Blackpool Pleasure Beach

[Bubbles1]

Oh no, Blackpool if rejuvenated could be absolutely fantastic, but at the moment it's the clientele that I think may prevent a return to a "golden era".

On a side note, what has the effect of merlin's investment in Blackpool been? Has it been successful so far?

[JoshC.]

Really random question, but does anyone know if there's a track layout of Grand National floating about anywhere?

[Fred]

I'd hope the track layout is very much pinned to the ground tbf.

[James_C]

Not sure if it has been posted before on here but there is a very good fly on the wall documentary from the 90's about Blackpool PB. It has 6 parts and ive watched them all back to back...well worth a watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ1jNmMfcRg

[Whiteknuckle]

Haha, yep, remember it well.

"Get it off and get the damn thing open"

[coastercameron98]

Oh how I wish PB was still run like that with that sort of thinking when they actually built new thrill rides and didn't concentrate mainly on Ice Shows

[Coaster]

Oh how I wish PB was still run like that with that sort of thinking when they actually built new thrill rides and didn't concentrate mainly on Ice Shows

They have installed quite a lot over the past few years!

They have a brilliant new dark ride this year, which while not being a thrill ride caters for everyone and is of a very high standard.

Referring to the title of this topic, the Pleasure Beach is now a much nicer place to be in than any other park in England. Security is high, the park looks really good and areas which were previously in need of a lot of TLC have now got that and look fantastic!

It speaks volumes about how much passion the Thompson's must have for the park when they are prepared to spend millions replacing the facade of Valhalla to look better than it did when it opened, and repainting the Revolution which now looks brand new.

(Not to mention the ongoing refurbishment work on Steeplechase's station).

I'm sure the time will come for them to install more thrill rides, although as it stands at the moment they still outrank most other UK parks coaster wise (and most of the coasters there are thrilling).

[Marc]

Referring to the title of this topic, the Pleasure Beach is now a much nicer place to be in than any other park in England. Security is high, the park looks really good and areas which were previously in need of a lot of TLC have now got that and look fantastic!

It speaks volumes about how much passion the Thompson's must have for the park when they are prepared to spend millions replacing the facade of Valhalla to look better than it did when it opened, and repainting the Revolution which now looks brand new.

(Not to mention the ongoing refurbishment work on Steeplechase's station).

I'm sure the time will come for them to install more thrill rides, although as it stands at the moment they still outrank most other UK parks coaster wise (and most of the coasters there are thrilling).

Agree with this (And renamed topic appropriately!)

My first visit was in 2011 and I was pretty impressed, security were good as you said and the park looked clean and presentable. Looking forward to going up to check out whats changed since too

[EC!]

I have never been, but I have never wanted to go, no offence to any Blackpool Pleasure beach fans but what I have seen and heard, it looks and seems tacky, please tell me if otherwise or is what I am saying a bit of a false stereotype.

[Coaster]

I have never been, but I have never wanted to go, no offence to any Blackpool Pleasure beach fans but what I have seen and heard, it looks and seems tacky, please tell me if otherwise or is what I am saying a bit of a false stereotype.

Pleasure Beach is in no way whatsoever tacky!

The park is in far better condition than any other park in England - you can clearly see that care goes in to keeping all the rides not only running, but looking their absolute best.

The woodies, whilst old are brilliant rides and top the experiences of a lot of steel coasters.

That sets Pleasure Beach apart for me - they are prepared to keep classic attractions, which are brilliant.

Not to mention that have the best collection of dark rides of any park in England - and they are all of top quality.

The park is quite the opposite of tacky! The ticket centre being a perfect example of this - it is very grand and posh. The park and rides are constantly receiving TLC - whilst not necessary it makes the park look cared for and very "in with the now" - this is where the Merlin parks fail because they do not fix what isn't broken (and when they do it looks awful again within a few weeks because they don't clean/maintain it).

So yeah, what you are saying is completely false. If you get the chance to visit, go for it!

[Benin]

Calling Blackpool tacky isn't really an insult though, indeed, tacky is what I'd expect from a British seaside park...

This tacky level is seen in the dark rides, I wouldn't say that they are all of top quality though... Alice in Wonderland is so crap it's fab for example... Aside from that there's only 4 others and even then they are not what I would call top quality...

