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Blackpool Pleasure Beach


Dan_Rush

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The wings are horizontal at resting point and you push down and up on opposite sides to spin. I let go of the handles as instructed in the video in order allow the wings to "reset" back to horizontal however the wings stayed fixed and each time I hit the wind on a rotation the cart was spinning faster and faster.

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The wings are horizontal at resting point and you push down and up on opposite sides to spin. I let go of the handles as instructed in the video in order allow the wings to "reset" back to horizontal however the wings stayed fixed and each time I hit the wind on a rotation the cart was spinning faster and faster.

It seems that the way to stop it spinning is to reverse the wings so that they fight against the wind.  They need to update the pre-show video, as letting go of the wings probably works when it isn't as windy, but this is Blackpool!  :lol:

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I completely agree Jamie. I did manage to get the spin to stop as the ride slowed and I grabbed the handles to the reset position.

I see that they have posted on Facebook that they want to get into contact with you, so at least they have responded.  If you have an issue then tell them about it directly rather than posting it on every social media page possible.

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I see that they have posted on Facebook that they want to get into contact with you, so at least they have responded.  If you have an issue then tell them about it directly rather than posting it on every social media page possible.

 

That's good

 

Give us an update when they've replied to you Spurden :)

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I want to share my experience on SkyForce with as many people as possible as it was quite possibly the worst ride experience I've had and I'm still certain that it is unsuitable for commercial use during windy weather. 

 

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I've had 4 nose bleeds since I rode the ride at around 3pm yesterday. The managers of the park paid absolutely no attention to my concern or state. The instructional video states that if you want to stop spinning you need to let go of the wings, after a couple of spins the wind caught the wings on my plane and the speed was unbearable so I let go, the plane didnt stop but instead increased its speed at which point I lost my vision, feeling in my feet and had the sensation of my eyes popping out of my head. Eventually I managed to reach out and grab the wings again to try stabilise the cart but this wasn't until I had been spinning at high speed for what I can only imagine was 2/3 of the ride. 

 

I cant imagine how a child would cope under these circumstances as I am a thrill seeker and was in a complete mess for a number of hours after. The ride puts out negative g force to which humans can only withstand at low levels especially if the rider has previous cardiovascular issues. If nothing else they need to revise the instructional video at the very very least.

Ok I was intrigued by this, so today I headed over to Blackpool pleasure beach and whilst we were having 40mph gusty wind thought I would try to replicate.

When the wind is blowing strongly, because you are only heading into the wind at one point of the 360 degrees it is impossible to get a prolonged spin. When you get into the perfect head on wind position, you do get spun around but as soon as you go past that you stop spinning. I actually spent half a ride rotation upside down due to this effect.

I tried letting go of the wing during the bit where your heading into the wind. You did spin rapidly for a few seconds. But as soon as the wind wasn't heading directly at you the plane balanced itself out.

All in all, I found that it was significantly harder to get it to spin at all in any sort of wind.

Note. These are just my experiences with my weight in the plane.

But it is true that you can experience high g forces. If you get a good spin it is as brutal as the tea cups can be. And they say this multiple times during the queue.

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I visited Blackpool today and despite no Big One, had a great day.

Sky Force is a decent new ride for the park with decent quality theming,although I didn't get much spinning either due to strong wind or doing it wrong.

Lots of great little changes round the park which was nice to see overall.

Did you go on Valhalla? If so, how was it running?

Sorry to hear you got spited by PMBO, darn wind!

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Yes we did go on Valhalla, it was running well, some of the fire effects weren't working, but the majority of effects were on. The 'get stretchy soaking' effect was working fine though.

The fire effects seem to be very on-off this year, not sure if they're cutting costs.  Glad to hear everything else was working though.

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  • 3 weeks later...
BPB's Speedy Pass page on Twitter has posted that they now do individual speedy pass "shots" as well as the reserve and ride system with the following prices:
 
The Big One £8
Infusion £6
Avalanche £5
Valhalla £5
Nickelodeon Streak £6
 
My view on this is that it is a ridiculous decision.  £5 for one ride is just about passable, but £8 is a complete joke.
 
