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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Icon - 2018 Mack Double Launch Coaster

It sounds like the rumours of the park choosing to launch at the absolute slowest speed possible to save a few pence on the leccy bill are true then? :(
 
Icon has picked up a LOT of intent this afternoon, miles better than yesterday!

Pleasure Beach isn't very busy today, quite concerning - it should surely be heaving with a new coaster opening and bank holiday?
 
I'm slightly worried that ICON hasn't been marketed enough. I think way too many people simply don't know they are opening a new coaster, as the BPB TV ads that aired before the ICON ad was revealed didn't even mention a new for 2018 coaster...
 
Benjsh said:
Looks like it's rammed today which isn't really a shocker being first weekend.
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Coaster said:
Pleasure Beach isn't very busy today, quite concerning - it should surely be heaving with a new coaster opening and bank holiday?
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Er, so is it busy or not then?

I know these aren't til later on, but remember its both the Champions League final and the Championship play off final later. That will have some impact. I've visited parks on FA Cup final day and found them relatively quiet for a Saturday
 
Robert.W said:
I'm slightly worried that ICON hasn't been marketed enough. I think way too many people simply don't know they are opening a new coaster, as the BPB TV ads that aired before the ICON ad was revealed didn't even mention a new for 2018 coaster...
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Pleasure Beach is a very different park and business to Alton Towers, with less resources, although still plenty of course. However, I think they've fudged the launch of Icon. While I'm glad the park have invested in something very, very solid, essentially a better coaster than a gimmick or statistic based ride, it doesn't really have a killer USP or any great imagery. The launch itself also seemed a little bit hokey and self-celebratory, but hey, that's our Pleasure Beach! I get the impression they could have done with working on a better, bigger agency for this one, however.

I'm sure time will tell. If they had advertised the ride on TV earlier this year, that could have lead to people turning up and expecting it to be open.
 
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Advance numbers for this weekend were not great apparently, nothing like what was hoped for.
Let's hope for a long hot summer.
 
I’d say it felt reasonably busy today. Certainly not packed though.

I think it’s way too soon to draw any conclusions, but it is perhaps slightly worrying that there were not more people on park today considering the combination of good weather, bank holiday and new coaster. Conversely though, there is the Champions League Final and people may be avoiding for fear of it being too busy.

It’ll be interesting to what tomorrow and the next few weeks bring.
 
I couldn't believe how quiet the park was yesterday but i put that down to the shocking weather forecast

We got on a tram when we left the big blue this morning and passed the park entrance at about 9.50 and i expected to see a hell of a lot more people than i did waiting to get in
 
Just an observation, the water feature in the memorial garden has been switched off/broken for the past few days, a shame it isn't all working for the opening weekend.
 
If it wasn’t for this forum I wouldn’t have a clue they even had a new ride. Do they advertise Nationslly or locally?

It’s kind of made me more aware of the marketing for Wickemam. Even a packet of crisps on a supermarket shelf is great advertising.
 
Surprised at how quiet it was today, hardly any queues spanning over 20 minutes including Icon.

Total of 6 rides on it today across front, back and cheap seat rows. Going on with low expectations really paid off as minus the first mild acceleration launch, the ride is a great overall package. Yes the station from the outside looks like a shoebox with wooden strands, the turfing in the ride area looks naff and what the hell is going on with that exit walkway? But the ride doesn't feel like it belongs at Pleasure Beach; the quality is far superior over anything else in the park and the operations were staggering. I would have liked to have seen it on 3 trains with a long queue to see how it coped, but it was pleasantly shifting its queue with relative ease on 2. No Mack rattle, very smooth throughout and that first top hat is bloody fantastic.

I'm looking forward to seeing how it rides much later in the day on a 10pm close after it's had longer to warm up, but based on my rides today I can safely say Icon slots just behind Nemesis and ahead of Stealth in my top UK coasters. If the first launch actually had some force to it and the transitions throughout were a little faster paced, then perhaps it would be a different result.

If some form of creative mastermind was to pair the intensity of Taron's layout and theming with Icon's trains and inversions, I genuinely believe there would be a solid making for one of the world's greatest coasters.
 
mikeroller said:
If it wasn’t for this forum I wouldn’t have a clue they even had a new ride. Do they advertise Nationslly or locally?

It’s kind of made me more aware of the marketing for Wickemam. Even a packet of crisps on a supermarket shelf is great advertising.
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I've seen the advert at least once each night on ITV2 in Yorkshire, so they're advertising somewhere :p
 
Isn't Yorkshire on the opposite side of the Country? and who the heck watches ITV2 apart from you?
 
IanSR said:
Isn't Yorkshire on the opposite side of the Country? and who the heck watches ITV2 apart from you?
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Yorkshire runs from the east coast to the Pennines, Leeds is Pretty much smack midway between the east and west coast so you can get to Blackpool pretty easy.
 
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