Tag: Blackpool Pleasure Beach

Blog, Reviews

Blackpool Pleasure Beach – First day of the season

Loops&Lapbars

Last year, we officially started our season at Paultons Park, then Alton Towers, so for this year, we decided to try Blackpool Pleasure Beach. They’ve moved their opening day to line up with the other UK parks as they usually open up in February which meant deciding between Alton Towers or Pleasure Beach and since we’re at Alton Towers in 2 weeks, we thought we’d try Pleasure Beach this year!

We arrived early, with plenty of time to find parking, stop for breakfast at Velvet Coaster and then join the queue to enter. We started queuing at around 10:10 and by 10:30 we were waiting at the security check in. There was some entertainment put on while we waited and it did feel similar to waiting for the fireworks at Alton Towers some 4 months ago, anticipation and a buzz from the crowd! Amanda Thompson OBE was present to have a little ribbon cutting ceremony. We couldn’t hear a word she was saying though as her microphone wasn’t working but it was still great to get the chance to see Pleasure Beach’s premier!

Security was opened about 10:50 and we got through quite painlessly, though my DSLR camera was put under a bit of scrutiny by the security guard who had to ask another if it was ok. There did seem to be a lot of issues surrounding this throughout the day, Twitter was alive with many other people who had had their cameras confiscated and were expected to pick them up later in the day. There was a lot of confusion about it, but since then Pleasure Beach themselves have tweeted saying that this was an error and no one should have their cameras taken off them or stopped from entering because of this. Great to see them noticing a problem and resolving it!

Once we’d finished with security we headed straight for Icon as it’s usually busy and meant we could join the queue when it was shorter and get more into the day. Icon was running two trains and there wasn’t much of a queue at all by the time we’d got there so it was essentially a walk on! Icon is still as smooth as it has been in previous years, but this particular ride felt a bit juddery. I don’t think it was the track though as it almost felt like the train was rattling about a bit. I’m not sure what it could have been but it was very noticeable on our ride, thought didn’t spoil it or anything!

As a side note, the ride attendants were very helpful here and Tracy did have a little issue with the lapbar being locked in place so they moved us to the back row where the restraints are bigger and then we had no issues at all, no fuss was made by anyone and we were dispatched in no time.

Our next stop was Big One as it was open and the queue wasn’t too long for a change! On previous visits, Big One has opened slightly later than other rides, something it shares with Grand national and Big Dipper, but this time around, everything seemed to open at the same time which is a great change.

As for Big One itself, it was only running one train as the others weren’t ready for the seasons start which meant that capacity was quite poor for such an A list ride at the park. Icon didn’t suffer from this throughout the day but Big One did and I feel that that is something that needs addressing. Big Ones operations have always been somewhat slow, even when they’ve had 2 trains on, and I think its about time they did something to get 3 trains running optimally!

As for the ride itself, its the Big One! A fast, rattly old beast that despite having new sections of track, still rattles and jerks around the layout a little more than it should. Personally I don’t mind it as its not too uncomfortable, and the first drop more than makes up for it. I just feel that retracking it hasn’t made much of an overall difference to the ride experience, but operations have. Still great fun though!

At this point I’d like to put out a little moan about another guest in front of us while we queued for Big One. He was concealing a GoPro in is pocket and as we were talking, told us that once they were on the lift hill, he’d take the camera out and start filming on the ride. I find this so infuriating as I’d love to record some of the UKs biggest rides, but ultimately can’t as the park is strict about who can and can’t record on their rides. Individuals (like this and many other I’ve seen on YouTube) taking it upon themselves to flout the rules is infuriating as all it takes is for that guy to drop his camera or for it to hit someone. Not only will someone get hurt, but the park will then clamp down on camera usage at a time when there are already tensions about cameras in the park! Please don’t think you’re above the rules and can do something you’re not supposed to. It makes it harder for the genuine folk to get permission to do the things we love doing!

Once we’d finished on Big One, we headed off to get our refillable drinks for the day. Here lies another little issue that needs ironing out. We visited T – Café up by the Wallace and Gromit ride and explained that we’d brought our cups back and would like to pay to be able to use them again. we were told that we couldn’t reuse them, and that we’d have to buy another new cup to be able to take part in the all you can drink offer. This is a bit silly in my opinion. Why can’t they just sell the stickers they put on the cups so it doesn’t matter what cup you have? It saves some plastic waste and stream lines the process a little. What would have taken 2 minutes to buy a sticker, activate it and fill the cup up took about 15 minutes! I don’t have any issue with the rules here, and I don’t want a discount for reusing my cup or anything, I just don’t want to feel like I have to buy yet another plastic cup unnecessarily and cart the old one around too. We got sorted in the end though and headed off towards Ice Blast!

The queue for Ice Blast was about 20 minutes and the ride is an honestly good fun shot tower. It takes your photos, it doesn’t mess around and it give great views over the park when you reach the top! Though not quite as good as Flamingo Lands Cliffhanger, it’s still worth a visit, especially if the queue is shorter.

A visit to the shop next for a look at the new merchandise. It was great to see a lot of great new Valhalla and Big Dipper branded things, ranging from hoodies and t-shirts, to necklaces, bracelets and pin badges. We’ll hopefully be returning later on in the year to ride both Valhalla and Big Dipper (as both were closed today) so we left with one of Big One’s old wheels and a Coaster Cutout model of Big One. I really love that you can buy old ride parts here, as it not something many other parks do. Drayton Manor and Oakwood do this and you can rarely pickup something from Alton Towers, but Pleasure Beach have always had a decent range to pick from.

Derby Racer is next up, and I think this is rapidly becoming a ride we will endeavour to ride on every visit. Though not the most exciting or spectacular ride at the park, it is a unique kind of ride and the carousel organ plays the music you’d expect, but also more modern music rendered into the organ style. I really like that feature as I is in keeping with the carousel attraction but keeps the music fresh and interesting.

