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!
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