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Southport Pleasureland

Lord Street looked very sad indeed on Sunday, compared to days of old.
Shops and many cafes closed, others half empty.
Great place for a weekend away though, plenty to fill a weekend.
Just walking to the sea from the beach can kill half a day.
When the tide goes out, you can barely see the sea.
 
Zamperla Thunderbolt planned for Southport Pleasureland

That’s right, according to “Stand up for Southport”, park owner Norman Wallis is set to invest in a brand new installation that runs along the length of the park on the Marine Drive side. The attraction will be a clone of the existing Thunderbolt model at Coney Island, and will be accompanied by the installation of a 35m tall Observation Wheel at the other end of the park. All being well both should open some time next year !

https://standupforsouthport.com/thr...daqDwvnH8WHBn1QuEQZcXZ3c_ahM0VV4vyUEiaNQvpW1U

I personally think this is a great addition to the park. While in the eyes of an enthusiast, the model chosen may not be the obvious first choice, it will be an impactful visual for the park and will surely be well received thanks to its vertical lift and inversions. I’ll be there for opening day for sure !
 
tayspru said:
Zamperla Thunderbolt planned for Southport Pleasureland

That’s right, according to “Stand up for Southport”, park owner Norman Wallis is set to invest in a brand new installation that runs along the length of the park on the Marine Drive side. The attraction will be a clone of the existing Thunderbolt model at Coney Island, and will be accompanied by the installation of a 35m tall Observation Wheel at the other end of the park. All being well both should open some time next year !

https://standupforsouthport.com/thr...daqDwvnH8WHBn1QuEQZcXZ3c_ahM0VV4vyUEiaNQvpW1U

I personally think this is a great addition to the park. While in the eyes of an enthusiast, the model chosen may not be the obvious first choice, it will be an impactful visual for the park and will surely be well received thanks to its vertical lift and inversions. I’ll be there for opening day for sure !
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Personally I think this is the best idea for Southport since it reopened. I knew Wallis had something up his sleeve personally I always thought he'd get Gravity Group to remake the cyclone.
The originals of these models get fairly bad reviews however the newer ones like the what at The Park at OWA got good reviews from enthusiasts. Building a relationship with Zamperla makes sense for a small park like this. Brilliant work Southport! can't wait!

The one thing is it doesn't say what year it is going to open so I presume something like 2023 any ideas?
 
JAperson said:
Personally I think this is the best idea for Southport since it reopened. I knew Wallis had something up his sleeve personally I always thought he'd get Gravity Group to remake the cyclone.
The originals of these models get fairly bad reviews however the newer ones like the what at The Park at OWA got good reviews from enthusiasts. Building a relationship with Zamperla makes sense for a small park like this. Brilliant work Southport! can't wait!

The one thing is it doesn't say what year it is going to open so I presume something like 2023 any ideas?
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Regarding the date it hasn’t been stated directly for the coaster. However, the article suggest it will open with the observation wheel, and previous articles suggest *that* will open next Summer.

Judging from a recent TPWW video the proposed site is already levelled, and I wouldn’t expect a lot of theming, so 2022 isn’t out of the question if Sefton council approve the project ASAP - which really I can see them doing as a permanent coaster is likely to make the rest of the park move to a higher quality aesthetic. Currently the view from marine drive has multiple temporary rides visible , and the council have already approved improvements by Norman Wallis to the miniature railway , including a brand new bistro area. They seem to have a good working relationship :)
 
tayspru said:
Regarding the date it hasn’t been stated directly for the coaster. However, the article suggest it will open with the observation wheel, and previous articles suggest *that* will open next Summer.

Judging from a recent TPWW video the proposed site is already levelled, and I wouldn’t expect a lot of theming, so 2022 isn’t out of the question if Sefton council approve the project ASAP - which really I can see them doing as a permanent coaster is likely to make the rest of the park move to a higher quality aesthetic. Currently the view from marine drive has multiple temporary rides visible , and the council have already approved improvements by Norman Wallis to the miniature railway , including a brand new bistro area. They seem to have a good working relationship :)
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I think Wallis has a lot of influence in Southport owning a lot of the key attractions I think he is also a director of the tourist board although I’m not 100% sure. He has said is aim is for it not be be a funfair. He wants no temporary rides in the end which I think the council will agree with. Let’s see how the council reacts.
 