I also think that to include Nickelodeon Streak is a complete farce considering the dire throughput and horrendously long queues it already gets, instead of sorting it out they are using it as an excuse to make more Speedy Pass sales and make the problem worse!

 

BPB's attitude towards throughputs has struck me as very lax this year and this is just one step too far IMO, the park is not designed for speedy pass, it was designed to shift queues and a fastpass system should not be needed.  Instead of addressing the issues they are increasing them to make more money... oh, but wait, it's not working is it!

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Do they ever run two trains on Orange these days?

 

They really messed up the station when they redid it...

No, apparently it's impossible to run two trains on it, and has been since they changed over from the old trains (back when it was still Roller Coaster) to the current trains (which were from the Big Dipper I think) due to a bizarre change they made with the station setup.  You would think that after the Grand National they would know better than to tamper with another station!  :angry2:

 

 I think it is more a H&S rule rather than them literally not being able to run two trains on it, I think that theoretically the ride still could if they sorted it out.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Does anybody know if you get the discounted wristband rate from the park on the gate the day before, or whether you have to always book online?

For example, we will be going to Blackpool on a Monday to Friday, we intend going to BPB on Wednesday, can we buy the wristbands on the Monday for the Wednesday from the box office/entrance and get the discounted rate, or do we have to do it online?

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Does anybody know if you get the discounted wristband rate from the park on the gate the day before, or whether you have to always book online?

For example, we will be going to Blackpool on a Monday to Friday, we intend going to BPB on Wednesday, can we buy the wristbands on the Monday for the Wednesday from the box office/entrance and get the discounted rate, or do we have to do it online?

I think they have to be booked online, but it would be worth contacting them directly about this as I'm not entirely sure.
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  • 2 weeks later...

I finally got on Skyforce today. Amazing ride, I got it flipping on the first go (seat 1) but the second go was more difficult as I was on an inside seat, however I did get some amazing hang-time.

Aside from the throughput (which wasn't an issue today as the park was really quiet) I think the ride is a great addition to the park, and the area is finished off really well with a good soundtrack and pre-show videos.

Great ride!

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Well it seems to be every two years at the moment that we're seeing something new at the park with this year opening sky force, 2012 being Wallace & Gromit & 2010 being Nickland so unless we see something small next year the next new thing would be 2017.

To be fair, the park is due another new major ride considering its been 15 years since their last major new ride (if you discard Infusion as it was at Pleasureland) and 21 since their last coaster (again if you discard Infusion) as Skyforce is really a small,ish investment, Wallace & Gromit a major retheme of an old ride (medium investment), even Nickland really is still the higher end of medium investments.

What they'll get and where they'll put it I don't really know, but I would love to see a Mack launch at the park, as they're apparently they're smooth rides, generally reliable with high throughputs and not too expensive (at least compared to B&M's) and something like this could put them back in to the limelight again.

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Well it seems to be every two years at the moment that we're seeing something new at the park with this year opening sky force, 2012 being Wallace & Gromit & 2010 being Nickland so unless we see something small next year the next new thing would be 2017.

To be fair, the park is due another new major ride considering its been 15 years since their last major new ride (if you discard Infusion as it was at Pleasureland) and 21 since their last coaster (again if you discard Infusion) as Skyforce is really a small,ish investment, Wallace & Gromit a major retheme of an old ride (medium investment), even Nickland really is still the higher end of medium investments.

10 million (Nick Land) is quite a large investment IMO, especially for a park not owned by a huge company.
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Spent the day at BPB, wow anybody who complains about Colossus being rough has never ridden anything here. Fun park, operations were good, everything that could run on two was on two trains, some breakdowns but overall Merlin could benefit from a day here to compare operations.

But I'll say it again, boy were some of the coasters rough, especially the mouse and grand national, loved Skyforce, got 32 spins on my first go.

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Spent the day at BPB, wow anybody who complains about Colossus being rough has never ridden anything here. Fun park, operations were good, everything that could run on two was on two trains, some breakdowns but overall Merlin could benefit from a day here to compare operations.

But I'll say it again, boy were some of the coasters rough, especially the mouse and grand national, loved Skyforce, got 32 spins on my first go.

 

Why would you count this?!

 

On the Smiler last year someone next to me counted every inversion very loudly, as if to check that there where actually 14

 

What is going on

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