After Derby Racer, we went and had a look around the new Valhalla area. Though most of it is closed off as the ride isn’t quite ready yet, the area looks so clean and tidy, nicely planted and professionally done. I know the groundwork was already there from the previous iteration of Valhalla, but it does look good currently. Boats were being cycled and the waterfall was running, but that’s all that can be seen from outside! I’m quite excited to see what they’ve done inside as I never got the chance to ride the old version.

Wallace and Gromit’s Thill ‘o Matic next and despite it giving the same ride every time we visit, it still feels like the first time I’ve ridden it! The scenes are of a great quality and look exactly as you’d expect them to, the audio is excellent and the queue line plays videos of the Wallace and Gromit shorts, so you don’t get bored whilst queuing! The shop was also stocked with a few new items, many of which Tracy came away with, including a T-Shirt, new badges and a wooden poster. The tills were playing up a little in the shop though, a theme that seemed to emanate through our day as many of the scanners on the rides were also having a few technical issues, but we got through just fine.

Our next stop was a ride on Avalanche, the UKs only bobsled coaster. We love Avalanche, probably more than we should but it is an enjoyable ride, if a little lacking in places! We had a front row here and it was a nice built up ride, slower at the top and rocketing down the bottom. The station could do with a spruce up internally as it’s quite dusty and just lacks a bit of attention but outside looks great! The trains also look brand new too, I’m not sure if they are, or if they’ve just had a lot of attention over the closed season. It did only run 1 train again, the other could be seen in the service area as you depart so the queue was a bit slower than it should have been, but we didn’t wait longer than 30 minutes so no grumbles here!

After a short toilet break, of which all the toilets we visited were immaculate, we headed down to Red Arrows Sky Force for a ride as the queue was shorter than we’d ever seen it. We waited about 20 minutes or so for the ride and though I love the ride and I’ll be going into detail in a future blog, the ride operators did leave a little to be desired if I’m being completely honest.

I did try to fit my bag into the storage area between the boarding area and exit, but because its a bit bigger than most, it didn’t fit. One of the operators insisted that I put my bag in there and I explained that it didn’t fit and he didn’t seem to understand when I told him I was waiting until I could board to pop my bag over the fence to collect on the way out, something I’m sure he’ll take away for future guests with larger bags.

The other ride operator then told us off for playing with the wings while we waited to be dispatched, a bit gruffly in my opinion and without a please or thank you too. It’s only a small thing but I took that away from the ride more than my experience with the ride itself. Hopefully they’ll settle in a bit as it was clearly their first day running the ride so I’ll give them some slack! It might be prudent to put some form of warning in the queue line to advise people to not play with the wings whilst the ride is on the ground, include it in the audio track that plays when queuing or lock the wings in place until the ride starts as a suggestion, but I’ll know for future visits anyway!

At this point we’d ridden all we wanted to ride and just had a bit of time around the park watching the goings on, visiting the Icon shop and taking some photos and videos before we headed out of the park for an evening in Blackpool.

To summarise our visit of Blackpool Pleasure Beach, I’d say it was good, but not great, at least not yet. The park looked good and clean and a lot of the rides have had a tidy up but some of the issues we faced could have been sorted before opening I feel. The lack of training from some of the staff members about camera usage and the till systems was apparent, some of the rides (Big One) really needed a second train running to help with throughput and the scanners could do to be looked it too.

That’s not to say we didn’t have a good time at all, far from it. Most of the staff were really nice, one even bumped into us twice and on the second encounter she checked in with us to make sure we were having a great time which felt welcoming and genuine, I didn’t catch her name unfortunately!

I think Alton Towers’ opening day last year was a little smoother than Pleasure Beach’s this year, and I’d like to come back again for next years opening to see how it compares again. Overall though, a good day and more of a taste of a park that can really come into its own this year once everyone finds their feet, Valhalla and Big Dipper open and the small issues corrected!

Blog, Reviews

Wicker Man and the UK Woodies

Loops&Lapbars

There are plenty of rides in the UK offering new and exciting ways to thrill you. The smiler can send you upside down 14 times, Stealth can launch you to 80mph in 1.8 seconds and Odyssey can take you to heights no inverted coaster in the UK gets close to. However sometimes you have to look to the past for something new to thrill you.

Step in Wicker Man. At the time of writing, this is Alton Towers newest attraction. A wooden rollercoaster manufactured by Great Coasters International, themed to a cult worshipping a Wicker Man and sending you as sacrifices to feed the flames!

It stands at 22m (72.2ft) tall, has 795m (2608ft) of track and reaches speeds of 43 mph (70.2km/h) and replaced the much loved Flume attraction. It is marketed as the first wooden rollercoaster to incorporate fire into its theming and the first wooden rollercoaster in the UK in 20 years. The last being Megafobia at Oakwood.

Now I love Wicker Man. I like the theme, I love the ride experience and I particularly enjoy the scent pods they use in the preshow, but there are some much older woodies in the UK that can give the new comer a run for its money! So how does the newest major woodie stack up against its older compadres?

The first I’d like to compare it to is Roller Coaster at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach. This is one of 2 scenic railways in the country (the other is at Dreamland Margate) and despite it being over 70 years older than Wicker Man, it still manages to top it’s top speed, reaching 45 miles an hour! Though the ride isn’t quite as thrilling as Wicker Mans’, Roller Coaster is still a great ride and comes in just behind Wicker Man’s biggest competitor, Megafobia.

Megafobia is a Custom Coasters wooden coaster located at Oakwood and is very well received as woodies go. This is the UKs fastest woodie, reaching 48mph (77km/h), reaches heights of 85ft and is 2956ft long. So Megafobia edges out Wicker Man in all categories, though it has no theming at all. When I first started writing this blog in mid 2022, I’d have said that Megafobia was the top woodie in the UK, but Wicker Man is bedding in and feels like it’s getting better and better with every passing season. There is little to split these two in my eyes, but Megafobia does give the more uncomfortable ride, not too harsh at all, but because of that small factor, and the theme difference, I’ve put Wicker Man above Megafobia. Atleast for now!

