Sooo... bit late to the party, but had a few goes on Icon today. It's really good, I liked it lots.
Considering it was a sunny Sunday in July, park was surprisingly empty so could have got loads and loads of laps in, but I had Mrs Howie in tow today, and she is a non-goon, so any notions of marathon-ing the thing were quickly put to bed. Today was Julie-time, and she wasn't gonna let me forget it. She even made me go on the River Caves and Dora the Explorer.
But still, we got 4 laps in - Julie really liked it so it was an easy sell. Over the course of the day we had a front row, a back row, and 2 middle-ish goes. Definitely prefer the front row, but the back is pretty sweet too.
It absolutely 'warms up' during the day, the afternoon rides were noticeably quicker than the morning ones. I mean... most rides do, I guess, but I can't think of any other cred where the difference between a morning and an afternoon ride is so
pronounced, so obvious. Having said that, we both thought it was a great coaster from the first go.
Some have mentioned the 'rattle'. Yes, it's there, but only if you're actively listening out for it, and as the ride warms up the rattle seems to fade as the day goes by. But it's never 'rough', not by a long shot. Mrs Howie described it as "silky".
Launches are ok, top hat is fab, the Steeplechase section is fun, the highlight of the ride is undoubtedly the roll - double down - launch - immelman combo, and the second section offers a nice mix of twisty turny stuff and short but decent pops of airtime. They've even gone a wee bit RMC on our asses and thrown in a sneaky little outward banked airtime hump towards the end there, did you notice that? I mean, it's not Wildfire's crazy second hill, nothing like, but it's a fun, unexpected moment that doesn't really show up on the POV's.
Solid, solid ride, very happy to have it here in lil ol England.
As you can probably tell, I wasn't
blown away by it, it's not balls-to-the-wall amazing, but it is a really, really
nice coaster, it's just so.... nice.
Best coaster in the UK? For me, no. But if we're talking about, say, the top 3 coasters in the UK, Icon should definitely be in the conversation.
Well done. Blackpool
