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Which non-Blackpool seaside park in the UK is your favourite?

Which non-Blackpool seaside park in the UK is your favourite?

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Matt N

Matt N

TS Member
Favourite Ride
Shambhala (PortAventura Park)
Hi guys. Here in the UK, we have quite a number of seaside parks. If asked their favourite, many would probably say Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Most agree that the park is on an entirely different calibre to any other seaside park in the UK, with a highly varied lineup of headline attractions that arguably rivals that of some of the Merlin parks. But it is easy to forget that there are many other seaside parks in the UK other than Blackpool, with the four most prominent ones arguably being Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach, Fantasy Island, Adventure Island and Dreamland Margate. With this in mind, I’d be interested to know; which of these is your favourite? If you have an alternative pick, do say, but I thought that most would probably pick one of these four if given the choice.

Of the four main ones I just outlined, I’ve currently only visited Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach. It wasn’t bad for what it was, but aside from the Roller Coaster, I would say that it mostly had more of a “permanent funfair” type vibe in the same vein as somewhere like Brean than a “proper amusement/theme park” type vibe like Blackpool manages to pull off. I’m glad I went, but it’s not somewhere I have any great desire to return to any time soon, particularly given that I live 4.5 hours away.

But I’d be keen to know; which non-Blackpool seaside park in the UK is your favourite?
 
Southport, only because of the family rewards of the Cyclone if I hadn't been a right brat all day at Ainsdale back in the sixties.
Driving down to the funfair on the beach while sat on the car bonnet.
Those were the days...lucky if you had a wiper to hang on to.
 
I'll have to say Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach. Found it to be nice and relaxed VIBES and I really liked their wooden coaster

Adventure Island is objectively the 2nd best seaside park after Blackpool, but I didn't really like the atmosphere as much

Fantasy Island has some good rides for a small seaside park, but is really tacky in some areas
 
Dreamland, no contest.

- Easy for public transport.
- Great retro branding and marketing.
- Nailed the niche on the head with the event market and some fairly big headliners.
- Park presentation is spot on.
- Feels like it's being managed with care and passion.

It's an asset to Margate and quite frankly criminal that more enthusiasts can't be arsed to make the effort to try it.
 
Danny said:
Dreamland, no contest.

- Easy for public transport.
- Great retro branding and marketing.
- Nailed the niche on the head with the event market and some fairly big headliners.
- Park presentation is spot on.
- Feels like it's being managed with care and passion.

It's an asset to Margate and quite frankly criminal that more enthusiasts can't be arsed to make the effort to try it.
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I live in Margate, campaigned with Save Dreamland back in the day and generally have rose tinted glasses and huge optimism for it. I fully agree it's an asset to Margate, but I'm not sure I agree with the care and passion and park presentation points. The main area is OK, the stage looks a bit tired this year with peeling paint, the car park and boneyard look a complete state. The cinema building is falling back into disrepair after external renovation and the lighting package is all broken.

No sign of the Scenic opening, despite an apparently simple repair job. And a complete lack of any thrill rides, since the Zamperla's were flogged off. I'm not surprised it's not on the top of enthusiasts to do list. I was there last weekend with friends and family and it's a nice place to hang out for food and drinks and the kids like the ride offering, but it's not the best seaside park in the UK, no contest!
 
Shame Rhyl Ocean Beach is long since no more. Have many (un)happy memories there. If there was a place to put you off rides for life then this was the place. 😂. There was a certain charm about the place though. Maybe that’s the rose tinted glasses speaking?

I don’t really have a favourite they’re all pretty naff.
 
I've only been to two so far (Fantasy Island and Adventure Island), I think on paper, Fantasy Island wins for me based on the lineup (2 big coasters), but Millennium was pretty average and Odyssey has been closed every time I've visited so I can't rate that.

Adventure Island basically has a rough Eurofighter and a load of kids coasters.

I do want to do the others to get their woodies but as mainly a coaster person I'm not all that interested in the flat lineup (although I do love a good break dance or top spin)
 
Stuie said:
I live in Margate, campaigned with Save Dreamland back in the day and generally have rose tinted glasses and huge optimism for it. I fully agree it's an asset to Margate, but I'm not sure I agree with the care and passion and park presentation points. The main area is OK, the stage looks a bit tired this year with peeling paint, the car park and boneyard look a complete state. The cinema building is falling back into disrepair after external renovation and the lighting package is all broken.

