EndlessWire
Mega Poster
I've always thought that, when seeing a live gig, the final song each night has to be significant. I've always loved The Who, and typically they close with Won't Get Fooled Again - one of the greatest rock songs ever written; most times I've seen Muse, they've closed with a thunderous Knights of Cydonia; Brian Wilson takes a different tack and closes with the poignant Love & Mercy. But either way, I always feel that the end of a concert needs something that feels cathartic and fittingly final.
This year has been, by a long distance, my biggest ever year for rollercoasters - Interrailing added Europa, PortAventura and Tivoli to my canon, and on top of that I've also visited Blackpool twice and Alton once - being financially and logistically able to travel a bit more is quite a big deal for me and, with the best will in the world, a day at Alton culminating in a second ride on Wicker Man didn't quite seem a suitably significant way for me to close off *that* year. So it was that I hopped on an early morning train in late October and trundled towards Blackpool with my girlfriend in tow.
Although she's not a coaster-y person, she wanted to come and have a bit of fun by the sea, so we wasted a couple of quid in Coral Island in the morning (I say "wasted", I came out with a roll of Fizzers sweets, some bubble liquid and a large wasp in a transparent orb, so I consider it a rather wise investment), had a bracing stroll down the promenade and had a mooch around South Pier before heading towards the Pleasure Beach. And the first feeling I had on entering my favourite park? Disappointment. I'd booked tickets for that day specifically because for that week, the park was stated on the website to be closing at 7pm - I'd even checked the previous day to see if it had been revised and it hadn't. I was hoping for a full-dark ride on Icon or the Big One to finish my year off, but because of the earlier close, this wasn't going to happen. The reason given was "weather", but it was a fine and dry day - I suspect the park had never planned to open until 7pm unless the crowds were enormous. It was hard not to complain to the lady giving out the wristbands, but I restrained myself - it's hardly her fault. Once I'd dragged Kate away from the Dali sculpture near the entrance, we headed straight for the River Caves, one of my abiding favourite rides in the whole park. Relaxing, quaint and charming, it's one of those rides that will never grow old for me. Plus, I *finally* managed to memorise exact location the Dalek heiroglyph!
She could see I was dying to get on Icon, so I hopped on what would normally have been a ten minute queue, but turned into a ten minute one as they changed trains. Happily, I was in the station and got to nerd out as the transfer track did its magic, whisking away the loading platform and switching out one train for another. It was also cool to see a few warm up partial launches, though I couldn't actually see the train roll back. Having waited so long, I felt it was worth taking the front row, so I hopped on and started feeling nervous. Not nervous about the ride itself, but because it struck me there was something riding on this ride - last time I'd come in the height of the summer and Icon was absolutely hauling, providing real force and insane airtime en route to usurping Shambhala as my #1. I was nervous that I'd been whisked away in the moment and had been wrong about Icon. I was nervous that I was wrong. Happily, I wasn't. Although a front row, early October morning ride didn't provide the obscene forces of a 30-degree July afternoon ride, it's still wonderfully paced, comfortable, exciting, fun, provides brilliant hangtime and is fantastically re-ridable.
Next up was a race on Steeplechase, which had a fairly large queue by this point. Despite being October, I was quite surprised at the length of queues in general through the day, actually - only Revolution, Valhalla and the National were nearly walk-on. Steeplechase is a ride I've grown to like a lot more since the addition of the new grab rails, and is a very fun social ride if you tactically allow other people ahead of you so you can race against someone. Straight after that, I noticed the Rev had practically no queue, so I bolted up there and got my ridiculous dose of airtime and positive Gs for the day.
What followed was the biggest surprise of the day. We queued about 25 minutes for Nickelodeon Streak and were left with the back row, which was somehow the most forceful ride I can remember on it. Real airtime, lateral forces around the turnaround, got a good lick of speed up. I was quite taken aback by it!
For the most part, I think this has been a good year for the Pleasure Beach, but the one area I think it's dipped in is the food quality. This might be because I've not been to the Pizza Kitchen this year, which I always thought was the best outlet in the park, but the last two lunches I've had at BPB were disappointing. As I tucked into the four or five chips in my extremely small portion at the Plaice, all I could think was "at least this isn't the half-hour wait for the dry chilli lasagne concealing a hard microwaved core I had in Coasters last time". Food is the main area I'd hope to see improve next year.
