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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2023 Discussion

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zeock said:

From: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=necTW685CLA

This is an interesting POV of Valhalla in its first year. Credit: Euro Theme Park Archive
Click to expand...

Interesting in that the ride became notorious for being inconsistent in its later years, but in reality it was a nightmare from the start.

The lack of soundtrack (music specifically) is quite stark. I am not sure when that was introduced around the whole ride, 2001/2002 maybe ...

Not sure, time flies.
 
One of my lasting memories from my first ride on Valhalla back in 2019 was the giant pool of water that you had to step into when getting into the boat. I’ve been on plenty of pretty wet rides before, but I’ve still never been on another ride where you have to dunk your feet into ankle deep water the second you get on it… I must say that that water-filled boat was not the most appealing sight, and I remember that we, being sat at the back of the boat, got completely submerged by all of this water as we were going up the first lift hill!

My shoes were fine seeing as I was wearing fairly old sandals, but my dad quickly realised that wearing practically brand new white Converse to Blackpool was a poor decision… those shoes had to take a trip through the washing machine when we got back home!

The other thing I remember about Valhalla is that it was by some margin the wettest water ride I have ever ridden, and I’ve been to Florida and done the likes of Bilge-Rats. On the day I rode Valhalla, it was 30 degrees, and after having waited 2 hours to get on it without any shade, I felt pretty fried… yet when I stepped off, I was shivering as though it was below freezing outside, and I had blue lips. I genuinely think I might not have been much colder or wetter had I dived into the sea fully clothed and gone for a swim…

Perhaps controversially, I must admit that the original Valhalla was not a favourite of mine. It was undeniably an impressive ride, and I understand why people liked it, but for me, the sheer wetness was just a bit too much to be enjoyable.
 
Matt N said:
One of my lasting memories from my first ride on Valhalla back in 2019 was the giant pool of water that you had to step into when getting into the boat. I’ve been on plenty of pretty wet rides before, but I’ve still never been on another ride where you have to dunk your feet into ankle deep water the second you get on it… I must say that that water-filled boat was not the most appealing sight, and I remember that we, being sat at the back of the boat, got completely submerged by all of this water as we were going up the first lift hill!

My shoes were fine seeing as I was wearing fairly old sandals, but my dad quickly realised that wearing practically brand new white Converse to Blackpool was a poor decision… those shoes had to take a trip through the washing machine when we got back home!

The other thing I remember about Valhalla is that it was by some margin the wettest water ride I have ever ridden, and I’ve been to Florida and done the likes of Bilge-Rats. On the day I rode Valhalla, it was 30 degrees, and after having waited 2 hours to get on it without any shade, I felt pretty fried… yet when I stepped off, I was shivering as though it was below freezing outside, and I had blue lips. I genuinely think I might not have been much colder or wetter had I dived into the sea fully clothed and gone for a swim…

Perhaps controversially, I must admit that the original Valhalla was not a favourite of mine. It was undeniably an impressive ride, and I understand why people liked it, but for me, the sheer wetness was just a bit too much to be enjoyable.
Click to expand...
How much of that do you reckon was due to the 'water tunnel' effect? I honestly think that was the worst of it for a long while.

I can't understand why they didn't just switch the dratted thing off. (edit: independently of the ride, I mean!)
 
The vortex was definitely chief soaker if you were in a left hand seat. If you happened to be in front left you weren't getting off anything other than soaked.

At the top of lift two, it's probably not exaggerating to say 20 litres of water would end up in your lap if you were in a fully laden 8 seater boat.
 
To be fair the big hammers could soak you (until they changed then a couple of years back), the water bashing off the walls as you go round the corners soaked those in the front of the boat. And even those big water blasters could soak you.

That’s just the effects and not the actual drops too.
 
Matt N said:
One of my lasting memories from my first ride on Valhalla back in 2019 was the giant pool of water that you had to step into when getting into the boat. I’ve been on plenty of pretty wet rides before, but I’ve still never been on another ride where you have to dunk your feet into ankle deep water the second you get on it… I must say that that water-filled boat was not the most appealing sight, and I remember that we, being sat at the back of the boat, got completely submerged by all of this water as we were going up the first lift hill!

My shoes were fine seeing as I was wearing fairly old sandals, but my dad quickly realised that wearing practically brand new white Converse to Blackpool was a poor decision… those shoes had to take a trip through the washing machine when we got back home!

