Friday 20 June 2014

Blackpool Pleasure Beach - How the birthday went.

For my birthday in 2014 me and some friends had decided a few months before that we'd spend the day at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. It's a small amusement part located in the north-west of England. To my knowledge, it currently holds the record for being the most compact theme park in europe/the world, and in certain parts, you can see why.

In the morning we all met up having pre-booked our tickets and i was amazed at how friendly the staff where when we arrived half an hour before the park opend for the day, even the security guard wished me a happy birthday as i walked through their body scanners.

We made our way over to some of the rides to find out that apparently, rather than do it like other theme parks have done in the past, BPB staggers the opening of their rides, so some will open at 11 when the park officially opens, others will open at half 11 etc, some rides it seems.... are still being built.

One of our first rides was a visit to Valhalla, an indoor water coaster which has to be seen to be believed, and it's certainly one hell of a good ride. It tells the story of the vikings and i presume their battles against dragon's and such. Since the ride's opening and my last visit, more has been added to this ride, with the addition of flame throwers outside the front of the que area. My only criticism, is that they didn't seem to have many boats in operation. If my memory serves me right, the ride station always used to have boats in, getting people in and out of the ride all of the time... yet there was periods where the station would have no boats in, which was abit annoying to see, when you're in a que and just wanting to get on with the ride. Of course though, this ride lived up to it's expectations in every sense of the word (minus the one flame effect, which is cheap and tacky). Going around the final few corners and seeing fireballs exploding right next to you, just added to the whole ride.... and i loved it!

We had a go on the derby racer (as has to be done in a blackpool visit, because it's just a classic ride!) and we then met up with my other friends who'd spent the pervious two nights at Alton Towers resort (another rival theme park).

We made our way over to the newly refurbished area of the park now known as "nickeloden land" or something like that. Our first stop was to what used to be the gold mine train, now re-furbished to being the wallace and gromit ride... you travel around it in a slipper, it's VERY cute and a really good ride... i loved it!


We made our way down into the "new" area and i was abit taken a back if i was honest with you. For the new area don't get me wrong, theres several new rides, one of which i think is a great addition to the park especially for a hot day, but theres alot of the same OLD rides, which have seen a re-paint and maybe a few bits of new theme stuff added to it, but, it was just the same old ride.

I was sad to see aswel that the classic space mountain is no-longer in operation. I had previously read somewhere that the ride was under-going some heavy maintenance work and would one day be re-opening, but the outter part of the building has been coverd in some bright colour theme stuff for nickle' land, and i noticed later in the day, the old "space mountain" ride sign was gone too, of course meaning one thing only.... it ain't going to be coming back anytime soon!

Futher round the park and of course we had to go on to "the big one" as it's now known, although i noticed some pepsi max sign's are still around, so it's abit confusing if the ride is still a pepsi sponsored ride... or is it to just be called "the big one". Now, in the past with this ride, it's always been enjoyable... this time... not so much. We sat at the back of the train and all's i can say is... in future... don't, it hurts. It just seemed to me that the ride wheels weren't smooth at all, because we vibrated all the way around. We didn't enjoy it and i'm sad to say, didn't go back on it.



We visited "the steeple chase" ride next, after to my dissapointment, realised that an old ride on the side known as "bling" has gone. The area for the ride is still there, but yeah, no sign of the ride itself. Steeple chase to me, has always been a painful and unpleasent ride, but as my friends wanted to go on it, i went along too... and guess what, i still didn't enjoy it. The way the horses lean for me, is done too sharp, and if you're not ready for it, it's even more painful.

We moved back around and of course HAD to call in on the Iron-Bru "Revolution", which has been re-painted a sort of silver and black... presumeably, a sign that Irn-Bru have dropped out of their sponsorship of the ride. Needless to say, this is still a blackpool classic ride and is still VERY much enjoyable.



We wanted to move back futher into the park and as we made our way around, i got to be taken on a ride which is an old friend of mine.

Years ago, the owners of BPB bought over a rival site not too far away, and opened up a new rollercoaster on the site called the "Trauma-Tizer", which was of course sponsored by the drink brand "Tizer". I used to love that ride with all my heart and of course i was gutted to hear only a few years later that the southport site was closing for good.

The owners removed this ride from the site quite quickly and took it over to blackpool, sprayed it blue, stuck a few water fountains on it and called it "Infusion". Now granted, this was never designed to be a water coaster of any sorts and part way around the track where it's constantly wet, you can hear the wheels screatch along the track... but by the christ, i've missed that ride... to the point, i rode it twice... and once on my own!



However though, time was nearly upon us. From 11am, the park was only open until 5, so we really didn't have much time at all to go and play on the rides.

We visited a few more rides, before the que area's shut and the tannoy system of the park began to tell us to leave but "have a nice day" etc.

That, was when we went onto our next activity....


Passaje Del Terror is a walk-through underground haunted attraction and trust me, is not for the faint hearted. Since my last visit to this, even i noticed a few changes that left me wishing i'd have brought a change of underware. Like the mental asylum part, where you're walking through and a killer (i cannot remember from what film) steps out infront of you. He tilt's his head and looks at the group. A split seconds later, the area is plunged into darkness for several seconds, before the "patient breakout" activity takes place and basically, you run away to go and hide and maybe call a therapist.

After we'd ran out into the bar bit (which was closed) and we made our way upstairs, we made our way over to the cars and began to head home (via a quick stop for milkshakes at Yankee's in wigan... my fave place ever).

We all made our way over to my mother's, who'd put a buffet on and invited a load of my family and friends who couldn't make it to pleasure beach and we spent the evening there (which is where i had a few vodka's and began to chill out after a day of mental ness!).

It was a really nice evening and i can honestly say, it was an amazing birthday. I spent the whole day and night with people who i know love and care for me, and whom i love and care for too. I was given some amazing presents and i'm just able to say, it was a really incredable time. If i could do it all over again, i would.... and i wouldn't change a thing.

Thank you to everyone who came and made the day what it was, it really meant the world to me! :)

1 comment:

  1. Awhh you have summed the day up great pal! It was really good! Im so glad i got to go on valhalla after hearing about it for years. And wallace and gromit ride made my day cos it just brought back memories abd put me in an even awesomer mood. Passage del terror...... Was great. The quality of the make up abd set was brill. I would of added a few exstras in and also would have sedated that fucking girl behind me! Ive been feeling great since your birthday bash its done me good! And just think on wednesday you can get some treats with your voucher! Yipeeeeee!

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