Pleasure Beach & Camelot 29 & 30 August

Been to an attraction recently? Planning a trip? Tell us about it here or get some hints and tips for your next visit.
Cheese

If somebody can provide me with a brief summary of parking, quality of on-park food, valuables/belongings storage on rides and wristband pricing for BPB, I'd be sorely tempted to make the journey north on Sunday :) .
Anonymous

[quote=""Cheese""]If somebody can provide me with a brief summary of parking, quality of on-park food, valuables/belongings storage on rides and wristband pricing for BPB, I'd be sorely tempted to make the journey north on Sunday :) .[/quote]
Park on the back near the "Big Blue Hotel" on a side ride, it's free.

On park food is alright, got a burger king and some self owned places. I had a burger king when i went, i'm still alive and it tasted as its meant to :)

They have lockers in the toilets for £1 each, they also have some in a room after the turn styles.

BPB is £15 for sunday with the promotional code above.


Oh and if you go, any chance you can pick me up on the way as i wouldn't mind going again (assuming you go past) :)

---- Post Info Added ----

Just booked up at Lor Dean hotel, £20 for the night on sunday. Going to be good

Going up with Astrodan, see you guys there! :)
Jordan

John, many thanks for pointing that offer out! Have booked my wristband :)

damos, I meant to say Sunday, but was v. tired posting that message and got mixed up! :P
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Scott
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Hope you all have a good weekend.

Expect PB to be very busy.
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Cheese

Won't be able to make it I'm afraid guys. Maybe another time though!
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Sam
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This weekend RolaCola and Goldmine are open :)
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Gloomy Dude
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I will watch this thread with interest, as we are making our first excursion to Mandyland next weekend - booked not realising it was illuminations switch on weekend. On one hand I'm pleased. Should be nice. But I expect the place shall be rammed. We're hoping for maybe a half day on park Saturday (as we're driving all 6 or so hours from Inverness in the morning) and a full day of it Sunday.

But Sam's news above makes me very excited. I would be willing to assume that Roller Coaster and Gold Mine will probably be open next weekend too. Fingers crossed. Although I didn't think Roller was in much of a state to open at the moment? I thought the Nickelodeon work was well underway.
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Vik
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Great news that Roller & Goldmine are open. Though this is no doubt an indication that the place will be rammed. :shock: All the same, should be a great weekend. :D

Hopfully things will improve weather wise tomorrow, but currently the Big One is closed due to high winds however high up they claim the ride to be. :shock: Thanks to PopTART for the info.
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John
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The park will undoubedly by packed, as it always has been when cheap wristbands are available (and going further back, in the days of all rides 50p you could hardly move round the park it was so busy).

To give an indication of just how busy, check out this topic from PBRE (scroll to bottom of page):

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Finally got round to sorting a room out, luckily managed to get the last available room at Lor Dean for the bargain price of £20 lol. Will have been up for 30+ hours by time I get to bed so anywhere will do tbh :)

Should be arriving at Pleasure Beach between 11 and 12, all being well, so will give one of you a ring when I arrive :)
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popTART
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It is very busy today que lines for Bling, Bobsleigh and Infusion are insane and most rides are lengthy.
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Spike
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Not seen the Big One running as the wind is quite high, it's meant to be windier tomorrow so there's a good chance of no PMBO tomorrow.
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Also, by the looks of it, there is likely to be a very heavy rain shower around the time we would be due to arrive (10am). On the plus side, it will quickly brighten up and should remain dry for the rest of the day. Bank Holiday Monday at Camelot looks a lot better. :D
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According to the weather reports the wind should die down at around 19:00 :lol:
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Well as I live in Blackpool I guess I'm up first for a report.

Mixed day only spoilt by the awful staff at the PB they get worse each year and for me have over taken any other park in the UK for the worst staff.

The Nash was a hum-dinger, prior to my arrival someone was believed to have been told to "F**k off" by a member of staff whilst waiting for the ride to open. When it came to the last ride of the day they closed the ride 10mins early turning away guests and then proceeded to make the current queuing guests climb over the fences to fill up the opposite train as they didn't want to dispatch the remaining guests afterwards. They then decided it was fine not to check the restraints and just send the train :shock: When the other trains returned some kids shouted "Let us go again!" and they replied "No, we have homes to go to, pay us a fiver and we will" it's just ridiculous how bad the staff are getting.

