February 2, 20187 yr comment_255675 It's just beautiful. I love this era of rollercoasters where layout is everything.
February 12, 20187 yr comment_255851 A cold weekend in February means only one thing, opening weekend at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and the first chance to see Icon in person (and cry about Wild Mouse of course)! The day started with a perimeter walk around the park in the rain; A very sad sight for any Pleasure Beach fan; The weather was quite nice on Sunday morning; River Caves still looks as mouldy as ever, most of the dark rides felt very neglected this weekend; The space formerly occupied by Trauma Towers; Icon is something else. Seeing it in person, it looks absolutely incredible and it's surreal standing underneath it. Crazy! The park was running fairly well for February, reliability was decent overall with only a few rides down all weekend (Flying Machines, PBE and Grand Prix) and a few breakdowns. The Big One didn't move at all due to wind on Sunday but was open on Saturday, Infusion late opening on Sunday and Avalanche had a breakdown later on in the day. Dark rides were atrocious, nothing working in Ghost Train and theming ripped out, Valhalla worse than ever (disco lights on the first lifthill?!) and the less said about River Caves the better. It's clear the park has no care for maintaining the themed experience their dark rides should offer, a shame. Grand National was running really well for early season, as were Dipper and Streak. Amazing to get back on and was hilarious riding Dipper and Streak in the snow/hail! Coasters is being redone with a balcony overlooking Icon, will be great once it's done. I have very mixed thoughts regarding BPB this year but one thing is for certain... Icon looks outstanding.
February 12, 20187 yr comment_255853 That airtime hill at the start looks incredibly fun. With the Mack restraints that could easily be the best airtime moment in the UK.
February 12, 20187 yr comment_255856 ICON ICON ICON. I Love that we're finally getting a proper Mack ride.
February 13, 20187 yr comment_255859 It really is saying something when somehow I manage to get even more excited every time I see Icon! Thank you for those great pictures! That airtime hill is going to offend in it's awesomeness. I still can't believe we are being treated to such a wonderful coaster, roll on opening!!
February 13, 20187 yr comment_255860 The airtime hill looks like it's been designed to fling you out of the train and onto Big One. Nice! Really looking forward to this!
February 13, 20187 yr comment_255861 It'll be awkward when people realise that the one airtime hill does more airtime related things than Taron does in the whole course...
February 13, 20187 yr comment_255864 Pfft, Taron's first airtime hill tries to fling me into the heart of Brühl... Plus its sideways flicks make up for the lesser amount of airtime for me.. [/Leave_Taron_Alone.gif]
February 13, 20187 yr comment_255868 I can no longer say Icon looks a good ride. That’s because it looks like it’s going to be phenomenal one. Those twists, turns and airtime hill look absolutely stunning and being in Pleasure Beach the interaction between others looks to be one of the best out there. Regardless as whether it’s better than the likes of Helix, Blue Fire etc. The UK now finally looks to have a worthwhile multi-launch which is great to see especially for those unable to go abroad. Edit- forgot to mention, nothing really to add. Only the trains have now arrived. Courtesy of St Chads Hotel.
February 13, 20187 yr comment_255870 Completely different style of coaster than Blue Fire for a start, so it would be wrong to compare them. Icon is much more like Helix and Taron. It will not better Helix but it has every chance to best Taron. Mack > Intamin
February 13, 20187 yr comment_255875 New animated POV released of Icon... Apart from hitting a few other rides looks awesome!
February 15, 20187 yr comment_255891 An interesting interview posted by Pleasure Beach Experience. Whilst I don't necessarily agree with certain points raised in the interview (seemingly disregarding the "old rides"), it's fantastic to see such genuine passion and enthusiasm for a new coaster from the park owners. It's interesting that Amanda mentions theming, if the concept art is anything to go by I'm hopeful we might see something special; If you're visiting BPB over the next few weekends I'd recommend picking up a park map, this poster is on the back but is limited edition!
