As our main visit in Great Yarmouth, we were both looking forward to Pleasure Beach! I’ve read some great things about this smaller seaside attraction, and my main focus was on the parks scenic railway, Roller Coaster!
The park has shifted from being a token based park to having times sessions, and though we only had 4 hours to do as much as we could, we ended up fitting in loads in the given time.
Roller Coaster
Our first stop, was of course, Roller Coaster. This ride is very unlike any that I’ve ridden before. Firstly, there is a brakeman sitting mid-train as the only means of slowing the train down, since the track features no brakes at all.
Secondly theres the train itself which was quite spacious in seat width (though could do to have slightly more legroom), and very comfy too.
Finally there’s the ride quality itself. It wouldn’t be entirely fair to compare it to the two bigger woodies at Blackpool Pleasure Beach but they are all a similar age and yet Roller Coaster was so comfortable and much smoother than any other woodie I’ve ridden. That even includes Wicker Man. Though Roller Coaster doesn’t take it’s turns with much speed at all as it’s a side friction coaster and lacks upstop wheels.
So the ride is primarily an up and down hill machine, a job it does very well! It’s fair to say I was very impressed with Roller coaster and I’d rank it very highly amongst the UKs wooden coasters!
Whirlwind, Twister and Monorail
Our next stop was Whirlwind, an SBF Visa spinning coaster. There wasn’t much to say about this one besides it being a decent little spinner. We got a good amount of spin on it, and if I remember correctly, we went around the layout about 4 times too. It certainly won’t blow you away by any means, but it was a good time, especially for its size.
While we were down this end of the park we visited their Twister ride, which was a very standard affair, aside it being very slightly at an angle. Fun ride, good cycle but still just a Twister ride. The same can be said for Floaty Boaty, the parks Rockin’ Tug! A decent tame ride but very similar to all the others out there.
Next up was a ride on the parks monorail, which weaves its way into the supports of Roller Coaster and gives good views over the bottom section of the park. A good sit down if nothing else!
The Snails!
After the Monorail, we had a go on one of the parks more cherished attractions, the Snails and Fairy Tales ride. This sees you riding past various fairy tale scenes on board a powered snail vehicle. These are quite roomy and the ride is of a good quality. It doesn’t feature the small drops that Joylands’ Snails ride does as the vehicle remains powered throughout but the scenes are much better here.
There are some artistic liberties taken with some of the scenes as they are very clearly based on Disney’s versions of the fairy tales but it was still a good time!
After we’d done on the Snails, we stopped for a look around the arcade, and then onto something to eat. Prices weren’t over the top expensive, but not the cheapest park I’ve visited. About average really!
Dinner, a Fabbri spin and a Wacky Worm
After dinner, I wandered around and took some photos while Tracy played on the arcade for a bit before we reconvened for a ride on The Big Apple, the parks wacky worm ride. There really isn’t anything to say here besides this model features the large apple structure at least!
Next stop was Family Star, a Fabbri Spinning wild mouse with a standard layout. This was quite a comfortable ride, especially for a wild mouse, but there wasn’t all that much spinning and the ride was quite tame.
Following Family Star, we had a ride on the dodgems, which were everything you’d expect of dodgems, after which we had a go on The Haunted House ride. This is listed as being called Haunted House but the ride displays Haunted Hotel and is themed more to look like a hotel than a standard house.
Anyway, the ride itself was good, not particularly scary but it did have a few good jumps. One thing to note is how low the cars are to the floor, and the lack of a back rest too. There weren’t uncomfortable by any means but we’re certainly different!
The Haunted House or Hotel?
Next up Tracy insisted we had a go in the fun house, here called Fun Factory. Now these are not normally something I’d even consider as they’re usually far too small for adults but this one definitely catered for all ages!
It does feature a lot of moving floors, and some of them are quite violent to say the least! We both had a lot of fun in here but do take your time as there were plenty of others falling over!
Lightning 360 and the Disk’O
Our next ride was on Lightning 360, another one of the parks unique attractions. This is an SBF Visa Lightning 360 model and feels like a cross between Red Arrows Sky Force and Air Race.
The seats have a joystick between them that allows riders to rotate the vehicle, allowing you to fully rotate upside down as many times as you’d like. I really enjoyed this one as the restraints meant that you weren’t held in by your shoulders, but instead by your thighs which was much more comfortable than other inverting flat rides I’ve been on.
Our final few rides were on the parks Disk’O, 4D cinema and a few rerides on Roller Coaster and Snails.
Interestingly, the 4D cinema was playing a show that Mack Rides had produced and featured Europa Park towards the end. This was quite unexpected and was one of the better shows I’ve seen in a 4D cinema. The effects were decent too but it was nice to see a 4D show that didn’t lean heavily on an IP like Thomas the Tank Engine or Angry Birds.
As daft as it might sound, watching that presentation really makes me want to get to Europa Park now, especially after reading about their ride line up! Next year hopefully!
After our final ride on Roller Coaster and our photos purchased (from Snails and Roller Coaster), we headed off back into Great Yarmouth for the rest of the evening.
So what is there to say about Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach?
The park is a really good fun time. Leagues ahead of the likes of Clarence Pier and Funland Hayling Island, but not quite up in the big leagues with Fantasy Island or Blackpool. The admission price reflects this though as we only paid £15 each for the 4 hour session we had.
There’s not much that I’d like to see done differently either, as operations were good and staff were all very pleasant and welcoming. The only thing I would like to see changed is the way photos are handled and pricing for those.
They offer photos at £6 each or 2 for £10 which isn’t that bad, however there is no facility to mix and match. You can only take up the 2 for £10 offer at one photo booth, and there are two in the park. So we ended up paying £12 for a photo from Roller Coaster and one from The Snails as they’re different photo booths.
I think buying a band or something that has tokens on it would help this, or even just a stamp on a receipt or something to show other photo booths what you’ve purchased and how many remaining photos you have left to claim.
Overall, the park has a good mix of flat rides and roller coasters, though it could possibly do with another thrill coaster in my opinion! There looks to be a decent log flume here but we missed it as it dropped a bit cooler towards the end of the day when we planned on trying it out.
Definitely worth the price of entry and worth our 4 hour drive down to visit it. Next up is Pleasurewood Hills!
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