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Valhalla at Blackpool Pleasure Beach to be refurbished for 2023

Yikes, not a great look, is it. To echo what has been mentioned already, great to be interacting with fans, but it makes her look a little foolish when she makes public posts like this online. I can get her viewpoint but this just comes across as stroppy and disorganised to me.
 
I was speaking to a very vocal brexit supporter earlier... For years he would come into the pub, very vocal in his support of brexit... Without giving too much private information away, he runs a fairly reasonably sized business that operates at events in Europe a lot. He was telling me today about all the red tape he now has to go through, along with other issues...

So I asked him the question, "If you could go back in time would you still be in favour of brexit?"

His reply "Yes, but I'd want them to carry out what they promise"

Literally couldn't make it up... They still don't get it, that what was promised was impossible, and a complete lie... :(

Anyway, back on point, it's quite worrying that she is basically saying she doesn't have a clue what is happening within her company, and expressing this so publicly too.. Genuinely concerned for her health, that is not the normal behavior of an experience business woman... Something is very wrong. :(
 
Sorry, I have known of her since she was a stroppy teenager running the pony rides on the south of the park, she has always been a very bossy madam, it only reaches the surface once in a while.
The parks running by the family fell apart when Nick walked from active general management after the row over the closure of the mouse.
He used to be seen virtually every day chatting with staff and punters, the mouse went, so did Nick, and the downhill roll accelerated from that very day.
Other senior managers I have known over the years have quit in frustration...the owner knows best, and there is no alternative.
Hot Ice has lost around a million quid a year for a couple of decades, it has run on 20% attendance through this season...I have checked available seats on the booking site over the year...impossible to make a profit on such a show production with those punter figures, but her massive vanity show continues, at the cost of new ride investment.

The woman is a downright disaster for the park, and industry... old school "I'm in charge, I know best" management of the worst order.
The sooner a competent business buy her out the better.
 
rob666 said:
The woman is a downright disaster for the park, and industry... old school "I'm in charge, I know best" management of the worst order.
The sooner a competent business buy her out the better.
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Damn it is a real shame to hear comments like this. I always pinned BPB's obscure charm down to the fact it was family owned. I also had assumed that Amanda had reasonable respect in the industry because of her relationships with IAAPA, TEA, and ofc the Macks, but I can totally see your stance too. Idk about the Thompsons hierarchy but is there anyone else down the line in the near future who might go about things to do with the park in a bit more savvy manner? Not sure why I'm clinging onto the idea of it being family owned still when as you say, a company with a reasonable amount of care could probably give the place the facelift it's starting to need...
 
I’ve just updated the thread title, as I’ve realised that with the delay, it is once again out of date…

Amanda has said on Twitter that Brexit and supply chain issues are the cause behind the delays. Given that these have affected many businesses, and that Valhalla is hardly an off-the-shelf ride that’s easy to source parts for, I think that seems like a very plausible explanation for some of the delays. Whether that’s the only cause of delays, however, is up for debate.

Regardless, something has clearly gone on that has significantly affected the project’s progress. The original delay from 2021 to 2022 could perhaps be attributed to COVID, but the new delay from 2022 to 2023, and the fact that there aren’t many external indicators of the ride being close to reopening, does imply to me that something has gone awry somewhere in the development process. Supply chain issues could well be a large part of that as Amanda says, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were other factors delaying proceedings as well.
 
Sorry to double post, but on the plus side, a new Valhalla sign has been put onto the station exterior today:
www.facebook.com

Theme Park Worldwide

Here’s hoping for the re-opening of Valhalla in the first part of the 2023 season here at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. There’s also a new sign on the exterior of the station!
www.facebook.com www.facebook.com
Maybe the ride’s reopening isn’t as far away as some expect?
 
Last visit of the year today, and as well as four coasters and a pint of cider in just over an hour, an interesting tale.
Bumped into an old face from the park from years ago.
The park had a detailed, independent audit some years ago, and the advice was to bin the ice show, as it was losing money hand over fist.
The advice was ignored, and the show continues to lose large amounts of money, that could be invested in new rides.
It is her pet vanity project, has been for decades, she has no interest in the rides, just her "award winning, internationally recognised" Hot Ice, that runs at 20% of capacity.
Nick Thompson was a busy regular on the park, well liked by staff and punters.
I think he fell out with big sis over the dead Mouse, and I've hardly seen him round the park since Icon opened.
Expensive, professional, independent requested advice should be taken.
The person in charge of the whole thing sees it as her own personal sandpit.
Because it is.
Edit....the signage hasn't changed from 2 weeks ago, nothing new, no sign of any new work on the frontage, just cold, damp, concrete.
 
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I know little of Amanda but she doesn't seem fit to run the place.

Had no idea about the Hot Ice show draining money. Never seen it myself. If true that's a serious problem.

A shame to say about a park that has been family-owned for generations, but a takeover might be needed in coming years.
 