Stevie said:
Isn't the one at Coney Island supposed to be awfully rough to ride?
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The Coney Island one apparently isn’t the smoothest, but the newer Thunderbolts, such as the one at OWA in Alabama, are far smoother, even with the same layout; Zamperla seem to have worked out the kinks with the model!
 
Matt N said:
The Coney Island one apparently isn’t the smoothest, but the newer Thunderbolts, such as the one at OWA in Alabama, are far smoother, even with the same layout; Zamperla seem to have worked out the kinks with the model!
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Yes I said this. Zamperla are used to building flat rides and kid coasters. They started with the volare (terrible) then they started developing the thunderbolt which started off rubbish but is improving with each model. People have actually said the one at OWA gives decent airtime (I'll believe it when I see it)!
 
John_P said:
It's very rough!

However they have improved the model with more recent versions.
Click to expand...

The thing is though most of the GP honestly don’t care if a coaster isn’t butter smooth. Look at the Volare at Flamingoland that is still popular. As others have said though the new models have much better reviews and Norman Wallis knows exactly what he is doing !
 
Zamperla have apparently said in interviews that they’re making a concerted effort to improve build quality and ride experience on their newer coasters, and as others have said, the newer Thunderbolts are reportedly much smoother, so hopefully this one will ride well!

Besides, looking at RCDB, their last coaster installation was a Pinfari Mini Mega Coaster that has previously resided at Gulliver’s Warrington and Codona’s, and the current crown jewel of their coaster lineup is a Pinfari ZL42 which had 3 different homes prior to its arrival in Southport, so surely this coaster isn’t anything other than a meteoric upgrade?

Impressively, however, this is coming right off the back of the aforementioned Pinfari Mini Mega; that coaster only opened in May 2021!

Maybe Southport might be a place I could pop to on my next visit to Blackpool when this coaster is built…
 
I've still not paid Southport a visit this year but will go up during the summer, The Rocket (the mini mega) was due to open in 2020 (well the ride parts showed up late 2019) but was delayed a year by the pandemic.

It's a nice little park to visit for a few hours and the whole lake area next to it is lovely.
 
I'm pleased that some decent investment is being put into Pleasureland, always had a soft spot for the place from the days of the Traumatizer.
 
It's a real shame what happened to this place. It once was a really nice family day out.

I'm sure these new plans, if approved, will go down well but the place needs so much investment it's scary. It's basically a run down glorified funfair at the moment.
 
Benjsh said:
It's a real shame what happened to this place. It once was a really nice family day out.

I'm sure these new plans, if approved, will go down well but the place needs so much investment it's scary. It's basically a run down glorified funfair at the moment.
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The areas that have had attention look surprisingly pleasant in my opinion, it would cost an astronomical amount to update everything at once. They’re also a local park and have the benefit of most guests being aware that the place has managed to come back from nothing, and given the park is always clean and welcoming, I think some of the temporary aesthetic is largely forgiven.
 
tayspru said:
The areas that have had attention look surprisingly pleasant in my opinion, it would cost an astronomical amount to update everything at once. They’re also a local park and have the benefit of most guests being aware that the place has managed to come back from nothing, and given the park is always clean and welcoming, I think some of the temporary aesthetic is largely forgiven.
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Our last visit a few years ago we did about 90 mins and left. It's just a pale shadow of what it used to be.
 
Benjsh said:
It's a real shame what happened to this place. It once was a really nice family day out.
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The seaside amusement parks just seemed to die off around 10-20 years ago.
I loved Morecambe Frontierland when I visited back in the 90s as a child.
But many of these small parks are either gone completely (like Frontierland), a glorified funfair (Southport) or barely more than that (Dreamland Margate).
 
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