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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2023 Discussion
- Thread starter rob666
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shakey
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Wild Mouse - Blackpool - :(
I was there today (Sunday 21st May) and I didn't think it was very busy at all, especially with how good the weather was .
Biggest queue was the big one which was about 40mins in the afternoon. And as already mentioned that was because it wasn't even on one full train (two rows out).
Steeple was about 25mins (on two lanes), and Avalanche (did it early) was about 20mins (although that would have got longer through the day due to still running one train - until it broke)
Everything else was 10mins or less, including Nash, Ice Blast, Valhalla (early afternoon), Infusion, Streak (morning) and Icon. W&G was walk on in the afternoon, as was river caves.
So I would say the park was actually fairly quiet. And if they had run steeple, avalanche and big one on full trains then there would have barely been a queue of note all day.
Fantastic weather and a really good day on the park. A bit annoying that they only ran one train on the Big One and two lanes on Steeple (unfortunately they seem to be doing that more often).
A word about the App with the queue times on. Utterly pointless and totally inaccurate. It was saying Valhalla had a 30minute queue but we only waited 5mins (3 times). It said the big one was 15mins but was actually 40mins. Plus the queue times didn't really get updated much throughout the day.
I will make a separate post with my review of Valhalla which we rode 3 times today.
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You're probably right, I spend most of the day at Big one
Certainly busier than previous Sundays this year, but as noted, better operations could've solved that. What I consider a busy day now is nowhere near what busy used to beI genuinely think the times are just guessed in advance
Big one still said closed on the app for about half an hour after it opened this morning
shakey
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Wild Mouse - Blackpool - :(
Yep, it's certainly not monitored very well.
After avalanche shut it said "This ride is currently closed but will open again shortly" (or something like that). But it was clear for anyone to see that they had no intention of reopening it with the train stuck on the lift hill. But that message remained for the rest of the day.
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They’ve had the back few rows of the Big One blocked off for a while now…any idea why? Miss the back row rides!
Blackhole_Sun
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Black Hole
I am not sure, when I was there a week ago someone told me that they were stuck on the big one for a while as it came into the brake run too quickly and cut out. I assume it’s perhaps running too quickly with more weight in it.
Avalanche is a great ride, I recall from my last visit the Grand National closed as they had a technical issue and it reopened but showed as closed on the app all day. Thankfully we had a quiet day, the app is absolutely useless and the scanning for each ride is so annoying.
Katy
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Wildfire (Kolmården)
Yes, on Sunday (and the previous Sunday) car 4 row 3, and car 5 row 1, are roped off, on a single train. On Saturday, two train ops and only one row roped off, can't remember of it was 4/3 or further down the train - I definitely sat in 5/1 multiple times that day. They only have two trains in the station building so how one row "breaks" when it's on single train ops, but is fine on both trains.... ????
JT01
TS Member
Just seen the recent Vlog from Your Experience Guide who are very pro BPB and they have been very critical with the state of the park and attractions. Specially with Valhalla with half of the effects not working again and Constant start stopping throughout the ride. Worst part the Boats apparently collided Mid ride which is very dangerous!
I think Valhalla has been a complete Failure and its sad because it could be such a world class ride. But it seems to advanced and costly for what the park management to handle.
The amount of money this park needs to properly fix all their badly ageing rides must be astronomical! and I cant see them spending what is needed and i cant see them spending on any new major new attractions in the near future.
I don't see much of a bright future for this park anytime soon.
I think Valhalla has been a complete Failure and its sad because it could be such a world class ride. But it seems to advanced and costly for what the park management to handle.
The amount of money this park needs to properly fix all their badly ageing rides must be astronomical! and I cant see them spending what is needed and i cant see them spending on any new major new attractions in the near future.
I don't see much of a bright future for this park anytime soon.
To add perspective...
Had a stunning afternoon there on Friday, usual good company, beer ice cream and rides, with moderate crowds and decent operations.
Didn't notice the Big One seats, we only did the near back.
I did note, in the sun, under the mild effect of strange beer, how bloody lovely the park was looking.
And some of the staff...
But then again, we didn't go on the train ride, or Val Harry.
shakey
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Wild Mouse - Blackpool - :(
Valhalla 2.0 Review
I did the ride during the infamous technical rehearsals with virtually zero effects so this was my first proper go since the park announced the ride was officially reopen.
