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Blackpool Pleasure Beach | Icon | Mack Multi-Launch

Will

Strata Poster
The sibling has been sending me smug messages from Blackpool today, he states it's dead and the ride is eating through what little queue there is, meaning it's a ten minute wait at most. He also said he was underwhelmed by the first ride, but then tried again nearer the back of the train and was more impressed. As basically everyone has said then, it's a grower. Also, sounds like they didn't need to worry about crowd control...
 

FistedColossus

Hyper Poster
Hoping to head up on Monday.

Expecting a fast and intense ride...

Then out of the car and onto Icon. I’ve not done Helix yet but whilst Blue Fire is pretty tame, it’s a nice smooth and enjoyable coaster. If it’s at least on par, with perhaps a bit more airtime than BF, that’s fine by me.
 

Will

Strata Poster
Admittedly, the setting helps it a lot, but Blue Fire is great, which is what a lot of people keep forgetting.
If Icon can get anywhere close to Blue Fire, they've got a hit on their hands to my mind. At the risk of sounding like a stuck record though, I still don't see it matching Helix. Helix is special.
 

Ian

From CoasterForce
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
Another thing I noticed - or perhaps didn’t - was the interactions with other rides. It does snake very well around Steeplechase but not on a “near miss” scale like Big One and Dipper’s interactions. I know Icon is not billed as a “near miss” coaster but I’m pointing it out anyway. The drop into the misty tunnel is fab though!
 

owentaylor121

Giga Poster
After 19 rides today, from 12pm onwards the ride was absolute hauled!

The airtime was ridiculous, just kept getting better and better. It seemed to be the general consensus that once it’s warmed up it’s easily the best U.K. coaster.
 

James F

Hyper Poster
I agree
After 19 rides today, from 12pm onwards the ride was absolute hauled!

The airtime was ridiculous, just kept getting better and better. It seemed to be the general consensus that once it’s warmed up it’s easily the best U.K. coaster.

Sent from my G3221 using Tapatalk
 

BBooth2

Roller Poster
See this having to wait for a coaster to warm up before it's good is just awful, how will it perform in winter, its been 24 degrees lately.
I understand the whole science of it, but it can't be a mediocre ride in the morning, then the best in the UK in the afternoon!

I need to ride it a second time, I just realy wasn't blown away during my first ride, and it annoys me I can't feel the same way everyone else does
 

Lofty

CF Legend
Been riding it all day, here's my thoughts:

The difference between when this is warmed up and earlier on in the day is absolutely huge. When we rode it the first time, it was around 11.30am and we were placed in the middle of the train - the ride was alright? Very mediocre with floater airtime and a pop or two of ejector for a split second. It was safe to say that I was absolutely underwhelmed by it and thought it was going to be a flop, so decided to head straight back around for a front-row ride. This was a huge improvement with some stronger and more sustainable ejector through points int he ride, but it was still absolutely underwhelming for what seemed like an eternity waiting from concept to reality.

Decided to do other bits in the park and then come back later on to ride it again (the queue was at most a 15 minute wait throughout the entire day with it having fantastic operations). This would've been around 2.30pm and we managed to grab a back row ride on it - already a huge difference. Really strong airtime throughout, laterals and strong positive - one of the best moments at the back is leaving the Immelmann when you receive really strong ejector at a funky angle before snapping up into the overbank and airtime hill with equally powerful ejector.

Just before leaving at around 4.30pm we rode it another two times - one at the back and one at the front. These were absolutely fantastic. A great ride on both areas, really enjoyed it and I'll be honest - I actually preferred these two rides to daytime rides on Helix, without question.

I suppose overall, I think it's a really good addition to the park and during afternoon operations, the coaster really stands its ground as one of the best coasters (if not, THE) in the UK for me. It offers something we just don't have yet, a coaster with airtime, strong positive G's, smooth and re-rideable. It really does, for me, fill the gap in the UK market for a solid thrill coaster and I'm more than happy that it's less than an hour from my house.
 

elephant58

Hyper Poster
Is such a big difference between different times of the day a normal thing? Like I know it's often said that coasters warm up, but from mediocre to best in the country is huge!
 