We hopped on Derby Racer next, and I realised that I've never ridden behind anyone on the same horse before - without my normal hand-holds, it was surprisingly frightening! I sadly failed to entice Kate onto the intimidating Valhalla (I don't know what it is about a water ride in October she wasn't keen on), but I hopped on myself and got a very good cycle. Apart from the lack of snow in the ice room, almost everything was working, with the fire finale the best it's been all year. After this, I tried and failed to win Kate a stuffed Bulbasaur.
Wallace and Gromit came next. I still love this ride, but it seems to me that the timings are all a little bit off. Feathers McGraw shooting at Gromit on the toy train in particular came out far too late for us to properly see - hopefully the triggers can get tightened up a bit over the winter.
Another trip on Icon followed before a long queue for the Big One and a visit to the Grand National. I think this has been the best year for the Nash since it got the new trains - not once have I had an uncomfortable ride on it, and for the most part it's been consistently the most thrilling woodie in the park. It was in a particularly placid mood for that final ride - the front row was about as forceful as that particularly wild ride on the back of Streak - parity of performance the like of which I've never seen before.
By this point, we were mostly just enjoying ourselves, so I bypassed Infusion, Big Dipper and Avalanche this time around. We had a look around the Icon shop and I bought a t shirt and a couple of other little bits as the light grew slightly dimmer and before we knew it, we were in the last half hour. I asked if she minded if I try and whore Icon and Big One a little bit, and she was happy with that, so I hopped into the Icon queue and managed to get two back-row rides with only a twelve minute turnaround between the two. These rides were at least, if not full dark, somewhat dusky - the headlights and strip lights were on, as were the lights around the second-half helix. It had certainly warmed up during the day, and these rides were significantly more intense than the others I'd had that day. On the back row at the end of the day, there really are 3 moments of stupid airtime - my arse barely touched the seat during the first drop, the exit of the immelman (which I *do* count as an inversion as it really does seem like it reaches at least 136 degrees, so change it back, RCDB, change it back now) and the bunny hop before the helix. I was so relieved that it actually has earned my #1 spot and hadn't just flattered to deceive.
But although it's been dethroned, there are things the Big One can do which Icon can't. For one thing, the Big One gives one of the best views from any rollercoaster. In October, this lets you see the illuminations stretching down the promenade. Also, the Big One's trains are almost twice as long as Icon's, meaning a) it takes longer to load up and dispatch and b) it's more likely that only a half-train load will want to get on it once the queue closes. I ran to the station and made it with maybe a minute to spare, and knowing how BPB often deals with the end of the day, I tactically chose a seat in the middle of the train. Sure enough, before we were dispatched, a ride op came over the tannoy telling us if there's nobody standing at our gate by the time we get back, we can stay on for a second ride. And to quote The Last Crusade, I had chosen wisely.
I have always loved the Big One at night, and at the end of the day - combining the two was special. I love that oddly intimate feeling of being the last ones in the station, the strange camaraderie of everyone in the train, the whooping and cheering on dispatch, the applause as it returns. And I love the glittering of the UK's weirdest town from a height, I love the brooding North Sea, I love the way the height of the ride seems accentuated by the dark. And I love that the time it took to organise both the final trains meant that I got two progressively darker rides on the Big One, and that the encore ride was near enough in full dark. It takes about a minute to climb, and as I did, my head was filled with the synth intro of Won't Get Fooled Again and thoughts of Shambhala, Red Force, Wicker Man, Rustchebanen and other highlights of my biggest coasting year yet, and as the train crested the hill and dived towards the sea, Pete Townshend's guitar exploded, heralding the precise ending to my year that I'd hoped for. I was melancholic, happy and exhilarated as the train rolled back in and slowly, I wistfully wandered down the exit ramp, through the park and around the outside, content to just stand and grin at the change all around.
Yep, it's October.
Somewhat enjoying hogging the front row of Icon
Still somewhat enjoying hogging the front row of Icon
OH HAI, BIG ONE
Oh, bye, Big One...
Six in one
I thought this was Halloween theming, but Blackpool apparently does have an issue with dead rodents...
Tunnels!
A new classic angle
Darker somersaulting
Airtime!
