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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Icon 3 years on

Icon; overrated or underappreciated?

  • Total voters
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Matt N

Matt N

TS Member
Favourite Ride
Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
Scott from Pleasure Beach Experience has made a really interesting video that I thought might be worth discussing, now that Icon has been here for 3 years and has firmly embedded itself as part of the furniture at Pleasure Beach:

So my question to you based on this video is; what do you think of Icon?

As for my opinion on Icon; I absolutely adore it, and I’d give Pleasure Beach an absolute 10/10 for the job they did on it!

I personally value rerideability, comfort and pure fun factor in a roller coaster, and Icon delivers this in droves for me! It’s got loads of brilliant ejector airtime pops, some really nice snappy (yet incredibly smooth) transitions, a surprising amount of force in places, a really comfortable and rerideable ride experience, and on the whole, I’ve never come off of it without a huge grin on my face, and surely that’s the best indicator of how much you enjoy a roller coaster?

I know this is an uncommon opinion, but it’s my personal favourite roller coaster in the UK, and my #2 in the world out of 74 coasters ridden. I absolutely love it to bits! Although I should point out that I live down South, so haven’t been able to reride it loads and loads like some of you BPB regulars; I think I’ve had a total of 4 rides on it over 2 Pleasure Beach visits since it opened?

In case you’re wondering, my overall #1, and the only coaster I like more than Icon, is the wonderful Mako at SeaWorld Orlando; now that is an outstanding coaster, in my opinion!

But what are your thoughts on Icon now that it’s bedded into the UK theme park scene a little? I’d firmly agree with Scott in saying that it’s a very polarising ride, so I’d be really intrigued to know your thoughts!
 
Matt N said:
Scott from Pleasure Beach Experience has made a really interesting video that I thought might be worth discussing, now that Icon has been here for 3 years and has firmly embedded itself as part of the furniture at Pleasure Beach:

So my question to you based on this video is; what do you think of Icon?

As for my opinion on Icon; I absolutely adore it, and I’d give Pleasure Beach an absolute 10/10 for the job they did on it!

I personally value rerideability, comfort and pure fun factor in a roller coaster, and Icon delivers this in droves for me! It’s got loads of brilliant ejector airtime pops, some really nice snappy (yet incredibly smooth) transitions, a surprising amount of force in places, a really comfortable and rerideable ride experience, and on the whole, I’ve never come off of it without a huge grin on my face, and surely that’s the best indicator of how much you enjoy a roller coaster?

I know this is an uncommon opinion, but it’s my personal favourite roller coaster in the UK, and my #2 in the world out of 74 coasters ridden. I absolutely love it to bits! Although I should point out that I live down South, so haven’t been able to reride it loads and loads like some of you BPB regulars; I think I’ve had a total of 4 rides on it over 2 Pleasure Beach visits since it opened?

In case you’re wondering, my overall #1, and the only coaster I like more than Icon, is the wonderful Mako at SeaWorld Orlando; now that is an outstanding coaster, in my opinion!

But what are your thoughts on Icon now that it’s bedded into the UK theme park scene a little? I’d firmly agree with Scott in saying that it’s a very polarising ride, so I’d be really intrigued to know your thoughts!
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I completely agree with you Matt; Icon blew me away when I rode it, being so smooth and enjoyable! It really is a fantastic addition. :)
 
We've had many, many pages of thoughts on Icon but it's not really a ride that has changed in the three years it's been in. A Mack launch in the UK promised so much, but never ended up delivering. An initial launch which seems too slow and unexciting when you have the likes of Stealth and Rita in the UK, with a top hat which whilst pretty forceful once warmed up, kills off any sort of excitement in the next part of the ride. It certainly is a polarising ride, but I don't think the past 3 years it's been in has caused many to change their initial opinions.
 
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My opinion has remained the same - underwhelming and boring. There was so much promise, and it just doesn't deliver in my opinion. I can appreciate the people who love it but unfortunately I just don't feel the same.
 
I've only done it a handful of times (only been to Blackpool the once, combination of being a southerner and generally not liking the park), and I've never really gotten the hype myself. Whilst the first airtime hill is brilliant, the rest of it just feels slow, and like nothing really happens. Such a shame as well, Blue Fire and Helix are brilliant coasters- here's hoping we'll get a bigger, better Mack launch elsewhere in the country one day.
 
Icon is nothing short of a letdown. We know that the ride hardware is capable of so much more (looking at you, Helix), so why did they choose to install such a mediocre variation?

Very underwhelming launches, the ride is forceless for the vast majority of the experience, and the meandering helixes and turns in the last third of the ride all make for a completely forgettable coaster.

It is quite impressive they managed to fit a double launch ride in the space available, but that is as far as my positive thoughts on the ride go.
 
It's much too slow to maximise the low-to-ground "quick" transition nature of the ride's layout. It had potential, but is ultimately let down by the launch speed.

