Coaster

What on earth have they done to this? I went on it today for the first time since its so-called "upgrade", and frankly they have ruined everything that was still enjoyable about the ride. The stage lighting has all gone and has been replaced with tacky UV lights which light up the warehouse ceiling - this was previously hidden from view in most places, whereas now it is more prominent than the theming! Further to this, the quality of the audio was awful, and sounds such as the mummies at the end were missing - this was supposed to be an upgrade! The final point is the guns, they just don't work. Half of the targets didn't respond to the guns, and the ones that did required two or three presses of the trigger before they changed colour, which is just shoddy.

I had my yearly visit to Chessington today and really wasn't impressed. Throughputs are a huge issue now, which for a park that suffers at the best of times really isn't good. A few examples are; Rattlesnake dispatching a car on an average of every 65 seconds. It was strange, as it was usually a minute gap every time, however on occasions it was only 40 seconds, yet at other times it was up to a minute and a half! That ride is capable of dispatching after a car has left the lifthill so to be running it that slowly is nonsense! Furthermore, the queue from the end of the cave took 55 minutes (advertised as 25 on the queue board when we joined it). I remember when it took 15 from there! Vampire was leaving a three minute gap between trains. Again, appalling when the queue time is advertised as 90 minutes! (Just to be clear, we looked at the throughput from Bubbleworks' queue and decided against going on it). Fury was dispatching a lot slower than it is capable of, it seemed to be roughly every 40 - 45 seconds from what I could tell. Tomb Blaster was running three trains but stacking all three at times, meaning that the queue moved slower than I've ever known it to! Elsewhere, Zufari seemed to only have two/three trucks running meaning that the queue hardly moved, Bubbleworks and Dragon Falls were shifting queues reasonably well as usual and other rides were understaffed, for example Monkey Swinger only having one staff member on the entire attraction, I remember when they had 2/3 people! This meant that throughput was horrifically slow even on that, as one person cannot do the job of more! One more point I want to make is that despite some areas having some new paint (Vampire, Sea Storm), the park as a whole still looks badly neglected. Rattlesnake and Tomb Blaster's queueline & surrounding area in particular stood out as areas that desperately require attention, which for the latter really isn't good considering that it has supposedly had an upgrade for this year!

What the hell! Absolutely shocking stuff, if there is a problem that can be repaired in a matter of hours then the most logical thing to do is repair it and get the ride back open! Have they never heard of offering a service to customers?!

It's worrying as it suggests that the construction of the attraction has fallen behind schedule, not to mention the fact that it is just plain shoddy when a preview day was promised.

Is that Colossus's old lift chain?

Unfortunately Merlin seem to have neglected Chessington both operationally and aesthetically, which is a huge shame as it has the potential to be a good family park in the right hands. Theme parks are supposed to be places for people to have a fun day out, well closed rides, slow operations and neglected areas is not the way to do this - granted, they have supposedly improved the aesthetics of the park in places which is good, but why has it taken so many years (and the removal of several theming elements) before this started?

Probably couldn't hold it any longer, that queue moves at a snail's pace! Joking aside, that is disgusting.

Great trip report, I can't understand why Drayton gets such a slating from enthusiasts - it may not have the best coaster lineup in the world but I found it a very nice park when I visited a few years ago.

No Megafobia?! No deal!

I fully understand that, but it is still unacceptable to run rides on low capacity when the queues are long, and they have proven that they can reduce capacity when required. Whilst some rides (especially PMBO due to the transfer track setup) take a long time to add/remove a train, rides such as Big Dipper can add or remove a train in less than 5 minutes thanks to a very fast transfer track system.

I'm jealous, I'd love to have an evac from the MCBR! How the hell does that make the news though?!

A combination of the two I think, and the fact that slow capacity + long queues = Sp££dy Pass sales.