No sign of the Scenic opening, despite an apparently simple repair job. And a complete lack of any thrill rides, since the Zamperla's were flogged off. I'm not surprised it's not on the top of enthusiasts to do list. I was there last weekend with friends and family and it's a nice place to hang out for food and drinks and the kids like the ride offering, but it's not the best seaside park in the UK, no contest!
Click to expand...
It’s difficult to say for sure how much work it’ll take to get the Scenic Railway running again. You’d need a proper inspection report. But I suspect it’s more than a simple repair. To give a bit of context, they had three major incidents that made headlines in the news last year. Two of these appear to have involved maintenance issues. The Scenic Railway de-railment and the tea cups falling off the ride:

https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2...-dreamland-leaves-mother-and-daughter-injured

Clearly there’s going to be a lot of caution around allowing the Scenic Railway to re-open. There’s limited information about what’s happened in the public domain and I doubt the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) will ever publish a report. However, ADIPS (Amusement Device Inspection Procedures Scheme) did provide an update in January:

https://adips.co.uk/latest-from-hse-for-adips-newsletter/

This is an update rather than the findings from a completed investigation so we need to be careful not to read too much into things. But by this time the HSE had spent several months investigating the de-railment. Things like the extent of rotten wood should be pretty clear to an engineer fairly quickly, so I suspect the lines of enquiry do give us a rough sense of what happened.

If you read the full post, it gives a little more information about what might have happened in the HSE plan of work.

Scenic Railways are more vulnerable to derailments than other coasters because they don’t have upstop wheels helping to hold the train onto the track. Atmospheric conditions at the seaside can cause wood to rot and steel to corrode faster than inland. This is why a lot of wooden coasters at the seaside are painted (including all the wooden coasters at Blackpool Pleasure Beach). Wood rot is caused by fungus or bacteria, so things often rot at an exponential speed as the fungus or bacteria multiply.

We don’t know how much rotten or split wood there is in the track or structure, but clearly this has had a lot of attention from the HSE, which is unusual, as often the HSE focus on incidents that have caused injuries.

I think there might be a few hoops they need to jump through before they can re-open it.
 
Probably Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach for its scenic railway Rollercoaster.

The original Southport Pleasure Land would've been up there. Had a decent collection of rides in the early 2000s.
The newer incarnation is a fun visit every few years but it needs some investment.

Ocean Beach at Rhyl used to be good fun. The current kiddie park less so. Some fun to be had down in Towyn with Fun Land and Knightleys.

Clarence Pier is nice as well, plus they've got a Wimpys.

Adventure Island is so much fun. Great staff. Some very unique flats and two dark rides.

Joyland is amazing for the space they have, snails and tyrolean tub twist.

Fantasy Island great with the 2 vekomas but you'd love them to get some new permanent rides.

And finally Dunes Leisure were I got to ride a Miner Mike.
 
No mention for Cordona's in Aberdeen? Granted not the best but a damn sight better than M&D's and is the only other seaside park I've been to other than Blackpool though I will say I did very briefly visit Southport back in 2004 or 2005 I think but I don't remember much as we walked through the park (this was right before they introduced the £2 charge just to get in).
 
J
Funcone said:
It’s difficult to say for sure how much work it’ll take to get the Scenic Railway running again. You’d need a proper inspection report. But I suspect it’s more than a simple repair. To give a bit of context, they had three major incidents that made headlines in the news last year. Two of these appear to have involved maintenance issues. The Scenic Railway de-railment and the tea cups falling off the ride:

https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2...-dreamland-leaves-mother-and-daughter-injured

Clearly there’s going to be a lot of caution around allowing the Scenic Railway to re-open. There’s limited information about what’s happened in the public domain and I doubt the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) will ever publish a report. However, ADIPS (Amusement Device Inspection Procedures Scheme) did provide an update in January:

https://adips.co.uk/latest-from-hse-for-adips-newsletter/

This is an update rather than the findings from a completed investigation so we need to be careful not to read too much into things. But by this time the HSE had spent several months investigating the de-railment. Things like the extent of rotten wood should be pretty clear to an engineer fairly quickly, so I suspect the lines of enquiry do give us a rough sense of what happened.

If you read the full post, it gives a little more information about what might have happened in the HSE plan of work.

Scenic Railways are more vulnerable to derailments than other coasters because they don’t have upstop wheels helping to hold the train onto the track. Atmospheric conditions at the seaside can cause wood to rot and steel to corrode faster than inland. This is why a lot of wooden coasters at the seaside are painted (including all the wooden coasters at Blackpool Pleasure Beach). Wood rot is caused by fungus or bacteria, so things often rot at an exponential speed as the fungus or bacteria multiply.

We don’t know how much rotten or split wood there is in the track or structure, but clearly this has had a lot of attention from the HSE, which is unusual, as often the HSE focus on incidents that have caused injuries.

I think there might be a few hoops they need to jump through before they can re-open it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, I wasn’t aware it needed to be recertified or approved to reopen. There does seem to be some work underway!

IMG_1608.png

Regards the painting, I believe the reason is was left unpainted is that when the paint layer fails wood rots from within. It was thought that treated wood without paint would last longer!
 
Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach for me, but in conjuction with a visit to Joyland. Great Yarmouth was my yearly summer holiday when I was a kid/young teen, so perhaps a bit of a biased view. Great Yarmouth is probably my second favourite seaside town/front just behind Blackpool.
 
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