13 March 2024
The UK’s most ride intensive park, Pleasure Beach Resort has now opened its doors for the 2024 season and we decided to go cover its opening weekend. With plenty of record breaking rides, history & heritage that is focused throughout the park and a year of shows & events which are not to be missed, Pleasure Beach Resort has a lot to see & do.
Before becoming the resort it is nowadays, it opened back in 1896 as an investment from its owner and since 1931, the family who now run the park took full control of the business. Since then, a number of staple attractions have been added to keep its popularity. From The Grand National, a dueling wooden racing coaster and The Big One, which has held the title for the longest and tallest coasters in the UK. Even to more recent times, Icon the parks double launched coaster which opened in 2018.
Taking a step away from the thrilling rides & attractions and impressive history, Pleasure Beach Resort is home to a number of year round events, from late night riding with fireworks, to the impressive Hot Ice ice skating show. They have well known acts such as Circus of Horrors perform around Halloween and their own Halloween event Journey to Hell Freak Nights take over the park during select nights.
You can stay at the resort in one of the two hotels, you have the Big Blue Hotel, which is the original hotel which opened in 2003 with a four star AA rating. However the Boulevard Hotel which opened in 2019 is always as popular with a four star rating featuring 120 rooms and 10 suites.
Below we take a look into the 2024 season and our visit on the opening weekend!
Rollercoasters
For the large population of people who have visited Pleasure Beach Resort in its history of being open, a lot has been added and changed whilst a large amount of coasters have remained. The newest coaster Icon was one of the latest investment for the park, as the UKs only double launched coaster. Proving as popular as they hoped, it joins the lineup of other thrilling coasters such as the dueling wooden coaster Grand National, The Big One which was one of the tallest coasters in the UK, Infusion which is the world’s first looping coaster suspended over water, Revolution which was Europe’s first 360 degrees looping coaster and this is just the start of the record breaking rollercoasters they hold.
During our visit, most of the coasters were open and running well in the March sun. With the weekend offering a mixture of weather, the Saturday did provide its struggles however, Pleasure Beach Resort brought it back on the Sunday with the glorious weather. With minimal queues, we managed to get on everything we wanted to and more with hardly no waiting time.
Other Thrilling Rides
Pleasure Beach Resort is home to a number of quirky and thrilling rides outside its large rollercoaster presence. You have Wallace & Gromit’s Thrill-O-Matic, which takes riders through a number of scenes relating to the films. Alice in Wonderland is a themed dark ride based on the traditional story also, which we seen a number of updates in for the 2024 season. Also with updates, the Ghost Train is a must do with it being one of the oldest Ghost Trains to ride and it having a lot of history relating to the resort. We always love experiencing this attraction and it is very popular amongst all ages of guests.
Another main thrilling ride at the resort is Valhalla, which has won numerous awards each year for being the best water ride in the world. Yes, the world. After winning the award 7 times and still holding the title today, this has to be one a ride you cannot miss whatever the weather. Whilst you are guaranteed to get soaking, the scenes inside this mammoth of an attraction are just breathtaking.
As you can expect with any opening weekend after a closed season, we did see a few thrilling rides closed over the weekend but nothing significant which impacted our day. The weather did help on the Sunday in operations and we had no problems during our visit.
2024 Events, costs and plans
As the 2024 has just started, the season goes on throughout until November. They are open on selected dates with some mid-week closures, this is usually during the start and end of the season when it is not as busy. Opening times do vary with the shortest times being 11am to 5pm. However, you can find selected dates in the season with some of the longest hours you’ll find in the UK. With the late night riding events, the park is open from 10am through to 10pm, with the ending of the event including fireworks. These currently run on the 6th and 27th of July, 3rd & 24th August. You can also find during special events and the summer more so, longer hours to give more time in hopefully the sunshine to enjoy your favourite rides & attractions.
Prices for 2024 start from £33 per adult and £28 for juniors, with discounts available if you book in advance or use Tesco Clubcard points for example. A ticket is required to enter the Pleasure Beach Resort, with it coming as a E-ticket, which has a QR code which you must scan to enter the park and for each ride. This can be setup prior to your visit by using the simple to use app. For this reason, we recommend to have a fully charged phone and battery pack during your visit. If you link up your tickets, you can use one device to scan the QR codes, which makes complete sense for family visits.
You can find a number of food & drink places across the resort. We managed to stop by one of the fast food stalls to get a classic sausage & chips which was reasonably priced and very quick. They have plenty of fast food outdoor options as well as sit down restaurant options for your visit, depending on what you fancy. We also checked out the arcades and the donkey derby side stall game, which you can find towards the exit. For only £1 a go, there is plenty of old school fun that can be had and it is one of our favourite things to do during our visit.
Overall, our opening weekend visit at Pleasure Beach Resort was very successful and we enjoyed it. With the sun being perfect on the Sunday, it felt at times like a summer day but without any queues. We managed to enjoy many rides and all of our favourites without any problems.
A huge thank you to the team at Pleasure Beach Resort for working with us during our visit. They provided us 2 complimentary tickets to enjoy our day during the opening weekend however, all views & comments have been our own.
Tickets are best purchased directly from Pleasure Beach Resorts website and if you want a further glimpse on what you can expect in 2024, then we recommend watching our TikTok.
@thrillnation Pleasure Beach Resort is now open for the 2024 season... will you be visiting!? #pleasurebeach #blackpool #amusementpark #rollercoaster #themepark #seaside ♬ Write This Down (Instrumental) - SoulChef
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