BPB - Vampire Beach Saturday 31st October 2015

[Coaster]

PARK OPEN:  10am - 10pm

RIDES CLOSED:  Avatar Airbender, Crazy Daisy (for the stage).

 

Firstly, it was fantastic to see BPB so busy, I don't think I have ever seen it so busy in 11 years of visiting and the atmosphere was fantastic.

As for the Halloween event, it was good but I came away feeling like BPB could do so much more!  When you see parks that have only just re-opened (Dreamland) or much smaller than BPB (Pleasurewood Hills) putting on two or three full scale scare mazes, BPB's effort at a horror maze really does feel a bit sad.  I actually felt that the Chinese Puzzle Horror Maze was better last year as there were actors and more props, this year we didn't encounter any actors on both of our run-throughs and the props were sparse in comparison to last year (for example no theming on the exit path).

 

The park entrance area was decorated really well, with an amusing device welcoming people to "Vampire Beach" as well as various other decorations.  Unfortunately past the sculpture gardens there was little sign of Halloween which was a shame, as in the past they have had a large inflatable pumpkin by The Big One on the old Turtle Chase site, spiders on the Ghost Train and more decorations scattered across the park.

 

The location of the stage was just weird this year, using the Teacups platform was bizarre when they already have a much more impressive stage, but in fairness the decision to open the BBQ was a good one!

 

Something else I can't understand at all is that some very good, high quality Halloween props were added to the sculpture garden area midweek, but by Vampire Beach they had been taken away!

 

Finally, on a Halloween event, why was Holiday Rock FM playing normal songs?  There are loads of Halloween songs which should have been played after 4pm IMO, it would have given the park a much better Halloween atmosphere and the decision to play normal songs was odd.

 

 

Parkwide, it was good to see that the troll/giant outside the Ghost Train is moving again, now all we need is the ceiling props back - oh, and a capacity improvement!  

(But seriously, watching how it "coped" with the high crowds on Saturday was a bit embarrassing!)

 

It also seems as if some work has gone into making the park as a whole look better at night, as I noticed lots of lighting improvements - especially the Flying Machines which looks fantastic at night now!

 

Highlights:

- Seeing BPB buzzing with atmosphere and absolutely packed out!  (It was very busy all week as well, probably the same crowd levels most days as Vampire Beach before the second wave of guests came in at 4pm).  I think it says a lot about how much Blackpool as a resort has progressed this year, and if Vampire Beach had been on all week then they would have had a huge influx of guests at 4pm every day!

Compared to last year's event crowd levels were much higher both in the queues and around the park, in fact the same could be said all week - I haven't seen such high levels of crowds on the paths for at least five years.

- All available rides being open all day, it's how it should be but I feel as if they deserve credit for this as other parks seem to use late night opening as an excuse to close certain rides after 5pm.

- The park being open until 10pm, please do it more often next year!

- Meeting Amanda Thompson!

 

Lowlights:

- It was fantastic to see the park so busy, but I hope money is spent on the right things this winter so that the park is better equipped to cope with crowds next year.

- The Chinese Puzzle Horror Maze wasn't as good as last year, and I think BPB could produce much better if they wanted to.

- Lack of Halloween theming and music.

- Ghost Train's queue.

 

Ridecount:

Big Dipper x4

Valhalla x2

The Big One x2

Wild Mouse x2

Steeplechase x2

Horror Maze x2

Grand National x1

Nickelodeon Streak x1

Revolution x1

Avalanche x1

Skyforce x1

Infusion x1

River Caves x1

Wallace and Gromit x1

TOTAL: 22

 

Photos!

 

 

This was such a clever idea!

 

This picture was taken a few days before Vampire Beach, and strangely enough it was removed before the event - why?!  :? 

 

I actually got a train in shot for once!  

 

Taken whilst on PBE;

 

 

 

My final thoughts were that given the huge success of the event (in terms of guest numbers), it would be great if BPB introduced a proper scare maze next year.  They could still keep the Chinese Puzzle Horror Maze as the family-friendly one, but a scare maze would be fantastic.

 

More importantly, it should be a week-long event!

 

Thanks for reading.

[paige]

I went to Blackpool at Halloween last year purely by chance. It didn't feel particularly like it was a Halloween event bar the countdown thing and some maze thing which I was to say was by Nickelodeon Streak or Revolution? I had such little bearing in the park so have no clue. Is the sculpture garden you're referring to the patch of green near-ish to Valhalla with the bench-type things with like 4 'spooky' things to sit on the laps of and the giant green witch?

We left as it was getting dark as we had a train to catch but that's when people seemed to be turning up for the Halloween part, but I felt as though I was turning up for another day at the park, the longest queue was for Avalanche which was out of the queue itself pretty much, bearing in mind the only 'major' rides I did were Valhalla and Infusion really. It seemed to look pretty at night though (I could just see the big one from outside our hotel)