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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: General Discussion

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Matt N said:
In what way do you mean that the ride was a late 90s/early 2000s approach @Rick? The theme seems timeless, and there are many water rides now that employ similar types of effects to Valhalla (admittedly, perhaps not all in the same ride).
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There are, but not on that scale and not in a family run seasonal park.

That's what I was getting at @siralgenon, absolutely. It's of its time in that if you look at many new dark rides, they feature more cost effective and reliable methods to reach a similar end.

So much about Valhalla is expensive and decadent, even if you forget the vast scale of the construction itself, so many of the core elements are incredible expensive to fulfil. An endless supply of fire, steam and snow don't come cheap, neither does the not very efficient use of the pumped water in the ride system.

Anyway, back to a simpler times...

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More stuff here
 
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Other than the running of the ride (water rides take some running!), the fire is the expensive part of Valhalla but I got no reason to believe it's being removed in the refurbishment. The other effects are much more reasonable to run, not so easy to maintain long term though hence the refurbishment I guess.
 
Funcone said:
I don't know how official this is, but I heard that they're going to replace the flames with Amanda Thompson hiding under an orange blanket.
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I heard it’s being rethemed to Amanda Thompson the ride

You a talented ice skater have to face years of abuse while you traverse her mind which fountains tins of grey dulux paint and gold


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OilyWater said:
Other than the running of the ride (water rides take some running!), the fire is the expensive part of Valhalla but I got no reason to believe it's being removed in the refurbishment. The other effects are much more reasonable to run, not so easy to maintain long term though hence the refurbishment I guess.
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I would imagine there are more modern fire effect systems that use less gas.

I would guess the water vortex is for the chop as well (hopefully)
 
In hindsight they should've built a water coaster using the same theme and have the boats going out so that people could see the ride in action. Something like the flying Dutchman at Efteling for instance.
 
John_P said:
In hindsight they should've built a water coaster using the same theme and have the boats going out so that people could see the ride in action. Something like the flying Dutchman at Efteling for instance.
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Not enough space, Valhalla is on quite a compact site really.
 
John_P said:
In hindsight they should've built a water coaster using the same theme and have the boats going out so that people could see the ride in action. Something like the flying Dutchman at Efteling for instance.
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Possibly, but the ride opened in 2000 when product lines offering such technology were not as widespread as they are now and those that were available were very much in their infancy.
 
Matt N said:
In what way do you mean that the ride was a late 90s/early 2000s approach @Rick? The theme seems timeless, and there are many water rides now that employ similar types of effects to Valhalla (admittedly, perhaps not all in the same ride).
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I think if it was done right now the style of effects would be very different.

Think of Wicker Man that uses screens inside the structure to give the impression of flames in addition to the the practical flame effects. 20 years ago it wouldn't be possible to use those screens really, lighting would probably be used instead.
 
jon81uk said:
Think of Wicker Man that uses screens inside the structure to give the impression of flames in addition to the the practical flame effects. 20 years ago it wouldn't be possible to use those screens really, lighting would probably be used instead.
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But Valhalla uses real flames, like Wicker Man does too.. WM also uses lighting in the wickerman as well as screens. They wouldnt have used screens in Valhalla then youre right but then it still wouldnt be much replacement for real flames and lighting today

The screens on WM I think look expensive and bit pointless, I know what they were tryng but it just didnt work, oh well. The rest still looks great, I wouldnt particularly mind if the screens were just removed. Screens in Valhalla would be a real shame

Valhalla was done at a time of more money and bombast, all that stuff is what makes it what it is, I love it! If they can keep it reasonably going and maybe improve the theme inside (it always was pretty industrial and disjointed) then go for it!
 
Valhalla did have a projected video / flame effect for a very short period in 2002, or 2003 maybe, in the final section with the exploding longboat. It lasted a few weeks or so.

Does anyone else recall?
 
It’s not difficult to make a case for removing the fire effects. These kinds of large special effects never were that common. In Europe we had Valhalla, the Studio Tram Tour at Disney and Templo Del Fuego at Port Aventura, plus a few big stunt shows, and other attractions with individual effects like the fire effects on Tidal Wave, The Swarm, Scorpion Express and Wicker Man.

Has there ever been a ride with such impressive effects and such small vehicles? Kongfrontation and Jaws both had about 50 people in a car/boat. Even The Mummy has 16 person ride vehicles. The smaller the vehicles, the more intimate the experience, but also the less cost effective it is to run the effects for each vehicle.

However, I haven’t got massively high hopes for a refurb, if it’s even going to get completed given the current situation. Even before the crisis the Pleasure Beach seemed to be strapped for cash. There are all kinds of things a refurb could include, but I doubt we’ll get the complete works.

Even if they are able to save a lot of money by replacing the fire effects, I’m not sure how much it’ll help in the long run. When Frontierland closed a lot of people said it’d secure the future of the Pleasure Beach, because all of Frontierland’s visitors would go there instead. Since we’ve had the closure of Camelot and Pleasureland is now a smaller phoenix park. I’m not sure it’s helped all that much, in terms of boosting the Pleasure Beach’s attendance. At the same time, we’ve had 15 years of cut backs at the Pleasure Beach. Most of the shows have gone, as have a lot of support rides and the opening hours have been cut. After 15 years of cost-cutting it doesn’t feel like they’ve ended up in a bright place with healthy profits. It might well be that without the cost cutting and closures they’d have gone bankrupt, but I’m not quite sure what the plan is now. Mothballing Valhalla would save a lot of money, but also close one of their two biggest rides and last major water ride. It hardly falls into the category of modernising the park. Even bringing it back with cheaper effects will look like an event on the long slide of cost cutting.

Hopefully the Pleasure Beach has some kind of trick up their sleeves, because Valhalla or no Valhalla, fire or no fire, they need some kind of inspiration.
 
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