The next contenders for best UK woodie (that I’ve ridden) are all at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Nickelodeon Streak, Grand National, Blue Flier and Big Dipper. Blue Flyer is a good little kids ride but not quite in the big leagues and I’d say the same is true for Nickelodeon Streak too. Though Nick Streak has a great layout with loads of hills, I feel it takes them a little too slowly and doesn’t give as much airtime as the layout might suggest! It does slightly edge out the next competitor though.

Next up is Big Dipper. Turning 100 years old this year, this is a classic wooden rollercoaster built by William Strickler. It cost £25,000 in 1922, which would be over £1.9 million today, not bad when compared to Wicker Man’s £16 million!

The ride itself has age related roughness to it, though certainly not the hardest ride at Pleasure Beach. It will throw you into unbanked corners and drop you into the dips with a lot of force. The same can be said of Grand National which is arguably the most hardcore of the UK wooden coasters. If Big Dipper throws you into corners and dips, then Grand National launches you into them. It’s certainly not for the faint hearted and it can feel very intimidating, especially if you’ve ridden Wicker Man first!

I feel that Grand National gives the truest wooden rollercoaster experience as it feels raw and untamed, it’s noisy and rough and good fun to boot. Tracy will tell you it’s horrible, which is somewhat understandable as the ride can assault you as much as it thrills! I do enjoy Grand National, but if Wicker Man is a nice and velvety smooth wooden coaster, then Grand National is a slap in the face followed by a stiff drink. Brutal and yet fun.

There are a few other wooden roller coasters in the UK that I’ve yet to ride, such as Scenic Railway at Dreamland Margate and Antelope at Gullivers Warrington. There’s also Tyrolean Tubtwist at Joyland but I don’t think Tubtwist is of the same type as all the other woodies here. It does have wooden side panelling along the sides of the layout that are needed to help the cars spin and though it is classed as a wooden coaster, but that’s all there is, it hasn’t got a wooden structure or anything else, where all the others I’ve mentioned have.

Antelope looks like great fun and has a decent layout so I’d expect that to rank quite well but since I’ve not ridden it, I can’t rate it unfortunately!

So to summarise, here is the list of how I currently rank all the UK wooden coasters!

  1. Wicker Man
  2. Megafobia
  3. Roller Coaster
  4. Grand National
  5. Nickelodeon Streak
  6. Big Dipper
  7. Blue Flyer
Blog, Reviews

2022 Season review

Loops&Lapbars

Though we haven’t had quite as many brand new attractions to ride this year, we’ve visited more parks and done more events than last year. As with last year, I thought it would be fun to look back at the 2022 season, rank the events and new attractions we rode this year and reflect on the season passed.

The Events

Over the last year we went to the following events:

  • Alton Towers Opening Weekend
  • Alton Towers Festival of Thrills
  • Thorpe Park Mardi Gras
  • Thorpe Park Carnival
  • Alton Towers Octoberfest
  • Chessington Howl’o’ween
  • Thorpe Park Fright Nights
  • Legoland Brick or Treat
  • Alton Towers Scarefest
  • Fantasy Island Fear Island
  • Legoland Fireworks Spectacular
  • Alton Towers Fireworks Spectacular

That list is just in the order we did them, not the order I enjoyed them most. The best event we did this year, at least in my opinion was probably the Alton Towers opening weekend as we saw plenty of other enthusiasts as well as sharing it with a couple of good friends too.

It wasn’t truly an event in the same vein as the others but I included opening weekend as it’s celebrated as such and I enjoyed it!

The most surprising event and probably the second best we did was Fantasy Island’s Fear Island. For such a relatively small park to put on such a good event was staggering and though not everything was a massive hit, the scare mazes definitely were!

The most disappointing event unfortunately goes to Scarefest at Alton Towers. As highlighted in my blog, the event felt a little lacking and missing something special to mark the occasion.

All the other events and visits we had were great, though I did feel that Carnival was just Mardi Gras but with a yellow overlay, but it was still enjoyable none the less!

The Attractions

There wasn’t many new attractions to try this year but we did get around all the ones we could! We managed:

  • Sik at Flamingo Land
  • Enso at Blackpool Pleasure Beach
  • Harrington Flint’s Island Adventure at Fantasy Island
  • The Guardian at Fantasy Island
  • Wild River Rapids at Fantasy Island
  • Farm Yard Flyer at Paultons Park
  • Vikings at Drayton Manor
  • Barrel Bailout at Chessington World of Adventures
  • Trawler Trouble at Chessington World of Adventures

Not a very long list but still plenty to go at!

The best this year, at least in my opinion, was the long overdue Sik at Flamingo Land. Daft name but great ride! Despite it being my home park, we only managed it once and I’ve heard it’s having a few issues as the years gone on but I’ll get back to it next year to see!

The weakest of the new additions is a tie between Enso and The Guardian, a bit of a cop out, however both had issues.

The upcharge and lack of value for money on Enso is what took it away for me. Even then, once you’d paid the fee, I wasn’t blown away by the feeling of free spinning. I followed all the advice people have me such as sitting in the right hand seat and going alone but even still I didn’t get the same levels of enjoyment out of it as other seem to!

Dragons Fury, when sat facing backwards, spins more going into the first break run than Enso did through its whole layout. That ride is probably built with spinning in mind, but it is included in park entry at least.

The Guardian was a good idea that was executed badly. Bad CGI and screen quality hampered an otherwise good idea, especially when you first enter the queue line and see all the theming and effort that’s gone into this attraction.

I’m not sure if it was budget constraints or purposeful decisions that caused the issues but they are somewhat easily rectifiable and should make this attraction live up to the expectation that the queue line builds up!

As for the other new attractions this year, there was Vikings which is a good themed area with a good new ride in Loki. I wasn’t really that blown away by it though. Thor is just another Disk’o Coaster and Jormungandr is still Buffalo Coaster with a new theme. Sleipnir is decent though, especially for younger kids.

The whole area is pleasant to walk through and features a lot of wood and some Viking theming but it could do with a bit of an expansion on the theme in my opinion! It was put together very quickly, especially when compared with some of the other new additions and in the nicest possible way, it shows! Just a bit of fine tuning, a few props here and there and it’ll be spot on.

