Animan1
Posts: 5394
Registered: 5/14/2003
Rank: Platinum Critic
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 9/20/2004 5:57:52 PM
Well, finally, here it is - my Blackpool Pleasure Beach TR! Kind of a treat, considering
we rarely have foreign TRs on TPC. Also, the order of things probably isn’t completely
correct, because I waited too long before we got back to write this! Anyway, on with the
report.
This visit was part of my family’s 19 day trip to Europe. In addition to England, we
visited Austria, Germany (only slightly), and France. The trip was fabulous and went off
without many problems. This was my sister and I’s first time to Europe, and my parents
had only been there once in high school twenty-some years ago when much of Europe
was still communistic.
Our trip started on the 17th of August and we arrived in Blackpool on the 29th. Trains
were our primary form of transportation on this trip, and we took one from Bath in
southern England (our previous stop before Blackpool) up to Blackpool. Blackpool is on
the Irish Sea, much like CP is on Lake Erie. Blackpool is also almost to the border with
Scotland. We decided to explore the Blackpool pier area around Pleasure beach that
evening in preparation for our visit to the park on the 30th. It was very windy and rather
cold (wind chills in the 50’s, I think). Since Pleasure Beach is also a free
entry/pay-per-ride park, we entered the park to get an idea of where things were located,
etc. For some reason (we didn’t yet know why), The Pepsi Max Big One, one of their
major coasters, and a few other smaller attractions, wasn’t running. Well, we weren’t
there to ride anything yet anyway, so we went back to our hotel after exploring the park
for about 1/2 an hour.
The following morning, it was still extremely windy (gusts up 50-60 mph, I’d say, and a
steady wind of 35-40 mph). It was also cloudy and still cool. Undaunted, we headed to
the park. As we entered the ticket area, they had a sign posting the closed attractions.
The include the Grand National (still closed from the fire), and Ice Blast (S&S launch
tower) and the Pepsi Max Big One! We still decide to do what we can with the day and
each get the 30 pound wrist band (that’s 30 pounds as is dollars, not weight!). To make it
worth your while, all you have to do is use the equivalent of 30 tickets or more, which we
assume with happen.
It was now about 10:45 (the park opened at 10:30), but, strangely, many of the rides don’t
open until 11:00. We wander about, wondering what to queue up for first. Finally, we
decide to ride the Wild Mouse first. This is one of only 3 wooden wild mice operating in
the World. After about 5 minutes, the open the queue. The mice each hold 2 people
riding tandem. After an under-5-minute-wait, we get our first ride of the day. It’s a zippy
little coaster, though it’s pretty vicious with the sharp turns and steep drops. You don’t
get rattled about constantly like on a conventional wooden coaster, but rather smashed
into the sides of the car on each turn. Still, it’s fun, and we decided to take another ride
after our first one.
Next up was the Ghost Train, which Pleasure Beach had the first of in the World. This
had some nice theming for an amusement park, IMO. They had some nice black light
effects, with glowing skeletons and such. Not very thrilling in terms of movement, but
it’s not supposed to be.
After this, we decided to hit up Valhalla. Valhalla is a water ride, but it also incorporates
fire, snow, and ice. It’s story line is the journey to the tomb of Viking warriors, and the
ride itself is very good, and includes a backwards drop where they take an on-ride photo
(after announcing that they’re going to!), but getting quite wet and then venturing out into
windy, cold weather is not exactly fun. In summary: great ride, wrong climate. Solution:
Move to Florida!
After riding this we decided to ride Ice Blast, which was now operating. This is a typical
S&S tower. It only looks to be about 150 ft tall, but the specs in the<
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sfo1
Posts: 5359
Registered: 7/22/2003
Rank: Platinum Critic
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9/20/2004 6:16:16 PM
Great Trip report. Nice to see you back on the site.
How does Blackpool compare with American parks?(or at least your favorites)
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adriahna
Posts: 4692
Registered: 6/4/2003
Rank: Site Moderator
Skooter Junkie
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9/20/2004 6:37:00 PM
How cool, and how lucky you are to have been able to visit BPB! Great report, and definitely let us know how the rest of Europe was. Awesome that you got to travel this summer. Oh, and welcome back!
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larrygator
Posts: 4654
Registered: 11/7/2002
Rank: Platinum Critic
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9/20/2004 11:19:34 PM
Steeplechase looks like such a fun ride. Well you went to one new park and I went to about 20 this summer and I'm jealous.
