Blackpool Pleasure Beach



Theme Park:Blackpool Pleasure Beach (since 2015)
Pleasure Beach, Blackpool (2006 - 2014)
Blackpool Pleasure Beach (1896 - 2005)
Address:525 Ocean Boulevard
FY4 1EZ
Blackpool
https://www.blackpoolpleasurebeach.com
Operated by:Fam. Thompson

Blackpool Pleasure Beach, located directly at the Irish Sea, is the most traditional amusement park in England. Since 1896, people have been enjoying themselves at the Thompson family amusement park in the English seaside resort of Blackpool, not far from the cities of Manchester and Liverpool. The park seems like a curiosity, full of wonders and a magic all its own. But it’s also a big deal and home to many world-class attractions. Particularly worth mentioning is the ice revue Hot Ice, which has won all the prizes for years and is performed during the high season.

With a total of 10 roller coasters and a variety of outstanding dark rides, Blackpool Pleasure Beach offers everything that makes the heart of the enthusiast beat faster. There is a lot to discover, even if it is only the cool modern organ music on the Derby Racer.

Fun Fact #1: The show Hot Ice can be watched in a shortened matinee performance without extra charge to the wristband on the seats of the standard class. Other seats are not included and require a separate ticket.

Fun Fact #2: The theme park is home to the world’s first ghost train. No wonder, that there are also rumours about a house ghost, who is said to have made himself comfortable in the attraction.

Fun Fact #3: Parts of the track of the Big One roller coaster serve as supporting structure for the facade of the Valhalla white water dark ride.

 
 
 

Highlights of the Theme Park

 




Alice in Wonderland

 

Alice Ride

A very psychedelic dark ride

 


Avalanche

 

Avalanche

The bobsleigh run of Britain

 


Big Dipper

 

Big Dipper

One of the best wooden coasters

 


Big One

 

Big One

The name says it all

 


Derby Racer

 

Derby Racer

A very unique carousel

 


Flying Machines

 

Flying Machines

A fantastic flight, but don’t ride it after Valhalla

 


Ghost Train

 

Ghost Train

The first (and best) of its kind

 


Icon

 

Icon

The park’s second double launch coaster

 


Infusion

 

Infusion

A smooth SLC

 


Nickelodeon Streak

 

Nickelodeon Streak

The very orange wooden coaster

 


Revolution

 

Revolution

The park’s original double launch coaster

 


Sky Force

 

Sky Force

Somersault mania

 



Steeplechase

 

Steeplechase

The only racing coaster of its kind

 


Wallace & Gromit's Thrill-o-matic

 

Thrill-o-Matic

The Wallace and Gromit dark ride

 


 

Valhalla

Wet, Wetter, Valhalla

 


 
 

Past Highlights of the Theme Park

 





Wild Mouse

 

Wild Mouse

The wildest of all

 



An Icon of the Pleasure Beach

My last visit to the Pleasure Beach was in 2016, so I was very excited to finally ride the park’s newest addition, the Mack Rides roller coaster Icon. For the 2022 season, the last car of one of the trains was replaced by a car offering a spinning pair of seats, thus creating the Ensō experience – a nice feature which comes with a heavy price tag.

The ride on Icon starts rather slowly as we are approaching the launch position. Starting from a standstill, we directly approach the lift hill support structure of the Big One roller coaster whilst racing over a huge camelback hill.  After a steep curve resembling an inclided loop tilted to the left, we make our way towards the courtyard of the Steeplechase roller coaster. After diving under the old horse ride coaster, we take some quick near ground direction changes, before we finally gain a bit of altitude and cross the track. Right above the visitors, we now take a well ballanced heartline roll – something you would not expect from a Mack Rides roller coaster. After making our way below the huge camelback hill, we dive down into a tunnel which leads directly into the second launch.

After being accelerated the second time, we gain up some height in a non-inverting Immelmann turn. This element rides itself rather odd, yet if gives you some views onto the park. A very funny right-hand bend follows, which leads into a very hill and dale section of the layout. After going up and down for quite a while, we now race over a weirdly banked speed bump, leading into a sequence of very short swifts to the right and to the left, where one of them unnecessarily crosses the Big Dipper roller coaster. After that, we are done and quickly approach the station. 