Whenever I've seen Hot Ice it has been a great show, well put together - but as Rob says, besides the opening and closing nights it's virtually empty. I hadn't realised Nick had perhaps stepped back but thinking about it - not seen him on park for a few years now (and I visit quite a lot, as a local), seeing him about used to be a frequent thing.

The season is over and their website still says Valhalla is opening in 2022 (on the individual ride page for Valhalla), how hard is it to update that?! Not sure what I'm expecting from it, to be honest. Given the length of the closure, it's probably not going to have changed as much as everyone will expect. I get the Covid delays around being able to work, and the combination of Covid and Brexit making it impossible to source parts - I had a wait of 18 months for some technical kit at work which used to be a next day delivery item that was in stock. So that's not in their control - what *is* in their control is putting something out there when it became obvious it was not opening this season. Even if there was a chance of it opening this weekend, you'd still say "it has been delayed" back in summer.
 
Yup, I should have added I have seen the show a few times and been well entertained...but I think Eclipse was a better show, and better attended.
I have rarely seen Hot Ice with more than half the seats filled.
Fun day today, it is a long time until March.
 
Slightly off-topic but there now seems to be a rumour swirling around on Twitter that Nash may now be SBNO indefinitely.

This seems to have emanated from the @attractionimage Twitter account, which has mentioned it countless times.

Usually, I would take that sort of thing with several pinches of salt, but a few other notable BPB names have ever so slightly hinted towards the same suggestion. Interesting.
 
Sandman said:
Slightly off-topic but there now seems to be a rumour swirling around on Twitter that Nash may now be SBNO indefinitely.

This seems to have emanated from the @attractionimage Twitter account, which has mentioned it countless times.

Usually, I would take that sort of thing with several pinches of salt, but a few other notable BPB names have ever so slightly hinted towards the same suggestion. Interesting.
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Get RMC in.
 
Something about UK rides and having a really good year right before they get demolished?

Slammer had an excellent year maintenance wise in 2017... next year it's dead.
Nash was greatly smooth yesterday, even on wheel seats it wasn't anything awful... next year it's probably dead.

But on a more serious note I've discovered it's just best to ignore those who seem really set on a specific idea happening and having zero evidence to back it up. A statement doesn't become true the more times you say it, and if this was a planned closure then the park's a bit stupid for being so incredibly tight-lipped about it. You would think they learnt with the mouse?

Calling nonsense until there's a wrecking ball next to it.
 
Rob Coasters said:
But on a more serious note I've discovered it's just best to ignore those who seem really set on a specific idea happening and having zero evidence to back it up. A statement doesn't become true the more times you say it, and if this was a planned closure then the park's a bit stupid for being so incredibly tight-lipped about it. You would think they learnt with the mouse?

Calling nonsense until there's a wrecking ball next to it.
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Take it with as much salt as you like, but people often have inside sources, so can’t evidence their rumours without getting someone into trouble. A lot of rumours with similarly spurious surface-level evidence have been proven correct as of late, so I’m certainly not ruling it out.

For what it’s worth, Attraction Images was the source who originally said that Valhalla was closing for a refurbishment. They received a lot of derision at the time, and their rumour was completely dismissed, but they were ultimately proven right.

If it is demolished, however, we’ll likely know about it in advance this time. The ride is Grade 2 listed, so unless the park wants to be prosecuted, they can’t do a repeat of the Wild Mouse situation. They can leave it SBNO, however… and given that both Wild Mouse and Southport’s Cyclone amongst others (I guess Valhalla technically was too, although that one is reopening, in fairness), were closed without warning, I wouldn’t put a sudden, unannounced closure past Blackpool.

I do have some degree of skepticism given the work it recently had done, but Attraction Images has a relatively good past record of being right on these things. They were right on Valhalla, and I think there have been other times too.
EDIT - There is a thread on National’s potential removal already: https://coasterforce.com/forums/threads/something-happening-with-grand-national.45759/#post-1145879
 
Rob Coasters said:
Slammer had an excellent year maintenance wise in 2017... next year it's dead.
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Just to go off on a tangent here, but there's some definite rose tinted specs with that statement.

Slammer had tons put into it, needed to shut at 3pm daily for engineering inspections and regularly had weeks of downtime. When it died again in May 2017, the park finally had to call it quits because it was just a maintenance budget black hole.
 
JoshC. said:
Just to go off on a tangent here, but there's some definite rose tinted specs with that statement.

Slammer had tons put into it, needed to shut at 3pm daily for engineering inspections and regularly had weeks of downtime. When it died again in May 2017, the park finally had to call it quits because it was just a maintenance budget black hole.
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Ah fairs, I stand corrected

And thank you @Matt N for the insights, I didn't know about Attraction Images hinting towards Valhalla's closure in fairness, so it's probably wise to leave at least some room in case he ends up being right, but these unannounced closures are very disappointing. I personally hold BPB in quite high regard due to my consistently great experiences with the park but from what I've been hearing in terms of management especially as of recent... 😬
 
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