Pleasure Beach, Blackpool Trip Reports

[Luke_A]

So, from 2-6 April I spent a week in Blackpool with family and friends, this was my first visit to Blackpool, and we had a great time. We didn't really anticipate that there would be so much to do in Blackpool, we ended up doing something every day with stuff still left to do, a great excuse to go back again next year or sooner!

Revolution is looking very nice in it's new colours, they were painting continuously throughout the week, removing the scaffolding quickly too.

On the Monday I went into PBB for an hour or so just to do the Big One... You can read my review of that in the main PB topic. On Tuesday we did as many Merlin attractions as possible, and did all of them except the dungeons as we simply didn't have enough time in the day, although we did get the 4D Eye Experience done; Blackpool Tower; Madame Tussaud's; Blackpool Tower Circus (This is free for AP holders and lasted just over 2 hours!) and the Sedgwick owned funfair on the Pier by the Tower. Wednesday was a full day on park (PMBO was down due to winds, no big loss at all). Thursday we did the Sandcastle Water Park which is right opposite the Pleasure Beach on the seafront, highly recommended to anyone who spends a few days in the Blackpool area, spent 8 hours here! Then Friday I spent another day on Pleasure Beach while others did some other Blackpool attractions such as Ripley's.

Blackpool Merlin Attractions

Now, I'm not usually a fan of 4D experiences, but the Blackpool Tower one I quite liked... It's very similar to the London Eye one with scenes & landmarks of Blackpool instead of London, and was actually quite enjoyable.

After the 4D show you get sent into an area where you wait for the lift to the top of the Blackpool Tower. Scaffolding is covering a large amount of the tower at the moment because of it having some of the metalwork repainted and worked on, so it's not the best view at all times on the way up... But when at the top you exit the lift right by the glass floor which is pretty much the same of that on the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth, great views of Blackpool from the top of the tower, and you can go up onto a second level which is open, and very windy! So yeah, the Tower was good, and wasn't very busy either.

Next we did the Blackpool Tower Circus. This was free for AP holders and the show lasted just over 2 hours, Wow. It was a really great show, everything from tightrope walkers to the water finale, it was really worth doing especially on what was a cold and windy day...

Madame Tussaud's in Blackpool is about a 5 minute walk south down the promenade. It's got some things different and some things the same as London MT's. Worth doing even if you've done London MT's!

Me and Brucey!

Sandcastle Water Park

I didn't really know much about what this water park had to offer, they have a Master Blaster launch slide (Very awesome!) Your typical family slides, Two swimming pools all themed to a Caribbean island or something... They also have a couple of speed slides, A slide called Montazooma where you lay on your front on a mat, and fly down a tube taking corners at high speeds with lighting and sound effects as you go through.

They also have a Space Bowl slide called Aztec Falls where you can either go as a pair or on your own. This was great fun, and 3 of the slides are partially outside too (Aztec Falls, Montazooma and Master Blaster.) There is also a SideWinder 'U' shape slide with a near vertical drop.

My favourite slide was Master Blaster, it features 5/6? 'launch' sections, which you could end up going up backwards or forwards, or just spinning around in some crazy manner. The last drop is awesome, you come down it at some great speed, takes you by surprise if you end up going down backwards!

Water Park ride count.

• Master Blaster - 8
• Montazooma - 1
• Aztec Falls - 3
• Duelling Dragon's - 3
• Thunder Falls - 2

Pleasure Beach, Blackpool!

The main reason I came to Blackpool was for the Pleasure Beach. I spent 2 full days on park as well as going in to ride the Big One on Monday. Overall, I really enjoyed all of my visits, the park seems to be heading in a nice direction, I absolutely love the way everything feels so modern and the way attention isn't going into investing in new rides, but making existing ones look better and more appealing. It's a shame Valhalla and Revolution were down, but I look forward to riding them next time! Pleasure beach do something which I have always wondered why Thorpe don't do. If a ride is going to run 2 trains later in the day, it will open with 2 trains on the track but one will be locked off. This then makes it much easier and reduces the need for waiting for another train to be put on when needed.