Another surprise entry was from Fantasy Island with Harrington Flint’s Island Adventure. This was much better than expected. I’m a sucker for interactive dark rides, I think every park should have one and this one stands out from Tomb Blaster, Rootin’ Tootin’ Target Trail, Sheriff’s Showdown, Laser Raiders and Dual because of its use of both screens and physical props. The cars were comfortable and the shooting was fun. It just lacks on ride photos and the physical props adding to your score!

The New Parks

This year we visited a lot of new parks, this includes:

  • Funland Hayling Island
  • Crealy
  • Barry Island
  • Southport Pleasureland
  • Joyland
  • Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach
  • Pleasurewood Hills

I think the biggest surprise out of all the new parks we visited, for me at least, was Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach. The ride selection was great, there were very few queues throughout the day and we had a great time.

Joyland was also a wonderful little park. Though not even a half day park, it was worth our money and time, and I’ll certainly visit here every time I’m back in Great Yarmouth in future!

Crealy was a nice and tidy park, as was Pleasurewood Hills. Both have good ride line ups but in both cases we weren’t the intended audience of the parks, so it wasn’t quite as fun for us as some of the other parks, such as Barry Island or Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach.

Finally I’d like to mention both the owners of Southport Pleasureland and Barry Island for all their help with regards to filming around their parks and on the attractions!

The New to us Attractions

In this section I’d like to highlight some of the existing attractions that we only experienced for the first time this year. We tried all sorts, ranging from our first scenic railway, a 70 year old virginia reel, weird and wonderful flat rides, all the way up to two different snail attractions!

The biggest standout of the year is most certainly Roller Coaster at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach. This is our first scenic railway (of the 2 in the UK and 7 worldwide) and is the second fastest wooden rollercoaster in the country only behind Megafobia. Though not as thrilling as Megafobia, or as well themed as Wicker Man, its definitely the smoothest woodie we’ve ridden and was a joy from start to finish.

Other standout attractions of the year include Lightning 360 at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach, Roller Coaster, The Rocket and Ghost Train all from Southport Pleasureland and just because of the sheer amount of spinning we got, I’ll include (what I believe to be Crow’s) Spinning Coaster from Hull Fair too.

There’s one final attraction that was notable this year too, that being Kite Flyer at Pleasurewood Hills. This was the only ride all year that made me feel genuinely ill afterwards! I’m not sure if I was having an off day, the ride cycle was too long or I moved my head too fast while the ride was spinning but it really knocked me for 6.

Summary

We’ve ridden some great attractions this year. Tried some terrible ones too. Had some ups and downs, rainy days and absolute scorchers along the way. Throughout all the visits we’ve had, we’ve always had fun. Yeah Enso was a bit pricy, Sik took far too long to open and Kite Flyer went a step too far (for me at least), but each day was still fun.

We’ve shared at least 3 visits with friends and family this year, I’ve found that one of my best friends, Pedro, is a secret adrenaline junkie and both he and Tami are welcome to join us anytime they like!

I’m not sure there is too much to be excited for in terms of the UKs new offerings next year, but as this year comes to a close, we’ve started drawing up rough plans for our visit next year, with a blog to follow once we know more.

Hopefully next year will be as fun as this year has been but only time will tell!

The Awards

Best New Attraction

Awarded to the best single attraction opened during this year.

Sik

Harrington Flint’s Island Adventure

Loki

Best Event

Awarded to the events that I felt were the best from this year.

Alton Towers Opening Weekend

Fantasy Island – Fear Island

Thorpe Park Fright Nights

Best New Park

Awarded to the park we visited for the very first time this year.

Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach

Joyland

Crealy

Best New To Us Attraction

Awarded to the attraction that we experienced for the first time this year.

Roller Coaster – Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach

Ghost Train – Southport Pleasureland

Lightning 360 – Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach

Best Rollercoaster Overall

Awarded to the top 3 rollercoasters from my ranking page.

The Smiler

Stealth

Nemesis

Best Flat Ride Overall

Awarded to the attraction that I felt was the most fun and enjoyable flat ride from the last year.

Haunted House Monster Party

Detonator: Bombs Away

Zodiac

Best Onsite Stay

There were only two to pick from, but its awarded to the park with the best onsite stay we had through the year.

Thorpe Shark Cabins

Alton Towers Star Gazing Pods

Best Customer Services

Awarded to the park who’s customer services were needed and how well they handled our issues.

Alton Towers

Pleasurewood Hills

Southport Pleasureland

Best Food

Awarded to the park that I think had the best tasting food from the year.

Chessington World of Adventures (Drop n’ Chicken Nuggets)

Alton Towers (Front Lawns Catering)

Thorpe Park (Pizza Pasta Buffet)

Most Disappointing Visit

These are my least memorable visits from the year. Non were bad, just didn’t fully hit the mark!

Alton Towers – Scarefest (Lacked Ceremony for the 15th anniversary)

Oakwood (Rained off with no rainy day return)

Legoland – Firework Spectacular (Too short!)

Worst Ride of the Year

Grand Canyon – Southport Pleasureland

Kite Flyer

Rootin’ Tootin’ Target Trail

Park of the Year

Awarded to the park that, overall, had the most enjoyable visits.

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Paultons Park

Alton Towers

Thorpe Park

Blog, Reviews

Icon, Enso and controversy

Loops&Lapbars

I feel like I’ve got a lot to talk about with regards to Icon and more with regards to Enso.

Let me start by saying the ride is good. Great even, and certainly worthy of it’s current 7th place in my own personal rankings. The issue is that I feel like it should deliver more.

Lets start by breaking it down into its elements, starting with the trains. These are excellent. Very comfortable seats with great lap bar restraints allowing for a lot of upper body freedom. I like the lighting on the trains too, when its turned on in the evenings.

Next is the launch and it feels a little gutless. It’s probably not fair to compare it to the likes of Rita and Stealth but they’re all I have, so compare I shall! I’ll be using Rita mostly as its closer in speed (and my own rankings) to Icon over Stealth.

Rita manages to get up to 61 miles an hour where Icon initially launches to a slower 50. The second launch takes it to the full 53 miles an hour, which is decent enough but I wish it were doing more.

