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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2023 Discussion
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.
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.
Rick
TS Member
@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.

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.

venny
TS Member
If they have a bottomless beer option it could end up as good value.
Brilliant idea. They’d never turn a table though.
Could even be a world first for a theme park. Might bring in more people than Icon did.
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.
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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shakey
TS Member
Mandy's annual Twitter spamming session. 68 hot ice photo tweets in under an hour.I’m worried my Twitter rate limit is going to be exceeded by Tweets about Hot Ice today.
I am sure we will be treated to another torrent of hot ice pictures in the next few days.
Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk
Does she know she has an amusement park?No photos of her lovely park then?
TroySmith1
TS Member
My question is does she know her "worlds best" water ride is no open?
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I also think that should be corrected to the “uk best water ride” not ….”worlds”
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Hedging bets between a T and a WMy question is does she know her "worlds best" water ride is no open?
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Rick
TS Member
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.
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.
Plastic Person
TS Member
@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.
![]()
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.
Rick
TS Member
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.

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.
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.

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

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