Dipper_Dave
TS Member
Sorry to disappoint you, but the queues won't be that short in the height of the school holidays ! I don't normally touch the place with a barge pole from late July to early Sept
- News all the latest
- Theme Park explore the park
- Resort tour the resort
- Future looking forward
- History looking back
- Community and meetups
-
ℹ️ Heads up...
This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks. - Thread starter Rob
- Start date
- Favourite Ride
- Wildfire (Kolmården)
- Favourite Ride
- Crux
- Favourite Ride
- Crux
- Favourite Ride
- Crux
- Favourite Ride
- Taron/Shambhala
Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Icon - 2018 Mack Double Launch Coaster
Sorry to disappoint you, but the queues won't be that short in the height of the school holidays ! I don't normally touch the place with a barge pole from late July to early Sept
Katy
TS Member
It's a weekday in term time, and the weather's a bit rubbish, bet all the other rides were walk on today. Middle of summer with decent weather everything will have much longer queues I'm afraid. Although will be interesting to see how fast it gets through the queue when running at full pelt on three trains.
Rick
TS Member
I'm not sure the comparisons with Helix and Blue Fire are particularly easy, given the different nature of each of those rides. I am not one to obsess over the little things, so from a broad brush perspective, I think it's a solid ride - no doubt about that. Some of the presentation is a little iffy, you might suggest - particularly that exit route.
Seeing the initial CGI POV I was of the view that the ride seemed to meander quite a bit and that certainly was my view after my rides this week. The circuit of the old Go Kart track was a good idea, but I am not sure what it adds really!
The structures under the airtime hill with the family's names on is out of left field and very Pleasure Beach!
Seeing the initial CGI POV I was of the view that the ride seemed to meander quite a bit and that certainly was my view after my rides this week. The circuit of the old Go Kart track was a good idea, but I am not sure what it adds really!
The structures under the airtime hill with the family's names on is out of left field and very Pleasure Beach!
MakoMania
TS Member
My final thoughts on Icon:
I got the chance to ride today, think it was 10 rides. I loved it every bit as much as last week, although being lashed in the face with rain wasn't the best!
Front row is my personal favourite, back is excellent also, middle is still great, there really isn't a bad seat on the ride. I was surpsised how much more airtime the front row offered on the first hill compared to the row behind it (which still has quite a lot!).
I will agree that the ride gets better and better throughout the day, it was absolutely storming round in the last hour and the airtime in the second half of the ride became much more powerful.
For an opening day there was very little downtime, 10 minutes tops. The ride queue never exceeded 15 minutes and most of the day was 5 minutes. In the last hour the queue wasn't even outside the building. Obviously the rain helped but the operations were fantastic; 35 second dispatches sometimes! The queue moves very quickly and the ride was only running 2 trains, I look forward to seeing the amount of people they can shift on a 3 train operation
My one gripe was that I sat on the back row 4 times but only got a back row ride once due to being kicked off to allow (how shall I put this...) a larger person to be seated. I just think it's unfortunate that it has to be the back row that has this feature as it's a row that people love to try to get. (Back row whip is real throughout the ride by the way!)
Overall, you guessed it..... it is by far my favourite coaster in the UK! Is it perfect? Of course not, very few rides are, but it's bloody good and I'm not sure why some people think it is slow or boring because it is none of those things if you let it warm up. I find it fascinating how this ride seems to have divided enthusiasts straight down the middle. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion of course, I'm a big fan though!
I got the chance to ride today, think it was 10 rides. I loved it every bit as much as last week, although being lashed in the face with rain wasn't the best!
Front row is my personal favourite, back is excellent also, middle is still great, there really isn't a bad seat on the ride. I was surpsised how much more airtime the front row offered on the first hill compared to the row behind it (which still has quite a lot!).
I will agree that the ride gets better and better throughout the day, it was absolutely storming round in the last hour and the airtime in the second half of the ride became much more powerful.
For an opening day there was very little downtime, 10 minutes tops. The ride queue never exceeded 15 minutes and most of the day was 5 minutes. In the last hour the queue wasn't even outside the building. Obviously the rain helped but the operations were fantastic; 35 second dispatches sometimes! The queue moves very quickly and the ride was only running 2 trains, I look forward to seeing the amount of people they can shift on a 3 train operation
My one gripe was that I sat on the back row 4 times but only got a back row ride once due to being kicked off to allow (how shall I put this...) a larger person to be seated. I just think it's unfortunate that it has to be the back row that has this feature as it's a row that people love to try to get. (Back row whip is real throughout the ride by the way!)
Overall, you guessed it..... it is by far my favourite coaster in the UK! Is it perfect? Of course not, very few rides are, but it's bloody good and I'm not sure why some people think it is slow or boring because it is none of those things if you let it warm up. I find it fascinating how this ride seems to have divided enthusiasts straight down the middle. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion of course, I'm a big fan though!
Last edited:
Rick
TS Member
@MakoMania How many of your rides had the 'Mack rattle' and how many were silky smooth? We found it seemed to become more prevalent the further back you went.
