Hi all. We headed for opening day to Blackpool and stayed over night, here's the report.

The park was busy but did die off later in the day around 4pm or 5pm, making most rides a walk on. I was quite impressed by the turnout on opening day.

The weather was beautiful but never reached above freezing on Saturday and dipped to -4 at night, apparently. It was very cold, especially 200ft up. Everyone enjoyed themselves and we all had another great time at the Pleasure Beach.

Ok, so... what did I notice that was different and what did I think? Let's start with the 'gardens'. I agree with Pete it looks waaaaay better than the Superbowl ever did, but there's something missing I felt. My first reaction was wow, what a big space removing the eye sore has left, but with maybe 4? separate parts to this garden, it just felt a little, eerrrrrr, stretched?

It does look very smart, maybe they are trying to show us, out with the old, in with the new? The fountains and the art all seemed to go from shiny silver to the orange bit, the orange bit in person is rust, it's as simple as that. I spent about 2 min's looking around, cause there really isn't much else you can do. There are 3 tables as you can see with chairs, there were no drinks, bar, food, anywhere really close. You are not allowed on the grass at all. You will only ever see this garden when you enter and leave the park. I didn't find myself wanting to go back and relax, because there is nothing to relax near, can't have a drink and the tables were no where near the features of the garden.

So my final thoughts are... Early days. It's a huge improvement on the area itself, but when you see the size of the space for yourself, your left feeling a little empty and confused. Lets hope phase 3 of the new entrance 'brings it all together'.

The new state of the art dodgems (that I forgot to take pics of)... wellllllll... they are dodgems.

I'm sure it was for the weather purposes in the middle of Feb, and just temporary in case of ice... but no one was allowed in the fountains during show times. Was a little strange to see, but understandable I guess.

The Big Dipper, its new look and Nicola's #26! Well it looks fantastic, it's blue and silver, with the iconic 'Big Dipper on top of the hill thingy' re-created as a fountain inside. No blue dye either and people still throw their money in. Nothing has changed on the track, the brakes are the same, everything was the same but for the one train operation. Yes, it now runs on one train, again not surprising. I believe it was case of... you either run one train and change nothing. Or you ruin it, like the Grand National and update all of its systems and run more than one train. That's my personal opinion. The ride was the same, really good fun with some decent air time.

Grand National, we had two attempts at riding this. One failed before we got to the air gates and we were technically 'evacuated' from our second attempt. We never left the station but were all locked down ready to go, only to be rescued car by car and let out back through the air gates. It all gets rather embarrassing for the staff.

Finally... If you take the Monorail and have a look behind Infusion and the former Turtle Chase site, you will see tons and tons of brand spanking new wood, laid out all neatly in piles. Something is either getting totally re-built or we are getting 1000 new decks built for the bars, but don't mention the new woodie.

That's just about it, or all I can remember and I'm starting to bore myself . Thank the calendar for a new season at last. I've missed the smell of coaster oil, fresh paint and lager from a plastic glass, the smell of a new season.

Ride Count & (Queue Times)

Roller Coaster x1 (10 min's)
Big Dipper x1 (15 min's)
Monorail x1 (walk on)
Gold Mine x1 (10 min's)
Infusion x1 (45 min's on one train )
Big One x1 (walk on)
Steeplechase x1 (walk on)
Revolution x1 (5 min's)

Here are the pictures, enjoy and thanks for reading.

But the fountains are getting smaller!!
Infusion - Fountain show - Big dipper - Superbowl!

2011 Old style ride + fountains!!! (twist and splash)

And I hear it's also goodbye to Noah's Ark! Can that bitch get any lower?

As an attraction, yes it does look like that. At least it will be staying as a "feature"...

Good pics though Kev.

The Dipper facelift looks decent as well.

It does not surprise me in the slightest about whats going on in Blackpool. The park is moving from a pay per ride to a pay one price and it has far too many attractions for it to be a pop. Business sense makes it that some have to go.

Do I approve? Nope. But for me the plesh has to identify what it actually a) is and b) wants to be.

For what its worth, I dont mind the look of the new gardens. It certainly looks better than the Superbowl did and opens up that area. I will however reserve judgement until I see it in person.

You can buy that "art" in garden centres. What a load of shite it is.
RIDES should be the art at an amusement park-not some chavvy sculpture that bears little relation to anything relevant in the art world!

The Pleasure Beach changed forever when wristbands were introduced. That to me is the defining moment.

If the park was still pay per ride, there is no way all of these attractions would have closed. I can remember in the early 90's going to the Plesh loads of times with the intention of just buying 1 book of White Knuckle tickets only to then end up buying 2 more It was always about getting every single last penny out of you, so all of the rides were on full capacity. For instance, Valhalla. Its very rarely on anything more than 8 boats... during pay per ride it could run over 20 boats

Now wristbands are here, peeps can ride as much as they want and ride the Big One over 1000 times in a season. Good for us, but not good for the park.

Shortsighted business planning.

ive added the written report in 1st post. Grab a brew...

Thanks for the comments, i pretty much feel the same way as all of you.

I can only confirm what i saw after 23 pints of lager, the walkway entrance to the Ark has been removed, the walkways outside have too (rope bridge, mist tunnel etc) and i dont remember seeing the pay booth either.

Hot Ice is also back from July.

So we lose the ark but regain Hot Ice. Amanda is now officially a cunt.

HOT ice bengy, is PBBs long running ice dancing show.

so, are we referring that woman to a shrink to get this obsession with water sorted out?!

The pics are great Kev, (and a nice Valentines smoochy pic too!) - but WTF are all those rusty mirrors about?!
I was gonna comment that at least it'll be somewhere nice to lie on the grass in summer, & dry off (with all that bloody water!), but if its 'please keep off the grass', then it wont!

Yes, I'm sure it looks nicer & the Superbowl had had its time, but they should use the limited space wisely, & stop being pretentious about 'a new image'!