Mouse x1 Big Dipper x1 TOTAL: 4 OVERALL RIDECOUNT: Valhalla x25 The Big One x25 Grand National x17 Big Dipper x17 Wild Mouse x16 Revolution x8 Infusion x8 Wallace and Gromit x8 Nickelodeon Streak x7 Ghost Train x7 Avalanche x6 Steeplechase x6 River Caves x4 Ice Blast x3 Alice Ride x3 Avatar Airbender x2 Flying Machines x1 Blue Flyer x1 Pleasure Beach Express x1 Lost River x1 Dora x1 OVERALL TOTAL: 167 PHOTOS! All photos taken by me. Valhalla; Tom Sawyer Bridge shots; The old and new(ish); It looks so simple, but packs a huge punch; Cheese Gromit! Would you like to see this receive a facelift, or does the ageing look add to the charm? Time for vertical reality! The tunnel does look very narrow when you see it from the PBE! Ice Blast does seem a bit more forceful in the launch this season, but sadly it still lacks airtime at the top most of the time; Infusion, I do enjoy this coaster despite most people hating it; The life and soul of the Pleasure Beach, the wooden coasters! This drop had much more airtime then I've ever had on it in the past! Wild Mouse, in my opinion the best wooden coaster in the UK when it's on form; Grand National, another amazing coaster and my second favourite woodie; Streak is good although I did prefer it as Roller; Finally, some random park shots; Skyforce; Still my fave; Steeplechase, a unique ride to BPB and lots of fun! Two photos overlooking the Big One/Skyforce area; This was taken on Saturday 18th, it felt like summer and the atmosphere was fantastic! Thanks for reading/looking, comments welcome.

That is just atrocious! I thought BPB were bad last week, after seeing this maybe I was being a bit harsh on them.What's the excuse this time then?

The big question is... Was Drenched open? And were there any other rides closed?

Staff like to wind up people and have a laugh, I wouldn't take it as confirmed just from one member of ride staff - like others have said, if it was happening then they wouldn't be allowed to talk about it.

Big One. Nemesis or Nemesis Inferno?

They can't make all the trains fast because it would E - stop on non-windy days, I've seen it happen before, the ride emergency stops itself if the train enters the brakes too fast.Taking trains off annoys me but I have seen it happen at lots of other parks (happens at Thorpe quite often, so it isn't just BPB). However it is poor and very frustrating if you are in the queue. Agreed about staggered openings, it's poor and, apart from Valhalla everything should be open at the beginning of the day. The Trauma Towers and Space Invader buildings should be removed but sadly it won't happen anytime soon, Trauma's building is full of asbestos and SI2 is built into the pizza restaurant. Three lanes do work on Steeple but annoyingly they seem to swap between yellow and red unless the queue is really long.

Don't they have the old Whip ride from BPB? Sure I heard that somewhere.

Yes, Chessington's rides are all open, but they have been having considerable downtime and are being run on awful capacity. Paultons is doing well, so hats off to them, and the same for Dreamland reopening, I am looking forward to that but two parks aren't going to save an industry. Drayton have opened with five rides closed this year (not sure if this is still the case), however I was impressed with it two years ago when I visited.Previously the only park I actually found really good was BPB. Thorpe's availability and one train operation bores me to death, Towers is good when it's on form but from my experiences it rarely is, Oakwood has gone completely down the pan (unless they improve this season), and BPB has left me very unimpressed this week - considering how impressed I have been with the place for years it is hard to watch the current operations. Don't get me wrong, it's still miles better than most other parks in my opinion, as they can actually get their rides open, but compared to this time last year and the usual standards they have provided on my visits it is a farce.

It does seem very odd, but the UK theme park industry is just going down the drain at the moment. Thorpe and Chessie can't even get their rides open, Towers keep trying to make cuts, Oakwood isn't even worth talking about and now BPB is going the same way!

I thought they were improving over the last two years, and last October was good all through half term week but this week has just been poor so far. I know operations have declined from the 90s, but I found them to be a lot better last year than they had been for years, however so far this year I haven't been too impressed.

They need to sort themselves out!

Operations are also poor this week, with lots of coasters being run on one train. It isn't Thorpe style bad (the rides are actually open), but I'm quite disappointed as I usually don't have much to fault with BPB.

Not very impressed with BPB at the moment, yesterday they closed an hour early because it was quiet, and they did the same two weeks ago. It's not acceptable to do this, they are not providing the service advertised and in fact the website is still showing 6pm for yesterday, which is a straight out lie. They do let people in for free the next day, but that doesn't cut it IMO, not everyone can visit the next day (daytrippers etc.), and it affects their plans. I have a season pass but planned to do the tower dungeon and circus yesterday morning followed by two and a half hours on park, due to them closing early I only got an hour and a half. Furthermore, I saw lots of disgruntled guests finding the PMBO shut at just gone five, so I imagine it was the same across the park. They aren't doing themselves any favours. They chose to become a theme park infrastructure wise, it's time they start acting like one. You don't see Thorpe or Towers closing early just because it's quiet - I know the weather was bad yesterday but that is irrelevant.

That's such a stupid system, people cant use their phones, cameras or anything out of their bag in the queue! Why not do it at a batching point just before getting on the ride?

Sounds really badly designed to me, less than 100pph out of the main queue is absolutely diabolical.

Interesting article on the maze: http://www.themeparks-uk.com/thorpe-park-guide/news/interview-on-I'm-a-celebrity-get-me-out-of-here.html Apparently the aimed throughput is 500pph, which is quite low, but I'd be surprised if it was getting anything above 200 on Sunday.

Chessington really need to focus on improving throughput on their rides, if that means new ride systems then they need to make the expenditure. 480pph is dire.

Each to their own I guess! Personally I find the whole idea revolting, I like horror but I'd put that in the same category as Saw for me (maiming people for the sake of it), and not something I would be in a hurry to watch.

I'm not bashing, I'm just making a comparison on opening times.

Another one?! What is the point in those films? They look absolutely disgusting, who would enjoy watching that?