Coaster

I don't think I'll be visiting Fantasy Island anytime soon. http://riderater.co.uk/2014/man-speaks-of-fantasy-island-staff-assault/ What a shocking thing to happen in a theme park - it's no wonder they don't get any guests with staff like that!

Any other theme park I would probably get bored of after about 5 days, but BPB is my favourite park and I could have happily spent another 8 days there! Nick Streak does (like all woodies) have off days so it's possible that you rode it when it wasn't running well, as when it's running well it has quite a lot of airtime in the back. I appreciate that some people don't like it but I still find it brilliant fun, and the first drop is still unrivalled by any other coaster in my opinion. I know that the rest of it doesn't have as much airtime as some people would like (although it still has some when it's running well), but I still really like the sense of speed and the feeling of being pulled quickly over the hills when sat in the back.

That's quite poor to be honest to close the park to guests for such an event. They extended to 5pm on the Sunday, but I wasn't there on the Saturday.

Check out my trip report from BPB including some pictures from Vampire Beach http://forum.maniahub.com/blog/35/entry-641-blackpool-pleasure-beach-octobernovember-2014-photo-trip-report/

Has Thorpe ever had a 4pm close before? Because it has got one tomorrow.

Wow, what a fantastic week! We spent 8 consecutive days in Blackpool Pleasure Beach, arriving at just after 10am and staying until park close every day. This equates to a total of 76 hours spent in the park! In fact, the only break we had from the park was one morning to visit the Tower and watch the Circus. Blackpool Pleasure Beach was nearly faultless all week, it was being run the best I have ever seen it with all coasters on maximum capacity every day (aside from Nash on two one day and Steeple having a bit of trouble with the yellow lane at some points). One thing that I always find amazing about the park is the sheer range of ages of the rides. There really is nothing that can match seeing 100 year old rides run next to newer rides, it's just brilliant! The park is maintaining it's clean image and I saw loads of cleaners around the park getting rid of any little bit of rubbish, it was brilliant to see them making an effort and I can't fault them at all with this, especially when you see rubbish strewn everywhere at many other parks. The coasters were running brilliantly, obviously they have their off times but by the evening they were going like the clappers! The Grand National in the rain at gone 8pm is one of the most insane experiences possible on a coaster! :twisted: Valhalla is in a much better state than it was at Easter in terms of effects (and it was good then), although some of the effects broke halfway through the week and were not fixed (or didn't stay fixed for long). However, the ride itself seems to be struggling as it was breaking down quite a lot - although I cannot fault the park's efforts at all as they had it back open again within 15 - 20 minutes every time. A plus point is that I got five breakdowns whilst on the ride so got to see most of it with the lights on which was fab! (Not for the staff though I bet!) No evacuation though However, on one particular day a certain water effect that usually misses the boat decided not to switch off, but more on that further down. It is still my favourite ride and I am yet to come across anything else like it. Leaving the park has never been easy, but it was more difficult for me than it ever has been in the past, possibly because it is the first time I have gone to Blackpool more than once in a year however we have ordered 2015 season passes - in our opinion it is unbeatable as the quality of rides, history & charm and ever improving operations of the park makes it the UK's number one. Highlights: - Park was looking great, very clean and fresh. Also a really great atmosphere! - Dark rides are looking great, it is clear that a lot of time has gone into maintaining them. Ghost Train has seen a lot of paint since April, River Caves looks really good and Wallace and Gromit was still all working (aside from one effect) and I noticed new smell effects in the bread scene. - Getting back on Valhalla - Getting back on all the coasters. - Capacity the best I have ever seen it. - BPB at night time. - Trevor on the PMBO has got to be the best staff member I have ever come across - so into his job and recognised us every time we went into the station, also joking about my brother's Smiler hoodie. - Seeing Valhalla with the lights on - The Big One nearly stopping midway around the course due to the ridiculous winds it was battling with. Seriously, it was great fun and the first time I have been scared on a