Lofty

CF Legend
Is such a big difference between different times of the day a normal thing? Like I know it's often said that coasters warm up, but from mediocre to best in the country is huge!
It massively improved in the duration of the day, they were flying the trains out as well with them launching a train every 55 seconds or so, so they'd been running a LOT throughout the day. When I said mediocre, that was in terms of a Mack Launch Coaster and what you'd expect from one, but I was overtly harsh on it at the beginning when I first rode it because I'd pictures so much. ore in my head - at the end of the day, it was delivering exactly what I wanted from it.
 

James F

Hyper Poster
Been riding it all day, here's my thoughts:

The difference between when this is warmed up and earlier on in the day is absolutely huge. When we rode it the first time, it was around 11.30am and we were placed in the middle of the train - the ride was alright? Very mediocre with floater airtime and a pop or two of ejector for a split second. It was safe to say that I was absolutely underwhelmed by it and thought it was going to be a flop, so decided to head straight back around for a front-row ride. This was a huge improvement with some stronger and more sustainable ejector through points int he ride, but it was still absolutely underwhelming for what seemed like an eternity waiting from concept to reality.

Decided to do other bits in the park and then come back later on to ride it again (the queue was at most a 15 minute wait throughout the entire day with it having fantastic operations). This would've been around 2.30pm and we managed to grab a back row ride on it - already a huge difference. Really strong airtime throughout, laterals and strong positive - one of the best moments at the back is leaving the Immelmann when you receive really strong ejector at a funky angle before snapping up into the overbank and airtime hill with equally powerful ejector.

Just before leaving at around 4.30pm we rode it another two times - one at the back and one at the front. These were absolutely fantastic. A great ride on both areas, really enjoyed it and I'll be honest - I actually preferred these two rides to daytime rides on Helix, without question.

I suppose overall, I think it's a really good addition to the park and during afternoon operations, the coaster really stands its ground as one of the best coasters (if not, THE) in the UK for me. It offers something we just don't have yet, a coaster with airtime, strong positive G's, smooth and re-rideable. It really does, for me, fill the gap in the UK market for a solid thrill coaster and I'm more than happy that it's less than an hour from my house.
It's a shame I didn't see you, you would have been a good interview for my Mack Rides documentary. Although I understand that people don't want to be in front of the camera and such. I rode it more today, I think I have done 11 or 12 rides or so. I love it. I know what you mean about the middle tough, it has made me put Wodan ahead of it, but still I think its a great addition.

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Lofty

CF Legend
It's a shame I didn't see you, you would have been a good interview for my Mack Rides documentary. Although I understand that people don't want to be in front of the camera and such. I rode it more today, I think I have done 11 or 12 rides or so. I love it. I know what you mean about the middle tough, it has made me put Wodan ahead of it, but still I think its a great addition.

Sent from my G3221 using Tapatalk
Being in front of a camera doesn't bother me - that's a shame!

Yeah, the middle just doesn't quite have the punch of the other Mack coasters? But the front and back definitely make up for it.
 

BBooth2

Roller Poster
Lofty that sounds honestly very believable
It's something I've personally never come across, bizarre infact

"what's your favourite UK coaster"
Icon but only when it's warm, any other time its slightly above average haha
 

Lofty

CF Legend
You're confusing 'favourite' with 'best' to be fair. Whilst other rides might be technically 'better' coasters, it doesn't mean that your favourite has to be that just because statistics say so? It's become one of my favourite UK coasters, without a single doubt - up there with The Ultimate and Nemesis.
 

MakoMania

Mega Poster
My final thoughts on Icon:

I got the chance to ride today, think it was 10 rides. I loved it every bit as much as last week, although being lashed in the face with rain wasn't the best!

