JoshC.
Strata Poster
2020 was going to be the year I ticked off 'bigger' European parks I hadn't got round to visiting - Europa Park, Port Aventura, Heide Park and Blackpool for example. Obviously plans have been hit hard, but fortunately, Blackpool remained a constant (didn't think I'd ever say that!). So a couple of weeks back, I was finally able to hit up Blackpool for the first time...yes I know, I'm a bad UK goon.
Either side of the jaunt from Surrey to Blackpool, I also hit up the start of Thorpe's and Alton Towers' Oktoberfest events, to see what they were like. It also turns out that Blackpool decided to hop on the Oktoberfest bandwagon, but as that was only on Saturdays, and I was there on Thursday, it alas meant I wasn't going to get a hattrick of knock-off Oktoberfest events.
So, onto Day 1, Thorpe Park's Oktoberfest...
Oktoberfest was a surprise event really, only announced a couple of week's before it started (though I'm under the impression the park had hoped to do one for quite a while). It was always going to be interesting how the park would do a completely new event in weird times. And when all's said and done, they've had a good crack at it, but it does kind of miss the mark.
The park have transformed the pathway that runs alongside the very-much-closed Ghost Train into the main Oktoberfest area. In many ways, it's nice to transform a dead area of the park into something good, but the fact remains that it is a pathway, so it's a little bit on the cramped side.
They have some nice signs around though.
The area has a few stalls, selling different German market-inspired things (bratwurst, beer, hot chocolate, pretzels, etc). It's less Oktoberfest and more German Christmas market in some sense.
They area outside the Ghost Train entrance and shop is a little beer section, serving Spaten and Becks. The park also sell plastic steins you can have it served in (though, they weren't actually there when I visited on the second day of the event).
The "lack of readiness" was very much felt across the area, with staff bringing out benches during the day. And a couple of days later, the Ghost Train entrance sign was covered with a "beer bar" sign too.
What particularly took to biscuit for me with the area was the bratwurst stand:
Which, at time of visiting, was only accepting cash! Crazy really, given the circumstances, and not even a sign to say so. Fortunately this has now changed, I believe.
Annnnnd, you've got to love how this external company hasn't even got the German flag on it! Whoops.
The area also has a stage on it, where on Fridays and Saturdays (when the park is open till 8pm, unlike on the Tuesday I visited, which was a 5pm closure), they have live musical acts perform..
It takes up a lot of space, and with the addition of many extra benches since taking this photo, I do feel it's a bit too cramped for a major pathway of the park! Also, fun fact: Thorpe actually own that stage, but the last time they used it was the year they bought it, all the way back in 2015!!
To give some entertainment, though, the park have a group roaming round the area, playing some music and interacting with guests...
These guys are the park's Furchtar Band (furchtar German for terrible). So the point of them is that...they are bad. I didn't quite realise this when visiting, and was left rather confused by the whole concept. Still am to be honest...
On top of the Oktoberfest area, the park also have transformed other parts of the park. Mostly this is by audio changes, which cut in and out over regular audio at the discretion of the operator on a lot of rides. I guess the idea is to create a random-but-exciting vibe, but it kind of just didn't really work - either stick with the themed overlays or not in my opinion! Both Detonator and Rumba Rapids seemed to have constant Oktoberfest audio playing, however. Detonator's was all around terribly mistimed yodelling as the car goes up (which sounds exactly like the Cliffhanger game from The Price is Right, for anyone slightly older on here..) and a terrible caricature German voiceover. Not quite sure if it was meant to be bad, or if I just really didn't like it. And Rumba Rapids has been renamed 'Oompah Rapids' to celebrate, and features generic Oktoberfesty music...
Seamless.
And that's basically Oktoberfest in a nutshell! As I said earlier, it didn't really hit the mark for me, and I'm sure that's not helped by the fact that the event was still being finished off, and that I didn't go on a weekend when more entertainment was around. BUT, there is hope for the event. There was definitely a more positive vibe around the Oktoberfest area, and the park can certainly capitalise on that. I do hope they try it in future years, hopefully when things like social distancing are less of a concern, and they can try and move it to less cramped areas of the park. So whilst not off to a running start, it definitely has potential in the long run!
The next day involved the long jaunt from Surrey to Blackpool, and we arrived in the early evening, giving us a chance to look round the 'wonderful' Blackpool, and then get well rested for a day at the Pleasure Beach. Our B&B was quite close to the Tower, so we had a wander down the beach, stopping of briefly at each pier to have a look around. I was the only one in the group who had never visited Blackpool before, and my days, I didn't realise quite how tacky the whole place is. I've never majorly been enticed by Blackpool, which is why it's taken me so long to get up there, and just wandering round the place just reaffirmed my decisions.
Our wandering ended with us on the South Pier, so a couple of us could collect the spinning wild mouse cred. We approached it and...it looked very closed. Ride switched off, no operators, no one in the booth outside the ride to buy tickets. Oh no, a spite already? We wandered back down to the open ticket booth and asked if it was open. "Yeah" was the response. "Ah, there's no one there at the moment". "Oh, give me a couple of minutes". A quick call on the guy's radio and a few minutes, and huzzah, the cred was running. Tickets bought, we wandered over and realised an engineer had turned the ride on and was running just for us - how nice! I had my own discount Hot Dog @Howie / Lawnmower @HeartlineCoaster moment, albeit in the UK where the person running the ride made sense!
