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Southport Pleasureland

Our last visit a few years ago we did about 90 mins and left. It's just a pale shadow of what it used to be.
Wallis has only recently took over the park, before that it was a collection of different travelling operators, now it’s all unified and lots of landscaping has been done to the area. TPWW has a great recent blog showing the new set up and it really is a perfectly pleasant place now given what it was. There’s less rides than there was before the 2006 closure but it’s no less pleasant than the latter days of the original park :)
 
Wallis has only recently took over the park, before that it was a collection of different travelling operators, now it’s all unified and lots of landscaping has been done to the area. TPWW has a great recent blog showing the new set up and it really is a perfectly pleasant place now given what it was. There’s less rides than there was before the 2006 closure but it’s no less pleasant than the latter days of the original park :)
Wallis has actually had the site since it reopened however he leased rides from showman as he didn't have the rights to put permanent structures on the site. He has recently secured a new lease agreement with the council that means he can build on the land. This is from what I understand from reading the articles from when it reopened.
 
Wallis has actually had the site since it reopened however he leased rides from showman as he didn't have the rights to put permanent structures on the site. He has recently secured a new lease agreement with the council that means he can build on the land. This is from what I understand from reading the articles from when it reopened.
Pedantry aside, there’s been a very definite change in the way that the park is run since it has been reopened.
 
Wallis has only recently took over the park, before that it was a collection of different travelling operators, now it’s all unified and lots of landscaping has been done to the area. TPWW has a great recent blog showing the new set up and it really is a perfectly pleasant place now given what it was. There’s less rides than there was before the 2006 closure but it’s no less pleasant than the latter days of the original park :)

We visited summer 2019 and were incredibly disappointed by it. It's just a cheap tacky fair ground.

I remember the park in its glory days and it was fabulous.
 
I remember the park in its glory days and it was fabulous.

I can't audit your personal memories, but even as a fairly regular visitor, I would never have described Pleasureland in its BPB/Thompson tenure as "fabulous". It vastly improved post-Traumatizer, but even then it tapered off after a few years with little in the way of major investment. The park always felt a little half-baked to me, never possessing the charm or variety of it's big sister, and the Moroccan theme that they kept up until the bitter end was always pretty drab and much as I am loathe to use the term, tacky. In fact, I always saw Pleasureland as possessing all the outdated elements that the Pleasure Beach had wisely ditched.

Loved the Fun House, though!
 
I can't audit your personal memories, but even as a fairly regular visitor, I would never have described Pleasureland in its BPB/Thompson tenure as "fabulous". It vastly improved post-Traumatizer, but even then it tapered off after a few years with little in the way of major investment. The park always felt a little half-baked to me, never possessing the charm or variety of it's big sister, and the Moroccan theme that they kept up until the bitter end was always pretty drab and much as I am loathe to use the term, tacky. In fact, I always saw Pleasureland as possessing all the outdated elements that the Pleasure Beach had wisely ditched.

Loved the Fun House, though!

Fabulous childhood memories is what I was eluding to there not a fabulous theme park.

Some of my best theme park ever days were in that place. Riding the Cyclone over and over and over.
 
Early 2000s PleasureLand was always somewhere I found enjoyable. There was enough attractions to keep you busy, some really unique stuff too like the crooked house, what became lost dinosaurs of the sahara, the helper skelter with the bowl and of course the fun house.

In comparison to that, the current offering really is just a fairground with very little in the way of relative charm or uniqueness.
 
I can't audit your personal memories, but even as a fairly regular visitor, I would never have described Pleasureland in its BPB/Thompson tenure as "fabulous". It vastly improved post-Traumatizer, but even then it tapered off after a few years with little in the way of major investment.
The final flourish, as it were, was pretty exciting. Mistral in 1996, Tidal Wave in 1997, Chaos in 1998, TRAUMAtizer in 1999, King Solomon's Mines in 2000, Space Shot in 2002, Astroswirl & River Caves refresh in 2004 and three new rides in 2006. But it all came to nothing, as we know.

Do you think that back in the 90s Frontierland got just slightly more attention and that was part of the issue?
Frontierland didn't get a great deal of attention throughout the 1990s save for the Chairlift and the Polo Tower (both relocations). WGT held off with Pleasureland until the Pleasure Beach company was the only game in town. There were still concessionaires on rides into the late 1990s and on food, bingo, games etc until the early 2000s.

As for the new addition, great to see something permanent. The ride in Coney Island was fine, quite uncomfortable in some spots though.
 
Analysis by TPWW;



Aparently this model is now caled "Lightning" after originally being known as "Thunderbolt".
 
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Isn't the one at Coney Island supposed to be awfully rough to ride?

I didn't find it that rough tbh. Forceful, certainly, but not particularly rough. And definitely a coaster I'd want to experience again, so fingers crossed for Southport!
 
Analysis by TPWW;



Aparently this model is now caled "Lightning" after originally being known as "Thunderbolt".

Would be an excellent addition for the park and hopefully a flagship ride that'll dominate the Southport skyline that hasn't been there then since Trumatizer and Cyclone.

For those talking about roughness, I'm sure if they get this then the newer model will likely be more smoother if they have sorted out the roughness by now.
 
i don't think roughness matters unless you're a Theme Park Enthusiast to be honest.

I mean, it doesn't stop the general public from riding the Grand National, The Big Dipper,Infusion or any of the other boneshakers.
 
i don't think roughness matters unless you're a Theme Park Enthusiast to be honest.

I mean, it doesn't stop the general public from riding the Grand National, The Big Dipper,Infusion or any of the other boneshakers.
I think the public think about it less than enthusiasts (which is true of almost anything about coasters, right), but there have been a number of coasters removed due to low/reduced ridership and they're often the rougher rides.

I can't recall which it was, but when Six Flags removed one of their Arrow loopers, either GASM or Shockwave, they actually put out the rider numbers season by season and it was a pretty steady decline, whereas older rides like their mine trains still brought the folks in like they always had done.
 
Even if they build it smooth, the local shifting sands will rough it up in no time.
Nothing like the driving rollercoaster that is Southport Marine Drive, think I have bottomed out every car I have ever owned on there.
 
Even if they build it smooth, the local shifting sands will rough it up in no time.
Nothing like the driving rollercoaster that is Southport Marine Drive, think I have bottomed out every car I have ever owned on there.
Interesting I had never thought about this. Do you think this will affect the track much? Do you think the ride will need more maintance to deal with it?
 
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