The remains of the day
Tangled
Purple Haze
Big Darker
Dipped
Promenade
A triangle? Illuminationati Confirmed
Still my favourite drop
Steeeeeeel
Won't Get 'Pooled Again
This year has been, by a long distance, my biggest ever year for rollercoasters - Interrailing added Europa, PortAventura and Tivoli to my canon, and on top of that I've also visited Blackpool twice and Alton once - being financially and logistically able to travel a bit more is quite a big deal for me and, with the best will in the world, a day at Alton culminating in a second ride on Wicker Man didn't quite seem a suitably significant way for me to close off *that* year. So it was that I hopped on an early morning train in late October and trundled towards Blackpool with my girlfriend in tow.
Although she's not a coaster-y person, she wanted to come and have a bit of fun by the sea, so we wasted a couple of quid in Coral Island in the morning (I say "wasted", I came out with a roll of Fizzers sweets, some bubble liquid and a large wasp in a transparent orb, so I consider it a rather wise investment), had a bracing stroll down the promenade and had a mooch around South Pier before heading towards the Pleasure Beach. And the first feeling I had on entering my favourite park? Disappointment. I'd booked tickets for that day specifically because for that week, the park was stated on the website to be closing at 7pm - I'd even checked the previous day to see if it had been revised and it hadn't. I was hoping for a full-dark ride on Icon or the Big One to finish my year off, but because of the earlier close, this wasn't going to happen. The reason given was "weather", but it was a fine and dry day - I suspect the park had never planned to open until 7pm unless the crowds were enormous. It was hard not to complain to the lady giving out the wristbands, but I restrained myself - it's hardly her fault. Once I'd dragged Kate away from the Dali sculpture near the entrance, we headed straight for the River Caves, one of my abiding favourite rides in the whole park. Relaxing, quaint and charming, it's one of those rides that will never grow old for me. Plus, I *finally* managed to memorise exact location the Dalek heiroglyph!
She could see I was dying to get on Icon, so I hopped on what would normally have been a ten minute queue, but turned into a ten minute one as they changed trains. Happily, I was in the station and got to nerd out as the transfer track did its magic, whisking away the loading platform and switching out one train for another. It was also cool to see a few warm up partial launches, though I couldn't actually see the train roll back. Having waited so long, I felt it was worth taking the front row, so I hopped on and started feeling nervous. Not nervous about the ride itself, but because it struck me there was something riding on this ride - last time I'd come in the height of the summer and Icon was absolutely hauling, providing real force and insane airtime en route to usurping Shambhala as my #1. I was nervous that I'd been whisked away in the moment and had been wrong about Icon. I was nervous that I was wrong. Happily, I wasn't. Although a front row, early October morning ride didn't provide the obscene forces of a 30-degree July afternoon ride, it's still wonderfully paced, comfortable, exciting, fun, provides brilliant hangtime and is fantastically re-ridable.
Next up was a race on Steeplechase, which had a fairly large queue by this point. Despite being October, I was quite surprised at the length of queues in general through the day, actually - only Revolution, Valhalla and the National were nearly walk-on. Steeplechase is a ride I've grown to like a lot more since the addition of the new grab rails, and is a very fun social ride if you tactically allow other people ahead of you so you can race against someone. Straight after that, I noticed the Rev had practically no queue, so I bolted up there and got my ridiculous dose of airtime and positive Gs for the day.
What followed was the biggest surprise of the day. We queued about 25 minutes for Nickelodeon Streak and were left with the back row, which was somehow the most forceful ride I can remember on it. Real airtime, lateral forces around the turnaround, got a good lick of speed up. I was quite taken aback by it!
For the most part, I think this has been a good year for the Pleasure Beach, but the one area I think it's dipped in is the food quality. This might be because I've not been to the Pizza Kitchen this year, which I always thought was the best outlet in the park, but the last two lunches I've had at BPB were disappointing. As I tucked into the four or five chips in my extremely small portion at the Plaice, all I could think was "at least this isn't the half-hour wait for the dry chilli lasagne concealing a hard microwaved core I had in Coasters last time". Food is the main area I'd hope to see improve next year.
