Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2023 Discussion

[ML27]

Heard there was a media event on Wednesday, it’s just been postponed 48 hours before the event. That’s poor form and shows the park don’t even want to show it to the media in its current state.

 

[Coaster]

Come on now, the ice room looked like that on a good day, outside summer, when you were lucky.
I would guess that I saw it like that on about half a dozen occasions, in twenty years of regular riding.
Otherwise, a bit of slush in a chilly room, or sometimes nothing at all.
Edit...anyone recall what rides had buzzbars at the Beach?

I only used to visit once a year back then but prior to its 2011/12 refurbishment I remember seeing the ice room like that most years when we visited!

 

[rob666]

I can only say you struck lucky!
Most of the time it was a pile of slush in a white room.

 

[AstroDan]

Just a reminder that the Valhalla ice room used to look like this!

It was absolutely mind blowing travelling through a freezing cold room full of real snow, ice, and having it aimed at you from above.

Hopefully Pleasure Beach are able to restore or match this level of quality; it was truly on another level compared to any other ride I've been on.

This is my problem with Valhalla and its absurd reputation.

I rode it many times over many years. Was it cool? Yes. Was it bonkers? Yes.

But the accolades is received? Would I pick this ride up and drop it carte blanche into Efteling, Phantasialand, Europa-Park, Disney, Universal?

No. I wouldn't.

Gaping flaws in the theming, poor sight lines, effects permanently temperamental, capacity woeful, ride system iffy.

To me, this new version sounds the same.

 

[Poisson]

I'd agree with that. It's meant to take on the likes of Piraten in Batavia and Chiapas and has never stacked up against those for me

 

[venny]

Is it really competing with Pirates and Chiapas? It’s built for the tourists of Blackpool as an extroverted, spectacular statement ride that was intended to draw in the days of pay per ride. I’d wager 95% of whom have never heard of either Chiapas or Piraten.

I can’t see any possibility of it being built nowadays, but it is and always will be a totally different proposition to those European rides.

 

[Matt N]

I never even knew that Valhalla’s ice room was supposed to have a snow machine… when I went, it was just cold.

It reminded me of a budget version of Antarctica at SeaWorld Orlando, and I honestly thought that was what it was supposed to be like!

 

[siralgenon]

This is my problem with Valhalla and its absurd reputation.

I rode it many times over many years. Was it cool? Yes. Was it bonkers? Yes.

But the accolades is received? Would I pick this ride up and drop it carte blanche into Efteling, Phantasialand, Europa-Park, Disney, Universal?

No. I wouldn't.

Gaping flaws in the theming, poor sight lines, effects permanently temperamental, capacity woeful, ride system iffy.

To me, this new version sounds the same.

I've never understood where it gets this 'best water ride in the world' tag line from. Is it just a PB marketing tagline or has it been mentioned somewhere in else?

Because in my opinion it's no where near the best in the world because of the above. It might be one of the biggest in terms of the drops it has, but size overall and theming / the complete package, I don't think it is.

 

[John]

For YEARS it won best water ride in the golden ticket awards, I think it even won in 2020 despite being closed. It seems more recently people have finally realised Chiapas exists and that has won the last couple.

I always felt that Valhalla was/is superficially impressive, mainly because of the fire but also the ice room (when it worked properly). If you rode it multiple times though the many flaws became more obvious and harder to ignore. I'm guessing a result of this was that a lot of US enthusiasts who might have ridden it once or twice (maybe many years ago) kept voting for it in the golden tickets even up against far more deserving rides.

 

[Rick]

It won the Golden Ticket for best water ride in the world six years in a row, even when it was closed.

 

[Coaster]

This is my problem with Valhalla and its absurd reputation.

I rode it many times over many years. Was it cool? Yes. Was it bonkers? Yes.

But the accolades is received? Would I pick this ride up and drop it carte blanche into Efteling, Phantasialand, Europa-Park, Disney, Universal?

No. I wouldn't.

Gaping flaws in the theming, poor sight lines, effects permanently temperamental, capacity woeful, ride system iffy.

To me, this new version sounds the same.

I think a lot of this comes down to the rides being compared here being very different.

The dark rides at Efteling (and I am sure Disney) have grand, vastly detailed sets; something that Valhalla doesn’t have. However, those rides don’t have the ridiculous number of massive, ambitious special effects that Valhalla had.

Valhalla in its prime was my favourite ride anywhere. I loved it because it was different to anything else in the world; it was unapologetically bonkers, the result of un-restricted ambition, and had an energy and atmosphere that I am still yet to find anywhere else.

I have never known another ride plunge you through real fire, or to take you through a room full of real snow and ice. The focus on all the senses, the afterlife, the fact that some of it was pitch black, the booming soundtrack, all of those things made it huge and dramatic.

