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.

New for the 2009 season at Lightwater Valley is a rapid ride rented from Showman James Mellor. The ride will be at the park for the 2009 season after which point both parties will review it’s suitability for the park.

I visited the park in April on a warmish day and the ride has a constant queue with at least 15/20 minute wait times, I can imagine this will get alot bigger over the coming summer months when the temperatures rise in the UK.

The ride has took the place of the Pinfari Grizzly Bear coaster which stood at the park from 2004, this ride has since been sold. I certainly wont miss it.

This update contains approximately 25 photographs taking during April at the park.

I have been requested by a few visitors to include some pictures from my trip to Florida last year and if im honest Ive been a bit lazy posting some of these, one request is for Journey to Atlantis at Sea World.  I didn’t get to ride this due to an ear infection picked up earlier in the week on some water other water rides. For anyone planning on visiting Seaworld in the near future from the reports Ive had its not a ride to be missed.

Originally installed in 1998 by Mack rides Journey of Atlantis is clased as a water coaster or as some enthusiasts title liquid coaster.

Standing at over 300ft Millennium force dominates the skyline at Cedar Point in Ohio. The one time world record breaking coaster standing at an impressive 310ft has riders gasping in awe as they stare up at the huge skybound lift hill whilst waiting in the queue to ride.

I was fortunate enough to ride Millennium force a number of times during a visit to Cedar Point in 2007, we counted about 6 or 7 rides during our visit. After those experiences Millennium force dropped straight in at the number one spot as my favourite coaster.

Hydro at Oakwood is a ride thats had its fair share of media coverage since opening for the 2002 season. It’s a ride built by Intamin and is over 100ft tall with a almost vertical drop into a pool of millions of gallons of water, so much so that the first drop can generate a wave nearly 50 ft in height.

Dare you stand on the bridge running over the track when the ride train, they don’t call it a soak zone for nothing. Hydro gets you that wet Oakwood even went to the length of building a changing room just for Hydro customers to get dried out and a change of clothes.

Pleasure beach express has been operating at the park since 1933. Its made up of a collection of three 21 inch gauge trains and a number of carriages.