coaster for a very long time. - Valhalla's waterfall in the skull mouth not switching off and drenching everyone! (This was NOT a highlight at the time!) It was leaving huge puddles in the bottom of every boat yet I had to tell the staff as they hadn't realised. My feet were nearly a foot deep in water! - A night ride on PMBO in torrential rain at gone 10:30pm, plus seeing the faces of the staff who had joined us afterwards! Lowlights: - Leaving! (There were a tiny number of annoyances but they were vastly outweighed by the positives, and unless being picky I can't really find anything to moan about!) RIDECOUNTS: We may have done a few more rides than this as I usually forget a few when I'm adding them up. Saturday 25th October 2014 Valhalla x3 The Big One x2 Big Dipper x2 Infusion x2 Wild Mouse x1 Grand National x1 Nickelodeon Streak x1 Avalanche x1 Wallace and Gromit's Thrill O' Matic x1 TOTAL: 14 Sunday 26th October 2014 (PMBO was closed from lunchtime onwards due to high winds, sadly we didn't go on it in the morning but to be honest I didn't miss it as I knew I would have a week to ride it). Valhalla x9 Grand National x7 Wild Mouse x6 Big Dipper x3 Nickelodeon Streak x1 Revolution x1 Avalanche x1 Steeplechase x1 Infusion x1 Ice Blast x1 Avatar Airbender x1 Wallace and Gromit's Thrill O' Matic x1 Ghost Train x1 River Caves x1 TOTAL: 35 Monday 27th October 2014 (We were only in the park for the afternoon as we went to the Tower and Circus in the morning. The Big One x2 Horror Maze x2 Valhalla x1 Grand National x1 Revolution x1 Ice Blast x1 Blue Flyer x1 Wallace and Gromit's Thrill O' Matic x1 TOTAL: 10 Tuesday 28th September 2014 The Big One x8 Valhalla x3 Ghost Train x3 Wild Mouse x2 Grand National x2 Big Dipper x2 River Caves x2 Nickelodeon Streak x1 Avalanche x1 Steeplechase x1 Infusion x1 Alice in Wonderland x1 TOTAL: 27 Wednesday 29th September 2014 (Park was packed, great to see it so busy! Also, they were coping really well with crowds). Valhalla x3 Grand National x3 Revolution x3 The Big One x2 Wild Mouse x1 Big Dipper x1 Nickelodeon Streak x1 Avalanche x1 Wallace and Gromit's Thrill O' Matic x1 Ghost Train x1 River Caves x1 Pleasure Beach Express x1 (Had never been on this before!) Horror Maze x1 Impossible x1 TOTAL: 21 Thursday 30th October 2014 (Another busy day) Valhalla x3 The Big One x3 Infusion x2 Wild Mouse x1 Grand National x1 Big Dipper x1 Avalanche x1 Wallace and Gromit's Thrill O' Matic x1 Ghost Train x1 Pleasure Beach Express x1 Horror Maze x1 TOTAL: 16 Friday 31st October 2014 - VAMPIRE BEACH The Big One x5 Valhalla x3 Grand National x3 Horror Maze x3 (Scaring people in this was fun!) Big Dipper x2 Wallace and Gromit x2 Wild Mouse x1 Nickelodeon Streak x1 Revolution x1 Steeplechase x1 Avatar Airbender x1 Ghost Train x1 River Caves x1 TOTAL: 23 Saturday 1st November 2014 Valhalla x6 (Some of these were hilarious! Two were no poncho or waterproof as we were already soaked from the Skull mouth!) The Big One x4 Grand National x3 Wild Mouse x2 Big Dipper x1 Nickelodeon Streak x1 Avalanche x1 Revolution x1 Blue Flyer x1 Wallace and Gromit's Thrill O' Matic x1 River Caves x1 TOTAL: 21 Overall Ride Count: Valhalla x31 The Big One x26 Grand National x21 Wild Mouse x14 Big Dipper x12 Wallace and Gromit's Thrill O' Matic x8 Ghost Train x7 Horror Maze x7 (Usually just before joining the PMBO queue) Nickelodeon Streak x6 Revolution x6 Avalanche x6 Infusion x6 River Caves x6 Steeplechase x3 Ice Blast x2 Avatar Airbender x2 Blue Flyer x2 Pleasure Beach Express x2 Alice in Wonderland x1 Impossible x1 OVERALL TOTAL: 169 Photos (all taken by me). Valhalla; You WILL get soaked! 91 years old and still standing proud; Headchopper! The Big One - still my favourite coaster. Where else can you find a 20 year old coaster and a 91 year old coaster running side by side? All lit up! Wild Mouse, one of the most intense coasters around; Grand National, yet another brilliant coaster; Nickelodeon Streak, in my opinion the best family coaster in the country. Imagine living in those houses! Avalanche; Revolution packs a huge punch considering how innocent it looks; Some general park shots: Strange orbs in this picture... Took it again without orbs but I prefer the angle of the first one. Easy question but does anyone know where you can find this in the park? Exciting times! VAMPIRE BEACH: BPB seems to be one of the only parks that still bothers with parkwide theming; Bring back Trauma! And Noah's Ark! Horror Maze; I must admit this one did make me laugh, possibly because it had moved every time we went through the maze! I'm sure these two were in the Ghost Train years ago; (These pictures were taken in the day, the maze was better in the dark and with actors). You cannot beat Blackpool Pleasure Beach at night! Thanks for reading/looking, comments welcome.