Valhalla should be open by the end of April they hope, as I was told by the member of staff on admissions, the ticket centre is run very well and efficiently! Certainly started the day off well as staff were efficient and helpful... As at PB you enter the park using a barcoded ticket just like at any Merlin park. Then you have your wristband which you scan on a turnstile at the entrance to every ride.

My favourite rides turned out to be Grand National & Wild Mouse. Two very fun rides which provide unique rides, Nash in the back seat is awesome, ok it's a little rough but the airtime on the double-down's is really good, even my 12 year old sister enjoyed the ride, so it's certainly good for families as well as your thrill seekers. Wild Mouse is brilliant, you only have a seatbelt barely holding you in around your chest which creates great freedom for your body to lift off of the seat when going down drops and over the airtime hill... Absolutely brilliant ride, love it so much! Shame I only got on it on Wednesday, it was down most of Friday for essential maintenance on it's lift hill chain, and Nash didn't open til 12:30 either. Infusuion... The less said about this ride the better. Awful ride, great location. (I really did like the whole water thing.) The double inline twist is a killer on your ears. Ouch.

Empty Avalanche station most of the time on both days! wooo great little ride, it did have a few busy times.

Big One was running 1 and a half trains on Friday, cars 1,2 and 3 were being used but 4 and 5 were filled with sandbags. It had no more than 15-20 mins all day so I think this was so that they didn't have to have trains waiting in the station for more riders. (It needs a full train of riders or sandbags to run.)

Steeplechase was a little ride which I was looking forward to, but didn't really know what to expect. It was running 2 lanes on all days, 3 lanes at points where it had a queue, but as soon as that queue was gone they would knock it back down to 2 lanes. I found the red lane to be a little rough but the other 2 were really fun, it's a really good ride, and the fact that it's the only one of it's type left in the world makes it even more special. We ate in Big Pizza kitchen in Nickelodeon Land, nice pizza, good value too!

Ride Count over 2 days +1 ride on Big One on Monday.

• Avalanche - 4
• Big Dipper - 2
• Blue Flyer - 1
• Grand National - 4
• Infusion - 2 (this was MORE than enough)
• Nickelodeon Streak - 1
• Steeplechase - 7
• Wild Mouse - 2
• PMBO - 4
• River Caves - 2
• Alice Ride - 1
• Ghost Train - 1
• Ice Blast - 3
• Avatar Airbender - 1

Overall, what an awesome week I had in Blackpool. Thanks for reading!

[Stealthowl]

Great Report Luke...

Liking the new look Revolution & Valhalla... & Glad you had a great time.

The Tower Circus really is a must for people who visit the tower it's the longest running show out of the west end and even for non-circus fan's it's a great show.

Thanks for taking the time out to do the report

Jonny

[Coaster]

I went to Blackpool for a week and PLEASURE BEACH three times. (This ridecount is from the first sunday of the Easter holidays.)

PLEASURE BEACH RIDECOUNT:

Infusion X2

Big dipper X2
Steeplechase X1
The Big One X8 (Running very well)
Avatar airbender X1
Nickelodeon streak x1
Blue flyer X1
Lost river X1
Ghost train X3
Wild mouse X2
Avalanche X1
Ice blast X1
Derby racer X1
River caves X1
Alice X1

An amazing day at my fave theme park, it's just a shame that my fave ride Valhalla was closed.

I ALSO WENT TO SANDCASTLE WATERPARK:
Duelling dragons X1
Sidewinder X2
Aztec falls X2 (Absoloutley fantastic!)
Montezuma X2
Master Blaster X2


I WENT TO BLACKPOOL TOWER AS WELL
As a Merlin annual pass holder, I could do everything more than once.

Tower eye X2 (Amazing 4D cinema)
Circus X1 (Very good)
Tower dungeons X2 (I think this one is better than London's.)

If you have not yet been to Pleasure beach Blackpool then I highly recommend it.
Thanks for reading