Icon has a very strong first act and a weaker second one. It’s funny that the ride is actually at its best, when the constrains due to the limited space were most severe. On the rather large plot of land where the second part of the roller coaster runs, the ride is quite repetitive. Especially the end of the ride is unfortunately not quite as successful. I would have liked to see a series of straight camelbacks here that would really knock your socks off, instead we swerve continuously from the right to the left and vice versa. Icon is therefore not my favourite ride at the Blackpool Pleasure Beach, nor comes anywhere close to the first double launch coaster the Pleasure Beach is offering since 1979. Anyhow, it is still a fun ride and a nice addtion to the fantastic rides at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

Pictures Blackpool Pleasure Beach

 


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Blackpool Pleasure Beach (2016)

Preface

As my cousin is afraid of flights, I took the chance to accompany her to England, where she would spend her holidays in a guest family. I rented a car in Birmingham and instantly regretted to have booked via Europcar and not another car rental service. My friend Daniel came to Birmingham earlier that day and has spent his time at the wonderful Drayton Manor Theme Park. After park closure, I picked him up from the hotel parking lot and together we drove to the seaside resort of Blackpool in Lancashire in order to have a great weekend in the city, as well as a visit to one of my all-time favourite theme parks Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

Blackpool Pleasure Beach

During my last review, it might not have sound that I enjoyed the park so much, but over time it really grew onto me. It is a very well-aged theme park with lots of effort being put into it to keep it going as best as possible while other parks in the United Kingdom currently take a large step back.

It was my first visit to the park on a busy day during the illuminations. Although there were queues basically everywhere, we never had to wait long. I even could finally get to ride the remaining lane of the Steeplechase roller coaster – it just took three attempts at the park to do so.

Sky Force

I also had a try on the Sky Force ride by Gerstlauer. Although it is one of the newer Sky Fly attractions it certainly offered a ride like on one of the old installations, which resulted in a total of 96 rollovers and I loved it! It was a brilliant start of a wonderful day at the Pleasure Beach.

Pictures Blackpool Pleasure Beach

 


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Revolution in the vertical reality of the Pleasure Beach Blackpool

Preface

If one imagines the most filthy place in Britain, it is definitely Blackpool. However, this place at the Irish Sea is also very charming and offers with its Pleasure Beach a real pearl of entertainment culture. It was my second visit to this city, which I actually wanted to avoid. Nevertheless, the call for a revolutionary roller coaster, which was being refurbished on my first visit, drew me here. Back then, the town itself was also a bit busier and more tolerable due to some French tourists. Blackpool will surely show its real charm during the main season or the illuminations in autumn.

Visiting the Pleasure Beach

Thrill-o-Matic

Another reason for visiting was Thrill-o-Matic, the redesigned dark ride from Arrow Dynamics, which previously operated as Gold Mine. The main protagonists of the ride are the characters Wallace & Gromit, who are very well known in England and whose short films are also popular in Germany, but the spin-off series Shaun the Sheep is much more popular.

The ride is quite interesting, especially as the layout is rather unusual. In keeping with the title, you’ll go up and downhill past scenes from the films. The design of these is exceptionally original and the effects are all well tuned, so that one can definitely call the ride one of the best dark rides out there – if one would know a little bit about the movies in advance. This is the only real shortcoming of the theme ride, as if you are not familiar with the Wallace & Gromit universe, you can’t actually understand the ride itself.

Revolution

The second novelty for me was the only shuttle coaster by Arrow Dynamics on European soil. While listening to a revolutionary soundtrack, I went up the stairs to the station of the Launched Loop to find an open station with an empty four-car train. Since the station is no longer sponsored by the Scottish national drink Irn Bru, the structure shines in a noble grey-white colour scheme, on which a dark red train makes its way.

The ride on Revolution begins quite bizarrely, as the launch feels like being pushed a little faster in a shopping cart. Nevertheless, what happens afterwards can hardly be described in words. On the hilltop down to the valley, one is pulled into the harness in such a strong way that it cannot be more extreme. A slight lift-off, as it was said in old reviews of the park, is strongly understated. Arrived in the valley and with his butt back in the car, the looping follows directly. With a lot of pressure, we see the world upside down for the first time. After that the train shots up towards the second hilltop, which also throws you back into the shoulder restraints. What comes now is nothing unusual for a shuttle coaster, but if you recall the experience in your mind, you might get a little bit awestruck. For this thought process you even have a lot of time until the inevitable happens and the launch kicks off the game in reverse.