Icon is a massive missed opportunity, a coaster of that style needs to fly round like Taron rather than being restrained to only just making it over elements. They have a strong coaster on their hands but have crushed the thrill out of it to save money - a crying shame. It begs the question, if they can't afford to run a double launch coaster to its full potential then why not choose a more suitable ride type.

I can think of many rides at BPB that are, IMO, better than Icon.
 
Coaster said:
. It had potential, but is ultimately let down by the launch speed.
They have a strong coaster on their hands but have crushed the thrill out of it to save money - a crying shame. It begs the question, if they can't afford to run a double launch coaster to its full potential then why not choose a more suitable ride type.
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I've heard this said before, that they run the launches slow to save money, but that's got to nonsense, right?

Does the ride time or top speed differ from the pre-build announcement figures? Would the elements immediately after launch be comfortable, or even safe, at greater speeds?

I struggle to believe it's not run as it is by design.
 
I actually agree with Matt Here. I think it's a brilliant coaster and it's my 2nd favourite in the UK.

Does slightly annoy me how people question the speed. Rita is a faster coaster and is god damn awful so I don't understand that argument. ICON definitely ticks most of the boxes for a top coaster and it's miles better than anything else at PB. Literally in a different league to anything there for me.

My only slight negative would be that I definitely do think they should have made it a more more marketable. A bigger top hat or something unique about it that would make it stand out more. It's a enthusiasts dream but I don't think it's a huge hit with the GP. They still see the Big One as the main attraction which says everything because that ride is awful after the first drop. It's rough and boring.
 
pluk said:
I've heard this said before, that they run the launches slow to save money, but that's got to nonsense, right?

Does the ride time or top speed differ from the pre-build announcement figures? Would the elements immediately after launch be comfortable, or even safe, at greater speeds?

I struggle to believe it's not run as it is by design.
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It’s often been said that 100km/h was the original design speed that Mack designed it to reach; I’ve also heard 90km/h thrown around.

I’ve heard rumblings that the speed that the park runs Icon at (80km/h for launch 1 and 85km/h for launch 2, supposedly) is the minimum speed required to get over the elements directly after the respective launches on a clear day. I must say, given I seem to remember the ride stalling a fair few times on a windy day, this wouldn’t surprise me.

With launch coasters, minimum speed and design speed are often two very different things. Take a ride like Taron, for instance; the top speed there is 72mph, but the ride is less than 100ft tall, so the minimum speed needed to make it around the course is likely far lower.

Although I will say, the ride apparently pulls fairly strong g-forces at its current speed; 4.3G of positive g’s and -1.2G of negative g’s according to the park, as well as a maximum acceleration of 0-80km/h in 2.25 seconds (this equates to approximately 9.87653333333m/s2 if my SUVAT workings are correct, so a rate of acceleration faster than that of gravity (9.81); that’s pretty fast). So with that in mind, it does beg the question of whether the ride would actually be safe at a faster speed.

It’s a real mystery...
 
Now that it’s a separate thread, I might make a poll like Scott did; overrated or underappreciated?

Taking into account my opinions, I’m voting for underappreciated.
 
Benjsh said:
I actually agree with Matt Here. I think it's a brilliant coaster and it's my 2nd favourite in the UK.

Does slightly annoy me how people question the speed. Rita is a faster coaster and is god damn awful so I don't understand that argument. ICON definitely ticks most of the boxes for a top coaster and it's miles better than anything else at PB. Literally in a different league to anything there for me.

My only slight negative would be that I definitely do think they should have made it a more more marketable. A bigger top hat or something unique about it that would make it stand out more. It's a enthusiasts dream but I don't think it's a huge hit with the GP. They still see the Big One as the main attraction which says everything because that ride is awful after the first drop. It's rough and boring.
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It's not really just the speed, it's the way that speed is delivered to the rider. Cable launches are so much snappier, they feel so much more impressive and sound so much more daunting to both rider and spectator. LSMs in general deliver that speed and acceleration far more progressively, and you don't get anywhere near as much of that shock value adrenaline rush as cable launches. There's of course exceptions to the sound argument (oh hi Taron!) but in general they are considerably quieter. Even away from launch coasters, Nemesis's roar, Oblivion's "whoosh" as it enters the tunnel, all trademark sounds that serve to make a ride far more imposing to riders.

The problem is that damn top hat. You get that relatively decent hit of airtime, but it's at the expense of completely killing off most of the speed from that launch. As you descend, you're not much faster than you would be from the top of a bog standard lift hill. It's a lot of energy wasted on a short lived element at the expense of completely meandering around the rest of the circuit until the 2nd launch. Even with a faster first launch (which to be honest would be fairly uncomfortable once warmed up), the sharp angle of that top hat would still have a similar effect. Top hat elements really need a far higher height to be of any use, there's just not enough track after hitting the top to build up any sort of momentum on the way back down for the rest of the circuit to be exciting.
 
