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Old 30 Mar 18, 04:37 PM  
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13 Theme Parks this Year - 1: Blackpool Pleasure Beach (Visit #4 added)

Tom’s 13 So Let’s Try to Do 13 Theme Parks this Year

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Theme Park 1 – Blackpool Pleasure Beach (Sun 25th Feb 18)

Our Pleasure Beach visit was initially planned to be part of the week that we all had off work / school for Feb Half Term. But this ended up coinciding with the date that our work canteen (which is part of my team) was closing for a big refit / relocation, and meant that instead of almost 2 weeks off work I only ended up getting 3 days (Mon-Weds). Friday was the day we closed and packed up the old canteen, and Monday morning would be the start of us moving into the new one, and it had been a very intense 6 weeks of planning, team building, retraining and preparations, so by the time Sunday came around I was definitely ready for a day of blowing off the cobwebs and not having time to think / worry about work.

Rich had pre-booked our tickets the day before (in case the weather took a turn for the worse), and at £19.99 each they were great value for money.

We were up nice and early, and got ourselves wrapped up, with double-jumpers, leggings / football skinnies under our jeans and coats, gloves and hats as we knew it was going to be a very cold day.

We planned to set off by 7:30am as we had initially planned to stop off at our local Cookhouse & Pub for breakfast to fill us u for the day. By the time we’d stopped for some drinks for the journey and diesel, we’d all decided we didn’t fancy a big breakfast and that a bacon roll from Greggs would be a better option, so we stopped at Stafford Services instead.

We all had Bacon Rolls, plus Rich and I shared a Sausage Roll (the breakfast not pastry kind) and I had a Mocha too. I can’t remember exactly what we paid, but it was around £12, so not too bad.

We arrived at the carpark (at the top end by the Premier Inn on Yeadon Way) at 10:50am, so in good time for the 11am opening of the park. We sorted out parking (£10), and walked to the Pleasure Beach, going in via the Ice Arena entrance, where there was just one couple in front of us in the queue. We just had to show the booking ref on Rich’s phone and they sorted us out with our wristbands and we were all set for the day.

We chose the Flying Machines as our first ride of the day. I’m originally from Lancashire so went to the Pleasure Beach loads of times as a kid and have been quite a few times with Rich and Tom, but had never been on these before. They were almost a walk-on, but we just missed out on the last rocket so had to wait until the next go. It was good fun, and I didn’t realise until reading up on the way home that they have been there since 1904 and are the oldest ride in the park...





We went straight to Ice Blast next, which was about a 5-minute wait. Tom was a bit nervous (even though he’s done drop towers before) but loved it.

I needed a loo break after this, which with all my layers, plus the Mickey mouse bum bag I was wearing was a bit of a faff. I had to stop for a selfie by the tiled wall through – could this be Blackpool’s version of the Purple Wall?



Next we all went on the Ghost Train, Tom on his own and me and Rich together – it was ok, a bit dated and cheesy, but it was the first ever ride of it’s kind, so it’s a classic and a must-do.

We’d been on a bit of a healthier eating and exercise kick for a couple of weeks but sugary donuts are another must do so we allowed ourselves a bag of 5 (£3.50) to share from the counter near the Ghost Train – I also got a tea (£2) for me. Rich had a bite and the donuts were super hot and needed to cool down, so the boys went on the River Caves whilst I had a nice sit down with my cuppa, and took the chance to Instagram a few pics...



I ate my donut, but didn’t really enjoy it – after a couple of weeks cutting down on fatty foods it was so quite greasy and a bit undercooked, which is a shame as we usually love Blackpool donuts. The boys had no problems polishing off their two each.

It was time for some bigger rides now, so we headed for the Big Dipper, which was about a 20 minute wait. Tom had been on this before, so he wasn’t nervous. We were watching Infusion whilst we were in the queue and Tom decided that he was definitely up for that too...





Big Dipper was great, but very rattly. You have to love a good old-fashioned woody though 😊

We went straight into the queue for Infusion next, which was a first for all of us. This was our longest queue of the day at about 35 minutes. The wait was worth it as we all really enjoyed the ride, especially Tom and I think we would have all gone straight back on it for a 2nd go if the queue had been a bit shorter.







It was great to see the track in place for the new Icon ride – it wasn’t open on our visit, so we all said we might come back later in the year to give it a go. Plus Tom wasn’t quite ready to tackle The Big One just yet, so we still have that one to conquer.

We all needed the loo again, so we headed there. When I was getting my tea earlier, I’d seen that they did Hot Vimto (£1.50) and I really fancied one, so I grabbed one. It was nice once it cooled down enough to drink.