The Revolution at Pleasure Beach Blackpool is not only interesting because of its incomparable support structure, but also because of its ride, which even shows a shuttle loop from Schwarzkopf where it’s going to go. Although the launch is not as strong as with Schwarzkopf’s installations, the ride has one attribute that clearly stands out, namely airtime. Such a distinctive form of airtime is rarely found and is usually only present in the back rows of a train, as it is the case with Nessie at Hansa-Park. Here, however, you inevitably experience it everywhere in the train, whereby the first car is preferably affected. Revolution is therefore a roller coaster rarely found, which is why you should experience it while it’ s still present. The extensive revisions of the layout give hope for a truly long lifetime.

Infusion

But not only the Revolution is equipped with more powerful forces than one would expect, but also the Suspended Looping Coaster Infusion, which, like the Big One, invites to a ride in the vertical reality. Compared to other installations of this type, the ride feels 20 km/h too fast. The inversions are therefore all passed through quickly, which mainly affects the successive inline twists towards the end of the ride, as they drag you along quite nicely.

If every Vekoma SLC would ride the same way, the difference to various Batman roller coasters of the manufacturer Bollinger and Mabillard would only be marginal. The water effects, as well as the general ride comfort are arguments that – together with the stunning roll overs – invite you to one or more rides in the vertical reality.

Grand National

The Möbius Roller Coaster Grand National, which in theory offers a great and action packed ride due its out- & back layout, as well as the always given racing feeling on both tracks enjoys special appreciation by many fans. In fact, the nasty doubledowns and the numerous camelbacks are crucial to experience really interesting airtime, once the ride warmed up. On the days of my visits, a take-off was hardly possible. Furthermore, the bar always closed so modestly that every of the following metres seemed like a flogging.

No friendship has developed between me and the ride. As sorry as I am to have to put myself against the opinions of my friends, I prefer another wooden roller coaster within the park even if their voices cry out over and over again that Grand National is the one that shows a lot of airtime and therefore should be regarded as the best wooden roller coaster out there. This classic wooden roller coaster, which should still be considered cute in its size, really surprised me during this visit. Even though I still think, that the trains were hardly made for roller coasters, especially since they all drift off in the curves quite alarmingly. The general smoothness of the ride is a lot better than what I remember. On each of the hills a distinctive lift-off was given, the curves rode well and the strange rocking of last year’s rides didn’t happen. I stick to the Big Dipper!

Big Dipper

This classic wooden roller coaster, which should still be considered cute in its size, really surprised me during this visit. Even though I still think, that the trains were hardly made for roller coasters, especially since they all drift off in the curves quite alarmingly. The general smoothness of the ride is a lot better than what I remember. On each of the hills a distinctive lift-off was given, the curves rode well and the strange rocking of last year’s rides didn’t happen.

Steeplechase

As the Steeplechase coaster was fitted with new brakes during the visit, it was not possible to ride on any of the tracks. The quite unique roller coaster by Arrow Dynamics is always worth a ride, especially since I was not allowed to ride on either the green or the yellow tracks during my last visit.

Big One

Even at the Big One you stood in front of a closed entry during the first hours of operation. Fortunately, in the later course of the day, the entry was opened as advertised. As it is often the case in rides that open later, the crowds of visitors went all at one to the ride and actually filled up the queues in the station, which meant that the last two cars had to be opened. After the first rush was driven away, everybody that came to the station was allowed to walk through and had a theoretically free choice of seats.

Unfortunately, the Big One doesn’t have a very good status in the fan community of roller coaster lovers, often there is talk of bodily harm and other inconsistencies. However, the Big One isn’t bad at all, even if it’s not necessarily a good experience when riding it in the last row. The front rows on the other hand all offer an exciting and fun ride.

Compared to other taller roller coasters, rarely seen in Europe, the highest, fastest, steepest and longest roller coaster in the vertical reality provides a very strong sense of speed. The first drop is hard to put into words, the following hill is airtimeless but nice, the turnaround is fast and the hills in front of the block brake are interesting to ride. This is followed by the aforementioned brake and a curvy part until the final brake is reached.

The Big One is a roller coaster that can’t and shouldn’t be compared to the big rides of Bollinger and Mabillard, as a boring up and down ride like Silverstar at Europa Park is not offered here. Instead, the Hyper Coaster from the American company Arrow provides a very fast and above all long roller coaster ride, which – if you don’t have prejudices against exactly this manufacturer can surprise and please you very much.