Great TR
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Animan1
Posts: 5394
Registered: 5/14/2003
Rank: Platinum Critic
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9/22/2004 1:37:02 PM
Thanks for the comments everybody. Nice to see that I was missed; I figured people might not even notice! 
adriahna - Anything specificaly that you want to know about the rest of our European trip?
larrygator - Hey now, I went to 2 new parks this year, CP and BPB! 
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Swimace
Posts: 5916
Registered: 8/28/2003
Rank: Platinum Critic
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9/22/2004 8:39:52 PM
Quote:
Animan1 said:
larrygator - Hey now, I went to 2 new parks this year, CP and BPB! |
Why don't you just rub ut in  JK, I got to Hershey and SFA this summer. That sucks that you didnt get to ride Pepsi Max Big One. It's as classic as hypers get
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Read and review my Hershey trip report Click Here
Message updated 9/22/2004 8:46:57 PM by Swimace
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larrygator
Posts: 4654
Registered: 11/7/2002
Rank: Platinum Critic
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9/22/2004 10:48:03 PM
sorry Animan - I had been reading the "Your 2004 itinerary" thread earlier in the day and remembered you saying you were only going to get to one new park this year.
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Animan1
Posts: 5394
Registered: 5/14/2003
Rank: Platinum Critic
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9/25/2004 8:50:34 AM
Quote:
larrygator said:
sorry Animan - I had been reading the "Your 2004 itinerary" thread earlier in the day and remembered you saying you were only going to get to one new park this year. |
Oh yeah, don't worry about it, I was just joking. Hey, when you only go to a couple parks in a year, you have to be indignant about all of 'em, right?
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Animan1
Posts: 5394
Registered: 5/14/2003
Rank: Platinum Critic
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9/25/2004 8:54:32 AM
Quote:
Swimace said:
Why don't you just rub ut in JK, I got to Hershey and SFA this summer. That sucks that you didnt get to ride Pepsi Max Big One. It's as classic as hypers get |
Those both look like nice parks, at least with their coaster lineups (cough...SFA...cough). Yeah, the Pepsi Max Big One is actually designed off of Magnum, except the layout almost looked better.
We do have some digital pictures of BPB, I'll see if I can get them posted, but don't count on it.
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Swimace
Posts: 5916
Registered: 8/28/2003
Rank: Platinum Critic
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9/25/2004 3:33:10 PM
cough cough SFA sucks at everything. I didn't even get to ride Batwing because it was closed all day And it was the only coaster that wasn't trashed with vandalism
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3r1c
Posts: 5466
Registered: 6/7/2003
Rank: Platinum Critic
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9/25/2004 10:54:10 PM
From what I've heard, Pepsi Max isn't really that good and has gotten more rough.
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Animan1
Posts: 5394
Registered: 5/14/2003
Rank: Platinum Critic
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9/26/2004 9:36:02 AM
That may be so, but if nothing else it would have added my coaster count, which is now up to 58. 
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BobFunland
Posts: 7962
Registered: 8/9/2001
Rank: Site Moderator
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9/27/2004 1:52:37 PM
I would like to get to GB to ride Nemesis and Megaphobia
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adriahna
Posts: 4692
Registered: 6/4/2003
Rank: Site Moderator
Skooter Junkie
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9/27/2004 4:36:24 PM
Quote:
Animan1 said:
Thanks for the comments everybody. Nice to see that I was missed; I figured people might not even notice!
adriahna - Anything specificaly that you want to know about the rest of our European trip?
larrygator - Hey now, I went to 2 new parks this year, CP and BPB! |
Wow - tell me everything. My parents went to Austria years ago, and raved and raved about how beautiful it was (they were in Vienna, for the most part). Where in France were you? And how was England? I'm envious...
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It's not a successful ride on the Flying Scooters unless you've got bruises to tell the story for you.
Message updated 9/27/2004 4:36:53 PM by adriahna
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Swimace
Posts: 5916
Registered: 8/28/2003
Rank: Platinum Critic
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9/27/2004 8:14:45 PM
I want to go to Europa Park and Alton Towers, in no particular order. Those are my top 2 European parks by a long shot, after that I'm not sure which park I'd choose.
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battleflag
Posts: 1884
Registered: 4/22/2004
Rank: Platinum Critic
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9/27/2004 8:32:26 PM
eck , who would want throw up on there hand ?
Great Trip Report
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Animan1
Posts: 5394
Registered: 5/14/2003
Rank: Platinum Critic
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9/28/2004 2:10:00 PM
Quote:
battleflag said:
eck , who would want throw up on there hand ?
Great Trip Report |
Thank you!
