Coaster

The new end of the day theme is fantastic, anyone know if it's online anywhere?

The incident at Drayton was awful, and I completely understand why there should be an advisory age limit, but the ID checking/enforced age restriction penalises thousands. Also I've often seen over 18's stand up on rapids rides, especially at Thorpe.

ID for a rapids ride?! Oh Merlin...

Paultons has won the best UK park again on Tripadvisor! Shows that good investments and flawless customer service goes a long way.

Read more at: http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/our-region/blackpool/blackpool-pleasure-beach-makes-top-list-again-1-8625729 Well done to Pleasure Beach!

Hope they haven't changed the Colossus music.

So apparently Hobs Pit has closed now. Huge shame as it was one of the better dark rides in the UK, a lot of detail went into that and for a low-budget dark ride it was outstanding.

Of course people are going to ask what's happening to it, the communication regarding its closure has been shocking.

I lost interest in Fright Nights when they removed the signature maze, since then it has only gone downhill both in terms of maze quality and park operations. Even the Creepy Cottage at Tulleys is far superior!

Awful.

So much for the "improvements" for 2017...

Blackpool Pleasure Beach launched a new website earlier this week, looks great and very easy to navigate! https://www.blackpoolpleasurebeach.com/

Shame that there has to be rules like this and yet another example of the minority ruining it for the majority.

Yet another dull IP maze? VR on X? The possibilities are endless...

They needn't have bothered, plenty to moan about already. Anyone have a useful answer?

Apparently X is closed for the rest of the month. Anyone know what's happening with it?

Interesting to know regarding the anti-rollbacks. The overall state of the ride was a disgrace - it had looked abandoned and neglected for years. To have the ride open? That would have still been two whole seasons' years worth of use (possibly more), it's awful to have one of the park's most popular rides sat rotting away for two years. Regarding whether it should be removed or not I think that's relevant - it was a staple ride, served the park well for years and was still popular. But because it has no "gimmick" to advertise, they don't think it's worth keeping? The situation with Merlin is ridiculous; long-standing, quality rides spend two years SBNO behind a fence whilst they throw away money on awful short-term investments (IAC, Saw Alive etc) only to close them/reduce their operating schedule a few years later. So much money is thrown away whilst staple rides are neglected to the point where they are unable to open. It seems like they don't plan long-term; instead of thinking "this is a popular and long-serving ride, maybe we should maintain it" they think "what IP tagline can we cram in for this year?" The only problem being no-one's interested in them after a year, hence why IAC is already going the same way as Saw Alive. Europa may be a multi-million pound company but the point still stands, would you see a situation like Loggers there? Storm Surge's throughput is awful and I haven't seen it with a queue yet this year, Tidal Wave is only popular in the height of summer and spends a lot of time walk-on.