I read somewhere that the building will be a "graffiti covered warehouse." Surely they're not going for yet another run down, destruction theme?

Why would they paint The Swarm orange? And what I mean is that the carousel has a lot of the park's old characters and rides on it and it is a shame to see it just being ripped out.

A shame to see that Thorpe have such high disregard for their past. Personally I never rode the carousel but it's a shame to see them removing it when it could have easily been moved.

Thorpe at it's usual standard then!

Nope the IP actually helped BPB with the ride, barely any of the money went to that. Whilst there are some dark sections, the theming there is of a high quality with lots of small touches and moving figures, plus a brand new ride system (albeit following almost exactly the same layout as Goldmine did) so I think that it was worth the big investment. Plus, it is very popular with families.

Wallace and Gromit's Thrill O' Matic cost BPB £5 million and is very well themed - I'm sure Thorpe's dark ride will have a bigger budget than this so of course the budget allows for theming!

This does look interesting, hopefully it won't rely on screens like a lot of modern dark rides seem to. It would be great if Thorpe built something on the scale of Valhalla, but I know that's unlikely.

It's laughable when a park of Thorpe's stature fails to maintain some Dodgem cars!

It's not Project LC's job to run a theme park though! The park management should be able to cope with general maintenance to keep the rides running.

It truly is a masterpiece, I've ridden it loads over the past week! Last day at BPB tomorrow

I don't think it's a case of him hating Thorpe Park, I think it's more frustration at how badly the park is being run at the moment. As a fan of the park (although admittedly it's nowhere near my favourite park), it's quite saddening to see.

Yesterday I think there were probably around that but it was busier than that on the day Fred is quoting.I would like to point out that despite having no queues for the last five hours, all coasters stayed on their full capacity (apart from the National which was on two trains, and PMBO went down to one at 7pm due to wind). Take note Thorpe!

Yes but BPB don't publish their daily gate figures online, whereas queues and crowds on park suggested much more than 6000.

I don't believe that there were only 6k guests on park, it certainly felt like more and I will ask at the ticket office tomorrow.It's alright for people to sit behind a computer and make up figures, but I'm actually there!

How do you know? Also, 6k isn't no guests!

My thoughts go out to him and his family and I hope he recovers as much as possible. It was no fault with the ride (apart from it's bumpy nature) as I have been riding it over the past few days and it's running normally.

Suspense. Wooden or Steel coasters?

Because queueing as much as shown in the picture and the Fastrack queue will pretty much take the same amount of time as the main queue! (I was talking about the queue shown in the picture).

BPB are definitely taking them on at guest satisfaction at the moment, and I think they might make a profit this year as they had a really busy summer. Anyway this isn't a BPB topic haha!