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New this season at Pleasure beach Blackpool is a sculpture garden installed on the location of the old dodgem ride, the dodgems have relocated to another area of the park and the building demolished to make way for the sculptures and water features. All comments as usual are welcome.

After enjoying a great day at Drayton Manor last Christmas we repeated the experience again this year, the kids will shortly be coming to the age when Drayton Manor and Thomas land will no longer be cool so I intend to visit these Christmas events as much as possible.

The event changed slightly this year with the big top christmas pantomine show getting replaced by a show in Thomas land with singing and festive activities taking the center of this.

As with last year they had more snow and the children and adults in the audience really enjoyed this, the snow although synthetic made a great day even better and really gives you that festive wake up call that’s been missing the previous 11 months of the year.

The zoo, 4d cinema and Thomasland were open and unlike last year the amount of food available on site was varied and most tastes catered for.

Mumbo Jumbo the UK’s newest record breaking roller coaster opened in Flamingo Land for the 2009 season.

The ride manufactured by S&S boasts the world steepest first drop at a angle of 112 degrees. The ride cost varies depending on who you speak to but the average price tag seems to be around 4 million pounds.

When the questioned about the strange name of the ride its a reference to other parks falsely boasting about their latest attractions been the worlds first etc… hmm wonder who they mean .

The photographs were taken at various times of the day as you may notice from the dull skies.

I was fortunate enough to get to ride the Big Wheel that has been installed in Liverpool one at the weekend. The wheel sited on Chavasse Park and clearly visible from the Liverpool waterfront will stay at this site until the end of January.

Ride tickets are £6 for adults and kids over 1.4m in height. £5 for concessions and £36 for a private gondola and for the really extravagant £40 for the private VIP gondola. Each gondola seats 6 people apart from the VIP one which only seats 4.

The wheel is 60 metres high but because of its elevated position it stands 80 metres about ground level.

The Wheel takes 10 riggers a week to build and is transported from site to site on 11 trucks.

On the day we rode it the wind was very strong and the gondolas do rock about a fair bit especially a height. but saying that we really enjoyed it and the great views of the city and would definitely ride again on my next visit to Liverpool.

Follow the post below and take a look at the rest of the photographs and video to accompany this.

November 8th 2009 the final day of the main season for Blackpool Pleasure beach. A season thats seen many up and downs with closed rides and rumours of a Beaver Creek takeover by Nickelodeon just for starters. This short video was put together on the final day at a trip I attended with Club Pleasure Beach.

Thanks for reading.

Originally built by G.V. Llewellyn in 1911 the Southport lakeside miniature railway has been operating for nearly 100 years on the site alongside the marine lake in Southport. The first train ran on the 25th may 1911 when the railway was called Llewellyn’s miniature railway after the builder and creator, this was later renamed to the Southport lakeside miniature railway as it’s known today.

The original route was a straight line which was extended in 1938 to add a sharp turn under the pier into the second station on the line the Marine Parade Station. The original station at this end of the line was called Princess Park which was closed when the extension and Marine Parade stations were built.

I have been sent the following video by the PR company for Sea world. From what you can see it looks like its going to be a hit with the park visitors.

Manta is 3359ft in Length, with a height of 140ft with 4 inversions. Cant wait until September when I get to ride it

After hearing lots of stories coming out of pleasure beach for the last couple of weeks about the new dancing fountains it was a pleasure to finally witness them for myself on this years open day February 14th 2009.

The fountains cost an estimated 80 thousand pounds and from what ive seen they are worth every penny and make what was a empty space a great meeting place for people and are an ideal play area for children as they run and duck under the fountains much to the annoyance of parents watching.

From what I could gather the fountains operate about every fifteen minutes to various pieces of music, each show lasts for about six and half minutes. It will be nice in the summer to sit down and have a drink and watch these. Well done Pleasure Beach.

We normally only visit one theme park around christmas time and that’s Gullivers world in Warrington, but for a change this year we considered visiting Drayton Manor when they announced Thomas Land would be open in the run up to Christmas.

With a promise of snow and entertainment it was too hard to resist, plus my 7 year old daughter is a comeplete Thomas addict.

opened in 1994 Nemesis at a cost of ten million pounds quickly became a favourite coaster amongst enthusiasts and the public alike.

I dont count coasters or number of rides on a particular coaster but if i were to look back over the years to 1994 my count would be well into the hundreds if not more.

A trip to Alton towers just isnt the same without a ride on Nemesis for me and many other enthusiasts. I hope you enjoy the photographs.