JamesB
Mega Poster
So for my birthday I decided to head up to Blackpool for a few days seeing as it’s a place I had never been and always wanted to do! We drove up Thursday morning (accompanied by delays) and hit the tower in the afternoon.
I thought the 4D show was actually reasonably good, the tower was dead so we waited with a bunch of elderly people to get into the show. I felt the history of the tower could have been covered in the film however. We were then whizzed through into the lift without having a chance to look at the displays (much to my dad’s disappointment) we were then met by a very robotic lift operator who looked like he had said his lines at least a billion times.
Anyways... the top of the tower was great, it was a really clear day and got some amazing views. The netting on the top floors made it hard to take good photos.
In the evening we headed to Harry Ramsden’s which was really nice and headed to our very hot Travel Lodge for the night.
Next day... it was time for the Pleasure Beach!
Ride count:
Steeplechase (yellow) x 1
Revolution x 1
Avalanche x1
Blue Flyer x 1
Nickelodeon streak x 1
Wallace and gromit x 1
Big Dipper x 1
Pleasure beach express x 1
The big one x 1
River caves x 1
Ghost house x 1
Valhalla x 1
Grand national x 2 (both sides)
Wild Mouse x 1
Flying machine x 1
Started the day with Steeplechase, found it very rough on the lower parts, especially the turns. Not a favourite with me.
Then climbed the steps of Revolution and really enjoyed it, the loop is much more intense than it looks, especially on reverse.
I then joined a supposedly short queue for Avalanche which moved pretty slow due to only operating one train, I ended up in the back car and it was extremely shaky, would try nearer the front if I did it again.
Hit Nickelodeon Land for the creds, Blue Flyer was very meh, after all it is a kids ride. Streak was pretty good, some nice airtime in parts. Loved the tunnel inside the old Space Invaders ride.
Next up was the Wallace and Gromit ride, which I really enjoyed, it seemed like a ride that would be a bit lost on you if you didn’t know the films but I thought it was a really well presented dark ride.
After that I hit up Big Dipper, which I found quite painful, some of the drops are very jolty and I got banged around a lot but it was still enjoyable.
For most the day The Big One had been down due to the high winds, it finally opened around 3pm so I ran straight for the line, it ended up breaking down while I queued but ended up waiting about 30 minutes which isn’t bad! Loved the first drop but it does seem to lose its force quite quickly, still a really good ride.
The park was pretty quiet at this point so I started doing the smaller rides, the river caves were much better than I expected, the scenes inside are so detailed. Also did the ghost house which was okay, I don’t find those kind of rides that scary.
Valhalla was next up, one of my most anticipated rides of the day and it didn’t disappoint! I ended up riding next to a lady without a rain coat and her bunch of friends, loved it from start to finish, so many surprises, the effects were amazing especially the fire at the end. I imagine its a ride that is at its best on the first ride when everything is unexpected.
Despite my raincoat I came off soaked through, I quickly ran over to Grand National another ride I loved, the air time is amazing, found both sides great fun.
Getting to the end of the day, I decided to get another credit and headed to the Wild Mouse which actually wasn’t as half as painful as I thought it was going to be, I always have flashbacks of Rattlesnake at Chessington but this one was bearable. My final ride of the day was Flying Machine before buying a nice Big Dipper t-shirt at the shop!
We headed into town in the evening and ate at Bella Italia, then on the way home the next day we stopped off at Birmingham Nature Centre which is a nice little zoo if anyone is into that kind of thing.
Hope you enjoyed reading and the pretty photos, I definitely enjoyed Blackpool, even with such a short visit!
I thought the 4D show was actually reasonably good, the tower was dead so we waited with a bunch of elderly people to get into the show. I felt the history of the tower could have been covered in the film however. We were then whizzed through into the lift without having a chance to look at the displays (much to my dad’s disappointment) we were then met by a very robotic lift operator who looked like he had said his lines at least a billion times.
Anyways... the top of the tower was great, it was a really clear day and got some amazing views. The netting on the top floors made it hard to take good photos.
In the evening we headed to Harry Ramsden’s which was really nice and headed to our very hot Travel Lodge for the night.
Next day... it was time for the Pleasure Beach!
Ride count:
Steeplechase (yellow) x 1
Revolution x 1
Avalanche x1
Blue Flyer x 1
Nickelodeon streak x 1
Wallace and gromit x 1
Big Dipper x 1
Pleasure beach express x 1
The big one x 1
River caves x 1
Ghost house x 1
Valhalla x 1
Grand national x 2 (both sides)
Wild Mouse x 1
Flying machine x 1
Started the day with Steeplechase, found it very rough on the lower parts, especially the turns. Not a favourite with me.
Then climbed the steps of Revolution and really enjoyed it, the loop is much more intense than it looks, especially on reverse.
I then joined a supposedly short queue for Avalanche which moved pretty slow due to only operating one train, I ended up in the back car and it was extremely shaky, would try nearer the front if I did it again.
Hit Nickelodeon Land for the creds, Blue Flyer was very meh, after all it is a kids ride. Streak was pretty good, some nice airtime in parts. Loved the tunnel inside the old Space Invaders ride.
Next up was the Wallace and Gromit ride, which I really enjoyed, it seemed like a ride that would be a bit lost on you if you didn’t know the films but I thought it was a really well presented dark ride.
After that I hit up Big Dipper, which I found quite painful, some of the drops are very jolty and I got banged around a lot but it was still enjoyable.
For most the day The Big One had been down due to the high winds, it finally opened around 3pm so I ran straight for the line, it ended up breaking down while I queued but ended up waiting about 30 minutes which isn’t bad! Loved the first drop but it does seem to lose its force quite quickly, still a really good ride.
The park was pretty quiet at this point so I started doing the smaller rides, the river caves were much better than I expected, the scenes inside are so detailed. Also did the ghost house which was okay, I don’t find those kind of rides that scary.
Valhalla was next up, one of my most anticipated rides of the day and it didn’t disappoint! I ended up riding next to a lady without a rain coat and her bunch of friends, loved it from start to finish, so many surprises, the effects were amazing especially the fire at the end. I imagine its a ride that is at its best on the first ride when everything is unexpected.
Despite my raincoat I came off soaked through, I quickly ran over to Grand National another ride I loved, the air time is amazing, found both sides great fun.
Getting to the end of the day, I decided to get another credit and headed to the Wild Mouse which actually wasn’t as half as painful as I thought it was going to be, I always have flashbacks of Rattlesnake at Chessington but this one was bearable. My final ride of the day was Flying Machine before buying a nice Big Dipper t-shirt at the shop!
We headed into town in the evening and ate at Bella Italia, then on the way home the next day we stopped off at Birmingham Nature Centre which is a nice little zoo if anyone is into that kind of thing.
Hope you enjoyed reading and the pretty photos, I definitely enjoyed Blackpool, even with such a short visit!