Reducing capacity happens on Steeplechase based on the queue, if the queue is short then they will only run two lanes - I agree it can be frustrating at times. In the case of the other rides, I imagine they were expecting the park to be busier and therefore reduced capacity after they realised that it was going to be a quieter day. That doesn't excuse it however, and when you are already having park time reduced by two hours it is unacceptable to then reduce ride capacity as well. It also shows that they can change ride capacity when they want to, which begs the question - why don't they increase capacity when the queues are longer than they expected?

That sounds like a power cut to me.

That is really poor, and deleting people's posts is completely unacceptable.

Oakwood have deleted all the visitor posts from their page, bit strange...

Doesn't it always operate all 4 slides?

I'd recommend trying to get on as much as possible, however the stand-outs for me are The Big One, Valhalla and the wooden coasters - especially Wild Mouse, Grand National and Big Dipper. The other coasters are all great fun, as are the dark rides.Regarding spinny rides, Skyforce can spin incredibly fast but it is rider controlled so you have the option not to spin, and the only other ones I can think of are Airbender, Rainforest Rescue (again it's rider controlled so doesn't have to spin) and the Teacups.

Thanks! The parts are £30 for upstop wheels from PMBO (£20 for Grand National/Nickelodeon Streak wheels), or £60 for a running wheel from PMBO. Quite expensive, but it's a great idea from the PB to sell them and as you said, I don't think any other UK park sells ride parts. The pieces of wood from the wooden coasters are £5 each, they also sell things such as chain dogs (can't remember the price), and bearings for £1 - I have no idea what they're from though!