Avalanche was our next ride – the wait time was about 15 minutes, which was just long enough for my Vimto to cool down enough to drink it. Rich and I rode together, and Tom went solo on the train after ours.

Whilst we were waiting for Tom to come out, I was eying up the BBQ stall opposite – the sausages and burgers smelled lovely, so we decided to get some for a late lunch (it was 2:30pm by now). Rich and I both went for the Pork Sausage Hot Dogs (£3.75 each) and Tom had a Cheeseburger (£3.95). We had to wait whilst they were cooked fresh to order, and they were really nice.

We had a quick mooch around Nickelodeon Land next, and went on Nickelodeon Streak, which was pretty much a walk-on and quite good as kids rides go.

Revolution was our next ride – another first for Tom. I can remember thinking this ride was so big and scary when I was a kid, but it seems so small nowadays. It was about a 15-minute wait and we all enjoyed it.

Rich and I had been pondering going on the Big One whilst Tom waited on the side for us, but rich had been watching the queue from Revolution and even though there was no wait time posted, he estimated that it would be about 45 minutes based on how slow people were moving, which was beyond our threshold. Plus we were all starting to flag a bit by now, so we decided to have a quick mooch on the South Pier before heading home and started walking back through the park.

When we came to Wallace & Gromit’s Thill-o-matic, there was no queue so we went on that and had a very quick mooch in the gift shop, then we popped quickly into the amusement arcade, only to find out that the bag of 2ps I’d put together weren’t in Tom’s bag which put a scupper on our 2p machines plam as we had about 20ps worth between us...



As we were heading for the exit, we realised that we’d completely forgotten about The Grand National, so that became our last ride of the day...



It was about a 5 minute wait and a good way to end a fantastic few hours at the Pleasure Beach – even if our train did lose the race.

We headed for our quick walk up and down the pier at about 4pm – the view was lovely...









We’d originally intended to end our day with some Fish & Chips, but there weren’t any places at the South end of the prom that were open and took our fancy. We weren’t mega hungry, so decided that we’d drive home and if we fancied some by the time we were back we’d get some from one of our local chippys instead.

We were back by the car for about 5:30pm and pulling up at the chippy by Rich’s Mom’s house by about 8:15pm. This one is about 15 mins from home, so we ate in the car and they were lovely. A bad day for the diet, but we’d walked almost 12,000 steps, so at least we’d burnt some of the calories off.

We’d had a brilliant day, and it was a great way to start off our year of theme parks

Edited at 09:22 PM.
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Old 1 Apr 18, 05:27 PM  
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Originally Posted by WileyCoyote View Post
Great day !
Thanks
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Old 15 Jul 18, 05:59 PM  
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good start
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Old 31 Mar 18, 09:09 AM  
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I love a day at the Great British funfair, oh it looked so cold though 😀

You ate all the iconic seaside food too. I agree about the doughnuts, I used to love them but we have been eating healthier too, and I don't think I could manage all the grease and sugar now. They even smell greasy. Shame as we used to love them.

Love the toilet selfie 😁
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Old 1 Apr 18, 05:29 PM  
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Originally Posted by DisneyDaffodil View Post
I love a day at the Great British funfair, oh it looked so cold though 😀

You ate all the iconic seaside food too. I agree about the doughnuts, I used to love them but we have been eating healthier too, and I don't think I could manage all the grease and sugar now. They even smell greasy. Shame as we used to love them.

Love the toilet selfie 😁
It really was a brilliant day - sooooo cold but totally worth it
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Old 31 Mar 18, 10:44 AM  
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Sounds like a great day.
As a lover of theme parks, I'm really looking forward to the rest of the parks.
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Old 1 Apr 18, 05:30 PM  
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Originally Posted by frozenfan97 View Post
Sounds like a great day.
As a lover of theme parks, I'm really looking forward to the rest of the parks.
Thanks for the feedback - I wasn't sure how a non-holiday trippie would go down, but I'm glad I started it now
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Old 31 Mar 18, 11:18 AM  
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Looks like you had a great day ! Cold but at least it wasn’t raining ! My daughter was looking at footage of icon on you tube last night. She can’t wait...I think she will be on her own though !
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Old 1 Apr 18, 05:33 PM  
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Originally Posted by Smilesonfaces View Post
Looks like you had a great day ! Cold but at least it wasn’t raining ! My daughter was looking at footage of icon on you tube last night. She can’t wait...I think she will be on her own though !
It was such a lovely day - cold but the sun was shining all day. We've been lucky so far with the dates we've chosen for our adventures

Icon looks brilliant. It's a shame The Wild Mouse had to go to make room, but Pleasure Beach are doing well with keeping the park up to date
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