Blackpool Pleasure Beach | Icon | Mack Multi-Launch
- Thread starter Temleh
- Start date
Matt N
CF Legend
Thanks! Icon is just an amazing coaster, isn't it?Same here, I love icon. Its almost too good to be true for Blackpool and the UK in general.
You're too apologetic man, it's the best and most appropriate thread for icon talk.
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, it's the best and most appropriate thread for icon talk.Hope you feel better soon! Icon is not the sort of coaster that will hurt your neck, so don't worry!
James F
Hyper Poster
Seen as it was your first time at PB what did you think of grand national? I used to really enjoy it years ago, but It has gotten so rough lately that to be it's just painful.
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Matt N
CF Legend
Yeah, I found Nash extremely rough, too! There was some good airtime, and the ride kept its pace well, but it really was excruciatingly rough, in my opinion! Not as bad as Infusion, though; dreadful coaster! Let's just say it looks much nicer than it rides!
James F
Hyper Poster
Indeed
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Sent from my G3221 using Tapatalk
Matt N
CF Legend
Oh dear! Where did it stall, out of interest?
I don't know how it could stall, as it seemed extremely fast when I rode it! Must have been cold when they tested it!
Didn't make it through the zero g roll and so rolled back to the S bend underneath Big Dipper/Steeplechase.
Matt N
CF Legend
Ah right. Thanks @MakoMania!
SilverArrow
Certified Ride Geek
Both 90% likely to have been because of wind due to the location.
CrashCoaster
CF Legend
They should have launched it faster, to avoid stuff like this happening in high winds.
WhollyRudeTech
Roller Poster
How easy is it to change the speed of the launch? Could they change it each day depending on the weather? They can’t say the wind has been a surprise to them.
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James F
Hyper Poster
Often the most common sense answer is the right one.
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sandgrown
Mega Poster
My Icon review.
I went home last weekend, which allowed me to indulge in decent chips on Harrowside Hill, decent ice cream at Notorianni's, and a decent new ride at Blackpool Pleasure Beach - or as some bizarrely pointless rebranding would have it - Pleasure Beach, Blackpool. They must have come swimming across the Atlantic to the Fylde Coast after someone had that brainwave.
Context
As I say in every post, to the point that you are already sick of me, I'm from Blackpool. I consider the Pleasure Beach to be local, shared property (legal documents in the possession of the Thompson family show this to be a delusion), part of my very soul, and a place that features in my dreams and memories. I was very excited that a decent new ride had been built for the first time in decades.
I went to the Pleasure Beach last Saturday, having been to Parque Warner in Madrid on the Monday before. I chilled on the Sunday, so the week was like a Craig David song with rides instead of a love affair.
Further Context
I have drunk 4 cans of beer before writing this review.
The Ride
I arrived at the Pleasure Beach with the intention of just going on Icon and maybe one or two other things. My cervical discs are a bit bashed up these days, and I'd done myself in a bit on rides earlier on the week. This meant I had to ration what I went on a bit. I walked from home, which is only 10 minutes away, and entered the park at about 12pm. On here, the consensus was that the ride really warmed up in the afternoon. I considered waiting until 3 or 4pm to go on Icon for the first time, but it was just too tempting to jump straight on, especially when I saw the queue was pretty short, and moving along. Within 20 minutes, I had boarded and was waiting for launch. In total, I had 4 rides: 3 in the back row and one at the front. The front row launch straight into the mist is really exhilarating, but apart from that I think the back row is the best. Simply because the best thrill the ride has to offer is the airtime over the top hat generated by the pull of the car when you're seated at the back. I have never had lap-bar restraints before. I have read threads on here and thought "WHAT a bunch of boring geeks, who gives a **** what the restraints are like". I was totally wrong. The range of movement the lapbars give you, the feeling of freedom, the added thrill that you get from hanging arse-end-up with nothing over your shoulders, and just the general comfort is fantastic.
The top hat is great, the zero-G roll is actually so good because it's slow. You really do feel like you might fall out, in erm a good way. The second launch is pretty cool and the numerous, meandering curves around the track are ... fine. The length of the ride is satisfying - you are on it for a good while. The Immelman is okay, but not as exciting as I'd hoped.