The other thing I remember about Valhalla is that it was by some margin the wettest water ride I have ever ridden, and I’ve been to Florida and done the likes of Bilge-Rats. On the day I rode Valhalla, it was 30 degrees, and after having waited 2 hours to get on it without any shade, I felt pretty fried… yet when I stepped off, I was shivering as though it was below freezing outside, and I had blue lips. I genuinely think I might not have been much colder or wetter had I dived into the sea fully clothed and gone for a swim…

Perhaps controversially, I must admit that the original Valhalla was not a favourite of mine. It was undeniably an impressive ride, and I understand why people liked it, but for me, the sheer wetness was just a bit too much to be enjoyable.
Click to expand...
Sorry Matt, whole year round, the sea is much warmer in Blackpool than Valhalla!
Done both, lots...Valhalla is colder than the sea.
 
Matt N said:
One of my lasting memories from my first ride on Valhalla back in 2019 was the giant pool of water that you had to step into when getting into the boat. I’ve been on plenty of pretty wet rides before, but I’ve still never been on another ride where you have to dunk your feet into ankle deep water the second you get on it… I must say that that water-filled boat was not the most appealing sight, and I remember that we, being sat at the back of the boat, got completely submerged by all of this water as we were going up the first lift hill!

My shoes were fine seeing as I was wearing fairly old sandals, but my dad quickly realised that wearing practically brand new white Converse to Blackpool was a poor decision… those shoes had to take a trip through the washing machine when we got back home!

The other thing I remember about Valhalla is that it was by some margin the wettest water ride I have ever ridden, and I’ve been to Florida and done the likes of Bilge-Rats. On the day I rode Valhalla, it was 30 degrees, and after having waited 2 hours to get on it without any shade, I felt pretty fried… yet when I stepped off, I was shivering as though it was below freezing outside, and I had blue lips. I genuinely think I might not have been much colder or wetter had I dived into the sea fully clothed and gone for a swim…
Click to expand...
Out of interest, how much wetter was it than Stormforce 10 at Drayton Manor (the wettest ride I have been on)?
 
zeock said:
Out of interest, how much wetter was it than Stormforce 10 at Drayton Manor (the wettest ride I have been on)?
Click to expand...
About the same, depending on the individual seat and ride on the day.
Both in the "full bucket of water over the head" rating.
Valhalla has the flooded boats, Stormforce has the bad backwards wet.
The cold wet shady bit under the station can be cold on the Drayton ride, but the whole second half of the ride on Valhalla completely freezes the average thoosies inner warmth.
 
zeock said:
Out of interest, how much wetter was it than Stormforce 10 at Drayton Manor (the wettest ride I have been on)?
Click to expand...
I’d have said that Valhalla was considerably wetter, although I admittedly sat in the middle of an empty boat when I rode Stormforce, whereas I was sat near the back of a fully loaded boat on Valhalla.

However, I’d wager that Valhalla’s considerably higher wetness (from my experience) could be in large part down to some of Valhalla’s truly obscene water effects, like the aforementioned water vortex…

Don’t get me wrong, I got very wet on SF10, and I probably wouldn’t recommend riding it on a day that isn’t hot (I speak from experience here… the day I rode Stormforce 10 was surprisingly cold for June, and it took me a good couple of hours to fully dry out!), but from memory, Valhalla was on another level entirely…

I don’t even remember Bilge-Rats at IOA being as wet as Valhalla, and that itself is one rather wet ride… Valhalla really is something else for wetness.

Like I said above, I genuinely reckon that a fully clothed open-water swim in the sea would have been no wetter than my ride on Valhalla, which I could not say about any other water ride I’ve ever been on!
 
Dave said:
If it timed badly and two boats dropped down drop 1 & 2 at the same time you also got drenched from memory as the troughs where quite close.

Or maybe I mis-remember
Click to expand...

The ride control system on Valhalla does not allow boats onto both drops simultaneously, which is why boats will sometimes stop briefly before going down one of the main drops (less common in recent years due to the ride running fewer boats).

SF10 has no such interlock, sometimes you'll just get unlucky.
 
zeock said:

From: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=necTW685CLA

This is an interesting POV of Valhalla in its first year. Credit: Euro Theme Park Archive
Click to expand...


Had totally forgotten that the ride had no music for its first few years of operation. I remember riding it when it first opened and finding it rather different and, for all the fire and individually spectacular moments, rather more traditional than what I had been anticipating for years after years of construction. I came to enjoy the ride more when I re-contextualised it as more in line with the park's history of loveable but slightly shonky dark rides.
 
John said:
The ride control system on Valhalla does not allow boats onto both drops simultaneously, which is why boats will sometimes stop briefly before going down one of the main drops (less common in recent years due to the ride running fewer boats).

SF10 has no such interlock, sometimes you'll just get unlucky.
Click to expand...
I think that was introduced in 2001, 2002 maybe. In 2000 that thing was a hot mess for so many reasons.
 
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