The TLC is only a very recent thing though to large quantities... Nick Land has made them have to revamp the park a lot (and has probably brought in the income TO revamp bits and bobs), the state of Beaver Creek beforehand was dire...

And let's not say they keep all their classic rides, otherwise what about the Whip, Turtle Chase and Noah's Ark?

[pluk]

And literally destroying another park including some real classic rides that should have been saved. I actually really like BPPB as a place but have difficulty wanting them to do well, as a business and a family, after that.

[Coaster]

This tacky level is seen in the dark rides, I wouldn't say that they are all of top quality though... Alice in Wonderland is so crap it's fab for example... Aside from that there's only 4 others and even then they are not what I would call top quality...

The TLC is only a very recent thing though to large quantities... Nick Land has made them have to revamp the park a lot (and has probably brought in the income TO revamp bits and bobs), the state of Beaver Creek beforehand was dire...

And let's not say they keep all their classic rides, otherwise what about the Whip, Turtle Chase and Noah's Ark?

Regarding the dark rides, admittedly Alice is hilarious but the others are great! River caves and the Ghost train are classics which are brilliant in their own right. Valhalla and Wallace and Gromit are of top quality, beating most (if not all) UK dark rides.

You say the TLC is a recent thing, well yes it is but it has made all the difference between how the park looks now to how it looked 5 or so years ago. Beaver Creek was bad, so they changed it!

Nick Land it is brilliant and once again looks really modern.

Pleasure Beach manages to keep classic attractions while keeping them looking stylish rather than neglected. They are all well looked after and still run brilliantly after all these years.

Regarding all classic rides, they need to remove some so they can move on. The Whip was replaced with the most stylish dodgems I have ever seen. (I think they should have kept Noah's Ark open though).

Also, for a family owned park to be able to pay for the upkeep of all these classic rides is amazing, but you can't expect them to keep all of them. They cost much more to maintain than modern rides.

[planenut]

Regarding all classic rides, they need to remove some so they can move on. The Whip was replaced with the most stylish dodgems I have ever seen. (I think they should have kept Noah's Ark open though).

Also, for a family owned park to be able to pay for the upkeep of all these classic rides is amazing, but you can't expect them to keep all of them. They cost much more to maintain than modern rides.

They actually bought equipment to manufacture parts for some of the rides; historically, there is nowhere better for large rides.

Like most parks, some areas need TLC whilst some are recently refurbished or new.

It is a great all round family entertaining park.

[coastercameron98]

With everyone saying that the Nick Land looks tidy and modern which it does but there is still the massive flipping Space Invader building in the middle of it! Also yeah they do try to keep their old rides looking awesome but have you not seen the Grand National from the outside of the park. My parents said that they didn't want me going in there because they thought it would be a waste of money if they all looked like that with the white paint all mouldy and shredded. So it doesn't give a very good impression from the outside putting people off from going inside and you have only just parked your car! I think some of the rides there desperately need a repaint.

[Coaster]

^ I agree that the National needs a repaint, however that doesn't stop it being a brilliant ride!

I do get what your saying though and I think that Grand National should be the next ride on their list to receive a spruce up.

As for the Space Invader Building, it has been adopted into a pizza kitchen and the facade has been covered up.

[stretchy]

As some of you will know. Kingy and I went to Blackpool to celebrate the Big Dippers 90th Birthday party. The following are some piccies that I took/. Sorry some of them are a bit blurred. They gave us free alcohol.

View from the hotel. Yup we were that close to The Big One

Where first? Well we did the dungeons first but your not aloud to take piccies in there. so onto the Towers I think. Visibility was quite poor from the tower. Look at the sea. Yes its that white area beneath the white area that is the sky.

Look you can only just see the beach below.

And this is where we are heading next, Visibility was really poor, I had to Photoshop that so you could see anything in it.

Look down. Its like we are standing on a really scratched nothing.

So we left the tower due to the fogginess and headed down the promenade where we met this rather tranie looking version of David Tennant.

and suddenly the mist seemingly magically lifted and the sun burst through to reveal this:

So we grabbed a pint at Joss's pub and then ventured onto the Pleasure Beach, was where it always was. We went in and queued for tickets in the usual ticket area, when we got to front we were told that we needed to queue somewhere else. So we went and queued somewhere else. This is where I got rather annoyed. We had paid £18 for our tickets, yet they were selling them, on the day, for £6. I did confront the guy who was giving us our tickets but he had a 'I don't give a ****' kind of attitude and as we left the ticket area I was fuming, ready for an argument with the first member of management that I found.

