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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2023 Discussion

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Rob said:
Aside from the first drop and the drop in to the tunnel towards the end, The Big One is also an absolute snooze-fest is it not? The rest of the ride does absolutely nothing.
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Totally disagree I'm afraid. I find The Big One very thrilling and exhilarating!

It rattles along for 2 minutes at great speed, around what I find to be a very interesting and varied layout. I enjoy every aspect of it; how it rushes over the banked hills, the sensation of speed you get being in a train that zips about - rather than the glass smooth "am I actually moving" sensation you get on a B&M hyper - the random and unpredictable jolts of airtime, and the way it varies so much depending on where you sit. It has a power and aggressiveness about it that modern hyper coasters just don't have.

Add to that, the greatest first drop I've ever experienced, the finale through the tunnel, and the sheer character and visual impact of the thing; to me, all of those aspects make it very special.

The downside is, of course, the way Pleasure Beach run it and the fact that it runs much slower on windy days.

I fully appreciate that it's not for everyone, and I understand why some people don't like it, but genuinely, it's up there with the very best coasters for me.
 
Coaster said:
I've ridden three B&M hyper coasters; Nitro, Diamondback and Raging Bull.

I vastly prefer The Big One to any of those. It has raucousness, intensity, character and an insane first drop, whereas all of the above three coasters I found to be an absolute snooze-fest.

The Big One sits firmly in the upper half of my top 10. It's all subjective, but in my eyes, we are very lucky in what we have with it.
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Have also ridden all three of those and I couldn't disagree more. All of those crap on The Big One from an absolutely massive height.

Even if you take away the airtime advantage, Nitro in particular is 10 x more intense and forceful than The Big One.

The only positive I can think of is the sheer speed from the first drop but after that it's a dull and often painful experience.
 
It feels like a lot of people desperately want to love The Big One and find all sorts of obscure and hard to describe reasons to do so.

I can take it or leave it.
 
Rick said:
It feels like a lot of people desperately want to love The Big One and find all sorts of obscure and hard to describe reasons to do so.

I can take it or leave it.
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Or, people enjoy different things in coasters and have their own valid favourites?

Both times I came back from my trips over to America I thought, that's The Big One ruined now. Utterly ruined! But then I got back on it, and enjoyed it just as much as I did before! And I make no apologies for that.
 
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I still look forward to the day that I do experience airtime on The Big One, it must be there as it's not just one person claiming it, but it's yet to happen.

I guess it all comes down to coaster preferences. Some people do prefer what most would see as bad coasters; those that are rough and jolty. I'd imagine a lot of people who rate The Big One also think that Grand National is a top class wooden coaster. I find the latter to be a back breaker, which is never fun.

In a few weeks I'll be heading back to BPB for the first time in a few years (thank you Roland), so it will be interesting to see if The Big One is any more interesting than my past experiences, or if the word on Grand National has made any difference.
 
Plastic Person said:
I have been riding The Big One for twenty-five years now, and it seems that the "random and unpredictable jolts of airtime" that @Coaster describes are so random and unpredictable that I have yet to experience one. Is there some sort of mass hallucination going emanating from the Flyde coast?
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Yeah, it's transmitted from the big glitter ball on the seafront opposite the park.

During the brief period where that glitter ball was removed to be refurbished, Big One had no airtime. Then, when it came back, so did the airtime!
 
But the glitterball (They Shoot Horses Don't They) may have been done up, but they didn't turn the bloody spotlights on on Friday night!
No wonder the airtime doesn't always function.
And Rob, the airtime is felt going into the mcbr, on a mild, windless day in summer, after a full days running, on the correct set of wheels, especially at the front of the train.
Under those strict circumstances, with a full train, airtime is clearly evident.
More than once my friend, at least twice.
 
rob666 said:
And Rob, the airtime is felt going into the mcbr, on a mild, windless day in summer, after a full days running, on the correct set of wheels, especially at the front of the train.
Under those strict circumstances, with a full train, airtime is clearly evident.
More than once my friend, at least twice.
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Well, that explains why I have never experienced it then! 🤣
 
RicketyCricket said:
Have also ridden all three of those and I couldn't disagree more. All of those crap on The Big One from an absolutely massive height.

Even if you take away the airtime advantage, Nitro in particular is 10 x more intense and forceful than The Big One.

The only positive I can think of is the sheer speed from the first drop but after that it's a dull and often painful experience.
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Nitro does also have the unfair advantage of blasting the Mortal Kombat theme out the station!