It is definitely the case that Valhalla is flawed by design; the sheer number of special effects was not sustainable, the ride system was knackered from day one, and there are parts of the ride that were never up to the standard of the rest of it (bin bag tunnel).

However, I think that it absolutely deserves its reputation. It ticks all the boxes for a ride; it’s thrilling, scary, dramatic, it’s a themed experience and it had special effects that were well ahead of its time. I much prefer prime Valhalla to any other dark ride I’ve been on, including the ones at Efteling; that isn’t wrong, it’s just different.

It is interesting that you mention Phantasialand though; their examples of dark rides (Geister, Hollywood Tour, Maus au Chocolat) aren’t exactly up to the standard of the rest of the park, and I’d suggest Valhalla is far better than those!

Is it really competing with Pirates and Chiapas? It’s built for the tourists of Blackpool as an extroverted, spectacular statement ride that was intended to draw in the days of pay per ride. I’d wager 95% of whom have never heard of either Chiapas or Piraten.

I can’t see any possibility of it being built nowadays, but it is and always will be a totally different proposition to those European rides.

Chiapas and Valhalla are very different rides. Chiapas is scenic, upbeat, and focuses of having loads of impressive static theming and sight-lines. Valhalla is a scary indoor dark ride experience; those rides are not trying to achieve the same thing.

I much prefer original Valhalla to Chiapas, it offered so much more IMO. These days? I'm not so sure.

 

[Rick]

@Coaster Jamie ... pick yourself up off the floor when you have read this ... but I agree with you !

From a ride system perspective, Chiapas is almost certainly the better ride, but it came 14 years later and incorporated a lot of the lessons that Intamin learnt in that time.

 

[ML27]

Weren’t people genuinely saying that this will be the UKs best dark ride and that Alton Manor would only be for a month or so.

I genuinely can’t see a turn around like that.

 

[Shaggy_Dog_]

This is my problem with Valhalla and its absurd reputation.

I rode it many times over many years. Was it cool? Yes. Was it bonkers? Yes.

But the accolades is received? Would I pick this ride up and drop it carte blanche into Efteling, Phantasialand, Europa-Park, Disney, Universal?

No. I wouldn't.

Gaping flaws in the theming, poor sight lines, effects permanently temperamental, capacity woeful, ride system iffy.

To me, this new version sounds the same.

The funniest thing was when it won the Golden Ticket Award in 2021 for Best Water Ride in the world despite it probably not being the best water ride in the world and for having been stood SBNO for a couple of years. Chaiapas was well and truly robbed. But then again not sure how much the Golden Ticket Awards are actually based on the actual rides and what’s going on with them.

 

[Zeock]

I've never understood where it gets this 'best water ride in the world' tag line from. Is it just a PB marketing tagline or has it been mentioned somewhere in else?

It has won best water ride many times in the Golden Ticket Awards.

 

[TroySmith1]

Yeah I think it’s fair to say The Curse At Alton Manor is the best dark ride in the country then. Alton towers had 6 months….Valhalla has had over 3 years and is an actually a abysmal mess! Apart from all the downgrades towards theming garden centre probs, stripped back effects, removed backwards drop, downgrade on audio and the list goes on. Probably the worse thing overall is the boats filling up with ridiculous amounts of water, actually worse than before. Where are the upgrades we waited years for, paid increased ticket prices. They should honestly be ashamed of them selfs, I’m sorry but this ride will always be known for an absolute shambles now.

To me this is a log fume at best and not a dark ride, it’s not immersive and offers no new technology or impressive story telling.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[WillPS]

Valhalla is supposed to tell a story is it? That's a new one on me, unless you count splashes and cold then fire as a story.

 

[QTXAdsy]

Weren’t people genuinely saying that this will be the UKs best dark ride and that Alton Manor would only be for a month or so.

I genuinely can’t see a turn around like that.

The Battle of the year of the UK Dark Ride won by Towers then? Though honestly despite being two giant parks for the UK, they are both are like two punched up boxers past their prime which in truth neither had anything to lose as there are no other dark rides from other parks to compare.

That said, if Paultons get this dark ride that has been rumoured for sometime within a few years ends being built then that could turn things upside down.

 

[John_P]

Wish people would stop banging on about the fact it was shut for over 3 years completely ignoring a global pandemic that likely put the entire existence of the park under threat.

 

[Coaster]

Wish people would stop banging on about the fact it was shut for over 3 years completely ignoring a global pandemic that likely put the entire existence of the park under threat.

I would have much more sympathy with Pleasure Beach on this if their owner didn't support the Tories, who essentially took all the problems the pandemic threw at us, multiplied them by 10 and then profited from them.

Because Amanda is so vocal in her support of them, the pandemic or Brexit excuses do not wash with me.