I have read in a few places that the park runs the coaster a bit slower than its rated top speed due to cost savings, but I’ve seen nothing official to back this up, but it would be fun to ride it with the launches dialed up to the max, I’ll touch on this later.

After the launch it does head into a very good element, the 82ft top hat. This always gives me airtime, it gives good views and has a great dive back towards the ground afterwards.

It then leads into an inclined loop that doesn’t invert, before twisting and turning behind Steeplechase before retuning, doing a barrel roll over the path below and diving into the second launch.

The barrel roll is taken a little too slowly in my opinion as it feels a little awkward when riding, but this is also a huge complaint about Colossus and its 4 heartline rolls too.

The second launch is good and it fires you into a junior Immelmann. To throw my opinion in here again, I don’t think much of this element and it is also not an inversion too. All sources I read say Icon only has 1 inversion, and I agree!

Following from the Immelmann, the train then ducks and weaves around a series of twists and turns before heading back into the station. The layout is smooth, snappy and fun, if a little too clinical.

I’d love to see an alternative upcharge added to the ride assuming the rumour I mentioned above is true. I’d happily pay to ride Icon when the launches are dialled up a bit more. I don’t know how it would affect comfort and the smoothness of the ride, but taking that top hat with a bit of speed, or feeling like you’re actually spiralling through the barrel roll and diving into the second launch would be great!

Enso

Now comes my biggest gripe with Icon and something that I feel tarnishes it somewhat and that is Enso.

This is an upcharge attraction that at the time I’m writing this costs £15 for a standard ride and £25 for a VIP experience. The VIP ticket simply gets you on near instantly where the standard ticket puts you in a virtual queue and calls you up when its your time to ride.

The big thing about Enso is that you can experience Icon while spinning and to some extent this is true, however I barely got any spin on my run. I went alone too as I’d heard its better as the seat is out of balance so should spin more.

I feel that if it was free, I wouldn’t have much issue with it as it is certainly a different way to experience Icon. It isn’t free however. Now I have no issue with upcharges at all, I’ve paid to go on Go Karts, bought so many photos and various merchandise from parks. I even own a piece of the Big One, Shockwave and Megafobia, so I don’t have issue with prices per se. I’ve even suggested an alternative upcharge that I personally feel would be worth my money!

What I do have issue with, is that Enso was blown up to be the next big thing for Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Icon, and yet Storm Chaser gives you more spin. And Storm Chaser is a family ride!

A Gif (as I can’t upload videos) of my actual run on Enso

I think it would be fine dropping the price to around £7/£12 for each tier as the park can still recoup some of the cost of the new car and seats and you don’t feel like you’ve been over charged.

That, or include a photo or on ride video of your ride on Enso and keep the price the same? I don’t know what I’d prefer really!

I also feel that they should have had a full train of Enso seats too. Or maybe Mack should have sold them one of their extreme spinner trains instead of a single seat?

Me again on Enso!

If they put an extreme spinner train on Icon, then the ride can not only boast being a double launch coaster, but also a double launch extreme spinner, and the UKs first extreme spinning coaster?

Either way, I do want to make it very clear that this is purely my opinion! I know other have loved Enso and that’s excellent for them! I’ve seen Icon split opinions too, and I don’t hate the ride, or Enso for that matter!

It does also seem like Pleasure Beach is having a few issues as of late, so I do feel a little harsh criticising their newest offering but I do honestly think that Enso tarnished Icon, a ride that I feel like I’m falling out of love with the more I ride it and the more I hear about it.

I did somewhat enjoy my time on Enso, but felt quite disappointed afterwards too.

It not you Icon, it’s Enso, and possibly me!

Blog

2022 Holiday Plan!

Loops&Lapbars

For our holiday this year, we’ll once again be doing a UK road trip! This time however we won’t be visiting a single Merlin park, instead opting for a few new places!

Even though we’re only going away for a week this time, we’ll be covering just as much distance as we did last year. we’ll be visiting Crealy, Barry Island, Oakwood Theme Park, Southport Pleasureland, Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Flamingo Land!

A map of our travels!

As well as the parks, we’ll also be stopping off at Tankfest down in Bovington, seeing what the Centre for Alternative Technology can show us at Pantperthog and hopefully going up Mount Snowdon!

I don’t know what I’m looking forward to most, whether it’s seeing the tanks on show at Tankfest, riding Megaphobia and Speed or trying Drenched for the first time, or maybe seeing what Enso has to offer at Blackpool.

As with last year, I’ll have blogs up for each day, and a final conclusion with my thoughts on the attractions, new and old! Can’t wait for the 24th to roll around now!

Blog

2022 season

Loops&Lapbars

This year, there isn’t as much to be excited about as there was last year in terms of new rides, but there are still plenty of new attractions coming to look forward to!

Valhalla and Enso at Blackpool Pleasure Beach are probably the best that we have this year, with Valhalla being regularly rated as the best dark ride in the world on many lists, so I look forward to experiencing this for the first time!

Won’t be too long until we’re spinning through the junior immelmann!

Enso will see one of Icons trains modified so the rear two seats will spin freely. If Time Traveller and The Ride to Happiness are anything to go by, then I can’t wait to try Icon with spinning seats, Mack seem to build top tier spinning coasters. This is currently the closest we have to a Mack Extreme Spinner in the UK so hopefully it goes down well and we get a ground up thrill machine!

Next would be Farmyard Flier at Paultons Park. We’re heading down there for our first stop of the season in March but the attraction won’t be ready for when we get there which is a shame, but it does also mean another trip to Paultons and I certainly won’t complain at that prospect! I hope as much care has gone into this attraction as the others at Paultons.

Farmyard Flier from the air!

Alton Towers are introducing 3 new children’s attraction to CeeBeeBees Land, but I’m certainly not the intended demographic here!

Next up is Drayton Manor. They’ve been teasing a new Viking themed area and a retheme to Buffalo coaster. There aren’t many details on the new attraction(s), but based on the time frame, we can probably rule out a new rollercoaster for now.

Drayton Manor, with investment, will be even better!

