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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2021 Discussion

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Is Icon’s Speedy Pass entrance up the exit, or is it elsewhere?

How come Blackpool didn’t do what the Merlin parks do on their newer rides, and put a separate Speedy Pass entrance at the front of the queue alongside the main entrance and have a merge point prior to boarding, maybe just before the wristband scanner (from memory, Icon’s wristband scanner is just before the door into the station isn’t it?), with a staff member batching some Speedy Pass riders and some normal queue riders through into the station, like Alton & Thorpe do?

Was it a space issue, as I know Icon’s site is quite cramped?
 
Icons speedypass queue comes in from the Big Dipper exit ramp side, and now the merge is at the general scanner.
Blackpool has the issue of limited capacity, they can't cope with big numbers on park at the best of times, add a couple of thousand speedypassers and things fall apart.
Could I add I'm (self) banned from the Beach at the moment, for covid and health reasons.
Some of the recent posts have made me rather jealous, thank you.
I'd even put up with the queue for a pizza.
 
John said:
On several coasters (Streak, Infusion, Avalanche - possibly others) Speedy Pass users enter via the exit, this slows down loading significantly as they have to be let in before anyone else can board. At Merlin parks, fastrack users always board from onload side so ride operations are not affected.
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EVE (or whatever it is now) users also use the exit on those rides, which exacerbates the problem.
 
It’s no wonder that Speedy Pass gets so much hostility from BPB fans.

I actually don’t massively object to fastrack systems if, and only if, they are run properly and don’t massively impact the main queues.

I’ve watched at certain Merlin parks, and have seen that, even on busy days, fastrack makes up less than 10% of total riders (with far more capacity seeming to go to people with Ride Access Passes).

As has already been mentioned, BPB need to monitor the numbers sold properly and have proper merge points rather than using exits. Rides which can’t fit merge points should not run Speedy Pass. Simple as. On Grand National in particular, it’s an absolute shambles for people queueing for the left side, with no warning about which seats will get allocated to Speedy Pass holders.

Again, yet another example of how BPB just don’t help themselves.
 
Will be at BPB early this week - likely only have 4 or 5 hours on park. What would you recommend riding and which order (will be there from opening..) in that time. All I’ve read from here is avoid any seats above wheels on any of the Woodies! :)
 
SubGuru said:
Will be at BPB early this week - likely only have 4 or 5 hours on park. What would you recommend riding and which order (will be there from opening..) in that time. All I’ve read from here is avoid any seats above wheels on any of the Woodies! :)
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If you get there for opening (in fact, get there a good while before opening as by 11am the queue to get in was down on the prom), you should be able to do Nash, Ghost Train, Alice etc pretty sharpish. I see BPB as a bit of pot luck as to what will be ready to open when, so just nip on rides as and when you see they've not got much of a queue. When Icon and PMBO finally opened on Friday, their queues were substantial and massively out their respective entrances, however by the afternoon, once people had got chance to spread around, we didn't wait more than 25 mins for PMBO or 15 mins for Icon. :)
 
Rick said:
94 or 95 I think. The only rides she never rode were The Big One and Valhalla. Her trip on Spin Doctor was on 'ferris wheel mode'.
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How come she never rode the Big One if she rode Ice Blast and Spin Doctor? (Spin Doctor wasn’t added until the 2000s, was it?)

Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Doris Thompson die only a very short time after Geoffrey?
 
As mentioned above the cycle on spin doctor could be controlled, and I imagine Ice Blast could be the same. So they could put her on in reasonably safe cycle.

Wheras the Big One and Valhalla she'd have been open to the full ride experience forces (barring them turning the effects off on Valhalla.)
 
So I take it Avalanche was the last new roller coaster she rode?

She would still have been 85 when Avalanche opened, which is an impressive age to be riding roller coasters at in itself!
 
John_P said:
As mentioned above the cycle on spin doctor could be controlled, and I imagine Ice Blast could be the same. So they could put her on in reasonably safe cycle.
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Indeed, was 'Program 3' on Spin Dr, not sure it was ever used for the public. Was either P1 (short), P2 (longer).

She took the full force of Playstation and it launched like an absolute MF back then.
 
I’ve got a cool, low-cost suggestion that I think could work very well for Blackpool’s next coaster, whenever the time comes.

Zamperla recently unveiled a new train design similar to Gerstlauer’s Infinity Coaster known as the Lightning. One of the uses of this model is for a Sky Rocket II-style ride known as the Double Heart, with two stock models, one at 50m (164ft) tall and one at 70m (229.7ft) tall, being marketed by the company. I think the 70m model in particular would work well for BPB; here’s a video of it from Zamperla:


And here’s the smaller 50m model:


I think that the Zamperla Double Heart, particularly the 70m model, would work well for BPB for a few good reasons:
  • Low cost - An exact cost has not been disclosed, but Zamperla are not typically an expensive manufacturer, and one of the key selling points they use in the video is the ride type “[costing] a fraction of the price” of a typical hyper coaster. This would lower the risk involved with investing from Blackpool’s end, and would certainly be more attainable to the company cost-wise than a more sprawling coaster from a more expensive manufacturer.
  • Marketability - This ride would have numerous potential selling points for Blackpool to use if they were to construct it. For instance; “the UK’s first swing launch coaster”, “the UK’s tallest inversion”, or in the case of the 70m model, “the UK’s tallest coaster”. I know that 70m is shorter than Blackpool’s official claim of 235ft for the Big One, but if they were to measure this ride from sea level as they did for Big One, it would come out at around 252ft (based on RCDB’s height claim for the Big One relative to Blackpool’s), giving it grounds to swoop in and take the record. If the 70m model was chosen, this would have the potential to generate an icon on the scale of the Big One for a fraction of the price. The ride is also quite a striking coaster in terms of visuals, in my opinion!
  • Compact footprint - By nature, this style of ride is very compact; Zamperla themselves say that the layout was designed to take up “minimal ground space”, which is essential for any ride constructed at BPB. The park lacks space, so a ride like the Zamperla Double Heart would be perfect, in my opinion.
  • Throughput - The throughput of this type of ride is not typically very high, but the Zamperla Double Heart has a turntable, making for a theoretical throughput of 970 riders per hour for the 70m model when two 16-rider trains are used. I’m unsure how 970pph compares to some of Blackpool’s other coasters, but that certainly didn’t sound like a bad number to me!
So that’s why I think that the Zamperla Double Heart would work well for BPB! What do you guys think of my idea?
 
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That double heart coaster looks like good fun. I was about to say about throughput being crap on one train like Revolution, Tigris, etc, but that turntable is pretty cool. Yeah I’d take that at BPB any day. Especially if it takes the place of Infusion!
 
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