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Animan1
Posts: 5394
Registered: 5/14/2003
Rank: Platinum Critic
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9/28/2004 2:18:37 PM
Quote:
adriahna said:
Wow - tell me everything. My parents went to Austria years ago, and raved and raved about how beautiful it was (they were in Vienna, for the most part). Where in France were you? And how was England? I'm envious... |
Austria is beautiful, some parts are just absolutely gorgeous.
We were in Paris and Caen. In Caen we saw the Le Memorial de Caen, which is a museum about the history of war and peace since WWI. It's excellent, very well done, and they also offer tours of the D-Day beaches, which we also did. A very powerful experience.
England was awesome, it was our last stop, which was nice because we were finally able to read signs and understand people. We spent the most time in England, about 10 of our 19 days were spent there.
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adriahna
Posts: 4692
Registered: 6/4/2003
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Skooter Junkie
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9/29/2004 9:34:25 AM
Very nice - a well-rounded trip! It's funny, now that I think of it - when my parents came back from Austria, Dad talked on and on about how beautiful it was, that there were roses along the streets, just wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. I asked him how clean it was... "Oh, it was immaculate - but the only place I saw any litter at all was in front of a McDonald's!" I believe him.
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BobFunland
Posts: 7962
Registered: 8/9/2001
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9/29/2004 10:46:13 AM
That is beleiveable.
My grand father lived in Austria for the last 25 years of his life (I never met him). He worked in Europe, and when my grandma was ready to go back, he didnt want to go, so they split. He just loved it over there so much that he abbandoned his family 
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adriahna
Posts: 4692
Registered: 6/4/2003
Rank: Site Moderator
Skooter Junkie
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9/29/2004 5:05:59 PM
Yikes. Very weird - not to pry, but did he maintain contact with anyone afterward? People can be funny...
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BobFunland
Posts: 7962
Registered: 8/9/2001
Rank: Site Moderator
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9/29/2004 5:31:30 PM
Uh, no. Actually, we didn't even find out that he had died until we tried to contact him after my grandmother died. He had died about 9 months before she did, and he's burried at Arlington. Honestly, I dont even know my grandfathers name
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adriahna
Posts: 4692
Registered: 6/4/2003
Rank: Site Moderator
Skooter Junkie
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9/29/2004 6:23:44 PM
Sorry to hear. I'm always a bit pissed that my grandparents didn't stick around longer - my grandmother was a total trip, and I think she and I could have cooked up some hilarious stuff, but she passed on when I was about 7. My grandfather was pretty much mentally gone by the time I was 12, and another darned shame. He was a radio personality for much of his life - I remember listening to him when I was very little - but I never really got the chance to ask him about that part of his life. I have much of his promotional material from the 1950's, and some reel-to-reel recordings. A real shame - they were a fascinating pair, and inspire me to this day.
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battleflag
Posts: 1884
Registered: 4/22/2004
Rank: Platinum Critic
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9/30/2004 6:01:11 PM
im sorry for both of you my grand pa died of cancer last year and my grandma is fine now but she was sort of depressed for like 2 weeks , and it might just be me but how come whenever you go to your grandparents house someones dead ? like whenever i go to my grandparents theyre all like "well she died"
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adriahna
Posts: 4692
Registered: 6/4/2003
Rank: Site Moderator
Skooter Junkie
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9/30/2004 10:44:15 PM
Yikes! I know what you're talking about - you happen to ask about one of their friends, and they say, "Oh, they passed on a while back", usually in completely deadpan way. I guess once you've hit a certain age, you just get used to losing people...
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larrygator
Posts: 4654
Registered: 11/7/2002
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1/15/2006 11:24:30 PM
I just reread this again I hope to have a great experience in five months
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coaster05
Posts: 6207
Registered: 2/29/2004
Rank: Platinum Critic
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1/16/2006 8:48:00 AM
Quote:
BobFunland said:
I would like to get to GB to ride Nemesis and Megaphobia |
I guess you are going to get that this year. Funny how things work out.
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"New rule: tulips are no longer a flower; they are some sort of gay onion." Bill Maher
How come someone like him doesn't run for President?
Coaster Count-171. Wooden-57
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Animan1
Posts: 5394
Registered: 5/14/2003
Rank: Platinum Critic
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1/16/2006 4:53:18 PM
Quote:
larrygator said:
I just reread this again I hope to have a great experience in five months |
I'm sure you will, I imagine it to be a lot like Coney Island or Knoebels here. Great classic rides, awesome atmosphere, and a great value, imo. I hope you all have as good of a time as I did. 
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