Craig said:
It's not really just the speed, it's the way that speed is delivered to the rider. Cable launches are so much snappier, they feel so much more impressive and sound so much more daunting to both rider and spectator. LSMs in general deliver that speed and acceleration far more progressively, and you don't get anywhere near as much of that shock value adrenaline rush as cable launches. There's of course exceptions to the sound argument (oh hi Taron!) but in general they are considerably quieter. Even away from launch coasters, Nemesis's roar, Oblivion's "whoosh" as it enters the tunnel, all trademark sounds that serve to make a ride far more imposing to riders.

The problem is that damn top hat. You get that relatively decent hit of airtime, but it's at the expense of completely killing off most of the speed from that launch. As you descend, you're not much faster than you would be from the top of a bog standard lift hill. It's a lot of energy wasted on a short lived element at the expense of completely meandering around the rest of the circuit until the 2nd launch. Even with a faster first launch (which to be honest would be fairly uncomfortable once warmed up), the sharp angle of that top hat would still have a similar effect. Top hat elements really need a far higher height to be of any use, there's just not enough track after hitting the top to build up any sort of momentum on the way back down for the rest of the circuit to be exciting.
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I think LSM launches can be snappier than the ones on Icon are; Intamin’s LSM launches often tend to be pretty snappy (I certainly seem to remember Cheetah Hunt’s feeling a bit faster than Icon’s), and other manufacturers like Gerstlauer also do some pretty snappy LSM launches (Fluch Von Novgorod uses LSMs, and that has the second fastest accelerating launch in the world!)

Out of interest, what would you personally suggest be after the launch instead of the top hat? Do you think a smaller, less sharply angled hill would have worked better? Also, do you reckon the Immelmann after the second launch has a similar effect?

Personally, I’ve never really found Icon to be slow or unexciting; I’ve always thought it feels pretty fast! I’ll admit that it’s perhaps not the most intense or forceful coaster, but it always feels like it’s doing something to me. Even in the slower bits towards the end, you still get some really good lateral whip and sideways airtime.

I think the thing with Icon’s launches is that they function merely as a propulsion system to get the ride up to speed as opposed to a pivotal part of the ride. Launch coasters these days, especially the more elaborate multi-launch coasters like Icon, don’t necessarily need to be defined by their launches. I’d personally argue that nowadays, launches are almost becoming nothing more than an alternative means of propulsion to the chain lift hill as opposed to a key feature of a ride.
 
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Oh absolutely there's LSMs that can pack a punch, I'm just saying in general they don't have as much of a shock value as the cable types. Novgorod certainly pretty much feels like it's tearing itself apart when it launches :tearsofjoy:. In terms of after the launch, yes you either needed a taller top hat to allow the train to build up more speed on the way back down, or reduce the angle so that you don't kill off as much speed. I have no idea if the drop in speed thing for cost reasons is true, I personally think it was for comfort reasons more than anything. If that is the case, either of those changes would allow for higher launch speeds too.

In terms of the second launch, the fact it's a rolling launch and that it at least seems slightly longer helps. But the angle is so much better, the track flows so much better after that launch compared to the abruptness of the top hat.
 
I was discussing this on Discord the other night. The park had so much space and a ride type with huge potential and then somehow created that.

Here's a visualisation of a Mack Launch coaster that would have the station where Grand Prix is and didn't require removal of the Tom Sawyer Bridge.



So obviously when we saw the bridge removed and the huge scale of the ride we realised there was huge potential. Then just as the real Icon hype was building, they tore down Wild Mouse without notcie. This meant that there was even more pressure on them to replace it with something else thrilling and they failed. Icon was expensive, BPB do not appear to have much money so this had to work. It didn't.

Icon promised so much but delivered so little whereas in the same year, Wickerman was dismissed by many as being too small to be good, and then when it opened packed a huge punch. Wickerman delivers speed and airtime, with quick transitions from high to low. Icon meanders round at a slow speed doing a couple of inversions. When you look at it, it's no wonder Icon failed, they had the opporunity to create a huge headline coaster. Instead they created something bland.
 
It's a good coaster but it was the wrong choice by the park.

When you are spending £16.5m on a coaster and you are not going to embark upon a big marketing campaign, then there are 2 important boxes it needs to tick....

Firstly it has to be visible from a good distance outside the park - this is especially important for a seaside park with the potential for a lot of walk up trade, but Icon isn't even visible from across the street.

And secondly it needs to have a USP - but the UK's first double launch coaster just isn't a big enough selling point.

Icon has generated little to no extra footfall for the park, and park attendances actually went down in Icons opening year. This is nothing short of a disaster for the park who were already struggling financially and were clearly relying on Icon to bring the crowds in.

I think the management just expected the ride to pull in punters like the Big One did all those years ago - but failed to realise they weren't building anything anywhere near as Iconic!! - Which even suggest the rides name is way off the mark.

When you are building the worlds tallest roller coaster you don't need marketing, the ride will sell itself. This is not the case when you are just building a really good family coaster, and essentially that's what Icon is.

In short, it's a good coaster but wasn't value for money and a bad choice by the park.
 
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