Blackpool Pleasure Beach (Part 2)
Sunday 8th July 2018
It was another glorious Sunday and we made the most of it by heading for another theme park 2 weekends in a row. We were already heading to Blackpool anyway as we were dropping Mom off for a week’s stay, so we were making the most of it with another visit to Blackpool Pleasure Beach so that we could ride Icon.
We’d been watching lots of Vlogs and updates about the UKs first double-launch Mack coaster which had opened in May, and the general consensus so far seemed to be that it was blowing Wicker Man at Alton Towers out of the water, so we couldn’t wait to try it for ourselves.
As usual, the day started with me making up a packed lunch, whilst Rich nipped out to get Diesel and some drinks for the journey.
We got to Mom’s by about 7:30 and were quickly on our way, stopping for a loo / cigarette break at either Sandbach services – I was a bit peckish, so I got a coffee and blueberry muffin from McDonalds – however, when I got to the car I found that I’d been given a chocolate muffin instead. It wasn’t worth going back in for so I “made do” 😊.
It was just after 10 when we arrived at Mom’s hotel – she’s been staying here for years, so it was a quick hello to the owners (who couldn’t get over how tall Tom had got), sorted out Mom’s wifi and we said goodbye for now and arranged to meet her in Coral island at 5pm.
We drove up to the South Carpark by the Premier Inn at Yeadon Way and paid £10 for 12 hours parking (we probably could have got away with £6 for 8 hours, which would have taken us to 4:40pm, but we didn’t want to risk it in case we were a few minutes late).
We walked up the back streets and were walking into the park via the Ice Arena entrance by 11am. Rich had booked our wristbands online – they were reduced to £28 each (from £39) for booking online and had found a further £5 discount code on Hotdeals, so it was a very reasonable £23 each today 😊.
We headed straight for Icon – taking a couple of quick pics on the way...
We queued less than 10 minutes and were on the back 2 rows (me and Tom at the back and Rich in front). It was a brilliant ride – a little bit slower than I had expected but great, and the music was fantastic...
At first, I couldn’t decide if I liked it better than Galactica or not, but we went round for another 2 goes (all on the back 2 rows) and by the time we’d come off ride #3 I’d decided it was my favourite ride in the UK and number 2 overall (Shambhala at PortAventura is still the one to beat). And even better, we’d ridden the best ride in the UK 3 times in 40 minutes!
We had a good look around the gift shop and could have bought loads of merchandise. Tom chose a key ring (about £4) and I picked out a magnet (£6)...
We had a great chat with the girl on the counter about how good the ride and theming of this area was. I told her they had definitely won in the Icon Vs Wicker Man stakes!
When we got outside, Tom told me that as well as giving me the money for his keyring he wanted to pay for my magnet as a treat 😊.
It was almost 12pm by now and we were all hungry, so we grabbed a bench near to Burger King where we could sit and watch Icon going by whilst we enjoyed our picnic of Tuna Sandwiches, Sausage Rolls and various types of crisps...
After lunch we mooched over towards Revolution, checking out The Big One on the way...
They had told us is was out of action when we’d picked up our wristbands and it wasn’t running yet. Rich had seen on Twitter that there had been a power-cut in the park yesterday, and it had been iffy ever since. Sadly, they didn’t get it back up and running, so we’ll have to get it next time
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Whilst we were passing, I fancied a go on the Carousel and Tom joined me – they were playing Disney songs on the Wurlitzer Organ, so I really enjoyed it...
We all went on Revolution next – Rich and Tom made it onto the last row of the train waiting and I went on the next one by myself...
It’s a great classic ride, but I didn’t brace myself very well and banged my leg, which hurt for a couple of hours afterwards.
We all did Steeplechase next - getting another great Icon pic from the queue line..
Usually we each have our own horse on this one, but Rich and I went together which was nice 😙.