Hopefully we’ll see a nicely themed area, with a good replacement for Pandemonium. If Adventure Cove is anything to go by, then we should be in for a real treat here!

This year should hopefully see the opening of Flamingo Land’s new rollercoaster. As yet it hasn’t had an official name released but everyone is calling it ‘Inversion’. I hope they come up with a better name personally but I am looking forward to getting on this for the first time. I’m expecting it to be great as its a near clone of Colossus at Thorpe Park, a ride I’m warming up to. The biggest difference is that it has lapbars instead of over the shoulder restraints which is definitely a plus!

The Colossus clone, ‘Inversion’, from the air!

Finally, there are a few smaller additions to the smaller parks such as Adventure Island getting a Tivoli Extreme, Barry Island getting a KMG speed 2, and Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach getting 2 new rides, Pendulum and a Rockin’ Tug. All of which I hope to get to throughout the year!

I haven’t been to a lot of the smaller parks such as Barry Island and Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach, so everything they have to offer will be new to me!

More attractions joining Rage at Adventure Island mean more to enjoy!

I’m hoping to get to many of Thorpe Parks new events such as Mardis gras and Carnival, as well as sampling their Oktoberfest to compare to Alton Towers’ version.

I’d like to see Chessington refine Wilderfest this year and to get back to Alton Towers for their Oktoberfest and newly announced Festival of Thrills!

Dragons Fury at Chessington World of Adventures.

Our bigger trip this year will be to cover a lot of the Halloween events going on, with the hopes of seeing Paultons, Legoland, Thorpe park and Alton Towers, with potential for Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Chessington if time allows!

Plenty of Halloween events lined up this year, including Brick or Treat!

I also plan to see Legolands fireworks this year, as well as Alton Towers’ display too!

Finally I hope to get back to Oakwood and ride Megafobia and Speed: No limits to death and visit a few parks in the south west.

A busy year lined up this year, visiting more new parks and seeing new events!

Blog, Reviews

2021 Season Review

Loops&Lapbars

What a season this has been! Starting all the way back in April at Drayton Manor, and finishing at Alton Towers for their incredible fireworks!

I thought for this blog I’d do a mock awards ceremony, giving me chance to talk about highlights of specific parks, rides and attractions, and to voice a few opinions on others.

Best Event

To start with, I think the park with the best event this year was Alton Towers, with their Firework Spectacular. It would have been Thorpe Parks Fright Nights, but Towers just took it with how good a day we had, and how special the fireworks were.

This year we managed to visit the following events and this I how i’d rank them:

  1. Alton Towers Fireworks
  2. Thorpe Park Fright Nights
  3. Alton Towers Oktoberfest
  4. Legoland – Brick or Treat
  5. Wilderfest – Chessington World of Adventures
  6. Mardi Gras – Alton Towers

None of the events were bad at all, Mardis Gras is only at the bottom as we didn’t really see much of it. Wilderfest was ok, but could be improved here and there. Brick or Treat was great, Oktoberfest was excellent, and Fright Nights and the Fireworks were both really brilliant events, its just the fireworks were slightly better in my opinion!

Best new ride for 2021

There is no doubt in my mind that Storm Chaser is my number one new ride for 2021. We’ve had some great new rides this year, including Gangsta Granny: The Ride and Flight of the Sky Lion, and we’ve had some that are alright, but there are better versions currently on offer, such as Croc Drop at Chessington.

Personally, I wouldn’t say any of this years new rides are bad at all, I just think that Croc Drop could have been a bit more than a redressed Magma, and Spinning Racer at Fantasy Island is good, but will probably be gone very soon. Hopefully next year Flamingo land will get their 10 inversion rollercoaster up and running!

Best overall park

This year, I think the park I’d give this to is Paultons Park. Their ride lineup is good, the park isn’t too big or too busy and has been a joy both times we’ve visited this year. Alton Towers and Thorpe Park are close behind as both have given really great days out, Thorpe park especially.

If I had to say which is the weakest park this year, it would have to be Chessington World of Adventures. The park does need a few new rides and a few of the older rides updating a little here and there. Paultons Park has shown what it can do, hopefully Chessington will up their game to follow!

Parks we’ve visited this year are:

  1. Paultons Park
  2. Alton Towers
  3. Thorpe Park
  4. Blackpool Pleasure Beach
  5. Adventure Island
  6. Legoland
  7. Drayton Manor
  8. Oakwood Theme Park
  9. Fantasy Island
  10. Flamingo Land
  11. Clarence Pier
  12. Chessington World of Adventures

I think I’d rank them in that order too, based on the enjoyment both myself and Tracy have had during our visit(s) there.

Adventure Island and Oakwood were both pleasant surprises, especially Adventure Island as their ride operators were like none in any of the other parks! Both have good rides, and plenty to choose from!

Drayton Manor has done well this year in my eyes too, Adventure Cove has really brightened up Shockwave and the area as a whole. Same with Legoland, Mythica is a great area and the park has some great attractions, but does lack a really good thrilling coaster in my opinion!

Fantasy Island was good, and they seem to keep adding attractions and changing things to keep things fresh so hopefully we’ll see more added there soon. Same with Clarence Pier, but their problem is a lack of space!

Flamingo Land could do with some work. It’s a great day out, with some really enjoyable rides, but it looks so tired in places and lacking in budget to finish things off properly. Hopefully when their new 10 inversion coaster opens, they’ll get a surge in popularity and invest in the park more. Mumbo Jumbo, Kumali and Velocity deserve more attention than they currently get!

Best & worst existing new rollercoaster

This is the category for an existing rollercoaster that I rode for the first time this year. Running for top are Nickelodean Streak at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Megaphobia and Speed: No Limits at Oakwood, and Shockwave at Drayton Manor.

Megaphobia takes this one, but Speed: No Limits and Shockwave come close as all three are great rides in their own right. I feel that Megaphobia is the best of the UK wooden rollercoasters, offering enough roughness that you’d expect from a woodie, but not being too overbearing and uncomfortable. Grand National and Big Dipper are great examples of older, rougher woodies. They will throw you about and take no prisoners!

