Catch up on part 1 of my UK coaster trip here.
After a 2 hour drive from Alton Towers, we arrived at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and checked in to the Big Blue Hotel. We had a welcome reception complete with Pimm's and a visit from the Mayor of Blackpool! The staff at Blackpool really went all out for us. We had a guided tour of the park, a group picture, a buffet dinner, and they gave us a gift pack with a commemorative T-shirt. The park itself is really unique. It's an old seaside park, and still has a lot of old attractions including five historic wooden coasters and a few old dark rides. The park has new attractions too - like a Nickelodeon themed area. Overall it's a good balance between preservation of old rides and new thrilling attractions. The atmosphere is what makes this place. It reminds me a bit of an overgrown Indiana Beach, with rides packed in everywhere. Unfortunately, the coasters, while historic, aren't necessarily great. The Wild Mouse is the best coaster here. As with Alton Towers, we had a day and a half to explore this park and the surrounding area.
After leaving Blackpool, our next stop was Leeds for the night. This was our first hotel in the heart of a city, so a few of us took the opportunity to explore. Leeds was much more interesting than I expected, with a lot of new construction around a series of canals.
The next day we drove to Flamingoland, a zoo and theme park that was the farthest north we'd go on the trip. At 54.2 degrees north, it's actually further north than the southern islands of Alaska. This park has a lot of coasters (9), but none of them are particularly memorable. They do have Kumali, which is easily the best SLC I've ever been on. It's not wonderful, but it's much smoother than a standard SLC, has a great zero-G roll, and a nice themed entrance gate. I also had the chance to meet up with a couple of friends who live in Manchester. There was also a cute little monster dark ride. I had a great time exploring the park and the zoo with old and new friends.
Our hotel for the night was in downtown Peterborough, another interesting city. It was raining, but we ventured out through the streets to find some dinner. There's a 12th century cathedral in the middle of town, but unfortunately it's closed at night and our attempts to break in were foiled.
The final day of the trip started with a rainy visit to a couple of neat historic seaside parks. We had a very brief stop at tiny Joyland in Great Yarmouth. It's mostly a children's park, with a fun rooftop/inside kiddie coaster and a Virginia Reel from 1950. Some people counted as many as 3 (!) credits at this park. I only counted one. The second stop, Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach, has a classic 1932 roller coaster with a brakeman who rides along with you because there are no upstop wheels to keep the train from flying off the tracks.
Our final stop of the day (and the trip) was Pleasurewood Hills, a small family park just a few miles south. It was an OK little park, and we were easily able to ride everything in a couple of hours.
And so the trip drew to a close, and I flew back to Atlanta the following morning (while most of the group continued on for the "add-on" parks). I had a blast on this trip, rode a bunch of coasters, visited some good parks, and met a lot of great people. ACE usually does a tour once every two years... so we'll see what happens in 2017. :)
After a 2 hour drive from Alton Towers, we arrived at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and checked in to the Big Blue Hotel. We had a welcome reception complete with Pimm's and a visit from the Mayor of Blackpool! The staff at Blackpool really went all out for us. We had a guided tour of the park, a group picture, a buffet dinner, and they gave us a gift pack with a commemorative T-shirt. The park itself is really unique. It's an old seaside park, and still has a lot of old attractions including five historic wooden coasters and a few old dark rides. The park has new attractions too - like a Nickelodeon themed area. Overall it's a good balance between preservation of old rides and new thrilling attractions. The atmosphere is what makes this place. It reminds me a bit of an overgrown Indiana Beach, with rides packed in everywhere. Unfortunately, the coasters, while historic, aren't necessarily great. The Wild Mouse is the best coaster here. As with Alton Towers, we had a day and a half to explore this park and the surrounding area.
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| Coasters and rides are everywhere at Blackpool. |
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| They had a very fun Wallace and Gromit ride! |
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| The Big One. |
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| A view down one of the Midways, with the classic Big Dipper. |
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| The Wild Mouse is rickety and crazy fun. |
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| Just outside the park is the beach and a bunch of touristy things. |
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| "Official" Disney theming on South Pier, just across from Blackpool Pleasure Beach. |
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| Ummm... yeah. |
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| The Beach with the Big One in the distance. |
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| Sunset over the pier. |
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| Blackpool Tower. |
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| Sunset and sea gulls. |
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| Morning ERT on the Nickelodeon Streak. Check out the padding in those cars! Like a couch from the 1960s. |
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| Nickelodeon Streak and the Blue Flyer. Both from the 1930s and re-themed for the Nickelodeon section. |
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| The unique Steeplechase coaster. |
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| Steeplechase is a triple-racer. |
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| Green is in the lead! |
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| The Big One is very impressive looking, but it basically a giant mine ride. It was the tallest coaster in the world when it opened. |
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| Riding the Wild Mouse. |
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| Lunch time! |
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| Fish and chips with mushy peas. Yum. |
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| You get a little bit wet on Valhalla. |
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| Another classic dark ride. |
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| You ride in a plaid shoe on the Wallace and Gromit ride. |
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| They even have a Dora boat ride, where you travel around the world. |
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| Let's ride the Wild Mouse again! |
After leaving Blackpool, our next stop was Leeds for the night. This was our first hotel in the heart of a city, so a few of us took the opportunity to explore. Leeds was much more interesting than I expected, with a lot of new construction around a series of canals.
