window Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 This is my first TR so all feedback will be welcomed When I saw the Pleasure Beach was doing it's 'Big Thrill Weekend' promotion I just couldn't resist. £11 (or $22 if you live over the pond) for all day riding seemed to good to miss out on, plus I wanted to try out the camera that I'd won at work to see if it was up to the task of taking decent 'theme park' pictures. The reasoning behind that is my gf and I are heading to Orlando for 2 weeks in June, so I'm hoping to get some decent snaps there. Anyway...... The plan was to leave at 11, but my car wouldn't start (not a great start to the day I think you'll agree). My gf said she would drive, so I had to give her directions as it was a 'surprise' that we were going to BPB. We were made good time to Blackpool, but hit huge traffic on the road that runs into the town, and maybe queued for 30 or so minutes. We got there around 13:30 to see huge queues at the entrance, good job I pre-booked our wrist bands on the internet right... WRONG! The queue for this was long and very slow, not helped by ignorant staff either, as we got the front the attendants even changed over... things weren't looking good! I knew the Monorail, Ghost Train and Wild Mouse were closed for refurbishment, but was gutted to find the Grand National shut with no warning or explanation Final picture, me back at home checking out the new map for the first time today! I hadn't been on Noah's Ark since I was a kid! This thing is superb, maybe even unexplainable in words! Go to BPB and walkthrough this, you will not regret it! This is one for the dude who likes monorails! Beemerboy maybe? This was shut today unfortunately The Rollercoaster is still a great little ride! The fact you're held in by a 'lap belt' adds to the experience. Revolution mid-loop. The Avalanche and Big One in the background. Me trying to be 'artsy' in the Revolution queue. I love the Revolution, but the Ops were terrible today. They had the train full of people and the 2 lads operating it just stood there chatting to each other! Everyone waiting in the station were looking at each other like WTF??? View of the Steeplechase and Big One from the Revolution queue tower. The Steeplechase was awesome as always! We rode the middle row for the win! An exclusive shot of the lift hill! The full queue was dispatched very quickly here, maybe 15 mins tops, which was good after the 45 minute Infusion wait. I rode Infusion before the official opening and found it a very pleasant ride. Today my head was smashed from side to side repeatedly! It's gone very very rough indeed! At this point the ride crawled to a snails pace with 2 adults in it. Not sure how an ACEr would fair? Me totally thrilled on the Grand Prix... Next up came the biggest mistake of the day! The Grand Prix is kind of like the Tomorrow Land Speedway at MGK, but only 1 lane and very very slow! We'd never ridden before so thought we'd try it, but wished we hadn't, we wasted around 40 minutes in the queue! DO NOT bother with this!!!!! THE regulation BPB photo. This was followed by the 1st ride of the day. The Gold Mine. It's a very average dark ride, made funny by a joke made by the ride Op. Oh it's the Eiffel Tower... What's that in the distance... Hmm where's the Pleasure Beach gone... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purplepills Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 Nice photo's and trip report. I'm hoping to get to BPB at some point later in the year, I haven't been there since they were building The Big One. The only thing I noticed was £11 is more like $22-25 not $5.50. $5.50 would be the bargain of the year though! Hope you have a great time in Orlando, and more pics like these would be good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
window Posted March 18, 2008 Author Share Posted March 18, 2008 I should also mention that we rode the Big Dipper, but got no pics. That was great with plenty of air time. The queue was also dispatched very quickly. We missed the Space Invader2 credit as we waited for around 10 minutes with the queue not moving. We gave Valhalla a miss as well as it was bitter cold when not in the sun, and from previous trip I know how wet you get. All in all it was a good day. I think I was miserable for most of the morning due to my car problems and that was on my mind. The operations also sucked on certain rides and in certain areas of the park, like when we got to the front of the hot dog queue and the till broke. The staff then had to have a meeting about what to do!!! Very frustrating!!! I'll definitely be back in the summer when the weather picks up and I can get my shorts on. cheers for reading, Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
window Posted March 18, 2008 Author Share Posted March 18, 2008 Nice photo's and trip report. I'm hoping to get to BPB at some point later in the year, I haven't been there since they were building The Big One. The only thing I noticed was £11 is more like $22-25 not $5.50. $5.50 would be the bargain of the year though! Hope you have a great time in Orlando, and more pics like these would be good D'oh! I've corrected my comedy exchange rate now thanks, hope I don't get confused like that in June! Thanks for the comments, the Pleasure Beach is definitely worth the trip! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fallen Heretic Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 Hey, I love your 'arty' shot. If you go right down to Squires Gate, past the airport and then turn up the prom, you can almost always miss the worst of the traffic. You might have a little queue but not much. Most folk go straight into the centre of the town, or follow the long road to the coach and car parks. Not that many people seem arrive from the south prom. Plus, you can usually find a parking space free on the street that leads off near the big blue parallel to the prom. I wouldnt go that way during the illuminations though. Was the south entrance open? For some reason it never seems to have much of a line. Ive seen 6 long lines comming out of the north entrance, all ticket booths in the park with long lines, and the south entrance with a whole two people waiting. Maybe they dont go there because its so small, but for me its always been a godsend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Louise Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 Matt, Nice report, I absolute loved the "artsy" shot, and your pic of Infusion's track is really nice too. Sucks to hear about the ops at Revolution... My last visit was around this time last year and I remember we waited a *lot* longer than we should have had to from the length of the queue. Ordinarily I'm not sure we would have bothered getting in line, except that everything else was worse!! Couldn't even find the ends of Nash's queues. Anyway. Nice TR, *almost* makes me keen to get back to BPB soon... --Lou Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeemerBoy Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 I agree, the "artsy" shot was awesome. The monorail pic...even awesomer. Nice report. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 I think Steeplechase is the best coaster there--wish we had one like it in the states. And you gotta love the Ghost Train and Trauma Towers. Thanks for the look at BPB--I really like that park. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dino Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 Nice TR. Great pictures (especially the ''artsy'' shot ). That steeplechase ride looks like so much fun (those go fast?). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 I miss Steeplechase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shockwave Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 ^Like you said, Stupid Knotts! The arty shot is really cool, makes me want to get back to Blackpool this year before its too late. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIP Psyclone Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 I think Steeplechase is the best coaster there--wish we had one like it in the states. Um...key word being "had"! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahf31 Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 Great pics and report. We were there on the Saturday(15th). I was really disappointed with the long (very slow moving) queues. One of the longest queues of the day was my little boy getting a cheese burger from the place near infusion the staff were painfully slow and not the brightest of people!!!! We were really looking forward to riding the Grand National so we were gutted to see it not running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DenDen Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 Is that a Prada? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Musical Pete Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 Nice report and great photos. A couple of points - South entrance is not open this year and may not open again (however you can still exit here). PB are moving more toward the themepark regime, hence the payed admission from next year. Times are changing and they need to move with them. Unlike many, I feel it's for the best - but unlike may I also think outside the box, see the bigger picture and don't think totally as an enthusiast even though I clearly am one, and love the place. Also, Grand National has recently been having some lifthill problems - the top bullwheel (return wheel) of the left track was recently replaced and the chain didn't seem to like it as it snapped. It was repaired and the coaster reopened, but it makes sense for the current closure to be related to it. They don't close any ride for no reason - for instance, they were severely peed off recently when they couldn't open the Big One because a section of new track had been damaged by the fabricators - they had to play around to get it to fit the structure, and once installed its profile was badly warped (the hill in the middle of your 12th photo). When the trains were being tested, they went over the track with a jolt far too severe for public operation, so they set about cutting, reshaping and rewelding the track in situ to make it safe for operation asap. They sorted it out and it is now running fine (a little bumpier over the hill in question, but a safe bump) but it missed the first few weekends of operation and PB were not happy at all, as it is ofcourse a signature ride, as is Grand National. If there's a problem, they work to sort it asap - they want all rides open! As an aside, they are also not too happy about the operational problems the Grand National has had since its new system was installed by Kumbak - they are constantly trying to sort it, and one mananger has even said that "Kumbak will not coming back!" because of the problems they've caused. A post a little over the top for a trip report topic maybe, but I just want to make it clear that PB are not the evil, greedy, heartless people they're made out to be these days. They want everything operational but like every park, sometimes have problems with rides and do their best to get them working again. They never shut a ride just because they don't want to run it. I hope you get to go back soon and ride the Nash - despite the lengthy parking operation in the station, it has been running all four trains and in terms of the portion of ride from the top of the lift to the final brakes, it's running really well, better than it has for a few years - the new trains run a bit freer than the old ones - you even get airtime on the final humps where you didn't get it before. Untrimmed, pure shake, rattle & roll classic coaster fun - tears round like a bat out of hell, lol. I'm glad it's not in a corporate US park! At one time there was six trains, and before that even eight! - however this required trimming and there were brakes before Canal Turn, which would've slowed the second half down quite substantially. These days in terms of speed and forces, it's probably the best it's ever been. PB deserve respect for keeping a wild gem of a ride, truely wild! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahf31 Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 What i should've pointed out in my previous post is we had a fantastic weekend at BPB. Didn't mean to sound negative. We rode steeplechase for the first time! OMG!! It was amazing! I was holding on to my 7 year old for dear life!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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