At the other end of the scale, we have the worst existing rollercoaster that I rode for the first time this year. It could very well have been Infusion at Pleasure Beach as that can be borderline painful. It could have been Dino Chase or any of the junior coasters, but for me, its Buffalo Coaster at Drayton Manor. It might be well loved as a classic rollercoaster by some, but for me, it was utterly dreary and didn’t really do anything!

At least the junior coasters have theming to them or offer pops of ejector on back row rides, or something! Buffalo just didn’t do anything for me!

Best & worst flat ride

For this category, all flat rides are up, be it Pandemonium at Drayton Manor, Cyclonator at Paultons Park, Magic at Fantasy Island or any of the existing flat rides we have here in the UK.

There are lots to choose from, but for me, the best flat ride I’ve ridden is Red Arrows Sky Force at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Built by one of my favourite manufacturers, Gerstlauer, this Sky Fly attraction isn’t the tallest or most thrilling attraction I’ve ridden this year, but it stands out for being interactive. Controlling the wings either side of you allows you to flip as much as you can manage, or in Tracy’s case, as little as you like.

Honourable mentions to Pandemonium, Apocalypse, Magic and Cyclonator too. All were first time rides for me this year, and I remember each one for surprising me with how well the attraction rode, or how little it made me feel ill afterwards! Magic especially. It looks like it’ll spin you a little too much but I felt it was just right, comfortable and memorable too.

Though Pandemonium can have the title as most painful ride too since its restraints dug into my shoulders quite badly during its extended upside down sections. Shame its being removed from Drayton Manor, but I’m glad I did get a ride on it before it goes!

The worst flat ride I’ve ridden this year would probably be Quantum at Thorpe Park. I don’t really get on with Magic Carpet or Miami type rides in the first place so I wasn’t that enthusiastic about Quantum. Coupled with the fact that operations are dreadful on the ride, so queues take far longer than they should, I didn’t really enjoy this one at all. Tracy did though so that’s a bonus!

Best water ride

This one is easy enough to award based on how wet we got on the ride. Stormforce 10, easily takes the top spot for me this year as no other ride we went on soaked us through like this one did!

A very close second would have to be Waterfall at Oakwood. Riding a plastic tray, you drop down a slide and have to navigate a long channel of water in the hopes of skimming across its surface to the end. Not only is it a great attraction to have a go at, but also fantastic fun to watch others having a go, whether they make it or not!

Other notable water rides this year would be Adventure Cove River Rapids at Drayton Manor, Viking River Splash and Pirate Falls: Treasure Quest at Legoland. Adventure Cove River Rapids rides well and the water effects make it one of the better rapids rides, alongside Viking River Splash which actually felt like a proper rapids ride with how turbulent it was!

None of the water rides I went on this year were bad I’d say, although River Caves at Blackpool Pleasure Beach was one of the weaker ones in my opinion, feeling quite dated and lacking something special.

Best dark ride, interactive or otherwise

For this, I’ll be including all the Vekoma madhouses, shooting rides and ghost train type attractions. I’ll be writing a separate blog comparing the many Vekoma madhouses on their own, but for now, I think the best dark ride I’ve ridden this year has to be Sheriff Showdown at Drayton Manor, with Duel at Alton Towers, Tomb Blaster at Chessington and Lego Ninjago: The Ride at Legoland following close behind.

The Haunting at Drayton manor would be up thanks to its pre shows and effects prior to the crypt scene! However it’s actual madhouse part and the lack of clarity in the queue as to whether the attraction is running dampened the whole package for me. Both Hex and Haunted house monster party have good pre shows, but better madhouses to experience so I’d rate those better.

Season 2022

Next season, we’re hoping to get across to Europe to start to experience some of the world class attractions over there, as well as visiting more of what the UK has to offer!

For the UK, I’d like to get back to Oakwood and have a go on Drenched, Tidal Wave at Thorpe Park and hopefully The Ultimate at Lightwater Valley! Rumours are circulating that Icon could be getting spinning trains which would be a very different approach to the ride, and if so, I’d like to give that a go!

As for Europe, Taron, Zadra, The Ride to Happiness, Red Force, Baron 1898, F.L.Y and Talocan are all on the bucket list if I can manage it!

Hopefully I’ll have written plenty more blog posts and gotten the hang of Youtube, my drone and my cameras a little more by then as well!

Blog, Reviews

Attraction soundtracks

Loops&Lapbars

One of the things I rarely ever hear anyone talk about are attraction soundtracks. The music that plays in the queue line, station building or themed area. Something that adds ambiance to an area, or builds up excitement for the ride you face!

I don’t know why this is as there are some excellent scores to some great rides here in the UK, and saying that, there are some excellent rides that are missing musical accompaniment!

The good!

When I think of musical scores, the first one that usually comes to mind is The Big One’s theme from Pleasure Beach or Helix at Liseberg. Both of these are euphoric dancey tracks, and even though I haven’t ridden Helix, I can imagine it fits really well. I could easily see Helix’s theme used with Icon at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

Icon, with Big Dipper and Big One behind

Another score I really like is Galactica’s. It fits the ride perfectly, has a sense of wonder about it and adds to the space exploration theme Galactica has. I love this one!

Galactica. A lovely soundtrack to a lovely ride!

Nemesis also has a great theme, chilling and foreboding, it helps to add to the terror of the area and the ride itself.

Another thing I do like it how Imascore, who did the music for Galactica, Spinball Whizzer, The Smiler and Wickerman at Alton Towers included parts from In the Hall of the Mountain King, Alton’s unofficial theme. A very nice little attention to detail by some very talented musicians!

The same can be said for Thorpe Parks theme, it incorporates segments of the big 5 roller coasters, and the themed areas appear to have excerpts from the main theme too. I also like Derren Brown’s Ghost Trains score.

Tornado Springs at Paultons Park also has a great score, feeling very in keeping with the 1950s American theme they have there. Same for Storm Chaser, thats theme is great too, mixing 50s guitars and rock with the sounds of a raging storm.