We hopped on Derby Racer next, and I realised that I've never ridden behind anyone on the same horse before - without my normal hand-holds, it was surprisingly frightening! I sadly failed to entice Kate onto the intimidating Valhalla (I don't know what it is about a water ride in October she wasn't keen on), but I hopped on myself and got a very good cycle. Apart from the lack of snow in the ice room, almost everything was working, with the fire finale the best it's been all year. After this, I tried and failed to win Kate a stuffed Bulbasaur.
Wallace and Gromit came next. I still love this ride, but it seems to me that the timings are all a little bit off. Feathers McGraw shooting at Gromit on the toy train in particular came out far too late for us to properly see - hopefully the triggers can get tightened up a bit over the winter.
Another trip on Icon followed before a long queue for the Big One and a visit to the Grand National. I think this has been the best year for the Nash since it got the new trains - not once have I had an uncomfortable ride on it, and for the most part it's been consistently the most thrilling woodie in the park. It was in a particularly placid mood for that final ride - the front row was about as forceful as that particularly wild ride on the back of Streak - parity of performance the like of which I've never seen before.
By this point, we were mostly just enjoying ourselves, so I bypassed Infusion, Big Dipper and Avalanche this time around. We had a look around the Icon shop and I bought a t shirt and a couple of other little bits as the light grew slightly dimmer and before we knew it, we were in the last half hour. I asked if she minded if I try and whore Icon and Big One a little bit, and she was happy with that, so I hopped into the Icon queue and managed to get two back-row rides with only a twelve minute turnaround between the two. These rides were at least, if not full dark, somewhat dusky - the headlights and strip lights were on, as were the lights around the second-half helix. It had certainly warmed up during the day, and these rides were significantly more intense than the others I'd had that day. On the back row at the end of the day, there really are 3 moments of stupid airtime - my arse barely touched the seat during the first drop, the exit of the immelman (which I *do* count as an inversion as it really does seem like it reaches at least 136 degrees, so change it back, RCDB, change it back now) and the bunny hop before the helix. I was so relieved that it actually has earned my #1 spot and hadn't just flattered to deceive.
But although it's been dethroned, there are things the Big One can do which Icon can't. For one thing, the Big One gives one of the best views from any rollercoaster. In October, this lets you see the illuminations stretching down the promenade. Also, the Big One's trains are almost twice as long as Icon's, meaning a) it takes longer to load up and dispatch and b) it's more likely that only a half-train load will want to get on it once the queue closes. I ran to the station and made it with maybe a minute to spare, and knowing how BPB often deals with the end of the day, I tactically chose a seat in the middle of the train. Sure enough, before we were dispatched, a ride op came over the tannoy telling us if there's nobody standing at our gate by the time we get back, we can stay on for a second ride. And to quote The Last Crusade, I had chosen wisely.
I have always loved the Big One at night, and at the end of the day - combining the two was special. I love that oddly intimate feeling of being the last ones in the station, the strange camaraderie of everyone in the train, the whooping and cheering on dispatch, the applause as it returns. And I love the glittering of the UK's weirdest town from a height, I love the brooding North Sea, I love the way the height of the ride seems accentuated by the dark. And I love that the time it took to organise both the final trains meant that I got two progressively darker rides on the Big One, and that the encore ride was near enough in full dark. It takes about a minute to climb, and as I did, my head was filled with the synth intro of Won't Get Fooled Again and thoughts of Shambhala, Red Force, Wicker Man, Rustchebanen and other highlights of my biggest coasting year yet, and as the train crested the hill and dived towards the sea, Pete Townshend's guitar exploded, heralding the precise ending to my year that I'd hoped for. I was melancholic, happy and exhilarated as the train rolled back in and slowly, I wistfully wandered down the exit ramp, through the park and around the outside, content to just stand and grin at the change all around.
Yep, it's October.
Somewhat enjoying hogging the front row of Icon
Still somewhat enjoying hogging the front row of Icon
OH HAI, BIG ONE
Oh, bye, Big One...
Six in one
I thought this was Halloween theming, but Blackpool apparently does have an issue with dead rodents...
Tunnels!
A new classic angle
Darker somersaulting
Airtime!
The remains of the day
Tangled
Purple Haze
Big Darker
Dipped
Promenade
A triangle? Illuminationati Confirmed
Still my favourite drop
Steeeeeeel
Won't Get 'Pooled Again
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