We carried on around to Nickleodeon Land next. Having really enjoyed Kong at West Midlands Safari park last weekend, we were keen to give Avatar Airbender a try, but it was temporarily down for a “clean up”
, so Tom and I changed into our flip-flops and went on SpongeBob Splash Bash instead. We do love a good splash battle and the way that this one is set up is brilliant because you get constantly squirted at the whole way around – we were soaked by the time we came off 💦💦 and Tom wanted to go back on for another go, so we did! We were dripping wet...
We had a quick ride on Blue Flyer, the went on Dora’s World Voyage – it’s a silly little boat ride, but the song is catchy “in France we say bonjour, bonjour” and it makes a nice little chill out 5 minutes...
We did Nickleodeon Streak next, which was fun and then looked to see if Airbender was back up and running. It was, but had a bit of a queue, so we left it and headed back for another go on Icon...
It was about 1:25pm so probably at park peak, but we still only had to wait 15 minutes – operations at Pleasure Beach are amazing. They had 2 trains running all day and the crew were so quick at loading and unloading 👍🏻. Rich and I were about 3-4 rows from the front, so we got to try it from a different perspective, Tom was towards the back. It’s definitely a ride that gets better as the track warms up as the day goes on!
It was time for another soaking next – on Valhalla, which is Rich’s favourite water ride ever. It had been years since Rich and I had ridden it, and it was Tom’s first time. There was quite a bit of a queue and we ended up waiting about 30 minutes in the hot hot sun – even so, loads of people were buying ponchos - Wimps 😂💦😂...
The ride was great – I don’t quite get the theming, but the effects and drops are brilliant, and we came off absolutely soaked to the skin 💦💦💦 - I even went and stood under the final splash for some extra soaking...
We sat in the sun for a bit and re-sun-sprayed up, then Tom and I went on Derby Racer. Whilst we were waiting, Tom’s shorts were dripping so much that it looked like he was stood having a wee 😂.
Our ride was delayed a couple of minutes by a family trying to argue that their daughter was tall enough to ride – she was obviously stood on her tip toes and still didn’t make the marker. The dad was arguing that it should his choice for her to ride. The operator did really well, calmly asking the dad if he’d be willing to pay his wages when he lost his job for letting her on. They eventually gave up and went off in a huff
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I haven’t been on this ride since I was younger than Tom and was surprised how fast it gets – no wonder it’s not for little ones!
We all had a go on Grand National next, which was a bone rattling as ever, then we headed to infusion at about 3:30pm...
We waited 10 minutes, so it wasn’t too bad, but OMG is was a head-banger. I’d quite enjoyed it when we went on it in February, but now I understood why Vekoma SLCs are widely unpopular in the rollercoaster community – my ears took a real bashing. I think my woolly hat must’ve protected me last time.
We were all thirsty and Tom was a bit peckish, so we went to a counter a got a large Pepsi and 3 donuts for just under a fiver. The server actually gave us a bag of 5 donuts (bonus), so Rich and I got to have one each too. Bizarrely though, they didn’t serve Pepsi Max, even though the post-mix pumps were branded Pepsi Max – the server said that this confuses people all the time.
We just had time for one final ride of the day on Icon – this time we waited 20 minutes, which is still fantastic for such a new and brilliant ride...
This was the best of all 5 rides of the day, and I could’ve quite happily stayed until park closing and just kept going around for re-rides. What a coaster! Well done Amanda Thompson, Mack Rides and the Blackpool team!
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
We were back at the car for 4:30pm (so we could have gotten away with the cheaper parking) and we drove down and re-parked at the Central carpark (approx. £3.50). We were a bit early for meeting Mom, so popped into the Joke Shop for a mooch – Tom bought himself a laser pen for a couple of quid (after promising he would be careful with it).
We went into Coral Island next and it didn’t take too long to find Mom. We had about 20 minutes or so with her, playing on the 2p machines – which has to be the ultimate Blackpool tradition 😊.
We were on our way home by just after half past 5. I was shocked to realise when I sat down that my pants were still wet from Valahalla, as my shorts had felt dry. We were home (via a quick services stop) in time to cook tea and to wind the cat up with the laser pen light 🐱🐱🐱.