2013 trips: Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach

Sunday May 5th 2013

This year it had been a long and harsh winter for the British Isles. Winter time is when most park tend to announce new attraction/rides. The new coaster line-up for this year was not great. We had Smiler announced at Alton Towers and a Zamperla flying coaster Hero announced for Flamingoland along with a few relocated smaller coasters at various parks around UK. In between all these announcements there was one announcement that really stood out for me. During this period Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach announced that they were installing a new spinning roller coaster coaster. OK, honestly speaking; a Fabbri spinning coaster is nothing to shout-out about, so; why was I excited about this this project?

My reason was nothing to do with the new coaster. It was the perfect opportunity for me to visit Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach again and ride the Roller Coaster. It had been four years since I had last ridden this classic coaster. Being a huge fan of Scenic Railways, I can ride them continuously all day long. These fun-filled machines give the feeling of riding coaster in the golden age of roller coasters.

With tickets booked online a day before, we set off for Great Yarmouth on a glorious spring morning. Apart from the discount one received for booking tickets online, there is also the added bonus of getting a free all day parking pass. The car park is located on the same side as the Roller Coaster, one has to pass the Scenic before reaching the pre-booked ticket/wristband office that is at the opposite end of the park. If I was on my own, once I'd received my wristband; I would have rushed over to the Roller Coaster but with children in our group that wasn't possible. They get overly exited and want to ride the closest attraction to them. At least it gave us a chance to sample the other attraction the park has to offer.

The little ones enjoyed some of the children rides before we arrived at the new coaster Family Star. This spinning coaster is neither too intense nor too high making it a perfect family attraction. Its a good addition to the park and enhances their ride line-up nicely. The only slight problem I would say is that the coaster location is poorly chosen. It looks out of place next to the Big Apple ride. The coaster would have been better suited in the area closest to the car park.

The Big Apple and the tower ride filled the buffer time between us reaching the Roller Coaster. The Tower ride did provide a highly enjoyable experience for our group.

I had a slight debut in my mind that after so many years how would the Roller Coaster have fared?
Well! I shouldn't have worried the slightest as the coaster was running brilliantly, exactly as I had remembered it. The maintenance staff have done a tremendous job. After climbing the lift hill the coaster navigates a small first drop before going round the bend and hurdling down the second and biggest drop for the ride. The rest of the circuit the train navigates small drops for which some provide small airtime moments all the way back to the station.

The Fun House was a big let down. From being a traditional fun house it had been changed into a modern attraction that uses 3D affects. The year the changes were made, it worked well but during our visit it looked tacky and tired. The 3D affects were not working and the 3D goggles just made the experience worse. It would be best for the park to revert the attraction back to its past Glory by removing the 3D affects completely and bring back the much loved seaside humour comic jokes that were painted on the walls.

We also tried Monorail and the Snails ride. Both rides interact well with the Roller Coaster as they go through the ride structure. Both provided a slow paced ride giving us great view of the Roller Coaster.

Over the last couple of years I had been travelling abroad a lot, visiting theme park over there. It felt great returning to a traditional seaside amusement parks nearer home. In future I'll make sure that this continues.
The day was great fun, mainly because I enjoyed riding the Roller Coaster for a few hours, a truly superb ride.

One of the park entrances.

Collect pre-booked wristbands from this office.

Family Star is a Fabbri spinning coaster that opened at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach from March 2013. Family Star previously operated at Trampolino Familien- und Freizeitpark (Germany) 2007, and Sommerland Syd (Denmark) 2011 under the same name.

Big Apple is a Big Apple MB28 from Pinfari that has been operating at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach since 1998. The coaster was relocated from Alton Towers (Staffordshire, UK) were it was called Mini Apple. It operated from 1982 till 1997 at Alton Towers.

Roller Coaster is a brakeman operated wooden coaster built by Erich Heidrich. Roller Coaster has been operating at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach since 1932.

Roller Coaster being pushed into the station for loading.

Turns right into the first bend heading torwards the lifthill.

Second train is parked-up and is not needed as the queue is short all through the day.

Going up the lifthill.

Heading torwards the second and biggest drop of the coaster.

The brakeman sits in the middle of the train and operates the speed of the coaster. Currently there are five more coaster in the world that are operated by a brakesman.