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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2023 Discussion

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shakey said:
And an excellent swim from Rob at the end of the day. Almost got him as wet as Vallhalla...

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This is some coincidence.

www.bbc.co.uk

Blackpool swimmers told to avoid beaches after storm sewage release

A heavy storm compounded problems caused by a burst pipe prior to the deluge, United Utilities says.
www.bbc.co.uk
 
Sunday’s Valhalla ride saw the fire returning, including the ring/square/oblong of fire (although it was not as lively as it has been). The remaining broken effects remain broken.

And can it really be that difficult to turn the specially commissioned ride audio up to a volume that it can be heard?
 
It is rather muted when you see it in person. It’s difficult to distinguish the gold, white and grey. The shadows between the fins make it look all quite samey.
 
Amazing day at pleasurebeach yesterday, did icon again loads as it's my favourite, enso I did once half an hour before park close and wow best ride experience in the UK, was on by myself and was spinning like a walzter the whole way round, even more than when I did it last time in April.
Guy sat in front said he was turned around watching me and had never seen it spin like that before, amazing experience such ashame it's also the most overpriced experience going too.

Big one was on one train and closed most of the day but I got on it once after it reopened with a 35 minute queue and twice right at the end with a very minimal queue, gotta say though it was running smoother than last time, still throws you around especially just before the mid course brakes but it was quite bearable and smooth overall.

I don't do the woodies besides Nick streak because of my back but it was fun as always, the park is always lovely in the sunshine, enjoyed watching the rides and the fountain with a nice cold pint of beer charged at a reasonable £4.50 all things considering.

Also did Valhalla for my first time and it broke down on both of the big lift hills was sat about 15 minutes total and there was 0 fire effects on but it was an awesome water ride, I enjoyed the physical props thought there should have been more of those instead of running the majority of the ride in complete darkness 95% of the time, it was unacceptably wet too however the ride is just bonkers so people ride it anyway knowing this.

The park gets a lot of flack but it also has so much going for it for a sea side amusement park in the north of England, the dark rides are brilliant too, river caves, Valhalla, Alice, the ghost train, Wallace and gromit what great attractions these are for the UK.

Went solo and had a brilliant time regardless, pleasurebeach it's been a pleasure as always.
 
So back in May 2021, I made the deliberate decision (partly at the advice of certain members of this forum) to stop visiting BPB after a particularly bad few visits.

This weekend I returned for the first time since then, hoping that the operational issues of 2020-21 had been resolved.

Following my visit, I can conclude that some, not all of them have. Here are my observations from my first visit in over two years:

Ride operations: On the whole, not bad but also not amazing. Most coasters were on half capacity, including Big One, but very few people were using Speedy Pass, resulting in reasonably quick moving queues.

Opening hours: Sadly this hasn’t got any better. If anything it’s got worse. I’m not of the opinion that the park should return to pay per rides and be open till 10pm or midnight every day. I appreciate that the park has taken a different direction now, however on the sunniest weekend of the year, closing at 5pm does seem too early.

Staggered openings/ rides opening late: The staggered openings aren’t much different to when I last visited, but one thing that really did shock me was the whole of Nickelodeon Land closing at 4pm. There were easily enough crowds to justify keeping it open till park close. Is this a regular thing now?
The final straw for me in spring of 2021 was when they started a strange practice of always closing Big One queue line half an hour before park close with no explanation. I was very pleased to see, on this visit, that this practice seems to have stopped and Big One’s queue stayed open till park close.

Valhalla: Great to see it back, it’s a really impressive refurbishment while still retaining plenty of its original features. We experienced no breakdowns and way more effects were working since our last ride on it in 2018. It also doesn’t seem quite as wet. Still very wet, but not quite as wet as it used to be, which was welcome.

In other observations, the entire first room of W&G was broken and we just rode through the darkness. And surprisingly, a lot of people seemed to be using Enso.

Hope you enjoyed reading this. Not sure I’ll be back again this year but I’m very glad I returned after a two year gap. There’s still a lot that the park can do to improve guest experience, but I certainly didn’t leave the park feeling anywhere near as cheated as I did during my last few visits in 2021.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
The staggered openings aren’t much different to when I last visited, but one thing that really did shock me was the whole of Nickelodeon Land closing at 4pm. There were easily enough crowds to justify keeping it open till park close. Is this a regular thing now?
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Yes, Nick land closes an hour before park close all the time

Enter Valhalla said:
Big One’s queue stayed open till park close
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The only one that doesn't seem to have that is Valhalla, if it breaks late in the afternoon, it tends to not reopen

Enter Valhalla said:
the entire first room of W&G was broken and we just rode through the darkness
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It was like that on Sunday as well
 
Just noticed that the park have already put up opening dates for the start of next season. It is set for weekend opening from March 2nd next year.

I think that is slightly earlier than this year.
 
That would be 170 rides at 20p a go.
Good old days.
In fact the cheap early season savers was one of the few times you actually had to queue on the Beach in the "Good Old Days".
 
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