Seriously though, it doesn't take a B&M. Magnum XL-200 ruined the PMBO as an experience for me, consequent re-rides just makes you realise how rough the ride is. For clarity I also don't mind Saw, so I don't mind a little bit of rough. Big Dipper, Grand National and PBMO are infrequent jaunts for me, I'll re-ride W&G and have an extra pint in Crevettes :D

rob666 said:
But the glitterball (They Shoot Horses Don't They) may have been done up, but they didn't turn the bloody spotlights on on Friday night!
No wonder the airtime doesn't always function.
And Rob, the airtime is felt going into the mcbr, on a mild, windless day in summer, after a full days running, on the correct set of wheels, especially at the front of the train.
Under those strict circumstances, with a full train, airtime is clearly evident.
More than once my friend, at least twice.
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As if BPB knows what any of these mythical objects are. Even Indiana Jones couldn't find them on the Fylde coast ;)
 
I have the correct set of wheels hidden in my back bedroom*, and bring them with me on the correct days.
My living room clock is housed in a big one wheel.
*Together with a couple of dozen wheels, assorted anti roll backs, and precious mouse upstop mushrooms, with and without axles and bearings.
Sad sad sad.
 
RicketyCricket said:
Have also ridden all three of those and I couldn't disagree more. All of those crap on The Big One from an absolutely massive height.

Even if you take away the airtime advantage, Nitro in particular is 10 x more intense and forceful than The Big One.

The only positive I can think of is the sheer speed from the first drop but after that it's a dull and often painful experience.
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Seconded. Nitro is an absolute airtime machine. The most re-rideable coaster at SFGA I thought during my time living in NY/NJ.

Everyone entitled to their opinions though of course.
 
Everyone is absolutely entitled to their own opinion. That said, it's curious to read how people's experiences on the same track, in the same battered trains is so different.

Whether you enjoy something or not is absolutely down to opinion, but the speed a ride travels or the airtime that a ride produces is more fact than opinion, the physics of the ride mean that the shape of the hills and the speed at which they are crested means that ride doesn't produce much air, that's just maths.

People can bitch and moan about how good a film is, but its cast and running time are fixed. Invariably they involve Chris Pratt and are too long.
 
Sit near the front of the big one and there is a lot of airtime going up to the mid course break run (doesn't matter how it is running). How can you miss that, because it pins you to the lap bar .

It's also there in other places if you sit in the first two or three rows.

But what's the big thing with airtime ? All coasters now have restraints so you just get pinned to them anyway, and it can be pretty uncomfortable.

Nash is a prime example of an airtime machine that is utterly spoiled by lap bars .

Even icon is uncomfortable going over the air time hills for the same reason.

DEAD RODENT ALERT.

Wild mouse is the only coaster I've ridden in modern times that offered proper out of the seat airtime due to only a simple seatbelt.

Just scrap restraints on the woodies. Who needs health and safety anyway.






Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk
 
Rick said:
Everyone is absolutely entitled to their own opinion. That said, it's curious to read how people's experiences on the same track, in the same battered trains is so different.

Whether you enjoy something or not is absolutely down to opinion, but the speed a ride travels or the airtime that a ride produces is more fact than opinion, the physics of the ride mean that the shape of the hills and the speed at which they are crested means that ride doesn't produce much air, that's just maths.

People can bitch and moan about how good a film is, but its cast and running time are fixed. Invariably they involve Chris Pratt and are too long.
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It does, unfortunately, heavily depend on the wind speed with The Big One as to how well it runs and how fast it crests each hill. That would go some way to explaining people having such different experiences.
 
Coaster said:
It does, unfortunately, heavily depend on the wind speed with The Big One as to how well it runs and how fast it crests each hill. That would go some way to explaining people having such different experiences.
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It would, but it's fascinating that people who have been riding it for so long and so frequently have never managed to get a ride laden with airtime.

Plus, as I said, the design of the ride means that all the buckeroo moments on Magnum and some of the other rides mentioned on this thread are literally impossible.
 
Rick said:
It would, but it's fascinating that people who have been riding it for so long and so frequently have never managed to get a ride laden with airtime.

Plus, as I said, the design of the ride means that all the buckeroo moments on Magnum and some of the other rides mentioned on this thread are literally impossible.
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I'm not suggesting it has the absolute insane airtime of Magnum. Just - some, sometimes!
 
I’ve ridden big one pretty much every time I visit the beach, in every seat, in a variety of weather conditions. I’ve never experienced anything close to airtime. It’s dated and really needs looking at long term ad the costs will eventually outweigh the benefit
 
shakey said:
Sit near the front of the big one and there is a lot of airtime going up to the mid course break run (doesn't matter how it is running). How can you miss that, because it pins you to the lap bar .

It's also there in other places if you sit in the first two or three rows.

But what's the big thing with airtime ? All coasters now have restraints so you just get pinned to them anyway, and it can be pretty uncomfortable.

Nash is a prime example of an airtime machine that is utterly spoiled by lap bars .

Even icon is uncomfortable going over the air time hills for the same reason.

DEAD RODENT ALERT.

Wild mouse is the only coaster I've ridden in modern times that offered proper out of the seat airtime due to only a simple seatbelt.

Just scrap restraints on the woodies. Who needs health and safety anyway.






Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk
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Get on a plane to Poland. Hyperion tries to remove you from the train on it's first drop and hill.
 
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