After a slow start to the 2016 season, March arrived and it was time for another week in Blackpool! Once again we had a fantastic time at the park making good use of our season passes, overall we managed 8 days which is great. The weather was rotten at times - I wasn't fussed by this in itself, but I will get to it in more detail further down the trip report. Blackpool Pleasure Beach still houses my favourite rides in the form of Valhalla, The Big One, Wild Mouse, Grand National and the Big Dipper alongside brilliant selection of coasters, dark rides and flats. The wooden coasters were all on good form most days, offering plenty of airtime and bumpiness! I was glad that the Wild Mouse in particular was running well after hearing that it was running slowly at the beginning of the season. The Big One was at times slowed down by the wind, however it was still running well enough to be my favourite coaster by a long way, and on Thursday we were lucky as it was running really well (minimal wind) and on two trains, meaning that we clocked up 20 rides on it! Valhalla is still my overall favourite ride, and to be fair, the effects were fairly good over the week by its standards, however there were issues with the fire not lighting on several occasions, as well as the right plinth being off all week, several effects being switched off on different days and six boat operation at times when it really could have done with eight! Also, the bump on the turntable is back! I spotted several changes across the park this year including the new bridge, refurbished Avalanche bears and a new scene in the Ghost Train. I do like the new scene, however I think that the 'floating skull' was much more effective than the head there now - it isn't even facing the car! With that said, the overall execution of the effect with the lighting is much better now than it was, and the smoke rings on the new prop (previously seen at Vampire Beach) are really effective, when they work! The majority of ride staff were fantastic all week - really friendly, acknowledging us and saying thank you as you leave the rides, which is great to see! Ride availability was generally good, on most days all the rides were open with minimal breakdowns, aside from PMBO being affected by the wind at times. Wild Mouse was closed on the first day, presumably for maintenance. On some occasions, rides are still opening later than advertised on the entrance boards. Whilst I still had a brilliant time at the park, I was hugely disappointed by their attitude towards a lot of factors, namely opening hours, ride capacity and speedy pass. On three days during our holiday they closed earlier than advertised. This is absolutely unacceptable when people have paid for entry/wristbands, but it also stuffed up our plans, as we had been to the Tower, Dungeons and Circus one morning on the understanding that the park would close at 8pm, therefore we would have 4 hours in the park after being finished at the Tower. On arrival to the park at 4pm, we found out that they had changed their closing time to 6pm (TWO hours earlier than advertised). This completely ruined the day for us, but thinking of it from the point of view of a paying customer, it is shocking. We did raise the issue with someone at the park, who told us that the rainy day offer covered that. Well, that is of no use to us as season pass holders, but a guest paying for a day ticket may have only been in Blackpool on a day trip, or they may have other plans for the next day. Also, people had paid for use of the park on the day they want to visit, in the hours specified at the time of paying. I know they cover this in their T&Cs, as every park does, but I have been to Thorpe Park during Fright Nights on a day where the rain cleared out the park at 5pm and they stayed open until the advertised 10pm because PEOPLE HAD PAID FOR IT. The same applies at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach - even a small seaside park relying on walking trade stayed open until the advertised 8pm on a day where the park was dead by the afternoon due to heavy rain, as people (us included) had bought wristbands. Ride capacity was the worst I have ever seen it on some days, with Avalanche running one train with a queue out of the extensions on several days, Big Dipper on one train with a similarly long queue and PMBO running one train with a full station and Speedy Pass stealing seats. In addition, Wild Mouse's dispatch times have been slowed down even more, and Ghost Train/River Caves have had another car/boat knocked off the amount running. I honestly believe that it has got to the point where the park slows down throughput to sell Speedy Passes, I mean running rides such as Avalanche on one train is nonsense when two isn't even the ride's maximum! It was increasingly frustrating to see not only empty seats, but empty rows going out on coasters with large queues on a one train service! One example is the Big Dipper, where two rows were sent empty on a one train service when the queue was out of the main section, it is simply inefficient and I can't believe the staff member didn't call for groups of 2 or 4. Even with the lower throughputs on many of the rides at BPB in recent years, I can remember a few years back when they would strive to run everything on their current-day maximum to shift queues as best as they possibly could, sadly this isn't the attitude anymore, it seems to be a case of once you've paid for a wristband they don't care about the guest satisfaction. Going back to Speedy Pass, it has to go, it is an abomination of a system with no thought put into the implementation whatsoever, and I saw many disgruntled families watching their seats being taken from in front of them, some people even thought they were queue jumpers! (Actually, they are queue jumping, paid or not!) BPB claim to cater for families yet they allow a system like this to not only destroy throughput, but also to cause upset and annoyance on customers who have paid a lot of money to visit the park! For us, it was a nuisance on several occasions and even prevented us from getting a last ride on PMBO on one occasion. A complete nonsense of a system, scrap it or sort it out! RIDECOUNTS Friday 25th March 2016 The Big One x9 Valhalla x4 Grand National x3 Nickelodeon Streak x2 Steeplechase x1 Revolution x1 Avalanche x1 Skyforce x1 Ghost Train x1 River Caves x1 Wallace and Gromit x1 Airbender x1 Infusion x1 TOTAL: 27 Saturday 26th March 2016 Valhalla x11 Grand National x5 Ghost Train x3 The Big One x2 Big Dipper x2 Wild Mouse x1 Nickelodeon Streak x1 Steeplechase x1 Revolution x1 Avalanche x1 Skyforce x1 Ice Blast x1 Infusion x1 River Caves x1 Wallace and Gromit x1 Alice in Wonderland x1 Blue Flyer x1 TOTAL: 35 Sunday 27th March 2016 Entered the part at 4pm after visiting the Tower only to find that the closing time had been reduced by TWO hours! Valhalla x3 Wild Mouse x1 Grand National x1 Steeplechase x1 Revolution x1 Wallace and Gromit x1 TOTAL: 8 Monday 28th March 2016 Valhalla x12 Wild Mouse x2 Alice in Wonderland x2 The Big One x1 Grand National x1 Big Dipper x1 Steeplechase x1 Revolution x1 Avalanche x1 Infusion x1 Skyforce x1 Derby Racer x1 Ghost Train x1 River Caves x1 Blue Flyer x1 Carousel (near PMBO) x1 Dodgems x1 Impossible x1 Dora x1 TOTAL: 31 Tuesday 29th March 2016 In the park between 3:30pm - 5pm having spent the morning in Sandcastle Waterpark. The Big One x3 Wild Mouse x3 Grand National x2 Big Dipper x2 Nickelodeon Streak x1 Steeplechase x1 Revolution x1 Ghost Train x1 TOTAL: 14 Wednesday 30th March 2016 Valhalla x4 The Big One x4 Grand National x2 Big Dipper x2 Nickelodeon Streak x2 Revolution x2 Avalanche x2 Wild Mouse x1 Skyforce x1 Ice Blast x1 Ghost Train x1 River Caves x1 Alice in Wonderland x1 TOTAL: 24 Thursday 31st March 2016 The Big One x20! Valhalla x2 ("No poncho challenge!") Wild Mouse x2 Grand National x1 Nickelodeon Streak x1 Avalanche x1 Steeplechase x1 Revolution x1 Skyforce x1 Blue Flyer x1 TOTAL: 31 Friday 1st April 2016 Wild Mouse x5 Grand National x5 The Big One x3 Valhalla x3 Big Dipper x2 Nickelodeon Streak x2 River Caves x2 Steeplechase x1 Revolution x1 Avalanche x1 Skyforce x1 Ghost Train x1 Wallace and Gromit x1 Pleasure Beach Express x1 Grand Prix x1 (Actually enjoyed this more than I have done previously!) Krusty Krab Order Up x1 Fairy World Taxi Spin x1 TOTAL: 32 OVERALL TOTAL: 204 Overall, I had a fantastic time at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and despite the aspects mentioned above it remains my favourite park due to the rides on offer, alongside the historical aspect of the park. We had a fantastic week and are missing the place already! Anyway, enough of my rambling, here are the photos! A view of the "project 2018" site and the new bridge; Markings on the ground, but are they for the new ride or a new route for the PBE? The Casino building during refurbishment; PB Radio has replaced Holiday Rock FM; General park/ride shots; Wild Seagull! Avalanche; The amazing Arrow hyper! River Caves, can you spot what has changed? It's great that the skull has been painted, but it doesn't look the same without the tower! There have been lots of scene changes around the second half of the Pleasure Beach Express which really improves the ride; They really could do with some new hoodie designs, these have been the same for years. There should be some '120 years' clothing on sale. Let's cover up another historical feature! It is fantastic that they sell ride parts, there were also pieces of wood from the woodies for sale, but they got the Grand National's opening year wrong! Speaking of the Grand National... Dipper; The archway has been repainted and looks much better; Shot with a train in! Flying Machines; Finally, my favourite ride, Valhalla! Thanks for reading.

