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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2023 Discussion

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Likewise I dodged the bullet.
We were planning the coast today but a twisted ankle stopped me.
Followed the black lines on google maps all day.
Sympathy to those stuck, some managed five hours on the M55.
I trust it was quite quiet on the park?
 
Quieter than the last couple of weeks. It was certainly quiet early on, first couple of hours, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was closed!

Icon about 10 min queue.
Didn't see a queue for Rev.
Avalanche must've been about 30-40 min (second train is now visible again, but not out on the track yet).

Seemed to be a lot of young kids around today, Nick land did well, along with PB Express.

Big One didn't open, nor did Flying Machines, due to quite severe winds. Valhalla opened comparatively early to usual, somewhere between 12 and 1 I'd say? It had a reasonable queue

Dipper was testing early on, sounds a lot better than it did last week, and is making it round with a bit more ease.
 
@b2311e your trip home sounds like a right mission, my journey is slightly shorter but only took 40 mins.

I rode The Valhalla twice, Pleasure Beach Express and the National. Valhalla was running pretty well, the only notable (significant) issue was that there was no fire aside from the ring of fire. Thank goodness for the new mist / lights / sound between the camelback runout and the sunken longboat or that would be a pretty grim ending to the ride.

Talking of Valhalla ... here's a cool picture from 2000. I was curious to understand if they would incorporate a shop as part of the refurb, but they (obviously) didn't, despite having more merchandise now than when the ride opened. The original shop (in the foreground) was pretty sizeable, but the merchandise in there was generic Viking junk, rather than anything related to the ride/brand. The new merch is night and day. Pizza paddle anyone ... ?

The ride did look very cool when like this, but the new queue area is good - I just wish that there was a way to open up some of the switchbacks on quieter days - it's a long walk or a bit of a pain to crawl under them all.

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They could have tables on a rotating floor, after one full revolution you are slid out of the door...
Edit, new Preston west link road to the M55 opens today...quick route to the Hand and Dagger, one of my favourite foody pubs, now going to be 15 minutes from the Beach.
 
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Has anyone stayed in The Big Blue recently? Is it still decently looked after now it plays second fiddle to the Boulevard?

Considering doing the Travelzoo deal for this Sept as I was a bit underwhelmed by the Hampton's extension.
 
Big Blue has always had a little bit of rough around the edges. And I stress only a little.

However I’ve not noticed any change since Boulevard opened. We never think twice about staying.
 
My question is does she know her "worlds best" water ride is no open?

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I am not sure if it makes much of a deal to the Pleasure Beach, almost certainly not very much ... to be honest, but the new Western Distributor road has opened in Preston today.

Therefore if you live near it (like me), or you have to come via Preston to get to the park (like @Dipper_Dave) ... or if you regularly work in these parts and want to knock off and head to the beach like @rob666 .... you knock a fair amount off your journey because much more of it is motorway and the A583 has a ton of traffic lights that always seem to conspire against me. Or, if you wanted to go to the motorway, you had to go East to come back west, which was sub-optimal.

Progress, finally.
 
Rick said:
@b2311e

Talking of Valhalla ... here's a cool picture from 2000.

The ride did look very cool when like this, but the new queue area is good - I just wish that there was a way to open up some of the switchbacks on quieter days - it's a long walk or a bit of a pain to crawl under them all.

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Click to expand...

Lots of unexpectedly warm, fuzzy memories looking at this photo (rather than cold and wet, as was more accurate)

I do like the almost cartoonish nature of the original rock work, and the waterfall element to the turntable. What a strange project this was and still remains. In this resembling something more like a travelling German ghost train or Hollenblitz, but ultimately born into a period in which wristbands made visual appeal a thing of the past. I'll never forget visiting the park during Illuminations 1998 and being knocked out by quite how large the building was while under even early construction.
 
Looping back to the conversation the other day about the park being quiet, what do we think attendance has been like this year?

There have definitely been some quieter days but I don't think it's all that much different from 2019. It's maybe easy to compare to 2020/21 which were definitely influenced by COVID.

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They definitely have some integrity in their gate price. £31 still sounds too cheap to me and I don't understand the logic between the values for the days ... but maybe someone does? Some work the opposite of how you would expect demand pricing to work (i.e. Friday cheaper than Wednesday).

I am sure that they could stack the park out on some days with £20 wristbands or ... some other type of pricing structure 😒, but in a park with some capacity headaches like Pleasure Beach, I'd much rather see a lot less people paying more than a lot more people paying less.
 
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