And for now, I'll leave it there. Coming next time, the bit everyone wants to read - the thoughts of a Pleasure Beach noob...
Either side of the jaunt from Surrey to Blackpool, I also hit up the start of Thorpe's and Alton Towers' Oktoberfest events, to see what they were like. It also turns out that Blackpool decided to hop on the Oktoberfest bandwagon, but as that was only on Saturdays, and I was there on Thursday, it alas meant I wasn't going to get a hattrick of knock-off Oktoberfest events.
So, onto Day 1, Thorpe Park's Oktoberfest...
Oktoberfest was a surprise event really, only announced a couple of week's before it started (though I'm under the impression the park had hoped to do one for quite a while). It was always going to be interesting how the park would do a completely new event in weird times. And when all's said and done, they've had a good crack at it, but it does kind of miss the mark.
The park have transformed the pathway that runs alongside the very-much-closed Ghost Train into the main Oktoberfest area. In many ways, it's nice to transform a dead area of the park into something good, but the fact remains that it is a pathway, so it's a little bit on the cramped side.
They have some nice signs around though.
The area has a few stalls, selling different German market-inspired things (bratwurst, beer, hot chocolate, pretzels, etc). It's less Oktoberfest and more German Christmas market in some sense.
They area outside the Ghost Train entrance and shop is a little beer section, serving Spaten and Becks. The park also sell plastic steins you can have it served in (though, they weren't actually there when I visited on the second day of the event).
The "lack of readiness" was very much felt across the area, with staff bringing out benches during the day. And a couple of days later, the Ghost Train entrance sign was covered with a "beer bar" sign too.
What particularly took to biscuit for me with the area was the bratwurst stand:
Which, at time of visiting, was only accepting cash! Crazy really, given the circumstances, and not even a sign to say so. Fortunately this has now changed, I believe.
Annnnnd, you've got to love how this external company hasn't even got the German flag on it! Whoops.
The area also has a stage on it, where on Fridays and Saturdays (when the park is open till 8pm, unlike on the Tuesday I visited, which was a 5pm closure), they have live musical acts perform..
It takes up a lot of space, and with the addition of many extra benches since taking this photo, I do feel it's a bit too cramped for a major pathway of the park! Also, fun fact: Thorpe actually own that stage, but the last time they used it was the year they bought it, all the way back in 2015!!
To give some entertainment, though, the park have a group roaming round the area, playing some music and interacting with guests...
These guys are the park's Furchtar Band (furchtar German for terrible). So the point of them is that...they are bad. I didn't quite realise this when visiting, and was left rather confused by the whole concept. Still am to be honest...
On top of the Oktoberfest area, the park also have transformed other parts of the park. Mostly this is by audio changes, which cut in and out over regular audio at the discretion of the operator on a lot of rides. I guess the idea is to create a random-but-exciting vibe, but it kind of just didn't really work - either stick with the themed overlays or not in my opinion! Both Detonator and Rumba Rapids seemed to have constant Oktoberfest audio playing, however. Detonator's was all around terribly mistimed yodelling as the car goes up (which sounds exactly like the Cliffhanger game from The Price is Right, for anyone slightly older on here..) and a terrible caricature German voiceover. Not quite sure if it was meant to be bad, or if I just really didn't like it. And Rumba Rapids has been renamed 'Oompah Rapids' to celebrate, and features generic Oktoberfesty music...
Seamless.
And that's basically Oktoberfest in a nutshell! As I said earlier, it didn't really hit the mark for me, and I'm sure that's not helped by the fact that the event was still being finished off, and that I didn't go on a weekend when more entertainment was around. BUT, there is hope for the event. There was definitely a more positive vibe around the Oktoberfest area, and the park can certainly capitalise on that. I do hope they try it in future years, hopefully when things like social distancing are less of a concern, and they can try and move it to less cramped areas of the park. So whilst not off to a running start, it definitely has potential in the long run!
The next day involved the long jaunt from Surrey to Blackpool, and we arrived in the early evening, giving us a chance to look round the 'wonderful' Blackpool, and then get well rested for a day at the Pleasure Beach. Our B&B was quite close to the Tower, so we had a wander down the beach, stopping of briefly at each pier to have a look around. I was the only one in the group who had never visited Blackpool before, and my days, I didn't realise quite how tacky the whole place is. I've never majorly been enticed by Blackpool, which is why it's taken me so long to get up there, and just wandering round the place just reaffirmed my decisions.
Our wandering ended with us on the South Pier, so a couple of us could collect the spinning wild mouse cred. We approached it and...it looked very closed. Ride switched off, no operators, no one in the booth outside the ride to buy tickets. Oh no, a spite already? We wandered back down to the open ticket booth and asked if it was open. "Yeah" was the response. "Ah, there's no one there at the moment". "Oh, give me a couple of minutes". A quick call on the guy's radio and a few minutes, and huzzah, the cred was running. Tickets bought, we wandered over and realised an engineer had turned the ride on and was running just for us - how nice! I had my own discount Hot Dog @Howie / Lawnmower @HeartlineCoaster moment, albeit in the UK where the person running the ride made sense!
And for now, I'll leave it there. Coming next time, the bit everyone wants to read - the thoughts of a Pleasure Beach noob...