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| Downtown Leeds. |
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| Leeds and the central train station, complete with restaurants underneath. |
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| Canals and new buildings in Leeds. |
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| Gotta try the local beer, of course. |
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| View of Leeds from the top of our hotel. |
The next day we drove to Flamingoland, a zoo and theme park that was the farthest north we'd go on the trip. At 54.2 degrees north, it's actually further north than the southern islands of Alaska. This park has a lot of coasters (9), but none of them are particularly memorable. They do have Kumali, which is easily the best SLC I've ever been on. It's not wonderful, but it's much smoother than a standard SLC, has a great zero-G roll, and a nice themed entrance gate. I also had the chance to meet up with a couple of friends who live in Manchester. There was also a cute little monster dark ride. I had a great time exploring the park and the zoo with old and new friends.
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| First credit, a kiddie coaster. Of course. :) |
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| Not a bad ride. |
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| A short visit with Andrew and Brad. Yay! |
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| Just an emu. Nothing to see here. |
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| Baby capybara! It was chilly so they were huddling to stay warm. |
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| Our photo from Velocity. |
Our hotel for the night was in downtown Peterborough, another interesting city. It was raining, but we ventured out through the streets to find some dinner. There's a 12th century cathedral in the middle of town, but unfortunately it's closed at night and our attempts to break in were foiled.
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| Rainy downtown Peterborough. It was a nice city, but pretty empty because it was a rainy evening. |
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| The main square was very atmospheric. |
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| A great dinner in Peterborough. |
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| Another local beer! |
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| The cathedral tower looms over the center of the city. |
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| One more beer back at the hotel. :) |
The final day of the trip started with a rainy visit to a couple of neat historic seaside parks. We had a very brief stop at tiny Joyland in Great Yarmouth. It's mostly a children's park, with a fun rooftop/inside kiddie coaster and a Virginia Reel from 1950. Some people counted as many as 3 (!) credits at this park. I only counted one. The second stop, Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach, has a classic 1932 roller coaster with a brakeman who rides along with you because there are no upstop wheels to keep the train from flying off the tracks.
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| Our first view of Joyland from the bus. |
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| Touristy seaside Great Yarmouth. |
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| The Tyrolean Tubtwist, which some people count as a coaster. It was weird! |
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| Snail ride. Not a roller coaster, people! :) |
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| An overview of the park. |
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| Noted! |
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| Our next stop was the Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach. |
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| There's a roller coaster behind those blue walls! |
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| That's the brakeman. Very unique. |
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| Quick, everyone take a picture of the roller coaster! |
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| Creeeeepy. |
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| This snail was named Chesty La Rue, AKA Busty St.Clair. |
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| The scene from the snail ride, which goes inside the roller coaster structure. |
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| Our last view of Great Yarmouth over the River Yare. |
Our final stop of the day (and the trip) was Pleasurewood Hills, a small family park just a few miles south. It was an OK little park, and we were easily able to ride everything in a couple of hours.
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| Welcome to Pleasurewood Hills. |
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| The only boomerang of the trip, thankfully. Still, they sure are photogenic. |
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| A fun old Schwarzkopf coaster. |
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| There used to be a really hard video game for the original Nintendo called Marble Madness. |
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| The group at Pleasurewood Hills. :) |
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| We rode several of these on the trip. Super looooong train. |
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| See ya later, Pleasurewood Hills! |
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| What better way to end the trip than with another beer, at the Wheatsheaf back by our airport hotel. |
And so the trip drew to a close, and I flew back to Atlanta the following morning (while most of the group continued on for the "add-on" parks). I had a blast on this trip, rode a bunch of coasters, visited some good parks, and met a lot of great people. ACE usually does a tour once every two years... so we'll see what happens in 2017. :)
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