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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: General Discussion

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Tom said:
The variety comes from maintaining rides which are up to 100+ years old, preserving them for multiple generations. Clearly you have a problem with the park, undoubtedly in comparison with Alton Towers. I merely suggest that it has positive unique selling points which very few parks on earth can ever hope to achieve - and there are reasons why it appeals to many.
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But you can't argue that it deserves to be 6th best park in the world on that basis. No UK park even comes close to the top 10.
 
Alastair said:
But you can't argue that it deserves to be 6th best park in the world on that basis. No UK park even comes close to the top 10.
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It's down to people's various interpretations and what appeals to them. The park his many unique characteristics, particularly its vintage rides. I certainly can see why it has attracted so many votes, and so should you - regardless of your opinion of the place.
 
Tom said:
The variety comes from maintaining rides which are up to 100+ years old, preserving them for multiple generations. Clearly you have a problem with the park, undoubtedly in comparison with Alton Towers. I merely suggest that it has positive unique selling points which very few parks on earth can ever hope to achieve - and there are reasons why it appeals to many.
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Agree with this, the historical aspect of the rides is amazing in itself, as well as the fact that they have the biggest collection of wooden coasters in the world.
BPB is far from perfect but it is a unique park, I can't think of many parks in the world that offer such a range of ride types from across the last century.
 
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Tom said:
It's down to people's various interpretations and what appeals to them. The park his many unique characteristics, particularly its vintage rides. I certainly can see why it has attracted so many votes, and so should you - regardless of your opinion of the place.
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Well I guess whoever voted have preferences towards museums then. Having visited multiple Disney parks and the likes of Europa Park and Universal - to place Blackpool Pleasure Beach at 6th best theme park in the world, regardless of its wooden artifacts, is simply laughable.
 
Obviously the people that voted for Blackpool Pleasure Beach aren't interested in the infantile environment of Disney parks. They possibly also appreciate the forces of the wooden rides, as opposed to the lumbering nature of many B&Ms etc.
 
Blackpool winning 6th best in the world is a strange one. Whilst it's a park I strongly enjoy, surely it's not up there with the likes of Disney, Universal & Europa even if it's classic/wooden rides are highly desired.

Still happy the park won it though somewhat being in the UK.
 
Tom said:
Obviously the people that voted for Blackpool Pleasure Beach aren't interested in the infantile environment of Disney parks. They possibly also appreciate the forces of the wooden rides, as opposed to the lumbering nature of many B&Ms etc.
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I guess you've never ridden Tower of Terror then, or California Screamin', or Rock 'n' Rollercoaster, or any of the Space Mountains. Infants surely ride those?

And as to the forces of the wooden rides...why only wooden coasters? Plenty of steel coasters produce the same rough, rattly, uncomfortable sensation as the woodie's at Blackpool.
 
Alastair said:
I guess you've never ridden Tower of Terror then, or California Screamin', or Rock 'n' Rollercoaster, or any of the Space Mountains. Infants surely ride those?

And as to the forces of the wooden rides...why only wooden coasters? Plenty of steel coasters produce the same rough, rattly, uncomfortable sensation as the woodie's at Blackpool.
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Again, this is your opinion. Lots of people really enjoy the woodies.
 
Jamie said:
Again, this is your opinion. Lots of people really enjoy the woodies.
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This is a forum, I would have assumed it was obvious that it's my opinion. No need to keep stating it. I just don't understand how it's possible to defend the Golden Ticket farce awards. And why people are accepting it as though whatever meaningless stuff they write corresponds to reality.
 
Alastair said:
This is a forum, I would have assumed it was obvious that it's my opinion. No need to keep stating it. I just don't understand how it's possible to defend the Golden Ticket farce awards. And why people are accepting it as though whatever meaningless stuff they write corresponds to reality.
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Personally I couldn't care less what the awards say, I go by what I enjoy personally. However I thought it was worth posting nevertheless, and clearly some people think that BPB is deserving of 6th place.
 
@Alastair - I offered a potential insight into the people that voted for the park. If you want to write them off as idiots who don't know what they should like, then you do that - but I don't think there is nothing else to discuss.
 
Tom said:
Obviously the people that voted for Blackpool Pleasure Beach aren't interested in the infantile environment of Disney parks. They possibly also appreciate the forces of the wooden rides, as opposed to the lumbering nature of many B&Ms etc.
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Nah, cos there were like, 5 B&M Hypers in the top 10 list... And Nemesis... Top 3 naturally hasn't changed in about over a decade now... That 8 of the 10 apparent best steel coasters in the world are all hyper coasters is just as bemusing as Blackpool being a better park than say, Tokyo DisneySea...

It's mostly an ACE voting thing this, so whilst I'm not sure what they got on their recent trip to the UK when they visited Blackpool, that could've easily swayed it... There are certainly a lot of websites who base their opinion on parks upon whether or not they get any special treatment from the parks they visit... Indeed, the idea is backed up by the factor that there were no UK parks in the best parks category at all last year... Valhalla was second best water ride, but after a trip, it becomes top of the board (similarly, Nemesis wasn't in the top 10 steel coasters last year either)...

