Blackpool Pleasure Beach

I'm going to say a romance novel.

This is a roller coaster in Pleasure Beach, Blackpool.

Okay.

All right.

Yeah.

He said, oh, Lord Payne's finishing at the Pleasure Beach.

He said, we can get you in there.

He said, it'd be a good contract for a couple of years.

Yeah, you can feel the gravity take over and then the ride kicks back on.

It's almost like a ghost train moment, like a Blackpool Pleasure Beach ghost train drop.

But yeah, so Fantasy Dream was, you know, that ride obviously has not been touched since it opened in 1993.

It feels, it has the sort of vibe of like going to an old Chuck E.

The Wicker Man is a 21st century reinvention of the popular wooden roller coasters of the 1920s.

Blackpool Pleasure Beach takes pride in having four vintage coasters.

Local tram conductor and coaster enthusiast, Peter Baker, is building his own ride on his mum's kitchen table.

They'll be awesome when it's done.

Come on.

Pleasure Beach?

Okay.

Come on.

Pleasure Beach is any beach I go to, baby.

Idiot.

Illuminations.

Please come back and listen to some of our previous episodes because you will find lots of interesting interviews and I promise you, you'll find out so much stuff about theme parks that you just had no idea went on.

This week though, we're staying pretty recent and And just dialing it back to last weekend with Journey to Hell at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

It is their Halloween event.

Obviously, if you listen to this podcast a lot, you know I love Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

But this event has not come out with the best of reviews.

And in fact, it's an event that's struggled with reviews since it started in 2019.

I know there's fireworks at Towers.

Do Pleasure Beach not open for the first two weeks in November? They do, yes, so they're open until mid-November.

Yeah, which is really good.

So Paul Twins are open every weekend in November without...

Like, go to the nice bougie bit.

Or go to Pleasure Beach.

Or that.

Pleasure Beach is great.

I think she probably did that.

To be fair, the last time we went to Blackpool- Pleasure Beach content ... [laughs] Saint Anne's, we stayed in Saint Anne's.

We did.

We went to the Dalmini, which is, like, a fun kids' hotel.

No, no.

If you throw that in X Sector or Forbidden Valley, I was like, "No." Okay, would that ride work at Blackpool Pleasure Beach?

Realistically.

In Nickelodeon?

Uh, right.

Coming up in today's show, you will learn why Blackpool Pleasure Beach is called that.

You will learn what the Book of Hawkos is, and you'll learn two very different ways to celebrate Loctober.

Let's go.

It feels like a city in some ways, but it sprawls all along that coast and the tram, and it has these things.

But its history, when you dig again, when you, when you begin to take a bit of an interest in its history, I like, oh, I didn't, I hadn't realized why.

I always wondered why the Pleasure Beach was called the Pleasure Beach because it's actually a park.

It's a theme park with rides, and I thought, "Why is it called...