Front row is my personal favourite, back is excellent also, middle is still great, there really isn't a bad seat on the ride. I was surpsised how much more airtime the front row offered on the first hill compared to the row behind it (which still has quite a lot!).

I will agree that the ride gets better and better throughout the day, it was absolutely storming round in the last hour and the airtime in the second half of the ride became much more powerful.

For an opening day there was very little downtime, 10 minutes tops. The ride queue never exceeded 15 minutes and most of the day was 5 minutes. In the last hour the queue wasn't even outside the building. Obviously the rain helped but the operations were fantastic; 35 second dispatches sometimes! The queue moves very quickly and the ride was only running 2 trains, I look forward to seeing the amount of people they can shift on a 3 train operation :D

My one gripe was that I sat on the back row 4 times but only got a back row ride once due to being kicked off to allow (how shall I put this...) a larger person to be seated. I just think it's unfortunate that it has to be the back row that has this feature as it's a row that people love to try to get. (Back row whip is real throughout the ride by the way!)

Overall, you guessed it..... it is by far my favourite coaster in the UK! Is it perfect? Of course not, very few rides are, but it's bloody good and I'm not sure why some people think it is slow or boring because it is none of those things if you let it warm up. I find it fascinating how this ride seems to have divided enthusiasts straight down the middle. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion of course, I'm a big fan though!

:)
 

airtime_uk_ash

Mega Poster
My final thoughts on Icon:

I got the chance to ride today, think it was 10 rides. I loved it every bit as much as last week, although being lashed in the face with rain wasn't the best!

Front row is my personal favourite, back is excellent also, middle is still great, there really isn't a bad seat on the ride. I was surpsised how much more airtime the front row offered on the first hill compared to the row behind it (which still has quite a lot!).

I will agree that the ride gets better and better throughout the day, it was absolutely storming round in the last hour and the airtime in the second half of the ride became much more powerful.

For an opening day there was very little downtime, 10 minutes tops. The ride queue never exceeded 15 minutes and most of the day was 5 minutes. In the last hour the queue wasn't even outside the building. Obviously the rain helped but the operations were fantastic; 35 second dispatches sometimes! The queue moves very quickly and the ride was only running 2 trains, I look forward to seeing the amount of people they can shift on a 3 train operation :D

My one gripe was that I sat on the back row 4 times but only got a back row ride once due to being kicked off to allow (how shall I put this...) a larger person to be seated. I just think it's unfortunate that it has to be the back row that has this feature as it's a row that people love to try to get. (Back row whip is real throughout the ride by the way!)

Overall, you guessed it..... it is by far my favourite coaster in the UK! Is it perfect, of course not, very few rides are, but it's bloody good and I'm not sure why some people think it is slow or boring because it is none of those things if you let it warm up. I find it fascinating how this ride seems to have divided enthusiasts straight down the middle. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion of course, I'm a big fan though!

:)
Well as a porker I'm rather happy with the fact I'll be having nothing but back row goodness

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Pokemaniac

Mountain monkey
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Been riding it all day, here's my thoughts:

The difference between when this is warmed up and earlier on in the day is absolutely huge...

I seem to recall Helix had the same issue. When I went to the Gothenburg CF live in 2014, I arrived sometime around noon after the entire group had already ridden Helix and found it "all right". Later in the day, around four I believe, most of the group went to experience the haunted house, while myself and two others decided to go ride Helix. Expectations weren't that high among the other two, who had ridden it earlier and found a re-ride slightly preferable to the upcharge and long lines of the haunted house. I only had that one ride to go off of, and was blown away. It was clear that the others felt a definite improvement as well. I had to leave shortly after for the train back to Oslo, but after the other CFers had ridden Helix in the evening, trip reports suddenly called it the best coaster in the park and then some. It seems like warming up can do a world of difference.
 
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