Concur on the issues with people not fitting, people that weren't that large weren't able to ride unless they went in the back.
Concur on the issues with people not fitting, people that weren't that large weren't able to ride unless they went in the back.
MakoMania
TS Member
I had the rattle on a couple of rides, I wouldn't say it really affected the ride experience at all though. I think it is on just one of the trains, hopefully it gets fixed soon.
venny
TS Member
The rattle is more a sound than a feeling. It sounds rattly but it’s not really.
As for Blue Fire comparisons, it’s nothing like. Blue Fire is inversion based. Icon is anything but.
If you like longer transitions, Blue Fire is for you. If you like more airtime it’s Icon.
Horses for coarses.
As for Blue Fire comparisons, it’s nothing like. Blue Fire is inversion based. Icon is anything but.
If you like longer transitions, Blue Fire is for you. If you like more airtime it’s Icon.
Horses for coarses.
Rick
TS Member
I'm pretty sure that rattle feeling is more of a feeling than a sound.
Coaster
TS Member
One thing I can definitely take from today, it was so nice for a new coaster to actually WORK on its opening day - Icon opened at 11am (although we were told 1pm in the ticket centre for some weird reason?!) and only had one stoppage which I believe was due to "essential cleaning."
Managed 18 rides on Icon today with the ride running a fairly decent two train service, if only certain other parks could manage to run their new coasters without them breaking down every 10 minutes and opening three hours late!
Managed 18 rides on Icon today with the ride running a fairly decent two train service, if only certain other parks could manage to run their new coasters without them breaking down every 10 minutes and opening three hours late!
Dipper_Dave
TS Member
The gauntlet has been laid down. Any advance on 18 anyone?
Tom
TS Member
I find it notable that the Pleasure Beach themselves have not built a particularly lengthy queue line, are they not expecting it to be a hit?
The ride is good and certainly fun, but it is lacking in imagination in many areas. It is not groundbraking in any way and ultimately a little disappointing considering the reported spend.
The ride is good and certainly fun, but it is lacking in imagination in many areas. It is not groundbraking in any way and ultimately a little disappointing considering the reported spend.
I only managed a modest four rides, two front, one middle, one back, and all of them were very nice indeed thank you.
Never known a better opening day, and I have been to a few.
Excellent company, lots of smiles and screams, short queues, friendly staff and a genuine electric atmosphere.
One last tip, all the seats are good, but this ride runs better after a couple of pints.
Edit...and note the mirrors have gone from the Steeplechase banking...cooking the dipper supports in the summer Sun, allegedly.
Never known a better opening day, and I have been to a few.
Excellent company, lots of smiles and screams, short queues, friendly staff and a genuine electric atmosphere.
One last tip, all the seats are good, but this ride runs better after a couple of pints.
Edit...and note the mirrors have gone from the Steeplechase banking...cooking the dipper supports in the summer Sun, allegedly.
Last edited:
Sam-Wise
TS Member
Afternoon Folks,
I rode Icon on Tuesday morning at around 10:30 - I can only assume it was the time of day we rode, but I was incredibly underwhelmed - Not only with the force of the launches, but the layout and transitions in general, I've been on Taron so I understand the beauty of no inversions with that, but Icon is seriously lacking a couple more Inversions, there's too much meandering around the s bends at a slow pace, the second launch into the immelmann is fantastic - then it's back to strolling around the remainder of the layout - by the time we'd hit the brake run I was left underwhelmed and wanting more. I almost found myself waiting for that next inversion that never came, I was unaware before riding that there was only two, something that would never usually fuss me - but given the slow pace, I feel it's totally missing out. Friends of mine however rode yesterday, and did state it really comes into it's own when it warms up throughout the day - But on the whole, for me - the layout is poor and lacklustre for thrillseekers. I was at Europa last week so rode blue fire just two days before Icon, for me - Blue Fire is a better coaster, with better elements and transitions, and much stronger forces. Nonetheless - Pleasure Beach have done a great job in getting this thing built in the UK.
I rode Icon on Tuesday morning at around 10:30 - I can only assume it was the time of day we rode, but I was incredibly underwhelmed - Not only with the force of the launches, but the layout and transitions in general, I've been on Taron so I understand the beauty of no inversions with that, but Icon is seriously lacking a couple more Inversions, there's too much meandering around the s bends at a slow pace, the second launch into the immelmann is fantastic - then it's back to strolling around the remainder of the layout - by the time we'd hit the brake run I was left underwhelmed and wanting more. I almost found myself waiting for that next inversion that never came, I was unaware before riding that there was only two, something that would never usually fuss me - but given the slow pace, I feel it's totally missing out. Friends of mine however rode yesterday, and did state it really comes into it's own when it warms up throughout the day - But on the whole, for me - the layout is poor and lacklustre for thrillseekers. I was at Europa last week so rode blue fire just two days before Icon, for me - Blue Fire is a better coaster, with better elements and transitions, and much stronger forces. Nonetheless - Pleasure Beach have done a great job in getting this thing built in the UK.