I will start with a quick rundown of the effects during the ride. First lift hill is good. I like the new 'V' at the bottom of the hill. The skulls on either side of the lift hill are pretty decent and the face with smoke coming out of it at the top of the hill is very effective. The dogs before the lift hill seem to have lost their bark unfortunately (don't know if the sound was broken or if its just been removed)
Lanterns at the top of the lift hill are ok, then there is something else on the right which I have no idea what its supposed to be, it lights up with a noise and I can only describe it as a lump of cloth !! (anyone got a clue?). There was also a bit of a dark section (not sure if something was broken) before the steam corridor, which is still a great effect. This is followed by a dark area with glowing walls (where the walled water falls used to be I think).
So to the turntable we go. There is a half hearted visual effect on the new boarded up bit, which isn't particularly great. You can also clearly see light coming through the planks. This would have been a great place for some sort of projection mapping or screen and I think they should have made better use of it.
The now forwards mini drop is in darkness followed by something just throwing water at the boat (no idea what that's for).
Onwards into the Hot Ice room !! - I actually think they have done a decent job here. Yes they have removed the cold to save money but the new artificial snow machine was quite effective (assuming you know where to look). It would have been better if the snow fell into the boat instead of to the left of it though. I will gloss over the hot ice statue but the other statues look ok and are well lit up in stages.
Second drop followed by the water vortex which is currently working well. Second lift hill still doesn't have anything of note. Hammers working plus the log and arrows. New moving ghost/skeletons to the left before the last drop are not very effective at all. You can barely see them and I didn't hear any accompanying sound . Its very easy to miss these unless you know to look for them. The new bells above your head will also not be noticed by most people. I could just about hear a bell sound.
Some flashing thing above the last drop with zero effects at the bottom of the hill . No ring of fire or any fire of any description until the final room where we did get one fireball explosion.
Did it three times with same effects working each time.
The audio narrative which is there through the first half of the ride is difficult to tell what is being said apart from a few lines I picked up. There doesn't appear to be any ride narrative after the middle drop.
The new soundtrack is not to my taste (compared to the old soundtrack) . Think its played near the end of the ride but the old soundtrack was much better in my opinion.
Now to the wetness !! - I took a complete change of clothes so did the 3 rides in various seats with no poncho. Utterly ridiculous !! - On my second ride (final drop) I was hit by a wall of water from the right, which connected to the side of my face with such a force that it hurt. That really wouldn't have been great for a small child. Front left is still the worst seat with water tipping into the boat on two corners (as before).
I went with a few mates (2 who had never ridden Valhalla before), and to be perfectly honest it was hilarious. I suppose you could say that Valhalla was the highlight of the day in many ways, just because of the sheer stupidity of it.
BUT - I think with the 3.5years they have had, they could have done more to fix some of the issues with the ride. The few new effects they have added don't really blow you away (or maybe some were not fully working when I rode it). When the ride closed it was unreliable with broken effects, inches of water in the boats and water tipping into the boat on corners. None of this seems to have been addressed, in fact I would say the wetness levels have been dialled up even more than before. (Probably done to generate revenue from ponchos)
We really did have a laugh on Valhalla but its a right performance getting lockers and getting changed. It takes a good half hour out of your day and there really isn't anywhere decent to change. I ended up getting my tackle out in the locker room near the exit. Managed to avoid any prying eyes apart from the security camera !!
Is it fun to do occasionally if you go prepared? YES, definitely.
Would I ride it on every visit ? NO, its far too much hassle.
Would I have preferred them to have removed it and built on indoor coaster? 100% YES
I did the ride during the infamous technical rehearsals with virtually zero effects so this was my first proper go since the park announced the ride was officially reopen.
I will start with a quick rundown of the effects during the ride. First lift hill is good. I like the new 'V' at the bottom of the hill. The skulls on either side of the lift hill are pretty decent and the face with smoke coming out of it at the top of the hill is very effective. The dogs before the lift hill seem to have lost their bark unfortunately (don't know if the sound was broken or if its just been removed)
Lanterns at the top of the lift hill are ok, then there is something else on the right which I have no idea what its supposed to be, it lights up with a noise and I can only describe it as a lump of cloth !! (anyone got a clue?). There was also a bit of a dark section (not sure if something was broken) before the steam corridor, which is still a great effect. This is followed by a dark area with glowing walls (where the walled water falls used to be I think).
