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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: General Discussion

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So is the opening date set to be the Bank Holiday weekend? As it's now had riders I would say that this weekend would be the perfect time for a soft opening.
 
Skyforce (with the help from the sea wind) is the most intense Sky Fly out there...

It's insane pretty much, as demonstrated here:



Blackpool are onto a winner with it...
 
Didn't think about the effect the Blackpool wind might have on it - certainly seems easier to get going than with no wind!

:)
 
My kind of hell too - these rides aren't for me because it's either mind-numbingly boring with no spinning but at the same time, horribly repetitive if you do end up spinning like that.

I appreciate some people like that kind of thing, though.
 
I went on it the other day. Only had one go and didn't quite master the spinning although I did turn upside down a few times. The wind can be a help or himderance as the wind was actually against me. At the moment it's open 12:00-4:00 every day and is already attracting longer queues than the rest of the rides. To be fair to them the issue of throughputs is being handled well with pre-batching taking place and evidently no Speedy Pass.
 
I was there last week on a very windy day (PMBO was closed) and it was phenomenal - very easy to get going and with the wind in your favour the speeds were crazy. I found it a lot more enjoyable than Air Race at DMP and (strangely) less nauseating, despite the much faster spinning.

As for queues, it was pretty much walk on the whole time it was open from what I saw but still the busiest ride in the park as it was generally running fully loaded without having to wait for more people to turn up unlike everything else. A lot of the time capacity won't be much of an issue as BPB is often deserted at off-peak times, but on busy Saturdays there could be very long waits. The good news is they've clearly thought about throughput, as there's a waiting area after the scanner and the bag store setup is similar to Kobra at Chessington, so loading should be efficient.
 
A question for the regulars, I haven't been back to BP for nigh on 20 years. I plan on going in the first week in July, I know that speed passes are a given once the schools break up but what is it usually like a couple of weeks before they break up? Bearable without speedy passes or would a basic one suffice for the bigger rides? Ta
 
As with all school trips these start to go home at 3 and are usually all out by 4:30. BPB is like Europa in the sense that you can nearly always find a ride with no queue even during busy periods. If you're not constricted to a specific day then Sundays are nearly always the quietest day of the week to visit the park. Hope this helps.
 
I want to share my experience on SkyForce with as many people as possible as it was quite possibly the worst ride experience I've had and I'm still certain that it is unsuitable for commercial use during windy weather.



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I've had 4 nose bleeds since I rode the ride at around 3pm yesterday. The managers of the park paid absolutely no attention to my concern or state. The instructional video states that if you want to stop spinning you need to let go of the wings, after a couple of spins the wind caught the wings on my plane and the speed was unbearable so I let go, the plane didnt stop but instead increased its speed at which point I lost my vision, feeling in my feet and had the sensation of my eyes popping out of my head. Eventually I managed to reach out and grab the wings again to try stabilise the cart but this wasn't until I had been spinning at high speed for what I can only imagine was 2/3 of the ride.



I cant imagine how a child would cope under these circumstances as I am a thrill seeker and was in a complete mess for a number of hours after. The ride puts out negative g force to which humans can only withstand at low levels especially if the rider has previous cardiovascular issues. If nothing else they need to revise the instructional video at the very very least.
 
That sounds horrendous, I'm sorry you had to suffer that. If I was you I'd write a strongly worded letter of complaint to the park, probably addressed to Amanda Thompson, the managing director. They clearly had no interest in your welfare.

Looks like this is a silly choice of ride for notoriously windly Blackpool.

:)
 
So that'll be three ornaments the park has on a windy day then, combined with the staggered openings that leave some rides as a piece of the furniture until they can operate.
 
And indeed in the case of one of those rides, still as thrilling as a piece of furniture even when operating.
 
They did say that it doesn't operate at certain wind levels but as each cart is a moving part of which they have no remote ability to control or slow down, all it would take is a slightly higher few gusts of wind to carry the momentum. Baring in mind that 2 other rides were closed at this point due to wind. They explicitly told me that they have no way of knowing what speed my individual cart was going, so how do they measure if the wind catches it, they are completely free moving. The major point is, the instructional video said to stop spinning just remove your hands, I did this and continued to spin for the duration of the ride until I finally manage to grab the handles and drag them upwards.
 
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