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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2025 Discussion

...and back in the real world...
Completely off topic, but can I just call out a bad example here...
The Crooked House...
Three still on bail, nobody actually charged, the legal "owning" company has now gone bust so there is nobody to force to rebuild, the planning inquiry has been booted down the road again I understand, and there is zero sign, or prospect, of any actual rebuilding.

The ride looked very clapped out when I last looked, with no obvious sign of large amounts of recent structural work, and there was a single electrician playing with the lighting.

Any sign of progress today our Matt?

And tour report and throughput figures for the day of course pal.

Poorly by teatime then?
 
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The ride looked very clapped out when I last looked, with no obvious sign of large amounts of recent structural work, and there was a single electrician playing with the lighting.
From the weekend it looked like they’d finished the 5 litre tin of red paint they’d purchased and were waiting delivery of another.

The chain on the left lift hill was out of its guide rail. No other signs of work.
 
Oh, darn! If I’d only looked more closely at the internet during my day, I might have known that had happened!

I saw people on it, but they looked like park staff, so I assumed it wasn’t open…

Ah, well… I’ve done S&S shot towers before (indeed including the previous version of Ice Blast)! And seeing as I got 26 rides in today, I still can’t really complain!

A full report will be coming later, but a few notable points would include:
  • As well as Grand National, Nickelodeon Streak was closed all day for unknown reasons.
  • Quite a few rides were only on one train. The Big One, Avalanche, Infusion and Big Dipper were all only on one, which resulted in some slow dispatch times in some cases (~6 minutes for Big Dipper…). I’m not sure if that’s par for the course on a weekday at Blackpool (it wasn’t really an issue today, seeing as the longest I waited was 30 minutes for a reride on Avalanche) or if things aren’t ready yet, but it was something I noticed. Icon was running quite decently on 2, and Steeplechase was running 2 sides.
  • I remain hugely surprised that people dislike Icon so much! Each to their own of course, but from where I’m standing, it’s smooth, it has loads of great moments of airtime, loads of fun twists and turns, is really rerideable, and is also really quite long by UK standards! It’s definitely still one of my favourite UK coasters, and if anything, I think it might have gone back up a spot or two in my rankings!
  • I think I needed a new spine after Dipper on the back row; wow, that thing was rough!
  • The Big One was running pretty well, and seems to grow on me every time I ride it! It’s definitely a little bit rough in places, but it wasn’t too bad today, for the most part, and I do think the raw speed at the bottom of that first drop is quite something!
  • I did Infusion for the first time since 2018… it remains dire as ever! I also did Steeplechase for the first time since 2018, and that possibly usurps Infusion for me in terms of awfulness… it seemed to do very little other than try to repeatedly impale me in the hips with its seat divider! On the plus side, though, I did gain a +1 in the form of the left side… the right side, which was closed today, was the side I already had from 2018!
  • The revamp of Valhalla has added some cool stuff, and the fire effects are still impressive… but I remain as convinced as ever that the thing was designed by sadists, as it’s still far too wet for me! That ride really does offer total water saturation like no other ride I’ve ridden!
All in all, a very good day was had! I hope it’s not 6 years until I visit again!
 
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BPB must get so annoyed when these news websites mis-label amusement rides on the piers as "Blackpool Pleasure Beach" for clicks.

I get suggested these all the time and you wouldn't believe how many times they name the park and show rides on the piers.
 

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How busy do you think the park will be tomorrow being a bank holiday? I fancy an impromptu visit, but not if the consensus is it'll be ridiculously busy and most rides on 1 train ops.
 
How busy do you think the park will be tomorrow being a bank holiday? I fancy an impromptu visit, but not if the consensus is it'll be ridiculously busy and most rides on 1 train ops.
Can be a bit unpredictable on BH, I don't think it'll be too bad though. The late night riding days are usually the mega busy ones.

Big One was inexplicably on one train yesterday but two today. Dipper and Avalanche are of course still on one train.
 
Really random thought I had yesterday. A couple of months back Pleasure Beach as we know took out a loan for the new Gyro ride. However shortly after the loan got paid back in full within a couple of days, which then speculated the project may have been cancelled. But low and be hold it isn’t. But being curious, do we think they didn’t need the loan in the first place for it to be payed back in full so early and quickly?
 
It was on Radio Lancashire this morning apparently.
Nice half day outing today with dippy.
Walk on Big One!
Quite a rare occurrence this year what with one train ops.
Walk on Launch Pad as well...absolutely no different to the original ride, but better than it was recently.
And the Flying Machines...they said they would be back up to full speed, but oh no they aren't, nowhere near.

And my lovely new Top Trumps clearly state that the dodgems are operating.

Oh if only.

Dodgy kebab on the prom under the safe shelter of the concrete edge to protect from the seagulls...dippy groaning in epicurean ecstasy.
Lovely afternoon of spot the thoosie.
 
Really random thought I had yesterday. A couple of months back Pleasure Beach as we know took out a loan for the new Gyro ride. However shortly after the loan got paid back in full within a couple of days, which then speculated the project may have been cancelled. But low and be hold it isn’t. But being curious, do we think they didn’t need the loan in the first place for it to be payed back in full so early and quickly?
Well with Intamin being so busy getting a build slot quickly is all about timing. It is possible they needed the short term loan in order to get a quick build slot.
 
Well everything was basically a walk on today including the one train Icon which got switched from normal to enso train part way through the day. Was great to meet and chat with Chris (coaster dad) and then an impromptu group formed with Sam (Dive loop coasters) to start some impromptu ride takeovers for a few hours. Great day on park.

I was a little underwhelmed by Launch Pad given its higher PSI I was expecting the same if not better than the original PlayStation but sadly that wasn't to be. Great to get back on it though
 
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