So to the turntable we go. There is a half hearted visual effect on the new boarded up bit, which isn't particularly great. You can also clearly see light coming through the planks. This would have been a great place for some sort of projection mapping or screen and I think they should have made better use of it.
The now forwards mini drop is in darkness followed by something just throwing water at the boat (no idea what that's for).
Onwards into the Hot Ice room !! - I actually think they have done a decent job here. Yes they have removed the cold to save money but the new artificial snow machine was quite effective (assuming you know where to look). It would have been better if the snow fell into the boat instead of to the left of it though. I will gloss over the hot ice statue but the other statues look ok and are well lit up in stages.
Second drop followed by the water vortex which is currently working well. Second lift hill still doesn't have anything of note. Hammers working plus the log and arrows. New moving ghost/skeletons to the left before the last drop are not very effective at all. You can barely see them and I didn't hear any accompanying sound . Its very easy to miss these unless you know to look for them. The new bells above your head will also not be noticed by most people. I could just about hear a bell sound.
Some flashing thing above the last drop with zero effects at the bottom of the hill . No ring of fire or any fire of any description until the final room where we did get one fireball explosion.
Did it three times with same effects working each time.
The audio narrative which is there through the first half of the ride is difficult to tell what is being said apart from a few lines I picked up. There doesn't appear to be any ride narrative after the middle drop.
The new soundtrack is not to my taste (compared to the old soundtrack) . Think its played near the end of the ride but the old soundtrack was much better in my opinion.
Now to the wetness !! - I took a complete change of clothes so did the 3 rides in various seats with no poncho. Utterly ridiculous !! - On my second ride (final drop) I was hit by a wall of water from the right, which connected to the side of my face with such a force that it hurt. That really wouldn't have been great for a small child. Front left is still the worst seat with water tipping into the boat on two corners (as before).
I went with a few mates (2 who had never ridden Valhalla before), and to be perfectly honest it was hilarious. I suppose you could say that Valhalla was the highlight of the day in many ways, just because of the sheer stupidity of it.
BUT - I think with the 3.5years they have had, they could have done more to fix some of the issues with the ride. The few new effects they have added don't really blow you away (or maybe some were not fully working when I rode it). When the ride closed it was unreliable with broken effects, inches of water in the boats and water tipping into the boat on corners. None of this seems to have been addressed, in fact I would say the wetness levels have been dialled up even more than before. (Probably done to generate revenue from ponchos)
We really did have a laugh on Valhalla but its a right performance getting lockers and getting changed. It takes a good half hour out of your day and there really isn't anywhere decent to change. I ended up getting my tackle out in the locker room near the exit. Managed to avoid any prying eyes apart from the security camera !!
Is it fun to do occasionally if you go prepared? YES, definitely.
Would I ride it on every visit ? NO, its far too much hassle.
Would I have preferred them to have removed it and built on indoor coaster? 100% YES
Last edited:
venny
TS Member
Good review @shakey, I think that’s a good synopsis. I’m interested and disappointed to hear that the effects, which were a highlight to see back working, are seemingly now broken. Again. It’s amazing to see how quickly they’ve failed. Given the relatively small amount of work undertaken on new effects over the 3 year closure, it’s astounding to think they’ve not addressed the reliability issues of those existing effects.
As for opining on the park’s impending demise without having visited this year, it’s probably best to visit and form your own opinion. Terrible operations are nothing new I’m afraid. It’s just curious that the prevailing wind means certain people are highlighting it now.
As for opining on the park’s impending demise without having visited this year, it’s probably best to visit and form your own opinion. Terrible operations are nothing new I’m afraid. It’s just curious that the prevailing wind means certain people are highlighting it now.
shakey
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Wild Mouse - Blackpool - :(
It was mainly the fire related effects that were off. There could have been some other things off in the dark areas of the ride or maybe they are just supposed to be dark areas. But after 2 weeks of being officially open its disappointing that some effects are either already being temperamental or the park have chosen to turn theme off.