If it is predominantly an ACE vote, would make sense why they love Blackpool, cos they love any old wooden bollocks, looking at all their ACE COASTER CLASSIC signs over there... I think they even like bloody Mean Streak...

I'd also agree in the current climate that there are no parks in the UK deserving of being recognised as the best in the world... But the problem with these awards is that they are pretty much US based, so there isn't really a fair share of actual experience going around these results... Hence why they're pretty much always the same thing...

Results which basically end up being based upon "where did you visit this year?" aren't particularly great...
 
Alastair said:
I guess variety is no coaster manufactured after 1999? And 3 incredibly similar wooden coasters that even the guy that runs rcdb couldn't distinguish between the other day (click Edited).
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Surely whatever mistake was made on the RCDB was a mistake, rather than him being unable to tell one from the other?

Alastair, as I have said to you countless times in the past, your opinion, graphs and charts are not inclusive of everyone's thoughts and opinions.

Maybe all the time you have spent in the past on PBE telling me people dont like wooden rides and dont feel safe on them isn't as accurate as you like to think.

(For what its worth these polls mean nothing to me, but after reading and re-reading your opinion, expressed very forcefully as fact, the results certainly make interesting reading)

I see you enjoy Disney, and rate them highly, fair play to you. My girlfriend has just returned from Florida and frankly couldn't wait to get back to BPB, a park which houses a far higher number of attractions that are of interest to her. She also said I should avoid Disney as I am unlikely to enjoy it. Neither opinion is right or wrong, but I will take her's over yours as she knows what I like from a park, you don't. Does that make Disney a bad place, no it doesn't, it just means its not to my taste.

Ash
 
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Blackpool Pleasure Beach appeals greatly to American voters as it is a boardwalk style park, which are popular in the USA. it is also family owned and operated, which gives it a bit of a pleasant edge amongst the behemoths operating most of the world's major theme parks.

These are both reasons as to why it performs well in this poll.

I am glad though, when I am in Orlando, I am not just dreaming of getting back to Alton Towers. Sounds like your girlfriend made the wrong choice - she'd have been better with Kennywood or Knoebels. Themed experiences aren't for everyone, just like a nostalgic amusement park isn't.

On a side note however, I must say there is often a tendency for people to suggest Disney is just for kids. It really isn't. There's plenty of thrilling and exciting attractions. Epcot is not very kiddie whatsoever, for one.

:)
 
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Any suggestion that Disney parks are "kids parks" is just sheer ignorance. I would say that only one of the four Orlando parks (Magic Kingdom) seems any more infantile than your average theme park and even that has its fair share of thrill rides. Epcot and Animal Kingdom do not feel like they are geared more toward kids at all and Hollywood Studios is often regarded as the best WDW park for thrill rides. I seriously don't understand how anyone who has even a vague knowledge of Disney parks can claim that they are kids parks. And let's be honest Blackpool Pleasure Beach is hardly bursting full of extreme thrill rides. It's a mainly family park really. Other than Infusion, PMBO and Skyforce pretty much all their rides are family friendly and, if they were at Disney parks, a lot of BPB fans would poo-poo them as kids rides.
 
It is possibly one of the best 'amusement/seaside' style parks in the world, but combine amusement parks and theme parks, I doubt it should have been that high up, but for amusement parks, it has my favourite dark ride in the country (and DLP), which is also my favourite water ride, my favourite flat ride (sky force) and it has the biggest collection of wooden coasters in the world, with three of them having great airtime, two of my favourite coasters (revolution and Nash) and has so many rides which are just fun, without being so thrilling you can't talk and laugh on them (like steeplechase, Avalanche, mouse and more) while I do prefer Alton towers, that is mainly because of the smiler, nemesis and oblivion, all the other coasters I rate lower than the majority at Blackpool, and Alton has a better setting and atmosphere. I prefer it to Thorpe (controversial I know ;) ) but the ride selection is great and has more re ride ability than anywhere in the UK. I would put it in the top 30 parks in the world possibly though, with Alton around 25. For n amusement park some of the theming puts this country's theme parks to shame, look since 2000, Valhalla, an amazingly themed dark ride, infusion, not exactly well themed but probably one of the better themes slc's, I'm probably missing something out between 2000 and 2008 but I can't remember. If we look at the last few investments since 2011, Nick land, possibly the best themed children's area, Wallace and gromit, a great dark ride and even sky force is quite well themed compared to other flats across the country, only chessingtons flats, and a few random flats like ripsaw are better themed in my opinion, so yes it has turned around in the last few years, and hopeful project 2017 can be that coaster the park needs to get itself back to the best it was before. I don't believe it is the 6th best park in the world, but well done to them and fair play.
 
I love pleasure beach because of the mixture of old and new, and the fact that there is a range of different attractions that appeal to all ages.
I also think it has a good atmosphere and is good value for money when you compare it to other UK theme/amusement parks.
Looking forward to seeing what 2017 brings :)
 
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