The Chavalanche, I was asked-for the first time in 20 years of riding- to remove my glasses. I said to the op that they were fine and secure. He then pointed to a sign saying please secure all loose articles, which I said they were. He then moaned back saying "We have to walk the track to find them if they're lost" I replied "It's my choice and if I loose them it's my fault" then the op in the cabin said "Remove them or you and your friends can p**s off" :roll: Again never ceases to amaze me how rude the staff can be. Okay maybe I understand their point but this rule has never been inforced before and it's at my own risk wether or not I wear them. But the way they handle it is just obscene.

Apart from those two incidents the day was enjoyable mainly due to the company which was stella as always and full of laughs. The park was busy with some rides attracting huge queues but nothing on the scale of Towers's time. The usual rides had there breakdowns, Nash & Valhalla with the Big One being closed all day due to the high winds, which they were sadly.

I was very impressed with the new "Train Scene" in the Ghost Train and actually warranted some imagination to pull off so I was quite impressed with that.


Ride Count


Valhalla
River Caves
Alice
Nash x 2
Derby Racer
Ghost Train
Gold Mine
Avalanche

Just got back from South pier which has under-gone a change this year, some new additions. The Ghost Train left a lot to be desired, very old and knackered and it derailed on Astro & Hark LOL, I rode on my own as the cars were very cramped and was more scared of the very top part as you run along side the sea at the peril of this clearly messed up ride. There was a live actor who sadly spent most of his time pushing the stuck cars rather than scaring people with his chainsaw :lol:

The Log Flume, oh the Log Flume, If there was a better choice I'd made today it was to sit at the back behind Dan, as Dan got SOAKED! I mean Valhalla soaked at 10pm at the end of the pier in windy conditions. Still it was epically fun on many levels but best ridden on a hot day. :lol:

Highlights

Meeting up with the gang again
The pier antics
Watching the madness ensue on Breakdance and the many faces of despair
95% of Valhalla working and coming off dry :twisted:
Hitting all the dark rides as I secretly love them all 8-[
The best staff member being a chavvy guy in the Chicken place who was so polite and fun we wondered if he belonged there
The chicken place forgetting to put the bottom half of the chicken burger bun on TWO orders in a row #-o
Ride op antics in the Infusion station :lol:
Dan's usual Untish behavior
Starbucks & Seafood

Lowlights

The staff, urgh!
No PMBO
Carneski's Ghost Train being closed at 8pm on a Bank Holiday weekend missing a ton of custom from the PB [-X

Cheers for a great day and see you in 3 weeks :mrgreen:
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Just want to thank everyone who came along for making for a brilliant weekend.

Mandyland yesterday turned out to be a good day in the end, but more due to the company than the actual park itself. On arrival we were greeted to the usual "This ride will open at 10.30am, 11.00am, 12.00pm or whatever time that gets drawn out of the raffle. Needless to say it was often long past the times stated would the rides open. So had to endure long, slow moving queues for the few rides which were open before 11.30/12 noon.

I have always regarded Pleasure Beach as one of the better parks in the UK. There are some fantastic rides, and there has obviously been a concerted effort over the last few years to brighten the place up and give it a more modern, clean feel. But I have to say, the staff are nothing short of shockingly bad in quite a few cases. To hear staff telling members of the public to "F**k off" at the entrance of Grand National when queustioning what time it will be open (probably due to the fact that it was 30 minutes after the advertised opening time and still hadn't opened), is nothing short of shocking. I would imagine if a staff member at Alton were to come out with a similar comment, then they would no doubt face dismissal?

Whilst there are staff like that working there then Pleasure beach is a long way off being considered 'The Best' park in the UK.

Generally the park was busy, but queues were bearable, just. Big One was closed due to high winds. Indeed it was very very windy until around 7pm.