Katy
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Wildfire (Kolmården)
On the majority of my rides (6 yesterday, 1 on Saturday, 3+4 the weekend before) the majority of the effects seem to be working. The ones that are most temperamental are:
- Audio on the turntable where the backwards drop used to be, and the audio going towards the "ice room" (the bit about looking into Freya's eyes). I've noticed if the turntable audio is off, so is the next section.
- Ring of fire - I've seen this once in my life, on Saturday.
- All the rest of the fire - the section to the left at the bottom of the drop, then the flaming boat at the end and the fireball to the right. Sometimes only one or two of these works
I'm assuming the ice room is no longer supposed to be cold, as it's not. The flaming arrows - not sure on these as I didn't notice them until this weekend, and they worked on all 7 rides. Don't think I looked to the left to notice them previously.
Having multiple rides with the queue to the station door, there's no pattern to what does or does not work, so I don't think any of it is intentional cost saving. I'm wondering whether it's to do with how close the boats are - sometimes they go in close together, sometimes there's a big gap. I know it was built to take about 20 boats, they currently run about 8 or so, maybe it's the time taken for effects to reset when the boats are too close together - especially the fire which (from what I can remember from a behind-the-scenes years ago) a couple of cylinders are charged with gas which is then used on the effect rather than it just being a simple "on/off" switch on a mains gas line, that would make sense I guess.
In terms of what I'd like to see change - not that much really:
- Barking for the dogs at the bottom of lift 1
- Louder audio on lift 1 (or dampen the anti-rollbacks.... pun intended)
- The audio from the steam section carries on for a while after the boat has passed through, so add speakers further along going towards the turntable so this can be heard in full
- Extend the story narrative as it seems to just stop at the top of drop 2.
- Find a way to get the effects, fire especially, more reliable - whether the ride system is altered to space the boats sufficiently or something
- Find a way to get the boats to drain on the lifts
- At the bottom of drop 3 if you're in the front you get a tidal wave of water over from the right hand side, would love that to go away as it's already wet enough.
I really do like the new Valhalla, I've surprised myself how many times I'll go on it as I generally don't like water rides. I think I've been on it more in the last 2 weeks than I ever got on it 2000-2020!
- Audio on the turntable where the backwards drop used to be, and the audio going towards the "ice room" (the bit about looking into Freya's eyes). I've noticed if the turntable audio is off, so is the next section.
- Ring of fire - I've seen this once in my life, on Saturday.
- All the rest of the fire - the section to the left at the bottom of the drop, then the flaming boat at the end and the fireball to the right. Sometimes only one or two of these works
I'm assuming the ice room is no longer supposed to be cold, as it's not. The flaming arrows - not sure on these as I didn't notice them until this weekend, and they worked on all 7 rides. Don't think I looked to the left to notice them previously.
Having multiple rides with the queue to the station door, there's no pattern to what does or does not work, so I don't think any of it is intentional cost saving. I'm wondering whether it's to do with how close the boats are - sometimes they go in close together, sometimes there's a big gap. I know it was built to take about 20 boats, they currently run about 8 or so, maybe it's the time taken for effects to reset when the boats are too close together - especially the fire which (from what I can remember from a behind-the-scenes years ago) a couple of cylinders are charged with gas which is then used on the effect rather than it just being a simple "on/off" switch on a mains gas line, that would make sense I guess.
In terms of what I'd like to see change - not that much really:
- Barking for the dogs at the bottom of lift 1
- Louder audio on lift 1 (or dampen the anti-rollbacks.... pun intended)
- The audio from the steam section carries on for a while after the boat has passed through, so add speakers further along going towards the turntable so this can be heard in full
- Extend the story narrative as it seems to just stop at the top of drop 2.
- Find a way to get the effects, fire especially, more reliable - whether the ride system is altered to space the boats sufficiently or something
- Find a way to get the boats to drain on the lifts
- At the bottom of drop 3 if you're in the front you get a tidal wave of water over from the right hand side, would love that to go away as it's already wet enough.
I really do like the new Valhalla, I've surprised myself how many times I'll go on it as I generally don't like water rides. I think I've been on it more in the last 2 weeks than I ever got on it 2000-2020!
JT01
TS Member
I understand that I should visit the park first but in all honesty nothing has really changed from last year and though I had a good day most of the rides ride terribly and looking quite run down. That plus a lot of the negativity in regards to Valhalla and such from vloggers its quite easy to form an option
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