Coaster

I visited Carters a few years ago, and as someone who appreciated vintage rides I was in my element! They have a fantastic ghost train, the interior was done by Richard Cadell (who also designed and built Terror Castle at Brean) and is so well done. Highly recommend.

Icon was TESTING on that same day! I'm not talking about that anyway, I'm talking about not opening until 12 noon, running with empty rows, breaking down every three trains, evacuating the queueline twice every day, etc. Think that's a bit of an overexaggeration, I was just saying how nice it was to see a new coaster run flawlessly on its opening day - surely, as coaster enthusiasts, that's what we should want? In terms of the ride itself, it picked up a lot of intent today, the airtime was fantastic on the back row at points. Amazing.

One thing I can definitely take from today, it was so nice for a new coaster to actually WORK on its opening day - Icon opened at 11am along with the park (although we were told 1pm in the ticket centre for some weird reason?!) and only had one stoppage which I believe was due to "essential cleaning." Managed 18 rides on Icon today with the ride running a fairly decent two train service, if only certain other parks could manage to run their new coasters without them breaking down every 10 minutes and opening three hours late!

It was running faster than that on the VIP rides last Saturday, I believe this was filmed on an empty train. The length is my favourite thing about Icon, it really feels like it goes on and on - brilliant. One thing I can't help feeling is that, in my opinion, it isn't a patch on the Wild Mouse.

A full review will be happening once I've ridden Icon more times, but for now I'll just summarise in brief. A very fun coaster with lots of unique elements, the changes in direction are frantic at times and there is lots of airtime to be had. I found that both halves complimented each other perfectly, with one of the highlights being diving through the mist-filled tunnel (you literally can't see ANYTHING) and into the second launch. The ride ran efficiently on two trains both mornings, and I believe they will be running all three at peak times. The atmosphere in the ride station is superb with the audio blasting out, and whilst landscaping/audio installation was still taking place (as the rides doesn't officially open until Friday, this is fine), here are some photos of the decoration around the Icon area. Pleasure Beach have done a great job at styling the ride well with a fantastic entrance feature, small water feature in the rock garden, memorial posts (to those involved in the project) dotted around the layout, and the first section of the queue-line is lovely. Loads more photos can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/TheParkUpdates/ A full review will come in the next few weeks

Rode it again today, loved it, enjoyed it much more than yesterday. Awesome coaster.

Icon is included in Pleasure Beach wristbands from opening day (25th May) onwards.

Not sure what to make of Icon after today's ride, need to have more goes before judging it I think.

I like it, it's not perfect by any means, but I liked the style of it and the fact it uses a different idea rather than just throwing different ride shots together. That said, it needed something more human at the end (showing people on the ride, a quick POV shot etc) to trigger the "I have to ride it now" response - for a lot of people, it might not be clear from the ad what is actually being advertised.

Hang on a minute... WORLD'S FIRST?! ? Have they never heard of Helix, Manta, Full throttle etc? A complete and utter false claim, their complacency is shocking - much worse than any of Alton's claims! https://winiconride.co.uk/ In other news, the TV advert has been released... pretty good!

Some new photos of the theming/decoration here! https://www.facebook.com/TheParkUpdates/

All this point scoring between different enthusiast channels. Just grow up, be friends and ride coasters for god's sake!

Consistency is the issue. If they have a sign directly outside the ride in question stating that video equipment/cameras can be used, they have no argument.

Yawn, this is still going on? ?

Moss machine? Whilst a lot of their content is humerous, some of it is very eye opening.

I'm fully supportive of not allowing cameras onboard, but unfortunately the signage infers that cameras CAN be used but at the owner's own risk. This invalidates Alton's statement, they need to be consistent with rules like this as they have made themselves look very silly on this occasion. Also if the use of cameras is dangerous (as they say), they are putting people in more danger by miscommunicating that use of cameras is at the owner's discretion.

There's a decent Icon update on YouTube (not my content), they've added some greenery, the water feature is working, new paintwork on the sub-station and look how efficient the ride system is! The entrance structure looks great; Must admit I am extremely excited to ride next weekend.

I just think it's daft, they've established this "cool beach" theme with the branding and decoration around the entrance, and now they're ruining it by tacking on cheap stuff like this. Bizarre.

It wasn't more expensive before though, £10 was still pricey considering the majority are most likely using that car park as customers of the park. Maybe have a system where if you purchase a wristband you receive some of the money back? Season pass discount would be most welcome as well.

Whoops, I've never claimed to know everything about BPB in fairness so I don't know where that expectation has come from - but yeah, you are right! I've been prepared to pay the parking fee in the past for the extra security it offers (compared to parking on the street somewhere), but £15 is just too much.

It has generally varied from anything between £5-£10 depending on whether it is a peak/off peak day. BPB has three car parks, I'm not sure whether the price rise will affect all three or just the one nearest the entrance.

Don't forger the super-catchy and brilliantly fun theme music being replaced with generic dull Zufari-esque music.

Just as a pre-warning to anyone visiting for Icon, it seems that car parking is rising to £15 on the 26th May; I'd recommend finding somewhere else to park, £15 is obscene!

Did you go on Thunderbolt? Great flat ride!

I'd rather get Slammer at the end of the queue