Great to see Roller Coaster open, Nash was running great, but the purple train is stupidly slow still. What have they done to dipper. Lift Hill at walking pace, and the actual ride has just been killed. Rather than the fast, insane, rough ride we used to have it just seems to amble its way around the track now. :cry:

After checking in to the Travelodge South Shore by the Football ground and encountering the most miserable receptionist I have ever seen, headed off to south pier where we sampled the delights of the Ghost Train that likes to keep de-railing more often than Big Dipper, Log Flume, very wet, not good at night :cry: , and Break Dance, which I thankfully shied away from. Poor Sam & Alex though :P

Today at Camelot, weather being nice and sunny, the place looked heaving, but we managed a few goes of Knightmare, Whirlwind etc before the queues to to insanely stupid. The worst queues seemed to be concentrated on the smaller rides, and with Knightmare on 2 trains and efficient despatch, the not so big queue moved fairly quickly.

Knightmare is just insane, so much better than I recall last year. The last go I had on the back I came off with a brief, but rather sore headache. The Dragon Coaster was seemingly going at full pelt. Can't beat a diesel coaster, especially one that sounds like one of those decrepid Sprinter trains when leaving the station. :P

One problem with Camelot is lack of food outlets. The few they had had stupidly long queues, and other stalls were running out of food, which meant lunch consisted of a muffin and a coffee from the sandwich place that had no sandwiches. Either that or wait an age for a Wimpy or Chips.

Great weekend, just slightly marred by the horribly rude staff at Mandyland.
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Hark

All in all a great meet, and quite a high number of members despite it being a 'mini' meet. Big thanks to everyone for helping create some awesome memories!

Mandyland was good despite a lack of PMBOage but that's not a big loss... I was disgraced by the customer service received from the staff again at the Pleasure Beach - very poor and miserable and without disregard that some customers will have paid £30 to be told to F**k off.

Camelot is a park I've never been to before, and I must say I was disappointed. I guess if it was a bit quieter I would've enjoy it a bit better and they do have a couple of big rides - however as a Theme Park I wasn't 'wowed' to an extent I'd want to return in the foreseeable future.

Harky's Highs
+ Derv!
+ RC
+ Breakdancing with Sammie
+ Valhalla with 95% of the effects working
+ Psychodrop isit?
+ Mattmash's taxi incident
+ Ghost train was just so **** it was laughable
+ BZZZZZZing Adam
+ Rob's ice cream FAIL
+ Riding Roller Coaster for the first time
+ Finding the secret restaurant.
+ All round good mood of the group
+ Annoying BrettS with Farts

Harky's Lows
- Staff attitude at BPB
- Not getting on PMBO / Flying Machine
- Ghost Train almost de-railed
- Not going on Carnischi (Spelling?)
- Eating our McDonalds in the street
- Queueing for food at Camelot
- Diesel Dragon was NOT worth that wait
- Stopping the boats in River Caves fail

AOB
* Good to meet Jordan for the first time
* Thanks to AstroDan for carsharing
* Thanks to popboy for Room Sharing
* Thanks to MattMash/BrettS/Popboy for Taxi Sharing
Jordan

This has been a fantastic weekend, and a massive thanks to everyone who was there!

Mandyland was very busy, and the PMBO was closed because of high winds :o. Started off with the Wild Mouse (aka Health and Safety: The Ride) which was very fun! We rode all the woodies which were really good fun too - especially the Nash - and we had a Zipper Dipper Takeover :lol: I enjoyed Steeplechase, especially the feeling on corners where it looks like you're heading off the rails. Valhalla was really good, if not a little wet, and then we all went on Alice :P Didn't get chance to do Revolution since we decided to whore the Nash two more times at the end of the day.

Like has been mentioned above, we had a few run-ins with the staff, notably Duncan on the Grand National who told people to "F**k off" when asked when it would be opening and why it was still closed, and also on the Avalanche with Spike. It's awful that the staff treat their customers like this, and it was quite disappointing. Still, it was a really good day :D.

Camelot was much better than I expected it to be. Despite living a few miles from Camelot, I'd never been before. It was very busy too (apparently it isn't usually very busy at all), but for most of the day, the queues for Whirlwind and Knightmare were not too long, and Excalibur was walk-on. Knightmare was an epic coaster, very intense on the psycho drop but really fun. Whirlwind was really good too, although I prefer going down the first drop backwards to forwards, it really adds to the experience. I didn't think much of Excalibur, it was rather painful and looked pretty dangerous, but worth one ride.