Sunday 11th June 2017 The day started with a slow wait for the monorail, however when we arrived at the park entrance it became obvious how quiet the park was. The day started off with a ride on Octonauts (cred), then a few rides on The Smiler & Oblivion before trying out the refurbished Hex (more about this later on). We managed most rides multiple times however unfortunately missed out on Congo River Rapids and RMT - due to Galactica's awfully managed queue taking much longer than expected. A few thoughts from the day; Towers Street looks great with the repainted buildings and frog fountain working, much better than it has done in the past few years. The park was dead with no queues above 20 minutes (apart from Galactica), the pathways were very quiet throughout the park as well. Really like the new park audio, it helps to create a fantastic atmosphere as you walk around the park and compliments the setting well. Capacity was fairly good throughout the day, with most coasters on two trains despite the park being quiet. Duel is looking better than it did last year but is still in need of some professional attention. It has all the makings of a great dark ride but is so poorly executed; take the screaming room for example, who's idea was it to light up the workings and walls rather than the faces?! The Smiler wasn't rough however it was making some very concerning noises, not great for a ride that only opened in 2013 and has been SBNO for a lot of its time. Hex It was great to get back on Hex, still one of my favourite dark rides however I do feel it has lost some of its atmosphere as a result of the refurbishment. The new audio system sounds "tinny" IMO and you can already hear the speakers struggling with the bass - they don't do the soundtrack justice like the old ones did. Also, the ambient track is too loud to be... ambient. The new emergency tape is horrible, it's literally plastered all over the scenes and completely ruins the effect of the towers. The first narrated voice (before the projected video) was skipped on both run-throughs, have they done away with this? Finally, the octagon room didn't seem as effective as before, I think due to the fact the ambient lighting stayed on when the strobes were on. Nice to see Hex back open - but not sure why these changes took a year and two closed seasons! Galactica Galactica's queue management was awful, up there with the worst I've ever seen. We joined the queue which was advertised as 20 minutes; visibly it was just one corner into the station, which I have known to take 10 minutes in the past. As we queued an announcement was playing - "Both stations are open with equal queue lengths. Please use both." Upon reaching the merge point the nearest station was closed with a backlog of people entering the queue for the other one. We joined this and it became very noticeable that the queue was hardly moving. When we finally reached the station, I noticed there were several rows being left empty (), presumably due to broken headsets? The Fastrack queue was also huge. It ended up taking well over an hour, which is frankly a disgrace given that it was advertised as 20 minutes, and we have queued 10 from the same point before. What a farce this ride has become. Ride Count The Smiler x7 Nemesis x4 Thirteen x4 Oblivion x3 Spinball Whizzer x3 Duel x3 Hex x2 Rita x2 Air x1 Octonauts x1 TOTAL: 30 Highlights - Nemesis! - Getting back on Hex - Low queue times throughout the day - Capacity - Park audio Lowlights - Galactica taking up far too much of the day - Only four rides on Nemesis - Lack of park entertainment - Still feels like "diet" Alton Towers - Staff making us walk all the way round on Thirteen despite the fact it was walk-on Thanks for reading

SW8 construction update from 11th June;

I think it was obvious in the years leading up to Loggers being closed that it was in need of urgent attention. The trough was in a dire state, the tunnel had to be removed, there were anti-rollbacks missing for heaven's sake! IMO, proper planning would have allowed for a refurbishment securing the future of the ride, or for it to have been removed and replaced as quickly as possible. Would you see a situation like this (SBNO for two years with lies about refurbishment/maintenance/redevelopment) at parks like Europa? If not, why are people accepting it from a multi-million pound company? Regarding "why waste the money", log flumes are staple rides for theme parks and Loggers was extremely popular - with long queues despite the high throughput. Rides like Loggers are what make theme parks a full day out, the formula at Thorpe ("what awful new maze can we shoehorn in to advertise for this year") makes for such a dull park with little substance. A second-hand leaky pile of junk isn't a great start, Depth Charge is good for what it is, Rumba is just dull and Tidal Wave is (for most) only suitable in the summer. Hardly a great lineup IMO.

I like the stance Alton are taking with this, hopefully it'll get the media off their case when people realise ride stoppages aren't news-worthy.

Finally did the refurbished Hex today - aside from a new audio system, lighting and a general cleanup it remains the same in concept, which is a good thing. I'm not a fan of the new audio system, it sounds far too "tinny" IMO and you can already hear the speakers struggling with the bass - they don't do the soundtrack justice like the old ones did. Also, the ambience track is too loud to be... ambient. Don't like the new emergency tape, it's literally plastered all over the scenes and looks a complete mess. The first narrated voice section (before the projected video) was skipped on both our run-throughs, have they done away with this? Finally, the octagon room didn't seem as effective as before, I think due to the fact the ambient lighting stayed on when the strobes were on. Nice to see Hex back open - but not sure why these changes took a year and two closed seasons!

It doesn't say "leaving a structure to rot for two years" though does it? Also the first time Thorpe announced it was due to be closed throughout 2016, it was for "maintenance."

"Redevelopment"

No gimmicks please. Just build a decent wooden coaster.