It turned out that we didn't see a member of management, instead we were greeted with Champagne.

Joss became rather blurred by the prospect of free champers

There was a cake too.

And even little cakes

A reasonable crowd of slightly blurred people were now arriving.

This is proof that people actually go blurred after beer, its not just your perception of them

See Rollercoasters aren't blurred, just people.

Oh and posters are blurred. This one was smashed through by the first train as the cake was cut.
And who would cut that cake? I hear you ask. Why its Amanda Thompson, who is some how, thought that it was winter and came out wearing about 14 layers including this rather fetching Body Warmer. Just as an aside, you can see who here has had Champagne and who hasn't. One person has had way too much Champers

The first train was loaded with people, some of whom had partaken in a drop of Champers

Unfortunately I could take photos of either the car tearing through the poster in a hyper dramatic way, or Amanda plunging her knife into the cake. I chose the cake.

The crowd all counted down 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 and the knife is plunged through the cake with all the brutality of a mass murderer.

And the Big Dippers car disappears through the ear of the white haired chappy in front of us with jets of smoke and hoorays from the crowd.

I was suddenly distracted by how beautiful coaster track is against a dimming evening sky.

Joss clipped me around the ear and we went down the steps where a mermaid lounged

and disco lights danced

And a DJ talked up the crowd

Suddenly the mermaid recognised me and chirped up.

I honestly don't know why, as we didn't bother to rescue her from her fountain imprisonment, instead we went and rode the Big Dipper

And here is our train, sporting a lovely pair of head lamps.

We did the usual cheer as we left the station, deafening the DJ and headed up the lift hill. As we did we got the whole train singing Happy Birthday to the coaster. This was one of the cool things about the evening. Everyone was in a party mood (most slightly blurry from the champagne and free beer. As we got off the ride we bumped into Lee, who was the only other coaster fan we recognised there. (poor show chaps)

Joss wouldn't let me steal this cool little model.

A picture of the birthday girl looking fetching against a tumultuous sky.

and why oh why oh why isn't the park open more in the evenings. It is beautiful.

So since I had never ridden Walace and Gromit, we decided to head that way. They saw Joss and myself and started dancing with joy

I think they had been on the Champagne because we we neared we realised they were also getting blurred.

So what did I think of the ride. It was OK. I agree with most of the criticism on it. It is a shame it wasn't an original story, instead it is a collection of disjointed scenes.

It was food time next. The offerings consisted of a choice of Fish and Chips, or Hotdog and Chips. Served with a free pint of beer and doughnuts for desert. The chips came in their own bucket. Here you can see Joss attempting to eat them with the supplied shovel.

What next? well the Grand Prix was also open so we did that. This ride is really not designed for large people. Note how Joss is sitting in the Passenger seat and driving. I was the same and it was the only way to fit in.

So Joss went off then to ride Infusion. I had previously ridden it and didn't want my back torn to pieces by it. As you see, he had been hitting the alcohol heavily.

So much so that his blurr field extended back to the whole train.

It was at this point that we made one hell of a mistake. Lets go back and ride the Big Dipper, Joss said. Sure I said.
The DJ had scarpered. I think he knew what was coming.

And what, I hear you ask, was coming? This was:

It was the wettest I have ever been on a coaster. The rain was torrential. No I really mean torrential. It was so heavy that in the 30 seconds or so that the ride took we went from being dry to Valhalla wet.
We sprinted from the ride to the bar, the above photo was taken as the rain started to ease.
You cant really see how wet Joss is

But the my Smiler T shirt shows full extent of wetness (and the need for a diet)

We did a few more rides, our last one being 2 consecutive blasts on the birthday girl her self bringing us up to the 11 pm end of the night.
As we ambled back to the hotel you realise how pretty The Big One looks in the night and also realise that maybe its been on the beer too.


All in all it was an excellent evening, even though I still feel a bit ripped off that other guests got in for £6 yet the actual fans had to pay 18 but Blackpool should be proud of the evening. It was extremely well put together and total fun and everyone there was having a fun time (even the staff who mostly had huge grins on their faces). I will definitely come back for the next party, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thank-you Blackpool.