Tornado springs at Paultons Park

Chessington World of Adventures has some good themes, its overall park theme is fun and inspires adventure, Croc Drop’s theme is also good, but Vampire’s theme is excellent and fits the ride and station building fantastically.

The not so good!

Personally I like, but don’t love Icon’s score. It has some excellent parts, but a lot of it I find to be quite lacking. I just doesn’t have the epicness in my opinion!

Rita is another rides whos score is just ok. I didn’t get to experience Thunder Rock radio when Rita was still part of Ug Land, but I could see that fitting really well. The score it has now, does still fit the Dark Forest and Rita’s final chance of escape theme, but it could be so much more. The fault lies in the fact that Rita doesn’t properly fit Dark Forest and didn’t fit Ug Land when it was there either.

The bad!

For me, the worst score that a ride has is Oblivion. The repetitive techno track doesn’t really fit the theme of Oblivion being a next level of fear that you have to overcome, riders disappearing into nothingness and not returning, but with a techno backing track? I really don’t like this one, but I do wonder what could be used instead?

Riders braving the drop (and score) on Oblivion

Aside Oblivion, I haven’t heard a score/theme that I really don’t like, but I’m sure there will be others out there that are good, not so bad and terrible!

I haven’t been to Europe or the USA to sample their delights, but I have heard a few scores like Taron’s and Helix as mentioned earlier, and I can’t wait to get abroad and see what hidden gems there are!

Blog, Reviews

Holiday 2021 in Summary

Loops&Lapbars

As I stated in my previous blog, I’d like to summarise our trip away and add any advice to others planning on the same sort of trip.

The Parks

Over the course of the holiday we visited 8 very different parks around the country with our standout favorite of the trip being Paultons Park, with Oakwood and Adventure Island coming in close behind. That’s not to say that Pleasure Beach or Alton Towers were bad at all, more so that Paultons left an excellent impression on the both of us!

Alton Towers and Chessington were a bit of a letdown due to how busy they were, but it’s not entirely fair to blame the parks here, I’d booked for Towers on a bank holiday and I didn’t know Chessington would still be within the holidays. That being said, we did Thorpe Park just before Chessington and that went a lot smoother, comparatively.

Pleasure Beach was also excellent, probably the best of the parks from this trip that we’ve already previously visited. We did give it two days though which meant neither day was rushed and we managed to get on mostly everything we wanted to (except Avalanche, which kept running into issues).

The Hotels

For the trip we stopped in 10 different hotels and guesthouses, each different to the next. Highlights for anyone aspiring to visit UK parks would be the Ramada at Cobham services, because the location is excellent for Legoland, Thorpe Park and Chessington, and the service have excellent facilities.

All the places we stopped at were good, True Lovers Knot in Blandford Forum was the only one we had anything like a negative feeling towards, and that was purely for the way the staff interacted with us. The rooms themselves were probably the most premium feeling out of all the places we stayed, it’s just the staff and lack of a warm welcome that really put us off.

Advice from our experience is just to make sure you’re not driving too far from one stop to the next. If I were to do it again, I would probably add a stop a bit closer to Oakwood as Hereford was a bit of a trek that early on in the day! Other than that, everywhere we stopped at was mostly what we expected, just make sure to read reviews before booking the cheapest places as some accounts suggested some properties were down right dangerous!

The Car + Equipment

I own a Mazda 6 Estate which offered up plenty of room to carry all our belongings and didn’t cost an arm and leg to run. We filled up twice throughout the trip, once in Bristol and the second in Southend, and it cost around £165 for fuel for the whole trip.

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Daft bit of advice to give, but spilt clothing into little bundles so you can take in only necessary things to each stop, saves you lugging about large suitcases!

It should probably go without saying that you’ll want something comfortable for the long miles, and something that has enough room for all the things you’ll need. We took enough clothes to get through the 2 weeks we were away but we did plan in stops to laundrettes if needed. We didn’t take any cooking provisions and ate on the road for this trip, but you could easily bring along a gas camping stove and cook to cut down on expensive meals out.

Another probably obvious thing to add would be to keep a bit of money spare for issues with the car as I somehow managed to pick up a puncture while we were in Southampton and ended up needing a new tyre. I’ll take that over a larger fault though! I do also have breakdown cover just incase.

The Cameras

I took with me my Nikon D5600 DSLR, 18-55mm Nikkor lense, 70-300mm Tamron Lense, DJI Mini 2 drone as well as a GoPro Hero 6 Black. I didn’t get a chance to use the GoPro as most parks don’t allow on ride recording, and I never thought to ask at Paultons, Oakwood or Adventure Island.

I have since bought a Nikon B700 superzoom camera as I lacked ability to take photos at larger ranges and long range DSLR lenses are extremely expensive!

The Rides

Standout attractions from our visit will certainly be Storm Chaser at Paultons Park, Red Arrows Skyforce and Nickelodeon Streak at Pleasure Beach, Gangsta Granny: The Ride at Alton Towers and Megaphobia and Speed: No Limits at Oakwood.

We both felt Croc Drop was a bit over hyped, it looks the part, but the ride sequence itself isn’t as good as Magmas. The Big One at Pleasure Beach really needs some work in regard to operations, they don’t seem to utilise multiple trains as well as other attractions do. The queue really kills it, as twice we’ve had really long wait times unfortunately.

Hopefully with this year’s additions, we’ll see more and more development into the UK Theme Park scene and get bigger and better, world beating attractions!

Closing Comments

We’d have liked to have done our intended trip to Europe, but I’m more than happy with how our holiday around the UK went, we’ve both ridden some great attractions, visited new parks for the first time, tried some new and tasty food and overall had a fantastic stay here in the UK!

Blog, Reviews

Blackpool Pleasure Beach – First stop!

Loops&Lapbars

Continuing on from my previous blog, I said we’d started our road trip at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. We were there over two days, and we stopped at Seaforth Guesthouse, which is 10 minutes walk from the entrance. It was a lovely little place, just enough room for the two of us to get all our things in and still have room to maneuver. We’d certainly recommend it for a visit like we did, or even just a weekend away in Blackpool.

Continue reading “Blackpool Pleasure Beach – First stop!” →