The disaster that is Journey To Hell Freak Nights at Blackpool Pleasure Beach

[Matthew Fair]

Anyone been/going to Pleasure Beach for their new 2019 Halloween attraction? After being hyped up for a few months I thought it was actually going to be quite good but the reviews are in and it sounds like a hot mess. Part of the experience was advertised to be a ride on ICON (Mack double launched coaster) in the dark, however ICON was down for much of yesterday evening so rather than having another coaster on backup, Pleasure Beach stuck everyone on Red Arrows Sky Force (Gerstlauer Sky Fly). There have also been numerous other complaints.
"Poor substitute for icon tonight to choose Red Arrows. Very disappointed. Some parts was good, others not so. Lot's of hanging around on times. Lucky it wasn’t raining."
"The worst thing I have ever spent money on"
"It saddens us to say that Journey To Hell Freak Nights at Blackpool Pleasure Beach was an absolute shambles this evening. The entire event was very unorganised with different groups getting completely different experiences to others. Overall we're very disappointed that this event has still gone ahead when it clearly wasn't properly thought about or managed. We wouldn't recommend this experience, especially at £29pp. We really hope that anyone booked onto the event across the next 4 nights has a much more enjoyable experience than we did!"
"This event was really bad. So disorganised and an absolute let down, there was no story to it and it seemed like most of the actors were just standing around staring at you or pointing at things. Icon... sky force... I will just leave this here, I’m still waiting to ride icon in a different way I have ever before."
"So after paying £30 for Journey To Hell and not getting a ride on Icon as promised I was already quite annoyed, but when I got back to the hotel I saw the next group of people going around on Icon. Technical issues or not, that isn’t fair at all! After we got ripped off with a ride on Sky Force I’m being forced to watch other people get the a ride Icon that I was promised! I love how Pleasure Beach haven’t apologised or even mentioned it! Sorry for the rant guys. Feel free to defend Pleasure Beach in the comments, but I hope you can see why I am annoyed. They should’ve had Icon working for a fully booked event!"

 

[Themeparknewbie01]

I really wanted to do this but glad I couldn't get tickets in the end. When Shawn from TPWW is negative about the event - you know it is bad.

I think the ICON issue is just the tip of the iceberg with the event just sounding unorganised and poor quality. Might just be teething issues but you would expect it to be well rehearsed before opening night.

 

[JoshC.]

When Shawn from TPWW is negative about the event - you know it is bad.

Shawn can also be very petty when things don't go his way / aren't to his liking. It's no coincidence that whenever he is negative, he is extremely negative.

Not to say his negative opinion isn't valid here, as I've heard much of the same, but just take that with a pinch of salt.


A shame the event hasn't been met with positive reviews right away. I'm trying to avoid any spoilers as I hope that - if it returns - I'll do it in the future, but it does seem like an event which will grow and improve over time. I just hope that whatever is wrong with it right now, it isn't too wrong to be salvaged.

 

[rob666]

I heard rumours that the back up ride should have been infusion, but they didn't want to put a four man team up for reserve...
So you got lucky.

 

[Coop]

I just did this last night and yes, it was an absolute let down. The story just wasn’t cohesive at all. Everyone was split into 3 or 4 groups and it seemed that each group went through each area in a different order which makes no sense if trying to tell a cohesive story. Most of the night was spent walking between each zone with minimal to zero actors in between and when there were roaming actors they made no sense to the narrative they were spinning. Using the Chinese puzzle maze as a scare maze had potential but it just fell flat for me, very few actors in there, although I’ll give credit as most of the actors in the maze were really good but it was wasted potential, especially with it being too well lit, you could see all the scares coming. Similar story with the tunnels under River Caves, most of it spent walking through empty corridors in between a few rooms with actors. The whole experience was just very underwhelming, absolutely nowhere near as terrifying as marketed. The only highlight being the blindfolded ride on Icon, there was some narrative about it being some sort of test but was difficult to hear the actor’s spiel.
Definitely not worth the £29. I don’t really get scared in scare attractions but I guess if you’re easily frightened you might get a few little thrills here and there but you’re likely to be underwhelmed.

Edit: Oh and on top of that, they take your photo with an actor before going into the maze then try to sell it to you for a tenner on your way out, as if the £29 wasn’t already enough money for an underwhelming night.