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Blackpool Pleasure Beach - April 2014


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Blackpool Pleasure Beach was in fantastic form all week. Having a season pass proved to be a good move as I was in and out of the park all week. Also, I'm hoping to return later in the year.


It's still my favourite park by a mile, nothing else in the UK even comes close!

The blend of old and new rides and coasters works really well, and I much prefer the old woodies (aside from Valhalla and The Big One). Wild Mouse was on good form (aside from an annoying trim brake), and the others were good most of the time. Grand National was running really well towards the end of the day, but lacked some of it's intent in the morning. I still prefer it to Megafobia, as when it's running well it's an absolute demon of a coaster!

Big Dipper and the Nickelodeon Streak were also much enjoyed.

Valhalla wasn't at it's absolute best but it's still my favourite ride, and is leagues ahead of any other ride in my opinion. Me and my brother also did a "no poncho" challenge towards the end of one of the days, which resulted in much hilarity! :P


Operations in the park had improved hugely on last year's effort. The Big One had incredible dispatch times on two trains - one had been sent before the other one had even reached the final tunnel/brake run. This is fantastic and much better than any operations you see in other UK parks - especially considering that a lot of the time there was no queue and they were still shifting the trains at this speed. The only day it was on one train was when it was too windy for it to run two, and even then they added a second train once the wind had died down.

Avalanche was also on two trains every day, with similarly fantastic dispatch times.

Big Dipper was on two trains when it was necessary, and again the train was being sent way before the other one got back. This caused long queues to be shifted in less than 10 minutes. Grand National was on four trains on Saturday 12th April as the park was really busy, but the stupid Kumbak system in the station doesn't allow them to dispatch the trains until the other two are back in the station :(


Aesthetically the park is the best I've ever seen it, despite having so many old attractions it has a clean, fresh image and is genuinely a 'pleasure' to be in! The appearance of the park (well, and the park itself) puts a lot of other parks to shame.




Now, onto the ridecounts!


Saturday 5th April:

The Big One x5

Valhalla x2

Wild Mouse x2

Wallace and Gromit x2

Ghost Train x2

Grand National x1

Big Dipper x1

Avalanche x1

Revoluton x1

Steeplechase x1

Ice Blast x1

Avatar Airbender x1


TOTAL: 20



Sunday 6th April:

Wild Mouse x7

Grand National x6

The Big One x5

Valhalla x2

Wallace and Gromit x2

Nickelodeon Streak x1

Big Dipper x1

Steeplechase x1

Infusion x1

Blue Flyer x1

River Caves x1

Ghost Train x1

Alice in Wonderland x1


TOTAL: 30



Monday 7th April:

The morning was spent in the Sandcastle Waterpark which is realy good, but it's only worth it if you get there before it opens as the first 30 minutes is usually really quiet. It's a bit pricey, but it does have a lot of really good waterslides and the customer service is fantastic.

Slide - Count:

Sidewinder x8

Aztec Falls x3

Master Blaster x2

Montazooma x2

Duelling Dragons x2

Treetops Water Chutes x2

Thunder Falls x1


TOTAL: 20



The afternoon was spent in the Pleasure Beach. They closed an hour early because the park was absolutely dead and the weather was vile, but they did give anyone who had paid for a wristband (literally about 20 people...) a free "rainy day return."

Ridecount:

Valhalla x4 (No amount of rain or wind will put me off going on this! :twisted: )

Grand National x4

Steeplechase x2

The Big One x1 (They managed to open it despite the wind being crazy!)

Big Dipper x1

Nickelodeon Streak x1

Revolution x1

Wallace and Gromit x1

River Caves x1

Ghost Train x1

Spongebob's Splash Bash x1

Grand Prix x1

Impossible x1


TOTAL: 20



We took a break from Blackpool on Tuesday to visit Hawes and the dales in Yorkshire.

(Pictures at bottom of TR)



Wednesday 9th April:

Big Dipper x4

The Big One x3

Wild Mouse x3

Grand National x3

Wallace and Gromit x3

Valhalla x2

Avalanche x1

Revolution x1

Steeplechase x1

Flying Machines x1


TOTAL: 22



Thursday 10th April:

We only spent the morning at BPB as we went to Blackpool Tower in the afternoon.


The Big One x7

Wild Mouse x1

Grand National x1

Big Dipper x1

Revolution x1

Wallace and Gromit x1

River Caves x1


TOTAL: 13



Friday 11th April:

The Big One x8

Valhalla x5 (Twice without any form of waterproof!)

Wild Mouse x3

Grand National x2

Nickelodeon Streak x2

Avalanche x2

Infusion x2

Revolution x1

Wallace and Gromit x1

River Caves x1

Rugrats Lost River x1

Dodgems x1


TOTAL: 29



Saturday 12th April:

The park was busy today, and the wind was high meaning that it was causing the PMBO trouble. We did however manage one ride on it due to being there at the right time. The atmosphere at the park is amazing when it's busy.

The park was open until 8pm but we had to leave at 5pm to get home.


Valhalla x5

Big Dipper x3

Grand National x2

Wallace and Gromit x2

The Big One x1

Wild Mouse x1

Derby Racer x1


TOTAL: 15



OVERALL RIDE COUNT:

The Big One x30

Valhalla x22

Grand National x19

Wild Mouse x17

Wallace and Gromit's Thrill O' Matic x12

Big Dipper x11

Revolution x5

Steeplechase x5

Nickelodeon Streak x4

Avalanche x4

River Caves x4

Ghost Train x4

Infusion x3

Ice Blast x1

Avatar Airbender x1

Blue Flyer x1

Spongebob's Splash Bash x1

Grand Prix x1

Alice x1

Flying Machines x1

Derby Racer x1

Rugrats Lost River x1

Dodgems x1

Impossible x1


OVERALL TOTAL: 149

(Or if you count Sandcastle then 169)




Pictures!


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Enter Valhalla!

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Wet is an understatement!



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Let's go somewhere where there's cheese!

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Revolution looks much nicer since it had it's paint job;

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Possibly the most intense coaster on the planet!

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The world's original Ghost Train;

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We had a break from Blackpool on Tuesday to visit Yorkshire;

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Hardraw Force

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Finally, a shot of the park from the top of Blackpool Tower;

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Thanks for reading/looking, comments are welcome! :)

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