February 16, 20187 yr comment_255898 It’s looking like a great ride on it’s own but what would be the cherry on the cake is if they are planning on adding plenty of scenery too. Could be something to really rival Merlin and take business from Merlin’s theme parks. Especially when the local hotels cost a lot less than Merlin’s! Thorpe should get a Mack mega coaster
February 16, 20187 yr comment_255902 I doubt we'll see much scenery/theming around the ride beyond the station/pond area... Theming is not really what you go to Blackpool for...
February 16, 20187 yr comment_255909 It certainly won't be heavily themed, particuarly the first half as it wouldn't really work given it passes over rides, pathways etc - but I'm hopeful it'll be styled well to match the Japanese branding - Amanda hinted at a garden a while ago so maybe they'll do something along these lines?
February 16, 20187 yr comment_255910 4 hours ago, Stuntman707 said: It’s looking like a great ride on it’s own but what would be the cherry on the cake is if they are planning on adding plenty of scenery too. Could be something to really rival Merlin and take business from Merlin’s theme parks. Especially when the local hotels cost a lot less than Merlin’s! Thorpe should get a Mack mega coaster Themed or not themed, it's going to wipe the floor with most if not all UK coasters. The importance of Icon for the UK industry cannot be forgotten.
February 16, 20187 yr comment_255911 Just now, Mega-Lite said: Themed or not themed, it's going to wipe the floor with most if not all UK coasters. The importance of Icon for the UK industry cannot be forgotten. I like how we keep saying this as if it's actually quite a difficult feat for parks to actually do... Hell if Drayton had built Alpina Blitz it would've wiped the floor with 70% of all UK coasters...
February 16, 20187 yr comment_255916 There are rides which are obviously superior to what we have in the U.K. I think the main difficulty is getting a park with enough commitment and funding to build one. I hope the London Park goes ahead and at least shakes up the industry a bit. It’s a shame Paramount doesn’t seem to have the commitment unlike Universal when it comes to theme parks. Back to Blackpool, no doubt Icon will be the biggest U.K. attraction of 2018 and hugely successful.
February 16, 20187 yr comment_255922 It really sucks that Wild Mouse went. BPB would have had an incredible coaster lineup to claim this year if Mouse was still there, with the five wooden coasters and six steel. It does feel like there's something missing from the park even with Icon looking so fantastic. Icon is a huge step forward for the UK industry but in terms of BPB, I don't really see the "one in, one out" ideal as progress, especially considering they had in excess of 12 coasters back in the 90's.
February 16, 20187 yr comment_255924 I don’t think BPB were ever planning to do one in, one out every year from now on. The time had obviously come for Wild Mouse to go. At the same time, parks only have a finite amount of space to fit in new, big rides.
February 16, 20187 yr comment_255925 1 minute ago, Stuntman707 said: I don’t think BPB were ever planning to do one in, one out every year from now on. The time had obviously come for Wild Mouse to go. At the same time, parks only have a finite amount of space to fit in new, big rides. That is true, but I would suggest that Wild Mouse took up a tiny amount of space for how thrilling it was, and BPB would be very hard pressed to fit a suitable replacement into such a small area.
February 16, 20187 yr comment_255926 I don’t think BPB wanted to shut it the way it happened but it’s well beyond coming back at this point.
February 16, 20187 yr comment_255929 6 minutes ago, Stuntman707 said: I don’t think BPB wanted to shut it the way it happened but it’s well beyond coming back at this point. I don't think they care really, their statement said as much - whilst Icon is a promising sign of things to come, I do think it's a shame that the park is losing its most unique asset - the heritage rides.
February 17, 20187 yr comment_255935 It's not really, a lot of its really important, significant rides are Grade 1 listed so will never leave. Wild Mouse was obviously a shame, it's never coming back though and I don't see much point holding onto that and saying it time and time again. Considering how much effort they've gone to with Icon to have it weave its way through rides like Steeplechase says to me they intend to keep them for the long term.
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