Nickelodeon Land

The Nickelodeon Land was very busy during the visit due to some primary school classes, which were present in all the Blackpool attractions that day. Most of them spent running from the exit of the amusing children’s coaster Blue Flyer to the entrance of what the supervisor, of course, had to endure.

Nickelodeon Streak

The same pattern could be seen at the Nickelodeon Streak, the orange wooden roller coaster of Pleasure Beach, where you are lifted out of your seat a few times. Here the longest wooden roller coaster trains of the park make their rounds and the feeling of the train drifting away is most pronounced.

Splash Bash

The Twist & Splash ride Splash Bash from Mack Rides, which was broken down on the last visit, was actually open on the day of the visit, but was not very popular. It was interesting to see the system in motion and to let the very slow rotations have their effect. Should this ride be busy at some point, it is certainly fun to get into the water battle, but with only 2-3 passengers it is not easy to get wet at all.

Valhalla

On the other hand, there is an ease of getting really, really, really wet on the white water dark ride Valhalla. You could make it easy and buy a rain poncho, in order to protect yourself somehow or just lock your valuables in a locker, in order to experience the ride as unprotected as possible.

The boat trip begins quite harmlessly. From the outside, one enters a hall in a very relaxed way, where even the waterfall at the beginning is senselessly switched off during the passage. A lift follows, after which the actual trip to Valhalla begins. The ride up to the turntable is accompanied by epic music, fog and mythological creatures. Backwards you go down a drop, which will moisten you a little bit. This is followed by a ride through a cold chamber. Fortunately, the ride through this impressive room doesn’t last forever, as the second and immediately wettest shot ride is waiting for you. Reasonably wet, almost soaked, we pass through a water tunnel, which of course reaches right into the boat. This effect was not known to me during my last visit and thus I was also a little surprised about it. Shortly after that, a water cannon is shot that releases a good amount of water on one.

Of course, Valhalla would not be Valhalla if the journey was already over after this; in fact, it is just starting. After passing the second lifthill things are more or less overturning. The scenes are getting more and more action and the water effects are getting meaner and meaner. As an example we have to mention a swinging axe or even a hammer in front of the rolling tree trunk, which simply throws a complete bath tub load, probably even more, onto the passengers from above. No later than here you are 100% soaking wet. A little later, a double drop follows as the last shot, whereby one is drenched once more. But this is hardly due to the descent itself, but due to the water effect that is waiting for you at the end. Luckily, the Pleasure Beach knows that the riders of Valhalla might be slightly more wet, as “You will get wet! You may get soaked!” is indeed the warning for the ride. The impact of the ride is similar to a jump into the Irish Sea, whereupon one is warmed up from the side by some fire effects. However, the Pleasure Beach don’t want to dry the riders under any circumstances, which is why there is still a water effect waiting for you.

The water ride Valhalla is basically way to wet for me; at least for a typical british day in spring. It was indeed a quite sunny day, but the clothes would surely not have dried during the opening hours, which is why I rode the ride at the end of my stay. Valhalla itself is a very impressive ride and should never be missed during a visit to the Pleasure Beach.

Flying Machines

After you have conquered Valhalla you should not make the mistake of visiting the Flying Machines nearby. This ride is long, fast and the wind is cold. A ride on the classic Derby Racer is more advisable in this case. The three older dark rides of the Pleasure Beach Alice in Wonderland, River Caves and Ghost Train should not be ignored during your try to get dry.

Avalanche

If the ice room from Valhalla was not yet icy enough for you, you can throw yourself into the ice channel of the Avalanche roller coaster. Where previously the Swiss bobsleigh run of Heide Park was always in my favour, the fast and at the same time intense ride from Blackpool could convince a little more. Since the bobsleigh run only operated one train, I had to wait in a long queue of 3 trains.

Wild Mouse

The best roller coaster at Pleasure Beach is the wooden roller coaster Wild Mouse, which is much wilder than the steel mice, which can be found at any German fun fair or several theme parks. Secured only by a seatbelt you can experience wonderful airtime and very abrupt curves, which you drive through at full throttle, as the speed is only regulated towards the end of the ride. Those who complain about steel wild mice that are supposedly too brute should rather avoid this ride, but those who love Wild Mouse roller coasters are best served with this wooden masterpiece.

Conclusion Pleasure Beach

The Pleasure Beach is a great amusement park with a charm all of its own, where you can easily spend a whole day. However, I still doubt whether one should tackle a second one at all. Nevertheless, there is a lot to experience and/or re-experience here, so that a visit is always worthwhile.

 

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