Overall, Icon is a good solid ride, and I really like it. Well-balanced, nicely thought out, and lots of fun. One quality I think it has is re-rideability. It's not such a head**** that you have to stop after a couple of rides, and each time has the potential to be different. I didn't have much interaction with other rides the 4 times I was on it, maybe next time the Big Dipper will fly past when I approach the brake run, or my head will dangle over a Steeplechase rider (who will presumably be yawning their way around another very dull corner). I do feel that it wasn't scary enough. It needed the first top hat to be higher, to be 10 mph quicker overall, or just to get me gritting my teeth or sweating a bit more. It's loads of fun, but for the first ride of note at BPB in 24 years, I would have liked to have (metaphorically) **** my keks a bit more.
Summary of Good Points
I went home last weekend, which allowed me to indulge in decent chips on Harrowside Hill, decent ice cream at Notorianni's, and a decent new ride at Blackpool Pleasure Beach - or as some bizarrely pointless rebranding would have it - Pleasure Beach, Blackpool. They must have come swimming across the Atlantic to the Fylde Coast after someone had that brainwave.
Context
As I say in every post, to the point that you are already sick of me, I'm from Blackpool. I consider the Pleasure Beach to be local, shared property (legal documents in the possession of the Thompson family show this to be a delusion), part of my very soul, and a place that features in my dreams and memories. I was very excited that a decent new ride had been built for the first time in decades.
I went to the Pleasure Beach last Saturday, having been to Parque Warner in Madrid on the Monday before. I chilled on the Sunday, so the week was like a Craig David song with rides instead of a love affair.
Further Context
I have drunk 4 cans of beer before writing this review.
The Ride
I arrived at the Pleasure Beach with the intention of just going on Icon and maybe one or two other things. My cervical discs are a bit bashed up these days, and I'd done myself in a bit on rides earlier on the week. This meant I had to ration what I went on a bit. I walked from home, which is only 10 minutes away, and entered the park at about 12pm. On here, the consensus was that the ride really warmed up in the afternoon. I considered waiting until 3 or 4pm to go on Icon for the first time, but it was just too tempting to jump straight on, especially when I saw the queue was pretty short, and moving along. Within 20 minutes, I had boarded and was waiting for launch. In total, I had 4 rides: 3 in the back row and one at the front. The front row launch straight into the mist is really exhilarating, but apart from that I think the back row is the best. Simply because the best thrill the ride has to offer is the airtime over the top hat generated by the pull of the car when you're seated at the back. I have never had lap-bar restraints before. I have read threads on here and thought "WHAT a bunch of boring geeks, who gives a **** what the restraints are like". I was totally wrong. The range of movement the lapbars give you, the feeling of freedom, the added thrill that you get from hanging arse-end-up with nothing over your shoulders, and just the general comfort is fantastic.
The top hat is great, the zero-G roll is actually so good because it's slow. You really do feel like you might fall out, in erm a good way. The second launch is pretty cool and the numerous, meandering curves around the track are ... fine. The length of the ride is satisfying - you are on it for a good while. The Immelman is okay, but not as exciting as I'd hoped.
Overall, Icon is a good solid ride, and I really like it. Well-balanced, nicely thought out, and lots of fun. One quality I think it has is re-rideability. It's not such a head**** that you have to stop after a couple of rides, and each time has the potential to be different. I didn't have much interaction with other rides the 4 times I was on it, maybe next time the Big Dipper will fly past when I approach the brake run, or my head will dangle over a Steeplechase rider (who will presumably be yawning their way around another very dull corner). I do feel that it wasn't scary enough. It needed the first top hat to be higher, to be 10 mph quicker overall, or just to get me gritting my teeth or sweating a bit more. It's loads of fun, but for the first ride of note at BPB in 24 years, I would have liked to have (metaphorically) **** my keks a bit more.
Summary of Good Points
- A genuinely good rollercoaster with a variety of well-balanced elements
- Re-rideability
- Long
- Smooth
- Cool cars
- Launches are fun
- Mist in face feels nice on warm day
- Amazing restraints (how sweet the sound)
- Cool locker system for your stuff
- Very fast operations. Queues 20 minutes max on a summer Saturday with decent weather
- Should be a bit more intense/scary. I had been on Superman in Parque Warner the same week. That's a 16 year old ride. It was better than Icon.
- Total airtime is about 2 seconds. Less than the Grand National. Less than the Mouse.
- The Mouse is gone. Icon is here. The Mouse was better. This represents a net loss to the park for 2018.
- If they smoothed out some of the bumps on the Grand National, it would also still be a better ride than Icon, despite being constructed before Hitler invaded Poland.
- It's too slow in places
Peet
Giga Poster
Let's all take a moment's silence, lest we forget.