I will leave you with what the park looked like next day.

and a link to my full album of pics
https://plus.google.com/photos/106418309379254557984/albums/5915744053663288737/5915746581773145858?pid=5915746581773145858&oid=106418309379254557984&authkey=CKfNyuu4o6GUdw

[Coaster]

Sounds like a great day, wish I could have been there!!

I'd recommend getting into contact with Pleasure Beach via Email or telephone about the ticket price - they are usually better on there.

[Whiteknuckle]

Looked like a brilliant event. Thanks for sharing all those photos

[coastergod]

I think I need to go on big dipper again, originally not a big fan but could easily enjoy it!

[Mark9]

Happy Birthday Big Dipper

[planenut]

Great pics of a pretty good day.

Always amazes me how the Park maintain that the website sales are nothing to do with them, therefore claim they are unable to "help".

Digs were nice and close then? I'm back there in April, and looking forward to it.

[OldFarmerDean]

went blackpool pretty much 5 years ago, and went again on wednesday, a very windy and somewhat rainy day... gutted that the big one was closed all day because of the wind!

from last time (what I remember) and from what you'd expect it to be like, I was shocked how nice the place looked and how much effort is kept into maintaining the park in comparison to merlin ones!

thought the nickelodeon land was a great and looked impressive (as well as me now getting to ride the nickelodeon streak which I guess was called 'rollercoaster'? and was closed when I went in 2008), loved the airbender ride which is so much better than kobra at chessington even though it's so much smaller and only a half pipe, it spins way faster!

was nice to do a lot of the rides I never got round to doing last time - so pretty much did most attractions, and loved the haunted house haha.

infusion was just about acceptable on the front... but first time we went on it 4th row and felt like you were stalling on the inversions and was just juddering back and forth, definitely not a comfortable ride, no wonder why people have so much hate for it (I just remember it being good when I went on it back in 2008, as well as an identical one in terra mitica in spain which I enjoy!)

I forgot how rough/maybe not so enjoyable the wooden rollercaosters were (bar nickelodeon streak which was actually fun), grand national on back row hurt so much (but was better on the front)!

I went into the new wallace and gromit ride with low expectations after what I have read on this forum, as well as others, and to my surprise I actually enjoyed it, picked up some speed at times down the slopes as well! quite a lot of the ride did seem rather pointless with so many dark/black sections, although I loved the surprise at the end (or at least what I thought was a surprise considering you thought it was ending and then the scene which happens next). I presumed or thought it went round in one slipper at a time, but two were joined together which looked a bit odd, not sure whether this has been done more recently to improve throughput or if it's always been like it? it was well worth the ride, but doubt it was worth how much they spent on it (considering it's just a reused ride), and a lot more could have been done with that money (cough something for thrill seekers since bling was removed cough).

I still hate the wristband idea as mine never worked half the time, and my friends ripped off... they're uncomfortable to wear - if they're going to be a theme park which they are, think they're better of just having entry like theme parks, as the rides throughputs are slown down by wristbands not scanning etc. and would make everything easier.

I do love pleasure beach's opening hours, even though it was only til 6 when I went which isn't bad still, looking at their weekend and half term opening times were great

overall a decent day, just shame about the weather which stopped the big one from opening - doubt I would be in any hurry to return to pleasure beach considering it's a good 3 and a half / 4 hours to get to, and nothing that stands out for me that I'm dying to go back for, but may return to ride the big one as all I remember from last time is going on it, and my dad telling me it wasn't very good (which I can't remember much about the ride), so would love to ride it again now I realise how good airtime is, and judge for myself.

[Coaster]

^ Thanks for the TR and it's nice to hear that you enjoyed it (as it's my favourite park).

It is a bummer when you go there and the Big One's shut, but it is beyond their control (when it's due to wind). I disagree with what you say about the woodies, as I find them much more enjoyable than smooth steel coasters - but it is all down to opinion!

I agree that Wallace and Gromit is a brilliant dark ride, and yes the slippers have always been in pairs

Personally I like wristbands. I really agree with what you say about the cleanliness of the park though - it really looks superb now and a lot better than the Merlin parks.

[OldFarmerDean]

a bit random.... but on valhalla, once you go into the building, on the first lift hill, is anything supposed to happen, as I could smell gas, and somewhat remember something happened there?

and liked the big drops, but never realised how pointless the backwards drop is...