Coaster Posted April 2, 2016 Report Share Posted April 2, 2016 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. Cal, CharlieN and Han30 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Han30 Posted April 2, 2016 Report Share Posted April 2, 2016 I really need to get my butt up to BPB this year - love the photos that you took. I also really like the fact that they sell ride parts - I'm surprised Merlin haven't cottoned onto that idea as I'm sure they would make a small fortune for enthusiasts. How much are various coaster parts out of a matter of interest? Coaster and Matt 236 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted April 2, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2016 I really need to get my butt up to BPB this year - love the photos that you took. I also really like the fact that they sell ride parts - I'm surprised Merlin haven't cottoned onto that idea as I'm sure they would make a small fortune for enthusiasts. How much are various coaster parts out of a matter of interest? 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! Han30 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Han30 Posted April 2, 2016 Report Share Posted April 2, 2016 That's not actually too bad for pricing- I thought it would be a lot more expensive than that. Not sure if I would go for wood from a wooden coaster as it could technically have come from anywhere although a fiver ain't bad! You got a heck of a lot of rides done! - what ones would you recommend and are there any that are really spinny? - I almost vomited on Time Machine at Adventure Island but thankfully I take motion sickness meds which help. As an example - I can do all rides at Thorpe with the exception of Detonator - because that thing is damned evil! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted April 2, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2016 That's not actually too bad for pricing- I thought it would be a lot more expensive than that. Not sure if I would go for wood from a wooden coaster as it could technically have come from anywhere although a fiver ain't bad! You got a heck of a lot of rides done! - what ones would you recommend and are there any that are really spinny? - I almost vomited on Time Machine at Adventure Island but thankfully I take motion sickness meds which help. As an example - I can do all rides at Thorpe with the exception of Detonator - because that thing is damned evil! 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. Han30 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Han30 Posted April 4, 2016 Report Share Posted April 4, 2016 Thanks for the heads up - ooh teacups I should be ok on - although if I'm in one and someone starts spinning it furiously I get a bit nauseous Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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