Not that long ago 8pm was the minimum on weekends such as these, but they would often to extend to 9/10pm depending on demand. Now there is rarely demand to extend, I wonder why! I agree though, they should advertise a "minimum closing time" and then extend if necessary. Actually, maybe that isn't such a good idea as the current management would probably see that as an excuse to reduce the opening hours even further!

There was a storm brewing, but it didn't come anywhere near Blackpool. Regarding closing early, I can see the logic but it is simply wrong in my opinion, people have PAID for use of the park between the advertised hours so they are short-changing guests by reducing these after the park opens (or indeed before depending on online bookings). I've had days at Thorpe during FN where it has rained all day and cleared out the park, yet they stayed open until 10pm, and the same applies to Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach on a day last year when the rain meant that the park was dead by 4/5pm, yet they still stayed open until the advertised 8pm. I heard lots of complaints on park about the early closure, as well as several people in guest services making the same complaint. BPB are shooting themselves in the foot.

It was raining on two out of three occasions, and some guests had left, but not all. The park wasn't very busy to start with, but then there isn't any surprise when they have this attitude towards paying customers. BPB is my favourite park, seeing it reduced to this shambles (slow throughputs, awfully implemented Speedy Pass and now closing early) is a huge shame.

There is no defending this, it is an absolutely atrocious attitude from the park and it happened to me on three days last week. Worst customer service in the UK. Please, please, please voice your opinion in guest services (near Grand National), if more people complain then maybe the park will realise that it is completely unacceptable.

No problem, westerly is the worst wind direction but it should be fine at 20mph, however it'll probably be running one train.