The Dragon Flyer was surprisingly fast (which gave Keiron a shock :P) and seemed quite on par with the Runaway Mine Train, including the Choo-Choos thanks to Sam :lol: Also, the Dungeon of Doom was quite good, if only because of the ride attendant unexpectedly jumping out at the end of the ride; it was hilarious watching other people after we got off :)

Despite the lack of food available, it was a really good day at Camelot, and it's a shame that it could be all gone in a matter of years (although damn lucky it's still here today).

Highlights

- Meeting everyone
- Riding the Nash at the back
- TTF Zipper Dipper Takeover
- Kieron refusing to wear a poncho on Valhalla and coming off drenched :P
- Stopping the boat in the River Caves and crashing it into the boat behind us :lol:
- People shouting "Vekoma are s**t" on the Infusion break-run
- Finding that secret restaurant
- Knightmare on the first train
- Camelot being much better than expected

Lowlights

- The staff at Mandyland
- PMBO SBNO
- Infusion being a real let-down.
- It all coming to an end :(

Ride count

Grand National x 3
Big Dipper x 1
Rollercoaster x 1
Infusion x 1
Steeplechase x 1
Zipper Dipper x 1
Alice x 1
Gold Mine x 1
Beaver Creek Log Flume x 1
River Caves x 1
Derby Racer x 1
Valhalla x 1

Knightmare x 5
Whirlwind x 4
Excalibur x 1
Dragon Flyer x 1
Log Flume x 1
Dungeons of Doom x 1

--

I've had an incredible time on the meet, and I want to give a big thanks to everyone for making me feel welcome and for being really great people to go around a park with :)

And big thanks to Vik too for taking loads of great photos over the weekend!
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Scott
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Good to read that you enjoyed Pleasure Beach (and Camelot).

Usually (as you know lol) I am very quick to defend Pleasure Beach in certain situations but I find it very difficult to disagree about the staff. I know some of them personally and some of them are a good bunch of people but the majority are just idiots and need to leave or actually take some pride in there jobs.

I never see Pleasure Beach fans going to Towers and moaning about the staff, and thats simply because towers actually employ people who want to work there and show some pride in there work!
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Ash84
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I've done a TR for PBRE, and heres your version. It was good to see you guys on park, and am pleased on the whole you had a good day. Even better the parks best ride was running for you :P

Arrived about 11am
Left 8pm
Rides closed: Big One, Flyers.
Breakdowns: Gold Mine

Ride Count:

Big Dipper
Grand National x4
Monorail
Steeplechase
RollerCoaster x11
Gold Mine

The park was very busy, as can be seen from the pics, entering the park was a task in itself. After so much doom and gloom over recent years its great to see the park once again looking like the BPB of old, and even better when you remember everyone has contributed somthing towards being there.

All rides were on full capacity, even Steeplechase opened on 3 and didn't drop to 2 until the final hour. One thing that does irritate me is the Monorail loading process, I'd love to see some way of people being able to scan through and wait past the turnstyle, then at least when the train arrived it would be a case of unload, re-load and move rather than the currant faff that takes place. I know nothing can be improved with only 1 member of staff to run the ride, but if PB are going to be gearing up for a busy time next year, this is somthing I'd like to see reviewed (maybe even 2 trains like the old days!)

RollerCoaster and the National both running like a dream, these two for me are the vital cogs in PB, where else could you have the signature coaster down, along with the flyers (and dont forget as far as the public are concerned, the Ark, Trauma Towers, Alpine Golf and Space Invader were also shut) and it not spoil your day?

Had a lovely meal in King Cotten again (I'm going to miss this place) its great to be able to have a proper meal in a theme park with veg and gravy!

Bumped into TTF, infact I took a pic of most of them either at or on the Nash for the final ride (pure accident bt worked out well) which I'll be happy to post on TTF if they like it.

Anyway, piccys for the day:

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Busy from the start.

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WTF! This was just one side of the Nash line!

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Rev

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Steeplechase has intent at eating up the Q from the start, and was managing it very well, 15 mins frm outside the pay box is good going.

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Roller Q

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So...whys the Big One and Flyers shut?

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National

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RollerCoaster

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See you in the next life!

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Effort has gone into making this look normal.

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I think its going to be around a while yet

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To the untrained eye nothings happened

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Trauma Towers

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Avalanche

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IceBlast

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Steeplechase

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Avalanche

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TTF!

Ash
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