Blackpool Pleasure Beach: General Discussion

[TheMan]

Now this I'll agree with. I don't hate nor loathe The Big One, but it's nothing special. However if the ride were to break down right at the peak of the lift hill during the illuminations at night and I were to be sat on the front row, I'd be in a very happy place.

I wouldn't lol!! Love it or not, I have bad vertigo, I hate that climb! I love the view just as I am going over it lol!!

 

[Dave]

All the things people hate, the fact it doesn't loop, the triangle hills, they're all things to me that give in an indomitable charm. That view going over the drop at night during illuminations is by far the most spectacular sight of any coaster I've been on - though Oblivion with the Towers lit up during scarefest is definitely pretty fantastic.

See i think The Big One is a very pretty coaster, visually it's very impressive, it's just a slightly hilly road in a Skoda is more thrilling to ride down. They sacrificed airtime in order to maintain the height across the front of the park (Arrow made incredibly energy inefficient roller coasters) so it is visually stunning, just bland.

 

[nemesis1994]

See i think The Big One is a very pretty coaster, visually it's very impressive, it's just a slightly hilly road in a Skoda is more thrilling to ride down. They sacrificed airtime in order to maintain the height across the front of the park (Arrow made incredibly energy inefficient roller coasters) so it is visually stunning, just bland.

It is a stunning looking coaster and a stunning ride, the Pepsi cans and yellowy colour supports just make the appearance go down in my opinion

 

[Dar]

I'm in the adore PBB camp

It's such a shame that the park has regressed so much in the past few years, they have some great rides there. They need to get back to all day opening, they don't have to worry about whether people will turn up later on because they're smack in the middle of one the most popular tourist destinations! They are priced extremely competitively, £30 on the day prices, and they could drop the price later on in the day.

The rides are well kept and generally run well, but Infusion suffers from a manufacturer's chronic downfall.
The grand national is such a shadow of its former self, before the fire and Kumbak getting a hold on the ride system and trains. Flying into the station after a fast and thrilling race or crawling up the last hill because you've practically been stopped beforehand.

PMBO, is a ride I hate to like, it's massive and carries speed well but it's such a let down after the first drop. I spend most of the course contemplating how much better it could have been and could still be if PBB took a CHANCE on it.

I want it to do well, blackpool is somewhere very special to me and it saddens me to see the resort tarting itself up while PBB stands still. It looks nice but it needs a rocket up its backside.

 

[Alastair]

At the end of the day (in 1994), BPB went for looks and Alton Towers went for ride experience. If only Geoffrey Thompson had turned to Werner Stengel rather than Ron Toomer

 

[Martin]

I like PMBO. It fits better with the line up of ancient rides than a B&M or Intamin would have. Sure, it's terrible compared to manufacturers who know what they're doing, but that's not really the point.

 

[Dave]

Based on the reviews of those who have ridden them it's worse than the other Arrow hyper coasters in the world.

 

[Alastair]

Yep, everyone I know who has ridden Magnum XL-200 rates it. Obviously not as highly as B&M's or Intamin hypercoasters, but certainly leagues above PMBO. This is supported by their respective rankings of 82 and 235 on the MH poll.

 

[Peter Fisher]

As someone who spends WAY too long on the PMBO (199 rides this season), I do think it's been running with some intent this year, granted it was more PMBOSBNO all through Feb and beginning of march but we did have gale force winds down here in Blackpool. But if you've done the big one previous years but not yet this year you may be pleasantly surprised

 

[Dar]

I've done it plenty of previous years and I wasn't impressed at the end of last month.

 

[nemesis1994]

It's rough but good, in a way roughness improves it in my opinion. I genuinely really like it. Infusion I would like... If it didn't have black bricks taped onto the restraints, I swear it's much rougher this year. I like it, near my top 20"until this year it got much rougher now it's like 40th but don't get me wrong I do like it. I just can't ride it more than once every 30 minutes. Got minor whiplash I think last time and cracked a tooth. They worst I saw was someone's orp with a bust nose. Edit-oops auto correct put orphan instead of orp and I only just realised

 

[Dar]

Roughness improves it in the same way that dairylea improves a ryvita. It's bland, boring and a little pointless otherwise.

That is to say that it doesn't really do much, there's no airtime to speak of aside from the MCBR and the only real positive G's are the drop under the big dipper and through the tunnel.

 

[TheMan]

Roughness improves it in the same way that dairylea improves a ryvita. It's bland, boring and a little pointless otherwise.

I so don't agree with that but it made me properly LOL anyway hahaha!

I love it, it just looks perfect for BPP, it's iconic, and it's fun, it's not serious and never was - it's almost like a folly in a way - it's the antithesis of Nemesis and I adore them both.

 

[Dave]

It's just a bad roller coaster, beautiful yes, but bad. There are so many fantastic rides at Pleasure Beach that I don't mind so much but I would love them to get a good modern coaster.

 

[TheMan]

It's just a bad roller coaster, beautiful yes, but bad. There are so many fantastic rides at Pleasure Beach that I don't mind so much but I would love them to get a good modern coaster.

They are in dire need of a headline attraction now. The idea of a launch across the promenade would really be spectacular but I do doubt that's ever going to happen.

With sensible investments like W&G & Nick Land etc hopefully at some point the budget will allow. Perhaps this is exactly the kind of park that would benefit from a RMC. Though I'd of course rather see a big steel launch or air time machine.

 

[Alastair]

They are in dire need of a headline attraction now. The idea of a launch across the promenade would really be spectacular but I do doubt that's ever going to happen.

With sensible investments like W&G & Nick Land etc hopefully at some point the budget will allow. Perhaps this is exactly the kind of park that would benefit from a RMC. Though I'd of course rather see a big steel launch or air time machine.

W&G a sensible investment? £5m, most of which had to be borrowed, on a refurbished ride based on a theme which has relatively little draw and was criminally underadvertised. I'd say any coaster would have been more sensible.

 

[Danny]

Anything would have been more sensible than W&G, it's such a let down. I really thought they were on track to do well regarding appealing for families after Nick Land, but it's almost as if they did a complete u-turn in terms of quality.

 

[TheMan]

Oh it's not turned out that well then I guess from those comments!

And yeah, 5 million could have put up another coaster!

 

[nemesis1994]

Am I the only one that thought Wallace and Gromit was a good investment. A family ride and whole family area then a thrill ride every 4 years would be a fantastic development plan for pleasure beach. If they get a new thrill in 2015 then it will be like that which I think is very good since they had ice blast then an off the shelf headbanger from a park that closed down the road which they also owned.

 

[Dave]

The attraction itself isn't horrific, it's got no real narrative but the theming is quite good. It was just badly marketed so has had little return for the investment.

As much as we can hate marketing sometimes if parks do it badly their investments don't work.